Thursday 23 July 2015

I remember how to do that. . No problem. . . er. . .

The trouble with combining the desire to constantly experiment, with overconfidence in your own powers of recall is that you aren't aware you are doing it. . until said powers of recall are called upon and found wanting owing to the sheer amount of experimental data clogging up your brain. . .
I was running out of image trans tube beads, (I made a bunch a month or three ago and have used most of them in different necklace projects and such) and wanted to make some more anyway, so I got everything I needed ready and set to. Only to find myself hitting issues I must have solved before, but had forgotten I had ever come across.


Like how thick to make the base bead I wrap the raw image trans clay squares around. Which has a bearing on how thick the image trans square needs to be. If either or both are too thick then the image doesn't wrap the whole way round and you have a larger seam than you anticipated, and/or a gap that needs filling. Not to mention the issue of the image coming off on your fingers unless you are very careful.
Looking at the ones I made previously, it is obvious that I had got the whole thing sorted out. They look very neat, by my standards at least.

Previous, neat ones

The new ones came out a bit wonky and bit fat. Luckily I had intended to unleash my drastic antiquing/distressing technique on this batch all along , so the imperfections would probably work in my favour. As it turned out, after I had wielded the sandpaper, alcohol inks and ren wax, they looked pretty cool.

Recent wonky fat one

I had a few squares I didn't use to wrap round tube bead bases, so I added a polyclay square back to each for re enforcement purposes and distressed them up too to make groovy faux ancient 'tile' beads.

The image trans tubes and the tile beads looked quite good together so I made a couple of pendants out of the combination.





I shall keep on with the image trans tube making, as I want to get back to the non wonky form I showed previously. This time I shall remember what I did. Was that a hollow laugh I heard? Watch it!

I could write it all down, but I know I wouldn't ever look at my notes again if I did, even if I remembered where I wrote them down. I know myself enough to know my mind doesn't work that way.

Still, I dare say I'm not alone in not remembering how I did stuff. . . Or am I?

Jon x

4 comments:

  1. Hi Jon,
    I've just started following your blog because eventually I would love to apply some of your ideas to my own images. I experiment a lot with colors and geometric images created on Gimp. Sometimes i am meticulous in keeping notes, other times not so. I have learned to really appreciate detailed notes on processes, because there are always parts that one forgets! Keep up the great work...,one day I'll find the time to apply your techniques to my own images. This is how knowledge progresses. :-)

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    Replies
    1. Thanks,
      Computer image fiddling is highly addictive. It's too easy to make loads of images and end up not doing anything with them I find. That's why I forced myself to find ways of getting them off the computer and onto actual things. ( but not doing the zazzle/dva thing of making mugs and phone cases at a distance, I mean actual hands on type things ) Re notes - if it works for you, that's the way to go. Once I write something down, it almost gives my brain an excuse to forget it as it is now safely written down. Then I have to find where I wrote it down. . ;-)

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  2. The fact that you remember how to do the process impresses me no end Jon.

    I can read something - turn away - and instantly forget it. If I take a break from creating - even a matter of a few days to a week - I've forgotten how to do the basics even.

    Incredibly frustrating.

    However - I do like the wonky beads very much and know you'll find a place for them. As for coming up with the previous ones.....well....I've got a few thoughts on that but you are the master!

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  3. Hardly the master! but thanks for the compliment ;-)
    I would love to hear your suppressed thoughts on the image beads from before, feel free to share. . .
    And check out Claire Maunsell's flickr stream and FB if you want to see what the real 'master' has been up to with image trans beads.

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