embroidery

SLOVENSKO

no, it is not my newest tie, although i am certainly planning to design one. it is what the title says - the art of decorating cloth sewing patterns on it with thread.

edita is very skillful with yarn and finds it relaxing to knit and do all sorts of handiwork. well, recently, she had enough of producing cloths for baby-born dolls belonging to everybody she knows of, and she switched to embroidery. now i know about richelieu stitch which is the most popular of the cutwork embroidery techniques and i am interested, but will let her do this.

anyway, edita brought a piece of cloth and wanted me to draw something so she could practise who would remember what stitch. the only thing that popped into my mind was what you see in this picture. now, that she is half way through, i like it so much, that i can not wait for her to finish it and starch it and prepare it for the public as  she will actually. i only can promise you that when everything is ready, i will show it to you again.

i hope you like the pattern and you will like the final product.

memories

SLOVENSKO

most of the articles published here fall in this category. it is interesting how a simple something can, be it proust's madeleine - taste - or an old document - information - or a shape or sound - a piece of art, furniture or what you had made yourself - long forgotten, bring a flood of cherished memories, and sometimes a tear or two.

i concluded that what we remember and the way of our recalling could spring from selfishness. for instance, most of what people experience during their military service is not very nice. you are forced to be where you don't want to be, doing what other people say, learning skills you may not want to master or use etc. of course, you can take it as it is and avoid suffering too much.

when and where i served, there was no warm water in the barracks. not even showers. (no it was not in the 19th century!) there was only a trough where we could wash ourselves with cold, during the winter time icy, water. there i washed my olive green stockings as well. i did not let anything influence my mood, but i certainly did not enjoy my stay in the army or any of the activities. that is why i was startled when several years later i thought of what i experienced there, and discovered that my memories were pleasant. well, i know that our mind is inclined to remove what it did not like, and there linger positive items. but i thought of my washing stockings and experienced warmth! my only explanation is that this was my past, and my mind loved it anyway. i am ashamed.

much in the same way, memories surfaced by this sight, are only nice. it was, though, the last moment urge to do something adam would give to his friends to invite them to his birthday party. a year earlier i had taken more time, and now i could not afford not doing anything for my son. i like simplicity, as you already know, so i managed to draw this basic, but very informative illustration. it was adam's 9th birthday, you realize, don't you?

the only effect i did was dislocating the letters a bit and imitating a moving information as if on display. the remaining one was effectuated moments ago. the brighter center is a consequence of the taking of the picture by my mobile phone and the lighting. 

i hope my secret friend will appreciate the idea. we can not help now. the bar is raised! always upwards, ye valiant combatants!

health programmes

SLOVENŠČINA

now i would like to show you a different technique i find very attractive. actually it is a digital alteration of an analogue image. the one you can see here was used for a health programme in nova gorica and a doors open day in koper. the poster and the flier for the former and the poster for the latter.

the starting point is a plain brown marker drawing. i discovered that the best results are achieved if the trace is left several times. of course, where the marker trace is atop of another, it becomes darker, and this is exactly what i wanted. because, when scanned, i could changed several parameters in order to obtain the desired effect. this is what it looked like at the end:

HEALTH is not to be TAKEN FOR GRANTED! it is a GIFT OF GOD, but it is in YOUR OWN CARE.

and this is what i did. the obvious change was in the field of colour, so i will show you the step by step procedure, first one being the drawing as it was: to the picture below 10% of red was added in the openoffice drawing sheet.  as this was the second poster (koper is bilingual by law and all public announcement are to be conveyed in italian also) i aimed it in the opposite direction. as the final result of the slovenian poster was in red, i added here 30% of green. it is interesting what it takes for brown to be changed into green, for it is nearer to red. first i took away half of the existing contrast (the one defined as zero, which you can add to, or take from, ranging from 100% to -100%) to the value of -51%, and aded 5% of blue. in the next step the brightness was also taken away to the point of -60%. and finally gamma value (whatever it represents), being 1 in the neutral position, was changed to 10. what i got is vibrant green line in the middle (“morefold“ trace) and lighter, olive green surrounding, making the drawing richer and more likely to please the eye.

why did i chose these four symbols to represent health? well, out of eight natural remedies i could have depicted, i took those that seemed to be the most suggestive. for instance,  everybody knows that our eating habits have the most immediate consequences on our welfare, and it is there that most abuses are suffered. thus the fork and the glass. the footstep represents physical exercise, but can also speak of trampling on the health principles. the heart is in danger if we do not give our bodies and souls the proper nourishment, but it is as well the sign of our willpower, that is in the center of our struggles and decisions. most commonly the heart symbolizes our passions and love. and without love for our creator God, we cannot adequately love ourselves or muster enough motivation to take good care of our lives for the best results.