GoCAD helpful tips

GoCAD crashed?
Lost your unsaved data?

Well, you've made a rookie mistake and there's no recovering from that. You'll have to redo your work. I can however offer a useful tip for unlocking the project that crashed so you don't have save it as another name and create folder after folder highlighting all of your mistakes.

Go into your project folder and delete the file that starts with:

gocad_lock_read_(non-random numbers)


Your file should now be unlocked. If you want to try this without deleting a precious file, change the extension to .BAK (backup) by simply typing .bak on the end of the file name.


Second helpful tip:

The project folder is for GoCAD's use. If you save over the now unlocked file with changes you've made since, GoCAD may spitefully delete any additional files you've put in this folder, including those lovely images of your model during construction that you agonized over.


Third helpful tip:

Many people get involved in their work and forget to save important changes. Set a timer on your desk or make sure you save your project every time you get another coffee, or interact with someone in the office. Backup your projects frequently, preferentially to an external drive that is nowhere near your desk or building.

These helpful tips were brought to you by the resignation of recreating the model I just lost, and the experience of dropping my primary drive and losing 3 months of un-backed up work.

 

Kthulu onsie

I've been busy with moving house so haven't made anything new recently. I do have three half written posts about completed tiles needing photographs but they'll have to wait until I get a camera. In the mean time, I made this a while ago:

(the Kthulu onsie, not the baby)

Embroidered cushion Mk II - Complete

I finished the embroidery on this cushion a couple of weeks ago, it just took me a while to get the zip in and finish the sewing. I've completed this just in time too, I'm moving house soon so everything is in packing chaos and I've found so many UFO's I'm being buried by the pile! I fixed the zip issue with this one by using a 59 cm long zip rather than a 61cm one. The pillow fits well in the case and is just squishy enough. It goes nicely with the first one too (which you can just make out in the background). I still haven't bought a walking foot so I'm not going to try sewing gorget again anytime soon.

I'm really happy with how some of the squares turned out. I'm especially happy with the argyle sort of one (top left), the check (upper right middle) and the circles (lower left). The design I'm most happy with is the spiral (image below). I got the idea from Dimity's Fibre Adventures, a blog I stumbled upon when looking for examples of button hole stitch. Her spiral was made with buttonhole stitch and beads. I didn't incorporate the beads, lord knows I have plenty) because I don't want bead patterns on my face when I nap on this cushion. I also like the texture of the larger stitches and I didn't want glass or plastic interfering with that.
I made my spiral by sewing the spiral in running stitch. Then I went back and made each stitch a square U shape and placed a long stitch between them.

 

Though I've got to finish some items from my UFO pile, I'm thinking of making more experimental cushions.  Suggestions are always welcome!

Places to paint ceramics around Australia

 Melbourne

Glaze it Studio

328a Glen Eira Rd

Elsternwick

http://www.glazeit.com.au

All FiredUp

568 Hampton Street

Hampton

http://www.afu.com.au/

Sydney

Colour MeMine
Shop 4, 29 Holtermann Street
Crows Nest

http://www.crowsnest.colourmemine.com/

Brisbane

Tea andBisque-it

Shop 3 Sandgate Arcade

Cnr Brighton Rd & Cliff St

Sandgate

http://www.teaandbisque-it.com.au/

Adelaide

The PugMill

17a Rose Street,

Mile End

http://www.pugmill.com.au/

(also a good place to buy home supplies, assuming you have a kiln)

Perth

Fired!Ceramic Cafe

29 Winton Rd,

Joondalup

http://www.firedcafe.com.au/

Make yourmark

8/2 Hulme Ct

Myaree

http://www.makeyourmarkartcafe.com.au/

Choli tops in Medieval Indian art

Some reference images I'm gathering for my class on choli tops for Rowany Festival.

Detail from a folio from a Kalpasutra Manuscript. Gujarat, 1350. Ink and opaque watercolor on palm leaf. Page 86 in Indian Painting, 1000-1700, by Pratapaditya Pal. ISBN: 0810834655

The image above shows two nuns separated from two ladies. The lady in the front is identified as Hiradevi, the chief hearer. Both ladies wear mid length choli tops over which they wear arm bangles.

One of a Pair of Jain Manuscripts (Patli), early 12th century India (Gujarat) Opaque watercolor on wood  Central figure wears a mid length choli top in contrasting colours.

Detail from a folio, Manjusri and Scenes from the Buddha's life. Bihar, Nalanda, 1075. Image of the goddess Prajnaparamita. Page 57 in Indian Painting, 1000-1700, by Pratapaditya Pal. ISBN: 0810834655  The goddess either wears a short choli top and arm jewellery, or a mid length choli top which has been embroidered or had jewels sewn on. The goddesses feet and hands seem to be coloured red, suggesting the use of henna perhaps. (not the delicate and intricate patterns we see at ren faires today though).

Ceramic experiment 15 - Tile 3

Star and cross tiles in a manuscript. From Bābur Seeks His Grandmother's Advice Leaf from the Read Mughal Album, but formerly fol. 86 in the British Library's Bāburnāma. Mughal, ca. 1590–92, probably by Sānvalah, with early-nineteenth-century borders. 440 x 294 mm  MS M.458.18. The Morgan Library & Museum.

Star tile, Iran, Kashan, 1260-1270. The Met Museum. Accession Number: 41.165.22

I have completed my third islamic tile. It has also been designed to link to tiles 1 and 2. I'm rather happy with how it came out. While I can't claim this is an experiment, this is part of my ongoing A&S 50 challenge. Given that I'm now at number 15, and I have another 35 to complete in a little over a year and a half, I need to get cracking.

Tile from Iran, Kashan, 1000-1250. LACMA	Kashan tile, 13th Century. Met Museum of Art.

Tiles 2, 1, and 3 in order.

Blue persian fabrics and ideas for block printing

Due to my, mostly, successful block printing experiment I've started looking into different patterns and styles of drape on Persian garb. Mostly in the Safavid period. I currently have a roll of light yellow linen and bright blue cotton / linen blend sitting around my house. I've never thought the bright blue would be suitable for more western European SCA garb, it's just too bright. However, the blues I've been finding in Persian manuscripts are beautifully bright. Before you comment to point it out, colour pallet available to painters is entirely different from that available to the dyers (and ceramic painters too). From this small collection of images, it appears that blue garb was usually accompanied by orange, red or other 'warm tones'.
I am going to have to think carefully about this garb choice. Artistically, the preferred depiction of women seems to be more willowy than modern paintings of this culture. I suspect I'm a little too buxom to wear under-dresses that gape between the breasts unless they're uncomfortably tight.

Detail from Wine drinking in a Spring Garden. Iran, 1430. Met Museum.

Detail from an illustrated and illuminated leaf from a manuscript of Firdausi’s Shahnameh: Bahram at the court of the Indian king Shangol, Persia, Safavid, Shiraz, 16th Century. From Sotheby's.

Woman with a spray of flowers ca. 1575, Safavid period, Iran
I got the idea for my first printing stamp from this image.

Mohammadi, Herat, circa 1565, Seated Princess. I don't know where it's located, but the link for the full images is here. I love the blue coat (entari?), the yellow dress, and the black under dress. And the image below is from the same site.

Detail of - Seated Princess has a cloud collar, an orange coat, a light blue dress and a dark blue underdress. Plate 57. Persia, Circa 1500, Collection of L. Cartier, Paris, France La Miniature En Orient by Ernst Kuhnel 1925  Attributed to Miraz Ali, 1540.

Lot 297 Sotheby's London UK. 04/30/1992
Detail of - Fariburz comes before Kay Khusrau enthroned within a draped chamber, three chained prisoners in foreground, hilly landscape under gold sky, an illustrated leaf from a manuscript of Firdausi's Shahnama copied by Salik ibn Sa'id for Sultan Ali Mirza of Gazan (reigned 1478 - 1504) Turkmen Court Style, dated 1494



See also:

• Persian embroidery a study in miniatures (some great images here)
• this guy has some great images and translations, even though the layout is jumbled and confusing at times, also, his main page clumsily sells carpets (he appears to be an expert) and has no link to the Persian miniatures. (he also has a bunch of Mumluk items)
• My growing Pinterest Persian board.

Block printing experiments

I made my first attempt at block printing today. I spent a bit of time over the last week browsing online how-to's and gathering images of period paintings and extant fabric samples. Here is a great video of block printing in Jaipur. The video starts with a multi-colour print using four speerate blocks and then demonstrates a great method for turning corners - using newspaper to make angles. It's also comforting to see that professions (who do this every day) sometimes misalign the blocks. This morning, I felt confident enough to make my own attempt on a scrap of pale yellow linen I had lying around.

From what I can gather, a lot of block printing is done using wooden or copper blocks like the one in the image above (grabbed from a random ebay auction). The blocks are crafted in such a way that the design will flow from each printed block. The raised section of the block is covered in fabric paint or dye from an ink pad and then the block is stamped onto the fabric.

For my first attempt I decided not to buy a block from ebay as I only wanted a small design. Also, alot of them seem to be discarded blocks from India and I would want a complete pattern. Instead, I crafted a mini-block using 'Make 'n' Bake', a mont marte femo knock off. I got the idea from aan article by Lindsay Boardman for a polymer clay cookie stamp. I took the idea and made a small quatra-heart pattern stamp. The hard part was getting the hearts flat. As you can see in the image above, when I defined the groove between the hearts, the bottom two buckled. I used Pebeo's Setacolour opaque for this first experiment. Mostly because I have a couple of pots sitting around my house from a previous abortive fabric painting attempt. I ended up painting the dye onto the stamp as I didn't have an ink pad and I wasn't going to be doing many stamps. It took me a while to master getting most of the design on the fabric. The left two stamps in the image below are the best print I achieved with the stamp alone. The print on the right I touched up with a paint brush.

I quite like this effect and will try it again to make a small Persian headscarf or possibly even a full tunic (if I get around to making more stamps). In the mean time, I'm going to look for a rubber stamp of two crossed quills. The type of rubber stamp Samantha used to use for her card embossing art. I suspect it may work well for a small block printing project.

Embroidered cushion Mk II

 

Japanese fabric (?) I found on flicker, so simple and effective.

Since making the previous mint cushion, I've been pondering more cushions. Ideally I'd love to have a pile of them to flop on in front of the heater. As I had plenty of mint green bed-sheet left over after my previous cushion attempt, I decided to make another green cushion. This time I've taken my inspiration from two sources, a blog by ArtisticFingers who makes the most beautiful embroidered items and the image above.

I started by cutting out section of cloth with 5cm allowance on each side. Then I divided it into squares with coarse stitches. Since then I've been filling in the blocks in alternatively with whatever pattern appeals to me on the day I start. I have completed five squares so far. I'm not entirly happy how some of the patterns turned out, but I also don't dislike them enough to unpick them. I am really loving the texture of this cushion so far.

 

(The fabric is a little crumpled, because I took it to Bairnsdale on Friday so I could work on it between classes.)

------

Additional:  I'm down to four more squares and I'm running out of ideas. Generally, I'm trying for geometric patterns. I even unpicked a sort of star field because it didn't really fit the theme. Suggestions are welcome!

Block printing

Cotton red and brown block printed textile from Fustat, Egypt. Item 73.408 The Textile Museum

I don't tend to do image round-ups all that often, because you can only show a few choice images in a good blog post. Instead, I store all my reference images in Pinterest so my collection slowly grows rather than remaining a static blog post, or even worse, having to revise or repost. Since receiving two beautiful block printed sarees from Flori of Northshield I've been investigating the process of block printing. I'll also been looking at various scraps of block printed fabric originating from India. Most of these scraps were found in Fustat, the old capital of Egypt. Due to the drier climate and the fact the Egyptians don't really burn their dead, these pieces have been preserved. According to the Textile Museum, Fustat fragments are red or blue dyes with a variety patterns, both open and closed.

I've included a number of images here as I'm considering doing my own block printed item, probably a small headscarf or heraldic favors. Once I've worked out what works best for me, I may even teach a class at St Monicas. Time to see if my vague recollections of what Piers taught me 10 years ago actually work!

 

Textile fragment. India. Gujarat, 13th - 14th C. Cotton plain wave, block-resist dyed. From LACMA

 

Textile Fragment, Egypt, Early Medieval. Linen plain weave, resist dyed. From LACMA -  (M.2002.1.695)

It seems that the complexity of the extant patterns in period are similar to what is achieved today, there are some lovely examples on my Pennsic Treasures 2 post. Also, this white and red dupatta which I got at the same time as my Pennsic Sarees.

Ceramic experiment 14 - Tile 2

The star tile reference for tile 2 is about 150 years older than the reference for tile 1. Tile 2 shares some of the references for the crosses with tile one. As with previous works, I haven't replicated the inscriptions as a) I don't know the letters so I can't be sure when I screw it up and b) I'm not going to write anything I can't read/understand. Due to space limitations, I did bastardise one of the cross tile replicas, leaving out a third repetition of the droopy flower things.

 

14th century polychrome tile from Kushan, Iran. Victoria and Albert Museum. Item number 734c-1888.

Cross tile by Ali ibn Muhammad ibn Abi Tahir. 1262. Iran. Victoria and Albert Museum. Item Number 1838B-1876	15th C tile. Kushan, Iran. Victoria and Albert Museum. Item number 627-1878

I actually made tile 1 and tile 2 at the same time so I could line up the designs properly. So, without further ado, the two tiles: I'm going to keep making these until I have enough for a bathroom feature, when I buy a house (I have plenty of time!). So now the hard question... keep going left to right forming a line, or create 2 more below to make a square?

Ceramic experiment 13 - Tile 1

Ceramic number 13, my first tile in blue 28.

So I worked on this one for about a week. I originally bought some tiles when I collected Miriam's plate. I was thinking of using them to practice shading with underglaze for Benjamen's plate. I'd already pinned a number of tile images from the 12c, heraldic lions and whatnot and was considering making them as colour samplers. However, I like to make items that I'd use, and I can't see myself using those tiles for anything, not even pot holders. However, the dove plate has been on my mind a bit as I'm quite taken with the Sultanabad colours and patterns. So that led me to Iranian pottery, and Persian plates which took me to their lovely tiles.

 Image 1: Tile from a frieze from the shrine of Imamzadeh Yahya in Varamin. Made in Kashan, Iran, 1262. Victoria and Albert Museum, Museum Number: 1837L-1876

In the 13th century, shrines were covered in beautiful lustreware, monochrome tiles. These are in the form of eight pointed stars and crosses. Unfortunately, many of the tiles have been removed from their original location and the panels have been divided between collectors and museums. From the 30 odd I've pinned there are a huge range of motives and inscriptions. If I get it together I may do a proper analysis of this.

Shape

As the original tiles are stars and cross and my tile is a square I needed to decide if I was going to have a full star and partial crosses or vice-verse. As I have many more images of star tiles which are not mirror image or geometrically laid out I decided it'd be easier to have a complete star and partial crosses. I created an eight pointed star template so the star would be the same in subsiquent tiles.

Patterns

For the first tile, I used a tile from the shrine of Imamzadeh Yahya (image 1), painted by Ali ibn Muhammad ibn Abi Tahir . For the four partial crosses I used two isolated crosses, and two from a panel of tiles . Clockwise from the top left they are:

Cross shaped tile, 13th C. Iran, probably Kashan. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Number 41.165.34	A cross from a panel composed from tiles in the shape of eight pointed stars and crosses. Iran, 1260-1270. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Number 41.165.22.
Lusterware Cross-shaped tile from the tomb of Imamzada Yayha at Veramin. Iran 1262. The Walters Art Museum. Number 47.1290	A cross from a panel composed from tiles in the shape of eight pointed stars and crosses. Iran, 1260-1270. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Number 41.165.22.