Nine More Inches to Go....

..... Or really less than that, since it's been about three weeks since I measured the shawl. Actually, I probably have about nine rows left before that shawl is finished. Yes, I've been neglecting this blog for a few weeks, mostly due to me starting a new job and trying to get used to a new schedule. But I will be working on this more now that I've gotten used to how this new job is going to be scheduled. I also had an idea for a weekly feature for this blog called "Blogs, Books, and Food", where I will share some recent books and blogs that I've been reading along with some recipes I've tried recently. I didn't want to do something with more general links because I already put those on the Facebook page. I'll probably start that in the next few days. 

Angelica

https://www.facebook.com/wabisabikomorebi

Instagram @wabisabi.komorebi

(All photographs ©Angelica Ricci and may not be used without permission.)

Julia Margaret Cameron Exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Image Source: http://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/view?exhibitionId=%7b79EB91E1-D244-4348-A0E6-16A692A72049%7d&oid=268709&pg=2&rpp=20&pos=22&ft=*

I came across this article on the internet a few days ago: Julia Margaret Cameron's Victorian- Era Celebrity Photographs. The Metropolitan Museum of Art has an exhibit of her work that will be up until the beginning of January. I remembered her name from the history of photography class that I took in college about two to three years ago and I remembered liking her work. For those of you who have not heard of her, Julia Margaret Cameron is a well known Victorian photography whose main focus was portraiture photography. She did not start photography until after her children were grown; her daughter was actually the person who gave Cameron her first camera in 1863. Many of the people she used as models were from British artistic and literary circles but she also photographed people she found "beautiful or full of character."(Rosenblum, pg. 80) All of her work that I've seen are Albumen prints, which I will explain the process of when I can dig my book of alternative photo processes out of the bottom of my bookcase :) (I have too many books which leads to me having to dig stuff out of rather than just being able to access them easily as you should be able to get books from a bookcase).

Angelica

*Note: The information above on Julia Margaret Cameron is from the text book that I have from my history of photography class: "A World History of Photography" (Fourth Edition) by Naomi Rosenblum. You'll often see me cite information like I'm writing a paper because that's the easiest way for me to remember to give the source of the information since I'm in the habit of doing it that way from my college classes.

New Name and Fixed Facebook Page

So, you may have noticed that the name of this blog changed. When I started this project, I knew I wanted to include Wabi-Sabi as part of the title since I had been reading about that idea and found it to be interesting. I've been working on teaching myself Japanese (mostly because I love the writing), so I decided to keep it simple and make the name "Wabi-Sabi Gijutsu". Then a few weeks ago, one of my friends shared a link to an article that had a list of words with words in other langues that cannot be easily translated into English (you can read the article here: Eleven Untranslatable Words from Other Cultures). One of the words on the list is a Japanese word: "Komorebi", which is described as what you see when the sunlight filters through the trees. This reminded me of one of my drawing classes in which my professor asked my class if any of us had noticed how nice the light was at the time of year (I believe it was autumn when I took this class), specifically talking about when it filters through the trees in the morning. I got some very puzzled looks from classmates when I agreed with him (I had been admiring the light filtering through the trees when I drove through the residential areas right by the college, in the morning, for several days at that point). Besides that conversation, light plays a large role in photography, which is the main type of art that I work with besides fiber arts. Light also plays a role in fiber arts as well, although a different one than the role it plays in photography. I remember reading recently that it's a good idea to check any thread, fabric, or other fiber-based supplies that you are going to buy in natural light rather than the florescent lights that stores have as the colors will look different in natural light. So I decided to change the name the "Wabi-Sabi & Komorebi", since my main focus in my works have been keeping things simple and uncomplicated, and light always ends up playing a large role in them, in one way or another.

You also may have noticed that I changed the layout for the blog. I've also fixed a major glitch with the Facebook page and updated some things on there. That's still a work in progress but you can view it here: Wabi-Sabi & Komorebi.

Angelica

New Macro Photos

Angelica

https://www.facebook.com/wabisabikomorebi

Instagram @wabisabi.komorebi

(All photographs ©Angelica Ricci and may not be used without permission.)

100 Paintings

In my Painting I course we had to do a project were we set up a still life and had to do 100 paintings from it in seven days. These are the two from that project that I thought came out the best.

Angelica

https://www.facebook.com/wabisabikomorebi

Instagram @wabisabi.komorebi

(All photographs/design work ©Angelica Ricci and may not be used without permission.)

Project Update

I'm about half-way done with green shawl (it's about forty inches long). I also finally managed to figure out how to crochet. It took looking at about half-a-dozen different "how to" instructions. Does anyone else find that? That when you're trying to figure out how to do something that it takes more than one source (and usually more than one type of source; I kept going between written and picture based instructions)? Anyway, I've just started making a giant granny square since I had some multi-colored yarn in my stash from my grandmother (and I'm not a big fan of multi-colored yarn so I just wanted to use it up), so I'm going to see how big of a granny square I can make with that.

It's about double the size of what it was in the second photo. Hopefully, I'll get both of these finished up soon.

Angelica

https://www.facebook.com/wabisabikomorebi

Instagram @wabisabi.komorebi

(All photographs ©Angelica Ricci and may not be used without permission.)

I Have Not Forgotten About This Blog!

I really haven't. I've just been running in circles trying to do too many things at once and I keep saying I'll put posts on here.... and then I keep putting it off. Since I've finally gotten a few things sorted out, tomorrow I'll be able to start catching up on that.