• About
  • Pie philosophy

Too Many Pies

Too Many Pies

Tag Archives: Cavendish Golden Hands Encyclopedia of Crafts

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...

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: