Finished off CR2006.04 — the burp cloth or whatever — and restarted the blanket. It does not seem possible to keep the thing SQUARE. Now i see why granny squares are so popular. Since an error gets magnified as one works in the round, a small square is more manageable than a large one.

Some photos of flowers. (Flickr) Some photos of “Found Composition.” (Flickr) Scans of pasta and herbs for the photocopychunky call.

Surfing

Embossing paper with a simple mark or printer’s chop. I’ll need to track down some heavy weight board — which i did. For a “first draft” i’m trying a (yawn) cat’s head.

Email notice for www.babasbeeswax.com. No pysanky this year, though.

Today i finished the yellow edging on the “burp cloth” (CR2006.04) and started again on the blue center ground of the blanket (Now CR2006.05). The “burp” cloth took an oz of yarn, leaving about .6 oz of the blue with which to start over.

I think i’ll have enough blue to make a center ground, and yellow to make the enough edging. I suppose i can always make the edging some what loose—although i suppose a lacy blanket is not good for a baby.

I’m now being much more careful about stretching the piece square as i work on it. I’m still not sure where most of the warp came from—the stitch count was OK.

Crochet

⊗ CR2006.02: I’m now past the I got past the hard part of the scarf — the diamond inset pattern — and i’m back to dc stitches. This bit weighs 0.5 oz out of a 50g spool.

⊗ CR2006.04: I’m decided to share the Friday morning progress scan with Laura, as she’ll visit in March and see it then, anyhow. No holding out on a completed surprise. She promply posted it in her new baby blog.

Photography

⊗ Finished Roll2006.01 out at salt pond A2W. We biked out carrying the tripod in my bike bag, stopping once to try and shoot a green winged teal. I didn’t identify it, but asked birders further down the creek. I should recognize them by now; we keep seeing them at the Crittendon bridge and down stream. Christine took the last few shots on the roll, including the moon shot.

Painting

On the 14th of FirstMonth i put acrylic to my first canvas. Christine had “bought” them for me for my birthday in 2005, but i didn’t go pick them out at Flax until last fall. The under-painting was done with a roller and bubble wrap sometime with a simple palette of black & white, with dabs of red, green, and stainless steel. (I suppose i should document which pigments i have on hand so i know WHICH red it was.)

Saturday evening I was going to do another layer, but i may have finished it. I added yellow to this palette, not Hansa but another. The green shoots remind me of a meditation/vision i had about joy a couple of years ago, so i’m calling the painting Joy. (Or Paint2006.01) I need to paint the edges of the canvas, and i ponder painting some of the forms again so the color is more opaque.

While Christine likes the textures of the bubble wrap and the stainless steel thick media, i think i’d choose to do that last next time. there are places the texture ended up where i wish it was flat.

I’l post photos of the paintings from Flickr.

Surfing

⊗ A Craftster forum reference to my ATC
⊗ Craftster Magazine Bowls. Cool.
⊗ Silicon Valley Arts Site, reminding me it might be about time to look into more tickets for a performance at The Pear. The Merc also reports on South First Fridays:

The monthly event, dubbed South First Fridays, kicks off tonight. Three venues — Anno Domini//the second coming of Art & Design; MACLA/Movimiento de Arte y Cultura Latino Americana; and the Museum of Quilts and Textiles — have agreed to stay open until midnight in hopes of drawing art lovers to the strip. The fourth, The San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art, will remain open until 10 p.m.

Picked up Roll2005.06 at Wolf. 37 shots of B&W goodness to scan in.
Inspired, and sighting the delicate new moon, ushering in the Year of the Dawg, i loaded Roll2006.01 (OLD film, “07/2002 3715804″, Kodak Select Royal Gold, 24 exp, ISO 200/24° C-41 RB135-24, CAT 129 8041).

I shot three shots: the first two were some thing like 30 second exposures, the third was 1/2 s. I forgotten how to use the timer as well. Ah well.

060201: Spaceweather.com has a photo like the one i was trying to shoot at swpod2006/31jan06/joye1.jpg. Their write up links to an explanation of earthshine or the “Da Vinci Glow”. It will be a while before i get mine developed….

Mail art — from the Mail Box

Received the Altered Photos ATC swap (LMAO2005.08) from nervousness. Ironic, because Christine (aka greycat) hasn’t received hers, but hers arrived at the swap first — even though they were mailed together. Last out, first in?

Crochet

Working on the Nord/ette’s blanket (CR2006.04)– have a 3″ square worked “in the round” of mainly hdc with the 2.55mm hook. It’s something like 7 rows. Sometimes i doe the hdc in the back loop and sometimes i don’t creating this occasional ridge. I figured that out this evening and have only done both-loop hdc. It’s not exactly square by stitch count, but i think i have time to straighten that out. If every row adds two stitches at the end (i’ve been doing dc there in contrast to the hdc), i’ll say the next loop should have 18. Sides A & B add two, C adds one, and D none.
        A: 16 st
B: 16 st     D: 18 st
        C: 17 st

Surfing

⊗ Signing textile creations: A Grumperina tutorial. Requires iron on printer transfer stock and satin ribbon.
⊗ Hundreds of types of Crochet! Noticed in a Crochet Me forum and thought of the collection of stitch references that i began … and which seem to have been a victim of the site move. How odd. (Also, it seems many of the topics and author identities went away.)

I also keep track of calls separately last year. This made sense as a way to keep on top of responsibilities. I’ll do the same this year. There will be a project ID if the call is for something other than a coded project and it requires a commitment to participate (Most nervousness projects will be ID’ed).

Mail Art

This year, all mail art will be catalogued with “MA2006.[Code].[Sequence].[Edition]”

“Code” will be used occasionally for particular projects, particularly multi-month projects or themed development that may go through different formats. Code is not required.

“Sequence” enumerates projects in the year unless otherwise defined by the presence of a “Code.”

“Edition” is a alphabetic mark to distinguish replicated versions and may be also noted as a proof.

I’m not sure how to track image elements that become aspects of other works or small works that then get folded into other works. I think about the colorfly combination i came up with late last summer: The postcard required a artistamp that then was used elsewhere. I used variations of the image duplicated on different media for ATC and greeting notes. Would i have had the sense to code all of the pieces colorfly at the beginning? Maybe.

Mail Art Coded Projects

BayATC: revisit of the series i clumsily started in 2004 with a digital photo of the Stevens Creek transition zone and notes about observations of the creek area. Here, “sequence” will be replaced with the date in “yy-mm-dd” form.

CBTI: See Chunky Books Monthly Tip-In Swap & this blog entry. Here, “sequence” will be replaced with the three letter standard abbreviation for the month, and “edition” will number 1-5 of the unique pages.

MCM: photo series. Here, “sequence” will be replaced with the date in “yy-mm-dd” form. There may be edition numbers.

OAP: See Omnibus Artistamps Project at Yahoo Groups. & this blog entry. [Update: 2006-04-15 The project organizer has had some misfortune and is not able to continue work at this time.] Here, “sequence” will be replaced with the three letter standard abbreviation for the month, and “edition” will number any variations of use of the image with the first edition the one submitted to the omnibus project. I can’t imagine having any more time for any other commemorative stamp designs this year, but i may do another set of definitives in the summer and retire the Mr M series.

Other Mail Art Projects

MA2006.01: photocopychunky: sponsored by Nicci. RSS feed 2006-02-13. Never committed to participation although i did do a little starting work.
MA2006.02: 7th Anniversary of Artistamp Mailing List (AML). Post the fourty or so mailings on June 5. Signed up with eepy on 2006-04-29
MA2006.03: Artist Stamp Deco for Rebecca at Nervousness 2006-04-30 “The deco is going out MONDAY MAY 1, 2006.” Eraserquee first. 2006-04-30
MA2006.04: Américas Altered Datebook

Crochet

CR2006.01: bag
CR2006.02: viscose scarf for Christine
CR2006.03: cat afghan
CR2006.04: baby blanket burp cloth
CR2006.05: baby blanket
CR2006.06: plastic bag tote
CR2006.07: Pauline, an Amigurumi Dude.
CR2006.07: rag rug