Saturday 27 October 2018

Tied in knots

Geometry is the maths that makes the world pretty. OK, that's not necessarily true, really it's a combo of physics and chemistry producing shapes and colours, plus I suppose biology - our ability to see and interpret the beauty. Geometry is the study of the shape, size, relative position of figures, and the properties of space. So whether those shapes are the hexagons of a honey comb; the pentagram core of an apple,the circles of colour in your eyes... Well you get the picture. All geometry.

Today's make was inspired by fiddling about with a strip of paper left over from cutting out a pattern: folding it, twisting it and eventually tying a knot while I mused about the pattern in question. The knot made by a tied strip of paper is pentagonal (five sided) in shape.

If you tie a thumb knot as shown and flatten it down, then repeat the process four more times you can close the loop to create a pentagon out of a ring of pentagonal knots.

It struck me that such a pentagon, made from a folded inkle band would make a rather stylish decoration, for Christmas, or just for fun. So I looked through my inkle bands and chose the most festively coloured. Last year I created an inkle band choker from some festivally coloured cotton and a handful of beads. The left overs from that weave were perfect to turn into a prototype ornament. I quickly set about tying the knots. There was a bit of adjusting required to get the knots to lie snugly next to each other, but with a tug here and a push there the pentagon began to take shape.

The ornament was very pretty on its own, but adding a bell gives it a little Jingle Bells festive fun. What do you think? With a bell or without? Tell me which version you'd prefer and if you'd like to see some other examples pop over to my website, here.

Monday 15 October 2018

The Jodie Bag

Anyone interested in British TV sci-fi probably noted that the long running show "Doctor Who" has broken with tradition and cast a woman in the role of the Doctor. There was an outcry from some people who apparently couldn't believe that an alien, with two hearts, who travels through time and space, who cheats death by regenerating into a totally different looking body, couldn't possibly regenerate into a woman shaped body. Seriously? That's what they were struggling with?

Hopefully, they gave the show a chance and having now seen two episodes they'll be warming to the idea if not fully embracing it. Me, I think Jodie Whittaker is luminous as the good Doctor. So much so that I felt inspired to create another tech-bag, with a nod towards her costume. If you can't wait to see it, scroll to the bottom of the page.

Jodie and Tardis image copyright BBC.

The stripe on her tee shirt was begging to be included in the design, which meant another session with the inkle loom, having made keyrings out of the previous band. Happily, I like to inkle, so it wasn't a hardship to spend a couple of days weaving. I did have a minor panic half way through: "Why would anyone want a hand woven band if you can buy them online?" A quick trawl of the web reassured me. Commercial bands don't have the same stripe, being a traditional rainbow pattern, not the Jodie stripe. Phew!

As usual I went with the Richard Feynman problem solving process and thought hard about the bag then sketched out the design. Based on a flat bottom tote the bag is made from rectangles of cloth, interfacing, batting and lining fabric. The dimensions were chosen to create a bag big enough to fit in a tablet computer or Kindle device and have room for an inner zip pocket for keys, phone and purse or wallet.

As a nod to Jodie's braces the side release clasps were attached using long strips of fabric. I generally like zip fastners for a handbag, but somehow, side release clasps just seem to work better for tech-bags. Is that weird?

The Tardis is as much a part of the show as the Doctor. Could its battered frame be excluded from the design?

Short answer - No.

It would have been easy to go overboard with embroidery and appliqué trying to recreate the windows and text of the police box in fabric, but this was meant to be a tribute to Jodie, not the Tardis. In what will be a shock to those who know me well, I went subtle. Instead of the usual lines of quilting to attach the batting to the outer bag the quilting takes its inspiration from the Tardis exterior panelling. It is a blink and you'd miss it detail, but one that pleases me. You can see the lines here on the interior of the flap. Maybe there'll be a Tardis tote further down the line...

The bag lining reminds me of the Hubble Telescope deep space images, which seemed a good match for the Doctor. It is also kind of an in joke. The Tardis is known to be "bigger on the inside" and how much bigger could you get than the universe. And just to add a little extra "space" there is a zipped pocket. I like this picture. It shows the colours in the fabric much better.

To complete the bag, it of course needs a strap. It was tempting to use more of the rainbow band, but that might have been a bit "too much." Instead it will probably have a plain blue band backed with the same fabric as the bag. I was so excited to complete the bag that I couldn't wait to blog about it, so in the final image you have to ignore the strap, that's there just for hanging purposes.

I think this would make the perfect accessory for the Doctor Who fan in your life. It is designed to hold a tablet computer, but work equally well as a handbag or small messenger bag. What do you think? Please leave a comment and let me know.