There are 253 posts filed in Arts and Crafts (this is page 6 of 26).
From my painstaking research (mostly just luck) I found the name for the style of drawing called Pencil versus Camera. Ben Heine (also on Tumblr, 500PX and Flickr) is given credit for the original idea and the style of illustration which uses drawing with photography to create an image where both versions work together. You need to see it, my description just isn’t that good.
Pencil Versus Camera group on Flickr – A group for others who want to try the pencil versus camera style.
I still have my 35mm (analogue) camera from college. I began using it about 20 years ago. It was a big purchase at the time, my Mother helped me pay for it when I was starting college and needed the camera for the Photography part of Corporate Communications at Centennial College (Warden Woods campus, which is now gone).
I can remember the teacher in the class talking about the future of film and photography. Computers were still pretty new then. Most offices had them for word processing but they were many years from being used in every home. The Internet existed, but almost no one knew anything about it. I can remember thinking how great it would be to have a camera which did not need film to be developed. The camera itself had been expensive but it was the cost of developing film and buying more film which was really making it hard to keep from falling behind in the class work.
Even though I have not used that old film camera for many years, I can’t quite let it go. I still have it in the case with the Canadian flag decorated camera strap. I could re-use the old strap for my new bigger digital camera but that just seems so wrong. Like deconstructing an old friend. I did let go of my old photography text book a few years ago. But that is as far as I have gotten to leaving behind the age of film.
What can you do with an old film camera, assuming you get the point where you can let it go?
There are a few people who still use the old film cameras? You could look for them (groups of them) and see if your camera is collectible or worth saving for posterity.
You may find a charity which will take them and be able to find people who will still use them. Or, an artist who wants to work with retro or vintage cameras.
Look for ways to repurpose them. Can parts be salvaged for other projects or for use with your new digital cameras? A repurposed camera could be an interesting steampunk project.
Curating Cuteness: Building an Affordable Camera Collection for the Analog Enthusiast
Toronto Star: A Nerd’s World reclaims beguiling visions of our lives from old cameras
Atomic Vision: The Pleasure of Collecting Old Cameras
Camera Mods – Take a vintage film camera that no longer works and convert it to digital.
From an original post on Suite101 by Jo Murphy. The post and Jo Murphy’s bio link are gone since Suite101 revamped the site.
Copy Art Pioneered in Canada
Centre Copie-Art Opened in Montreal in 1982 by Jacques Charbonneau
Although it was an international art movement, Canada is recognised for its major contribution to the art form called Copy Art.
According to the Encyclopaedia of Twentieth Century Photography, Copy Art or Xerography was pioneered in Canada, where it is still popular today. Copy Art, uses the photocopier to create artworks by reproducing and multiplying images. The artists play with the process of transformation of graphic images. They experiment with the metamorphosis brought about by the alchemy of light at the heart of the reproduction technology.
Origins of Copy ArtThe electrography process was developed in the USA and Germany in 1938. But this technology became freely available by the year 1960. Copy Art began to appear as an art form by about 1970, and the first exhibition of this kind of art called "Rochester" was held in 1979. Other exhibitions of this type were held in Canada in the same year.
After making its first appearance in France in 1975, copy art became more accepted. By 1983, an exhibition called "Electra" was held in the Musee d’Art de la Ville de Paris. The gallery devoted considerable space to the art form.
Copy Artist Pati HillArtist Pati Hill exhibited in the "Electra" exhibition, working with shadows, grains, and contrasts of black and white as well as textures and micro textures. To create this work, Hill created imagery from feathers, flowers fabrics and plants, says de Meridieu. In a chapter about innovative pioneers in the book called Digital and Video Art, de Mèredieu goes on to talk about Hill as a contemporary experimentalist and her work as extravagant. An example of Hill’s technique, she explains, was to photograph every possible (visible, invisible, obvious and unexpected) of the Palace of Versailles.
Centre Copie-Art of Canada
Copy Art continues to thrive in Canada today. The founder of the Canadian movement was Jacques Charbonneau. After discovering the technique, when he was on holiday, he returned to Canada where he opened Centre Copie-Art in Montreal in 1982.
Body Art and Other Offshoots of Xerography
Practitioners of body art, such as Amal Abdenour and Phillipe Boissonnet, reproduced different parts of the body using photo copiers. They were exploiting variations of colour and the effects of contrast and solarisation. Much of this work was achieved by using overlays of transparencies.
Because it so versatile, there have been many different developments and innovations that have evolved from Copy Art. According to de Mèredieu, magazines and fanzines sprang up around artist centres such as art schools and colleges. A centre recognised as famous for encouraging this type of art form was Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Dijon.
de Mèredieu points to the importance of this movement, when she mentions that Klaus Urbons founded a museum of photocopying in Mulheim an der Ruhr in Germany. Here there are displayed old machines, documentation and artist’s work. Another example of the value of the body of work, the style and the method, is the opening in 1990 of a major international museum of electrography in Cuenca in Spain.
I see a lot of street photography when I look at photographs and sites that interest me. But, I never really felt they were interesting photos until today when I found the photos from Vivian Maier, vintage street photography.
Looking at those ordinary people from the 1950s was fascinating. I started with one photo and then clicked for another and another and another. Soon I had spent 20 minutes looking at street photography. I was surprised. Then I realized, street photography is like creating a snapshot of our lives, a time capsule that can be opened any day.
Without knowing the people I could see the character and the role they played in life. Seeing their background was more important than it seemed at first. The background shows other people, fashion, buildings, products for sale, and so on. Without seeing a date on the photograph you could guess when the photo was taken and where (in a general way).
I have new appreciation for modern street photography and street photographers now. We don’t have time machines so we have to record our own history as we live it.
Street photography gives us a look at ourselves, in our current time and (with vintage photos) our past.
We are told to bring something extra, unique, something people will remember to each query we sent for our freelance writing ideas. Most writers are limited in what they can show in text. I’m not. I’ve made ASCII art for more than 10 years (on and off). Just today I thought about how I could create something and send it along with a query letter. Not as something in the envelope but in the actual letter, on the same paper my query is typed into. This even works for email queries, though not as nicely as something I can actually print out.
What do you think?
Get your name, your blog title or anything else in ASCII art script writing. Just use the font labelled script on the site.
A crochet purse can be very practical and very romantic at the same time. Here (see below) are patterns and ideas if you want to try making your own crochet purse. Some are purses which you can buy too.
I like crochet. I make granny squares and did start a bigger project but I messed up along the way somewhere and put on a shelf. Crochet is something you can do without a lot of extras. Just yarn and a crochet hook are all you need to succeed with any crochet pattern. Of course, there are extras for those who want to have them.
If you crochet a purse you will need a purse handle in some cases. It will depend on the style of purse you want and, of course, the pattern you are using. I like the look of the more polished and professional purse with a handle. But, then I started looking at patterns online and fell in love with some of the crochet patterns for purses with crochet flowers and no plastic handles at all.
The all crochet purse made with just yarn is going to be nice and easy to empty out and throw in the washing machine. You can’t saw the same for all those plastic handles, some will show wear and tear and cause wear and tear on anything else in the washing machine with them.
Don’t think you have to stick to just crochet. I found one purse which was a crochet base but had added old jeans as repurposed denim for a pocket on the front of the purse and the strap. You could also use the denim to line the purse inside.
I would strongly suggest lining a crochet purse. Unless you are very, very sure you will never keep anything small in your purse (like coins) which will slip out through the holes in the crochet. Face it, that’s not likely. So if you buy or make a crochet purse yourself, make sure it has a liner inside.
Free Patterns:
A denim purse has great looks, great style and does great when it comes to wear and tear. Wouldn’t you like a denim purse, backpack, book bag, or some other denim purse sort of thing for yourself?
Almost every purse or backpack I have bought myself has been denim. My Mother made me a denim purse when I was a high school kid too. I remember how often people commented about that purse, in good ways.
I do my own sewing but I’ve stuck with embroidery and sewing by hand. Most of the sewing I do is mending, hemming and Christmas crafts/ ornaments. I do have a sewing machine but I’ve hardly done more than unpack it and pack it up again each time I move to a new address. I always intend to use it, get comfortable with how it works. There are so many craft projects I could be taking on if I was using the machine and sewing patterns. Now sewing patterns are so much easier to get, for free even, online. There really is not good reason not to get that sewing machine out and make great things with it.
I want to make my own purse, backpack or bookbag from recycled (upcycled) denim and trimmings. I’m going to start by looking at patterns and ideas. I like a purse with lots of pockets and niches to stash things and keep from having everything tossed into one central big pouch. I also want good straps, since they seem to wear out sooner than anything else on the purses I use. So those are the things I will be looking for in patterns.
General Plan for Sewing a Denim Purse
Start by giving the old jeans you want to use a wash in the machine. Dry them well and if they are wrinkled give them a touch of the iron to smooth them out.
Look at patterns for purses or backpacks or laundry bags, etc. You can do this without a pattern but the pattern is a good thing when it comes to the logistics and having a plan of how to pull it all together. Especially if you want extras like pockets, lining, inside pockets and dividers.
Don’t begin cutting the jeans until you have a plan for the purse, backpack or bag you want to make. Draw a pattern for the main bag and extras like a handle. Fit them by pinning the pieces together and see how they hang – is a purse strap going to be too long or too short? Will you be able to fit your books into the book bag? Do you need a lining – which will mean cutting extra denim or recycling something else to have a different fabric for the lining.
Once you have your plan cut out the pieces, give extra space around the edge for the seam once they are sewn together. Cut the denim for the handle and any side pockets and such.
Sew on pockets and extras as you want them, not the purse strap however. Once you have the body of the purse all set and ready to be sewn together (including a lining if you want one) put the main pieces back to back (they should be inside out). Begin sewing around the edges. Leave the top open – but hem it if you have rough edges there.
Sew the purse strap on before you finish sewing the two parts of the body together. You should have left some room to tuck the ends of the strap into your seams. Or, sew extra seam and double sew over the straps for extra strength. Look at patterns for ideas on how to attach the strap to the purse if you aren’t certain. Of course, if you use plastic handles it will be different from using a length from the jeans.
You can still decorate the purse with extras like pins, brooches and whatever else you dream up.
Source: A denim purse from Poppy Patchwork on Etsy. The shop looks closed right now, not gone from the site so it may open with new items again.