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.
March 15, 2010
Photography, is it an art or a skill? It’s an old question but also rather ridiculous, photographs can be both pleasingly artistic and require great skill in their creation, and then there are even some types of photography which require little skill and no artistic talent!
Modern cameras allow even the most fumble fingered to take great pictures without delving into instruction manuals, an instinctive artistic talent for composition & subject can start to create photos at the push of a button. At the same time today’s camera technology and software can help the less artistically gifted to create stunning results simply through learning and practising some few easy rules and methods.
Undoubtedly though, the best & most interesting pictures will come from those lucky people with both an artistic vision and the technical skills to realise their creativity. In such cases the most basic of cameras can be just as useful in the process of creating photos as any expensive and complex collection of equipment. If you know how to best use your camera, all that is needed is a little imagination to create interesting photos from any situation.
I’ve long thought that this mixture of art and skill aided by a knowledge & experience of the tools you have available suggests the most acceptable definition for myself is that taking photographs is more often than not, a craft.
So with this “photography as crafting” spirit in mind I’ve started exploring different ideas for sharing and presenting my photographs to compliment traditional prints. Taking inspiration from the wide range of crafting communities and techniques they use I’ve already gained new avenues of enthusiasm for my photographs which I hope to blog more about in future — to start with I’ve created a flickr set for my photo crafting.
But after all that is said and done, I think it’s important to note that photography has it’s special cases, not all photos fall into being works of art or craftsmanship. Probably everyone can think of snapshots without discernible artistic merit, taken with no apparent technical skill and very little creative input but which are favourites we will always enjoy looking at – simply because they remind us of a moment in time. Maybe what taking photographs really works out as is just plain old magic!
What about you, how do you consider your photography? Are you an artist or a crafsperson? Or do you share your photographs in any non-traditional ways or are well displayed prints still the best option for you?
