creative interpretation

a summer guild "assignment" we had was to read a book which mentions a particular textile skill, and create something using that skill which was inspired by the book. a read/create challenge you could say.

i've read the brothers grimm since my childhood (having a copy of the complete fairy tales of the brothers grimm), and several mention textiles; usually something to do with breaking an enchantment. one which i remembered well, and which had lots of possibilities, was the six swans.

here's the basic storyline: brothers become enchanted by evil stepmother, sister takes vow of silence for six years and begins sewing 5.5 shirts from asters (a flower), king falls in love with mute maiden living in woods, marries her, begets heirs which disappear soon after birth, maiden is accused of cannibalism by crazy mother in law, after third "disappearance" maiden sent to stake, at last moment saves brothers, vow is ended, proclaims innocence, mother in law dies, everyone lives happily ever after.

well, almost everyone. back to that .5 shirt; like any project which spans a few years, it's not quite finished when the deadline approaches. something about a sleeve. so, the sixth brother gets to keep a swan wing instead of an arm. a bit awkward, but hey, would you rather remain a swan?

i crocheted rather than sewed, but i wanted the finished piece to have more of a feeling of being crafted from nature. actually, i cut and spun the yarn from paper, then crocheted it. the wing was crocheted with a really cool paper yarn from habu i've been hoarding for years.

i figured the method used for creating the actual shirts was open for interpretation as i can't imagine sewing flowers together in the woods would be doable. they kind of skimmed over the details anyway. what did she use for thread? did she use the stems, or the leaves, or the flowers? how were they kept flexible after so many years? how were the shirts constructed? see, the way i see it is that the word sew could have been translated from a different word, like weave, maybe. it makes more sense for her to have woven the flowers into cloth, or knotted the stems into a cloth. that's the thing with translations and getting a story however many generations passed down verbally, there's a lot of interpretation and maybe the grimm brothers didn't know too much about the variety of methods found in the womanly art of the needle. it was written down during the 1800's after all. so there.

i'm thinking this would be an interesting series to pursue. i've got some ideas for the story all fur. well, we'll see where this thought takes me.

mina!!!

i love getting packages in the mail. today was especially nice, as what was in the package totally rocks! after four weeks of waiting, mina perhonen? and pieces are mine.

just browsing through the pages, exquisite image after image, my creative juices are flowing. color palettes, prints, processes, all at my fingertips. the mina perhonen? book was just published earlier this year and is definitely worth the price tag. i know already that i will be going back to it time and again for inspiration in my work. it covers earlier work through to f/w 2010/11.

pieces is a reprint from a 2003 publication dedicated to an exhibit of work at the spiral garden in tokyo, and is in both japanese and english. the text is inspiring and lends insight into the creative and ethical background of mina; though most of the photos are reprinted in color in mina perhonen?, there are those which are not. the value of this book is in the words, more so than the photos.

as the price for each is about the same, if you had to choose one, i would go with mina perhonen?. ah, i drool.

reading the past

i find myself turning to favorite books when i'm feeling bored and pointless, or if i need a diversion from real life. even though i've read them several times before, i enjoy revisiting their world. perhaps there is some comfort in knowing the ending, and knowing that the words on the page don't change; a solidness to the often fluidness of life.

sometimes i come across a favorite book from years ago and it seems new again; random areas i didn't remember, even though the majority of it is familiar. now and then a past favorite annoys me, and i find my enjoyment of it dimmed. there's a bit of sadness to finding a story that doesn't live up to it's foggy memory. but for each time this happens, there are books which stand the test of time, and are added to my bookshelves for easy access.

my "old faithful" list of books:

the blue sword, robin mckinley

a knight in shinning armor, jude deveraux

the changeling sea, patricia a. mckillip

howl's moving castle, diana wynne jones

sunshine, robin mckinley

get off the unicorn, anne mccaffrey

chalice, robin mckinley

ombria in shadow, patricia a. mckillip

a perfect arrangement, kay gregory

circle of pearls, rosalind laker

the ghost belonged to me, richard peck

have you any favorites you turn to when crisis or boredom strike?

an enchantment of words

i realized that i haven't posted anything about books lately; you would never know i was an avid reader. here's a little rundown of my current reading pile:

always a favorite, author patricia a. mckillip's latest piece, the bards of bone plain, was a little hard for me to get into at first. it was a lovely story, with interesting loops and connections to figure out, memorable characters, and wonderfully heavy on the vivid descriptions; and yet, i feel that it reminded me of another of her pieces, od magic, and when the last page was turned, couldn't quite add it to my favorites list. perhaps, i need to re-read it later, mull it over a bit.

i've two other books i picked up at the library, chuck palahniuk's tell-all, and an interesting looking book which delves into the pearl industry, tears of mermaids by stephen g. bloom. hopefully they will be enjoyable reads, but one never knows with palahniuk; i enjoyed reading snuff, but none of his other works captured my attention.

words in print

have i mentioned before how much i love the written works of georgette heyer? yes, i know she writes romance; but if you can't appreciate that sort of thing during the month of february when can you? before you judge, you should know that georgette heyer is not just any romance author, she was the founder of the regency romance genre, as well as an exceptionally gifted and prolific writer.

her characters are consistently charming, witty, with faults, and melodious with words. her female leads are strong, smart, brave, and sassy. her males are oftentimes humorous, be they corinthians, fops, or dandies, and always charming. she does not shy away from married couples, stutterers, or widows. it's very nice indeed to sometimes read about a heroine that is neither fair of face nor of body; but does not fail in attracting the male leads gaze. there is something to be said about humor, witty intellect, and adventurous leanings in a woman.

the corinthian, arabella, the grand sophy, sylvester, the convenient marriage are some of my favorites. i'm especially loving the new covers put out by sourcebooks casablanca, and are indebted to them for re-releasing these amazing books. due to their age, they were becoming quite scarce and hard to track down.

on pins and needles

do you ever have moments of intense boredom even though there are at least eight things you could and perhaps should be doing? not that the choices are dull, in and of themselves, but you just can't gather the enthusiasm to work on them.

yesterday was a day like that for me. usually i just try to force the day gone; hoping that when i wake up the next the boredom will have passed. "forcing" time to go faster means immersing my brain in a book, a favorite movie, or lallygagging around the internet. for the most part any one of these helps my boredom pass and i can get things accomplished. yesterday was such an awful all encompassing period of boredom i had to try all three (dead and loving it, highlander, notcot.org) before i was able to work my way out.

i haven't a clue how much time on this planet i have, so i really don't like wishing it away; but there are days. though luckily i was able to work on and finish a pin last night, it being the perfect short time activity to pick oneself up with.

current books of interest

i tend to keep books that i look at frequently on my nightstand. they're within easy reach, and help me collect my thoughts when i'm exploring something new. i find that these books are also inspiring when one is in a slump. to list:

the cocktail: 200 fabulous drinks
(i love the illustrations by kat macleod)

urawaza: secret everyday tips and tricks from japan
(incredibly useful)

craft, inc.: turn your creative hobby into a business
(excellent resource)

the encyclopedia of embroidery techniques
(i've been using this for years, very good explanations)

mushrooms for dyes, paper, pigments & myco-stix
(mushroom dyes create extraordinary lightfast colors!)

printing by hand
(very clear instructions, great scandinavian designs)

the art of manipulating fabric
(just received the other day, the vast array of techniques is overwhelming and exciting!)

kay nielson
(the illustrations make me drool, such gorgeous details and patterns)

tricia guild pattern
(the colors! the variety of prints! a flocked velvet cover!)

scrumptious yet insightful

on the railway trek up to seattle i happened to be sitting across form a librarian. this, i did not know, until i mentioned to my fellow traveling companion that i wish i had a book to read; to fill in the hours to our destination. lo and behold, the woman sitting across from me (who was making a valiant effort to keep her curtain from covering the window) pulled out three books and asked if i would be interested in reading any of them; it would cost me only my opinion in the form of a book review of my chosen novel. so, thanking her and wondering out loud at her array of books, she told me that she was a children's book librarian, she had been asked to review several books. i was delighted to help.

"the wednesday wars" by gary d. schmidt was delightful and entirely too full of wisdom. not that that's bad in any way, just surprising, as the focus of this book is children in grades 5-8. i am very glad that this book found me. there are many memorable and comedic parts in this novel, the author has a way with witty words. it's a growing up book for the character, in leaps and tumbles we see the depth of change one year can bring a young person. the book, like the works of shakespeare that are featured throughout, is a mirror to so many of our lives, regardless of the time in which it was taking place, or even that it is about a boy. it's absolutely lovely, and complex, and rich. it shows in so many different ways what one person who takes an interest in us can do.

oh, the pages we have traveled

so, for awhile there i thought all would be lost. there was this instance of an itty bitty hurricane scare where i live. i packed up the entire interior of my dollhouse, paperwork, various collections that are irreplaceable; and before i could pack my clothes, shoes, and meds, it all blew away (the hurricane that is, it went further east and north of us). we had one night of light drizzle and a sunny day to wake up to.
well, in preparation for the hurricane i went to the local library. if the electricity went out (which it would have) i wanted to be very prepared with no-batteries-required entertainment. as my at times unreliable, and unstable, good luck would have it, i came across three interesting books. they were completely different in taste from each other; one a novel of a beijing girl finding her place in life, one a continuation of a series i had thought to be over, and one that is a southern woman's comedic take on renovations.
when i arrived home that day, there was a fourth book waiting for me; one i had pre-ordered quite some time ago, a lovely fantasy novel that i instantly had to buy-excerpt unread. so that made four worlds i would be glimpsing into, and out of my tumultuous own.
over the span of several days they each were read. we'll start with the first.


in "belle weather: mostly sunny with a chance of scattered hissy fits" written by celia rivenbark, the author (a southern women) recalls her life during the renovation of an ancient antebellum house. the author has a witty, sarcastic, and thankfully intelligent voice throughout the book. needless to say i was very entertained and this book would have done well to distract me from the weather.


after the comedy, i needed a literary downer, so i choose the novel "twenty fragments of a ravenous youth: a novel" by xiaolu guo. and before you start thinking "downer ?" i mean a story that requires one to think outside of one's comfort zone. i like a lot of movies that come out of china, but this would be my first excursion into the modern day literature of china. i also am angered by the environmental destruction and unthinkable repetition of the negative aspects of the western world that china is currently engulfed in. so, i had to put these thoughts aside and try to see the world of china from a voice that comes from within their walls. it was easier to read through than i had assumed; actually very interesting and in many ways familiar. one can relate to the journey the young woman takes, of trying to find a place within oneself that fits into the world around you.


the third book was one i did not expect to see. it was the seventh book in a series that i have been reading for years, the "undead, vampire queen betsy" books by maryjanice davidson. this one is titled "undead and unworthy" and is a darker, but not any less sarcastic and biting, continuation of the story of a very unlikely vampire queen. this series is definitely a very good read. as to why i did not expect to see it? i had erroneously assumed that the author was done with betsy after the sixth book.


all i can write about patricia mckillip's "the bell at sealey head" is that to immerse oneself in her writing is like dreaming while retaining consciousness. she is one author who makes me very thankful that we speak the same tongue, for i do not know what would be lost in translation.

the trials and tribulations of blossom culp...

i just finished reading a series of books starring Blossom Culp, Alexander Armsworth, and a procession of ghosts both past and future; "The Ghost Belonged to Me", "Ghosts I Have Been", "The Dreadful Future of Blossom Culp", "Blossom Culp and the Sleep of Death". written by Richard Peck during the 70's and 80's, these books were as funny and entertaining to read now as they were when i first read them as a child.
i love the character of Blossom, but i have to say that the book voiced by Alexander has to be my favorite, "The Ghost Belonged to Me". you always knew that Blossom had quite an attachment to Alexander, so it's interesting to see what he thinks of her. the progression of these two throughout the years is both comical and sweet, definitely a merging of brains and befuddlement.
what's also nice about these books is that the secondary characters are as memorable as the main two. who could ever forget the adventurous Uncle Miles, or tory Miss Gertrude Dabney, or Old Man Spalding who gets the last laugh? Bluff City, the place in which the majority of events take place is a town whose citizens are as different and as difficult as any you could find in real life. all of these books are going in the permanent "keeper" bookshelf.