Well This Sounds Very Interesting, And Personally Relevant.

Well this sounds very interesting, and personally relevant. 

These are works in progress of a fellow artist and classicist, Sam. I love her work. My own work seeks to obscure the original classical texts to leave only an aesthetic object, it overlays the original text with the stories of it's translation and reception. Sam's work inhabits the text, blurs the boundary between narrator, translator, artist, and character, and brings a sense of grim reality to the myths. What could Philomel say to Procne to tell her what had happened? How she felt? Sam's work gives a voice to these largely silent women who have been abused both by the narrative, and by society's treatment of their narrative. These fictional women, who represent the stories of so many real women, and their ignored lives. tl;dr: this is all kinds of awesome.

Just proof that I'm still alive and doing other stuff beyond baby blankets: the WIPs I currently have on square frames. Does not include any knitting, crochet, or embroidery in round frames. The main light in my lounge is so yellow and rubbish. I need to sort that out.

Published by the London Review of Books, 8 November 2012

In Anne Carson’s six translations of Ibykos, the mode of fidelity to the source text varies not according to the closeness of cross-lingual synonyms but according to the spirit of the translation. It is an extreme example of a translator bringing herself and her own ideas into a text, and also an effective one—if her goal is not to replicate Ibykos but to play with his work.

(cp. 19 Ways of Looking at Wang Wei [Eliot Weinberger, Octavio Paz]; Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird [Wallace Stevens])

This is called 'couching' and is a legit embroidery technique.

I wouldn't want any cosplayer to think that they had somehow cheated and therefore are not actually as skilled as "real" embroiderers.

Also, puff paint is a genius idea for couching with. Whoever thought of that deserves a medal.

Found this GREAT embroidery tip from a Facebook cosplayer!!

https://www.facebook.com/Inusdreamcosplay

For those of you who don’t have an embroidery machine accessible to you, and don’t think you have the skill/patience to hand embroider, this is an amazing tip! Plus, if you paint over a drawn stencil, it should be pretty easy to keep everything neat and even looking!!

Classics craft workshop at KCL

King’s College London are hosting an event on the 16th October 2015 called ‘Craft process & cultural response: making & thinking about making in Greco-Roman antiquity’ There’s a choice of a mosaic workshop and a textile workshop, followed by an evening talk. 

It’s free but you do have to register (which you can do through the link above). I already signed up for the textile workshop (shocking, I know). 

I’m a huge supporter of alternative approaches to classical material - especially craft approaches. There are experiences you gain from engaging in a making process that you just can’t pick up from translating texts or reading texts, looking at pictures, or reading academic research. It’s an approach that I’d recommend anyone interested in classics tries at least once. This event looks pretty good to me, so, y’know, if classics/craft is your thing and attending seems doable to you, maybe register for it. :3