art equals happy.: March 2013

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March 2013

March 28, 2013

Horniman Easter Fair this weekend! :: Shop.

Hey, this weekend I'll be at the lovely Horniman Museum for their Easter Fair. We had a great time with the Fayre Christmas Fayre & looking forward to meeting people & spreading the handmade/ethical love.
Check here for more details.

Maybe see you there?

Posted at 10:00 AM in .Markets, Etsy/shop talk, London, publications | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

March 27, 2013

Indigo and friends. :: Natural Dyes.

For those of you that have never done any dying before. The general procedure is to make a dyebath and put the wool in it. Then you wait for a while, take it out and it's dyed! It's kind of hard to go wrong, really.

With Indigo, it's a slightly different process.
You make the dyebath through a bunch of science like mixtures, and 'oxidize' the water (which sounded really high-tech to me). You don't need to pre-treat the wool at all, except wet it. The tricky part comes when you actually get down to the dyeing part. You can't leave the wool in too long or it will 'contaminate' the rest of the dyebath. And, get this- although you're dying it blue the dyebath is yellow. YES YELLOW. When you lift the wool out of the dyebath it changes magically before your eyes. MAGIC.

I nearly squealed in delight at my potion brilliance. (Slughorn would be proud.) You can only use the dyebath once because as soon as it gets oxygen in it- it turns blue and you can't reuse it. You can, however, re-dunk wool to create darker shades.

This is a sample of my first Indigo experiments (done in Nov 2012).

(From right to left: Once in Indigo. Several times in Indigo. Grey fleece several times in Indigo.)
Also, because I'm an overachiever (Not really, I just get excited) I tried overdying with some wool that had previously been naturally dyed Yellow.

Yellow + Blue = Green!

Because it was my first time, I only tried little bits and played around with times. The darker blue I 'dunked' several times. I even tried leaving some bits in the remainer of the dyebath once I was done (for like an hour) but it didn't look much darker.

You like? Kimxo

Posted at 10:00 AM in .NaturalDyes, fun projects/craft, workspace | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)

March 26, 2013

One from the vaults-Supernatural :: Video.

What usually happens when you decide you need to organise your life? You get stuck in memory lane going through old journals or files on your computer. Or at least, that's what happens to me anyway. The other day I found this little gem of a video.

I was in a band. I was learning about film and animation at school. This happened. It was kind of a rushed project but there are some cool bits in it. There's a couple of live shots which are played backwards (cool!) and some stop motion hidden in between the bad lip sync job I did.

Made in 2008, some of you will remember those blog days. :]
Kimxo
p.s. remember to like & subscribe on youtube if you haven't already. I'm making this a regular thing. New videos every tuesday!

Posted at 04:37 PM in videos | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

March 19, 2013

Lucy's Birthday. :: Video & photographs.

It's tuesday, which means it's video day! I took a lot of dark, grainy footage from a birthday party on my friend's boat. They always play the best music when ever I'm visiting, and it's got such a cozy atmosphere. I edited the best shots together with a cute song Sam, Rowan and Josh improvised. I've got some more songs for a later date to share, but for now I wanted to share this special place with you.
See it on Youtube. Like & Subscribe for more!P.S. if you've been a follower of this blog/ my flickr for a long time, you might recognise some these faces from my Bristol days. I still consider them some of my closest friends even if we live in different cities now. :]

-Kimxo
p.p.s. Yaara took this photo of me, and it pretty much sums up how I feel when I'm on the boat. haha. Blissed out with friends and knitting. What could be better?

Posted at 10:59 AM in collaboration, friends, London, my life, photographs, talented friends, videos | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)

March 15, 2013

In 'Gathered' by Mollie Makes. :: Publications.

Hello! Just wanted to pop in and say that we were featured in Gathered again (issue 21). This time for my Home Movie.

Gathered is an awesome weekly ipad digital magazine run by the same people that bring you the magazine Mollie Makes every month. I love Mollie Makes & all the ladies I've worked with so far have been incredibly nice and lovely.

Posted at 07:24 PM in Etsy/shop talk, publications, videos | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

March 12, 2013

Talking about art school. :: Videos & Vlogs.

Probably the thing I get the most questions about is: Art School! That's cool cause I love art school, but it is a many faceted beast that is hard to tame.

I uploaded a vlog the other day that talks about setting standards for yourself and what happens when you don't meet them.

It's OKAY guys. Try your best & you'll be fine. Love you.
p.s. Subscribe & like if you liked. :] it all helps! Thanks.

Posted at 10:32 PM in Camberwell BA, my life, videos, vlog | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBack (0)

March 08, 2013

Gradient Cowl. :: Spinning & Knitting Adventures.

I've had quite a few people ask me about the Gradient Yarn that I've spun up especially (One and Two). They wanted to know what it looked like- well here you go! This is a Cowl that my Mum made, with her xmas pressie from last year. You can really see the changes in colour, and the slow progress from pink to purple.

The Cowl pattern is a simple K1P1 with a little increase on the ends- then sewn together. We just made it up. Haha. It's the warmest, snuggest, lovliest thing ever and Mum wears it all the time- especially outside to markets in the wintertime.

I am very very tempted to spin up some for myself & knit one up. Maybe in yellows and browns? Would anyone like to see these in the shop? The yarn by itself with a pattern or the finished object? Let me know!

Kimxo

Posted at 10:00 AM in .KnittingAdventures, .Spinning, Etsy/shop talk, knitting, SHOP Products | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBack (0)

March 01, 2013

Finished Story Socks. :: Knitting Adventures.

These socks have such a nice story behind them and in them! I started these about a year ago on my friend's canal boat. (post here) The yarn was given to me as a present and I was really into samples and small colourwork patterns at the time. I mean, I'm still into that stuff, but I just had such a big itch to go kind of crazy. I was also covetting some dainty stocking-type socks that I was seeing in vintage pattern books. The kind that are misshappen and knitted on the tiniest of needles and have intricate 'clocks' worked into them. While working on the first sock (The mainly brown and pink, post here.) I knitted in little elements of whatever I was doing at the time.

I've always loved the idea that a crafted object tells a story- that with each stitch, you are weaving in a pattern of emotions and thoughts. These socks took me the better part of a year to complete (finished in December 2012) and I love that I can pick out what I was doing, and read it like a story.

They also look a little wonky and funny, but they fit SUPER GREAT! I wore them to the Knitting And Stitching Show last year and got loads of compliments. haha.