Learning Processing

Flashback
In my first year of Industrial Design we used Daniel Shiffman's book 'Learning Processing - A beginner's Guide to Programming Images, Animation, and Interaction' to learn basic programming for designers. Skip ahead to today and I'm up for a refresher. This book provides an excellent introduction to programming concepts that can be carried forward into many interactive digital projects. One of the first exercises in the book is to create a character using simple shapes. I decided to make this little robot friend.

I then used the robot to create the following pattern. I love the way it turned out. I think it could be a really cool textile print. I would sew it into a clutch bag or something! If there's anyone out there who knows how to print an image like this onto textile please contact me or leave me a link in the comments;)

Don't forget that robots need love too:) I love this Dan Mangan track.

Stained Glass

Hello again,
after more than a year away from this blog I'm finally feeling ready to pick up where I left off. For a long time it was the thought of making this very post that kept me from returning. I kept thinking "what will I say, what will I show, will I have to explain my absence etc." Then it finally occurred to me that it doesn't have to be this stressful. The important thing was to start somewhere, anywhere in order to get the ball rolling again.  Pull off the bandaid you know. I kept thinking it had to be this spectacular post that explained in detail all the reasons why I stopped... but who wants to read that anyways. So today I'm sharing a little glimpse at the stained glass project I'm currently working on. I recently picked up a few courses to further develop some skills: stained glass being one of them. 

Choosing the colours was my favourite part so far. There are so many options: colour, opacity, texture. I spent two hours in the shop ahead of time making my selection and I'm pretty excited to see how they look when it all comes together. I'll post the final piece in a few weeks when I'm finished:) 

Happy to be back! 
Jacqui

hand stitched floor pillow

Hello!
So, as some of you may know I am a big fan of second-hand shops. There is always a little treasure hidden in there just waiting to be loved by someone new. Some of my favourite things were second-hand goodies like this typewriter, this chair, or this chair. Most of all I love to find things that can be transformed into something different.

That's exactly what I did with this wool blanket that I scooped up for 50 cents! I cut the blanket up into two squares, put them through the wash and then stitched them together as a pillow case. Super fun.

I don't have a sewing machine, so I searched for a way to hand stitch it. I found the blanket stitch to be the best method. It was so fast and easy. I will definitely use it again in the future!

I stitched the three sides of the square first then fit the pillow inside

and finished up by stitching around the opening.

it was fast, simple, and cheap! My kind of DIY 

we took a drive

 

 

Friends of mine recently bought this adorable orange car and invited me to come with them for a drive down to Belgium. We wanted to check out the beach so we headed to the coast. We took a map instead of GPS and navigated our way along some very charming country roads. However, when we got to the coast we found a beach full of these little huts, it was so bizarre. We made the most of it and all in all had a lovely day. Congrats on the 'new' car you guys!

personalize

Do you ever come across that really comfy sweater in the back of your closet that still fits but you don't wear it anymore because it is a little too plain? Well I did recently and I would like to show you what I did to give this sweater a burst of life again. 

I took the plain blue knit sweater and stitched in a pattern using this pink zpagetti yarn that i picked up at the craft store. (source)

I used a crochet hook to guide the yarn through the knit holes creating this triangle pattern.  It was a very simple project to give this old sweater a new look. 

our garden is a jungle

Our garden is way overgrown but the beautiful thing about it is that it's a jungle of random flowers. Every spring we pull the weeds and try to create a nice environment in our garden. This year we decided to leave a part of it to the wild.. and this is what happened.
On another note I found this awesome lawn chair at the secondhand shop and I just had to have it! I love the colourful print, it suits our wild garden, it was uber cheap and it's super comfie too : ) win.

ps. I also was in need of a watering can (thus the trip to the secondhand shop) and I found this little guy. All in all, it was a successful trip! 

a stitched project report

I stitched together my last project report in order to incorporate a crafty aesthetic. I thought it would be nice to share a little 'how to' here for anyone interested in seeing how it's done. 

1. Use a master sheet to measure and mark out the desired location of the holes to be stitched.

2. Take a pin and poke through the dots according to the master. Do this for each page of the report & for the cover page.

3. I took the cover page and ran it through my typewriter to add the title before stitching in the pages.

4. When the cover is ready, stitch through the first hole and make a knot in order to hold the thread in place. Once the thread is secured you can stick the pin up through the interior pages, this should be easy because you have already punched the holes in step 2.

5. Continue to stitch through the pages and the cover until you reach the end. On the inside it will look something like this (above) and the outside will look something like this (below)

6. Once you get to the end you can loop back around and tie another knot to secure the thread in place. I like to leave the knots on the interior of the cover so that the outside stays clean. I had several sections in my report so I stitched in each section one after the other.
This stitching technique can also be done using blank paper on the inside resulting in a cute handmade sketchbook.