Woven pages

1905 Broderie anglaise from Il Ricamo

2012-02-12T19:30:00.000+01:00

These are patterns from issue No.41, 1905 of Il Ricamo. They were suggested as embroidery on a lady's shirt, but of course they can be used for an other purpose (either embroidery, or of reproduction with an other media!)
Click on the images to enlarge them then right-click to save them on your computer.

Questi sono motivi tratti dal n. 41, 1905 de"Il Ricamo". Erano proposti come ricami per una camicetta da donna, ma naturalmente si possono usare per qualunque altro motivo (sia di ricamo, sia di riproduzione conqualunque altra tecnica!)

Cliccare sulle immagini per ingrandirle, poi cliccare col tasto destro per salvarle sul proprio pc.

Still winter...

2012-02-09T22:45:00.000+01:00

These days the weather is really cold in Italy!
In questi giorni fa veramente freddo in Italia!

In Milano we are better than in most of the rest of Italy.. We didn't get much snow and temperatures were only few degrees below zero
A Milano stiamo meglio che in gran parte del resto d'Italia... Non abbiamo avuto molta neve e le temperature sono state solo pochi gradi sotto zero

And now snow it's almost gone... Except the one covering my car! I hoped it would melt by itself but in the end I needed the car and I had to clean it...

E adesso la neve e' quasi tutta andata via..tranne quella che copriva la mia macchina! Ho sperato che si sciogliesse da sola ma alla fine mi serviva la macchina e ho dovuto ripulirla...

They say things won't get better for another week, so Spring looks still very far.

Dicono che le cose non miglioreranno per un'altra settimana, e la primavera appare ancora molto lontana.

Finished!

2012-01-22T19:11:00.000+01:00

Here are the three cat mats still hanging to dry after washing them... There are plenty of braids, fringes and things that a cat may like ...

An experiment

2012-01-20T22:51:00.002+01:00

I've been away for a couple of weeks, but there was a good reason! I had bad tooth extraction (the tooth came in tiny fragments and the dentist had to work for more than two hours to pull and chisel off all the pieces...) and as a complication of it I got osteitis, so in the end I'm still with toothache two weeks later , and the thing will go on for a while.... :-(

So I couldn't do much in these days, especially last week! I stopped the uploading of the embroidery magazines, but I started it again today and should finish it in the weekend.

Sono stata via un paio di settimane, ma per un buon motivo! Ho avuto una brutta estrazione di un dente (che e' venuto via in briciole e il dentista ha dovuto lavorare per piu' di due ore per tirarlo e scalpellarlo via in pezzetti), e come complicazione mi e' venuta l'osteite, cosi' ho ancora il mal di denti due settimane piu' tardi, e la cosa continuera' ancora per un po' ... :-(

Anyway I've started again to upload the photos of the embroidery magazines, today I added a few issues and the rest should go online during the weekend.
Comunque ho ripreso a caricare le scansioni delle riviste di ricamo, oggi ho aggiunto alcuni numeri e il resto dovrebbe andare online durante il weekend

I've also managed to weave a bit, and I titled my latest project "Cat on the mat" , as it's a series of experimental weavings intended to be for cats... I took a few photos of the last one (that I finished today, but it's still on the loom).

The idea is of making something nicer than the usual cat mat /rug, as these things are used anywhere at home, and a cheap (ugly) cat blanket is not very nice to see on the sofa or an armchair.

Sono anche riuscita a tessere un poì, e ho intitolato il mio ultimo progetto "Gatto sul tappetino", perche' e' una serie di tessiture sperimentali per gatti... Ho fatto qualche foto dell'ultima (che ho finito oggi, ma e' ancora sul telaio).

L'idea e' di realizzare qualcosa di piu' carino delle solite coperte/ tappetini per gatti, perche' queste cose si usano ovunque in casa e una coperta per animali da quattro soldi (brutta) non e' molto bella da vedere sul divano o su una poltrona.

I used the same warp to make three mats of different size and pattern (but using the same yarns), tomorrow I'll cut them and finish them.

Ho usato lo stesso ordito per fare tre coperte di dimensione e disegno differenti (ma con gli stessi filati), domani le tagliero' e faro' le rifiniture.

Adding files...

2012-01-08T23:51:00.003+01:00

I've started to move the files of "Il Ricamo and "Il Ricamo Illustrato" magazines.
Links will be available in the respective pages, and files will be hosted on MediaFire... Today I made a test with the first issue available, from 1905 (actually there is only one sheet of it) and it seems to work. Anyway I think that for the other magazines I'll zip the different pages in a single file, so that only one link per magazine will be enough and download will be easier and faster.

Ho cominciato a spostare i file delle riviste "Il Ricamo" e "Il Ricamo Illustrato".

I link saranno disponibili nelle rispettive pagine, mentre i file saranno ospitati da MediaFire...Oggi ho fatto un test con il primo numero disponibile ( che in realta' consiste in un solo foglio) e sembra funzionare. In ogni modo penso che per le riviste successive comprimero' le varie pagine in un unico file, in modo che sia sufficiente un unico link per numero e il download sia piu' semplice e veloce.

I've also scanned an image for you to use as you prefer... It's a chapter ornament by John Moyr Smith from an ancient book of Robert Burns' poems.

Ho anche scansionato un'immagine che potrete utilizzare come vorrete... E' un ornamento di inizio capitolo di John Moyr Smith, da un libro antico di poesie di Robert Burns.

It's an illustrated edition I bought some time ago... Almost nobody buys old books in English here and the seller -at a local stall selling used books, normally at 2 Euros each- was evidently happy to get rid of some old unwanted books...So in the end he left me 4 books for 5 Euros, included this leather bound (in bad conditions), gilded pages volume :-), with beautiful illustrations that I'll share on my blog.

E' unedizione illustrata che ho comprato un po' di tempo fa... Quasi nessuno compra vecchi libri in inglese qui e il venditore - in unabancarella locale che vende lbri usati, normalmente a 2 Euro l'uno- era evidentemente felice di disfarsi di un po' di libri non voluti...Cosi' alla fine mi ha lasciato 4 libri per 5 Euro, incluso questo volume rilegato in pelle (anche se in cattive condizioni) e con le pagine bordate d'oro, con belle illustrazioni che condividero' su questo blog.

New look for the New Year!

2012-01-03T21:56:00.001+01:00

I got a bit tired of my green photo background, so I decided to adopt a lighter and simpler look...

Now that I closed my Italian Needlecrafts site I'll move here the photos of the ancient embroidery magazines that were hosted there... I've already prepared two pages (one for Il Ricamo and one for Il Ricamo Illustrato) for easy access; in the next days I'll add links to download the photos of pages, which will be hosted on another site. Files will also remain on the Italian Needlecrafts site for a few weeks, but as the contract with the provider is expiring in about three weeks and I won't renew it, I expect the site to disappear soon (but not before all the files are safe and links are posted here).

Mi ero stancata un po' dello sfondo verde fatto con una mia fotografia, cosi' ho deciso di adottare un look piu' leggero e semplice...

Ora che ho chiuso il mio sito Italian Needlecrafts, spostero' qui le foto delle riviste di ricamo antiche che erano ospitate la'... Ho gia' preparato due pagine (una per Il Ricamo e una per Il Ricamo Illustrato) per facilitare l'accesso; nei prossimi giorni aggiungero' i link per scaricare le foto, che saranno ospitate su un altro sito.

I file resteranno anche sul sito Italian Needlecrafts per qualche altra settimana, ma siccome il contratto con il provider scadra' tra circa tre settimane e non lo rinnovero', mi aspetto che il sito sparisca presto (ma non prima che i file siano in salvo e i link disponibili qui).

Happy New Year... Without resolutions!

2012-01-01T14:05:00.005+01:00

Happy New Year everybody!
Another year has just begun and many people are busy making new resolutions to change their life...I've decided to skip that!
I'm old enough to know that my new year resolutions last just for a few weeks, then fail miserably...And last year I read this very inspiring article that convinced me to give up the whole matter! Now I spread my "resolutions" all over the year; whenever I feel some change can be made or would be useful...I don't obsess with changing my life from 1st January, as it won't work, anyway!
That article appeared on The Guardian one year ago, but it's still perfectly valid and applicable today... I 'm sure you will find it more helpful and inspiring than most of the "new year, new life" articles that can be read these days...

Update on trade-off

2011-12-25T23:37:00.003+01:00

Merry Christmas everybody!
Today I wanted to give an update on the trade-off ...Sandra chose my Christmas ornament in exchange for her lavender sachet; I sent it to her about ten days ago and she received it very quickly! She already blogged about it at http://orlosubitoit.blogspot.com/2011/12/blog-baratto-de-dicembre-terzo.html ; as you can see my ornament already found a place on her Christmas tree (right in time!)
But I too received her lavender sachet!
I'm just sorry I didn't take photos of the packaging as Sandra did (and her packet looked much better than mine!), but the lavender was so perfumed that even Minu came to see when I opened it so I took a photo...

Buon Natale a tutti!

Oggi volevo darvi un aggiornamento sullo scambio...Sandra ha scelto il mio ornamento natalizo in cambio del suo sacchetto alla lavanda; glie l'ho spedito circa dieci giorni fa e l'ha ricevuto subito! Ha gia' scritto un post nel suo blog alla pagina http://orlosubitoit.blogspot.com/2011/12/blog-baratto-de-dicembre-terzo.html ; come potete vedere il mio ornamento ha gia' trovato un post sul suo albero di Natale (giusto in tempo!)

Ma anch'io ho ricevuto il suo sacchetto di lavanda!

Mi spiace solo non aver fatto foto del pacchetto, come ha fatto Sandra (e il suo pacchetto era decisamente piu' bello del mio!), ma la lavanda era cosi' profumata che perfino Minu e' venuta a vedere quando l'ho aperto e allora ho fatto una foto...

(and really, you have no idea of what it takes to make her get out of her hiding place in the morning!)
(e davvero, non avete idea di quello che ci vuole per farla uscire dal suo nascondiglio di mattina!)

Here the sachet was still in its plastic bag, and very flattened by the mail! Sandra had added some paper stars and snow flakes in the bag as decorations, you can see them in the photo.
Now I'm keeping the lavender sachet on my desk near my computer, I love it !(I think Minu' was a bit disappointed by discovering it was not for her!)

Qui il sacchetto era ancora nella sua bustina di plastica, e molto appiattito dalla posta! Sandra aveva aggiunto alcune stelle e fiocchi di neve di carta colorata, come decorazioni nel sacchetto, si possono vedere nella foto.

Ora tengo il sacchetto di lavanda sulla mia scrivania vicino al computer, mi piace tantissimo! (Penso che Minu' sia rimasta un po' delusa a scoprire che non era per lei !)

Oh, another news, I was featured on a blog! I was asked an interview to be published on a crafter's blog.. Here it is!

Oh, un'altra notizia, sono stata intervistata su un blog di una crafter! Ecco qui l'intervista!

Trading

2011-12-11T18:26:00.001+01:00

I'm participating to the trade-off organized by Sandra, of Orlo Subito http://orlosubitoit.blogspot.com/2011/12/blog-baratto-di-dicembre.html
Every month she proposes an item from her Etsy shop to swap with something else, and this month she let participants to choose what they prefer! So I profited to ask her this lavender embroidered sachet

Sto partecipando ad un baratto organizzato da Sandra, di Orlo Subito http://orlosubitoit.blogspot.com/2011/12/blog-baratto-di-dicembre.html

Ogni mese propone un oggetto preso dal suo negozio di Etsy da scambiare con qualcos'altro, e questo mese lascia scegliere alle partecipanti quello che si preferisce! Cosi' ho approfittato per chiederle questo sacchetto di lavanda ricamato ....

And in exchange she can have any of these ornaments I made:
E in cambio puo' avere una qualsiasi di queste decorazioni fatte da me:

Blogging again....And weaving

2011-11-26T22:52:00.001+01:00

I'm back after a long time.
At first it was just a normal delay..I was busy and couldn't post when I wished to.
Then...It became a sort of experiment! As I saw I had more readers when I didn't post than when I posted (I even earned two more followers -very welcome! :-) - which didn't happen in the previous month when I posted more or less regularly...) and I wanted to see how long that would go on... internet dynamics are sometimes weird! Maybe the more I write the less readers I get? That would be funny...
Anyway today I declare the test ended and started writing again! :-)
At the moment I'm weaving an "unusual" shawl again at the moment, something improvised which I don't know exactly how will look when finished...

Sono tornata, dopo molto tempo...

All'inizio e' stato solo un normale ritardo...Avevo da fare e non ho potuto scrivere quando avrei voluto.

Poi...E' diventato una specie di esperimento! Perche' ho visto che avevo piu' lettori quando non scrivevo di quando postavo (ho anche guadagnato due "follower" - molto benvenuti! :-)) - cosa che non era accaduta nel mese precedente, in cui avevo scritto abbastanza regolarmente..) e volevo vedere quanto sarebbe andata avanti cosi'...Le dinamiche di interet a volte sono strane! Forse piu' scrivo, meno persone mi leggono? Sarebbe buffo...

Comunque oggi ho dichiarato finito il test e ho ricominciato a scrivere! :-)

Al momento sto tessendo di nuovo uno "strano" scialle , una cosa improvvisata che non so bene come sara' da vedere una volta finita...

I used several different yarns, included one with a reflective tread which I used to make braided fringes a bit everywhere...

Ho usato diversi filati, compreso uno con un filo di lame' che ho usato per fare delle frange intrecciate in po' ovunque...

If I won't like is as a shawl, it will end up as a blanket for my cat, she will appreciate the fringes! :-)

In any case I have decided to stop weaving scarves and shawls for a while, as they have no market and I have more than enough for my "personal use" for many years...People prefer cheap scarves bought at markets, and even giving my scarves as gifts would be interpreted as "you gave me something made by yourself so that you didn't have to spend any money" (as for some reasons work is considered of no value, and bought gifts have a higher "status" than self-made ones...), so I prefer not to use them as gifts either...I'll switch to something different, things for the home or that I can use in different ways!

Se non mi piacera' come scialle, finira' come coperta per la mia gatta, apprezzera' le frange! :-)

In ogni caso ho deciso di smettere di tessere scialli e sciarpe per un po', perche' non hanno mercato e ne ho piu' che a sufficienza per il mio "uso personale" per molti anni... La gente preferisce le sciarpe economiche comprate almercato, e anche dare le mie sciarpe in regalo sarebbe interpretato come "Mi regali qualcosa fatto da te cosi' non hai dovuto spendere soldi" (perche' per qualche ragione il lavoro e' considerato di nessun valore, e i regali comprati hanno uno "status" migliore di quelli fatti in proprio...), cosi' preferisco non usarle neanche come regali...Passero' a qualcosa di diverso, cose per la casa o che posso utilizzare in modo diverso!

How to use Facebook Pages

2011-10-16T00:55:00.000+02:00

No digital images today, but some information that maybe will be useful to someone else..
Like many other people, I have a personal Facebook page to stay in contact with relative and friends (ranging from close friends, to members of various groups and lists I'm a member of).
And like many other people too, I would like to use Facebook also to promote my work...But possibly without spamming friends or family, or people who are not necessarily interested in my plushes or my handwoven (or don't have to be reminded every time I make something new :-)).
In the past I set up a "Fan Page", but I've always found confusing to jeep it separated from my "normal" (personal)page... Then Facebook kept changing features and privacy settings, and things became more and more confusing...In the end I deleted my old Fan Page.
Now Fan Pages don't exist anymore, Facebook has turned them in simple "Pages", and one starts following them not by clicking on "I'm a fan" but on a more general button "I like it".
Anyway, I decided to make another attempt and created a new "Page" for my shop, and I want to share how I did it and use it. I don't pretend to give a complete guide, I'm a beginner myself! But I solved a few things that puzzled me, so maybe this post will be useful to someone. If you want to add something or point out mistakes or imprecisions, your comments are welcome!
First of all, I will continue to call the Page created for promotion as "Fan Page" , to distinguish it from the Personal Page (which is the one meant for family and friends, and sharing personal things). Facebook now calls the first only Page, but it's confusing as we also have the Personal Page that is often called Page...

Creating a Fan Page is easy, though the link is put in a rather unusual place, at the extreme bottomo of your Personal page, in the same line of "About", "Advertising", etc. ... You will see a "Create a Page" link, click on it, and it will guide you through the creation of your page (which can be dedicated to a commercial business, or to a place, or to an artist...Anything you can think of)
But once the Fan Page is created, first of all you must add yourself as a Fan, cliking on "I like it" : this way you will receive on your Personal Page al the content that fans (people who "like" you) will get. This is not strictly necessary, but it will be useful to see what will -or will not- be sent to your Fans from your Fan Page. In addition, this way if you wish you will be able to forward a content from your Fan Page to all your friends and family, by sharing it from your Personal Page (though I don't support this, as I think most of my friends would disappear very quickly :-). But I think I made it once or twice by mistake).

Well, once you have created your Page (Fan Page) and liked it, don't think it will be easy to find for other people! Your friends will not see it, as it will be buried among all the other Pages you liked, in your Personal Page profile... For example to see my page (which is called, very imaginatively, "Elena Rossi - my shop"), you must go to my Personal Page, click on "Info" , scroll down the page past "Work and education" , "Music" "Sport" "Arts and entertainment" etc. until the "Activities and Interests" section. At the end of that section there is a short link saying "Show other pages"... If you click on it, you will see a list of the pages I "like" (meaning, I'm a Fan of) . But only few of them are showed and mine is not one of them... There are only a few links to the pages, then the sentence "and 40 more" (which in your case could be a lot less or a lot more, depending on the number of favourite Pages you have!) if you click on that, you will see all the rest of the pages I like, and among all the others there is, (at last!) my "Elena Rossi - my shop" one. Your case will be similar.
Of course it's obvious that NOBODY will ever find your Fan Page by chance, as it's so difficult to reach! So if you want people to "like" it (that is , to become your Fans ), you will have to set links to it somewhere (on your blog, in posts, etc. ) as otherwise people will be able to find, at most, your Personal Page. Of course, when you will manage to have a few Fans, it will also happen that they will (maybe, hopefully..) decide to share some of the posts they receive from your Fan Page, so *their* friends too will see them and click on them, reaching your Fan Page that way (and maybe "liking " it in their turn)...but it will take a while for that to happen.
At first you have to give your link...And of course it's not an "easy" one that would be easy to remember :-)... For example my "Fan Page" address is http://www.facebook.com/pages/Elena-Rossi-my-shop/206454542733945 . Good news is that when you reach at least 25 Fans (people who click on "I like it" and follow your page) you will be able to obtain a shorter name from Facebook, without all those numbers. But until then, your link will be of that kind.

Well, once you set up the page, of course you must add some content to your Fan Page! Basically it works like your Personal Page: you go to the page and write, or add photos, or add a link (I usually paste links of my new Etsy items, though I'm planning to write a bit more), then click on "Share".
Mind, this "Share" just publishes the post on your Fan Page Wall, and only people going to that page will see it! So it's not very useful...If you want your Fans to get it on *their* page, you must click again on the "Share" link that you will see right under the post published on your Fan Page. But in order to forward it to your Fans and not to all your personal friends (like it happens when you share whatever post on Facebook), you must pay attention to what's written on the right side of the screen of your Fan Page... You will see an "Admin" column with a link saying "Use Facebook as..." and your name, or the Fan Page name. For example when I enter my Fan Page I see the link as "Use Facebook as Elena Rossi - my shop" . When I click on that, I "become" my Fan Page administrator, and when I share something, I will share it with the Fans of my Fan Page and NOT with my "friends" of my Personal Page. If I forget to click on that link, the post will look as if shared by myself (Elena Rossi) and will be received by all my Facebook friends (not necessarily my Fans). So this is an important thing to remember: pay attention to "who you are" when you share something from your Fan Page!
After sharing the post, I will click again on that link (that will have become "Use Facebook as Elena Rossi" in the meanwhile) and return to my usual identity :-).
Confusing? Indeed, I totally agree!! I think the whole thing is very complicate to manage and totally "user-unfriendly"...But that's the only way offered by Facebook to keep your work and family/friends separated. I suppose it becomes automatic after a while (until facebook changes everything yet again...)
Please write in comments if you have something to add , or noticed some mistakes, or have something better to suggest, thanks!

Digital images

2011-10-14T00:00:00.000+02:00

Other two digital images from 1905!
An elegant lady...

Altre due immagini del 1905 digitalizzate!

Una signora elegante...

and a pattern for an embroidery, a nice geometrical motive
e un disegno di un ricamo, un grazioso motivo geometrico

Click on the images to see them full size and save them!

Clicca sulle immagini per vederle ingrandite e salvarle!

1905 digital image

2011-10-11T23:15:00.000+02:00

Today I'm adding another image from 1905 showing two children...Actually the image was meant to show their richly embroidered dresses, but I think it could be used for some digital collage! I didn't restore it, and it's slightly damaged by a crease (visible in the hat of the standing girl), but I think it wouldn't be too difficult to fix it.
Oggi aggiungo un'altra immagine del 1905, che mostra due bambine...In realta' l'immagine serviva a mostrare i loro vestitini ricamati, ma penso che si possa usare in qualche collage digitale! Non l'ho restaurata ed e' leggermente danneggiata da una piega (visibile nel cappello della bambina in piedi), ma penso che non dovrebbe essere troppo difficile sistemarla.

And these are their faces in details ...
E queste sono le loro facce in dettaglio...

Old images and new projects

2011-09-30T23:59:00.000+02:00

A couple of days ago I uploaded another issue of Il Ricamo magazine (that you can find here ) , as now the weather is cooler and ironing paper is manageable again...
Now I'll try to keep uploading a new issue every week/ten days, at least to catch up a bit with what I didn't do during the summer.
Text on the pages is usually readable (though barely), and drawings have an acceptable quality...But of course the level of detail I obtain this way is lot worse than what could be obtained with a scan. Scanning whole pages is impossible as they are far too large large (they would be too large even for a large format scanner, A3) , but I thought that scanning *single images* could be done with no damages to the pages and with much better results that from the photos I took previously...
For example this monogram is taken from issue No 33 - August 1905 page 259 (click here to see the whole page, the monogram is at the bottom, It's small, so it's a small fraction of the page) .
This is the initial image (cut from the photo of the whole page) I took with my old 4.0 Megapixel camera and a tripod.

Un paio di giorni fa ho caricato un altro numero della rivista Il Ricamo (che e' possibile trovare qui ), perche' adesso fa piu' fresco e si riesce di nuovo a stirare la carta...

Adesso cerchero' di continuare a caricare un nuovo numero ogni settimana /dieci giorni, almeno per recuperare un po' quello che non ho fatto durante l'estate.

Il testo nelle pagine e' di solito leggibile (anche se a malapena), e i disegni sono di qualita' accettabile... Ma naturalmente il livello di dettaglio che ottengo in questo modo e' molto peggiore di quello che avrei con una scansione. Scansionare le pagine intere e' impossibile perche' sono troppo grandi (sarebbero troppo grandi anche su uno scanner di formato A3), ma ho pensato che scansionare *le singole immagini* potrebbe essere fatto senza danni alle pagine e con risultati molto migliori delle fotografie che ho fatto...

Per esempio questo monogramma e' preso dal N. 33 - Agosto 1905, pagina 259 (cliccare qui per vedere la pagina intera, il monogramma e' in basso; e' piccolo e quindi e' una piccola frazione della pagina).

Questa e' l'immagine (ritagliata dalla foto della pagina intera) che avevo ottenuto all'inizio con la mia vecchia macchina fotografica a 4.0 Megapixel presa con un treppiede

Then I passed to a 12.0 Megapixel camera and quality definitely improved (all the issues of Il Ricamo downloadable are photographed at this resolution)

In seguito sono passata ad una macchina fotografica a 12,0 Megapixel e la qualita' e' migliorata decisamente (tutti i numeri de Il Ricamo scaricabili sono fotografati a questo livello di risoluzione)

But with my scanner I can get a perfect image such as this:

Ma con il mio scanner posso ottenere un'immagine perfetta come questa:

Amazing, isn't it? Well, it's such a difference that convinced me that it's worth to scan images as well; at least those that are not too damaged by folds...

I still have to solve a few issues, such as whether to publish scans as they come or to improve them digitally to correct imperfections (such as the flower in the photo above, which has some print defects), or where exactly to store these immagini to make download easier; anyway, whether you are interested in embroidery or decorative patterns or simply in ancient images, keep following this blog and you will see plenty of them! :-)

I give you permission to use these scans as you wish, for personal or small-scale commercial use (you can use them to create prints, decorations for yourself or to sell in your Etsy shop or something similar, etc..actually if you use them I'll be happy to see a photo of the finished item!); only please don't re-sell them as they are, as I scan them to be a gift for everybody!

Sorprendente, vero? Be', e' una differenza tale da convincermi che valga la pena fare anche la scansione delle immagini, almeno di quelle che non sono troppo rovinate dalle pieghe...

Devo ancora risolvere alcune questioni, come decidere se pubblicare le scansioni cosi' come sono o migliorarle digitalmente per correggere le imperfezioni (come il fiore nella foto sopra, che ha dei difetti di stampa), oppure dove memorizzare queste immagini per rendere il download semplice; ad ogni modo, sia che siate interessati a motivi di ricamo o decorativo, o semplicemente a immagini antiche, continuate a seguire quest blog e ne vedrete in quantita'!

:-)

Vi do' il permesso di usare queste scansioni come volete, per uso personale o commerciale su piccola scala (potete usarle per creare stampe, decorazioni per voi o da vendere nel vostra negozio Etsy o simile, ecc... E davvero se le usate per qualcosa sarei felice di vedere una foto dell'oggetto finito!); solo, per favore, non rivendetele cosi' come sono, perche' le scansioni le faccio perche' siano un regalo per tutti!

I'm on Google+

2011-09-26T23:13:00.000+02:00

Today I was offered an invitation to it, and I accepted! I'm not a great fan of social networks actually, and I find Facebook more and more confusing...Google+ promises to be simpler to use, we'll see that!
Apparently all the people that on Facebook were simply "friends" can be arranged on Google+ into several "circles" (provided they subscribe to Google+, of course!), making easier to share information without overflowing people with unnecessary or unwanted news... So for example I could make a circle with friends who share my tapestry interests, and another where Tolkien fans are, so that Tolkien fans won't read tapestry-related news , and vice versa... It would be easier and less annoying than Facebook now, where you get bombed by any kind of news by any of our "friends" (who range from relatives to barely known people).
But I'll have to see how it works exactly! And for the moment I only have one person in my only circle on Google+ , so it's not very easy to test it...

Sono su Google+!

Oggi mi hanno offerto un invito, e l'ho accettato! In realta' non sono una grande fan dei social network, e trovo Facebook sempre piu' confuso...Google+ promette di essere piu' semplice da usare, vedremo!

Apparentemente, le persone che in facebook erano semplicemente "amici" possono essere ordinate in Google+ in vari "cerchie" (...sempre che si iscrivano a Google+, naturalmente!), rendendo piu' semplice condividere le informazioni senza sommergere tutti quanti di messaggi inutili o che non interessano... Cosi' per esempio potrei crearmi una cerchia con le persone amiche che condividono l'interesse per gli arazzi, e un altro con i fan di Tolkien, cosi' che i fan di Tolkien non debbano per forza ricevere informazioni riguardanti gli arazzi, e viceversa...Sarebbe piu' facile e meno fastidioso di Facebook adesso, dove si viene bombardati da ogni tipo di notizia riguardante qualunque nostro "amico" (definizione che spazia dai parenti a persone che si conoscono a malapena).

Ma dovro' vedere come funziona esattamente! E per il momento c'e' una sola persona nella mia unica cerchia in Google+, quindi non e' molto facile fare delle prove...

Next time, I'll make more mistakes...

2011-09-24T23:27:00.002+02:00

My latest weaving is rather different from previous ones...

For a long time, like many for weavers and handcrafters, my aim has been to make things better, more perfect and without mistakes. I improved a lot, but I found the results, somehow, always a bit disappointing.

I wondered about this: the maximum perfection attainable would make my handwoven items look like they had been made on a mechanical loom... Was that the effect I wanted to obtain? I mean, you work to improve your skill, refine your technique, and in the end if you succeed you just obtain something a machine could have made in a hundredth of time and at a tenth of the cost? Why should you want to do that?

La mia ultima tessitura e piuttosto diversa dalle precedenti...

Per molto tempo, come molte tessitrici e artigiane, il mio obiettivo e' stato di fare le cose sempre meglio, perfette e senza errori. Ho migliorato molto, ma ho trovato i risultati, tutto sommato, sempre un po' deludenti.

Mi chiedevo questo: la massima perfezione raggiungibile farebbe sembrare le mie tessiture come se fossero state fatte su un telaio meccanico...Era questo l'effetto che volevo ottenere? Voglio dire, si lavora per diventare piu' abili, raffinare la tecnica, e alla fine se ci si riesce si ottiene solo qualcosa che una macchina avrebbe potuto fare in un centesimo del tempo e a un decimo del costo? Perche' si dovrebbe volere questo?

Then I discovered Saori weaving. It was invented in the '60 by a 57 y.o. Japanese lady, Misao Jo, who realized that in her weaving she was just trying to imitate the regularity of machine weaving... So she started to introduce "mistakes" deliberately; such as skipping threads irregularly, changing colours in unpredictable way, introducing random fringes and empty parts... The result was a completely original work, totally impossible to weave by machine, always different. She named this technique Saori, with is the union of two words; "Ori" means "weaving", and "sa" is a Zen Buddhist term that means "each thing has its own unique quality" or "each person has his or her own unique quality".

It's a very personal weaving, and something very unlike mechanical works!

So I tried to apply some of the Saori principles to the shawl I wove.

Poi ho scoperto la tessitura Saori. E stata inventata negli anni '60 da una signora giapponese di 57 anni, Misao Jo, che si e' resa conto che le sue tessiture cercavano solo sdi imitare la regolarita' della tessitura a macchina...Cosi' inizio' a introdurre apposta "errori", come saltare dei fili irregolarmente, cambiare colori in modo imprevedibile, introdurre frange a caso, e spazi vuoti... Il risultato fu un lavoro completamente originale, totalmente impossibile da tessere a macchina, sempre diverso. Chiamo' questa tecnica Saori, che e' l'unione di due parole, "Ori" che significa "tessere" e "sa" che e' un termine buddista Zen che significa "Ogni cosa ha la sua unica qualita' " o " ogni persona ha la sua unica qualita'".

E' un modo di tessere molto personale, e qualcosa di completamente diverso dai lavori meccanici!

Cosi' ho provato ad applicare alcuni dei principi Saori allo scialle che tessevo.

I left some empty spaces in my warp, made a totally random side fringe and added casually various strands of colourful silk in blue and green colours, as well as some additional irregular stripe of the burgundy yarn I also used for the warp... I also wove silk in various ways, as can be seen in the following photo...

Ho lasciato alcuni spazi vuoti nella trama, ho fatto una frangia laterale totalmente casuale, e ho aggiunto casualmente alcuni fili di seta di colore blu e verde , cosi' come ho aggiunto qualche striscia irregolare con del filato bordeaux che ho usato anche per l'ordito... Ho anche intessuto la seta in varie direzioni, come si puo' vedere nella foto seguente...

In the end I was very pleased with the result!

Alla fine sono stata molto contenta del risultato!

I just applied a few of the Saori principles...And actually I found it more difficult than expected! It's strange, but after striving for regularity and perfection, it's difficult to give up all this and make things irregular and "against the rulespurpose! I had to be costantly watchful in order not to weave too evenly...But I after a while found it very relaxing and creative, a very refreshing weaving experience! I totally enjoyed it, and I've already warped my loom for my next weaving!

I want to learn more about Saori; unfortunately I haven't yet found their book on sale in Europe, and I think I'll have to order it from Japan...

A few links on Saori if anyone is interested:

What is Saori?

Saori: Self Discovery through Free Weaving (PDF)

And, of course, Saori company official site

My new shawl is in my Zibbet shop!

Ho applicato soltanto alcuni dei principi Saori.. E in realta' ho trovato la cosa piu' difficile del previsto!

E' strano, ma dopo tanto sforzarsi di raggiungere regolarita' e perfezione, e' difficile rinunciare a tutto questo e fare delle cose irregolari e "contro le regole" apposta! Dovevo stare costantemente attenta per evitare di tessere troppo regolarmente... Pero' dopo un po' l'ho trovato molto rilassante e creativo, un'esperienza di tessitura molto nuova! Mi e' piaciuta tantissimo, e ho gia' preparato il telaio con l'ordito per la mia prossima tessitura!

Voglio imparare di piu' sul Saori; sfortunatamente non ho ancora trovato il loro libro in vendita in Europa e penso che dovro' ordinarlo in Giappone...

Alcuni link sul Saori per chi e' interessato:

What is Saori?

Saori: Self Discovery through Free Weaving (PDF)

E, naturalmente il sito ufficiale della compagnia Saori

Il mio nuovo scialle e' nel mio negozio Zibbet !

Weaving & Needlecraft color course, by William & Doris Justema

2011-09-19T23:56:00.001+02:00

I mentioned this book in my previous post... It's an out-of-print book, it was published in 1971, and I found a used copy on Abebooks for just few cents... it's stamped "Ohio State University Libraries" and it's quite used: the jacket is gone and the hardback cover quite worn, but still a very useful book!

Ho citato questo libro nel mio post precedente..E' un libro fuori catalogo, pubblicato nel 1971, e ne ho trovato una copia usata su Abebooks per pochi centesimi.. E' timbrata "Ohio State University Libraries" ed e' parecchio usato: la sovraccoperta manca e la rilegatura e' molto consumata, ma e' ancora un libro molto utile!

I'm very interested in the use of colour in textiles and there are not many books about it.. Books meant for painters are literally dozens, but those directed to people who use colour in weaving, or quilting or embroidery, can probably be counted on the fingers of one hand...
Surely there are lots more painters than weavers, so it's understandable that we receive less attention! One could also think that colour "works" the same way on any media so any book will go, but that's not true...
If you mix two colours in paint of watercolour, you get a new colour... But if you weave two colours together you won't have the same effect! You can't "mix" colours when you use two different threads or yarns in a weaving or embroidery, even if they seem to mix at some distance, when looked closely they will still show the initial, distinct colours. So it's very useful to have some text that gives some notions of how to use colours in textiles, even an old one like this!
The following is the Table of Contents:

L'uso del colore in campo tessile mi interessa molto, e non ci sono molti libri su quest'argomento...Ci sono dozzine di libri destinati a chi dipinge, ma quelli dedicati a chi usa il colore nella tessitura, o nel quilting o nel ricamo, si possono probabilmente contare sulle dita di una mano---

Sicuramente ci sono piu' pittori che tessitori, quindi e' comprensibile che riceviamo meno attenzione! Si potrebbe anche pensare che il colore "funzioni" nello stesso modo in ogni tecnica, e che quindi un libro qualunque vada bene, ma non e' vero...

Nella pittura o nell'acquarello, mescolandi due colori se ne ottiene uno nuovo...Ma tessendo due colori insieme non si otterra' lo stesso effetto! Non si possono "mescolare" veramente i colori quando si usano i filati nella tessitura o nel ricamo; anche se da una certa distanza sembrano mischiarsi, guardando da vicino si vedranno i colori iniziali, ben distinti. Cosi' e' utile avere un libro che dia qualche nozione di come usare i colori in campo tessile, anche uno un po' vecchio come questo!

Riporto qui l'indice:

PART I
COLOR IN PRACTICE AND THEORY
1 A synopsis of Color Theory
2 Equipment and materials
3 Color and Design

PART II
TEN TYPES OF COLOR SCHEMES
1 White and Off-White
2 Black and White
3 Neutral or Earthy
4 Monochrome
5 Analogous
6 Complementary
7 Split complementary
8 Primary or Triad
9 Multichrome
10 Exploratory

The book has 160 pages, so there is plenty of space both for text and illustrations... Being an old book, it has fewer colour illustrations than such a kind of book would have now... Sometimes when the image is more about pattern than colour, the photos are in black and white
Il libro ha 160 pagine, quindi c'e' spazio in abbondanza sia per il testo che per le illustrazioni...Essendo un libro un po' vecchio ha meno illustrazioni a colori di quante ne avrebbe oggi un libro del genere.. A volte quando l'immagine riguarda piu' i motivi che il colore, le foto sono in bianco e nero

But there are also lots of colour images when the topic needs it!
Ma ci sono anche molte figure a colori quando l'argomento lo richiede!

I like the fact that examples range from very ancient textiles from Mesopotamia and Egypt, to modern experimental works, and come from any corner of the world! It gives a sense of continuity, in spite of the changing patterns that follow the fashion of the time (and place) they belong to...
The first chapters are especially interesting as they deal with something typical of textiles, that is texture! One could weave lots of different fabrics all white (or any colour), but looking very different from each other due to their different texture, depending on the techniques used and choices made... That's why special chapters are dedicated to White and Off-White, and to Monochrome.
With many colours invoved, things become more complicated and less clear to a quick reading, so I'll have to study those chapters carefully. I hope this book will help me choose colours for my weavings (which I always find a difficult part)!

Mi piace il fatto che gli esempi varino da tessuti dell'antica Mesopotamia o Egitto, fino a lavori sperimentali moderni, e che provengano da ogni parte del mondo! Da' un senso di continuita', al di la' dei motivi che cambiano seguendo le mode del tempo (e del luogo geografico) a cui appartengono...

I primi capitoli in particolare sono interessanti , perche' hanno a che fare con qualcosa tipico dell'ambito tessile, e cioe' la tessitura (texture). Si possono tessere moltissimi tessuti diversi tutti in bianco (o in qualsiasi colore), ma aventi un aspetto molto differente a seconda delle tecniche usate e delle scelte adottate...Ecco perche' alcuni capitoli sono dedicati espressamente al Bianco e al monocroatico.

Con piu' colori le cose si complicano e sono meno chiare ad una lettura veloce... Dovro' studiarmi attentamente quei capitoli. Spero che questo libro mi aiuti nella scelta dei colori per le mie tessiture (che trovo essere sempre una fase difficile)!

Google Books, or how NOT to scan a book

2011-09-11T14:25:00.001+02:00

I recently bought an old book on textiles ( "Weaving & needlecraftscolor course" by William and Doris Justema; I'll talk about it in another post) and in reading it I found a reference to an older work that sounded interesting... "De la loi du Contraste simultané des couleurs", by M.E. Chevreul.

Chevreul was a chemist, and the director of the dye house at the Gobelin tapestry work since 1824. At some points he noticed that the material he had dyed black did not appear to be black when it was woven. So he began to study the matter, and after some years of studies he wrote his book. I thought it would probably be very interesting, as it's very common to find books on colours directed to painters or illustrators, but colour in textiles doesn't work the same way...weaving yarns it's not like mixing paints or inks, you never really "mix" colours completely. In addition, the author worked in the tapestry field, and this too made me wish to give a look at his book.
As the book was ancient enough to be out of copyright, I wondered whether it could be available on line for free (as I suppose a printed copy would be quite expensive; I haven't checked but I bet it is...) and I went to look for it on the Internet Archive.

Recentemente ho comprato un vecchio libro di argomento tessile ("Weaving & needlecraftscolor course" by William and Doris Justema, ne parlero' in un altro post) e leggendolo ho trovato un riferimento a un lavoro precedente che sembrava interessante... "De la loi du Contraste simultané des couleurs", ("Della legge del contrasto simultaneo dei colori")di M.E. Chevreul.

Chevreul era un chimico, e il direttore del laboratorio di tintura nella manifattura di arazzi Gobelin dal 1824. Ad in certo punto noto' che i materiali che venivano tinti di nero non sembravano piu' neri quando venivano tessuti. Cosi' comincio' a studiare la questione, e al termine di alcuni anni di studio scrisse il suo libro. Ho pensato che sarebbe stato molto interessante, perche' e' facile trovare libri sui colori diretti a pittori o illustratori, ma il colore nei tessuti non funziona allo stesso modo... Tessere i filati non e' come mescolare vernici o inchiostri, non "mescoli" mai i colori completamente. Inoltre, l'autore lavorava nel campo degli arazzi, e anche questo mi ha fatto desiderare di dare un'occhiata al suo libro.

Siccome il libro e' abbastanza vecchio da essere fuori copyright, mi sono chiesta se potesse essere disponibile gratis online (perche' immagino che una copia stampata sia piuttosto costosa; non ho controllato ma scommetto che lo e'..) e sono andata a cercarlo in Internet Archive.

I was lucky... Or maybe not!
Well, the title was there, and actually there were three of them. I discovered that this book was printed in two volumes; one (over 700 pages long!) containing the text; the other , the "Atlas", contaning all the images (a common procedure in ancient times. Printing text and images was not so easy as today!).
The text part was available in two different scans, but the Atlas, unfortunately, only in one... And it was made by Google , which was not very promising.
In the past, I had downloaded and deleted a large number of books scanned by Google, as they were unreadable... I hoped this would be better.
Unfortunately, it wasn't. The Atlas is scanned so badly that I want to show it to you, because you wouldn't believe just words....And it's impossible that Google keeps boasting they scanned millions of books, and at the same time they work so badly! Maybe it's time they slow down a bit and start giving a look at their quality.
The book begins with few pages of text... Two of the 4 pages look like this:

Sono stata fortunata...O forse no!

Be', il titolo c'era, e anzi ce n'erano tre copie. Ho scoperto che questo libro era stampato in due volumi: uno (di oltre 700 pagine!) contenente il testo; l'altro , l'"Atlante", contenente tutte le immagini (una procedura usuale in tempi antichi. Stampare testi e immagini non era facile come adesso!)

La parte di testo era disponibile in sue scansioni diverse, ma l'Atlante sfortunatamente solo in una...Ed era realizzata da Google, il che' non era molto promettente.

In passato ho scaricato e cancellato un gran numero di libri scansionati da Google, perche' erano illeggibili... Speravo che stavolta andasse meglio.

Sfortunatamente, non e' stato cosi'. L'Atlante e' scansionato cosi' male che voglio mostrarlo perche' le sole parole non si crederbbero...Ed e' incredibile che Google continui a vantarsi di aver scansionato milioni di libri e contemporaneamente lavori cosi' male! Forse e' il momento che rallentino un po' e comincino a dare un'occhiata alla loro qualita'...

Il libro inizia con alcune pagine di testo...Due delle 4 pagine hanno quest'aspetto:

Uh? All the beginning of lines are cut away, as obviously the person who scanned the book didn't bother to center the page and didn't check that the scan was readable.
(This is VERY common in Google-scanned books, and led me to throwing away dozens of their scans of old classics.)
Oh, well, I said to myself, after all this is a book mainly of pictures, maybe they didn't notice the text was wrong...So I went on.
But a few pages later something made me realize that images didn't get a better treatment...

Eh? Tutti gli inizi di riga sono tagliati, perche' evidentemente la persona che ha scansionato il libro non si e' curata di centrare la pagina e non ha controllato che la scansione fosse leggibile.

(questo e' MOLTO comune nei libri scansionati da Google, e mi ha costretto a buttare dozzine di scansioni di libri classici ).

Be', mi sono detta, dopotutto questo e' un libro principalmente di immagini, forse non hanno notato che il testo era sbagliato...Cosi' sono andata avanti.

Ma alcune pagine dopo qualcosa mi ha fatto capire che le immagini non hanno avuto un trattamento migliore...

Very disappointing...
But the worst part was yet to come!
Because, I discovered, this book had a number of big plates that were large fold-out sheets. ALL of them were scanned carefully closed (paper trasparence show they were large prints with colourful dots)

Molto deludente...

Ma la parte peggiore doveva ancora arrivare!

Perche', ho scoperto, questo libro contiene un certo numero di tavole di grande formato, inserite come fogli piegati. TUTTI sono stati scansionati accuratamente chiusi (solo in trasparenza appare che si trattava di grandi stampe con dei punti colorati)

These are only a few pages; there are many more (all closed, unfortunately), I think they illustrate example of colour contrasts and it would be nice to see them :-)
At this point it was evident that the book was totally useless, but I went on to see, just out of curiosity.. Maybe there was something interesting! But it was just a collection of scan mistakes....I think really this book scan summarizes all the things one should NOT do with a scanner!
For example, taking away the book from the scanner while it's being scanned... (this is what you will obtain... it's page 42)

Queste sono solo alcune pagine; ce ne sono molte di piu' (tutte chiuse, sfortunatamente), penso che illustrino esempi di contrasto tra colori e sarebbe carino vederle :-) ).

A questo punto era evidente che il libro era totalmente inutile, ma sono andata avanti a guardarlo, per curiosita'. Forse c'era qualcosa di interessante! Ma era soltanto una collezione di errori di scansione... Penso che veramente questo libro riassuma tutte le cose che NON si devono fare con uno scanner!

Ad esempio, togliere il libro dallo scanner mentre si sta facendo la scansione.... (questo e' quello che ottieni...la pagina 42)

Or scanning the book with your finger under it, which will lift it from the scanner and make it appear blurry (never mind the finger, if only we could get a readable text! This is page 47)
Oppure scansionare il libro con un dito sotto, cosa che lo manterra' sollevato dallo scanner e lo fara' apparire sfocato (pazienza per il dito, se almeno il testo fosse leggibile! Questa e' la pag. 47)

Pages from 53 to 60 look like page 42, just small blocks of scanned book in a white page...
On Page 62 there is another probably nice image, but folded as usual...

Le pagine da 53 a 60 somigliano alla pagina 42, solo piccoli blocchi di scansione in una pagina bianca...

A pagina 62 c'e' un'immagine, probabilmente carina, ma come al solito piegata...

The rest of the pages are again unreadable blocks, until the end of the book. So much for Chevreul's book scanned by Google!

Incidentally, I've looked on Google Books and they seem to have a different copy..The first few pages are scanned correctly (centered in the page, so no letter is missing), but nobody thought of folding out the larger pages again (is that such a queer idea? or people who make scans have never seen a fold-out page and don't know how it works?)...In addition, somebody decided that they could be showed in black and white, so except for a few pages in the beginning, the book is a black and white scan (which is a pity, because a part of the Atlas had been printed on colourful paper on purpose. And anyway, IMHO somebody *should* have thought that showing a book on colour theory in B/W was not such a good idea).

Le pagine rimanenti sono di nuovo blocchi illeggibili, fino alla fine del libro,

E questo e' tutto per il libro di Chevreul scansionato da Google!

Tra l'altro , ho guardato su Google Books e sembrano avere una copia diversa li'...Le prime pagine sono scansionate correttamente (centrate nella pagina, non mancano lettere), ma di nuovo nessuno ha pensato di aprire le pagine grandi per farcele vedere (e' un'idea cosi' strana? O la gente che fa le scansioni non ha mai visto una pagina piegata e non sa come funziona?)...Inoltre, qualcuno ha deciso che potevano essere mostrate in bianco e nero, cosi' tranne alcune pagine all'inizio del libro, la scansione e' in bianco e nero (che e' un peccato, perche' una parte dell'Atlante e' stampato volutamente su carta colorata. E in ogni caso, a mio parere, qualcuno *avrebbe dovuto* pensare che mostrare in bianco e nero un libro sulla teoria dei colori non era una grande idea).

I can only say that LUCKILY the text part is available as a scan made by the Internet Archive (with fundings by the University of Ottawa) and it's perfect, but the Atlas with the images exists only in this scan made by Google, and it's a real pity.

I signalled the problems to Google (and I left a negative review); I have no idea whether they'll make something about it, but this is not the point.

It's obvious that NOBODY bothered to check (not even very quickly) the scan of this book, neither the person who physically scanned the book, nor anybody at Google...

In the past, as I said, I have deleted lots of scans that were totally or partially unreadable... All of them were made by Google.

The Gutenberg Project works differently, they retype all the text and they have several levels of proofreadings...Their works are perfect by the time they are released. Other scanning projects release very good PDFs, even of books in unusual formats or in bad conditions, or full of images.

My estimate is that about one fourth - one third of books scanned by Google that I downloaded was flawed to some degree. Sometimes they are obviously bad (like in this case), sometimes they look right, and you notice pieces are missing only when you start reading them ...(such as in a copy of one of Dumas' novels where the last two lines of every page were missing...)

This is my estimate done on the scans I downloaded myself; of course I might have been exceptionally unlucky, but my strong impression is that the percentage of their faulty scans is an important number (not one out of a thousand...)

My impression is that they don't make any check on their scanned works, and maybe -MAYBE- fix things only when somebody complains...Which is a way of working which would be considered unacceptable in any other place. I can't understand how the same company who gave us Google Earth and Street Views can produce such a lame project as Google Books...

And I feel really badly when I read that so many public libraries are eliminating their copies of books that "are available on Google Books".They are trusting blindly a work that, most probably, nobody checked.

Ok, I can admit this book was not an "easy one" to scan...Pages were of different format, even in different colours , with fold-out sheets...I can understand it was not an easy work. But if this was out of their technical possibilities, they should have left this book aside instead of scanning it so badly as to make it useless. I only hope no library gave away their copy because this book is "available" on the internet... Who will save books from Google Books?

Posso solo dire che PER FORTUNA la parte di testo e' disponibile in una scansione fatta dall'Internet Archive (con fondi dell'Universita' di Ottawa) ed e' perfetta, ma l'Atlante con le immagini esiste solo in questa scansione fatta da Google, ed e' un vero peccato.

Ho segnalato a Google i problemi (e ho lasciato una recensione negativa); non ho idea se faranno qualcosa a riguardo, ma non e' questo il punto.
E' ovvio che NESSUNO si e' scomodato a controllare (nemmeno molto superficialmente) la scansione di questo libro, ne' la persona che l'ha eseguita fisicamente, ne' nessun altro a Google...
In passato, come ho detto, ho cancellato un sacco di scansioni che erano parzialmente o totalmente illeggibili... Tutte erano fatte da Google.
Il Progetto Gutenberg lavora diversamente, il testo viene completamente ribattuto e ci sono diversi livelli di controlli.. I loro lavori sono perfetti quando vengono rilasciati. Altri progetti di scansionamenti rilasciano ottimi PDF, anche di libri in formati strani, o in cattive condizioni, oppure con tante immagini.
La mia stima e' che circa un quarto - un terzo dei libri che ho scaricato da Google fossero difettosi in qualche modo. A volte erano evidentemente fatti male (come in questo caso) , altre volte sembravano a posto, finche' non cominciavi a leggerli e vedevi che mancavano dei pezzi (come in una copia di uno dei romanzi di Dumas in cui mancavano le ultime due righe di ogni pagina)
Questa e' la stima che ho fatto sulle copie che ho scaricato io; naturalmente e' possibile che io sia stata eccezionalmente sfortunata, ma ho la decisa impressione che la percentuale di loro scansioni difettose sia un numero importante (non una su mille...).
La mia impressione e' che nessun controllo venga fatto su questi lavori, e che forse -FORSE- le cose vengano sistemate solo quando qualcuno si lamenta....Che e' un modo di lavorare che sarebbe considerato inaccettabile in qualunque altro ambito. Non riesco a capire come la stessa compagnia che ci ha dato Google Earth e Street View possa produrre un progetto fatto male come Google Books...
E mi sento veramente male quando leggo che tante biblioteche eliminano le loro copie cartacee dei libri che "sono disponibili in Google Books". Si fidano ciecamente di un lavoro che probabilmente non e' stato controllato da nessuno.
OK, ammetto che questo libro non era un "lavoro facile"... Le pagine avevano formati differenti, erano anche in colori diversi, con fogli pieghevoli... Posso capire che non fosse facile. Ma se fosse stato fuori dalle loro possibilita' tecniche, le persone di Google avrebbero dovuto semplicemente mettere da parte questo libro invece di farne una scansione cosi' malfatta da essere inutilizzabile. Spero solo che nessuna biblioteca abbia dato via la sua copia perche' questo libro ora e' "disponibile" su internet... Chi salvera' i libri da Google Books?

All the doodles

2011-09-06T22:11:00.001+02:00

http://www.google.com/logos/

It's the address where it's possible to see all the past Google doodles made for any country in the world!
I hope the Freddie Mercury video that was online yesterday will be available too...

Why is red so difficult to photograph?

2011-08-31T17:42:00.002+02:00

A few days ago I read a blog entry on Elisaricamo , showing some beautiful embroidered red tablecloths... The author apologized for the red of the fabrics which, she said, in photos looked very different from real . Then I remembered I too had had severe problems in taking photos of a red item I had made for Etsy just a few days before, and that photos I took of my red roses last year had totally false colours...

These are David Austin William Shakespeare 2000 roses, which should be a very dark purple-red... They WERE very dark purple-red, as impossible as it seems from these photos.

Qualche giorno fa ho letto una entry nel blog Elisaricamo che mostrava delle belle tovaglie rosse ricamate...L'autrice si scusava per il rosso del tessuto che, diceva, nelle foto risultava molto diverso dal vero.

Allora mi sono ricordata che anch'io ho avuto seri problemi nel fotogragare un oggetto rosso che avevo fatto per Etsy giusto qualche giorno prima, e che le foto che avevo fatto l'anno scorso alle mie rose avevano colori totalmente falsati...
Queste sono rose David Austin William Shakespeare 2000 che dovrebbero essere di un rosso violaceo molto scuro... ed ERANO di quel colore, per quanto sembri impossibile da queste foto.

Of course I know that the representation of "real", identical colours is impossible on screen or on printed paper, but here I'm not talking of slight differences...Here colours are really VERY different!
Naturalmente so che la rappresentazione del"vero", preciso colore su uno schermo o su carta stampata sono impossibili, ma non sto parlando di leggere differenza...Qui i colori sono davvero MOLTO diversi!

Another example: I took the following photo under a normal sunlight, not particularly strong with standard settings...Notice that the iPod looks perfectly. Why the red and orange felt case looks so bad, almost fluorescent?
I wondered what reason could lie behind all that, besides the quality of my camera. As of course my first reaction was to blame my camera (a Nikon Coolpix S570, a compact camera; nice but inexpensive), but after all photos of my holidays didn't look so bad, and it's a10 Megapixels camera, so it shouldn't even be the worst one on the market ...So why there is this problems with red objects,?
So I tried to investigate the origin of this problem on the internet, and this is a synthesis of what I discovered...

Un altro esempio: ho la foto seguente alla normale luce del sole, non particolarmente forte e con regolazioni standard...Notate che l' iPod si vede perfettamente bene. Perche' la custodia rossa e arancione allora si vede cosi' male, quasi fluorescente?

Mi sono chiesta quale ragione potesse essere alla base di questo, a parte la qualita' della macchina fotografica. Perche' naturalmente la mia prima reazione e' stata di incolpare la macchina fotografica (una Nikon Coolpix S570, una macchina compatta; carina ma economica), pero' dopotutto le foto delle mie vacanze non erano venute male , ed e' una macchina a 10 Megapixel, quindi non dovrebb essere nemmeno la peggiore sul mercato...E allora perche' c'e'questo problema con gli oggetti rossi?

Cosi' ho cercato di indagare in internet sull'origine di questo problema, e questa e' una sintesi di quello che ho scoperto...

Digital cameras capture light through a sensor with the help of a device called Bayer filter, which splits and arranges the total visible spectrum of light into the tree primary additive colours Red, Green and Blue (RGB). So in practice there are three different types of sensors...But things are not so easy. In order to simulate the human eye, which is more sensitive to the green colour wavelengths than to red or blue, Green sensitive sensors are twice the amount than Red or Blue ones.
This drawing (linked from Wikipedia) shows how sensors are positioned in a Bayer filter:

Le macchine fotografiche digitali catturano la luce attraverso un sensore con l'aiuto di un dispositivo chiamato filtro Bayer, che suddivide e ordina lo spettro visibile nei tre colori primari additivi, Rosso, Verde e Blu (RGB). Cosi' in pratica ci sono tre diversi tipid di sensori...Ma le cose non sono cosi' semplici. Perche' per simulare la sensibilita' dell'occhio umano, che e' piu' sensibile alle lunghezze d'onda nel colore verde rispetto a quelle rosse o blu, i sensori sensibili al verde sono in quantita' doppia rispetto a quelli sensibili al rosso o al blu.

Questo disegno (linkato da Wikipedia) mostra come sono posizionati i sensori in un filtro Bayer:

The most evident thing is that only 1/ 4 of all the sensors are dedicated to red. And this means that when you take a close-up photo of a bright red object, almost only those sensors will be working (and actually will probably be reading out-of scale results, so the value will be clipped at its maximum range), while the green and blue ones won't record almost anything, only very low values connected to slight shades in colour...That is, the three quarters of the pixels in that area of the sensor will show almost unsignificant values, with the remaining pixel at its maximum.
La cosa piu' evidente e' che soltanto 1/4 dei sensori sono dedicatoi al rosso. E questo significa che quando si fa una foto ravvicinata di un oggetto di un rosso vivace, quasi solo quei sensori staranno lavorando ( e in realta' probabilmente staranno leggendo valori fuori scala, cosi' le letture verrano tagliate al massimo valore disponibile), mentre i sensori del blu e del verde non staranno rilevando quasi niente, solo valri bassissimi in corrispondenza di leggere sfumature di colore.... Cioe' i tre quarti dei pixel di quell'area daranno risultati quasi insignificanti, e il rimanente quarto dara' valori al massimo livello raggiungibile.

I didn't know it, but the number of Megapixel of your camera indicates the _total_ number of single red, green and blue sensors, not the number of "dots" that compose your image, as I thought (as on screen, where every pixel is formed by a red-green and blue triad): as you need 4 pixels in the sensor (two green, one red and one blue) to get 1 pixel of the image, the real resolution of a camera is only one fourth of its Megapixel value (disappointing, isn't it?)

Then things are different, depending on the type of camera...

Non lo sapevo, ma il numero di Megapixel di una macchina fotografica indocano il numero _totale_ dei singoli sensori rossi, versi e blu, non il numero di "punti" che compongono l'immagine, come pensavo io ( come sugli schermi, dove ogni pixel e' composto da una triade rosso-verde-blu): siccome ci vogliono 4 pixel del sensore (2 verdi, uno rosso e uno blu) per formare un pixel dell'immagine, la vera risoluzione di una macchina fotografica e' solo un quarto dei suo numero di Megapixel (deludente, vero?)

Poi le cose cambiano, a seconda della macchina fotografica....

Compact cameras like mine, save the image directly as a .JPG file. The file can be of different size, depending on the camera's resolution and settings (you can choose among several quality levels) : a high-quality file from a 10 Megapixel camera will be obviously bigger and more detailed than one from a 4 Megapixel one, but basically they are both obtained through the same technology and coding, which involves the loss of information.
Data coming from the red, green and blue sensors are combined (through a "de-mosaicing algorithm") into a single .JPG image. The little information about green and blue in the case of an image that is basically red is then practically lost, and the result is an 8-bit image (see explanation below) , which will suffer from the problems we have seen: an ugly red that doesn't look like the original at all.

Le macchine compatte come la mia salvano l'immagine direttamente come file .JPG. Il file puo' avere dimensioni differenti a seconda della risoluzione della macchina fotografica e dei settaggi (si puo' scegliere tra diversi livelli di qualita'): un file ad alta qualita' di una macchina fotografica a 10 Megapixel sara ovviamente piu' grande di uno di una macchina a 4 Megapixel, ma in fondo sono ottenuti entrambi attraverso la stessa tecnologia e codifica, che implica la perdita di informazioni.

I dati provenienti dai sensori rossi, verdi e blu vengono ricombinati da un apposito algoritmo (de-mosaicing) in una singola immagine .JPG. La scarsa informazione riguardante i canali verde blu, nel caso di un'immagine fondamentalmente rossa viene praticamente persa e il risultato e' un'immagine a 8-bit (vedi spiegazione sotto) che soffrira' dei problemi che abbiamo visto: un brutto rosso che non somiglia per niente all'originale.

A .JPG file has 8 bits of colour depth for each colour channel (Red Green and Blue). It means that each primary colour can only have 256 values, and all the visible colours in a .JPG image can only be a combinations of these values. (On screen, each pixel of colour consists in one Red dot, one Green and one Blue: each of the three has its associated brightness value , that in case of .JPG format can range from 0 to 255).

Un file .JPG ha 8 bit di profondita' di colore per ciascun canale (Rosso, Verde e Blu). Significa che ogno colore primario puo' assumere soltanto 256 valori, e che tutti i colri presenti nell'immagine .JPG possono essere solo una combinazione di quei valori (Sullo schermo, ogni pixel di colore consiste in un punto rosso, uno verde e uno blu: ognuno dei tre ha associato il suo valore di luminosita', che nel caso del formato JPG puo' variare tra 0 e 255).

Higher range cameras allow saving images in RAW format... This format records exactly the data read by the Red, Green and Blue sensors, without making any operations on them. This allows a wider range of corrections later, as all the information recorded is still there, and nothing has been lost, simplified or discarded as judged "useless" by some algorithm. In our case (a red object), with a RAW format image and Photoshop or a similar program it's still possible to get some precious information about the green and blue pixel values, which can help in giving some depth to the colour; for example showing slight shades of different red that would not appear in the .JPG image.
RAW format allows better images with more brilliant colours: a RAW file has usually 12 or 14 bits of colour depth for each primary colour. 12-bit colour depth means that a primary colour (Red, Green or Blue) can have 4096 different intensity values (instead of the 256 of the JPEG!); even more in the case of 14-bit. Obviously, also the total number of colours that can be shown by this format is immensely higher than in .JPG.

Le macchine fotografiche di gamma piu' elevata permettono di salvare l'immagine in formato RAW...Questo formato registra esattamente i dati letti dai sensori blu, rossi e gialli, senza compiere nessuna operazione su di essi. Questo permette una gamma piu' ampia di correzioni successive, perche' tutta l'informazione raccolta e' ancora presente,niente e' stato perso, semplificato o cancellato perche' considerato "inutile" da qualche algoritmo. Nel nostro caso (un oggetto rosso), con l'immagine in formato RAW e Photoshop o un programma simile e' ancora possibile ottenere qualche preziosa informazione dai valori dei pixel verdi e blu, che puo' aiutare a dare profondita' al colore, ad esempio mostrando delle sfumature di rosso differenti , che non compaiono nell'immagine .JPG. Il formato RAW permette immagini migliori con colori piu' brillanti: un file RAW ha normalmente 12 o 14 bit di profondita' di colore per ciascun colore primario (Rosso, Verde e Blu). Un colore a 12 bit significa che ogni colore primario puo' assumere 4096 valori di intensita' differenti (invece dei 256 del formato JPEG!); ancora di piu' nel caso di 14 bit. Ovviamente anche il numero totale di di colori che si possono visualizzare e' immensamente piu' alto che nel JPEG.

But of course, such improvement comes with some disadvantages too! Cameras offering RAW format are definitely more expensive and usually bulkier and heavier than compact cameras. (I stopped using a reflex many years ago as I was tired of carrying around a heavy camera and a bag of lenses and I'm still convinced of my choice...I love using a camera I can simply drop in any bag, without having to worry constantly whether it's lost, damaged or stolen. The disadvantages are more than compensated by the freedom of use IMHO. On the other hand, I'm not a photographer! :-) Maybe I could consider buying a RAW format camera for Etsy photos, but one day...In the distant future! )
In addition, RAW images need much more space than JPG: even setting the highest quality , a .JPG image can take about 1/5 of the space required by RAW format...It means more memory cards and more storage space needed for back-up, and when you have several thousands photos (or more..) that makes quite a difference.
Ma naturalmente, questi miglioramenti comportano anche degli svantaggi! Le macchine fotografiche che offrono il formato RAW sono decisamente piu' costose e generalmente piu' ingombranti e pesanti delle macchine compatte. (Ho smesso di usare una reflex molti anni fa perche' ero stufa di portarmi in giro una macchina pesante e una borsa piena di obbiettivi, e sono ancora convinta della mia scelta...Mi piace usare una macchina che posso semplicemente mettere in ogni borsa, senza dovermi preoccupare costantemente di perderla, rovinarla o che me la rubino. Gli svantaggi sono piu' che compensati dalla liberta' di utilizzo, a mio avviso. D'altra parte, non sono una fotografa! :-) Magari potrei prendere in considerazione di comprare una macchina con il formato RAW per le foto per Etsy...Ma un giorno, in un lontano futuro!)
Inoltre, le immagini RAW richiedono molto piu' spazio di quelle .JPG: anche selezionando la massima qualita', un'immagine .JPG richiede solo 1/5 dello spazio richiesto dal formato RAW... Vuol dire piu' schede di memoria e piu' spazio richiesto per i backup, e quando si hanno diverse migliaia di foto comincia a fare una bella differenza...

Anyway, the point it: is there any solution for those who only have a compact camera and are trying to take a decent photo of something red? Or do we have to discard our compacts and pass to more professional cameras?
I found a couple of useful suggestions on the internet.

Comunque, il punto e': c'e' qualche soluzione per chi ha solo una macchina forografica compatta e cerca di fare delle foto decenti a qualcosa di rosso? O possiamo solo scartare le macchine compatte e passare a quelle piu' professionali?

Ho trovato un paio di suggerimenti utili su internet.

First suggestion is to manually change the exposure time so as underexpose the image (most cameras, even cheap ones, will allow some sort of manual correction. Look up on your camera manual, if you have never used this function!) ...This should avoid the nasty overexposing of red pixels (sensor pixels going out of range and value being clipped at maximum, do you remember? ). Of course this will also lead to a generally underexposed image, but it will be easier to correct it later with Photoshop or GIMP or some similar program.
Il primo suggerimento e' di modificare manualmente il tempo di esposizione per sottoesporre l'immagine (la maggior parte delle macchine, anche wquelle piu' economiche, permettono qualche tipo di correzione manuale. Cercate nel manuale della vostra, se non avete mai usato questa funzione!) ...Questo dovrebbe servire ad evitare la brutta sovraesposizione dei pixel rossi ( i pixel del sensore che andavano a fondo scala e quindi venivano tagliati sul valore massimo, ricordate?). Naturalmente questo portera' anche ad un'immagine sottoesposta in generale, ma sara' piu' facile correggerla in seguito con Photoshop o GIMP o qualche programma simile.

Another suggestion is to correct the "wrong" .JPG photo with Photoshop or GIMP after having it converted to LAB mode (I use GIMP, and this is done by selecting Colors --> Components --> Decompose; in the dialog choose LAB and in the Color mode drop-down and tick the Decompose to layers . I assume in Photoshop it's something similar). LAB mode will appear confusing at first if you have never used it before, as it separates the image in three levels: one of Lightness and two of colours ("A" and "B") . This way colour channels are separated from the lightness information, and you can work on colour to correct it without changing the brightness of the photo. But it won't be so easy, as the colour layers are not in direct correspondence to primary colours (have you noticed that there are only TWO colour layers for THREE primary colours?) so it's something that must be learnt and practiced...
I'm just starting with it , but results are encouraging. On the other hand ,things that are not there cannot be recovered; that is correction can show a more realistic red, but it won't make the miracle of recovering data that were discarded or lost, and make shades re-appear from nothing.

But red correction will be the topic for a future post!

Un altro suggerimento e' di correggere il file .JPG "sbagliato" con Photoshop o GIMP dopo averlo convertito in modalita' LAB (io uso GIMP, e si fa elezionando Colori --> Componenti --> Scomponi; nella finestra che compare scegliere LAB e selzionare la casella Scomponi in Livelli . Credo che in Photoshopsia molto simile).

L' immagine in LAB vi confondera' all'inizio se non avete mai usato questa modalita', perche' separa l'immagine in tre livelli distinti: uno di Luminosita' e due di colore ("A" e "B"). In questo modo le informazioni sul colore vengono separate da quelle sulla luminosita' e si puo' lavorare sul colore per correggerlo senza interferire con la luminosita' della foto. Ma non sara' tanto facile all'inizio, perche' i livelli colore non sono in corrispondenza diretta con i colori primari (avete notato che ci sono solo DUE livelli colore per TRE colori primari?), quindi bisogna imparare e fare un po' di pratica...

Ho appena incominciato a imparare a correggere il colore in questo modo, ma i risultati sono incoraggianti. D'altro canto, non si possono recuperare cose che non ci sono piu'... Cioe', si puo' riuscire ad ottenere un rosso piu' realistico, ma non si puo' fare il miracolo di recuperare dati mancanti o persi, e far riapparire sfumature dal nulla.

Ma la correzione del rosso sara' l'argomento di un post futuro!

Digitization of Il Ricamo will start again soon...

2011-08-24T23:34:00.001+02:00

...But for a few more days I don't think it will be possible!
These days it's very hot in Milano (up to 40° C), and I can't even think of ironing (either ancient magazines or laundry...)
My ceiling fans help a bit (I have no air conditioning), but they would be a danger for the large pages of the ancient magazine! They are very delicate along the folds, and even a light breeze like the one from the ceiling fan is enough to tear them. They must be handled with _a lot_ of care! It's incredible how frail some paper becomes after a century... Of course this depends on the low-quality paper used: it was the same kind used for newspapers; not the good paper I can find in some of my books that are older than that and still look almost brand-new.
So, for the moment I can just share an image from an old issue (which I already published on Italian Needlecrafts) , showing a funny 1906 advertisement of a product meant to "preserve and develop hair, moustache, beard, eyelashes and eyebrows" :-)

La scansione de "Il Ricamo" ricomincera' presto....

Ma non penso che sara' possibile per qualche altro giorno!

In questi giorni fa molto caldo a Milano (fino a 40 gradi) e non riesco nemmeno a pensare di stirare (riviste antiche o biancheria...)

Le mie ventole a soffitto aiutano un po' (non ho condizionatori), ma sarebbero un pericolo per le grandi pagine del giornale! Le pagine sono delicatissime lungo le pieghe e anche una leggera brezza come quella delle ventole e' sufficiente a strapparle (bisogna maneggiarle con _molta_ cura! E' incredibile come diventi fragile certa carta dopo cento anni...Naturalmente questo dipende dalla scarsa qualita' della carta usata, che era la stessa dei quotidiani, non la bella carta che trovo in alcuni dei miei libri piu' antichi di queste riviste, che sembra ancora quasi nuova.

Cosi', per il momento posso solo condividere un'immagine da un vecchio numero (che ho gia' pubblicato su Italian Needlecrafts ) , che mostra una buffa pubblicita' del 1906 di un prodotto "per la conservazione e lo sviluppo dei capelli, baffi, barba, ciglia e sopracciglia" :-)

Free PDF book on Space Shuttle

2011-08-21T12:26:00.000+02:00

After 30 years and 135 missions, the Space Shuttle program is over. Boeing created a PDF commemorative book that can be downloaded for free from their site ("Where Memories Soar - The Legacy of the Boeing Space Shuttle Program", 104 pages, 8.71 Mb) . This is the link ; just click with right mouse button and select "save object as".

Dopo 30 anni e 135 missioni, il programma Space Shuttle e' terminato. La Boeing ha creato un libro commemorativo in formato PDF che puo' essere scaricato gratuitamente dal loro sito(""Where Memories Soar - The Legacy of the Boeing Space Shuttle Program", 104 pagine, 8.71 Mb) Questo e' il link ; non e' necessaria nessuna registrazione, basta cliccare con il tasto destro del mouse e selezionare "salva destinazione come come..."

Holidays VI: Tours, and return

2011-08-14T21:33:00.087+02:00

We visited Tours on our next-to-last day of holiday, and it was our last visit as I wanted to keep the last day free for resting, last-minute shopping (small gifts for relatives and friends) and packing up...
Abbiamo visitato Tours il penultimo giorno di vacanza, ed e' stata l'ultima gita perche' volevo tenere l'ultimo giorno libero per riposarci, fare gli ultimi acquisti (cose da portare ad amici e parenti) e per fare i bagagli...

Tours is a very ancient city and has also been the capital of France (in 15th century); unfortunately it was extensively damaged by bombings both in Prussian war (1870) and in WW2, but the historic centre still offers many fascinatic views and several ancient homes that have survived destruction.
Tours e' una citta' molto antica ed e' stata anche la capitale della Francia (nel XV secolo); sfortunatamente e' stata molto danneggiata dai bombardamenti sia durante la guerra franco-prussiana (1870) sia nella Seconda Guerra Mondiale, ma il centro storico offre ancora parecchie viste interessanti e case antiche che sono sopravvissute alle devastazioni.

Luckily the cathedral was spared, and it's very beautiful! (Here's a detail of the facade, the main rosace)

La cattedrale per fortuna e' stata risparmiata, ed e' molto bella ( ecco un dettaglio della facciata, il rosone principale)

Most of its stained glasses are original, but a few are modern (and probably substitute some that were destroyed in war).

The cloister, La Psalette, is worth a visit.

La maggior parte delle sue vetrate sono originali, ma alcune sono moderne (e probabilmente ne sostituiscono altre che sono state distrutte in guerra)

Vale la pena visitare il chiostro, La Psalette .

There we saw one of the most unusual medieval capitals, showing bats...They seem to keep their wings with little hands!

Qui abbiamo visto uno dei capitelli medievali piu' insolito, che mostra dei pipistrelli...sembrano tenere le loro ali con delle manine!

There are also some modern stained glass windows, showing contemporary items such as modern ships, planes, etc... It's very unusual to see such things represented this way! But the effect is beautiful, and (rather suprisingly) they seem to fit the ancient "environment" quite well
Ci sono anche alcune vetrate moderne, che rappresentano oggetti di oggi, come navi moderne, aerei, ecc. E' molto insolito vedere queste cose rappresentate in questo modo! Ma l'effetto e' bello e (cosa abbastanza sorprendente) sembrano inserirsi piuttosto bene nell' "ambiente" antico.

Anyway the most famous church in Tours is another one, Basilique de St.Martin , as here is buried St.Martin (who was bishop of Tours) and lots of pilgrims still come here to pay hommage to his grave especially around 11th November (St. Martin's day)

Comunque la chiesa piu' famosa di Tours e' un'altra, la Basilica di San Martino, perche' qui e' seppellito San Martino (vescovo di Tours) e molti pellegrini vengono ancora qui a rendere omaggio alla sua tomba, soprattutto nel periodo intorno all'11 Novembre (S. Martino).

But the Basilica itself is rather disappointing; in spite of its religious importance, it's a rather unremarkable building of the first years of 1900, in a pseudo-byzantine style that doesn't make a great impression after seeing so many ancient churches and castles in the last two weeks! But at least, I think, this will prevent pilgrims from being distracted by hordes of tourists going around loudly (as it happens in so many beautiful churches!)

Ma la Basilica in se' e' piuttosto deludente; nonostante la sua importanza religiosa, e' un edificio abbastanza comune di inizio '900, in uno stile pseudo-bizantino che non fa una grande impressione dopo aver visto cosi' tante chiese a castelli antichi nelle ultime due settimane! Ma almeno, penso, questo impedira' che i pellegrini siano disturbati dalle orde di turisti che vanno in giro rumorosamente (come succede in tante belle chiese!)

We pass by another church, St. Julien, that appears very beautiful from the outside, but that seems permanently closed and abandoned...my guide too says it's "closed for an indetermined time" . I can only take some photos of capitols outside it; pity!

Passiamo per un'altra chiesa, St. Julien, che sembra molto bella dall'esterno ma appare chiusa permanentemente e abbandonata..Anche la mia guida dice "chiusa a tempo indeterminato". Posso solo fare qualche foto ai capitelli all'esterno; peccato!

Two days after after Tours, we left Cheverny to return to Milano, 900 kms away...Well, in spite of bad weather we managed to see many beautiful things this year too!

And France was confirmed as an inexpensive place to spend our holidays, as I spent 380 Euros for two weeks of campsite for the three of us (electricity included!). Oil was slightly cheaper than in Italy (prices are rather variable, and by buying it out of big shopping centers I managed to stay always under 1.5 Euros per litre, which was the oil price I paid in Italy), and cooking our own food for one of our meals every days limited the expenses... Most places allowed free entrance to people up to 18 - 21 years old (sometimes 25), so neither of my children paid the ticket (except for a few non-state owned castles), and this too helped a lot! I guess this won't be our last holiday in France...

Due giorni dopo Tours, abbiamo lasciato Cheverny per tornare a Milano, a 900 km di distanza...Be', nonostante il maltempo, siamo riusciti a vedere delle belle cose anche quest'anno!

E la Francia si e' comfermata un posto economico dove passare le nostre vacanze, infatti alla fine ho speso 380 Euro per due settimane di campeggio per noi tre, (inclusa l'elettricita'). La benzina costava leggermente meno che in Italia (I prezzi variavano parecchio, e facendo benzina fuori dai grossi centri commerciali sono sempre riuscita a stare sotto l'Euro e mezzo al litro, che era quello che costava in Italia quando sono partita), e cucinando da noi uno dei due pasti della giornata abbiamo limitato le spese...La maggior parte dei posti permettono l'ingresso gratuito dei giovani fino ai 18 - 21 anni (a volte fino ai 25), cosi' nessuno dei miei due figli normalmente doveva pagare il biglietto (tranne che per alcuni castelli non di proprieta' dello stato), e anche questo ha aiutato molto! Penso che questa non sara' la nostra ultima vacanza in Francia...

Holidays V: Angers and its tapestries

2011-08-05T00:45:00.002+02:00

I couldn't go to the Loire's Valley and miss Angers! I had wanted to go to see its famous Apolcalypse tapestries for years, and 200 km didn't look such a long additional distance... So we went :-)
These tapestries are in the Angers castle. This is a very different castle form the other ones we saw in the Loire's valley...Those one were basically built to be country palaces for the royals (or noble families), whereas Angers castle is a real fortress, much more ancient; with thick walls, towers,a deep moat (now embellished by beautiful gardens)...A place made to resist long sieges in times of war.

Non potevo andare nella Valle della Loira e perdermi Angers! Da anni volevo vedere i famosi Arazzi dell'Apocalisse, e 200 km non erano poi una distanza troppo grande... Cosi' ci siamo andati :-)

Questi arazzi si trovano nel castello di Angers. Questo e' un castello molto differente dagli altri che abbiamo visto nella Valle della Loira...Quelli erano costruiti principalmente come residenze di campagna per i reali (o le famiglie nobili), mentre il castello di Angers e'una vera fortezza, molto piu' antico, con mura spesse, un fossato profondo (ora abbellito da uno splendido giardino)... Un posto fatto per resistere a lunghi assedi in tempo di guerra.

The Apocalypse tapestries (made in 14th century) were a series of large tapestries, 6 meters high and with the total length of 133 metres...But they were later cut into smaller pieces and some of them are now missing, so the present situation is of a long gallery with pieces hung where they should have been...Except that there are empty places from time to time, where a piece (or a whole scene) is missing.

The gallery is _very_ dark.... Actually it's completely in the dark, and the tapestry is lit by two rows of tiny LED light (or what looks like LED lights) , one on the bottom of it and one on the top..Light is just enough to "half-see" colours, but no more than that! It's very difficult to make them out in such faint light.

Very surprisingly, my camera was able to take some photos...(photos are allowed, provided no flash is used)With ugly colours, but still visible! Anyway I also bought a book and several postcards at the castle's bookshop, the tapestries can be seen a lot better there, and good historical and technical explanations are provided.

Gli arazzi dell'Apocalisse erano in origine una serie di grandi arazzi, alti 6 metri e con una lunghezza totale di 133 metri...Ma in seguito furono tagliati a pezzi e alcuni di essi sono andati perduti, cosi' la situazione di adesso e' di una lunga galleria, con i pezzi appesi nelle posizioni dove avrebbero dovuto trovarsi....Ma con degli spazi vuoti di tanto in tanto, dove dei pezzi (o delle intere scene) sono mancanti.

La galleria e' _molto_ scura...In realta' e' totalmente al buio, e gli arazzi sono illuminati da fie file di minuscole luci a LED (o almeno cosi' sembrano), una sul lato superiore, una su quello inferiore....La luce e' appena sufficiente a intravvedere i colori, ma niente piu' di questo! E' molto difficile vederli in una luce cosi' debole.

Sorprendentemente, la mia macchina fotografica e' riuscita a fare qualche foto (le foto sono permesse, se fatte senza flash)...Sono venute con colori brutti, ma comunque visibili! Comunque ho comprato un libro e vare cartoline nella libreria del castello perche' da li' potevo vedere gli arazzi molto meglio, oltre naturalmente ad avere una spiegazione storica e tecnica.

These tapestries are fantastic, and I'm so happy we went there, in spite of all the kms I had to drive... It was definitely worth it! They are so different from the Renaissance tapestries we saw in other castles (some of which are remarkable, anyway; I especialli remember those in Azay-Le-Rideau), these are medieval and have a totally different style.

Questi arazzi sono fantastici, sono contentissima di averli visti, nonostante tutti i chilometri che ho dovuto fare...Decisamente ne valeva la pena! Sono cosi' diversi dagli arazzi Rinascimentali che abbiamo visto negli altri castelli (dei quali comunque parecchi sono belli; ricordo soprattutto quelli ad Azay-Le-Rideau), questi sono medievali e hanno uno stile completamente diverso.

Composition is kept simpler and more "linear" than in later tapestries, one never gets the impression of "too many details" (compare those above with the following tapestry, from Chambord castle)

La composizione e' molto piu' semplie e piu' "lineare" che negli arazzi piu' recenti, non si ha mai l'impressione di "troppi dettagli" (come si puo' capire confrontando gli arazzi delle foto sopra con quello seguente, del castello di Chambord)

But there are other famous tapestries in Angers... On the other side of the river, a few hundred meters away, there is another series of tapestries, a modern one, made by Jean Lurçat. Lurçat, inspired by the Apocalypse tapestries, decided to make another great series of tapestries, that would be called "La joie de vivre" ("Joy of living") and would celebrate life... But those were difficult years (it was the second part of 1950's), peace was unstable while a nuclear holocaust looked like a realistic possibily...And "La joie de vivre" soon became "Le chant du monde" (Song of the world) starting with pieces that had titles such as "La grande menace", "L'homme de Hiroshima", "La fin de tout" (The great menace, Hiroshima Man, The end of everything) .

Later parts of this compositions have lighter themes and celebrate things such as the conquest of space, or poetry...But Lurçat died before ending his work, so we are left only with a part of what "Le chant du monde" was meant to be.

Anyway, this is the only photo I was allowed to take, as unfortunately it's forbidden to take photos beyond that ribbon...

Ma ci sono altri arazzi famosi ad Angers...Sull'altra sponda del fiume, apoche centinaia di metri di distanza, c'e' un'altra serie di arazzi, moderna stavolta, realizzata da Jean Lurçat. Lurçat, ispirato dagli arazzi dell'Apocalisse, decise di creare un'altra serie di arazzi, che si sarebbe intitolata " La joie de vivre" (la gioia di vivere) e avrebbe celebrato la vita...Ma erano anni difficili (era la seconda parte degli anni '50), la pace era instabile e l'olocausto nucleare appariva una possibilita' concreta...E "la joie de vivre" presto divento' "Le chant du monde" (Il canto del mondo) , con le parti iniziali intitolate La grande menace", "L'homme de Hiroshima", "La fin de tout" (La grande minaccia, l'uomo di Hiroshima, La fine di tutto). Le parti successive di questa composizione hanno temi piu' leggeri e celebrano cose come la conquista dello spazio e la poesia...Ma Lurçat mori' prima di terminare la sua opera, cosi' oggi ci rimane solo una parte di quello che "Le chant du monde" avrebbe dovuto essere.

In ogni modo, questa e' l'unica fotografia che ho potuto fare, perche' purtroppo e' vietato fotografare una volta oltrepassato quel cordone

It's a pity, as I couldn't find very good books or images of these tapestries, and they are so much better from real than in the photos I had seen online! The background is black, that makes a beautiful contrast with the bright colours used for the images! There are a lot of golden yellow and red and the whole is so lively, especially as the place is very bright itself, with good natural and artificial light.
We see these tapestry and the textile museum next to them, then it's time to go back to Cheverny!

E' un peccato, perche' non sono riuscita a trovare libri o immagini molto belle di questi arazzi, e sono molto piu' belli dal vivo che nelle foto che ho trovato on-line (o nei libri) ! Lo sfondo e' nero, e fa un bel contrasto con i colori vivaci usati per i soggetti! Ci sono molti toni gialli e rossi, e l'insieme e' molto vivace, tanto piu' che il posto e' luminosissimo di suo, con una buona illuminazione naturale e artificiale.

Vediamo questi arazzi e il museo tessile che c'e' accanto, poi e' ora di tornare indietro a Cheverny!

Holidays IV : Castles

2011-08-03T21:52:00.004+02:00

Our next stop is Cheverny, about 280 kms westward from Autun. The campsite (Camping Les Saules) is beautiful: quiet, very green, with wide places for tent and car, and pleasantly spider-free (which we appreciate a lot ...). Unfortunately sunshine remains a dream. We have to buy heavier clothes and new shoes, just to have a dry change.
La nostra tappa successiva e' Cheverny, circa 280 km a ovest di Autun. Il campeggio (Camping Les Saules) e' bello: silenzioso, molto verde, con piazzole ampie per tenda e macchin..E senza ragni (cosa che apprezziamo molto). Sfortunatamente il sole resta un sogno. Dobbiamo comprare vestiti piu' pesanti e altre scarpe, tanto per avere un ricambio asciutto.

This won't prevent us from visiting the main castles and cities of the area! But we have to change our plans; I had planned we could make another stop more westward in another few days, but we don't feel like moving the tent yet again under the rain...So we decide to use Cheverny as starting point for the rest of the holiday and visit all the places from there, even if this will mean longer drives, and therefore a few places will have to be skipped.
Questo non ci impedira' di visitare i castelli principali e le citta' della zona! Ma dobbiamo cambiare progetti; avevo pensato che avremmo potuto fare un'altra tappa pio' ad ovest qualche giorno dopo, ma non ce la sentiamo di spostare la tenda un'altra volta sotto l'acqua...Cosi' decidiamo di usare Cheverny come base d'appoggio per il resto della vacanza, anche se questo significhera' fare piu' strada, e quindi alcuni posti che pensavamo di vistare dovranno essere invece saltati.

Cheverny itself has a beautiful castle, and it's still inhabited today (but it can be visited, and we did)
Anche Cheverny ha un bel castello, che e' abitato tuttora (ma puo' essere visitato, e infatti l'abbiamo fatto)

In the following days we manage to visit Chambord
Nei giorni successivi riusciamo a visitare Chambord

Chenonceau (on a sunny day!)

Chenonceau (in una bella giornata!)

Azay-Le-Rideau

And then Amboise, with the chapel containing the grave of Leonardo da Vinci.

E Amboise, con la cappella dove si trova la tomba di Leonardo da Vinci.

We also visited Blois, which is very near Cheverny and it's a beautiful city. Of course, it has a castle too!

Abbiamo visitato anche Blois, che e' molto vicina a Cheverny ed e' una bella citta'. Ovviamente, c'e' anche un castello!

But not only that...In front of the castle, there is the "Maison de la Magie " (the House of Magic), dedicated to Jean-Eugène Robert Houdin, who founded modern magic (whose monument can be seen in the right corner in the photo below)... Normally the House looks like this

Ma non c'e' solo quello...Di fronte al castello c'e' la "Casa della Magia" Maison de la Magie), dedicata a Jean-Eugène Robert Houdin, il fondatore della magia moderna (il cui monumento si puo' vedere nell'angolo a destra della foto sotto). Normalmente la casa ha questo aspetto

But at the change of the hour, the house takes life and giant dragon-heads (and a tail!) get out of its windows, waving and making noises!

Ma al cambio dell'ora, la casa prende vita e dellegigantesche teste di drago (e una coda!) escono dalle finestre, agitandosi ed emettendo suoni!

(Francesca complained for the lack of flames; which indeed would add to the show...)

(Francesca si e' lamentata per la mancanza di fiamme, che senza dubbio aggiungerebbero qualcosa allo spettacolo...)

Of course all these castles can look similar to a hasty tourist...But each one of them has its own style and "personality"...

We learned to recognize the salamander that was the symbol of Francois I (it was always funny to see how the salamander, this small and shy animal, had become a sort of big fire-breathing dragon.. :-))

Naturalmente tutti questi castelli possono sembrare simili ad un turista frettoloso....Ma ognuno di essi ha il suo stile e la sua "personalita'"

Abbiamo imparato a riconoscere la salamandra, che era il simbolo di Francesco I (era sempre divertente vedere come la salamndra, questo animaletto timido e minuscolo, diventava una specie di drago che spitava fuoco... :-) )

And the hedgehog that was the symbol of King Louis XII
E il porcospino, simbolo del re Luigi XII

It was interesting to explore and compare different building techniques and! How different was the solution chosen for the roof of Azay-le-Rideau castle, compared to the the "ship's hull" of Jacques Coeur's palace in Bourges!
E' stato interessante esplorare e confrontare le diverse tecniche di costruzione! Come e' diversa la soluzione scelta per il tetto del castello di Azay-Le-Rideau, confrontata con il tetto "a scafo di nave" del palazzo di Jacques Coeur a Bourges!

I took lots of photos, mostly of details that probably I'm the only one to appreciate and would be too boring for anyone else!

(I returned home with about 800 photos. Digital cameras are a great invention....)

Ho fatto un sacco di fotografie, per lo piu' di dettagli che probabilmente sono l'unica ad apprezzare e che sarebbero troppo noiosi per chiunque altro (Sono tornata con circa 800 fotografie. Le macchine fotografiche digitali sono una grande invenzione...)

Holidays III: Dijon and Bourges

2011-07-31T21:58:00.020+02:00

While camping in Autun, we spent two days visiting Dijon and Bourges, that are not too far from there.
I had never been in Dijon before, and it was a real discovery! It's an amazing city, with an ancient center where every other house is worth taking a photo (which I often did...)

Mentre eravamo campeggiati ad Autun, abbiamo passato due giorni a visitare Digione e Bourges, che non sono troppo lontane da la'.

Non ero mai stata Digione, ed e' stata una vera scoperta! E' una citta' sorprendente, con un centro storico dove una casa su due sarebbe da fotografare (e spesso l'ho fatto...)

Lots of houses still have carved wooden beams, and you can see hunting scenes...

Tantissime case hanno ancora delle travi di legno intagliato, e si possono vedere scene di caccia...

Or strange monsters...
O strani mostri...

Or human faces...

O volti umani...

On the most ramarkable houses, a plate tells their history.They are all numbered, so it's possible to make a tour and see all the main buildings in Dijon...But we have no time to visit the city so well! And the time is cold and wet, it's just stopped raining but will start again soon... So we just make a walk and see what we can.

Sulle case piu' notevoli, una targa ne racconta la storia. Sono tutte numerate, cosi' penso sia possibile fare un giro e vedere tutti i principali edifici di Digione...Ma noi non abbiamo il tempo di visitare la citta' cosi' bene! E fa freddo e c'e' umido, ha appena smesso di piovere ma ricomincera' presto...Cosi' facciamo solo una passeggiata e vediamo quello che possiamo.

The main stop was Notre-Dame church...

La meta principale e' la chiesa di Notre-Dame...

It has an unusal facade with an incredible number of gargoyles, and some wonderful stained glass windows of the 13th century
Ha una facciata insolita con un numero incredibile di doccioni, e delle meravigliose vetrate del XIII secolo

On an outside wall of this church, there is a sculpted owl that is supposed to bring luck to those who touch it with their left hand ...Unsurprisingly it's been consumed by the touch of people and it's almost unrecognizeable!
Su un muro esterno della chiesa, c' e' una civetta scolpita che si crede porti fortuna a quelli che la toccano con la mano sinistra... Non stupisce che sia stata consumata dallle mani delle persone, fino quasi a renderla irriconoscibile!

But the owl has become the symbol of the city, and many cute versions of it can be seen a bit everywhere, even on metallic arrow in the sidewalk, indicating a touristic walk.

Ma la civetta e' diventata il simbolo della citta', e in molte versioni "carine" si puo' vedere un po' ovunque, anche su delle frecce metalliche nel marciapiede che indicano un percorso turistico.

Bourges, that we visit another day, it's a city I already saw lots of years ago, and I only had a vague memory of a wonderful palace there... So I decided to return with my children to see it again with them.

Bourges, che visitiamo un altro giorno, e' una citta' che ho gia' visto molti anni fa, e avevo solo un vago ricordo di un palazzo bellissimo...Cosi' ho deciso di tornarci con i miei figli per rivederlo insieme a loro.

Jacques Coeur was a merchant, a very rich one... He became the master of the mint at some point in his life, but his fortune changed several times...He became immensely rich, but then fell in disgrace and saw all his wealth confiscated, had to run and live in exile... His life sounds like a novel; actually it's rather surprising nobody made a movie of it yet!

Jacques Coeur era un mercante, uno molto ricco...Divento' il capo della zecca durante la sua vita, ma la sua fortuna cambio' varie volte... Divenne immensamente ricco, ma cadde in disgrazia e vide tutte le sue ricchezze confiscate, dovette fuggire e vivere in esilio...La sua vita sembra un romanzo, e anzi e' abbastanza sorprendente che nessuno ci abbia ancora fatto un film!

He built this palace in Bourges at the top of hiw wealth...It's a palace worth of a king! At the time, most of its many hundreds window panes were made of decorated and stained glass... Today only one of them remains! It shows one of Coeur's commercial ships and let us imagine how the palace looked some hundreds years ago.

Costrui' questo palazzo a Bourges mentre era ricco...E' un palazzo degno di un re! All'epoca, la maggior parte delle sue centinaia di finestre erano decorate o con vetri a mosaico...Ne rimane soltanto una oggi! Mostra una delle navi mercantili di Coeur e ci lascia immaginare come doveva apparire il palazzo qualche centinaio di anni fa.

Original furniture has long disappeared, but we can see how rich this palace must have been by the quality of stone decorations everywhere (sometimes showing exotic plants or animals Coeur saw in his travels)...

Il mobilio originale e' ormai sparito, ma si puo' vedere la ricchezza di questo palazzo dalla qualita' delle decorazioni scolpite ovunque nella pietra (a volte raffiguranti piante esotiche o animali visti da Coeur durante i suoi viaggi)

I took photos of a couple of ceilings in Jacques Coeur's palace

Ho fatto un paio di foto ai soffitti del palazzo Jacques-Coeur

....But unfortunately I didn't take any of the most remarkable ceiling of the palace, under the roof, that is made just like a ship's hull... I found one on Flickr, here

Sfortunatamente non ne ho fatta nessuna del soffitto piu' notevole del palazzo, nel sottotetto, che e' fatto esattamente come lo scafo di una nave... Ne ho trovata una su Flickr, qui

But one cannot visit Bourges without going to see its cathedral, St. Etienne. It's the widest Gothic cathedral in France ....And it's huge! It's so big that I find no way for my poor camera to show it all.

Ma non si puo' visitare Bourges senza andare a vedere la sua cattedrale, St. Etienne. E' la cattedrale gotica piu' ampia di Francia...Ed e' enorme! E' cosi' grande che non riesco a trovare un modo per inquadrarla tutta con la mia povera macchina fotografica.

All the columns and architectural elements are finely sculpted...They are all different!

Tutte le colonne e gli elementi architettonici sono scolpiti finemente...Sono tutti diversi!

I could have looked at it for hours if my children hadn't complained!

And the inside was just as beautiful, lighted by a lot of wonderful stained glasses from the 13th century (I bought a beautiful book explaining them) Colours are absolutely fantastic, photos don't show make them justice at all...They must be seen from real... And we can just imagine them in a sunny day!

Potrei essere stata a guardare per ore se miei figli non si fossero lamentati!

E l'interno era altrettanto bello, illuminato da un gran numero di vetrate a mosaico del XIII secolo (ho comprato un bel libro che le illustra e le spiega) I colori sono assolutamente fantastici, le foto non rendono giustizia per niente...Bisogna vederli dal vivo..E possiamo solo immaginarli in un giorno di sole!

But the first part of hour holiday is over; we have camped in Autun for 5 nights and now it's time to move our tent to Cheverny and visit the Loire's valley...

Ma la prima parte della nostra vacanza e' terminata; abbiamo campeggiato ad Autun per 5 notti e ora e' tempo di spostare la tenda a Cheverny a visitare la valle della Loira...

Holidays II: still Autun...

2011-07-30T18:03:00.221+02:00

Walking around Autun, we saw...A group of Roman Legionaries marching by the town! :-)
Passeggiando per Autun, abbiamo visto... Un gruppo di legionari romani che marciavano per la citta'! :-)

So we discovered that Autun is the base of the VIII Legion Augusta (a group of Roman history re-enactment); we had arrived in own right in the middle of this years' "Roman Days" (Journeés Romaines) that were from 15 to 17th July...
E cosi' abbiamo scoperto che Autun e' la sede dell'VII Legione Augusta (un gruppo di rievocazione storica Romana), eravamo arrivati proprio nel mezzo delle "Giornate Romane" ((Journeés Romaines) che erano dal 15 al 17 Luglio...

We passed by their camp, which showed demonstrations of Roman techniques, (ranging from weapons to musical instruments) and also illustrates the most recent archeological excavations of the area, but a lot more things can be seen at the Musée Rolin, which we visited on the following day...

Siamo passati per l'accampamento, dove c'erano dimostrazioni di tecniche Romane (che andavano dalle armi agli strumenti musicali) e che illustravano anche le scoperte piu' recenti negli scavi archeologici dei dintorni, ma molte pu' cose potevano essere viste al Museo Rolin , che abbiamo visitato l'indomani....

It houses an important collection of Autun items, dating from Roman times...

Il Museo Rolin custodisce un'importante collezione di oggetti di Autun, che vanno dal'epoca romana...

...Up to medieval works and beyond. This is "Eve", which comes from the cathedral and looks surprisingly modern in spite of its almost 900 years.

...Fino a lavori medievali e oltre. Questa e' "Eva", che proviene dalla cattedrale e sembra sorprendentemente moderna nonostante i suoi quasi 900 anni.

This and the other sculptures of the cathedral are the work of a mysterious sculptor, Gislebertus...No information about him remains, except his name (and his works!).

Questa e le altre sculture della cattedrale sono opera di un misterioso scultore, Gislebertus...Nessun'altra informazione resta oltre al suo nome (e ai suoi lavori!).

The St.Lazare cathedral is so rich with all the "usual" medieval imagery of monsters and mythical creatures one would expect (as wel as biblical scenes, of course) But what I especially liked was a capital showing the landing of Noah's ark, on what looks a pyramidal mountain (possibly inspired to the author by the Pierre de Couhard, in much better conditions 900 years ago? ) . I'm sorry the photo is so bad, but it was taken in the dark, with no flash and the camera really did miracles! I would have never expected to see something recognizable.

La cattedrale St.Lazare e' ricchissima di tutte le "solite" immagini medievali di mostri e creature mitiche che ci si aspetta (oltre naturalmente a immagini bibliche). Ma una cosa che mi e' piaciuta particolarmente e' stata un capitello raffigurante l'arca di Noe che attracca su quella che sembra una montagna a piramide (forse ispirata all'autore dalla Pietra di Couhard, che 900 anni fa doveva essere in condizioni molto migliori?). Mi spiace che la foto sia cosi' brutta, ma e' stata fatta senza flash e la macchina fotografica ha veramente fatto miracoli! Non mi sarei mai aspettata di vedere qualcosa di riconoscibile.

One cannot fail to notice two statues, as their style is so different from the rest of the cathedral...

They represent Pierre Jeannin, baron de Montjeu, and his wife.

Non si puo' non notare due statue, perche' hanno uno stile molto diverso dal resto della cattedrale..

Rappresentano Pierre Jeannin, barone di Montjeu, e sua moglie.

Pierre Jeannin was the president of Bourgogne Parliament, in Dijon, in the second half of 16th century and he prevented the massacres of St. Bartholomew from spreading to the Bourgogne region, argueing that "orders from a very angry king must be obeyed very slowly". Thanks to his "slow obedience", many people were saved!

Pierre Jeannine era il presidente del parlamento di Borgogna, a Digione, nella seconda meta' del XVI secolo e impedi' che i massacri di S. Bartolomeo si diffondessero in Borgogna, sostenedo che "gli ordini di un re molto arrabbiato vanno eseguiti molto lentamente". Grazie alla sua "obbedienza lenta", molte persone si salvarono!

Contemporary Autun looks like a very tourist-friendly town, where it's easy to leave the car parked in the center...
L'Autun di oggi sembra una citta' molto amica dei turisti, nella quale e' facile lasciare la macchina parcheggiata in centro...

...and walk around by its narrow (and often pedestrian-only) streets. Only too many closed shops suggest that crisis must have hit hard here too...
...E camminare per le sue stradine (spesso pedonalizzate). Soltanto i troppi negozi chiusi suggeriscono che anche qui la crisi deve aver colpito duramente...

While alking around we noticed a lot of small square blue signs of Piedibus stops, with a very cute design!

Camminando per la citta', notiamo molti piccoli segnali di fermata del Piedibus, con un disegno molto carino!

For those unfamiliar with the concept of "Piedibus", well, it's just like a schoolbus, only there is no bus! There is only a "driver" and one or more adult helpers, and everybody walks but children are allowed to join or leave the "piedibus" only at its stops, like a real bus...It's a nice ecological way to bring children from home to school where distances are within walkable distance! My daughter's former school too organizes that service, but we don't have such beautiful stop signs! :-)

Per chi non conosce il concetto di "piedibus"..Be', e' come uno scuolabus, solo non c'e' autobus! C'e' solu un "guidatore" e uno o piu' aiutanti adulti, e tutti camminano ma i bambini possono aggiungersi o lasciare il "piedibus" soltanto alle fermate... E' un'idea carina ed ecologica per portare i bambini da casa a scuola quando le distanze sono percorribili a piedi! Anche la vecchia scuola di mia figlia organizza questo servizio, ma non abbiamo dei bei cartelli per le fermate! :-)

Holidays I : Autun

2011-07-28T23:18:00.006+02:00

I'm back from my holiday in France! The weather was rather awful, so things didn't go exactly as expected..But the nice thing of camping is that you don't have to book campsites and schedules can be changed any moment, so the travel was just changed slightly.

Sono tornata dalla vacanza in Francia! Il tempo e stato piuttosto brutto, cosi' le cose non sono andate proprio come previsto...Ma il bello del campeggio e' che non occorre prenotare e che si possono cambiare i programmi in qualsiasi momento, cosi' il viaggio e' stato solo un po' diverso.

Our first camp was in Autun, that I chose as it was good to visit a number of places.. Autun itself is a small but very interesting town, as it has Roman origins (Augustodonum was its Latin name) and was important in Roman times, a lot more populated than today... Several remarkable sites from Roman times still remains such as several gates to the city, walls, and the largest theatre of Europe.
Our first campsite was just out of the Porte d'Arroux, one of these gates... I liked the fact that it's still a "real" gate to the town, with the main road using the passages under the arches.

La nostra prima tappa e' stata ad Autun, che ho scelto perche' e' un buon punto di partenza per vari posti...Autun stessa e' una cittadina piccola ma interessante, perche' ha origini romane ( Augustodonum era il suo nome latino) ed era una citta' importante in epoca romana, molto piu' popolosa di oggi... Diversi resti romani sono visibili anche oggi, come varie porte della citta', mura, e il piu' grande anfiteatro d'Europa.

Il nostro primo campeggio era proprio fuori dalla Porte d'Arroux, una delle porte.. Ho apprezzato il fatto che questa sia ancora una "vera" porta della citta', con la strada principale che usa i passaggi sotto gli archi.

The day following our arrival was sunny, and we took advantage of it to walk around Autun (we didn't know that almost all the rest of the holiday would be spent under rain!)
The town is not very large today, and it's nice to visit as it contains several unique jewels...Some of the ancient places are now surrounded by fields, as the town is now smaller than it used to be, and this is the case of the so-called Janus temple..

Il giorno successivo al nostro arrivo c'era il sole, e ne abbiamo approfittato per fare un giro per Autun (non sapevamo che avremmo passato quasi tutto il resto della vacanza sotto la pioggia!)

La citta' non e' molto grande oggi, ed e' bella da visitare perche' contiene diversi gioielli davvero unici...Alcuni dei siti antichi sono ora in mezzo ai campi, perche' la citta' e' piu' piccola di una volta, e questo e' il caso del cosiddetto Tempio di Giano...

This is actually a Gallic temple and has nothing to do with Janus, the name deriving from a corruption of a word meaning "the place where gorse bushes grow". It's really impressive, as it must have been a massive building two thousands years ago... The above photo doesn't give a right impression of its size, that can be better appreciated with someone in the photo.

In realta' questo e' un tempio gallico e non ha niente a che fare con Giano, il nome deriva dalla corruzione di un termine che significava "il luogo dove crescono le ginestre". E davvero impressionante, e dev'essere stato un edificio massiccio duemila anni fa...La foto sopra non rende esattamente l'idea delle sue dimensioni, che si possono apprezzare meglio con qualcuno nella foto.

Next we visited the Roman theatre, which with its 148 meters of diameter is the largest of the Roman world. It's still used today, and there were people busy preparing a show...

Poi abbiamo visitato l'anfiteatro, che con i suoi 148 metri di diametro era il piu' grande del mondo romano. E' ancora usato oggi, e c'erano persone che preparavano uno spettacolo...

That small house that appear in the photo is another unusual thing...It was built in the 19th century to house the caretaker of the place, and was decorated with statues coming from the Roman theatre and found in the surrounding area. The house is still inhabited today, and is literally encrusted with statues big and small on every wall...

La casetta che appare nella foto e' un'altra cosa singolare...E' stata costruita nel diciannovesimo secolo per ospitare il custode del luogo, ed e' stata decorata con statue provenienti dal teatro romano e trovate nei dintorni. La casa e' tuttora abitata, ed e' letteralmente riempita su ogni lato di statue grandi e piccole...

On the top of a hill to the Southern side of Autun, there is the Pierre de Couhard, Couhard's stone... A pyramid that was 23 metres tall, dating from the 1st century AD. It's believed to be a funeral monument and was covered with white limestone, but the covering has long disappeared. The pyramid was believed to contain a treasure, so it's been variously attacked through the ages, and not much of it remains today!
Sulla cima di una collina a sud di Autun c'e' la Pietra di Couhard..Una piramide che era alta 23 metri, del 1 secolo DC. Si pensa che fosse un monumento funebre ed era coperta di pietra bianca, ma la ricopertura e' sparita ormai da lungo tempo. Si credeva che la piramide contenesse un tesoro, cosi' e' stata attaccata dai ladri varie volte nel corso del tempo e oggi non ne rimane molto!

But the place is beautiful and there is a great view on the town and surrounding area!
And a nearby plaque reminds that in this place the Italian hero Giuseppe Garibaldi fought in a battle I didn't know of...

Ma il posto e' bello e c'e' una gran vista sulla citta' e sul panorama dei dintorni!

E una targa ricorda che in questo luogo Giuseppe Garibaldi ha combattuto in una battaglia che non conoscevo...

(to be continued!)

EIT campaign for GECA

2011-07-13T23:53:00.001+02:00

GECA is an association that supports people affected by a rare and severe heart condition, ARVC (Right Ventricular Dysplasia Cardiomyopathy).
One of the members of Etsy Italia Team is suffering from this disease, (you can read her story here, on the EIT blog ) so this association seemed an obvious choice for the charity campaign of the newly relaunched shop of EIT, Etsy Italia Team for Charity .
Members were asked to create an item with a heart-related subject and to donate it to the Team...All the items will be sold in the shop and all the proceeds will go to GECA.
Many people participated and I accepted too. My item is a small heart-shaped felt ornament, decorated with metallic silver thread and a small transparent bead. Here it is, just photographed! It will be added to the EIT shop one of these days (hopefully tomorrow).

La GECA e' un'associazione che supporta le persone affette da una rara e grave malattia cardiaca, l'ARVD (displasia aritmogena al ventricolo destro)

Uno dei membri dell'Etsy Italia Team soffre di questa malattia (potete leggere la sua storia qui, sul blog EIT ) cosi' quest'associazione e' sembrata una scelta naturale per la campagna di beneficenza del negozio dell'EIT appena rinnovato, Etsy Italia Team for Charity .

E' stato chiesto agli iscritti di creare un oggetto sul tema del cuore, e di donarlo al Team... Tutti gli oggetti verranno venduti nel negozio del Team e l'incasso sara' devoluto al GECA.

Molte persone hanno partecipato, e ho accettato anch'io. La mia creazione e' un piccolo ornamento a forma di cuore, in panno blu, decorato con filo metallico argentato e una perlina trasparente. Eccolo qui, appena fotografato! Verra' messo in vendita nel negozio EIT in questi giorni (spero domani).

Getting ready...

2011-07-12T23:38:00.007+02:00

Oh, I've been busy again and I forgot to update my blog...
Well, good news is that I'm leaving on holiday in two days! It will be a very improvised journey in the Loire and Centre regions, in France... The idea is to visit Orléans, Tours, Bourges, Chartres, Le Mans and Angers... As well as some of the most important castles, and things we may decide to go and see. Most will be decided on the spot! I already have an idea of some places I can't miss, but this time there wasn't time for much planning... I bought maps only yesterday, and the brand-new tent arrived only a few days ago! I didn't even downloaded it from the car, and it's keeping company to some bags of gravel for my cat...

Oh, sono stata di nuovo occupata e mi sono dimenticata di aggiornare il blog...

Be', la buona notizia e' che parto per le vacanze fra due giorni! Sara' un viaggio molto improvvisato nelle regioni della Loira e del Centro, in Francia...L'idea e' di visitare Orléans, Tours, Bourges, Chartres, Le Mans e Angers, oltre ad alcuni dei castelli piu' importanti e alle cose che decideremo di vedere una volta la'. Per lo piu' decideremo al momento! Ho gia' un'idea di alcuni posti che non voglio perdere, ma stavolta non c'e' stato molto tempo per pianificare... Ho comprato le cartine soltanto ieri, e la tenda nuova e' arrivata solo pochi giorni fa! Non l'ho nemmeno scaricata dalla macchina, e tiene compagnia ad alcuni sacchi di sabbietta per il gatto...

For a couple of days I thought I would leave without tent, buying it along the road :-) (as anyway it's French and sold in Decathlon stores, that are very common there...) , but luckily I won't need to do that!

Per un paio di giorni ho pensato che sarei partita senza tenda, comprandola per la strada :-) (perche' tanto e' francese e venduta nei Decathlon, che sono molto comuni la'...) ma per fortuna non ci sara' bisogno di fare cosi'!

Speaking of blog updates, my Tapestry list friend Janet Austin published a post on her blog about the day we spent together in Milano to visit the Castello Sforzesco tapestries (and other things), it was a lovely surprise to read it!
Parlando di aggiornamenti di blog, la mia amica della lista Tapestry, Janet Austin, ha pubblicato un post sul suo blog riguardante la giornata che abbiamo passato insieme a Milano a visitare gli arazzi del Castello Sforzesco (e altro!), e' stato una bella sorpresa leggerlo!

1st July, many years ago

2011-07-01T01:17:00.000+02:00

For many people 1st July marks the beginning of holidays... For me it will always be the starting day of the Battle of the Somme.
It had been raining for weeks in the Summer of 1916... The British attack had been planned carefully, but bad weather messed up things.
The long shelling that should have cut the German barbed wire was largely ineffective and the rain prevented the air inspections that would have showed the situation...Therefore when the attacked started, on 1st July 1916, the British troups launched themselves on a virtually intact tangle of barbed wire.
Today as "barbed wire" we mean something like this:

But that's just a "tame version " of WWI barbed wire, which was like this:

This is a real piece of WW1 barbed wire (German, I was told) coming from La Boisselle, in the heart of the Somme...It's very rusted and damaged by time, the spikes are mostly missing, but it gives an idea of how difficult it must have been to go through a defense like that (imagine a huge tangle of it...And soldiers shooting at you from the other side!).

About 20,000 British soldiers died on that First July , and a lot more were wounded ... The German situation was comparable. And this was only the first day! The battle went on for months, and the total casualties are estimated (on both parts) in about one million people.

A whole generation was wiped away...And with it, countless writers, scientists, inventors, poets, composers... People who might have invented something that would change the world, and instead died there.
And we don't think of it, but today we miss all the books they didn't write, the musics they didn't compose, the discoveries they didn't make, the paintings they didn't paint...Our world is poorer and nothing will bring back what has been lost.

Worse yet, we know what happened after that. We know that this was not the last of all wars, as people believed back then, but just one of the many. That another would follow soon, and yet others would be on their way . We probably don't even think anymore that an end to wars is possible...What a waste of lives, of opportunities, of everything.

Back to work on Il Ricamo magazines

2011-06-30T23:46:00.001+02:00

After a long pause, today I ironed three issues of Il Ricamo and took photos of all the pages! I have yet to edit photos, I'll do it tomorrow (a lot of work of cutting, increasing contrast, etc.... The paper is very yellowed, almost brown! And little contrast is left with the print) These are the last issues I have from 1908

Dopo un lungo periodo di pausa, oggi ho stirato tre fascicoli de "Il Ricamo" e ho fotografato tutte le pagine!

Devo ancora sistemarle, lo faro' domani (c'e' un sacco di lavoro di taglio, aumento di contrasto, ecc... La carta e' molto ingiallita, quasi marrone! E' rimasto poco contrasto con la stampa). Questi sono gli ultimi fascicoli che ho del 1908.

These are a couple of details (in size bigger than the original), Hardanger was really popular in these ancient magazines...The photo shows just a small work, but there are other projects a lot bigger and more complex than this in the pages I photographed today.

Questi sono due dettagli (ingranditi rispetto alla stampa originale), l'Hardanger era davvero popolare in queste antiche riviste...La foto mostra solo un piccolo lavoro, ma ci sono disegni molto piu' grandi e complessi di questi, nelle pagine che ho fotografato oggi.

Pulled thread work

2011-06-29T23:48:00.002+02:00

Some time ago started a new embroidery, a sampler of pulled thread work ...This is an old photo, I took some other more recently and I'm sure downloaded it to my computer, but I can't find them anymore :-(. I guess I must have filed them in some wrong folders and I'll find them in a few months while looking for something else....

Qualche tempo fa ho iniziato un nuovo ricamo, un sampler a retini...Questa e' una vecchia foto, ne ho fatte altre piu' recentemente e sono sicura di averle scaricate sul mio pc, ma non riesco piu' a trovarle :-( . Penso di averle archiviate in qualche cartella sbagliata, le trovero' tra qualche mese cercando qualcos'altro...

I used a multicolour thread (that's why colours look to change slightly..It's not a light effect of the photo) , but on the whole I think I'r rather like a monochromatic embroidery, so I don't think it was a good choice. It improved a bit when more complete (as the lost photos would have showed) , but I remained unconvinced...I'll probably try another piece in white (or in another colour).

Ho usato un filo multicolore (ecco perche' sembrano esserci diversi colori...Non e' un effetto ottico della foto), ma nel complesso penso che mi sarebbe piaciuto di piu un ricamo monocromatico, non mi sembra sia stata una buona scelta. E' migliorato leggermente andando avanti con il lavoro(come si sarebbe visto nelle foto che ho perso), ma non mi convince... Probabilmente provero' a fare un altro pezzo in bianco (o di un altro colore).

Today's cooking: zucchini flowers

2011-06-27T23:23:00.005+02:00

Today I went to the supermarket and bought some beautiful zucchini flowers to cook for lunch..Here they are! But I must prepare them...
Oggi sono stata al supermarket e ho comprato dei bei fiori di zucchina da fare per pranzo. Eccoli qui! Ma devo prepararli...

The first step is to leave only the corolla...
Il primo passo e' lasciare solo la corolla...

Then of course the flowers must be washed....

Poi naturalmente occorre lavare i fiori...

Now they are washed; I let them dry for a while in a clean dish
Ora sono lavati; li lascio asciugare per un po' in un piatto pulito

In the meanwhile, I prepare the batter for frying them; mine is s made only with milk and flour. Thickness varies depending on what one prefers; a thicker batter will stick more to the flowers, one that is thinner will give crisper flowers (I normally use a plastic bowl for this, it's more practical than a dish...But I decided it was too ugly to show it on photos! :-) )
Intanto, preparo la pastella per friggerli; la mia e' fatta solo di latte e farina. La densita' dipende dalle preferenze personali; una pastella piu' densa restera' piu' attaccata ai fiori, una piu' liquida li lascera' piu' croccanti (normalmente per far questo uso una bacinella di plastica, e' piu' pratica di un piatto...Ma ho deciso che era troppo brutta per mostrarla in fotografia! :-))

After mixing the batter I delicately put flowers into it... Some usually gets broken, but never mind, it will be good all the same!

Dopo aver mescolato la pastella ci metto dentro delicatamente i fiori...Qualcuno di solito si rompe, ma non fa niente, sara' buono lo stesso!

Then I lift them out of the batter one at the time and I plunge them into frying oil until golden-brown.... It takes a few minutes, and they are ready. They must be eaten while still warm!
Poi li tolgo uno alla volta dalla pastella e li metto nell'olio bollente finche' non sono ben dorati...Ci vogliono pochi minuti e sono pronti. Bisogna mangiarli mentre sono ancora caldi!

A problem of alphabets

2011-06-26T23:56:00.003+02:00

I discovered I have a problem with LibraryThing!
How can I add my newly-purchased Hindi version of "The little Prince"?

Yesterday I went to Hoepli bookshop (which was great, as usual!) and I saw it... I couldn't believe at last I had found a book in Hindi! And probably it's also easy enough for me to read it, at least with a lot of help from the dictionary...But it's one of those books that if you leave there, you won't find again on next occasion, so I bought it! (I know it goes like this with books, you think "oh, I'll buy it next time"...And when next time comes, the book has disappeared! I missed a few books I wasn't able to find anymore and now are out of print, so I've learned my lesson!)
And it's a book I know very well, from one of my favourite writers, so I think I'll be motivated enough to read it even if it's still difficult for me (at the shop, I was so thrilled I could at least read the title! :-)).
I already had a few books that were both in Hindi and English (and I bought other two that are Hindi and Italian), but this is the first book that is totally in Hindi, and I don't know how to add it to LibraryThing! I suppose I could use a transcription of the title in our alphabet...But I guess there should be a way to add titles in their own alphabets! Tomorrow I'll try to discover it...

Ho scoperto di avere un problema con LibraryThing! Come faccio ad aggiungere il mio ultimo acquisto, l'edizione in hindi de "Il piccolo principe" ?
Ieri sono stata alla libreria Hoepli (che era bellissima, come sempre!) e l'ho visto... Non potevo credere di aver trovato un libro in hindi! E probabilmente e' anche abbastanza facile da riuscire a leggerlo, aiutandomi molto con il dizionario...Ma e' uno di quei libri che se si lasciano li', poi non si trovano piu' all'occasione successiva, quindi l'ho comprato! (So che succede cosi' con i libri; pensi: "Oh, lo comprero' la prossima volta"...E quando arriva, il libro e' sparito! Ho perso un po' di libri che non sono piu' stata capace di trovare e sono fuori stampa, quindi ho imparato la lezione!).
Inoltre e' un libro che conosco bene, di uno dei miei autori preferiti, quindi penso di essere motivata abbastanza per leggerlo anche se e' ancora difficile per me (in libreria, ero cosi' emozionata solo per il fatto di riuscire a leggerne il titolo! :-))
Avevo gia' alcuni libri bilingui in inglese e hindi (e ne ho comprati altri due in italiano e hindi), ma questo e' il primo che sia totalmente in hindi, e non so come aggiungerlo a LibraryThing! Forse potrei usare una trascrizione del titolo nel nostro alfabeto..Ma penso che dovrebbe esistere un modo per aggiungere i titoli cosi' comesono, nella loro lingua! Domani cerchero' di scoprirlo...

Needlepoint tapestry stretching

2011-06-18T23:52:00.007+02:00

I recently finished a needlepoint tapestry kit, and today I decided to stretch it into shape... It's normal that stitched canvas get a bit out of shape and need to be stretched (or "blocked") to become as they should.
It's an easy operation, luckily!
I started with some paper sheets printed in squares (there are lots of sites where you can download similar templates, any squared paper will do );

of course I needed a big sheet, so I just jointed many sheets together, put them on a large wooden board and covered them with a transparent plastic sheet:

The canvas luckily was not _terribly_ out of shape, because soon after starting it I put it on a frame.. So it wasn't too difficult to fix it. This is the stitched canvas (it's a DMC pattern called "Pansy Jazz tapestry")...

I turned it with the back side up and started to fix it to the board with thumbtacks, paying attention to keep the stitched border straight along one of the lines (I started from the middle of the top edge)

I continued this way all along the four edges; obviously in some places it was easy, in others I had to pull... In the end the tapestry was square, but full of bumps (which don't show in the photo, but were there and prevented it to come on focus)

This is practically all! The next step is very easy, and that's to spray with water the back of the stitched tapestry (not so much as to soak it, but enough to leave it wet)... I did it and left the canvas to dry, still fixed to the board.
It should be left there for a couple of days, before removing the tapestry. I'm looking forward to seeing it, as the bumps seem to have already disappeared after just few hours...I'm very curious to see the finished result!

Recentemente ho finito un ricamo a mezzopunto su canovaccio, e oggi ho deciso di metterlo in forma....E' normale che i canovacci ricamati tendano a deformarsi un po', e hanno bisogno di essere tesi per tornare come dovrebbero.
E' un'operazione facile, per fotuna!
Ho iniziato con della carta quadrettata (ci sono un sacco di siti che permettono di scaricare template per carte millimetrate o quadrettate, qualunque formato va bene)

(Vedi foto1)

Naturalmente mi serviva un foglio grande, cosi' ho giuntato vari fogli insieme, li ho messi su un'asse di legno grande e li ho coperti con un foglio di plastica trasparente.

(Vedi foto2)
Il canovaccio per fortuna non era _terribilmente_ deformato, perche' poco dopo averlo iniziato l'ho messo su un telaio...Cosi' non e' stato molto difficile sistemarlo.
Questo e' il canovaccio ricamato (e' un kit DMC intitolato "Pansy Jazz tapestry")

(Vedi foto3)

L'ho voltato con il retro verso l'alto e ho cominciato a fissarlo con delle puntine da disegno, stando attenta a mantenere il bordo del ricamo dritto seguendo una delle linee (ho iniziato dalla meta' del lato superiore)

(Vedi foto4)

Ho continuato in questo modo lungo tutti e quattro i lati; ovviamente in alcuni punti e' stato facile, in altri ho dovuto tirare abbastanza... Alla fine il ricamo era in squadro, ma pieno di gobbe (che non si vedono in questa foto, ma c'erano e hanno impedito alla macchina di mettere a fuoco)

(Vedi foto5)

In pratica, questo e' tutto! Il passo successivo e' molto semplice, e cioe' bisogna spruzzare con dell'acqua (con uno spray) il retro del canovaccio ricamato (non tanto da inzupparlo, ma abbastanza da bagnarlo)... L'ho fatto e ho lasciato il canovaccio ad asciugare, sempre fissato all'asse di legno.
Dovrebbe restare li' per un paio di giorni prima di toglierlo...Non vedo l'ora di tirarlo via e guardarlo, perche' le gobbe sembrano gia' sparite dopo poche ore...Sono molto curiosa di vedere il risultato finale!

Unhappy cat

2011-06-18T23:51:00.001+02:00

(Minu, digitally modified but very unhappy ... :-))

My books on LibraryThing

2011-05-31T23:48:00.001+02:00

LibraryThing is a site that allows you to keep a catalogue of all your books...I've periodically tried (through the years) to make a list of all my books, but I never managed to find an optimal solution...Then when I discovered LibraryThing a few years ago (before several other similar sites were created) I immediately decided it was exactly what I needed, and started to write my list there!
My profile is at http://www.librarything.com/profile/rossiele , and you can see statistics following the links in the page .
The result has been only a partial success... Several years and only 523 books later, I'm still very far from completing my catalogue. It was (and is) easy as far as English books are concerned, as al the information can be derived automatically from Amazon or some other source, but for Italian books usualy the only valid alternative in manual entry, which is extremely tedious (especially when you have to scan the cover, which happens with practically all my Italian books).
So I periodically fall off the wagon and stay months without adding anything, then I try to catch up, etc... Eventualy, sooner or later (much later, probably :-) ) I'll manage to complete this work, as I always add new purchases as soon as I can ; the problem is with adding old books, but little by little, who knows...

Anyway, I love LibraryThing because it gives you lots of statistics about your books! How many other people own them, how popular books are, who has libraries that have lots of books in common with you, etc...
As only a part of my library is there, data are only partial but I like all the same to check them, just out of curiosity... It's also interesting to look at other people's book collection, as those that have similar tastes very often have books I would find interesting too..One never ends discovering new things!
And for some books it's surprising to see how few copies there are among the more than 1,300,000 members... Only 6 of them for example have "The harbours of England" by John Ruskin, and only few more (10 people included me!) have a copy of his "Time and tide"... On the other hand, more than 50,000 people own any book of the Harry Potter series (which isn't a great data anyway, considering we are talking of more than one million people... I would tend to think that a lot more people would have at least one book of the saga)

I'm rather curious about the "median/mean book obscurity" indicator, which is 66/2,427 for my collection...But I have no idea whether it's high or low ! I don't think it's high, as I seem to have a lot of books nobody else has, in no language or edition... But I don't know whether it's an unusual value or not (and at any rate it won't mean anything until I've finished loading my books!)

Nintendo 3DS Case - Second part

2011-05-30T23:27:00.003+02:00

Today I made a better drawing from the sketch I had used for my 3DS case, and here it is, very simple:

I used this pattern both for the outside part (in quilting fabric) and for the inside lining, in brown felt. I stitched the felt part first, as the other part needed to have the pockets fixed to it before making it

I didn't make any pattern for the pockets, as they were made on the spot ... Anyway the front pocket for the AR cards is a rectangle measuring 8 x 11 cms, with one of the shorter edges with a round "cut off " part, as can be seen in one of yesterday's photos... I lined with felt the front pocket too, so that cards would be more protected.

The back pocket on the contrary is left without lining, as anyway games are protected by the Velcro-fastened flap (which is made by a double layer of quilting fabric, two 13x7 rectangles sewed together)..The pocket itself is a 4 x 13 cm rectangle, with three holes cut at regular distances, big enough to show a bit of the content (keep in mind that they must allow to recognize the game card they contain); two additional seams divide the rectangle in three pockets.

All these measures don't take into consideration a few millimeters more, used for seams...But the whole is rather soft and padded by the felt, so you don't need to be extremely precise and actually you can reduce some of the sizes if you don't plan to have a space to contain the shoulder belt (which was a sort of pocket made with remains of felt; I didn't even take measures and made it just by trying it on the finished case and stitching it to its edge).

The worst part was sewing the Velcro tape...Which I made when the case was finished, in order to stitch it to all the layers ...But it's very hard to do it by hand, the tape feels like hard plastics and I ruined my fingers for days in the operation (maybe you could consider to use press buttons, although I didn't want to use them as I think one could damage the content by pressing them too hard...That's why I chose the tape instead, in spite of difficulty)

Attaching the shoulder belt was very easy by comparison!

I know this is not really a tutorial, but I didn't take note of what I did, step-by-step ...And very often I did things in the wrong order (realizing too late what I should have done before sewing some parts together! That's what experience is for, I guess...), so I trust people with even modest sewing skills will be able to do better than me!

Oggi ho fatto un disegno migliore dello schizzo che avevo utilizzato per fare la custodia del 3DS, eccolo qui:

(Vedi foto)

Ho usato questo modello sia per la parte esterna (in tessuto da quilting) che per la fodera interna in panno marrone. Ho cucito la parte in feltro prima, perche' alla parte esterna andavano applicate le tasche prima di chiuderla e cucirla.

Non ho fatto disegni per le tasche, perche' le ho realizzate al momento... Comunque la tasca anteriore per le carte RA e' un rettangolo che misura 8x11 cm, con uno dei lati brevi tagliato a semicerchio (togliendo cioe' circa un semicerchio di stoffa, come si puo' vedere dalle foto di ieri) Ho foderato di panno anche questa tasca, in modo che le carte siano piu' protette.

La tasca posteriore invece non e' foderata, perche' comunque i giochi sono protetti dall' aletta fermata dal Velcro (che e' fatta da uno strato doppio di tessuto di cotone, cioe' due rettangoli 13x7 cm. La tasca stessa e' un rettangolo 13x 4 cm, con tre buchi circolari tagliati a distanza regolare, grandi abbastanza da mostrare il contenuto ( da tener presente che devono permettere di riconoscere l'etichetta sulla scheda di gioco che contengono); due cuciture dividono questa tasca in tre (tre taschine, ciascuna per una scheda di gioco).

Tutte le misure che ho dato non tengono in considerazione i pochi millimetri da aggiungere per le cuciture; Ma il tutto e' abbastanza morbido e imbottito dall panno, quindi non c'e' bisogno di essere precisi al millimetro e si possono anzi ridurre alcune misure se si prevede di non dedicare uno spazio alla tracolla ripiegabile (che ha un suo scomparto fatto con avanzi di feltro, non ho nemmeno preso le misure e l'ho solo provata sulla custodia finita, cucendola all'orlo.

La parte peggiore e' stata cucire il Velcro...L'ho fatto a custodia finita, per cucirlo a tutti gli strati di tessuto e panno...Ma e' durissimo da fare a mano, il Velcro sembra di plastica dura e mi sono rovinata le mani per giorni (magari si puo' considerare l'alternativa di usare bottoni automatici, anche se io non li ho voluti perche' temo si possa danneggiare il 3DS premendoli troppo forte...E' la ragione che mi ha fatto scegliere il Velcro nonostante la difficolta').

Cucire la tracolla e' stato uno scherzo in confronto!

Capisco che questo non e' un vero tutorial, ma non ho preso nota delle varie operazioni passo per passo...E spesso ho fatto le cose nell'ordine sbagliato (rendendomi conto troppo tardi di cosa avrei dovuto fare prima di cucire insieme certe parti! L'esperienza serve a questo, immagino...), quindi penso che anche chi ha una modesta esperienza di cucito riesca a fare meglio di me!

Nintendo 3DS Case - First part

2011-05-29T23:23:00.004+02:00

I made a case for my daughter's new Nintendo 3DS..She wanted one made by me :-), and chose the fabrics herself (that's why there are 2 different fabric patterns!).

Nintendo 3DS is made with very smooth shiny plastic, so I lined the inside of the case with felt, so that it won't scratch it and keep it clean... I used 1.5 mm thick felt becauseI already had it (it's the same I use for my small plushes) , but even thinner felt will be alright...Actually it will be better, as I soon realized it was impossible to stitch this case with my sewing machine, and I had to sew practically all of it by hand!

On the outside I used some very colourful quilting fabric (my daughter chose two "autumnal" patterns and wanted both of them... So I used one for the case itself, and the other for the two pockets)
3DS comes with a set of cards (called "Augmented Reality" cards) that allow seeing tridimensional objects and play some games; they are necessary for some features so a case should have a space to store them...
I made a pocket to contain them on the front side of the case.

In this photos you can see the case open, with the 3DS hardly visible and the yellow envelope of the AR cards in the front pocket (which is kept closed by a stripe of fabric with a bit of Velcro tape in the end.... Velcro had been used for all the fastenings in this case).
On the back there is a flap covering another pocket...

This is the back side of the case. Under that flap , there are actually three small pockets meant to contain three games...

Some round holes in the fabric allow to see what games are inside! Here too a stripe of Velcro tape keeps everything fastened safely.
The shoulder belt is sewn on one side of the case, but on the other one is attached by a metal half-ring and an opening fastening, so that the belt can be put all inside the case (there is a small compartment for it, so that it will be separated from the 3DS !See the photo)...

...And the case can be carried without the shoulder belt if preferred

Tomorrow I'll post the pattern with sizes (I'll try to make an understandable drawing) and directions...of course feel free to modify or improve whatever you wish!

Ho fatto una custodia per il nuovo Nintendo 3DS di mia figlia...Ne voleva una fatta da me :-), e ha scelto lei stessa i tessuti (ecco perche' ci sono 2 fantasie diverse! )

Il Nintendo 3DS e' fatto di plastica liscia molto lucida, cosi' ho foderato l'interno della custodia con del panno, perche'non si graffiasse e restasse pulito... Ho usato del panno spesso 1.5 mm perche' l'avevo gia' (e' lo stesso che uso per i miei animaletti di pezza) , ma va benissimo anche piu' sottile...Anzi, sarebbe meglio, perche' io mi sono accorta ben prsto che era impossibile cucire questa custodia con la mia macchina da cucire, e cosi' l'ho dovuta fare praticamente tutta a mano!

( Foto1 )

All'esterno ho usato delle stoffe colorate, da quilting (mia figlia ha scelto due fantasie "autunnali" e le voleva entrambe..Cosi' ne ho usata una per la custodia vera e propria, e l'altra per le due tasche e le loro chiusure)

Il 3DS ha in dotazione delle carte (chiamate carte "di Realta' Aumentata") che permettono di vedere oggetti tridimensionali e giocare alcuni giochi; sono necessarie per alcune funzioni, quindi la custodia deve avere uno spazio dove custodirle... Io ho realizzato una tasca sulla parte anteriore, per contenerle.

(Foto2)

Nella foto si puo' vedere la custodia aperta, con il 3DS (azzurro) appena visibile e la bustina gialla delle carte RA nella tasca anteriore (che e' tenuta chiusa da una strisciolina di tessuto con un pezzetto di Velcro alla fine... Il Velcro e' stato usato per tutte le chiusure della custodia).
Sul retro c'e' un'altra tasca, coperta da un'aletta...

(Foto3)

Questo e' il retro della custodia, Sotto quella aletta, ci sono in realta' tre taschine, fatte per contenere ciascuna una scheda di gioco del Nintendo 3DS...

(Foto4)

Delle aperture rotonde permettono di vedere quali giochi ci sono dentro! Anche qui una striscia di Velcro tiene chiuso il tutto in modo sicuro.

La tracolla e' cucita da una parte,ma dall'altra e' attaccata tramite un mezzo anello di metallo e un moschettone, cosi' da poter essere staccata da una parte e infilata tutta nella custodia (c'e' un piccolo scomparto fatto apposta, cosi' che resti separata dal 3DS! Vedi la foto..) ...

(Foto5)

....Cosi' la custodia puo' essere utilizzata senza tracolla, a mano o attaccandola con il moschettone.
(Vedi foto)

(Foto6)

Domani pubblichero' lo schema con le misure (cerchero' di fare un disegno comprensibile) e le istruzioni...Naturalmente potete fare le modifiche e i miglioramenti che volete!

Italia Invita 2011

2011-05-27T23:46:00.002+02:00

I'm back after Blogger's blackouts and a few unexpectedly busy days! These are some of the threads I bought at Italia Invita, the fair on embroidery and textile crafts that is held in Parma every other year...
This was the second time I visited it, and I spent there all the day (Saturday 14) , from the moment it opened until visitors were advised to leave the fair as it was closing.
I chose not to attend any "atelier" (mini-courses of a couple of hours giving some notion of a technique) ; there were many interesting ones, but I need a bit of concentration and silence to learn new things... A crowded table with lots of people passing-by and looking is not for me, sorry! No, actually I wasn't sorry, because this left me with most freedom to walk around and see everything!
I discovered Philippa Naylor's amazing quilts at the quilt exhibition that was at the entrance... And the marvellous works that participated to the competitions. Here are some of the winners .
The fair was very well organized, with commercial stands well separated from those of schools and associations that were showing their works, and the large spaces didn't make it seem crowded (though I read that visitors were a lot more than last edition, which is a nice thing!)

But this fair was great also because it was an occasion to meet friends I see only on this occasion, that is when embroiderers from all Italy (and abroad) converge to the same place! Some of them live very far from me and never come to Milano, others I knew only through the internet and I met them there for the first time..Every time Italia Invita is a happy occasion to meet old and new friends!
I didn't buy many books ...At first I thought I would buy them later in the day so that I wouldn't have to carry them around all day long , but when the moment came, I decided I had already spent too much in threads and bought just two books, one on Punto Umbro and another (a French book) on Cilaos. But actually even just these books will be enough to keep me busy for a long time! I don't know _anything_ at all about these techniques (only that I like them and would like to learn them...) so it will be already a nice challenge -and a lot of work- to put these books' teachings in practice!

Sono di ritorno dopo i blackout di Blogger e alcuni giorni inaspettatamente inaffarati!
Questi sono alcuni dei filati che ho comprato a Italia Invita ,, la fiera sul ricamo e le arti tessili che si tiene a Parma ogni due anni.
Questa e' stata lamia seconda visita, e ci ho passato tutto il giorno (Sabato 14), dal momento in cui ha aperto fino a quando i visitatori non sono stati invitati a uscire perche' la fiera stava chiudendo.
Ho scelto di non frequentare nessun "atelier" (mini-corsi di un paio d'ore che insegnano qualche nozione di una tecnica) ; ce n'erano diversi di interessanti, ma a me servono concentrazione e di silenzio per imparare nuove cose... Un tavolo affollato con un sacco di persone che passano vicino e guardano non fa per me, mi spiace! In realta' non mi e' nemmeno dispiaciuto, perche' questo mi ha lasciata piu' libera di girare e vedere ogni cosa!
Ho scoperto gli splendidi quilt di Philippa Naylor nella mostra che c'era all'ingresso della fiera... E i lavori meravigliosi che hanno partecipato ai concorsi. Ecco alcuni dei vincitori .

Ma questa fiera e' stata bellissima anche perche' e' stata l'occasione per incontrare amiche che vedo solo qui;
Alcune vivono molto lontano e non capitano mai a Milano, altre le conoscevo solo via internet e le ho incontrate qui per la prima volta... Ogni volta Italia Invita e' un'occasione per incontrare amiche vecchie e nuove!
Non ho comprato molti libri...All'inizio pensavo che li avrei comprati piu' tardi nella giornata per evitare di doverli portare in giro per tutto il giorno, ma quando il momento e' venuto , ho deciso che avevo gia' speso troppo in filati e ho comprato solo due libri, uno sul Punto Umbro e uno (in francese) sul Cilao. Comunque anche solo questi due libri saranno sufficienti a tenermi occupata per un bel po' di tempo! Non conosco _niente_ di queste tecniche (solo che mi piacciono e mi piacerebbe impararle), cosi' sara' gia' una bella sfida -e un sacco di lavoro- riuscire a mettere in pratica gli insegnamenti di questi libri!

Castle visit...and tapestries

2011-05-23T23:48:00.005+02:00

So, this is my first "flashback post" about what happened during the last few weeks...
One day I visited Castello Sforzesco with an American friend from the Tapestry2005 Yahoo Group .
I was thrilled to visit it with a good weaver! (Instead of my children who would start complaining I stop too long to look...) Actually, tapestries are very neglected in Italian museums... Very often they are not showed to the public for lack of space (they take a lot of wall space,indeed, and museums prefer to show paintings) , and even when they are on display, they are often left with little or no explanation to the visitor. At most you get the title and the period it was woven...Nothing more "technical".

The site of Castello Sforzesco says: "Here are the magnificent Trivulzio Tapestries, manufactured in Vigevano according to Bramantino's cartoons." And that'all for the 12 unique (and huge) tapestries hung there...(and not a word for the many other tapestries in the castle)
As I suspected I couldn't expect many explanations on the spot, I bought a booklet that would probably say more about them (and I believe it's the only existing book about them; books about tapestries are a rarity, and not all the museums are as lucky as the Metropolitan in New York, to have a tapestry specialist as a Director ).

The book is a bit disappointing from the photographic point of view; it only shows photos of the whole tapestries which, in a page format as small as a paperback book, show little detail (and bad colours)! They are are just useful as remainders of the actual images...

But the text is very good, and useful to understand these tapestries. Each tapestry represents a month of the year, and subjects are taken from the kind of works that would be commonly done in each month in the countryside around Milano... So they are a precious document about life in 16th century (unlike most tapestries of the same period, that show mythological or religious subjects).

Even if tapestries are large (and these are _very_ large!), their beauty is in details....The folds in dresses, the fruits and vegetables that appear, the animals, people's expressions...

The book explains what is showed in the tapestries, that often refers to symbolisms that we can't automatically "decypher" anymore.

There are several other tapestries in the Castle, but unfortunately not described in this book (nor elsewhere, as far as I know).

This series of tapestries is hung in the same room that houses the museum of Musical Instruments...definitely worth a visit too, with its ancient and very unusual-looking instruments!

But most of the other visitors were there presumably to see the exhibition about Michelangelo that is going on for another month (Pieta' Rondanini , Michelangelo's last and unfinished work, is also housed in this Castle).

Unfortunately we didn't have the time to see everything well! The Castle museum is not huge but contains many different collections, and one visit is not enough to see everything (and still have feet in working conditions... :-) ).

But as I live in Milano and I can return any moment, next time I'll bring my camera! Photography without flash is allowed, so I guess I'll take my own photos of these tapestries...

Questo e' il mio primo "flashback post" su quanto e' accadurto drante le ultime settimane...
Un giorno sono andata in visita al Castello Sforzesco con un'amica americana del gruppo Yahoo Tapestry2005.
Ero emozionata a visitarlo con una brava tessitrice! (Invece che con i miei figli, che cominciano subito a lamentarsi del fatto che mi fermo troppo a lungo a guardare...)
In realta' gli arazzi sono molto trascurati nei musei italiano...Molto spesso non sono messi in mostra per mancanza di spazio ( richiedono un sacco di spazio sui muri, e musei preferiscono esporre i quadri) , e anche quando sono esposti, spesso sono lasciati quasi senza spiegazioni per il visitatore. Al massimo di indica il titolo e il periodo in cui e' stato tessuto...Niente di piu' "tecnico".

Il sito del Castello Sforzesco recta: Qui ci sono i magnifici Arazzi Trivulzio, tessuti a Vigevano su cartoni del Bramantino" . E questo e' tutto, per i 12 unici (e giganteschi) arazzi appesi in mostra qui (e nemmeno una parola per gli altri arazzi appesi in altre sale del castello)
Siccome sospettavo che non si trovassero molte informazioni sul luogo, ho comprato un libretto che pensavo contenesse qualche descrizione in piu' (e credo che sia l'unico libro su questi arazzi; i libri sugli arazzi sono una rarita', e non tutti i musei sono fortunati come il Metropolitan di New York, che ha per Direttore uno studioso di arazzi.
Il libro e' un po' deludente dal punto di vista fotografico, mostra solo alcune foto degli arazzi completi che, nel formato di pagina di un libro tascabile, mostra pochissimi dettagli (e colori bruttini)! Sono giusto utili come ricordo delle immagini reali...
Ma il testo e' molto buono, e davvero utile per capire questi arazzi.
Ogni arazzo rappresenta un mese dell'anno, e i soggetti sono presi dal tipo di lavori fatti comunemente in quel mese nelle campagne intorno a Milano..Cosi' sono un documento prezioso sulla vita nel sedicesimo secolo (al contrario della maggior parte degli arazzi di quel periodo, che hanno soggetti mitologici o religiosi).

Anche se gli arazzi sono grandi ( e questi sono molto grandi!), la loro bellezza e' nei dettagli.. Le pieghe dei vestiti, la frutta e la verdura che appaiono nelle immagini, gli animali, le espressioni delle persone...
Il libro spiega quello che viene mostrato negli arazzi, che spesso si riferiscono a simbolismi che non possiamo piu' "decifrare" automaticamente come accadeva un tempo.
Ci sono diversi altri arazzi nel Castello, ma sfortunatamente non sono descritti in questo libro (ne' da nessun'altra parte, per quel che ne so)
Questa serie di arazzi e' appensa nella stessa sala (la sala della Balla ) che ospita il Museo degli Strumenti Musicali... Che decisamente vale anch'esso una visita, con i sui strumenti antichi e in alcuni casi molto strani!

La maggior parte degli altri visitatori probabilmente erano li' per vedere la mostra in corso su Michelangelo, che continuera' per un altro mese ( la Pieta' Rondanini , l'ultimo lavoro di Michelangelo, rimasto incompiuto, e' custodito nel Castello ed e' sempre visibile).

Sfortunatamente non abbiamo avuto abbastanza tempo per vedere bene tutto quanto!Il Castello non e' enorme ma contiene diverse collezioni distinte, e una sola visita non e' sufficiente per vedere tutto (e avere piedi anocra in condizioni utilizzabili :-))

Ma tanto siccome io vivo a Milano e posso tornare in qualsiasi momento, la prossima volta mi portero'la macchina fotografica! Fotografare senza fash e' permesso, quindi penso che faro' di persona le foto di questi arazzi ...

Back again...

2011-05-22T23:09:00.001+02:00

I wish I could say I disappeared because I was on holiday, but the truth is only that I'm too lazy or disorganized (or both!) to manage to write regularly...
Actually I should have written several posts, as in the meanwhile I went to see tapestries at the Castello Sforzesco with a friend from a tapestry list; I visited Italia Invita Forum in Parma, made a fabric and felt case for my daughter's Nintendo 3DS (I'll post the model if you are patient enough ;-)) , decided to start again my "Castles in the air" SAL after admitting that stitching it on a 38-count fabric wasn't such a good idea , and (last but not least ;-)) I added a few books to my collection...
Now, a bit every day, I'll write all these posts in order to be forgiven for my long silence :-)

Mi piacerebbe poter dire di essere sparita perche' ero in vacanza, ma la verita' e' solo che sono troppo pigra o disorganizzata (o entrambe le cose) per riuscire a scrivere regolarmente..
In realta' avrei dovuto scrivere diversi post, perche' nel frattempo sono andata a vedere gli arazzzi del Castello Sforzesco con un'amica della lista sugli arazzi; ho visitato il Forum Italia Invita a Parma , ho realizzato una custodia di stoffa e panno per il Nintendo 3DS di mia figlia (pubblichero' il modello per chi sara' abbastanza paziente :-)) , ho deciso di ricominciare il SAL "Castes in the air" dopo aver ammesso che ricamarlo su una stoffa 38-count dopo tutto non e' stat una buona idea, e (ultimo, ma non meno importante ;-)) , ho aggiunto qualche libro alla mia collezione.
Ora, un po' per giorno, scrivero' questi post per farmi perdonare per il mio lungo silenzio :-)

Hardware

2011-04-29T23:53:00.002+02:00

Instead of going on with my embroideries, today I did something completely different.

I cleaned an old machine I had, an Odhner calculator. It was under a thick layer of dust on a bookshelf, and besides being a family souvenir (I got it from an aunt many years ago) had never paid much attention to it.

It is very heavy, weighing more than 5.5 kilos (about 11 pounds)...Not exactly a pocket calculator!

Unfortunately it would need to be opened to clean it very well; dust has gone everywhere and it's not been used for many, many years... But after I cleaned and oiled what I could reach, it worked smoothly.

On the top of the machine there is a small plate with the manufacturer's name

I thought Odhner was just one of the many brands of similar machines, but from an internet search it turned out that this is the name of its inventor (Willgodt T. Odhner of St.Petersburg, who invented it in 1874) and apparently it's the only brand that produced them.

The surprising thing is that Google gives more than 63.000 entries for Original Odhner; there are lost of historical sites, and even YouTube videos about it!

I think I'll manage at least to learn how to use it!

Invece di andare avant con i miei ricami, oggi ho fatto qualcosa di completamente diverso.

Ho ripulito un vecchio aggeggio che avevo, una calcolatrice Odhner. Giaceva sotto uno spesso strato di polvere su uno scaffale, e non ci avevo mai prestato molta attenzione, tranne che per il fatto che era un oggetto di famiglia (me l'ha lasciato una zia molti anni fa).

E' molto pesante; pesa piu' di 5 chili e mezzo...Non e' esattamente una calcolatrice tascabile!

Sfortunatamente bisognerebbe smontarla per riuscire a pulirla bene, la polvere e' entrata dappertutto e non viene usata da tantissimi anni... Pero' dopo che ho ripulito fin dove si arrivava e l'ho oliata, ha ripreso a finzionare molto bene.

Sopra la macchina c'e' una targhetta con scritta la marca.

Pensavo che Odhner fosse solo una delle tante marche di questo tipo di apparecchi, invece cercando su internet ho scoperto che quello e' anche il nome dell'inventore ( Willgodt T. Odhner di S.Pietroburgo, che l'ha inventata nel 1874) e pare che questa sia l'unica ditta che le fabbricava.

La cosa sorprendente e' che Google segnala la presenza di oltre 63.000 pagine su Original Odhner, ci sono un sacco di siti storici e perfino dei video su YouTube su questa macchina!

Penso che almeno riusciro' a imparare ad usarla!

Goldwork course

2011-04-21T23:29:00.002+02:00

Last weekend I attended a goldwork course ; the teacher was Luisella Strona who learned it at the Royal School of Needlework and who brought us some splendid kits by her teacher , Jenny Adin-Christie (the same who created the buttefly brooch Silvia showed in her blog few days ago).
I had never tried this technique before, although of course it had been in my "wishlist" for years... But it's difficult to learn it in Italy (I have never heard of other courses besides those held by Luisella) and going to England would imply a lot of organizational difficulties, planning and additional expenses... So I was very happy when I had the occasion to attend this course in my city, when it was organized by Ricamiamo Insieme.
First, I was surprised by the kit of the course...Because it was very rich, contaning not one but _two_ works, all complete of all the material (two pieces of silk fabric, already sew on a cotton backing, and hemmed; material for padding, metal threads, sewing threads..Even the felt board for cutting small pieces of gold threads was provided! ) Very detailed printed explanations of both works were given too.
I tried to take a photo of all the materials, but couldn't manage to fit all of them in one shot!
Here is the best I could do with threads

(click on the photo to see it larger)
Here some threads and paddings had already been used, so some envelopes are empty or almost empty... But as you can see all the threads are clearly identified by a label and ends are usually stopped by a piece of cellotape as some of them tend to unravel very easily...
I wasn't used to working with real metal threads! When one uses DMC or Anchor "metallic" threads, there is practically no metal involved...They are made of polyester with an almost null part of metal (some threads have none at all, some have a tiny percentage). These threads on the contrary are definitely metallic! They also contain a (very small) quantity of real gold and silver the feel is totally different..And they must be handled very carefuly as some can lose their shape and become unusable if pulled!
We started both patterns as they contained different techniques and we learned all of them, then of course there was notime to finish everything, and we were left with the started works to finish at home!
This is my first one, a golden pear (not yet very golden at the moment :-)):

Only one leaf is finished, the other is half-done...And the pear too is just begun, there is the padding (several layers of yellow felt in increasing size), the outline and a beginning of filling.

After I took this photo today, I finished the second leaf and did the stem, so I'll probably end this pattern tomorrow! I'm glad these were small works and could be finished quickly!
The second pattern was a nutmeg to embroider with silver threads, it is very padded with waxed cotton (wax is used a lot in goldwork) and I found it a lot more difficult to do than the pear...The padding was done with a lot of waxed cotton threads that had to be cut gradually as to give the shape where silver threads would lie; at the same time one had to be careful not to stain the fabric with wax...It's still half done and I guess it won't look very much like a nutmeg when finished! (I do hope it will look like something and not just a mess of silver threads...)

Lo scorso weekend sono stata ad un corso di Goldwork; l'insegnante era Luisella Strona, che l'ha imparato alla Royal School of Needlework e che ci ha fornito alcuni splendidi kit della sua insegnante , Jenny Adin-Christie (la stessa che ha creato la spilla a farfalla che Silvia ha mostrato nel suo blog pochi giorni fa).
Non avevo mai provato questa tecnica, anche se avrei voluto impararla da anni...Ma in Italia e' difficile (non ho mai sentito di altri corsi oltre a quelli tenuti da Luisella), e andare in Inghilterra comporterebbe una serie di problemi organizzativi e di spese aggiuntive... cosi' sono stata felice quando ho avuto l'occasione di frequentare questo corso nella mia citta', quando e' stato organizzato da Ricamiamo Insieme.
Per prima cosa, sono stata sorpresa dal kit del corso... Perche' era ricchissimo, contenente non uno ma _due_ lavori completi di tutti i materiali necessari ( due pezzi di seta gia' cuciti su tessuti di sostegno di cotone, rifiniti; materiali per le imbottiture, fili metallici, fili da cucito... Ci e' stato fornito perfino un piccolo supporto di feltro su cui tagliare pezzetti di filo metallico! ) Abbiamo avuto anche due fascicoli con le spiegazioni molto dettagliate e illustrate di entrambi i lavori.
Ho provato a fare una foto di tutti i materiali, ma non riuscivo a farli stare tutti in un'unica inquadratura!
Questo e' il meglio che sono riuscita a fare con i filati
(Vedi prima foto)
Qui alcuni dei fili e delle imbottiture erano gia' stati usati e quindi alcune bustine sono vuote o quasi...Ma si puo' vedere che tutti i fili sono identificati da etichette sulle bustine e che i capi sono stati fermati da un pezzetto di nastro adesivo, perche' molti di questi fili tendono a srotolarsi facilmente...
Non ero abituata a lavorare con filati metallici "veri"! Quando si usano i "metallici" DMC o Anchor, praticamente non c'e' metallo... Sono fatti di poliestere con una percentuale metallica pressoche' inesistente (alcuni filati non ne hanno per niente, altri ne hanno una percentuale infinitesimale). Questi filati invece sono decisamente di metallo! Contengono anche una percentuale (anche se molto bassa) di vero oro e argento, e sono completamente differenti al tatto...Bisogna stare attenti quando si maneggiano perche' alcuni si possono deformare e diventano inutilizzabili se si tirano troppo!
Abbiamo iniziato entrambi i disegni perche' contenevano tecniche diverse e le abbiamo imparate tutte; naturalmente non c'era il tempo di finire tutto, e lo faremo a casa!
Questo e' il mio primo ricamo, una pera dorata (nonm ancora molto dorata al momento :-))
(vedi seconda foto)
Solo una foglia e' finita, l'altra e' ricamata a meta'..E anche la pera e' soltanto iniziata, ci sono l'imbottitura (diversi strati di feltro giallo di dimensioni crescenti), il contorno e un inizio di riempimento.
Dopo aver fatto questa foto, ho terminato la seconda foglia e ho ricamato il picciolo, cosi' penso di finire questo ricamo domani! Sono contenta che per il corso si siano utilizzati disegni piccoli che si possono finire in fretta!
Il secondo ricamo e' una noce moscata da ricamare in argento, e' molto imbottita di fili di cotone cerati (la cera si usa tanto nel goldwork!) ; ho trovato questo disegno molto piu' difficile di quello della pera...L'imbottitura e' fatta con un gran numero di fili di cotone cerati che si devono tagliare gradualmente in modo da dare la forma voluta al disegno, che si ricoprira' con pessetti di fili d'argento; contemporaneamente bisogna stare molto attenti a non macchiare il tessuto con la cera...Il disegno e' fatto a meta' e penso che non somigliera' molto a una noce moscata quando sara finito (spero tanto che somigli almeno a qualcosa e che non sembri solo una schifezza argentata...)

Colours!

2011-04-15T23:51:00.004+02:00

Yesterday I took some photos of Anchor Ritorto Fiorentino threads for my site..
Actually they have been on sale there for some time, but as nobody seemed interested in them , I've kept postponing all the work of taking photos of all the colours, editing, uploading, etc... which is long and often difficult as the light never seems right for the work (or better: the right light happens to be there exactly in those parts of the day when I'm supposed to do something else, and I'm probably running around between supermarkets and doctors...) I must rely on the odd day when everything seems quiet and nobody needs me to go anywhere, and then most of the times I discover my camera battery needs to be charged....

Anyway yesterday everything went well; I could take some photos and I like the way they came! This thread is a lustre cotton that shines under the light, and photos don't do it justice... But I find they have beautiful colours all the same and I like them! They remind me of strange landscapes, deserts dunes, sea waves...

Ieri ho fatto un po' di foto per il mio sito al cotone Ritorto Fiorentino Anchor...
In realta' e' in vendita da un po' di tempo, ma siccome non sembrava interessare nessuno ho continuato a rimandare il lavoro di fare le foto, editarle, caricarle nel sito, ecc.., che e lungo e spesso difficile perche' non c'e' mai la luce giusta (o meglio: la luce giusta capita esattamente in quelle parti del giorno in cui devo fare altre cose, e in genere sto correndo dal supermercato a uno studio medico...)
Devo fare affidamento sulle volte in cui mi capita di essere libera e nessuno ha bisogno che vada da qualche parte... e allora il piu' delle volte scopro che la batteria della macchina fotografica e' scarica.

Comunque ieri e' andato tutto bene; sono riuscita a fare un po' di foto e mi piace come sono venute! Questo filato e' un cotone lucido e le foto non fanno giustizia alla sua lucentezza.. Ma trovo che abbiano dei bei colori lo stesso e mi piacciono! Mi ricordano strani paesaggi, dune desertiche, onde del mare...

Mii

2011-04-11T23:49:00.001+02:00

This is me... Well, not really! This is the code of my Mii, that when scanned with a Nintendo 3DS shows my Mii, that is my avatar in that machine... I enjoyed creating it and I think I did a rather good work, making it with an acceptable resemblance to me :-). And it's in 3D!

I've always been fascinated from three-dimensional things... View-Master , lenticular images , pop-up books (though I've never had any as beautiful as these ones ) , paper theatres ...People have always tried to fight the "flatness" of paper, as well as the stillness of images (and Rufus Butler Seder made some really amazing works! It seems impossible to reach such smoothness of movement with a printed image and just a striped mask).
And now there is this small (but unfortunately expensive) device that allows taking photos in 3D and I couldn't resist...I've already taken plenty of them, they need a good light (I think the twin lenses need more light compared to a single one) but the result is surprisingly good! I guess I'll also take this on my next holidays (provided I manage to have some...)
A nice thing is that 3D doesn't give me any sight problems (not even at the cinema) , unlike most videogames with rapid movements which make me feel seasick after few minutes ...Even by looking my son playing them!
But I've started to follow my doctor's suggestions , now I rest my eyes more and I'm getting fewer headaches...(even if this way time is never enough...and actually I should have updated my blog last week!) I hope that will be a solution to optical migraine too, if it works, it will be an easy one...

Questa sono io...Be', non proprio! E' il codice del mio Mii, che quando viene scansionato con un Nintendo 3DS mostra il mio Mii, cioe il mio avatar in quell'aggeggio...Mi sono divertita a crearlo e penso di aver fatto un buon lavoro, abbastanza somigliante a me :-) ..Ed e' in 3D!

Sono sempre stata interessate alle cose in 3D... View-Master , immagini lenticolari , libri pop-up (anche se non ne ho mai avuti di cosi' belli come questi ) , teatrini di carta ... Molti hanno tentato di contrastare la "piattezza" della carta, cosi' come la staticita' delle immagini (e Rufus Butler Seder ha realizzato dei lavori veramente sorprendenti! Sembra impossibile raggiungere in simile livello di fluidita' di movimento con un'immagine stampata e una mascherina a righe).
E ora c'e' questo aggeggio (sfortunatamente costoso) che permette di fare foto in 3D e non ho saputo resistere... Ne ho gia' fatte un sacco, hanno bisogno di una buona luce ( penso che i due obiettivi richiedano piu' luce diuno solo) ma il risultato e' sorprendentemente buono! Penso che portero' il 3DS anche nelle mie prossime vacanze (sempre che riesca a farne...)
Una cosapositiva e' che il 3D non mi da' problemi alla vista (nemmeno al cinema), al contrario di quasi tutti i videogiochi con movimenti rapidi, che mi fanno venire il mal di mare dopo pochi minuti ...Anche solo guardando mio figlio che ci gioca!
Ma ho anche cominciato a seguire i consigli del mio dottore, ora riposo di piu' gli occhi e infatti mi vengono meno mal di testa (anche se il tempo non mi basta mai... E infatto avrei dovuto aggiornare il blog una settimana fa!) Spero che sia anche una soluzione alle emicranie ottiche; se funziona almeno e' semplice....

Etsy Italia Team Spring catalogue

2011-03-31T23:10:00.001+02:00

The season has changed, and Fernanda, better known for her shop, Nanofactory , of Etsy Italia Team has produced another marvellous catalogue for our shops, 30 pages full of photos!

Click on the photo to see the Spring 2011 catalogue...She's made a very professional-looking job! I'm happy to have been included!

Spring!

2011-03-22T23:45:00.004+01:00

Winter is over, at last! It left with a huge storm that swept away almost all the blooms from trees, but a few ones were late in blooming and today they recovered...

The weather is sunny, and I even managed to take a photo of Minu a moment she was out of her hiding places...

And today there was a nice surprise! The postman delivered a book I bought on the English eBay (sent several weeks ago! The postal service is becoming slower and slower, I remember when I could get mail from England in less than one week... It rarely happens now).
It' s a book written in 1770...Or better, a modern edition of a book written back then (an original one would be well beyond my possibilities)! The book is title "Art of the embroiderer" by Charles Germain de Saint-Aubain, and is actually the modern translation in English (annotated and extended with colour plates and additional explanations) of "L'art du brodeur" , which is totally included as a fac-simile in the English book.

This English modern version can still be found easily (and affordably) on Ebay or Abebooks...My copy was an ex-library one, as can be seen from many stamps on the book

(oh, why should a university library discard such an interesting book, I wonder?)
The interesting thing about this book, and what makes it very different from many other ancient embroidery books, which are essentially a collection of patterns, is that the author was not just a common writer or illustrator... He came from a family of professional embroiderers, and he himself was the embroidery designer at the court of King Louis XV. Surely he knew embroidery perfectly, and his book is focused on the descriptions of techniques and materials, rather than being a collection of his patterns (that are unfortunately limited only to a few examples).

It's a rare thing, to find such descriptions written by people who actually belonged to the time, and knew things that have gone lost by now (for example, who knows or would imagine today that to restore colour to faded gold embroidery, one could expose it to smoke from burning feathers?)
The original French version , being a fac-simile, uses an old-fashioned font and sometimes is a bit puzzling (as it uses the "long s" character, the one that is made almost like an "f", as can be seen from the word "dessinateur" in the photo showing the French title), but otherwise is clearly written and perfectly understandable today too...
It looks like a very interesting read!

(Italian text)
L'Inverno e' finito finalmente! Se ne e' andato con un enorme temporale che ha spazzato via i fiori dagli alberi, ma alcuni erano in ritardo con la fioritura e oggi hanno recuperato ...
---------- (foto)
C'e' il sole, e sono perfino riuscita a fare una foto a Minu in un moment in cui era fuori dai suoi nascondigli...
---------- (foto)
E oggi c'e' stata una bella sorpresa! Il postino mi ha consegnato un libro che ho comprato sull'Ebay inglese (spedito diverse settimane fa! Le Poste stanno diventando sempre piu' lente, mi ricordo di quando ricevevo la posta dall' Inghilterra in meno di una settimana... Succede di rado adesso).
E' un libro scritto nel 1770... O meglio, l'edizione moderna di un libro scritto allora (un originale del '700 sarebbe ben oltre le mie possibilita'!). Il titolo e' "Art of the embroiderer","L'arte del ricamatore" di Charles Germain de Saint-Aubain e in realta' e' la moderna traduzione in inglese (annotata ed espansa con tavole a colori e spiegazioni aggiuntive) di "L'art du brodeur", che e' inclusa totalmente come fac-simile nel libro inglese.
---------- (foto)
Questa versione moderna inglese si puo' ancora trovare facilmente (e a prezzi abbordabili) su Ebay o Abebooks... La mia viene da una biblioteca, come mostrano i vari timbri presenti sul libro.
--------- (foto)

(oh, ma perche' una libreria universitaria deve eliminare libri come questo, mi chiedo?)
La cosa interessante di questo libro, e quella che lo rende diverso dai molti altri libri di ricamo antichi che sono essenzialmente collezioni di disegni, e' che l'autore non era soltanto un comune scrittore o illustratore... Proveniva da una famiglia di ricamatori professionisti ed era il disegnatore di ricami alla corte del re Luigi XV.
Sicuramente conosceva il ricamo alla perfezione, e il suo libro e' incentrato sulla descrizione di tecniche e materiali, piuttosto che essere una collezione dei suoi disegni (che sono, purtroppo, limitati solo ad alcuni esempi)
------- (foto)
E' una cosa rara trovare descrizioni simili scritte da persone che appartenevano all'epoca, e conoscevano cose che ormai sono andate dimenticate (per esempio, chi potrebbe immaginare oggi che per ridonare colore ai ricami in oro sbiaditi, li si esponesse al fumo ottenuto bruciando delle piume?).
La versione originale francese , essendo un facsimile, usa un font ormai antiquato che risulta talvolta un po' strano (perche' usa la "s lunga", quella che sembra una "f", come si puo' vedere dalla parola "Dessinateur" nella foto che mostra il titolo originale) ma per il resto e' scritta in modo molto chiaro e perfettamente comprensibile anche oggi...
Sembra una lettura molto interessante!

Happy Birthday Italy!

2011-03-17T22:48:00.000+01:00

Today it's the 150th anniversary of Italy's unification ...Google celebrated it with this cheerful image.
And as celebrations make me feel like introducing some improvements in my blog, from now on I'll also post my entries in Italian too, so that Italian readers will be happier (or my readers from the Italian Yahoo group).

BTW, Ireland too got a very nice Google image to celebrate St. Patrick's day !

Oggi è il centocinquantesimo anniversario dell'Unità d'Italia...Google l'ha festeggiato con questa allegra immagine.
(vedi sopra)
E siccome i festeggiamenti mi hanno fato venire voglia di migliorare il mio blog, ho deciso che d'ora in poi scriverò i miei post anche in italiano, per fare contenti i lettori italiani (o quelli che mi leggono appartenenti al gruppo Italian di Yahoo).
A proposito, anche l'Irlanda ha avuto una bella immagine da Google per festeggiare il Giorno di San Patrizio!

Fukushima, Japan

2011-03-16T23:51:00.001+01:00

About one year ago, I wrote this post about Chernobyl... I wish it weren't still so relevant today.
I'm following the news about Fukushima, and things seem to get worser and worser.
It's like looking at a slow-motion Chernobyl...All the world's best experts are at work there, yet they can't make a difference.
There will be a time for judgements of responsibility and faults, but it can't be now.
Now, let's pray or send positive thoughts to those who are working to stop the nuclear disaster at Fukushima... They are getting high doses of radiations and even if the "acceptable" dose has been hastily increased by 2.5 times to allow them to work longer, this won't preserve them from the consequences of radiations.
Next month it will be Chernobyl's 25th anniversary, let's hope it remains a single event.

In the meanwhile, many Etsy sellers are offering some of their items to collect money for Japan relief projects, as damages from earthquake and tsunami have been devastating...
I offered one of my scarves, the whole price of it will be sent to the American Red Cross for Japan earthquake and tsunami relief.
If you wish, you can go to Etsy and search for items associated with these initiative, just search for items tagged with "Japan aid" or "Japan relief" and you'll find plenty of beautiful items at any price... It could be an occasion to buy something nice and help Japanese people at the same time. I usually don't spam people about Etsy, but I think this time the situation is really bad, even if Japan is not a poor nation, it needs all the possible help.

Of course you can also make a donation directly to the Red Cross, or any other organization you know (but beware of never-heard-of associations that might have been just created in order to scam people! You can bet there are lots of them on the internet, trying to get as much money as possible...Just trust serious organization you already know).

My haunted loom

2011-03-13T23:45:00.000+01:00

I learned from one of the Yahoo groups I'm a member of, that Native American weavers never leave the loom without a new warp for more than 4 days... The longer a loom is left empty, the more difficult it becomes to get back to work, as the loom will get haunted by spirits and ghosts who will torment the weaver...

There is some truth in this belief! Indeed it's true that the more a loom is left empty, the more I tend to postpone starting a new work... This time I think I left some months to pass, and the result is that weaving is taking forever... Every kind of negative thought and event seemed to conspire against me, and a couple of scarves that I should (and could!) have woven in a day or two are taking me the whole winter!
But now at last I'm fighting spirits off my loom, and even if these days I have very little time to dedicate to weaving, I'm proceeding rather fast...
And this time I'll prepare a new warp right before finishing these scarves, so that I can immediately rewarp my loom as soon as I finish and cut the handwoven! (Spirits and ghosts won't be left any space in my loom this time! :-) )

Earthquake in Japan

2011-03-13T22:38:00.000+01:00

These days videon on TV never stop being shocking and heartbreaking; my thoughts and prayers are with the Japanese people and their immense tragedy...

Oriental Art Museum in Rome

2011-02-28T23:54:00.007+01:00

Yesterday's post made me think of the many museums existing in famous cities, lots of which unfortunately get forgotten by hasty tourists and travellers...
One of these is the Oriental Art Museum in Rome, Museo Nazionale d'Arte Orientale .
Tourists visit Rome in millions, but obviously they want to see the Roman archeological sites , the many wonderful museums recording Roman history... Few of them ever notice this museum or bother to visit it.
When I went there with my children - it was July 2009 - , visitors were so few that the employee at the ticket office took note by hand of the tickets sold, writing the number in a notebook..I noticed that only 5 tickets had been sold before ours on that day, and about 20 people had visited the museum in the previous couple of days...
So a visit there could be a refreshing rest after the overcrowded "traditional" museums and usual places where tourists go. It's well worth a visit if you can spare a couple of hours from your Rome tour.
The funny -and sad- thing is that such museum could be a main attraction in a smaller city (just like, I'm sure, many of the lesser museums in Paris or London) , but being in Rome is condemned to be deserted by everybody except a few scholars and tourists who get there by chance...Like us, who got lost thanks to my excellent sense of direction and happened to end up in front of that museum, and decided to visit it.

The palace that houses the museum is beautiful, Palazzo Brancaccio , and the collection pieces are displayed in a traditional but effective way, in well lighted glass cabinets all around the big rooms.
I took many photos there as it was allowed (very unusually for an Italian museum!), but few of them are of good quality as they were made without flash nor tripod and my camera at the time didn't have any image stabilizer... Anyway this is a small selection of the photos I took.

An interesting on-line exhibition

2011-02-27T23:20:00.002+01:00

Threads of feeling
18th Century Textile Tokens left with Abandoned Babies at the London Foundling Hospital

This is a very unusual and interesting exhibition, and a beautiful online slide display can be seen at the exhibition site (click on "The Online Exhibition").
It's a collection of small samples of the fabrics (clothes, ribbons, laces) left with abandoned babies at the Foundling Hospital.
Many pieces of fabrics are also accompanied by a letter or an explanation, giving the name of the child and date of birth and /or baptism; sometimes even the reason why the child had been abandoned... Dates range around 1750; at the time surely a big part of London population lived in extreme poverty, and Foundling Hospital was probably the only hope of life for many children.
The exhibition is interesting especially because it gives us a glimpse on ancient "poor" textiles...Several museums have a wealth of rich and finely embroidered clothes of this age, but we tend to forget that those were not what usual people used in their everyday life... Most often, they were the best garments of wealthy and noble people, the only things that would be preserved and cared about for centuries.
Normal clothes of more modest materials would be used as long as they were good, and then become rags ... Very little or nothing remains of common fabrics from past centuries as people didn't bother to keep them (but it's the same today; who would care about old T-shirts and worn tablecloths? Do we keep them for posterity or future researchers? I don't...). So this is an almost unique occasion to study everyday textiles from mid- 18th century. Some of them are embroidered, many others are printed ..Others are just plain fabrics, looking mostly like today's traditional kitchen towels.
In a few cases the name of the child was embroidered on the fabric (or a ribbon), the impression we get is that these were not "unwanted" children and we can just imagine what tragedies led to the decision of abandoning them.
A really unique and unusual exhibition, I hope one day I'll manage to visit the Museum in London....

Milan tramways

2011-02-23T23:20:00.002+01:00

Yesterday there was a blackout in the electric line that feeds tramways in my neighbourhood; I was out so I could see the unusual spectacle of empty tramways abandoned on rails...

Most of them were contemporary tramways of course, but in Milano also a number of ancient ones are in regular service. Some lines are still served by models that were manufactured in 1929, and are still in very good conditions (and often more reliable than modern ones!)

I was lucky enough to spot two historical pieces, about a century old.
It was such an unusual occasion to see these transports still, that I took these photos with my phone!

This one, which is now used to spread sand on rails during the winter...

(It looks so short and small compared to modern ones!)

And a similar one that should be little older (judging from its serial number!) but was luckier as it was well kept and destined to host parties and celebrations (tramways in Milan can be hired for parties, and even for marriages!)

New issue of Il Ricamo uploaded

2011-02-17T00:50:00.000+01:00

This one is No. 38, dating 22 September 1907 ... More than a hundred years ago! And I must say this issue shows all its age... Pages were practically into pieces, ironing and positioning them for photos was quite difficult.
Unfortunately the big Patterns Sheet was missing in this issue, but there are some interesting pages and patterns all the same, and some drawings showing fashion of the time... And a cover for a piano, which looks like a rather unusual item nowadays.

Now this issue too is on the page dedicated to Il Ricamo magazine on my site, Italian Needlecrafts , where it's available for free download.

Migraine

2011-02-09T23:45:00.002+01:00

Today I received this book from TheBookDepository

It was written by the famous neurologist and writer Oliver Sacks; I had read many of his books, but didn't know this one...Then I started to suffer from optical migraines myself!
When one happens , I see a zig-zag line, black and white, much as in this drawing featured in the book:

Actually in my "visions" the white looks very white, and the black totally dark (I see them black and white, some people see them in colours) and the lines are very defined and precise, as if they were printed...The effect is very psychedelic!
Inside the zig-zag line, there is a blind spot...But it's not a grey spot like in the drawing. That would still be _something_... Actually in that area there is _nothing_... I don't have the perception that some part of the image is missing, except that, of course, I can't see the things that I know should be there! It's just a big blind spot, and the brain just pastes together the other parts of what I see without leaving any grey or missing area! It's very strange, and also rather frightening at first.
This while thing lasts about 20-30 minutes, then disappears quickly, sometimes leaving place to other (even more worrying!) symptoms, sometimes to headaches, or maybe to nothing! Headache does not always happen in optical migraines, in spite of their name... And they can be confused with other more worrying problems. (A CAT with contrast luckily confirmed my brain is alright!)
Anyway, I can't wait to read this book! It looks very interesting and I know almost nothing on the topic... I hope I will find some useful explanations, though I guess I'll just have to learn to live with migraines (hopefully not too frequent...)

Improving my photos

2011-02-05T00:03:00.001+01:00

Ever since I bought my new camera, I've tried to improve my photos..
Etsy seller AtelierPompadour posted few days ago a link to an article appeared on www.handmadeology.com giving very useful suggestions to take better photos without having to buy a lightbox or studio equipment...Basically, a board covered with aluminium foil is used to mirror the sunlight coming from a window, giving a better light. Very quick and easy!
This is perfect for me, I decided... As my apartment tends to be rather dark, taking photos is always a problem for me.
For example, this was a photo I took of an embroidered decoration I made...

I took it under artificial light, and even if I improved it a little with Gimp or Picnik (I don't remember which one I used that time) to try to look it less yellowish, the strong shadow under it doesn't make it a good photo...
So today I took photos again, this time at sunlight and using the aluminium-covered board to reflect back a part of the light...
This was the original photo, as I took it:

Not too good either! :-) (And the window frame still have paint marks I never cleaned! )
But the important thing I obtained was that the shade was rather lighted by the reflection of the aluminium board, it was not as defined as it would have been without it... Of course a bit of light more would have been nice, but unfortunately the sun had already moved away (showing just a thin ray in the photo!), so this was the best I could get.
I thought that Gimp would be of help! With it I cropped most of the photos, made it lighter and modified the colour levels until I decided it looked well enough...
And this is the final result of this first attempt
:

Of course I know this is not perfect, and I still have much work to do...But I'm glad I could improve my photos in an easy and inexpensive way, and especially without having to build a lightbox (that I wouldn't know where to place!) Next time will go even better!

Just another Winter day

2011-01-31T23:53:00.001+01:00

Like every year, at last traffic stops were decided this winter too!
Yesterday cars and trucks were forbidden to circulate because of pollution, but PM10 kept staying above the limit, so the block will continue (although limited to the most polluting categories of cars) until the air becomes breathable again and pollution remains under limits for at least three consecutive days... Which might need many days, unless some providential rainfalls or snowfalls help the situation.

Luckily I don't need the car for work, and I seldom use it in the city, so I hardly notice these limitations... But they are very annoying for people living in the hinterland as public transports are quite bad as soon as one leaves Milano, and car is often the only alternative!
Milano is no worse than most other cities as far as traffic is concerned, but the problem is that it lies in a plain where winds are almost non-existent...Windy days are really a rarity in Milano (and I'm glad of this, as wind often gives me headache!) and this blocks all the pollution over the city...It can be even seen from the upper floors of tall buildings on sunny days in winter!
I can't see any easy solution for this problem, as the city has grown like all the modern cities, centralising services and offices, so that most people live very far from their working place, and far from big shopping centers (which seem to be the only form of shops that can survive the crisis) and from everything...Modern cities seem made so that apparently you can't get anywhere on foot. When I was a child, in my neighbourhood all the basic services and shops could be reached in a few minutes on foot... Now I have to take my car and drive for 15 or 20 minutes (or spend 40 minutes on buses or waiting for them ).The city has grown in a way that makes cars a necessity... Then we die of air pollution and must stop the traffic periodically to keep things under control. I wonder whether cities will change again one day, or we will remain slave of cars (and of traffic blocks) forever...

Back on track

2011-01-30T23:57:00.001+01:00

...At least I hope so!
This month has been particularly heavy for me, with my mother still in hospital, and myself with some unpleasant medical tests to do, (results yet to be seen).
I have worried a lot, got plenty of headaches, made all the usual worst-case-hypotheses, and then at last I decided to move on, as there is nothing else I can do at the moment.
So today I went back to my tapestry loom and worked at The Shores of Faery... I hadn't touched it for a long time and I guess that by the time it will be finished it will be darke with dust (it doesn't show, but I saw how dusty the loom was..I suppose the same quantity of dust was on the tapestry).

Minu was very surprised to see me there; she usually considers my tapestry loom as one of her hiding places (not that it can hide anything very much as it's just a wooden structure, but it's almost impossible to reach her when she's behind it) so she was probably a bit annoyed by the fact that I stationed there... But she watched me work for a long time.

I'll also have to finish a couple of scarves that I'm weaving on my floor loom...I'm glad because it seems I'm learning not to make mistakes with this pattern; last time I used it I spent half of the time to unweave and correct errors...

(wow, this photo is terrible! I'll take a better one tomorrow)

Children's books...

2011-01-25T22:32:00.000+01:00

I started to buy children's books when my own children were young, but as they grew up I decided that it was a pity to miss so many beautiful books, and I started to buy them for myself when I happened to see a particularly beautiful one. Now I have a small collection, mostly because book space in my home is precious and I can never buy as many books as I wish...Otherwise it would be a _big_ collection by now.
Some time ago I happened to see the Italian edition of "The rabbits" by Shaun Tan, and fell in love with this image....This ship is amazing!!

The story is poetic and sad, told just with a minimum number of words... Images convey all the feelings.

I think it is a very artistic book ...And actually I realized that illustrated books are an easy way to collect beautiful works of art! It's true that one can't hang the images on walls, but as I wouldn't have the space anyway, that's not important for me!
I decided I wanted to buy also the other works by Shaun Tan (as anyway his books cost as little as a magazine on on-line bookshops) , and I ordered "The Lost Thing" and "The Red Tree".
Both have in common the fact of having just few words printed on pages that need a long observation and attention to discover lots of details...I guess young children love these these books, but they are really enjoyable by adults too... And actually Shaun Tan's books belong to the kind of items that look as if they were meant for children, but are probably aimed at adults...

I found especially beautiful "The Red Tree" , that is a visual masterpiece and won many awards.. It explores feelings of loneliness, grief and hope through amazing images.

Now I'm looking forward to buy "The arrival", which has no words at all...But I'm sure it won't need them.

Shaun Tan's site is at http://www.shauntan.net/ , discover his works there!

I'm in a catalogue!

2011-01-15T23:01:00.001+01:00

EtsyItaliaTeam published a catalogue of items suggested for Valentine's Day ... And one of my items was included!
I find it a bit funny to end up in a Valentine catalogue as I've never received anything myself on Valentine's Day...But I'm very pleased I was included, and the catalogue is very beautiful.

Many thanks to Nanofactory , who did all the editing and graphical work (and even got the photo herself, as I forgot to send it to her) !!

Back to normal

2011-01-07T22:36:00.001+01:00

Christmas holidays ended yesterday with Epiphany ("L'Epifania, che tutte le feste si porta via", as the Italian saying goes, "Epiphany, that brings away all the holidays") . Most schools will re-open only next Monday, and many people are still on holiday, so the return to usual life will happen slowly during the weekend.
Parking places can still be found easily in my road, and that means that a lot of people are still away at the moment.
But the Three Kings reached the end of their journey (led by the comet and the Sputnik) at last! I had promised a photo of my nativity, and here it is:

(It's nothing special, I know! We don't build large and complex sceneries like many people do, but honestly I wouldn't even know where to place a larger one. This is just placed on the top of old VHS tapes on a bookcase. The whole scene is not much larger than shown in photo, and include a couple of small houses, some sheep and some assorted animals, as well as a few additional shepherds).
In the weekend I'll have to dismantle it (and the Christmas tree) and put away everything, until next year!

New Year cooking

2011-01-01T23:42:00.000+01:00

One of the most popular traditions in Italy is to eat "cotechino" or "zampone" on the first day of the year, accompanied by lentils... This is meant to bring a prosper new year, with lentils "bringing money" to you.
I can guarantee it won't work :-), but it's a good dish, so I thought this year I could take some photos of my cotechino to show how the dish is prepared.

Cotechino is similar to a big sausage (it usually weighs around half a kilo) made with meat and "low-value" parts of the pig that couldn't be put to better uses... Traditionally nothing could go wasted (people were poor in ancient times!), and many traditional recipes use ingredients we would hardly eat today...
So cotechino is fat and certainly not indicated in a diet, but as we eat it once or twice a year, it's not a big problem...
There are many brands of pre-cooked cotechini, sold in metallised plastic envelopes that must be boiled just for 10 or 20 minutes, but this time I bought a "real" one, to be cooked completely.
The first operation to do is to prick it with a needle or a skewer..._Not_ with a fork, as the fork would make many holes close to each other, that would cause the cotechino to break while cooking.
Then it must be put in cold water and be left there for 3 hours. Here it is, before cooking...

I'm not sure what this operation is meant to do! Maybe it serves to soften the skin as it gets soaked in water, that's my only guess.. Anyway I left mine in the water overnight, as otherwise I would have had to get up in the very early morning to put it in the water in time to cook it for lunch. (Apparently it didn't get any damage from staying in the water so long).
Cotechino must be boiled, but it can't be just boiled as it is, as it must cook for a long time and it would break... It must be enveloped in a fabric.
A kitchen towel is perfect; of course don't choose a nicely printed or embroidered one! Think that it will have to boil for three hours; any old discoloured kitchen towel will be alright.
I wrapped an old towel around my cotechino and tied it with some rope, so that it wouldn't unfold during the long cooking

Then I started cooking it and let it boil slowly for three hours (yes, that's a lot of time, but you can just leave it there by itself and do other things, it doesn't even risk burning it! Just keep the water boiling very slowly).

After three hours it was ready! I took it out of the water and unfolded the towel carefully, then placed the cotechino on the dish with lentils (see the first photo of this post!)
Lentils were prepared very simply, I just minced a couple of carrots, an onion and a cerely then fried them with a little butter and a few small pieces of bacon, then added lentils ...Normally I would add a little wine but I didn't have it so I couldn't do that; I added water and a stock cube. Anyway there are several possible variations, lentils can cooked in many ways and there are probably a lot of family traditions!

So that was my main dish for the 1st day of the yearm as in most Italian families!

And in case you wonder where the three Kings are today, they have advanced further along the corridor bookcase, and here they are, in a very narrow point (and yet worse parts are coming!)...

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

2010-12-31T22:21:00.002+01:00

I wish everybody a happy 2011!

For me, 2010 ends with a very bad surprise from Italian Post, that has increased prices for mail sent abroad by 50 - 80 % (yes, eighty percent!!), starting from the New Year... Our rates were already among the highest in Europe (and our service among the poorest), now Italy has probably the most expensive postal system in the world... Now sending a packet of less than a Kilo to the USA will cost 14 Euros (and 25 if the weight is between 1 and 2 Kilos).

That will be my worse problem in 2011, I can foresee!
(Obviously no media gave this information and the Post site reports the new rates without any comment, hoping nobody will notice the difference...)

Practice

2010-12-31T00:07:00.001+01:00

Today's world is centered on immediate results..Everything one does should be done quickly and well.
Things should be learned quickly and easily, such as "speak Japanese without effort"or "learn to paint in 2 days"...
It doesn't work that way, and people who have actually learned things know that even if you can learn some basis of a craft (or a language!) rather quickly, it takes a lot of practice to master it.
"Masterpiece"... This was the name of the object that an apprentice had to produce -after many years of apprenticeship- in order to show that he was able to to become a "master", to stop being an apprentice and start working on his own. _Years_ , not weeks or months...

It's difficult not to lose sight of the importance of practice, in this this world that values only the "quick and easy".
And my wish for the new year, for myself and all the crafters, is never to forget that the time used for doing things again is not wasted time, but time we spend to learn our crafts better, to learn how materials work in a craft, what they can do and what they can't...

I especially like this quote by William Morris:
"(...)never forget the material you are working with, and try always to use it for doing what it can do best: if you feel yourself hampered by the material in which you are working, instead of being helped by it, you have so far not learned your business, any more than a would-be poet has, who complains of the hardship of writing in measure and rhyme. The special limitations of the material should be a pleasure to you, not a hindrance: a designer, therefore, should always thoroughly understand the processes of the special manufacture he is dealing with, or the result will be a mere tour de force. On the other hand, it is the pleasure in understanding the capabilities of a special material, and using them for suggesting (not imitating) natural beauty and incident, that gives the raison d'être of decorative art."
(William Morris, Textiles, 1893)

New scarf

2010-12-29T23:45:00.000+01:00

This is the scarf I'm weaving at the moment

The wool yarn is very thin and the photo is very enlarged, that's why the weaving looks so "open"... The risk when weaving is of beating too much and get a scarf that will be stiff and feel like cardboard! Leaving the weaving a bit loose when the wool is under tension will ensure that the scarf is soft and nice when finished and washed.
I've already used that pattern, it's a traditional and very ancient one (called "Batavia") that was already used in Middle Age, and probably even before then...It's very simple, but the loom preparation is long as it's rather easy to make mistakes! Unlike the previous time, now I used a different yarn for warp and weft, so that the pattern is more visible, and not just a matter of texture (although I love the all-white version I made of it).
Anyway this time things went rather well and I only havd to correct a couple of small mistakes... Sometimes it goes a lot worse!
I took this photo when the scarf was just begun, now it's at a good point and hopefully I'll finish it soon...

The journey of the Three Kings

2010-12-27T23:59:00.001+01:00

Like in most Italian homes, in addition to the Christmas tree there is a Nativity scene... Mine is in my living room (it's nothing special, but I'll add a photo here one of these days).

And no Nativity is complete without Three Kings coming to visit baby Jesus! Mine start their journey quite far, at the beginning of the several-metres-long bookcase in my corridor... They advance slowly (no doubt because one of them is always represented as kneeling down, which must make the march quite slow indeed) and today they were right in front of some of my Tolkien books, so had to take a photo :-)

The Sputnik model (a nice little object I bought for one Euro a few years ago on a flea market stall) is an addition that was decided by my daughter a couple of years ago... As the comet star passed close to it on the bookcase she started to move it along with the other components of the caravan (after all, it was a "sky thing" too!), and soon it became part of the convoy... And never lost its role ever since :-)

Arts and crafts...

2010-12-26T23:32:00.000+01:00

Well, sometimes different crafts and skills are necessary... My son's good headphones needed a new jack, so today I proceeded to change it.
Jacks are usually a part that breaks down quickly in headphones, but luckily they can be substituted and they are cheap.. The only "difficult" thing is that they usually need soldering, and I'm not very good at it (basically as I rarely have to do it).
Anyway, first of all I had to cut the old jack and peel the threads for some length.... In this headphones set there are three wires sometimes they are 4. Colours may vary, here they were rather standard, that is red, green and copper...Copper is the ground, while red and green are the left and right channel (not necessarily in this order..Actually I discovered that on my son's headphones they were the opposite than they should have been! There are many sites explaining how to connect the cables, but basically the right/left correspondnce is indicative. And of course you'll discover you soldered wrongly only _at the end_ of your work, as the tiny wires really make contact only after you've soldered them).

These wires have practically no insulation, that is the insulation is given by the thin coat of colour... One must be careful not to damage it as it's very easy to burn it with the soldering iron.

Here I burned the cable tips with the soldering iron and covered them with tin.. this way it will be easier to attach them to the jack

Here it is! not a perfect work, but it's done... Now I only have to pinch the cable with the metallic part so that it won't be torn away if the cable is pulled. Then the plastic cover is put back in place, and the headphone is fixed!

Perspective

2010-12-22T01:06:00.001+01:00

It's almost Christmas, once again... And I'm so happy to be here!
It's strange how things change when seen from a different perspective...

I felt it was a big misfortune to have to change my car when (one month after I had spent 1200 euros to have it repaired in France) it broke down again, exactly the same way ..And obviously I decided not to waste another 1200 Euros in a repair that probably wouldn't last. I decided (very reluctantly) to change it, as with what I had spent in repairs in 5 years I could have bought a nice new car anyway. I guess I was a most unhappy new-car buyer; usually people are happy when they buy a new car, but I wished so much I could have avoided it!

But I didn't know what would follow... A few weeks ago, I barely avoided a very serious accident, and that was only thanks to my new car. Without it (and its better lights, its better brakes, all its electronic things that did the right things at the right time) I wouldn't have been able to avoid the big load that was dropped (at night, on the highway, while driving at 120 km/h) by a truck right before me. I'm sure I'm alive just because I've changed my car right in time (it had arrived just two weeks before!), and what looked like a big misfortune was actually probably the best thing that could happen to me! Nobody was hurt (my daughter was with me, and that was surely the worst scare in her life, like it was in mine....) and the car wasn't even scratched... I couldn't believe it.

This year, while I was putting ornaments on our Christmas tree with my daughter, I was very aware that if it hadn't been for an unlikely (and unwelcomed) chain of events, I wouldn't have been there... (Which applies to all of us, I'm sure, but we usually tend not to think about it unless Death passes very close...)
One looks at life from a different perspective after such kind of things..Even queuing at the post office becomes pleasant when you remember you could have been dead instead!

Well, my tree is finished! It's small, because it was bought for a smaller apartment, and it's not one of those fancy tres they sell in trendy shops, all in one colour, very beautiful and perfect... Most of the ornaments (and they are _a lot!!_) have a story, they were made by my children, or are gifts, or maybe are things that were not meant to be a Christmas tree ornament but we decided they would fit...I'm sure lots of the ornaments would look like rubbish to many people, but we get a lot of fun to take them out every year and comment on them! (Which is probably the point of making a Christmas tree, after all...).

Winter is coming...

2010-11-30T23:48:00.000+01:00

...So I wish to remember the summer with a colourful photo :-).

Il Ricamo, 10 March 1907 added!

2010-11-29T23:57:00.001+01:00

Today I managed to add photos of a new (that is old, very old) issue of "Il Ricamo" magazine... It's issue No 10, dating 10 March 1907. Unfortunately the issue was in almost desperate conditions and 4 pages were missing; well, actually only two of them would be interesting for embroiderers as the last two pages are of advertisement (that is funny and interestingin itself somethims, anyway it's not a great loss). Luckily the big sheet of additional patterns was there, as well as a nice page of cross-stitch monogram.
This issue can now be downloaded from this page of Italian Needlecrafts.

Old and new photos

2010-11-28T23:33:00.002+01:00

I don't like winter in Milano...The sky remains dark and grey for months, making it difficult to take photos at home.
And as I'm rather busy with my mother's health problems, I haven't yet found the time to edit and upload the photos of some ancient issues of "Il Ricamo" that are quite interesting as they contain some lovely patterns, such as this collection of "M"s...

I took these photos a few days ago when there were a couple of hours of sunlight, but managed to upload them on my pc only today!
Now it seems we can't expect good weather for some time, but I hope I will catch up as I would like to add issues more frequently than I'm doing now, I'm going on so slowly!

But today I also played with more modern images, that is photos I took last year while on holiday... An ancient wall in Pompei made of square bricks became with little elaboration a sort of snake's skin, like this!

As in this period I have so little time to stitch or weave, I find it easier to work at images or smaller works! Things I can work on a few minutes at a time, and save them...(And put them on Etsy if the result is good, or delete them or leave on my computer when I don't like them).
I wish to start a new weaving soon, but warpingthe loom requires a bit of uninterrupted time, and it's so difficult these days. Anyway I think that all the works on images somehow will also be useful for weaving too, sooner or later...It's all about experience, I suppose; nothing goes lost!

Medieval Tiles

2010-11-22T21:56:00.000+01:00

I love geometric patterns. I'm always interested to see how they appear again and again through time and different cultures, and I find them a good source of inspiration for embroideries or crafts.

Medieval tiles are a good source of small and simple geometric patterns, and I have a couple of books about them. Unfortunately I'm not aware of anything about Italian tiles; I usually take photos wherever I go (I love to take photos of small details! Of architecture, indoor decorations, etc.) but I couldn't find any book about this subject.
The best book I found is a small booklet, "Medieval Tiles" by Hans van Lemmen, published by Shire Library.
It only has 40 pages, but it's really stuffed with information and very good colour photos.

It contains historical and technical explanations about tilemaking, and it's really surprising to see that some models are still manufactured now, many centuries after their invention.

The Table of Contents lists the following chapters:

-The medieval tile industry
-Relief and line-impressed tiles
-Mosaic tiles
-Two-colour tiles
-The legacy of medieval tiles
-Further reading
-Places to visit

Illustrations are in every page and the level of detail and quality of print are very good; many drawings could be used for decorations and embroideries!

Remembrance rose

2010-11-14T16:05:00.001+01:00

The weather has been awful for weeks here in Milano (and in Italy in general); it's always grey and cloudy and I keep postponing the work I'm doing of ancient magazines digitizing, from day to day, as there is never enough light to take photos...
But few days ago one of my roses produced a last bloom, right on Remebrance Day...And I don't know whether it's just a strange coincidence, but the rose is a Harkness Remembrance ! Maybe it's been selected to bloom until very late in the year, I don't know.
I took a photo of it, as I guess this will be my last rose for 2010!
True that my balcony offers conditions that are far from ideal for roses (just few hours of light and a lot of shade), but I have two Harkness roses and they both seem to live well with those poor conditions. On the contrary, I have two other roses by David Austin, and they positively seem to frown at me... It's obvious that if they could talk, they would say "We shouldn't be here!" (in a very offended tone) . Oh, well...
Speaking of living in the wrong place, this is Minu, the cat who lives under my bed!
Children often believe that under their beds there are monsters, or nightmares, hiding.... Well, under my bed there lives a cat.

Minu was about six months old when my daughter chose her at a cat shelter, one year ago... She had been kept for some months in a small cage in the dark, and in spite of all our cares she hasn't yet got used to a normal life (and probably never will). She spends practically all the day under my bed (where I took this photo; my undr-bed space was already very crowded ! ;-)) or if she can't go there, she stays under my children's wardrobe, which is an even narrower place.
My impression is that she's afraid of daylight and looks for dark spaces; she only comes out of her hiding place in the evening and during the night...And she's scared by people and other animals (even the small zebra finches we keep in another room); only my daughter and I have managed to gain a bit of confidence from her; my son remains a scary presence for her...
I'm sorry for her, but I must say it's an advantage she isn't an intrusive cat, or it would be a big problems with my weavings and embroideries... And I guess she is happy too, although it's difficult to say (she's a cat, after all :-))

The winner!

2010-11-09T08:36:00.000+01:00

Yesterday I got the address of the winner of the Etsy Italia Team Christmas giveaway!

It's a lady from near Naples (see on EIT blog for more details). So today I'm sending her my handwoven scarflet by registered mail, and I hope she will like it!

But the Giveaway is going on, and this week we are at Round 2! Anyone can participate, from all over the world (and this time I can enter it too, as I'm not giving one of the prizes like in Round 1!).
Good luck!