Code – Page 14 – Everything is Not Black and White

See A Penny Continued Sunday Morning…

This is why it is important to purchase more than enough twine for a project.
When you return to the store to buy more it may not be the same color.

Since I am filling the background with two stitches, it made for an easy decision to make
the horizontal stitches one color and the vertical stitches the other color.

Background Sunday Morning

Blocks on Background
The blocks will be bound to the background and then stitched together to give the appearance that the stitching is holding them together. The tree wrap and roofing felt are not materials strong enough to support the weight of the piece. I’m pretty sure that I will use liquid starch on the background before attaching the blocks. Liquid starch is great for stiffening, to keep knots in place, and to prevent fraying. Haven’t yet decided how I will age the piece. Since I am using cotton I can use wax and fire.

See a Penny Continued…

Blocks

After photographing my “Make Your Own Luck” work in progress last night,
I decided that I really didn’t like the 12×15 layout.

Blocks

Today I worked out an 18×14 layout.

Layout And Numbers

Unfortunately, the new layout means that I need to make an additional 72 blocks–29 dashes, 20 dots, and 23 spacers.

The additional blocks will add–or make your own luck.

The total message will be–

see a penny
pick it up
all the day
have good luck
or
make your own luck

More cutting, hole punching, and binding tomorrow.

Work In Progress–See A Penny…

Tonight completed all 180 “blocks” for my current Make Your Own Luck piece.

Blocks

The plan is to attach the blocks to a piece of 1″ hardware cloth to make the piece more stable and stronger for hanging. Since the “blocks” are approximately 1 3/4″ there will be space between for a reinforced stitched border.

One Inch Hardware Cloth

Graphite

All the hole punching caused the screw punch to freeze up a bit. Graphite solved the problem.

Research Today-Birch

One of my works in progress is two pieces of 1/2″ hardware cloth, in code the embroidered phrase, “My Past Reflected Back,” and the embroidered companion word, “haunted.” The pieces will be bound together. There will be 45 pieces of mirror bound onto the embroidered pieces. Additionally, some type of plant material will be used to function as a frame and to integrate the two embroidered pieces.

A component of my past work was cultural myths and superstitions. When I was making my Avian Headboxes I read, Cultural Aspects of Trees: Traditions and Myths written by Kim D. Coder. I reread the article today and am leaning toward using Birch, which has a reference to wisdom. The idea of wisdom would be a good option for learning from the past, but not allowing it to control you.

I decided to google “birch cultural myths” to see what else has been written. Here is some of what I found at Trees for Life–

“…in early Celtic mythology, the birch came to symbolise renewal and purification.”

“Bundles of birch twigs were used to drive out the spirits of the old year.”

I like the idea of renewal in reference to the past. Again to not allow your past to have power and control over your current and future self.

These sites are consistent in stating that birch is used to prevent evil spirits from entering and also used to drive evil spirits out.

Birch Trees: Myths and Superstitions

Tree Wisdom – Birch

This could be reference to forgiving yourself and to letting go of negativity.

So, I am leaning toward Birch, but have not yet ruled out Apple. I like the reference to knowledge with Apple.

One gains knowledge from the past.

The red color of the bark of both Birch and Apple would be a nice addition with the grey and cream wool used for the embroidery.

Since a component of my work is the illusion of artifact, past life; I will need to find a way to age the piece when completed. Wool is great in many ways, but I cannot wax it or torch it like I do with other fibers. Salt has been an interesting material to use, but I have found that a salted surface can change over time. I have been considering using plaster and concrete.

Birch Knot Image

I briefly mentioned wishing trees in the But is it art? post.

Additional information on sources–

Kim D. Coder, Ph.D.
Professor
Community Forestry and Tree Health
University of Georgia
Warnell School of Forestry & Natural Resources

Trees for Life is the only organisation specifically dedicated to restoring the Caledonian Forest to a target area of 1000 sq miles in the Scottish Highlands.

Additional Reads

Trees in mythology

African Creation Myths

Tree worship

Tree of the knowledge of good and evil

More Netflix and Code Template

When I am working, I listen to films and series that contain loads of dialog. This evolved from listening to DVD commentaries of films that I had already viewed. Commentaries are a great way to have access to the filmmaking process, how decisions were made, and their results.

Recently I listened to the first season of Land Girls which was based on the Women’s Land Army in Britain during World War II. When I view films about historic events, I always wonder about their accuracy. After viewing them, I perform a google search to learn a bit more about the time and events.

When I searched for “Land Girls” I found that during the Second World War, women joined the Women’s Land Army. They replaced farm workers who were serving in the war, which is akin to those who replaced factory workers. The factory workers I knew about, but hadn’t thought about farm workers. Odd since I grew up in a farming community in the Mid West.

About the Code Technique Used–
In the third episode an over zealous, perhaps mad sergeant, used a code template to expose a presumed collaborator. The code template was a card with openings laid over a letter exposing hidden information. The individual attempting to find a coded message in some text, could look for specific types of words and numbers, and presume the combination to be a message.

I gave this a go using a paragraph from Richard Preston’s The Demon in the Freezer , a book that happened to still be on my desk from a previous post.

An image of the original text is followed by a quick Photoshop code template and an image of the code template over the original text.

Text

Code Template

Code Template Over Text

The arbitrary selection of words has nothing to do with anything. Interpretation mistakes can be made. This is often the case with works of art. Folks come to the work with their ideas and experiences. Their interpretation can be completely wrong, forcing something onto the work that isn’t there.

Nyctograph

I had a vague notion that nyctograph was a form of writing but I had to google the word to find out its proper definition. I found several hits that stated it was a form of night writing, without the aid of illumination, devised by Lewis Carroll. I could not however, find the actual symbols Carroll used.

I don’t know how many times I have attempted to write notes in the dark of night and find the next morning what I had written was difficult to read.

I like the idea of a symbol system using a template rather than graph paper. I could use any available scrap of paper or even my arm. I took to writing on myself when I was giving art sessions at a maximum security forensic facility.

This is a sample of the grid template that I found at Wikipedia.

Nyctograph

I pretty much use Morse and Tap Code, or reference to them in my work. Coding for me started when I made a series of bronze daggers and titled them after folks who were particularly difficult. I couldn’t leave it at that so I devised a code based on my nephew’s name and date of birth disguising the actual names. This piece is titled Filfeh, which does not exactly follow the rules of spelling. A few other titles were, Anoa, Nivner, Reima, Anxen, and Frea.

Dagger

I have attempted to use other codes–Celtic Tree Ogham and the Pigpen Cipher but they haven’t worked with the materials I was using.

Ogham
Pigpen

Perhaps they will find their way into a series in the future.

How an Idea Occurs–Banned Books

Today when I was reading blog posts I saw this image and was off on a creative journey. The image was posted on Sri Threads, a gallery specializing in Japanese folk textiles.

SriThreads

I have been thinking about weaving or embroidering a family tree of important dates using Morse Code. I have woven some pieces for family gifts, but I want to show the connections between the family members. I originally thought that a large wallpiece using coconut fiber, white cotton rope, sisal, and 1″ fence would be the solution. I hadn’t thought about the possibility of the presentation in the form of a book. I love the intimacy that the book format offers. While the form is quite different, it probably would be better received by my siblings.

Then very quickly I started thinking about words and banned books and my series, Cleanse Your Palate. Cleanse started with my attempt to remove a particular word from my vocabulary. A versatile word that has multiple functions.

Cleanse

In No Regrets, the word is embroidered and affixed to the shot glass with a ring that is also in code. The shot glass is filled with clove soap. Yep, wash your mouth out with soap. Clove because of its history in dentistry and I just happen to love its fragrance.

A couple of things of interest–what happens when a code is used to represent a word with negative connotations; can the word appear beautiful when knotted or woven?

From there I hit on using what some folks believe are objectionable words, phrases, ideas weave them up in code and bind them in a book presentation. The series of course would be titled Banned Books.