July 20, 2010
There are many defining moments in our lives, some change the entire world and some, no less historic events for ourselves, that no one else will ever know about. This is somewhere in between.
It’s Aberdeen and it’s 1983. If you were there you probably already know what I’m talking about, if you know Scottish football then you really should know. To set the scene I’ve never been a big follower of football myself, in fact the closest I’ve come in many years now is only the retelling of an old, old joke of mine when asked: “Who do you support?”, self-deprecatingly I’ll reply “I’m not really a football fan – I follow Aberdeen”.
Despite this seeming disinterest one of the most memorable set of events during my childhood was football related. It’s difficult for me as a non-fan to convey the level of success Aberdeen FC had during the early eighties — in my memory it feels similar to if Scotland had won the recent World Cup. They kept winning games against teams and in tournaments that felt far grander than the wee small town I lived in tucked away up in the chilly North East corner of Scotland.
I don’t recall much about the football itself, what I remember vividly is living in a city that was almost entirely behind the local team when they were doing well. Aberdeen was fortunate in this respect with a single top league team there was no division, no rivalry within the city itself and I guess things were different back then, people simply followed the local team: there was no marketing of “superclub” brands from down South to buy into and “steal” support from the local teams.
This all meant that the success of the football team infused the entire city (Helped no doubt by plentiful oil money at the time!) but for me as a young boy it was Aberdeen FC that were responsible. The city, our city, my city felt like it was the best in the world, the sense of achievement was tangible, the sense of optimism was everywhere, anything seemed possible. There was a real sense that the world was going to be a great place, we were going to make sure of that. But then maybe all children feel like that for a while when they’re growing up?
This blog post is the first in (hopefully!) a series about Aberdeen: local history, favourite places and personal memories.
April 30, 2010
As my part of the SpoiltPig Cat Swap I’d originally imagined a “cute kitten” photograph theme but none of my kitten photos jumped out as quite fitting my crafting ideas so I looked through my photo collection for a cat themed picture that would suit an elegant piece of jewellery as well as a rougher image transfer onto wood. The solution was a picture of a black panther taken at Edinburgh Zoo a few years ago that I’d never done anything with at the time.
So this is Mowgli, a black coloured Jaguar — “panther” is used for different types of big cat in various parts of the world. He would’ve been about two years old in the photo. Jaguars have larger set faces their big cat cousins the leopard – I think Mowgli shows this to be a strong and powerful feature rather than chubby!
The first item I made is an image transfer onto a wooden slate, this technique works best with photos with a strongly defined subject contrasted with a simple background. I included fixings to allow for wall hanging but I think the wood is quite pleasing as an object in itself so I often like these wooden slates as free-standing.
The second item is a glass tile pendant necklace. With the black panther photo set behind glass I think it makes for a rather elegant item compared with the rawness of the wood, I’m also pleased with how the almost black & white image has worked within the jewellery so I’ll definitely be trying similar in future!
To complete the trio I included a small & simple photo print mounted on a foamcore backing which I think shows Mowgli off at his most striking. Here’s all the items together — I can’t decide which is my favourite so leave a comment and let me know what you think!
To read about what Ali at Craft Matters sent me for the swap read my cat swap blog entry!
April 22, 2010
One of the great things about starting to use my photographs in combination with other crafting ideas is the opportunity to join in swaps to share things with other crafting people. And of course receiving presents is just as much fun as making them!
It’s only fitting that my first craft swap has been the Felidae Cat Swap organised by ILoveSpoiltPig.com — Chrissy SpoiltPig thoughtfully paired me up with the talented Ali from Craft Matters who was more than capable of dealing with my probably slightly unusual and vague tastes. So last week I was very happy when an afternoon planned for sorting paperwork nightmares was avoided by the welcome distraction of a parcel in the post.
This is Kevin.
Isn’t he just the most cheeky, lovely looking kitten? Made from a nice fuzzy yarn in what I’ve learned is a crochet style called amigurumi and he even has his own shorts and jumper that fit him nice and snug. He’s now sitting on a shelf next to an early edition of The Tale of Tom Kitten, no doubt learning mischief!
Another great item is this fab key fob. Looking at my own SpoiltCat logo it won’t be a surprise that I really like this style of kitty cat face so I’m very pleased with the look of this. The earthy colours and natural twine style fixing mean it will be looking after the garden shed keys I think!
We’re not done yet though so here’s the whole parcel unwrapped:
Kitten and keyring were accompanied by some lovely handmade gum stickers (look out for these if I send you a card or parcel soon), fair-trade chocolate (yum) and a tube of image transfer medium which I was so tempted to dive into using straight away. But I’ve been good and waiting until I get some nice fabric to try it with rather than the tatty old dish cloth & t-shirts that were nearest to hand when it arrived!
To learn more of Ali & Craft Matters crochet and crafting you can follow her crafting blog and become a fan of Craft Matters on facebook. Or if you’re already convinced you fancy something similar check out the Craft Matters shops at Misi & Etsy (Special love for the amigurumi bunny, so cute!)
A big thanks to Chrissy at SpoiltPig for organising the swap, to see what other participants sent & received check out the comments on the cat swap blog entry.
To read what I sent off to Ali for my part of the swap read my black panther swap blog entry!
March 18, 2010
I’ve already hinted at some of my experiments into crafting new ways to present my photography but this week I’ve committed to two adventures which will focus my time on creating finished products rather than just playing.
The first adventure is stay-at-home but no less fun (due to it’s theme!), I’m taking part in the ILoveSpoiltPig Cat Craft Swap. So far this has involved looking through all my photos of cats, kittens, lions & tigers. I don’t think my swap partner, Ali at Craft Matters would mind too much if I just sent her all the photos in an email but obviously I’m aiming for something a bit more special even if it means cutting back on the number of kittens involved!
My second crafting adventure this week is a craft fair — nothing like jumping in at the deep end with new ideas …
Aberdeen Craft Bazaar have been running craft fairs at the Airyhall Community Centre since 2008 with the next fair being held this Sunday, 21st March from 11am — 4pm. Again under the encouragement of SpoiltPig Jewellery I’ll be there and rather than traditional photo prints I’ll be offering a small selection of my own hand crafted pieces which will include some scrabble tile pendants, glass photo jewellery and hopefully a few interesting image transfers.
