MAKING STUFF
and writing about it
A record of the making and the learning along the way: process, material, and the social side of hand-making.
May 10, 2013
Garden art beyond the whirlygigs
I know I should be researching or finishing or conceiving or cleaning or thanking or discussing or working on proposals. But like everyone else in the northern Northern Hemisphere, I can barely...
May 2, 2013
Ask not why the giant doily
After a long and often painful labour, I’m happy to introduce…the twins! I’m not sure why I plumped up the two eight-foot-wide doilies, freshly completed today, for their first picture. It...
Apr 19, 2013
Thinking outside our little boxes
I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one who is aching to make a break from the indoors and take it all outside. Now that the weather is improving (well, theoretically at this writing) thoughts go to...
Apr 11, 2013
Read before playing
Everything's coming up poodles. A few months ago I was trying to dog a persistent human-sized crocheted poodle toilet-paper-roll cover. Then it was the whole public art controversy surrounding...
Apr 5, 2013
Oh the laces you’ll go when you’re distracted
We are to understand that being distracted is bad, and being focused is good. Being focused will get the job done while being in the moment is not productive — productivity being the cornerstone...
Mar 29, 2013
Already missing what I’m not looking for
I’m addicted to Google Images and I’m not happy about it. For the last several decades, most of my ideas have come from markings on wood pulp, specifically newspapers. And even though it’s now...
Mar 22, 2013
Over-thinking will be the death of me
My biggest obstacle is over-thinking — not to be confused with big thinking. Over-thinking is my umbrella term for all the second-guessing, the predicting, the analyzing and the re-thinking that...
Mar 15, 2013
Art that has tongues wagging is working
A few weeks back, one of the local dailies ran a staff photo of a grumpy-looking woman wearing a hand-drawn sign around her neck that read: “Mount Pleasant needs a pool not a poodle on a pole.”...
Mar 8, 2013
The art of designing beyond the outdorky
I'm not a sports person. Elementary-school Sports Day was an annual hell . But the bike-decorating portion, now that was my kind of competition. Even today I get choked up when I catch a glimpse of...
Mar 1, 2013
Waiting to be inspired by hoardy pile of plastic
I’ve been left high and dry, marooned by a foul waste stream — a particular category of non-recycled stuff that ends up in Vancouver’s landfill. This category consists of many boxes of...
