March 27, 2009
· Filed under Radical Crafting, vegan · Tagged bread, cell phone photos, collage, craft, crafter, dreams, homemade bread, make, maker, making things, non-vegan, Photos, sushi, vegan, vegetables
I think of myself as a maker. I make things .. all kinds of things. It’s the main way I contribute to life and fulfill certain spiritual needs. Here are some things I’ve made recently (all these pics are from my cell phone, so I apologize if the quality is a little grainy):
Whole Wheat Bread (no eggs) – kneading the bread is my favorite part; and eating a toasty piece with peanut butter!
Veggie Sushi – possibly my favorite food in the world! I was so excited about this dinner I made for myself one night after a hard workout – you can see makings for temaki, brown rice & veggies, vegan miso soup, umeboshi plums, bragg’s and wasabi for dipping, and steamed bok choy. What a spread! yummmm
This is half of a pair of exquisite banana silk wrist-warmers I had the privilege of custom-crafting for my best friend in CA. I sent them to her a week ago and glad to say the customer is happy. Thanks for the inspiration and ideas!
Lastly,
This is probably the hardest to see and requires the most explanation. This (also inspired by my best friend Adele) is a collage of my dream themes for the past month. You may or may not have read in previous posts that we are engaged in some dreamwork … basically I keep a dream journal – not hard as I have involved, vivid dreams nearly every night. After about a month, I went back through the journal and wrote down what I saw as themes, and then I collaged them. I’m not sure what purpose this serves except to sort of process some of those themes.
Anyway, some of the themes that came up and are in this collage are: transportation (cars & trains), wandering, family, homes & houses, couches, non-vegan desserts (mainly marshmallows, but I couldn’t find any in the magazines!), movie stars, nature/woods, churches, puppies. Some other abstract themes that I don’t hink I worked into here are: picking up belongings that are left behind, messy rooms, cigarettes (addiction), and basements. A lot of these things are actually very reality-based for me; also, recognizing that they are all aspects of myself and not some external force in my dreams is important.
Thanks for allowing me to share!
PEACE
February 13, 2009
· Filed under Radical Crafting, The Day to Day, What I'm Writing · Tagged creative, DDR, epoxies, etsy, model, modeling, synthesized
Life seems to be best encapsulated by music (for me lyrics usually) but I will refrain from posting an entire song on here today. The one that’s been running through my mind is Synthesized by The Epoxies (again, another DDR-X pick). Look it up on you tube if you want. ‘Nuff said.
Anyhow .. have been feeling more creative lately and small bit sof narrative, story, questions, etc. are coming out. The challenge is to keep them going, hopefully to produce something tangible. We shall see.
In other news … have been working on modeling, putting together a portfolio. I should have some photos up on flickr soon from two photographers I met … Also secured a position [on-call] figure modeling for a large art center in the area. Have yet to do a class there though.
Hey check out my etsy shop! www.alethafaye.etsy.com – Free form and custom crochet & knit goods.
April 4, 2008
· Filed under Environment, Healing, Radical Crafting, The Day to Day · Tagged art, colitis, craft, health, kitty, marriage, update
Helllllloooo wide world of blogging. I’ve been guilty of neglecting you for more than two months and now have come to repent!
No babies kitty refers to the fact that I have discovered that my 6 year old cat likes to be carried around inside a hoodie (like a pregnant belly) so that he can be close to my warmth. It really seems to be the only way that he is happy because then he gets a break from following me around everywhere meowing and rolling around the floor provocatively. But there are no babies in there, only kitty!
OK that’s enought sillyness.
Some quick updates on a varity of subjects …
1) Health: was pretty stable until a colon-scope last week, from whcih I am still recovering. I switched to a new pharmaceutical (Lialda) the same as the Asacol, just a higher dose so I only take it twice a day; plus my immuno suppressant was upped to head off any inflammatory reaction I might have from the colonoscopy. Haven’t been able to get a hold of the naturopathic dr and hesitant to see an acupunturist given all the meds I am on.
2) Crafting: I’ll be in my first two craft shows this month selling all kinds of yummy and inedible crochet treats! Cookies, softies, freeform, you can check them all out at my flickr page.
the first one is the and the second is part of a pottery & art show put on by my good friend Natalie.
3) Relationship: The main one being marriage. I’ve taken on being masterful in the art of marriage, and learning as much as I can about what makes this relationship not just work, but flourish. So that is a great inquiry to be in , and any advice you have is welcome on one condition -No cynicism please! That is a really tired conversation – no wonder the divorce rate is so high!
We are moving this month to an airstream on a farm on the edge of town – a dream come true for a couple of DIY vegetarians trying to ‘get off the grid.’ We’ll let you know how it goes!
Indie Garage sale
January 17, 2008
· Filed under Radical Crafting · Tagged coral, coral reef, craft, crochet, figuring, hyperbolic, knit, reef
OK – I have to put another link to the Institute for Figuring (that’s a fun way to say ‘Math’) for their awesome crocheted hyperbolic coral reef exhibit. Really beautiful, inspiring stuff … Now you can have a coral reef in your home without even having them in water or a tank!
January 16, 2008
· Filed under Animal Rights, Radical Crafting, The Absurd, vegan · Tagged animal, Animal Rights, craft, crafting, dissection, frog, knit, knitting, science, vegan, wool
This is not usually what we think of when the topic of humane fiber art is raised (i.e. using plant based fibers instead of wool or silk), but I found it interesting:
Knitted Frog Dissection 
- as long as you don’t use wool (as this crafter did), you’re not hurting any animals with this dissection kit. Of course it still flies in the face of a purist animal rights argument b/c we are still positioning animals within a scientific hierarchy where humans dominate…
January 11, 2008
· Filed under Radical Crafting, The Absurd · Tagged brain, crochet, hyperbole, hyperbolic, math, mathematician
Think crochet is mindless? Link here for all the brainiac crafsters out there . . . Intro to the interview with the mathematician and the, uh, other mathematician (who crochets, and who happens to be married to him).
Until the 19th century, mathematicians knew about only two kinds of geometry: the Euclidean plane and the sphere. It was therefore a deep shock to their community to find that there existed in principle a completely other spatial structure whose existence was discerned only by overturning a 2000-year-old prejudice about “parallel” lines. The discovery of hyperbolic space in the 1820s and 1830s by the Hungarian mathematician Janos Bolyai and the Russian mathematician Nicholay Lobatchevsky marked a turning point in mathematics and initiated the formal field of non-Euclidean geometry. For more than a century, mathematicians searched in vain for a physical surface with hyperbolic geometry. Starting in the 1950s, they began to suggest possibilities for constructing such surfaces. Eventually, in 1997, Daina Taimina, a mathematician at Cornell University, made the first useable physical model of the hyperbolic — a feat many mathematicians had believed was impossible — using, of all things, crochet.
