I was kept busy this weekend, as usual. Firstly, on Saturday my dye study group met at a member’s house to chat and eat…er, to make stamps from foam core, string, and fun foam to use with fabric paint on textiles. I made about half a dozen, including one of a damselfly (naturally). I haven’t tested them all out yet to see how they “perform” though of course the damselfly is perfecto.
Then on Sunday, the T-Man and I went walkabout and had a lovely lunch on Granville Island. We did a little gallery goggling and stopped into Maiwa, where I stocked up on some more dye for my classes and I bought this book:
It’s called “Colour: Travels through the Paintbox” by Victoria Finlay (Sceptre, 2002. I haven’t read it yet, but it’s full of vignettes about pigments and their discoveries and uses in history to the present. Promises to be as interesting as “A Perfect Red” I think.
We also went to several book and magazine shops before heading home. I discovered this heavy tome in Oscar’s Art Books on Broadway near Granville (right across the street from the monolithic Chapter’s book store):
The book is actually wider than this but it wouldn't fit on my scanner bed. It was super-expensive but what a fabulous resource for a bead-lover! “Beadwork: A World Guide” by Caroline Crabtree and Pam Stallebrass (Rizzoli, 2002) is a huge book full of colour pictures of pieces (both ethnic and historical) all created using seed beads. (There’s even two pages on Greenlander beadwork! When I was researching that subject I didn’t find much info available.) The last section explains many of the bead stitches used in the pieces. It’s pretty rudimentary but probably helpful to someone without much knowledge of how beadwork is actually done. Someone with more knowledge just has to ogle all the lovely pictures to be very inspired! I think this is a book that will take some time to be savoured and slowly digested. It’s so yummy and rich. Yes, I know. I should start a chapter of Bibliophiles Anonymous but the trouble is I don’t want to be cured.
I’ve been specially requested to mention the Sock Competition at Fibrefest (March 31/April 1 at the Tradex, Abbotsford, BC). This exciting event is a first for Fibrefest and will be judged by the public with the prize a “knit-as-you-go bag”. It’s all in fun so every level of ability can feel free to join in and submit socks. They don’t have to be perfect because nobody is going to check every stitch. Socks can be dropped off at the Cortes Island Homespun booth at the fest or mailed to Jan Curtis. Email her at curtis at oberon dot ark dot com (you know how to make all the usual substitutions there) for more information. I hope to have a pair or two ready to enter though of course I’m going to need to use some of my socks for my demo talks! And don’t forget to join in the Spin-In and Knit-Out on the Saturday 10am to 2pm. It’s going to be a fun festival!
2 comments:
One Chrustmas when we had no real money for presents I was given a book bought by husband and children from a charity shop - it was "Mauve: How One Man Invented a Color That Changed the World" by Simon Garfield. What an interesting read. It may not be quite right for adding to your Colour Collection as it is more about fashion than art but worth getting out from the library.
Ah! The Sock competition sounds like fun! Thanks for the heads up on that.
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