It has been too quiet around here of late. Concentrating on fibrous activities for so long means that little has been done with pen and paper. I spent a day last weekend making Christmas Cards and thoroughly enjoyed myself. I feel that the time is right to clear off my studio table and to start to dabble again.

I want to do some swapping of mailart items but have finally elected to kiss Swap-bot goodbye forever. I really do not want to be part of a group that feels it is OK to discriminate against people just because they are new. I am not going back on my decision this time. So, I plan to get busy on SendSomething and become active again on my Yahoo groups. I am also up for 1:1 swaps, so please feel free to contact me. No penpal requests, please. The old arm isn’t up to extended writing.

There is a long list of reciprocals needing attention. I’ll start with them and then start sending out some fresh stuff.

There are cards to blog this week…

RAK postcard received this week from SendSomething participant, dragondances. I love this card. I miss trees, a lot. On the back of this card is a text entitled “Happiness” by Carl Sandburg.

A postcard from my final Swap-bot swap, a group swap of Favourite Place postcards. This one is from “JennyJ”

And another surprise postcard from an earlier Swap-bot swap – this is the third card from flapperhoney. Thankyou!

Another change: I am testing out the Blog publishing feature in Word. Please excuse any strangeness while I get to grips with it.

You know, I hate to upset people (although I seem to do it very easily indeed) – and would never intentionally do so  – and it grieves me mightily that any vocalization of my personal angst or explanation of my internal workings here should offend anyone at all.

You know who you are. I am sorry. I am also sorry that these are virtual flowers, but they are the best that I can manage.

Don’t think that you are unappreciated, because you are not. And I know you will do everything you can to help me over my fear of needles so I don’t need to be so angsty in future. I am truly sorry if my way of coping caused you offence.

XXX

I have been in the workroom and trying to make ATCs for the current PS3 “Water” swap. I actually made a couple that I quite like! There are a few days left in which to have more attempts, but I have some work to do and don’t know how much more time I can find.

In fact,  this blog (and others) are going on a sabbatical. I have a job of work to do that will involve a lot of keyboard time and I need to reserve all useful arm time for that. No spinning, no knitting, no blogging, no email – just screen shots and typing. I’ll be back when I am done.

Maybe.

I am contemplating the demise of Demiurge – there is little activity here and I may need to rationalise my efforts soon.

Speak up if you think this space worth saving. I’ll hear you.

If anybody noticed any hiccups here at Fairhand today (Sunday) let me explain…

I wrote a very long post. It broke my blog. I spent hours and hours looking at the html, rewriting things, cutting, pasting, editing, re-editing. Every time, it broke my blog.

Eventually I looked at the page source instead of my html source.

There I found the stray code that was breaking things.

I have a plugin, called Lightbox. That is the thing that puts up the nice image display when you click on the thumbnails. (Oh, OK, well I think it’s nice – agreed you may hate the twiddly bits…) To make the Lightbox work, I have to add a rel tag to my html anchors. If I add rel=lightbox to the anchor, each image will display individually. Fine. But I can extend that rel tag by adding between square brackets any name that I choose to – then all images tagged with that name will display in the Lightbox using the Next/Previous navigation as a collection or… gallery. Quite often I name my collections according to the post that they are in, so that only the one post’s images display together. Like maybe I’ll use rel=lightbox[Nell] to show a collection of photos of Nell from one or more posts in a page or rel=lightbox[Sunday] to show only today’s images together. Or maybe I’ll choose to use rel=lightbox and put the word gallery between the square brackets… I frequently do, with the intention that all posts on the page, having that in the rel tags, will display their images together.

…but see how I didn’t actually demonstrate that usage?

That is because WordPress now treats the occurrence of that word, gallery between square brackets, as a keyword – intended to trigger the new gallery feature within WordPress.

You may take my word for it that if you are using the keyword inside an anchor for Lightbox, you will manage to fully break your post as WordPress swings into action to deploy its new Gallery feature code.

Today’s post is fixed (rel=lightbox[earth]) and I can avoid breaking things in future now that I am aware… but… what about all my old posts with the gallery keyword in them? They must all now be broken and anybody coming to them via a search engine or a bookmark is going to see an awful mess.

I was reminded today that I am going to be rationalising my domains as they come up for renewal. This is a placemarker – just a note that at some point this blog will be exported to another location. The most likely new home will be a sub domain at woolgathering – probably www.fairhand.woolgathering.org.uk, though I just snaffled www.fairhand.wordpress.com, just in case.

I am fed up of looking at my stats and seeing how many people (amazing!) visit here but noticing that hardly anybody stops to chat (although this may well be my own fault). So, I am going to try a little blog participation exercise:

Dear Reader, I need your ideas.

We, that’s Mr L and I (plus assorted furry members of the family, if still extant), have a plan. A Plan with a Van, in fact. Quite a small van, not your actual humongous Winnebago. But, there is the rub. We plan to go on the road for a few years, maybe as many as ten years, perhaps even longer. I want to keep developing my interest and skills in arts and crafts but money will be tight – and space and weight restrictions will be even tighter.

There is no panic, it will be five or six years before we can set off, maybe longer. But I want to use those years to do my learning, stock up on tools and materials, and prepare my skills.

I shall be taking my camera (and a lappie), a spinning wheel (probably a Joy) and my knitting needles, tatting shuttles and threads, a journal, sketchbook, pencils and watercolours. There will be plenty of time to fill, though.

So, what do you, dear reader, have to suggest to me as a likely craft to learn – that uses very little in the way of equipment and doesn’t take up too much space, or cost a great deal? One other criterion is that I can teach myself, using Internet tutorials perhaps. If we plan to run away and live like snails with a shell on our backs, we shan’t be spending much money on acquiring books in the next few years, and going on courses is ruled out too.

I am beginning my explorations with needle felting, because I have plenty of fibre already. I see that needle felting could be accommodated quite easily in a camper van, though am less certain that it is cat-in-a-small-space-compatible. I think I should also pursue the dreaded crochet (I am v slow to learn) and then be free to play with freeform fibre works.

PS I don’t do needlework/embroidery and do not plan to start now, so don’t even think of suggesting cross stitching…

I have been shopping today. Only a small purchase, but a bit (er, lot) naughty. I have no Xmas money this year and so must have a non-shopping year. All the same, I did so want to try silk paper, so I bought 50 grammes of cocoon strippings today. And now I have to figure out how to pay off my overdraft. That will teach me (not) to spend my anticipated “income” in advance!

I have been trying to spend time in the studio but it isn’t paying off. Between the demands of the not-so-puppy, the lack of light, and general mid-winter dullness – what I have done has only made me unhappy, and there has been precious little even of that. I really want to find time to work with my journal, to make ATCs and to do some PX envelopes and postcards. What I really need to be doing is looking through my stash for inspiration and thinking of ways to make art for the next year without buying anything new at all.

This is to be the year of Recycled Art. After today, it’s zero spend. A challenge, certainly. An inspiration – maybe. Perhaps I should document the process – and the decreasing size of the stash.

Got any cast offs? Send ‘em here

This is the updated tutorial page on the tape transparency transfers – ten pictures now included alongside a commentary of that particular transfer process.

That was a surprise, when a visitor today brought me a wood mounted rubber stamp and three little Brilliance ink pads as a “thank you” for providing goodies for people to play with at Craft Group. Thank you, M, that was astoundingly generous of you! I will bring them along to our third and final card making session next Monday.

I cannot believe the sheer volume of stuff that I have packed for tonight – it looks as though I am leaving home! I tried to be judicious in my choices. I packed only Xmas-type colours, so those of good taste will be disappointed this week (I’ll take orders for next time) so I have red/green/white/cream/silver/gold/blue. I had no idea what people would want to try so it’s all gone in there, watercolours, mica powders, glitter, stamps, inks… I find I have few Xmas type embellishments for those who simply want to wield a glue stick – but I do have plenty of glue sticks

I was a bit sad to see how my choice of paper and card has dwindled. I do miss the Paper Mill Shop… *sigh* (Anybody who sends me an A4 box or two will have my undying gratitude. I’ll even pay for purchase and postage. So, if you happen to be passing a branch, do think of me in this paperless backwater, won’t you?)

Anyway, there is one crate and four big Lidl bags, plus a bit more to lug up there tonight. I do hope that the car starts.

Of course, I am stuck for the rest of the day as my tools are packed up. I shall either read or do some more of this…

Nell  has been subjected to cage training, due to the difficulty we are having in getting her house-trained. I hate doing this and I feel so cruel, but they tell me it is not cruel and is a very natural way to train her. Hey ho. On the plus side? It keeps her contained and leaves me far more time to do stuff.

The stuff I have done so far this week includes finishing the Great Workroom Sort Out! And yesterday I got as far as sorting out some PostcardX mailings. Nell and I took the PX stuff to the mailbox last night and we both thoroughly enjoyed the walk.

The journals have made no progress since the Birds page but I have sorted out a few “inspiration” boxes, made some mail art, and done some fiddling that resulted in bits I can tear up and use later. One magical piece delighted me. It involved inking up one of the texture plates with fluid chalk ink. This would not print off, so I over-sprayed it with a walnut ink containing gold mica. I laid paper on top and brayered the back. The result is quite stunning but I have no idea what I will use it for. The technique, I will certainly use again. Maybe even as soon as today. I’d like to perfect it and document it and then make something of the prints, to see how they can be applied.

I got two shelves up last night – not enough, but something to begin with, and it got some boxes off the floor – making room to bring my spinning wheels in to my workroom. I also stuck lots of received ATCs, PX mailings, and Mail Art pieces onto the walls – for inspiration. All I lack now is a sturdy table for my sewing machine to live on, ready for use.

Also yesterday, I attempted to gather together a crate pf items for next Monday’s Craft Club meeting. I really can’t decide what is necessary/appropriate/I can bear to part with and will all fit into one manageable crate!