Category Archives: Food for thought

Let them talk to each other

29 Thursday Sep 2016

Posted by in Food for thought, NEO

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , ,

I’ve started an Instagram account (yes, I know, +pie!).

instagram1

why INSTAGRAM…

I’m still struggling a bit with how to use Instagram and why to use it. Instagram is a branding and marketing tool but I don’t really want to use it as that at the moment. I like my progress so far regarding Etsy branding—that is, I have a logo of sorts and my Too Many Pies shop is consistently all over the shop when it comes to colour, style, materials and listings. Most reflective of ‘a finger in too many pies’. Tick.

And I don’t want to drive traffic to my shop quite yet. Most of my work is experimental. One-offs aren’t sustainable in a commercial sense. I don’t want to be beholden to ‘make’ for the ‘customer’. (Great gratitude to the people who have bought from my shop—I’m so thankful you have found my work just the same)

instagram is good for…

Instagram is good for capturing on-the-run images that support my process. In this space my little pies can ‘talk to each other’.

They can talk colour ‘whoa! same, same’ or ‘wow! you’re very different…’ or ‘do you really think you have to be purple?’

They can talk texture and form ‘you’re a five-petalled flower too!’ or ‘what does it feel like to be a fabric design?’ or ‘let’s talk mathematically’

They can talk together about the world and imagination and struggle and influence and serendipity.

Unlike Pinterest, Instagram facilitates that dialogue without all the visual noise. And that suits my purpose at the moment!

Food for thought: 3 goals

13 Friday May 2016

Posted by in Food for thought

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , ,

It’s May already and things are going swimmingly. I’m deeply immersed in colour and design and making stuff. Time for a regroup on the blog to push forward some of the ideas I’m currently working on!

It’s exciting when people look at my blog, but I do see it primarily as a journal of reflection that assists my creative process. Rather than keep everything in my head, I should be using this space to experiment and test patterns and images; somewhere I can return to when making decisions and refinements.

So here are three goals to give this reflective space a purposeful boost:

Goal 1: Moot a Mood board

I post my own and other’s images on my Too Many Pies Pinterest board but I think I should select some inspirational images to showcase each week. An image a day would be fine, but a posting of the week’s pins could also work.

TMPpinterest1

Goal 2: Rabbit on

[Always impressed by rabbits], rabbiting on, that’s something I’m sure I can do quickly and easily. Just write … just write about things … just write about ideas and colours and designs and images and current obsessions and the loops and twists and spirals of practice and things that are exciting or illuminating or inspiring or significant; or not so significant but still worth noting. How often? Aiming for once a week but it has to be a quick jabber.

Goal 3: Celebrate Pie floaters*

*Pie floaters are the designs or images that I have made and refined to the point where I think they are worth documenting as patterns for others to use or to print (e.g as cards, artworks or fabrics).

Here’s an example of a pie floater I’d like to celebrate:

bluegreyreverse1w

This reversible beanie design is thick and structured and beautifully simple. It’s almost ready to be written up as a knitting pattern. Still working on the design of the crown and exploring different colour ways and luxury yarns.

How will I measure achievement of this goal? I’m not sure. Wish me luck!!

kikyoblue   kikyodark   kikyoviolet   kikyored   kikyowarm

 

Food for thought: More and more

25 Saturday Jul 2015

Posted by in Food for thought

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , ,

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

Food for thought: equipoising

10 Sunday May 2015

Posted by in Food for thought, Meta pie

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , , , ,

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