Mailing Myself a Book

Unfortunately I can't post pictures at the moment--or, more accurately, I can't download new pictorial evidence of Sunday's productive painting frenzy, since my computer is unable to use the camera program. Apparently adding internet has addled its brain. Once I dig out the CD with the software I'll try reinstalling it.

Late last Wednesday, for the first time, I sat at home and bought a book on Amazon! Today it arrived: Orientalische Briefumschläge in Schwedischem Besitz, or in other words, Oriental Letter Wrappers in Swedish...well, "Possession" is literal, but I think a more English translation would use "collections." It is a charming book by Agnes Geijer and C.J. Lamm, printed in 1944--charming not because of the contents, but by virtue of being a small paperback with its original dustjacket.

Bibliographic interlude: Kungl. Vitterhets Historie och Antikvitets Akademiens Handlingar, Del 58:1; Stockholm, 1944, Wahlström & Widstrand.

I think the first time I came across a citation was in the Textiles volume of the Topkapi Museum.

[Insert intermission as the computer shuts off in protest when I attempt to look up the citation because I don't feel like hauling the book off the shelf. No citation tonight.]

Not quite 50 pages of text, two tipped in color plates, and 40 black and white illustrations--as usual with textile books, the emphasis is on the textile and not the thing the textile was made into. But luckily there are several photos which give an idea of just what these "Briefbeutels" looked like--tall, skinny bags. It's easier to imagine the documents being rolled instead of folded. There are Turkish, Persian, and "Tartar" fabrics.

Friday.

It was a week.

This weekend I hope to get in some time painting. More on that when I've painted something and have a picture.

In the meantime, at some point--oh my, a year ago!--I entertained myself by taking dozens of photos of fruit. I was so enthralled with the little fruits, I neglected to pay sufficient attention to the small bushes that grew them, so that I don't even remember what the foliage looked like.

I experimented with the camera, and ended up with ones like this:

Along the way I realized oh, I guess I *do* see some chance of sometime needing to use some of those methods I've read about for transferring photos to fabric.

Small Luxuries

The torturously long saga of relocation has concluded. I'm reasonably settled in the new apartment--it has been well over a month now--and it has turned out to be a little quicker to unpack in a larger space.

Decadence: I'm sitting here in my pajamas with a glass of wine, online, doing laundry. (Firstly, my compulsive detail-oriented self, with twinges lingering from my upbringing, compels me to clarify that it is less than 1/4 glass of wine, otherwise I would fall asleep.)

*I now have internet access at home for the first time ever (whoah). This has made it plain that my inherited laptop is not up to the exigencies of web surfing and that I will have to upgrade sooner than I planned.

*I also have my own washer, so I can do laundry without quarters, and wearing whatever I want. (I didn't even like wearing my pajamas in public when I was in college.)

*I also now have a second bedroom, aka the studio, which is full of ingredients for projects. They're not all in there, but most of them are. And even though I kind of wince every time I call it a studio, I keep practicing. (I feel like I have not made enough stuff in the past few years to warrant a "studio." I'd be fine calling it a "project room" but if I think I want to feel comfortable calling myself an artist without wincing, I need to get used to having a studio.)

Two pictures: er, make that one. Trying to upload two caused my computer to shut off. So, one picture, being the Finnish style embroidery, at its latest iteration (I haven't worked on it in months, and I'm starting to be interested in it again).

Meanwhile, time to hang up my laundry.