• About
  • Pie philosophy

Too Many Pies

Too Many Pies

Author Archives: Deidhre Wauchop

Food for thought: More and more

25 Saturday Jul 2015

Posted by Deidhre Wauchop in Food for thought

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

fibonacci, jewellery, miyuki beads, ombre, pom-poms, reading, Rose the artist Sim, Tibor Kalman

I’ve managed a little bit of balance between the many pies recently. Here are some completed projects, some more in the offing and some musings.

Every sized pom-pom under the sun

purpleglitzpom_cuw

I have a pom-pom maker for every size from 10mm to 115mm. I’m aiming to make the perfect pom-pom, i.e. perfect sphere, which means finding the perfect yarn and then perfecting the technique. All I need to do now is think of what to do with the pom-poms I make!


Square beaded wraps

amethyst_boxw

My stash of beads is almost infinite, so I’ve made about 15 different designs for wrap bracelets, mainly featuring miyuki square beads—love the square! I’m aiming to get some colour-blocking, some ombre, some fibonacci and some cloud patterns happening but not quite there yet.


Artist Rose in Sim-Land

rosehand

I have a new best friend in the Sims 3 Wonderland—Rose, and she is an artist and dancer. Rose is modelled on a very good friend and I’m interested to see how the nuances of her artistic practice differ from my own Sim.

I’ve been creating some patterns and textures to use in her house so that she can be inspired by her surroundings. Stay tuned to see what Rose gets up to …


Designers should read

Thanks to Austin Kleon for the following excerpt from writings by designer Tibor Kalman:

Visual literacy isn’t enough. Designers have to read everything.

Kalman said that “an enormous amount of graphic design is made by people who look at pictures but don’t know how to think about them.”

I started asking job candidates, “What have you read in the last year?” Because I suddenly began to realize that the difference between a good and a bad designer is how much did they know about everything else—biology, history. Because graphic design is just a means of communication, a language, and what you choose to communicate, and how and why on a particular project, that is all the interesting stuff.

Yep, reading and exploring and discovering more and more is important to this pie-maniac! Thanks for the inspiration, Austin and Tibor …


kikyowarm kikyoviolet  kikyodark

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Print
  • Email
  • Pinterest

Like this:

Like Loading...

Food for thought: equipoising

10 Sunday May 2015

Posted by Deidhre Wauchop in Food for thought, Meta pie

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

alkaline diet, Austin Kleon, equipoise, etsy, Etsy TooManyPies, Fiona Hall, grok, LPR, silent reflux, stash, Tjanpi Desert Weavers, Venice biennale

I like the way Austin Kleon communicates with his audience (Austin Kleon of Steal Like an Artist fame amongst many other tags and feats). Once a week he sends a newsletter via email with 10 things that have captured his attention. Many of the items relate to his own work and inspiration.

I’m always pursuing balance* and a list of weekly inspiration is a useful tool when dealing with my too many pies. Here are some of the things that have inspired the pies this week:

Foody food for thought

grapes

Image by Donnie Nunley

I’ve published my 4th post on the languishing blog FoodPromise! This post outlines a little struggle I’ve been having with LPR or silent reflux and the benefits of an alkaline diet to treat LPR.


The ever-growing stash

fishlooking

The image above—some of my stash waiting for a project. I’ve been buying up big on rabbits, fish and flowers. These are cheap charms but have a load of potential for use in knitting, weaving, beading and digital works.


Too many pies etsy outlet

mauvemohair

My TooManyPies shop on Etsy is gradually getting stocked. Not quite ready for even a soft opening yet but it’s getting closer.


la biennale di venezia

biennaleglobe

Image by g.sighele

The Venice Biennale opened this week and I have been watching media reports about the debut of the Australian Pavilion. Looking forward to checking out Fiona Hall’s collaborative work with the Tjanpi Desert Weavers for the Biennale.


Grokking and *equipoising

I stumbled across two new (to me) words this week.

For anyone else who hasn’t seen the term grok used, it means to understand something intuitively, or to establish empathy and rapport with something or someone. My post about Susie Bubble on artistpractice.com expands on how I grok her!

Equipoising is to achieve balance when dealing with multiple interests, a useful term to add to the Pie Philosophy.


This week I’ve breathed, I’ve alkalised, I’ve stocked and stumbled across and I’m proud to say that I’ve equipoised…

kikyoviolet

 

 

 

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Print
  • Email
  • Pinterest

Like this:

Like Loading...

My Imagination is suspicious

08 Sunday Mar 2015

Posted by Deidhre Wauchop in About, Food for thought, Philosophy

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Cavendish Golden Hands Encyclopedia of Crafts, formulas, good teaching practice, imagination, patterns, spirograph

My Imagination is SUSPICIOUS of FORMULAS.

spirographweb

Image by Brian Jeffery Beggerly

I think of my Imagination as a co-conspirator. It’s been with me for a very long time. It’s great company—talkative, funny (sometimes absurd) and a terrific collaborator.

I realised at a fairly young age that my Imagination was also a bit opinionated and not very patient. I was given a spirograph set for Christmas and was really excited, until I played with it. I sat at the dining table after lunch with my new toy and had a go. After a while my Imagination became disgruntled, wanting to do more with it than it could, or that my 9-year-old brain had the capacity to make it do.

When I look back there are lots of other similar occurrences. My mother forked out money (though we had scant to spare) to buy me the full set of Marshall and Cavendish Golden Hands Encyclopedia of Crafts. I loved all the pictures and ideas, but following a procedure to make something the same as in the picture was way too tedious for good old Imagination.

When I was a teacher, Imagination only rarely let me teach the same content twice. I would have to create new and different programs and lessons every year, or at least clothe content in a new skin, an updated skin, or a skin that better matched the students before me. [Thanks, Imagination, even though it was time-consuming it was probably good teaching practice!]

Having an active imagination in my life is very good for making art. However, it can be troublesome when you are trying to develop techniques and need to follow certain rules, such as those that bring you success in using media (paints, mediums, glues, dyes, for example).

My Imagination should be commended though, for admirable effort in relation to my aspiration to build some skills in knitting. Not only is my Imagination suspicious of knitting patterns, it absolutely digs in it’s heels and forces me to work tangents until the work is uniquely ours.

Thanks, Imagination, love your work!

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Print
  • Email
  • Pinterest

Like this:

Like Loading...

Cultivation

13 Tuesday Jan 2015

Posted by Deidhre Wauchop in Wannabe

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

chillis, colour inspiration, courtyard garden, duranta, garden, herbs, pot garden, striking plants, wannabe gardener

Garden image by Deidhre Wauchop

Western courtyard

As a wannabe gardener, I’m pretty proud of some recent achievements. I’ve managed to keep lots of plants alive and encouraged them to grow bigger and lusher.

I’ve succeeded in growing some healthy plants from seed, particularly chillis, oregano and thyme. I’ve dried the excess oregano and thyme but still need some advice for preserving chillis.

Having success too, with striking jade, african violets, bougainvillaea and duranta.

It’s really fulfilling to turn a barren, windswept, western/southern facing courtyard into a lush little oasis. The first plants to inhabit this area have hung on through stormy weather, have become hardy, and now provide a screen and protection for more delicate plants that once would not have survived here.

My north-facing courtyard has grown up tremendously. Below you can see the difference between what it is now and how it started.

The colours in my garden inspire my artwork. I love the variety of greens, the dark greens particularly and then the pops of reds, pinks and violets.

Photo by Deidhre Wauchop

Northern courtyard

Photo by Deidhre Wauchop

Garden beginnings

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Print
  • Email
  • Pinterest

Like this:

Like Loading...
← Older posts
Newer posts →

Too Many Pies on Etsy

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 160 other subscribers

About Deidhre

Deidhre Wauchop

Deidhre Wauchop

I'm an explorer - of the visual world and the intersections between visual arts, dance and technology. 'Life obliges me to do something, so I paint.' Rene Magritte

Personal Links

  • Deidhre Wauchop's studio
  • An artist's practice
  • Dancing Capital
  • Food promise
  • Master crafting
  • Violet's blog
  • Too Many Pies

View Full Profile →

Recent Posts: An artist's practice

Refresh

Yes, renovating, again! We have big plans but I’m starting with my studio. The last studio iteration was not as functional as anticipated. I work small, I work large and I work in multiple media. I don’t have to tell you how much tension that creates in an average-sized space where materials and works that […]

July 22 2020: Part 2—networking

1000 days ago, before committing to resolve some of the ideas and images that swirled around my practice, I struggled to find clarity of direction. My practice is diverse. I can’t say that I love the media areas that I work in equally. I adore knitting. I have a great affection for digital media. I […]

July 22 2020: Part 1—1000 day gallery

On 26 October 2017 I posted this commitment to end ‘dabbling’ and work towards creating a ‘substantive’ body of work. Over the next few days I’ll update you on my progress. Today, in part 1, here’s a gallery of selected work from the last 1000 days including, at the end, some earlier work as reference […]

Recent Posts: Master crafting

From addiction to admission

Today I am continuing to declutter some of my work and storage spaces so that I can 😊 … 😅store some more yarn. Beyond having just the whole shebang of yarns and tools, I have categories of projects (unfinished and start-pending) that need to be ‘filed’ in organised niches. I just googled knitting addiction and found an old mamamia article […]

Mastered! 2015

According to the Craft Yarn Council definitions of skill levels for knitters I have done enough to pass beginner and easy levels and am beginning to work at an intermediate level. In 2015, I focused on creating my own simple designs and ‘mastered’ a few techniques along the way: So, here’s celebrating learning to: make simple […]

Yarn calculation

On my Too Many Pies blog I’ve talked about how I don’t like to follow patterns. Now I’ve taken another technical step to develop my own knit patterns—calculating how much yarn I will need for a project before I begin, rather than jumping in and finding I don’t have enough yarn of a particular colour. I’m knitting a cushion cover […]

Recent Posts: Food promise

Taking food for granted

I never would have guessed that I would have to limit the types of food I could eat. I don’t have any allergies or food intolerances so count myself lucky. But for the last 4 months I’ve had a condition called LPR (Laryngopharyngeal Reflux Disease), also known as silent reflux. First two disclaimers: 1. I’m self-diagnosed. […]

Breakfast compote

It’s been a long time in-between drinks (posts) so to speak. We’ve been eating too well and I’m always too hungry to think about getting the camera out to take some pics. We’ve also renovated our kitchen, and with that comes added impetus to post some more stuff about food. Breakfast is huge in our […]

Chocolate cake promise?

What’s the promise in chocolate cake? How does this food adhere to my rules of thumb? Well … it sort of fits into ‘options to suit your health and lifestyle needs’ … sort of. I actually don’t like chocolate. People who know me are used to that fact, but strangers often won’t believe me. We […]

Cannot load blog information at this time.

Archives

  • January 2018
  • September 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • January 2016
  • August 2015
  • July 2015
  • May 2015
  • March 2015
  • January 2015
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • July 2014

Recent Posts

  • Project personification, and a strategy for the worthy
  • Let them talk to each other
  • The mood is chintz
  • Five-petal flowers: forget-me-not
  • Food for thought: 3 goals

Enter your email address to follow and receive notifications of new pie posts by email.

Blog at WordPress.com.

  • Follow Following
    • Too Many Pies
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • Too Many Pies
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...
 

    %d bloggers like this: