The Wobbly Line ~ 18
Mermaids, darning holes and a finished jumper.
Hello!
Welcome to The Wobbly Line ~ 18. I cannot believe how lucky I am to have over 700 of you here!! I never ever thought I’d have that many eyes on this little newsletter and I am so pleased. Hello to you all! For those of you entering Autumn I do hope you’re enjoying the cosy feelings coming in. I for one am very pleased for fresher cooler air (especially now I’ve finished my knitted jumper!) and seeing the leaves change is such a beautiful sight. Let’s get into the September catch-up from Edinburgh!
September ~ agenda.
Mermaids
Little video catch-up with my face!
Darning Ed’s jumper, and making connections with my art.
What else has been going on?
1. Mermaids.
So without going into it, on the second day of uni we made dolls out of wooden pegs (I struggled). I made mine look like a mermaid without really thinking about it. Since that day, I explored the idea of mermaids continuing not to think too deeply about it, and yet now they seem to be in my mind all the time. I suppose, maybe if that ‘thing’ you create doesn’t really mean anything to you at that moment, something might arise out of it after some time. Stick with my vagueness but my musings now are something to do with a mirror, reflection, bravery? But then also the idea of luring people to danger??? Obviously the latter is not my aim for being a psychotherapist! Anyway, I had a big exploring sesh this month, you can see the full thing here if you’d like to. I talk about and share my struggles, references/inspiration, and take you through my full process.
2. Catch-up with a JB face.
3. Darning holes in Ed’s jumper.
Picture the scene. You’ve just started a new uni course. You’ve got loads of admin to do and it feels like all of your course-mates are way ahead of you. You’re worried right? You should make time for all the admin? Sure. You sit down, open your laptop and type. Instead, ‘Swiss darning technique’ escapes your brain, flows down your arms and into your fingers and you end up in a darning procrastination whirlwind that takes up all of your brain space, and approximately a full free day (no admin done). Has this ever happened to you? Well, good. You’re in good company. Here are my darning efforts on Ed’s moth-chomped jumper. Ed calls these darns ‘battenbergs’, Ed’s mum calls them ‘moth windows’. Both are adorable and are now the appropriate terminology for this technique in my mind. The real technique I learnt from purchasing a tutorial by Collingwood-Norris, who I secretly hope never see’s this and is ashamed of my technique.
On another weird art psychotherapy note, I keep drawing lines. I like that there is some sort of symmetry between these two creative outputs I’ve had recently, darning and line making. What does it mean? That I’m trying to fix things within myself? That I’m covering things up? Nothing at all? I’m going to explore this in October with my paid subscribers if you wish to join!
4. What else ya got JB?
4a. Will I have time for Folktale Week 2023?
Okay I know what you might be thinking, 1) what is Folktale Week? 2) chill out they haven’t even given the prompts yet, why are you planning so soon? 3) I can’t think of a 3. Okay, SO, Folktale Week is an Instagram artistic prompt list that is announced every October. There are 7 word prompts that can inspire you to create work, which you upload every day for a week in November. You can create whatever you want basically, though last year I created a narrative which you can view here. And, the reason I’m thinking about this so soon is because hopefully by the next newsletter I’ll have started some planning for it! My concern is that I won’t have as much time as I had for it last year due to my current studies, which is honestly fine. But I do love taking part in it so much so I really want to get the planning senses tingling! Is anyone thinking of taking part this year?
4b. Francis Bacon response art.
As part of a small uni project we had to ponder over some art. My ponders were over a painting by Francis Bacon, titled ‘Study of Red Pope, 1962, Second Version’, created in 1971. I knew nothing about this painting, or Bacon to be honest so researching his story and the story behind the piece was fascinating (its quite long so I won’t explain it here, but I do urge you to go and read up about it). In trying to recreate a section of his work, I found myself falling in love with watercolour all over again. I have felt this huge draw towards oil paints recently, thinking it was the only way I could succeed in creating a certain texture, but this example above just shows how beautiful watercolours are. Don’t let anyone tell you watercolour is wishy washy or dull or any of that silly nonsense. Buy some wet watercolour tubes and go to town, you will be amazed :) If anyone’s wondering about the white sections, I used some masking fluid and have ruined 2 of my paintbrushes (worth it).
4c. I FINISHED MY JUMPER.
Yes!!! I did it!! As a serial ‘non-finisher’ I am so happy that I actually completed this knitted journey! When it was over I really did miss it, so I’ve already started knitting Ed a jumper for Christmas (I haven’t specified what year..). This was a super “easy” (I made many mistakes) top down raglan jumper that required very little skill (knit for the most part, very occasional purls). I am tempted to attempt patterned knitting further down the line but for now, I’m going to knit Ed’s jumper in just the same way. I am opting for monotony over novelty, as that is what I need right now. Mmmm, comfort zone where nothing is too difficult…
The end of The Wobbly Line ~ 18
Thank you thank you thank you for reading The Wobbly Line ~ 18, all of you’s! It makes me very happy to write this every month, and I hope you’ve enjoyed my updates. Wishing you all well and I’ll see you next month (when hopefully there are some Folktale week 2023 updates!).. Big love, JB x
Yes! Folktale week! It will be my first 💜 although I’ll also be in the not-a-lot-of-time boat due to uni-teaching... buuut, I’m gonna try not to let the ideal be the enemy of the good. And I really think it will stretch me creatively to think about illustrating a story (I am a storyteller, next to the uni-gig). In my head it feels hard, but I think within the context of the group effort that is FTW, I might just accidentally stumble into being able to do it 🥰 thanks for a lovely newsletter! 💜
JB - love your last post. Fun to hear about your Uni adventures and studies. Art psychotherapy? Fascinating! In 1974 I was a freshman at Stephen F Austin State University in Nacogdoches Texas as an art major. I have never had time to study art, and I was looking forward to it. I actually took about 18 hours of art then I discovered a more practical passion for myself - home economics education. In the US the field is now called family and consumer sciences. I don’t know if this is a course in Europe?
Anyway, a little less than 50 years later, and being retired I am finally getting to play with or investigate art again. I have never been a sketch, or aren’t even much of a doodler. I also want to investigate writing. And I have taken up sewing and quilting and thrift in and sustainable clothing and mending, extraordinaire, etc. Fun to have time to do that!
Your sweater is amazing. I love it. Did you have variegated thread or did you have to change threads really often?
I’m having to get used to a jumper means a pull over sweater! To me, a jumper is a dress with suspender like straps on it, that you were a blouse under. I haven’t worn a dress jumper since childhood.
Best wishes for all your endeavors. I enjoy your newsletter. I also love cats. I used to have a wonderful black cat that looks so much like your cat but she passed last year. But I do have two other lovely cat named Kitty and Percy. @sybil_fisher_
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