Art, Craft

Linoleum Block Printing- Part I

First, a quick note: I decided to take down the last handful of soul searching posts, and a few here and there from the past. I try to be honest about the good and bad times of my life, but it was really annoying me that the sad times were just sitting there in a lump, like the clammy Denver airport burrito of my blog. So I set them to private for now, until I figure out what I want to do with them. Life is good in many respects, I’m just really really emo about everything that isn’t. Ok, onwards…

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What was I going to say? Oh yes, something about printing. I played around with Jill’s linoleum printing kit over the holidays in Little Rock, and found the process quite fascinating. It’s a craft, to be sure.

Jill was kind enough to gift me with my own block printing kit, and I’ve taken a few days to think of what I’d like to make. Something that could be a card, I was thinking. Today it hit me- I wanted to do a deep-sea diving suit. I’ve always thought that they were quite beautiful, and there’s so much going on mechanically that you could give a sketch of one as much or as little detail as you like. Plus there’s that wonderful song by the Magnetic Fields.

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There were so many Google images of the suits online, but I was really drawn to the suits with the distinctive four openings around the head, with metal gratings. Also the brass looks so amazing against the soft and slouchy canvas, or whatever the heck the body is made out of.

Anyways, I drew a couple of sketches of different suits, but finally decided to go with this look. It’s low on details, but the simpler the better for my first time I think. I then went into overdrive with the pencil, so that I could make a good transfer to the linoleum.

Rubbing the paper onto the block with a spoon got some of the drawing over, but it was rather inadequate. I had to trace over and redraw quite a bit right onto the block.

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So the way that this works is- whatever I carve away will be white. I’m basically carving out a stamp. I’m still wrapping my head around the positive/negative space, and what I’d like the finished product to look like. All that said I think I will probably try to carve the black parts out, for simplicity’s sake. Doing the inverse seems very technically tricky.

I’ll definitely update once I start carving, but so far I’m pleased with the process.

Life

Back to Basics

I’ve started meditating again. It’s time. There are several different ways that I go about it.

1)When I’m feeling ambitious I practice zazen, which I learned back in college. Basically I sit completely still and try to focus on my breathing, counting from 1-10, over and over. When thoughts come up, I acknowledge them, let them go and then get back to the counting. I’ve never really gotten much out of sitting zen, but I like how challenging it is to still both the body and mind. Try it- it’s hard to get to 10 without 3 different thoughts popping up in your head.

2) Something that I’m finding a bit more useful than zen is the process of “breathing through” my pain and emotions. I read about the idea on Dear Sugar, an online advice column that I discovered last month and have since become obsessed with. When I’m feeling overcome with emotion, I focus on the person/event/emotion, then breathe in deeply with intention, hold it for a second, and then actively blow the feeling out. Over and over and over.

Blow out rejection. Breathe in understanding. Blow out fear. Breathe in hope. Blow out loneliness, pain, confusion, anxiety, what if’s?, anger, regret, longing, etc. My feelings aren’t gone by a long shot, but I know that I’m making progress with each breath. It’s hard to explain how it works. I feel like through the breathing I’m getting a handle on overwhelming things in my life and applying time and effort into accepting them.

3)I’ve never tried mantra meditation before. However, I have stumbled across a mantra for myself.

I was listening to some list on Spotify, maybe it was top albums or something like that, and the Quiet Company album came up. I started listening to it randomly, and I came across the song “Are you a mirror?” It’s a song about a father expressing hope and love for his new baby. Of course it took me about three takes to realize it was about a CHILD, because I was so walloped by the chorus: ” I look inside you and I see myself.” The first time I heard it I instantly thought “that’s how I feel love.” When I feel real compassion, deep understanding and connection with a person, I guess I call it love. Romantic love/friendship/familial love- it all boils down to this same feeling.

I could stand to cultivate more of this feeling in my life, so throughout the day as I interact with all things living I think my mantra silently to myself.

  • I’m eating a Super Duper burger outside the BART stop, keeping pigeons from getting at the crumbs: I look inside you, and I see myself.
  • I’m buying coffee from the barista I try to avoid at Starbucks, the real catty one who labeled my breakfast sandwich “Crazy”: I look inside you, and I see myself.
  • I’m on the phone with an elderly lady in Connecticut, haggling over the bill for my knee: I look inside you, and I see myself.

Baby steps, baby steps.

 

Craft

Terrarium Terror

So I like to knit. I can do very basic bicycle maintenance. I’ve made beer. I’ve roasted coffee. And now,  thanks to a generous gift of a WorkshopSF class, I can add “terrariums” to my list of hipsterific craft skills.

Behold! My first terrarium!

It’s got a little bit of this, a little bit of that. Basically during my class I grabbed every single plant that I thought was pretty and stuffed them in a jar.

Here is our hero, trapped in a self contained ecosystem. He is searching for the Golden Eggplant. What?

Yes! The Golden Eggplant! It holds the secrets to good digestion.

Emboldened by my success and the great fun I had piecing together my first terrarium, I decided to grab materials and make a couple more, with one going toward my office’s White Elephant event.

Gathering supplies was pretty easy- I picked up some jars from a thrift store, then got soil, charcoal, pebbles, plants and moss at the plant shop. Pretty straightforward.

Ta-da.

I’m really into the black lichen stuff.The giraffe came from a cocktail I had at Luna Park. I have a whole bowlful of little cocktail critters.

 

Then I wrote up a few care instructions and attached it to the vase with a piece of sock yarn. I hope this thing is a hit!

Food

Thanksgiving 2011 Recap

I figure since I used to blog about food all of the time it just wouldn’t be right if I didn’t mention Thanksgiving.

I had two Thanksgivings. One at work, and one at home. OH BOY

At work I decided to make collard greens and sausage. It was potluck style, and since there were so many people, the spread was really magnificent. It was fantastic, but finishing the rest of the day’s work after that meal was difficult.

Not to be outdone, the 14th street crew whipped up quite a frenzy on Thanksgiving. This year my Thanksgiving family was my roommates and Ryan. Everybody made a dish or two.

My roommates relaxing with Astor.

Ryan made his first roux for the mac and cheese. He was pretty nervous, but in the end it all worked out. It’s kind of hard to mess up cheese.

I made roasted garlic mashed potatoes and collard greens (again). They were very quick dishes, so I was back to work while I waited for lunch… Yes, I worked on Thanksgiving. Yes, I know that’s sad.

A bit of the spread. Simple salad, cheese plate, mashed potatoes, collard greens, truffles, and persimmon pie.

Patti grated some fresh nutmeg for our vat of homemade eggnog.

Mulled wine and green bean + bacon casserole. Note: we mulled the wine with the same batch of mulling spices I bought from Trader Joe’s a year ago. It’s a total value for like 4 or 5 bucks. Highly recommended!

Brussel sprouts and baconOh look, it’s another pie. This time it’s custard.

Cornish game hens, mac n cheese and stuffing. So much stuffing.

Everything was pretty smashing, but the real standout was Joseph’s green bean casserole. It didn’t sound appetizing at first but WOW. So savory. That Julia Child knows her casseroles. Also- I loved Patti’s persimmon pie. Normally I hate persimmons because I just can’t seem to find a good one, but Patti’s pie was amazing.

And of course, the other Thanksgiving tradition: rest.

Knitting

Progress, of Sorts

So I’ve got about  three weeks left to finish Thomas’s socks. What do I do? Do I buckle down and get busy? No! Of course not! Instead I started a new project :).

I stopped by Imagiknit today with Ryan to audition yarns for his hat. The bulky and soft Merino based Rowan Cocoon was the winner, and the Hill Country Hat easily filled my needs (although honestly I feel like seed stitch on hats is pretty hit or miss). It’s going F-A-S-T. I finished about a third of the hat in 45 minutes, but that’s what happens when you use size 10 1/2 needles.

It’s a pretty fun pattern. Unfortunately so far the cool texture of the stitch isn’t really showing due to the darkness of the yarn. I’m hoping that it will show a little better when it’s actually on the head.

Given time constraints, I gave up on the Java Socks today and started over, with a simple 2×2 ribbed sock. Here’s 30 minutes on size 1 needles. Oy. It’s gonna be a while!

My crappy night shots really don’t do the yarns any justice. They are both quite lovely yarns.