Bibs for pregnant friends

With so many friends having babies, I decided to make bibs. I found a pattern online, from this place called "Nested." printed it out, and sewed a bunch of bibs. Not without making a bunch of mistakes.


1. The neck - make sure you put little bitty triangles in neck areas so that you don't get bunching, and the neck looks smooth.


2. Make sure the pattern is the right way. I made a bunch of bibs with upside down sheep. :P
3. Cut both the front and backing fabric (right side facing each other) at the same time.
4. An infant's neck is approx 8-9" in circumference. Making a fatter pattern will not accommodate an infant's neck.

pleating

My next project is to learn how to do that pleating shibori. now that i've somewhat learned how to do the small circles (i don't think it quite works with this cotton), I'm going to go onto making the pleats. I'm still feeling sick but i have to make the most of this long weekend while at home. I think I"m going to watch Naussica Valley of the Wind tonight. That's my third favourite Miyazaki movie. That shibori book is pretty complicated. BUT if you read the instructions enough, it begins to make sense. The pleating shibori seems ok. I just had to do the calculations on paper first. I'm going to try doing my first test run tomorrow.

Sick

Since Makerfaire finished I've been ill with a sinus infection. Just when I thought I was better, I came down with a fever today and I've been in bed watching Hiyao Miyazaki movies. I watched Spirited Away today and it was incredible. The first time I saw it, I watched it twice in a row. The idea that this young girl transforms from this cowardly being into a brave young woman .. for love.

For my birthday, my parents got me a Husqvarna Viking. I've been trying to stay busy by doing easy sewing projects like a duvet cover and an apron with adjustable neck straps. I'll have to post pictures.

I also received these beautiful Batik tools from someone I met at MakerFaire. Unfortunately, since getting ill, I haven't had the energy to work on anything. It is so sad because this beautiful box of tools is sitting on my work table, and every time I walk by, I feel so guilty!

The garden is doing well. The corn is about 3 ft high and we're starting to see tassels. For some reason, the plants in the ground are doing much better than my container plants, and I have a feeling it has something to do with drainage. My arugula seeds have sprouted, and they're going to replace all the lettuce that got toasted when it was really hot that day.

I went to the Santa Monica UCC yesterday to talk about the opportunity of teaching a Batik class this coming September.. very exciting! I'm making some cushions this weekend (I'm feathering my nest) and I'm dyeing a type of pattern onto them using that hardcore shibori tool that I got in Vancouver. Will have to try some batik too.

I have to get a scale. I finally started reading some on the natural dyes I bought in Vancouver. I need a scale.

Creme fraiche strawberry tarts

I'm making tarts from three pints of strawberries I had purchased two Fridays ago at the Hermosa Beach farmers market. The strawberries, while extremely sweet that Friday, somehow were not so sweet when we got home. Instead of trying to eat them as is, I decided to make tarts. I asked Amanda, my professional baker friend, for recipes. One recipe was a variation on her creme fraiche custard apple tart. Amanda had given a very basic recipe that included only the ingredients for the filling: creme fraiche, whole cream, vanilla bean, eggs and egg yolks. She even left out the sugar! Nervous!

Instead of calling her up, I decided to figure out the crust for myself. I first made a pate brisee crust but then realized that it would be too flaky for a tart - especially one that was as wobbly as a custard tart. So I wrapped the dough up in plastic wrap and tossed it in the freezer.

If my memory served me correctly, Amanda's tart crust was cookie like and not flaky. Possibly pate sucree. Pate sucree has higher fat content, and it has more of a cookie texture so it holds up easier. The only thing is that it's harder to work with because when it's not cold it sticks to everything.


The first time I made the tarts, they shrunk considerably after baking them blind.. who knew you were supposed to have the pastry slightly higher? I also found out that pre freezing the tart shells also helps with shrinkage. I'm testing this right now with both increased shell height and pre-freezing!



The custard had turned out wonderfully from the first baking but the pre shrinking really put me off. Here's hoping that things will turn out better this time!

* I baked the tart shells blind at 375F
* The custard portion was later added when the tart shells cooled.
* The custard was baked at 350F, for approx 15 mins until the custard was set.
* The strawberries were roasted first in the toaster oven to drive off the juice to not create wet spots in the custard (thanks to Amanda for the tip).
* I spooned the strawberries into the blind baked tart shells and then added the custard.
* All ingredients were all room temperature before spooning into tart shells.
* I poked the frozen tart shells with a fork
* The pate sucree recipe used was some wolfgang puck recipe I found online. Would be interested in trying something else that used the whole egg.

Trimming

On Monday I trimmed my three pots. I made two bowls and a cup. Interestingly enough I learned how to trim using the fast Brent wheel. For a long time I've only trimmed on a kickwheel, but Tom had convinced me to do otherwise. "if you want to waste all your time trimming, go right ahead."

I also learned a technique of determining the midpoint of where one should push to center a piece of leather-hard clay. Very neat. I'll have to post pictures soon.

I also learned how to use the back of a wood trimming tool to burnish the piece as the wheel is spinning so we can achieve a nicer finish on the clay before glazing. Very very nice.

Lastly I learned to reshape a deformed bowl by inserting a bisque fired bowl into the deformed bowl and tapping until the shape comes back about. Of course, I made the mistake of also indenting my bowl so that it was severely deformed, but oh well.. lessons learned.

Some more things I learned.
1. Ash causes glazes to run.
2. With teapots, the opening of the spout should be in line with the top of the teapot (duh).
3. Always push DOWN with your rib of clay when trimming, not IN bc you'll deform your piece (which happened to me)
4. When making a lid for a pot, make sure you insert the xacto at 45 degrees so that the lid can easily come out.
5. Fire the lid separate from the body so that you can glaze both sides of the lid.

Pictures to come.

I'm thinking of making a teapot and some vases and plates. We have enough mugs. Also a large casserole for the oven. I'm excited!!!

Beware of puddles!

Well while throwing yesterday, I made the dreaded mistake of leaving a puddle on the bottom of my pot, and guess what? My vase CRACKED!!!!!!! RATS!

It's ok because the clay can be reused, so I threw it back into my bag of rejects. Something else i learned yesterday was a more robust way of collaring. It appears that I'm pretty good at making bowl forms, but I'm terrible at making things with a tummy/belly. Tom, my instructor, who is a retired engineer, broke it all down! Now I have a new way of collaring, which uses three points of contact from each hand, so I don't end up pulling the neck off the piece by jerking up too fast. Also, I noticed that when collaring, you make sure you keep your collar on the pot in one spot for a long time, and you push in, then slowly push up. No wonder I got fluted edges all the time!

Here's a picture from my notebook, illustrating the collaring.

Throwing like a man

I went to ceramics on Monday after a long hiatus from throwing and it was wonderful to get my hands on clay again. Of course, the clay was so extremely gritty that I pretty much tore off the top layer of skin from my hands, and I am now suffering from chronic dry hands since Monday. But NEVERMIND. It was fun. Tom, my instructor, is a retired engineer, who also teaches kids. He's a great teacher. He also throws like my instructor in Malaysia.. keeping the arms and elbows close to the body. I'm surprised at how well it works. My Malaysian instructor, Bee-Him, was very well meaning, but i think she got frustrated with me because I could never get what she was trying to explain. Perhaps it was the linguistic differences. She had an amazing way of never getting dirty when she threw clay! Amazing! I remember the first time I went to class, and I was demonstrating how I used the wheel, the first thing she said was that I "threw like a man" since I had my legs propped up on bricks and elbows propped up on my knees for leverage.


In any case, I learned this time - what I've been doing incorrectly.. like locking my hands together when centering. The left hand is independent of the right hand. After I got that, throwing became fairly easy, and I centered four pugs of clay. I also remembered how to pull up and throw a tall cylinder. Now to bowls - I need to remember how to do bowls.

The cables

Sometimes I like to mock things up in photoshop first before actually putting things onto fabric. I had initially imagined the cables for the lanterns piece to go a certain way but after drawing it out i decided that it didn't look as good as I thought it did in my mind.

Raycafix

I finished laundering the piece and it looks not bad. I think I'm going to have to make some additions in white fabric paint, but otherwise, everything turned out as planned. However, I really dislike how the black bleeds, and so, I remembered an old bottle of Raycafix, which I used on the fabric after rinsing once. (I shouldn't have rinsed and just used the Raycafix). Stopped the bleeding short. Will have to try it again next time. I didn't quite use really hot water, as the instructions said. Just hotter than warm.


Here are the pieces drying in the back pantry.

Following instructions

I'm generally not someone that follows instructions too well, but when it comes to dyeing, following instructions IS A GOOD THING. Actually most of the time I've had to come up with my own instructions, but after I come up with a set of good instructions, I follow them to a T. Today I did the final dye of my lantern batik, and I'm in the process of waiting for the dye to set. I used a mixture of black, warm black and red.

I have been having problems with mottled dye effects on large surfaces, so I decided to experiment with immersion dyeing this time round, which is essentially, a large vat of dye which the cloth is immersed into for a period of time.

Instructions as follows:

1. Soak fabric for 15 mins in lukewarm water.
2. Fill a pail up with 3L of warm water.
3. In 2 cups of hot water, dissolve 1/3 cup salt and 1/2 tsp of dye. (Use more dye if using black or turquoise)
4. Let the fabric sit in the dye for 10 mins.
5. While waiting, in a separate container, mix 1tbsp soda ash with 1 cup of warm water. Stir until fully dissolved.
6. Remove fabric from dye.
7. Add soda ash solution to bucket and stir.
8. Return fabric to the bucket and stir around for a bit. Let sit for an hour, stirring occasionally.

This is the recipe I'm following. The instructions are a mix of what was obtained from the prochemical site, the Paul Birch site, and the G and S dyes site, as well as the instructions on the back of the container.

It seems like the color is developing evenly, so perhaps we won't see the streaky effects of painting. Will have more pictures of the result after I take the fabric out of the dye bath.

Dyer's Woad

One of my interests is dyeing with natural plants, and a goal is to eventually create an indigo vat in the backyard. Unfortunately I haven't been able to get my hands on indigo plants. I have been lucky though to have found that on the west coast, we have an abundance of dyer's woad, which appears to have been imported from Europe in the 1700's. Dyer's Woad can be used as a dye plant, though not as concentrated as the actual indigo plant, with enough, you can use it to start a vat! Apparently there is dyer's woad throughout the Santa Monica mountains, and it's considered a weed! I'm hoping that when I go on my hiking trip with Beth I'll be able to spot some!

none of your beeswax!

I started a new piece a few days ago, and over the past few months I have been somewhat unsatisfied with the beeswax I am using. My dissatisfaction didn't really have a cause at the time, until I went home over Christmas and started using the wax supply I typically use for soap. As I melted it, I realized that the beeswax I was using (Jacquard 100% beeswax for batik) wasn't REALLY beeswax. It doesn't turn golden brown as you melted it, the sugars and other debris popping away in the wax as it got hotter and hotter. It also doesn't smell like carmelized sugar. It smells like chemicals, and that was when I decided I should just do away with the pot and start a new block.


left: new beeswax; right: jacquard beeswax

So today I experimented with some new beeswax that I purchased in Toronto over the holidays. The appearance is not very nice - there's all kinds of debris stuck in the block.. including a thistle! The wax itself is a dark yellow - not the brilliant yellow of the Jacquard, and it had a fine dusting on the surface. As I melted it, all the debris started coming away and fizzing and popping and sizzling in the melted wax! And as the wax got hotter and hotter still, it turned from a dark yellow into a beautiful golden brown. And the smell was fantastic! I heard flies and bees at the window. Seriously.

My thoughts are that the Jacquard beeswax is probably processed to remove sugars and other debris. Jacquard also sells white beeswax pellets, so I am sure they are capable of refining the hell out of beeswax so it doesn't quite resemble what it's supposed to be. Also I noticed that the jacquard wax is a bit stickier to touch than the natural beeswax I purchased in Toronto.

Snowy Day Shibori

I'm currently working on Shibori. My throw is going to be a wedding present for a friend, Owen Waygood. One of my favourite artists is Ezra Jack Keats, and my favourite book of his is Snowy Day. The shibori I'm going to do is actually a mixed piece but its going to remind me of one of the last few pages found in the Snowy Day.