Showing posts with label Creative Outdoor Award. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Creative Outdoor Award. Show all posts

Wednesday, October 16, 2013

Working myself through fall issues...

The past ten days have been emotionally draining, and it has been difficult to find the leisure to write a decent blog post.
I am astonished that a few radical blokes can shut down their huge country’s government and endanger world economy simply because they want to bring down a law that has been legally passed. Isn’t this unconstitutional behavior? How can the majority of their party let themselves be driven by a small number of fundamentalists? This country, that has been telling other countries what democracy is all about...
I am appalled at the self-conceitedness of the Bavarian government, where one party, again characterized by a series of undemocratic decisions and procedures, has regained the absolute majority they had lost in the last election. But I am also alarmed at the fact that the voters made this possible, and even topped the percentage a week later at the federal elections.
I am afraid that the results of German federal election might turn into an unhealthy type of coalition. And alarmed at the growing practice of lobbying in German politics, which so far have still managed to at least maintain a picture of integrity and upright procedures. Probably merely a self-delusion, and my alarm is caused by the fact that I am getting aware of this?
And I am deeply ashamed that Europe, last year’s winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, does not do anything to open their borders for refugees, drowning in the Meditarranean by the hundreds, fleeing countries in which many of the problems have been caused by historical and economic interference of the so-called western world.
These conditions upset me. Add to that the first longer stretch of high fog, always a difficult climatic situation for me in the fall. And a lot of work – picking apples, picking quince and making juice and marmelade, getting the garden ready for winter. 

These apples will be made into juice coming Saturday

The larger part of bottles of quince juice -
very nice, because it has a very low sugar content.

We had to take down the quince tree because it was sick, but we planted a new apple tree. And we are planning to put in another quince tree before the winter.

See that awfully gray sky? Isn't that
a good enough reason to become all depressed?

And my son’s process of adjusting to third grade demands, quite a different pace of schooling than last year’s second grade still comfy atmosphere. And of course, this already difficult week was the one when the rejection for my Quilt Nihon entry arrived, and the rejection of my entry for the Creative Outdoor Award.  I really don’t mind the latter, I was expecting it because I myself wasn’t really taken with what I had produced. But it did take some serious self-suggestive work – won’t have to go to see the customs guys to ship it, one extra quilt to enter in other competitions – to talk myself out of being disappointed about the rejection from Japan.
Nevertheless, I did get some work done. I am working on an entry for the German Guild’s bi-annual “T bis M” (“From Tradition to Modern”), which I won’t show here because it must not have appeared anywhere. It will be called “Light Sculputre”. And while I was waiting for the batting to dry I started on the first of the five small quilts I have to make for next October’s exhibition in the Fagus Works.  And it is getting along nicely.



Of course, there are going to be larger quilts in this exhibition, too.

Weather had inproved over the weekend, so things have brightened up a bit on that line. Although it is raining and cold now - but much better than high fog! 
And I have decided not to let myself be run down by politics. Even if world economy should falter tomorrow. I can always make a comforting quilt.

Friday, July 5, 2013

Always Collecting...

I hate going shopping – usually I end up in a book store, or a yarn shop. But there is one store nearby which I simply LOVE going to. (Actually, I thought I had posted pictures from it somewhere on the blog, but I couldn’t find them, at least not under the labels that I thought would be natural.) It is a Farmer’s Hardware and Utilities store where you can buy everything. And I mean everything from aprons  to nails to tools to you name it. Just look at this - doesn't it make your heart sing? - :



On Tuesday I went there because I had realized that time is drawing near. I really must come up with thoughts now about how I am going to deal with that creative outdoor bird which needs to be shipped in four weeks at the latest. I had had a few ideas, but I figured I might as well let myself be inspired there. I can spend hours walking the isles, taking in the various kinds of machinery, tools, utensils that you can buy, at moderate prices. Taking lots of pictures, too. When I come out of the store I tend to carry loads of stuff that I will be using in a different function than the original design intended. Such as these items, all my treasures from Tuesday (and I held back!):


Several items for printing on fabric. I do have a strong collection in that realm by now, I better get started on that project sometime soon!

And little screw-nuts, which will become adornment for the bird that had taken me to the store to begin with.



Which I sat down to deal with yesterday morning. It's coming along nicely.





Thursday, June 20, 2013

Creative Outdoor Award, first report

Another thing I have been ‚working’ on since my return from Berlin is the Creative Outdoor Award for which I wasdrawn as a participant. When I returned home, I found the bird waiting for me which I have to complete. This is it, I guess you could say in its ‘naked condition’.


First thought: “aha. This is not exactly big.”
Second thought, a couple of days later, rather on the display side: “Can I put it on a branch?” Problem: how to get the branch into a position that it will stay upright, AND be shippable by German Post. Ruled out.
Third thought: Dispense it from some hanging device so it will look as if it is flying. Probably not very original, and, honestly, to my eyes, this is not a bird in flight, it would look as if it is dropping from the sky like a stone. Ruled out.
Fourth thought, more on the design side: can I put this thing in a dye bath? It does look like cotton, but it does not feel as if it is pfd. So how well would it take the colour? Plus, the make does not look like it would survive a tumble in the washing machine for thorough rinsing, and I just hate to let all that water go down the drain to rinse it from hand. (And if I would have to get a replacement after destruction of the first bird, I probably would have to pay €20...) So refrained from dyeing it. But in that line of thought at least I had turned to how to decorate the body rather than thinking about how to display it when it’s finished.

That’s what I am now still turning over in my head. Numerous possibilities. One would be to engage my son in the process. It might certainly lead to unpredictable results. Well, I still have a few weeks.

Monday, June 3, 2013

2013 Creative Outdoor Award: My Bird!

I never win in the lottery. Nor major prizes.
When I was a teenager, I entered a photograph competition with a snapshot of my swimmer friend approaching a turn in a butterfly race, and was mad as hell that I received second prize, which was a pocket camera (with Bavarian colours), of no better quality than the cheap camera I had used to take the picture in the first place. I had so wanted to win first prize, a reflex camera, which I couldn’t afford because I would have to save my pocket-money for years and years on end, nor had any chance of receiving as a birthday present. (Looking back at it now, although I still wouldn’t appreciate that particular prize, I probably would have felt a bit more pride at coming in second.)
In 2008, I won a prize for handquilting at the Quilt Festival in Radolfzell, on Lake Constance, which had been donated by, of all companies imaginable, Bernina. That prize I really appreciated – first of all because of the quaint combination, handquilting and Bernina, and, secondly, because it could only be redeemed in the Bernina shop at Steckborn, Switzerland. I invested it fully into a large acrylic quilting table for my Bernina machine, which I might have been too stingy to buy – at least for quite a while longer -  if I would have had to pay for it in full. I still use it when I am using that machine, and it has been a cherished assistant in many a quilt's quilting.
Whenever I do play the lottery, which usually only happens when a large jackpot is waiting for a winner, I consider myself lucky if I win half of what I invested to play...
Nevertheless, when I came across the call for entries for the 3rd Textile OutdoorAward: My Bird! on Silke Bosbach’s websiteI decided on the spur of the moment that I would try to participate. 

This picture is a shot of the announcement as it appears on
my computer screen, taken with my current digital camera,
several generations after that camera with which I entered the photo competition many years ago.

Because the call for entry at first really was a call for application to enter. A drawing would determine who of the applicants would be allowed to participate in the end.
Lo and behold – last week I received the mail that I had been chosen. Out of 247 applications, mine was amongst the I-don’t-know-how-many. I could be one out of twenty, fifty, or 247, it did not say. (Correction: after checking out her website, I now know that I am one of fifty.)
Today I went ahead with the procedure: signed that I would pay for my own fare should I be one of the chosen 10 finalists who are expected – no, obliged! – to participate in the prize ceremony in March where the order of placement will be announced, for example. Pre-address and pre-stamp an envelope in which I will receive My Bird, which I then have to do something to or with. Fill out an application form, of course. Agree to pay 20 euros in case I should NOT send in my finished piece before the deadline runs out (Aug. 9).
So I don’t know what I got myself into, as I don’t really have a clue as to what kind of blank or template will come to me. But I will be doing 3D, and a bird at that, because I sure don’t want to pay 20 euros for not doing it. I do hope lots of ideas will fly in on wings once this is under way!

(And I won’t start thinking about what I will do about that mandatory presence at the award ceremony on that particular weekend in March, for which I already have a teaching commitment – because I never win major prizes anyway...)