Week 101 — Hobby-horsing around
It's been a while between posts! But things have been busy :)
I have been getting more and more in to printing with cyanotype. My goal is to be able to print a leaf in enough detail that the internal structure of the leaf comes through in the print! Starting with fresh leaves didn't quite work as expected. I am guessing they're still really good at absorbing UV light, which means not much is left to oxidise the cyanotype emulsion. I did find a couple of interesting leaves that had died and were pretty much dry (drier now after being sat in the sun for several hours 😆). These seemed to work really well! I initially left them out for ~40 minutes and got the faintest of details, but then after seeing this post, I opted for a longer exposure time of ~180 minutes to get the image below. Still needs some refinement, and the avocado leaf is quite torn in the middle and around the edges, so a lot of detail is lost there. I also don't think they are pressed to the paper as much as they can be (going off some of the blurry details on the monstera). Anyway, more experiments to come!
Speaking of creative hobbies, I have been getting into knitting with help from Clare (who is a knitting genius!) I started a couple of small projects to get a handle on the techniques, but have now jumped right in to making a beanie! I immediately made a mistake by knitting the first row and purling the second instead of alternating knits and purls on the same row, but it doesn't look too bad! I have also made plenty of other mistakes in the rows that are the correct stitches, but I am still in the bit that will become the brim, so hopefully can roll it up enough to not be noticeable, and work on correcting things for the main part of the hat 😅 In any case, if I can finish this, allegedly, easy and small project, I will be super proud to wear these mistakes on my head :)
The Canberra Brave played in the Australian Ice Hockey League finals this weekend, and made it in to 2nd place after all was said and done. But as a wise man once said, "second comes right after first!". They did an incredible job, playing 3 games in one weekend sounds like a really tough ask, and to only lose a game when coming up against a team that played 1 other game that weekend is huge.
The official video of the Pub Choir night Clare and I went to a couple of months back is now out! It's such an amazing vibe, and so well put together to capture the energy and emotion of the night itself — even across states!
🌸 Spring is finally here! The weather turned almost instantly to ~19º days which has been perfect for working outside in some sunshine! The only downside is that everything is not covered in pollen 😆. Thankfully my hay fever isn't too bad, yet, but it does mean having to wipe down my laptop screen so I can see anything!
The poor dryer is on the fritz. I had my power meter changed for a smart meter this week, and after that it was coming up with an error related to the fan not spinning. The internet said to leave it off for a while, which I have done, and then to try replace the fan which I am not brave enough to do (I don't want to void the warranty and then be stuck). But, as I was getting ready for work this morning, I decided to pop it on again and see if it was still dead — it was not! It sprang back to life and is currently working through a dry cycle. So hopefully it stays this way and there were just some gremlins that needed to be shaken out?
Sebby has been having a lot of fun with some paint brushes lately! These come filled with paint, and let you either brush around some paint or make big blobs for finger painting! Both have been a lot of fun :D I have also been looking to pop some artwork in the kitchen to replace the stock Ikea art that was there — so now I have some Sebby originals™ up on the wall 🥰
Tags: weekly