Going Into Maker Mode

Yesterday, I figured out how to sew a face mask. This might not sound like much, but I have limited sewing abilities, was using a new sewing machine, and selected a challenging pattern.

My friend’s mother bought a fancy, used machine at a garage sale (a Pfaff Passport 3.0) and gave it to me. It has all sorts of bells and whistles. As much exciting as this is, I have been intimidated by the new machine, since my old machine was simple and basic and I’ve had it since 6th grade. In 6 months, I have set up the new machine one time and figured out how to wind a bobbin, thread it and sew a straight stitch. It was long enough ago that I had forgotten all of that and it took me 3 times to get the new machine threaded properly.

Would anyone who knows me be surprised that I have to pick the most complicated pattern I found with instructions which were hard for me to figure out, because I thought it would have the best fit? If you sew, it would not be that hard, but for me it brought memories of my early days and knitting and trying to decipher the new language of knitting instructions.

I like this pattern because it has an opening where you can add your own filter between the layers of the mask and the pattern and offers some options, such as part of a vacuum cleaner bag or coffee filter, which aren’t perfect, but add some protection. It also has a channel where you can put some wire in, which means the mask fits better around a nose. The person who designed the pattern is a University of Minnesota graduate with a degree in apparel design and a master’s in medical device innovation. You can find the pattern here.

I’m not going to say how long to took me to make this. I also haven’t figured out exactly where to position the needle at the beginning of end of a seam, since there’s an auto-feature at the start and one you can select at the end which anchors your thread for you. These parts of my seams are a bit of a mess. Still, it fits. It fits really well. It even fits securely over my hubby’s beard. For this design, I think the ties work better than elastic.

I am keeping this one and will make several others to keep. These are the practice ones. After that, I am going sew up more to donate.

I Just Don't Get It

I just don't get watercolor as a medium. That's okay, since it also gives me the freedom to just play. This morning I decided to make a "thank you" to my yoga studio for doing classes online through Zoom meeting.

Gratitude - 9" x 12" - watercolor - paper

The classroom space has been set up with a camera, mic, and so on, so they can show the instructor live for classes. It's been so helpful to continue to be involved with this community. The studio is close to my house, so I am going to tape this on their window, where they can see it when they look outside the classroom window. On the bottom of the painting, I attached a small strip of paper and wrote "Thanks for going on-line". There are a lot of members who are within walking distance of the studio and I like the idea that the studio won't know which one of us did this.  

Before everything shut down, I went to Wet Paint and purchased some supplies, including masking fluid. I used artist tape to make the squares, but used the masking fluid to keep some unpainted areas in the rest of it.

Today’s Art

I’m back to being creative  Two days ago, I started to draw out a painting. Yesterday, I felt both very tired, lazy, and unmotivated, so I spent several, refreshing hours knitting. The rest of the day, I just took it easy yesterday. Last night, we watched Metropolitan Opera’s free streaming of Lucia di Lammermore.

Today, I’m a little more motivated to get a few things done, including cooking. My neighborhood group send out their regular newsletter and encouraged people to do sidewalk art, since there are a lot of us going out for walks multiple times per day.

It’s a little brisk and windy today, so I went for simple and cheery.

Recent Painting

I've not been doing regular painting lately, but I have been painting shoes! In honor of St. Urho's say, here is a pair I finished yesterday.

I used this color and was surprised at first how it acted. It's not as bright over the black, as I was expecting, since it's a very translucent color similar to the quinacridone magenta I use for "regular" painting. A little white would have made it more opaque or a little blue would have made it more purple and opaque. After being a bit annoyed at first and painting 4 layers of paint, I decided that I like the color "as is". 

By the way, I just figured out that St. Urho's Day is actually a "fake" holiday. Still, it doesn't matter to me. I can get behind any holiday where you are supposed to wear purple. 

I finished a pair of my hubby's boots at Kat's open painting studio last Friday. They were looking very worn. While that's fine, I also wanted to spiff them up.

    

This last pair was finished several weeks ago. 

I've been playing around with some ideas in both my regular acrylic paint and in watercolor, but I don't have anything to share. My guess is that I will be doing more art in the coming weeks as a way to use time during this period of self-distancing in an enjoyable way. 

Should I Stay (In) Or Should I Go (Out)

It's hard to know what to do or not to do in the face of the Covid-19 breakout.  I've been home quite a bit for other reasons and starting to feel squirrely.  On Monday, I thought I would work at my co-working site both today and Friday.  By this morning, my thinking had changed and I decided it might be better to continue to work from home.  At the same time, I decided to make a quick jaunt out to the Minneapolis Institute of Art to see an exhibit which closes on 03/22, since it seems more and more likely that very soon I will want  to temporarily shrink my world as much as possible.

I don't think I'm overreacting.  This afternoon I found out that the University of Minnesota, which is currently on spring break, is moving to online classes until 04/01. I'm not panicking or being maudlin, but I have also been thinking about some of the information I learned about my biological family.  In the mid 1940's my maternal aunt was the first person in her community to die from polio as a teenager.  I can't help but think about how hard that must have been for her parents, my maternal grand-parents, including how scared they must have been for their two other children.  Also, I wonder how were they were treated by their friends, neighbors, and others in the community?  It must have been a very scary and fearful time.

Anyway........

I'm glad I ventured out to the MIA.  Without being intentional about it, I've gone to a different exhibit about something I'm interested in the last 3 weeks.  Two weeks ago, it started with The Beginning of Everything - - An Exhibition of Drawings at the Katherine Nash gallery at the University of Minnesota.  I went with a friend.  Last week, the same friend and I went to the exhibit of Elizabeth Scheu Close: A Life in Modern Architecture also at the University of Minnesota. I became aware of Elizabeth Close when I toured one of her houses in St. Paul.  It was so many years ago that I don't remember the address or much about the house, but the house design made an impression on me.  Both of the Close's have died, but their architectural firms lives on and is located close by my house.

Today, it was the Color Woodcuts in the Arts and Crafts Era exhibit at the MIA.  I am a fan of woodcuts, especially those of Charles Beck.  I have 4 of them in my home.  I also am a big fan of the Arts and Crafts era.

In today's exhibit, one of my favorites was Dandelions by Mabel Royds.

Another favorite was Golden Lotus by Anna Heyward Tayor.  The actual flower is much better in person.  I didn't fiddle with trying to take great pictures.

I like it when I look at a piece of art and can say "yes, that is how it is".  Sometimes that comes from an experience I've had.  Sometimes, it just comes from the truth of the art itself.  In this case, I was transported back to 2006 at the Lan Su Chinese Garden in Portland OR.  It was the first time I saw lotus flowers like this.

It was a very pleasant exhibit and I am glad I went.

Let's Post More In March Than In February

Wow! I only posted once last month. Here's to posting more in March and drawing and painting more, as well. 

Since I don't have any of my own work to share, let me share Kat's painting of my niece's cat, Drogo. I sent Kat several pictures of my niece's cats from when I was in Texas, last month. 

My niece is a veterinarian and just opened a vet clinic. In early February, an abandon kitten showed up and became the clinic cat. Lizzo was 10 weeks old when I snapped this picture. She had to go into the cage when a challenging patient was scheduled to visit the clinic.

This picture makes me smile whenever I look at it.

I Decided To Share

I finished the painting of Chandler. It's the one I mentioned in my last post that I was fighting. This morning, I looked at it with an editing eye and saw some things to fix. One correction I made, which was glaring this morning, but not yesterday, was that the right side of Chandler's muzzle was a little lighter to about the mid-point of his eye. Originally, I painted it too dark. This improved things quite a bit.

I decided to share it after all.

#367 - Chandler On Green - 11" x 14" - paper

Currently, it's hanging on the basement wall above the chest freezer.

There are a lot of layers of paint in this one. I'm not too fond of the ears, but I do like the clarity of the right eye. I also like how his white chest turned out. Whiskers are easier on a big painting!

Backgrounds are still a mystery. This is one area where I also seem to have these silly preconceived ideas and "rules" in my head and I don't know where they come from. This time, I decided to ignore the background from my source picture, try to stay true to the relative values, paint a bunch of greens which don't match or go together, and to leave some "harsh" changes between colors to fight back against these preconceived ideas. It actually was hard to do.

Next time, I might try to just do color blocks of different colors.

Also, I painted up another 11" x 14" piece of paper, since I enjoyed (and got frustrated with) working larger.