My Granddad's Camera: First Shots

Not bad for a 60 year old camera and a 31 year old digital chick! 

Scrub Up!

here you can see my conehead with glasses, stripy dress over skinny jeans with baggy cardigan and smelly converse. All items of clothing are stained. I am armed with latest copy of Frankie magazine. 

In an hour I have to change out of this uniform and put on some fresh clothes to go to dinner at a friend's house, spend time with my goddaughter, and tomorrow we are having a special night to celebrate our impromptu wedding (it's this Wednesday!) with friends. Can you hear the shotguns?

Spontaneous weddings are great.

But I must remember to scrub up beforehand! 

Rain Rain Rain Rain Rain

I left the tap on for a minute today just to drown out the sound.

My Creative Space : Granddad's Camera

My dad has given me his dad's old camera, a Retina IIIS. My granddad bought it in the 40s. It's a beautiful old camera. It is in such good condition. My favourite bit is the light measurer - the Sixtomat, a lovely Bakelite thing that comes with its own little retractable brush and gold chain. I am in love with this camera. 

In my usual do before you think approach, I stuck a film in the camera immediately and started snapping away. Except for I have no idea how cameras actually work. Digital? Yes. Manual? Nope.

So I studied the manual that my granddad luckily kept in pristine condition inside the camera's leather bag.

And now I know how to set shutter speed, aperture, ISO sensitivity, and which lens to choose. And I understand how photography actually works. I'm pretty sure that my own kids, once they are my age, won't know anything about photography. They will just snap digitally. 

I think I am in fact a little bit in love with manual photography now that I understand how it works. 

I snapped around the house, finished the film, manually wound it back into its little capsule and now it's being developed across the road.

Can't wait to see the pictures! I will show you! 

hello hamburg

and a belated hello from Munich! What a weird time in my life this is - my mum calls what happened to us the "black swan", and it's true - there's a book about these kinds of unforeseen tragedies that hit when you haven't even been looking out for them. My dad's situation is very sad - every night we hook him up to his bag full of artificial nutrition, he has a so-called food port, he is weak, exhausted, but so very brave. I am very proud of my dad. He is in so much pain. And there's no nice side to any of it. Except for people - everyone has been so great, supportive, caring and kind. And it's nice that I get to be home. Although putting my life on hold is more than weird - at 31, it's a bit odd to be living at home with your parents and not going to work. I feel like a weird unemployed bum! And I miss my sewing machine. I have been reading everyone's blogs. Keeps me grounded.

I got a little break last week and went up to Hamburg to visit a very lovely friend of mine. I love Hamburg - it's one of the few German cities with heaps of water (it actually has more bridges than Venice! I didn't know that!), a nice sea breeze and the people are ace! Hamburg is full of good stuff. Portuguese coffee and treats, Spanish tapas bars, Turkish launderettes, water, bikes, it's great. Part of Hamburg called Altona used to be part of Denmark. And Copenhagen is only four hours on the train from there! How tempting is that... but I managed not to go awol and run away to the Danes!

Christien Meindertsma

A great video about the design and work process of artist and designer Christien Meindertsma. She creates these amazing structural pieces from wool. I would considering robbing a bank to buy one of the pouffes below. How amazing!

Image from http://www.christienmeindertsma.com/index.php?/projects/urchin-pouf/

Erin Tyner on Etsy

                               All images by Erin Tyner.

I love these prints. Available here on Etsy!

Oolong!

I made my Oolong! I have been sitting on this Colette pattern (not literally, mind) for ages because I was scared of it. I was pretty sure I'd screw it up. Given the circumstances, I figured I might as well go all out and have a go at it. When you've been hit with the C word it seems a bit silly to be afraid of cutting into fabric and I needed distraction!

I chose a blue and white striped cotton and no lining. Lining can bugger off, I don't like lining things. Cutting this was hard. You're not really supposed to use a geometric print for this as it's cut on the bias but me and my scissors decided we could wing it, why make it easy when I can complicate things?
The bodice section was too long for me, which is weird, given how tall I am, but it may be an issue of not enough boobage. Nevermind, I shortened it, and kind of changed the bust line, added some folds instead of puckering, and while I was at it I decided to change the sleeves as well and just added some bias tape around the arm holes. And I added some red piping I found in a vintage shop (I advise against vintage notions - it's scratchy as all hell!). Et voila! So it looks nothing like Oolong but I think it's pretty cute! 

Windmills

It has been week full of windmills.
My dad has been diagnosed with an incurable form of cancer. I am trying to get home - goodbye volcanic ash cloud. I have to cancel our June wedding and make a shotgun wedding at home happen as fast as possible so that my dad can be at our wedding. But there are good things: how strong our family is, how proud I am of my dad, and how family and friends come together in a time of crisis. I am so thankful for the support we are receiving. But there have been some howling on the floor moments, believe me.

Craft is so important because it settles me into a rhythm. It's a steady thing when everything feels either ridiculously fast or insanely slow. I need the clinking of the knitting needles to remind me that I can tick on just as life ticks on, in the same pace and in sync with it. It sounds dumb, but it's true. Other less soulful remedies include watching episodes of Project Runway (Auf Wiedersehen Heidi) and the Ikea catalogue.

I went to Morris and Sons today and got myself a pair of lovely Knit Pro Synfonie Wood bamboo needles - thanks for the recommendation to switch to bamboo, Sarah. Hopefully that will help the RSI issue.  I would post photos of the things I've been knitting if I had the camera but alas I can't find it - I may post some tomorrow!

My Creative Space

... last weekend's screen printing session. I've got lots of ideas but no where to print them! 

    My prints from last week's screenprinting course

It seems that we're going through another rough patch, my dad is ill in hospital at home and it's the worst thing in the world, not being there. I feel like crying all the time so I am constantly knitting, sewing or crocheting to distract myself until we find out what's going on.

So far I have made a dog softie for my dad, a Burda top, a neckwarmer, and working on another quilt.
Keeping the mind distracted is a good thing. The RSI I am developing is not so good. I am trying to knit using my left hand and wrist for moving the yarn across - any tips for RSI-free knitting always welcome!

As always more spaces here

Screenprinting

I spent the weekend screen-printing at the beautiful Ink and Spindle studio in Kensington. What a space  to work in - I loved every second of it. 

Lara from Harvest Textiles runs the course and she is a brilliant teacher. We had lots of tea, lovely chats, and worked really hard. I am sore but happy!

We learnt about drawing designs, creating stencils for screens, tracing designs, cutting them out, and creating a continuos fabric design. We also learnt how to mix colours and print, too!

Here's our first round of designs, stencils drying on the beautiful printing table.

The lovely Lara!

First round of designs printed!

My first design!

My second design, stencil and print on fabric.

Playing with colours and layering stencils.

My continuous design printed. I love it!

Ad Nauseam

After being bombarded with nauseating "engagement shoots" on all the compulsory wedding blogs I read (engagement shot = where you frolick in the hay with your partner surrounded by vintage accessories including birdcages and used books and look happy and show off your ring and presumably send them to all your friends who will then secretly hate you because obviously you have too much cash lying around and can spend it on self-indulgent images of yourself), I was delighted to find The Unbride, which today featured an Ikea Engagement shot. 
Will you be my MALM... I will forever be your MORGYNDÖRD...
giggles!

We spent Easter at Maldon in an old schoolhouse. Look how beautiful it is - the quilts, the antiques, the old wallpaper... a magical place.

We had fun with our friends sitting in the backyard drinking cider and playing Settlers and going to the shops and eating scones. Much nicer than sitting on the couch fretting about my heart rate!

Thanks to our lovely friends for taking my mind of things!