Julia's Closet

Cat scarf

2009-10-14T13:38:00.005-04:00

I was looking for this for a whiiiiiiiile....long while. I have seen pictures of it - but I was not able to find the description, detailed description...and today I found it in Russian and in English!

I promise to post pictures after I make one!

and.....I am back!

2009-10-07T11:16:00.004-04:00

Vacation is over (or not vacation, but rather an absense....but let's call it vacation, lol!)

My tastes have not changed that much - I am still facinated with entrelac and modular knitting...and now I am also facinated with Flickr...

My absolute awe and amazement on some of the entrelac I found there:

Well, don't just roll your eyes to go "WTF"?!!!!!! yet

Here is what this is:

And if you still are not seeing what this is...look closely - this is entrelac hound's-tooth check pattern in making! See the possibilities?!

And off I go then to think about this a bit!

And just to illustrate that I have not been procrastinating ALL this time - here is one of the latest entrelac explorations of mine:

Bragging =)

2009-01-25T08:36:00.006-05:00

So I am going to brag. I have to say - when somebody sends me a picture of my work that a kid wears - I just melt....here are a few....

The ravings of GG - The Gadget Girl

2008-12-30T12:56:00.003-05:00

Is what I used to be called a few years ago, because of my everlasting love for the newest and coolest of all gadgets...I was one of FIRST to get the clear "see-through" Palm Pilot (it was unbelievably cute, together with same "clear" Scrabble Swatch), and then I had the FIRST Tungsten, FIRST Ipod - and all generations of it since, all the coolest and best headsets and everything else remotely getting to the market, including ultra useful and cool Nokia phones (E62, N92 and then N95....)....

That was until I mean Iphone. I instantly realized its usefullness - it's a browser, a player for ALL, and it is simply the best "bundle-it-all" gadget I ever used. And then came the quest for...

Perfect case. There is no such thing, as experience shows. The most beautiful cases are Vaja. They are also ones you really have to wait for, expensive...and their clip is just useless. Rubber cases are ugly....skins are useless. So my IPhone is "caseless".

Today I saw an article on a detachable lens for Iphone - and I think this would make the HOTTEST gift!

So I ordered them! all three (of course). At least I am set with gifts to all of my "IPhonobics" (wow, I just made up another word.....the benefits of not knowing the proper way to speak the language, I guess).

This also has been the CHEAP way to "fuel" my obsession with gadgets......which is also a benefit!

ONLY in New York

2008-12-29T10:59:00.003-05:00

So I was walking to work. As usual - through Rockefeller. Which never seizes to surprise me - with new "strange" installations of artwork, or just its art-decoish glory....and then I saw ....

YES IT WAS A CAMEL. In the midst of Manhattan's midtown....walking "casually".

Obseessed. With swirls.

2008-12-21T19:07:00.004-05:00

So I am OBSESSED with swirls - for some reason this particular pattern design has became my inspiration for EVERYTHING! from scarves to gloves....

So I found this gorgeous pattern....

and that's what came out of it:

So here is the lesson of the story....anything may trigger one's imagination - it just has to CLICK!

New York, oooooooooooooooo New York

2008-11-30T23:36:00.003-05:00

it just moves. moves on. moves around. moves always. moves beside you. moves over you. changes. rapidly. are you a part of it? or do you not matter to it? or is IT a part of you?....just some night photography of this city...of lights, tourists, of everything there is as if you can not find it in New York it probably does not exist.

Eternal city on fire...

Pompoms, anybody?

2008-11-25T12:46:00.002-05:00

Question of the day - who loves pompoms more - kids or parents?....pompoms of all sizes, of all types and of all colors....I KNOW I like them more than my son does...but they are so fun! why?...I wonder?....maybe because they remind of an icecream cone? or a baloon of unthinkable color? or because they are so sooooooooooooft and fuuuuuuuuuuuuzzy?.....

Japan - how NEAT!

2008-11-15T16:07:00.003-05:00

So my first impression of my first trip to Japan was - how NEAT!....how impeccably neat everything around me was! From vending machines serving hot and cold green tea to amazing implements for making pompoms sold in crafts stores....from little envelopes holding receipts to your purchases and separately packed for you to beautifully ornamented streets - without any traces of garbage ever..from those beautiful pagodas to ultra-modern buildings....and of course - from their love to crafts to such beautiful "implementations" of that love - the Noro yarns, the attention to all detailing of the craft....

So I fell in love with anime, with variagated yarns, with kimono...with color and neatness....

....and just got back into it!
so here is my take on Japan....

Russian Onions

2008-10-26T11:10:00.003-04:00

So what are most famous Russian shapes, as shapes - architectual, conceptual, practical and not? Of course - ONIONS! The onion-shaped domes were definitely made famous in Russia....and post-revolution onion solder's hats - commemorating the patriotism and reviving the shape used much earlier in history.....so does this remind you of anything (hint hint)?....

so confused so confused - phony and a pro

2008-10-23T00:34:00.003-04:00

For those of you slighty familiar with my biography - I walked "out of music" about 10 years ago, after 20+ years spent IN it - professionally, from age earlier than age of my son right now.....and occasionally - a lot of time - it hunts me, this professional conditioning so deep I think it is now in my bones.

So I taught a little bunch of toddlers today. Taught them solfege....just the very very beginnings - what are notes, what are keys, where do notes live and how are keys organized....and for the first time in SUCH a long time I felt comfortable, comfortable not because of my exceptional "talent" of a teacher (I think I actually have very little of that alltogether) but rather because this felt good, it felt as I was practicing something in which I am a pro, a real expert, something so deeply "in" that it just feels competely natural, even when the expessive media is new and foreign - like teaching toddlers...

I can't feel anything like that doing anything else. I am a good - even great - professional, and I can probably do anything I set my mind upon. But whatever I do - no matter how successfully - I can't stop feeling like a phony. Because it is not something THAT deeply engrained and it is not something - ever - to which I have had so much exposure that it fused to my bones and skin....thus no matter what I do it is never as "pro" as anything related to piano or music...sad and scary.

Now....I am curious to find out how people do things they learn so "late" in life like professions decided upon in college....if nothing is "fused" deeply in childhood - does it make it easier for one to become proficient in something or do people just never really question how "them" is what they do?

P.S. The picture of course is from my dear dear friend and great inspiration....Vita Usova.

Selling passions

2008-10-21T11:45:00.004-04:00

....or making money out of something one likes to do - equates to hard balancing. Once upon the time my husband decided to try to persuade me to make something out of my nack for finding amazing fashion bargains....and effectively killed my love for shopping for a loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong time, since once I tried making money out of my "hobby" - even though it actually paid, and paid amazingly - I lost interest in it!

I wonder if it is an unfortunate quality of character of mine....or something more common. Or maybe it has to do with doing something one TRULY likes - and thus enjoying it - or doing something very CLOSE or RELATED to what one likes...but not exactly what one likes.

complicated matter...maybe THAT has to do with my inability to copy designs completely from one piece to another and total excitement while tackling something new or inventing something new.....

here are two newest inventions....now the challenge is - can I repeat either one?......

on what is art and who is an artist?....

2008-10-20T10:31:00.006-04:00

or rather what is the difference between art, craft, artist, craftsman and just somebody having a hobby.....

I meet (and read) many people proudly saying "I create my art", or "I am an artist"....maybe the word artist has different connotation in English, however, saying that has to fill pretty large shoes by proclaiming such associations...what is art? is art - just state of one's mind...thus art exists "in the eye of the beholder"?...or is art - state of mind properly captured - and thus it needs a proper audience to speak to?....does art need to SPEAK, or does it need to SING?....if art is only what needs an audience, a state of mind clearly seen and communicated to other - how is profanity not artful?...it speaks, it clearly shows the emotion; it even APPEALS to many!

Take new Met's production of Salome....and Karita Matilla's naked stint in the Dance of Seven Veils....for almost a century this opera did away with just a description, musical - and wordful - of the Dance - the infamous dance....and then Met decided on the production with GRAPHICAL depiction of the same scene...and it was wildly successfull! But is is not insulting to the opera hall itself to have strip tease as part of its production - production of a classical opera? Or is this widening the borders and erasing them - in this new century - just like Aida-The Musical, just like Magic Flute in English, just like Marriage of Figaro in Armani costumes?....Is this Salome what was envisioned? Or is it just my old-fashioness, closed-mindedness, when it comes to that I was taught to revere....

So back to crafts. I am most definitely an enthusiast - I realize that I am only an enthusiast...and I do not talk about knitting as of "making art".....and that's a statement. I am proud of finished pieces, VERY proud of them. I am also very proud of some things that just come out unexpectidely, on a spurt of the moment....but I am still stubbornly calling it a hobby. While I call playing Shubert Sonata making art.....

P.S. But I do like this picture, lol. Of the finished product of my HOBBY....against one of only absolute art form - flowers.....

On appearances, photos, sells and stales

2008-10-17T13:16:00.002-04:00

And so this is my premier post.....

and my first question....on marketing and marketing techniques. on truth in advertisement and our perception through what we want to see, through the mood of advertisement but not through the mood of a particular object....

this was my first sale on etsy. I honestly did not expect it.....I JUST posted the item and I honestly thought to myself that this picture really nailed my morning mood - I looked out on the terrace and saw the reds and golds just "sparkling"....

if somebody could just tell me why, but WHY this scarf?.....then I would just feel...even better than now!