Weekly wrap

Posted on September 20, 2009 by ruthek

I finally bought another printer and spent all yesterday afternoon printing out the Japan book. Now I just have to finish the covers. Looking at the photos again has left me trying to figure out if I can get back there again. I was very tired during my last few days last year. Perhaps, if I didn't stay so long…

I borrowed a Gigapan robot from my class and have been trying, mostly unsuccessfully, to take Gigapan pictures. I think a better camera would be helpful. Part of the requirement for using the robot is to put the camera on manual and lock everything down, including exposure. That's the part I can't seem to get. I'm not sure anything locks down. I'm going to try again this afternoon. I went over the Chatham where there is a view overlooking much of the East End of Pittsburgh, but there were too many trees in the way. If I ever manage to get something, I'll post a link to it.

Back to clothing again: I find I have two navy blue pin striped suits, not the same but ridiculously close. I bought both of these while I was still working and never wore either. I don't know where my head was. I'll probably get some use of one of them; the other is most likely headed out.

This is the second day of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, 5770. A Happy and Healthy New Year to all of you.

Door County, day two

Posted on August 18, 2009 by ruthek

Last year when we came up here we decided to work on altered books. I began an elaborate effort, which never got finished. Today I started and finished an entire book. It's called The Strange Woman, a title I thought strangely appropriate, but with nothing to do with what I did. Here is a picture of my finished effort:

It's not much of an effort, but I was pleased to finally finish something. I tried to walk on the beach this morning. The lake is unusually high; most of the sand is gone. None of us had any plans to swim, although it would still be possible. Sandy and I finally walked along the road and over to the bridge over the creek.

On the little bit of sand.

More pictures to come.

Busy, busy

Posted on August 12, 2009 by ruthek

I'm driving to Chicago on Friday. I was hoping to have the Japan book to take with me, but it's not to be. I started to print it out and, as with the China book, was dissatisfied with the photos. Finally decided I would get a new printer, probably an Epson. I couldn't find it for sale here in Pittsburgh so I'll wait until I return from Chicago to get it and print out. In the meantime I've been working on the cover. At least I should be able to bring that with me. The French knots are all finished; it looks good. Now I have to make it into book cloth.

Lessons I've learned so far: probably not a good idea to put a photo transfer on silk. Some of it didn't adhere properly. Making it into book cloth, adhering tissue paper with some kind of stiffener like Heat Bond or Wonder Under should probably be done first. I haven't done it yet and I'm afraid I'll remove part of the photo. I tried it on another piece of the silk without the photo and it worked wonderfully. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

I'll be in Chicago for two weeks. Actually one week in Chicago and one week in Door County, Wisconsin for another "art camp" with four artist friends. I should have some computer access part of the time. I'll try to keep in touch.

Another week flew by

Posted on August 3, 2009 by ruthek

Mage, I'm just fine. I still have some interesting marks on my face, but they're fading quickly. I've been concentrating on the book so too busy to write. Often I write things in my head as I go through the week. Most of it never gets put in type. Eli thinks some day we'll have a direct hookup from our brains to the computer. I'm not sure I want to see that.

I went to two of my classes last week: stitching and Rachel Carson. Never got to the third one, fabrigami. Instead, I went on an Osher sponsored bus trip to Amish country in Ohio. Spent most of the time on the bus stitching.

Finally got to the plastic surgeon as instructed by both the ER doc and my GP. He was great; looked at my nose, which looks about the same as always, assured me he would fix it if it came out crooked (no age discrimination just because I'm an old lady) and told me he wouldn't do anything in my case–exactly what I wanted to hear. Told me, using other words, this was a 'cover your ass' situation. Ain't American medicine great.

I come away from this experience, as I always do when I encounter our medical system, with many thoughts about it. When I finish the book I'll do another post about health care.

Since this one is for you, Mage, I'll tell you a little about shopping. The most exciting part of it is that I can now get into regular sizes. I'm still under tall, but that's a condition I can never fix. When I was in New York I bought one pair of black pants, two tee shirts, one yellow, one beige, and a jacket I haven't worn yet: white with a black print that almost looks like embroidery, all at Chico's.

Mostly I've been shopping in my own closet. Yesterday I went to Nordstorms with Robin and Charna. I bought, on sale, a very handsome pair of black pants and a black and white print top. This will be for fall. I hate to pay Nordstrom prices, but I like wearing their clothes. The pants are size 16. Years ago, when I was somewhat thinner than now, I would take a 14 or 16 top and 18 pants. That says much more about what's happened to sizes than what's happened to me. Also, the more you pay, the larger the size.

One last thing: I'm back to walking–three miles in Frick Park on Saturday.

Book update

Posted on July 23, 2009 by ruthek

I've been spending a lot of time working on the Japan book. I want to get it finished before I go to Chicago next month so I can take it with me to show at Art Camp 2. I'm up to December 5 on the computer part–only ten more days to go. The cover art is the real chore.

When I returned from New York I made another photo transfer, since I wasn't satisfied with the first one. The second one was worse, as were the third and fourth. I gave up and went back to the one I thought was just for practice. It has a burn mark just above the tree and some bits of the photo missing from the lower edge. I think I've figured out how to deal with it, but I can't really try my fix until I take the photo off the embroidery hoop. You can see a little of what I'm doing–the picture isn't very good.

I plan to do only the tree: the leaves are French knots and the trunk is a sort of outline stitch.

I've been working on it during a class I'm taking on stitching. One of the other women in the class is married to a book binder. When I mentioned that I planned to glue this to the book board she said something about the glue staining it. I hadn't really given that much thought, until she said it. Serendipity again.

The canvas bag I glued for the China book was no problem because the canvas was so heavy. But the bag lining that I used on the inside of the covers is a light cotton and the glue stained it. This could be a problem with the obi silk; it's heavier than the cotton lining but not as heavy as the canvas. I found this article on the internet and will do something similar.

Travel time again

Posted on June 28, 2009 by ruthek

Yesterday Eli and I flew to New York. He will go on to Israel today; I will remain in Renee's empty apartment for another 10 days, then visit with Renee for a couple of days after she returns. We flew into JFK and took Airtrain and the subway into the city, which worked well. Unfortunately, I could never do it alone. There are just too many stairs. I would have a terrible time wrestling my bag up and down, even though it's quite small. Unlike Japan, where there is almost always a clearly marked escalator or elevator, the MTA believes all of its passengers need exercise.

I brought my photo transfers with me, particularly to work on during my train ride home, you know, the nine and a half hour Toonerville trolley ride. I thought I had something I liked, but now I'm thinking this will only be practice and I'll start all over again when I get home. It's a good thing the obi is 18 feet long, so I have lots of fabric to practice on.

I made the second transfer on paper using Liquitex Matte Medium. With this technique you let everything dry thoroughly then wet the back of the paper and carefully rub it off. I began the process Thursday night and didn't like it at all. Too much of the ink comes off with the paper, leaving only a faint image. I had trouble spreading the medium and felt that was the problem, so I went to an art supply store to see what else I might use. I was going to buy some kind of gel medium. The sales clerk and another woman in the store advised me that the best way to make the transfer was to get photo transfer paper.

I didn't want white showing in the photo background so I Photoshopped the photo with a gray background almost matching the obi fabric and trimmed the white border before ironing the transfer to adhere it. I seemed to have burned one spot on the background, didn't have a good technique for pulling the paper off, getting some funny marks, and tried to iron it from the back, accidentally removing a couple of bits of transfer. The thing that really bothers me is the burn mark. Also I hate the way it feels. I'll see how the stitching goes; maybe I can figure out some way to disguise the burn mark. There's always more obi fabric.

More photo transfer stuff

Posted on June 23, 2009 by ruthek

When I transferred the photo for the China book I wasn't terribly concerned about getting the entire photo or exactly how it would look: the transfer fabric was a dark color and somewhat grimy. This time I am more interested in a good transfer. Initially, I didn't think much about doing a test, but I made a mistake with my first printout. I forgot to reverse the image; I want the tree to point to the book opening. I decided to test the mistaken image.

One of the transfer instructions recommended Elmer's Caulk, a not easy to find medium. I got some in San Francisco. This morning I finally set up the test: a piece of white muslin taped to some cardboard. I spread the caulk with my fingers, carefully put down the transparency and rubbed it a long time with the back of a spoon. I am not happy, but I am very happy that this was only a test.

First, the stuff is shiny; back to the Liquitex Matte Medium. Second, the colors are wrong. Mostly the blues transferred, leaving yellow and red on the transparency. I got more of it to transfer than with the China book, probably by rubbing more. Reds didn't transfer on the China book either, which is why I stitched into them. The last mistake was that the muslin stuck to the cardboard as it dried. Really dumb on my part.

Silk and stitches

Posted on June 16, 2009 by ruthek

It was a beautiful day here in Pittsburgh today, filled with sunshine that now, as evening approaches has given way to clouds and wind. I'm sitting on my front porch using my toy computer. Carol complained I haven't been writing; I'm trying to do better.

I've begun working on my Japan book. I spent too much time on the China book; Japan seems very far away. I'm trying to work on the cover at the same time I layout the contents. I plan to use photo transfer and stitchery again, putting it all on a piece of the beautiful gray obi. I'll be going to NYC soon and I can take the cover with me.

This is the picture I will probably use, stitching the tree, the bits of grass lower right and a bit of the red leaves in the background. I am also considering the following two pictures.

BTW, I wasn't sure what the obi fabric was. My stitchery teacher pronounced it silk without a moments hesitation, but having paid only ten dollars for it, I was not so certain. I took a small sample with me when I went to San Francisco and asked one of the sales people in Britex what she thought. She first guessed cotton, but then did a flame test on it and proclaimed it silk. I read about flame tests but don't think I would have determined anything if I had done it.

I'm reading a book about a woman traveling alone in Japan in 1878: Unbeaten Tracks in Japan by Isabella Bird. It actually tells more about British prejudices of the time than it does about Japan. Of course, she didn't travel alone: she had a young Japanese man as her companion. That's obviously what I need if I go again.

China Book is finished

Posted on May 31, 2009 by ruthek

I finally did it! I'm not entirely satisfied, but I've decided to accept it as is and try to do better with the Japan book.

I had to remove all of the pockets from the front of the bag; it was just too large. I had hoped to put the small one, upper right, back at the lower right and decided it wouldn't work.

I did a photo transfer on the now empty front section of the bag. I consulted several books and the internet and my friend SandyB, who is wonderfully creative, gave me some excellent advice. I printed this photo backwards, with China 2008 added to it, on an inkjet transparency.

After I brushed acrylic medium on the fabric I placed it ink side down and rubbed the front of the transparency. This kind of transfer is usually done with paper, rubbing removing the paper from a film created by covering the ink with the medium, and involving lots of careful brushing and waiting for the medium to dry. Using a transparency bypasses all of that but results leave something to desire.

I embroidered the letters and the red banner, which hardly showed up at all in the transfer. Then I added the beads, bone soaked in black coffee, at the bottom, and the pieces of silk fabric at the top. The back of the bag had a large pocket that I retained. I write all of the files for the book on a DVD and put it in the pocket, just in case I want to do it again.

Binding boards get cut to size (9×11.5) then a half inch gets cut off the binding side and glued a quarter inch from the larger board. This enables the cover to open properly. After the fabric was glued to the boards, keeping everything clamped together, I drilled five tiny holes within that quarter inch space, then sewed the entire thing together using linen carpet thread from Ireland. Directions for sewing can be found here.

Latest news

Posted on May 22, 2009 by ruthek

I returned the event monitor yesterday and I'm thrilled to be without it. What a nuisance. The doctor said he got enough data from it; he wants to talk to me next week. I have a feeling this will be more reason to get a stent.

Wednesday morning I will give a talk at the Pitt Osher program about my experience in China with Cross Cultural Solutions. I want to have the book finished to show at the talk so I'll be working all weekend. I've been taking pictures as I go along. With any luck I'll be able to show it to you early next week. Since I've been taking that stitchery class I've been using hand embroidery on this one. I'm not very good at it, but it will do.

This is also a Darcy weekend. My family went camping today. I'm going to walk the dog and bring her back here in a few minutes. I'll be celebrating my 75th birthday on Sunday…with Darcy. I think I've reached a new low.

100 Books Before I Die

Ruthe Karlin

Category Archives: Books