What art do you carry?

“Probably much more sturdy than I give them credit for, given the history of ceramics and how many artifacts have been uncovered. ”

Craig makes some tough (and artistic) mugs!  I’m still using his beautiful commemorative R2R2R mug four+ years later!  In addition to having aesthetically pleasing proportions, it’s very functional in its volume, slope of the sides, size of handle – pretty much everything.

Your hat is absolutely gorgeous!!

Thanks, Kat!  Definitely one of my better efforts.  I love entrelac knitting, once I got the logic of it.  I taught myself to knit backwards as well as forwards, so that I don’t have to turn my work around every 6 stitches.

Socks are weird, though.  Even if I knit ankle socks, every one of my hand-knit socks, the foot is WAY long compared to the cuff.  I’ve given up on worrying about it, they are much more aesthetic on my feet than on the table.

Nothing to show yet but I have been thinking about picking up an Opinel with a raw handle and carving it into a minimal ergonomic form.

ooh, I like the olive wood one!

Nice work Diane.

I started my multi faceted working life as a gold smith/stone setter and engraver so most of my art was custom jewelry. Not really the stuff of trail gear. I also enjoyed a more advance form of scrimshaw that was much more than the whale tooth scratchings of old. That would go nicely on an ivory or micarta handled knife but my little SAK is all that comes with me.

Now that I have taken up sewing I enjoy making my own hiking clothes. Maybe not so much art but it is satisfying to make items to my specific needs and wearing them on the trail. I don;t blame you a bit for being protective of your knitted items as I imagine they take quite a while to make. It takes me a while to sew up a new design but I make templates of all the pieces so I can easily replicate more of them in the future. If I were knitting up one of a kind hats like the one you have there I’m pretty sure that I would  save them for home and knit something more utilitarian for the trail…something that I could more easily duplicate and still have the enjoyment of wearing my DIY gear.

As far as handcrafted items being used throughout time, yes indeed but many cultures had items made more for ceremonial purposes and used simpler versions for everyday use :) Either way enjoy!

hmmm.  Tried posting this before and it didn’t seem to work.  Apologies if it goes up twice.

I don’t carry art, but I do art once I get home:

During my years living in a North Carolina Tipi (1980-2001) I did a tremendous about of beadwork, both lazy stitch and loomwork, and mostly on buckskin.

Here’s a buckskin bag with a couple integrated designs done on a beading loom.

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I went thru a buckskin bag phase and made many of these using lazy stick beading.

And of course I made and beaded a bunch of Flathead style moccasins.  All these crafts were made inside my tipi using a kerosene lantern.

Bummer, Paul, it still didn’t work.  This site will only allow pictures of 1 MB or less; maybe that’s the issue?  I have to trim my photos a lot to post, as I haven’t figured out if there’s a way to reduce the data size of my photos direct from my cell phone.  Editing on my laptop seems to take care of it.

Jimmy, what about an engraved titanium spoon handle?  Chased and repousse?  Too hard? ;-)

Art needn’t be in the physical things we carry.  Music?  Journals to write poetry in?

In addition to the pottery I talked about/posted here I usually have a few handmade things on me.

Been making and carrying my own chopsticks for some time, they’re my preferred eating utensil.  Yes, just wood sticks, but I make them out of various hardwoods to match sets of bowls.

I like doing utensils and carry this spoon a lot (carved curly birch)

This beanie is my go-to, made for me by a favorite student many years ago:

I write a lot of poetry while I’m out; I prefer handmade journals.  I’m a bit of a paper geek, I like selecting quality stuff with a good feel or making my own.  I usually do simple Japanese bindings on small journals.  One advantage is making them the size and number of pages you want.  I like carrying a single small (5×7 with maybe 10 pages) journal for a single longer trip (3+ days) and organizing them that way.

In all the years I’ve been carrying pottery, I’ve broken a single cup.  I usually just wrap them in a shirt or jacket or something and stow them beside the cookpot in the top of my pack; no issues.

My Mora of nearly 9 years.  I’d like to get another and really carve the handle.  Nothing special, but I like it…

….

David, I’m glad to see you’re enjoying the mug and there are still some in circulation!

Diane, I’d love to learn how to knit/crochet.  I can sew with a machine, but hand techniques are lost on me.  Maybe one day.

Tipi, your moccasins look amazing, beautiful beading.

Jimmy, it seems custom knives and tools would be perfect for you.

I was eyeballing your furoshiki in the other thread, Craig.  I’d wondered about the chopsticks, and whether you had made them or not. I took a class in Japanese indigo dying techniques, and it was good fun.  Lots of work setting up the dye bath, though, so I’ve never tried, although I did grow my own woad and used it for yarn dyeing.

Knitting and crochet has never been easier to learn, with the Internet available and instructional videos and blog posts every where.  Still, nothing beats being shown personally how to do it, over and over, until you learn the technique.  Crochet I picked up at random from the internet, but knitting my mom showed me how to do when I was 12, because I wanted a forest green sweater, and there weren’t any available in the stores–just not a fashionable color that year, I guess.  All that was available was the nasty acrylic Red Heart yarn, but I loved the heck out of that sweater. I’ve been knitting ever since, then picked up other fiber arts along the way.  Mom taught me to sew, too, but I just don’t like to do it.  I have sisters who sew like a dream, so I usually trade projects with them.

Let’s try this as a link:  https://goo.gl/photos/VN4CZJYJbiMb1Bx27

There we go, Paul!  Nice–you mean to say, you don’t carry water colors to work en plein air?;-)  One thing I forget when I’m snapping away at photographs is to look for lighting conditions that evoke a mood. Watercolors are great at that, suggesting the essence of the scene.

Walter, those beaded items are great.  I’ve done some peyote stitch beading and other random beadwork items, but have never gotten around to trying loomwork like I wanted to. It would seem to be a natural outgrowth, since I’ve woven textiles on looms.  I’m in the process of setting up my hobby room after a year’s hiatus, and maybe I’ll take a stab at it once that is set up.

Love the hand-made journals, Craig, what a wonderful way to record the experience.

Ha!  The paint and brushes could be managed….but not those pads of paper!

Hmm, maybe paint miniatures?

Some really nice work in here.

My interest in a lighter backpack is solely so I can carry art easier. I work as a plein air landscape painter, so any weight savings helps me scout more, and carry more painting gear.

Here is an imgur album with some shots from the field (many from before I became interested in ‘backpacking light’).

I’ve been experimenting with carbon fiber kit that I make myself for my painting equipment, and I had a custom cuben fiber backpack made with the pockets designed specifically for my set-up (my interest in cuben fiber was to keep the turps and medium from leaking while I travel, as well as the weight).

In the plein air painting community I see people really struggling to haul their weighty systems around, and I was hoping to be able to help others have an easier time of hiking around with painting gear.

Yeah…but how do you fir the canvases into your pack?

I have a home-made, lightweight, wet-panel holder for paintings up to 14 inches (30 cm). I use linen-on-gatorboard panels that weigh very little, so I can hold up to eight wet paintings.

For larger work, my easel mast attaches to the backpack to hold one large wet painting. Though at that point it probably doesn’t qualify as backpacking light.

Marc, I love the Shelter Island photo where the painting and photograph meld together! That made my morning.

Great looking work Marc, I liked the paintings in the rain shown on your site, especially the Fin-de-Siecle Museum.  Plein air landscapes are something I’ve always wanted to learn; I did my share of painting in art school but never landscapes.

If you have anyone you could recommend for lessons in the Los Angeles area I’d be interested.

Thanks. Wisner, Jeremy Lipking and Frank Serrano are two Southern Californian plein air painters who teach on occasion. I’ve never studied with either of them. Matt Smith is great, but over the border in Arizona.

I’m not sure if LAAFA ever has plein air courses. A friend studied there with Sean Cheetham and spoke highly of it.

I put some of my demos and other teaching videos on my Youtube channel. They’re not monetized or anything, I just try to share the information that other people have given me.

Thank you Marc, I’ll look into everything you linked, especially your channel. My life has been pretty centered on working with clay but I’ve always been interested in learning to work with a medium that I could take into the field.

Can I just say how much I love this thread.  It’s easy in UL to get caught up in shaving ounces and forget we do this because we love to out in beauty.  Thanks Diane for bringing it back!