Category Archives: Technology

Big Switch

8 Replies

I need more technological simplicity in my life.
To that end, I’m facing the unpleasant reality that it is time to migrate my website and blog from WordPress to a simpler platform. It’s not a project or process I’m looking forward to but, the fact is, it’s a switch I can’t hold off any longer.

Tablescape

I’m probably the last to arrive at the party, but I’ve been swept up in the romance of a Blackwing pencil lately. Buttery smooth as it glides across the page, it brings a new delight to drawing. The downside is that it smudges, transferring to other pages — as you can see on the spread above. Plus, it has that graphite shine. But I do love the texture of its marks and how good it feels to draw with – so I plan to pick up a few more.

What I’ve learned so far is that transferring the website content shouldn’t be anywhere near the challenge of moving my blog. Considering that I have been posting consistently since November of 2014 — weekly for the first five years and biweekly ever since — that adds up to a crazy 426 posts, including today’s.

Garden

I do love an asymmetrical composition. Started here with the Blackwing, followed by spots of color and a richer black.

Logistically, it would be way too overwhelming to carry all of them over from one platform to the other, so I am going to have to do some serious weeding. My plan is to set up an archive on my new site which will include a selection of previous posts and then just carry on from there. The full blog digest, as it is today, will be unavailable once the migration is complete.

Stone Steps

How lovely it is to have the garden coming back to life – the perfect setting for quick captures.

The biggest challenge is deciding which posts to transfer. I will be going through my backlog to choose the ones that seem most relevant to readers in the future, but any input you may have would be a huge help and very much appreciated.

With that in mind, I’d like to take an informal poll:

  • In general, are pasts posts of any value to you?
  • Are there any which you particularly remember and would like to be able to refer to again in the future?

In the past and moving forward, what is most beneficial and of interest to you?

  • Descriptions of process?
  • Book recommendations?
  • Sharing random content? (Articles, Artists, YouTube videos, Art Supplies)
  • Exhibition reviews?
  • Travel recaps?
  • General musings?
  • Other?

I’ll look forward to your thoughts in the comments, or please feel free to email me directly. Thanks!!
I’ll be plugging away in the background for the foreseeable future and will keep you updated.

✶

Meanwhile…
As I move along in my “season of practice“, this Substack post by James Gurney (about the value of working small and in sketchbooks) really resonated with me. How about you?

 

Masterworks Online

After our trip to Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts a couple of weekends ago, I can’t help but wish the museum wasn’t three hours south of here. I would love to go more regularly. I  always get museum envy after visiting any city — it’s such a luxury to see so many masterworks under one roof.

Nectarines 1

As the piece begins, I stitch the image with silk thread

Nectarines 2

Adding definition and texture with stitch variation

Nectarines 3

Image complete, ready for dye

So I was interested to read on Hyperallergic last weekend that The Art Institute of Chicago has revamped their website and now provides free and unrestricted access to over 44,000 masterpieces from their digital archives. While it may not be quite as good as seeing the work in person, the sophistication of high-resolution images is a darn good substitute, furnishing those of us who live far afield with better access than ever before.

Nectarines 4

Folded and marked, ready for resist stitching

Nectarines 5

Resist stitching complete, threads drawn tightly for best results

Reading that article reminded me that several years ago The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York put 400,000 high-resolution images online. Looking further, I discovered The Yale University Art Gallery also offers free downloads of work within their collection, as does The National Gallery of Art and The British Museum. I’m sure many more institutions are jumping onboard as well.

Nectarines 5

Still wet from the dye process

Nectarines 7

Dyes and eyedroppers

Nectarines 8

Dyeing complete, ready to remove resist stitching

I know it’s not quite the same as sitting before the real thing, but it’s pretty remarkable that we can get so close to art virtually, don’t you think? What a gift it is that modern technology allows us to study masterpieces in collections far from home, in incredible detail, from the comfort of our studios.

Nectarines 9

Unpicking the stitches is a delicate process, especially when doing my best to keep my ripper away from the embroidered image.

Nectarines 10

The dyed piece unfolded. I may be in a bit of a pickle with this one as the dye took more readily to the embroidered area than it has in the two previous pieces I’ve made with this process. You can only barely see that there is an image hidden in the center.   ©2018 Elizabeth Fram

Nectarines 11

By angling the piece in the light, you can at least see there is something there. Now the detailed work of bringing it out begins. This is going to be a challenge.

While looking into all of the above, I discovered Open Culture, which seems to be a gold mine of free cultural and educational media. You will want to add it to your bookmarks.