Category: on my desk

In my (work in progress) studio

Summer is now gone, and the changing season marks the passing of time. I realize it has been three whole months since I moved into the studio. It’s far from being complete: there are still boxes to unpack and we (my studio mate and I) aren’t sure yet about the current layout.

One of the things I learnt during the business course I took during the summer was that (insert project name here) is never “finished”. Everything is always a work in progress, an experiment: and that’s fine. It’s the way it is supposed to be.

So take a tour of my (still in progress) studio. One of my dreams is to cover the world with embroidered illustrations (I have allies to help me with this cause!). I’m starting with my studio walls, and one by one, it’s getting there.

Some of the books you see here have been in storage for the past six years. It has worked like a time capsule: some of them are still updated; some are very, very dated – and that’s wonderful, too. The world has changed so much during the last six years, especially when it comes to the internet and working online (which I do).

And then there’s the offline world, where human interaction preferably involves some tea, good conversation and needles in our hands.

If you’re in Lisbon next Saturday, October 5^th, join us for a beginners knitting workshop. There will be knitting and purling, talking and fixing of dropped stitches, casting on and off, tea over the most beautiful view of the city.

I can’t wait to get to know you, teach you to knit and show you my studio!

Com o Verão para trás e o Outono já presente, sinto a passagem do tempo e concluo, com surpresa, que já lá vão três meses desde que me instalei aqui no atelier. Passaram a voar; não fosse a chuva a cair, as folhas amarelas e o fresquinho lá fora, nem dava conta.

Apesar dos três meses volvidos desde que aqui me instalei, ainda nada é “definitivo”: há caixotes ainda por desfazer e novas disposições dos móveis para testar. Por mim, tudo bem: uma das coisas que aprendi no meu curso de negócios, este Verão, foi que o segredo é “experimentar”. Nunca nada está terminado, e ainda bem.

Mostro-vos alguns pedaços do meu espaço: as ilustrações bordadas, com que um dia sonho cobrir o mundo inteiro (já tenho aliados!); os livros redescobertos após seis anos de arrecadação funcionaram como uma cápsula do tempo. Alguns continuam actuais; outros, incrivelmente datados. O mundo mudou tanto nestes últimos anos, especialmente no que toca à internet e à hiperconectividade em que agora todos vivemos.

E depois há o mundo real, onde a interacção entre pessoas é, para mim, um grande tesouro; e inclui, se possível, chá, boa conversa e agulhas nas mãos.

Se estiveres em Lisboa no próximo Sábado, dia 5 de Outubro, vem aprender a tricotar comigo, aqui no meu atelier. Vamos montar malhas, fazer liga e meia, conversar e beber chá, deixar cair malhas, aprender a apanhá-las, olhar para a vista mais bonita sobre Lisboa e rematar todos os pontos.

Estou desejosa de te ter aqui connosco, no meu atelier!

19 Nov ’08

On my desk

Or, better said, on the floor. It´s a detail of a painting from last monday´s class and it is there, on the floor, way past “drying thoroughly” into “keeping me company” and “where should I put it”-modes. We had a dancing model last monday and the resulting images are… I´m lacking the adjectives so I better just invite you to see them here.

I´m not sure if the pictures show all the emotion that is enclosed in each and every paiting, but I hope they will. I don´t think I can part with them right now, so I´ll leave them on the floor for the time being. They´ll be “on my desk” for a couple more days.

See more desks over at kootoyoo´s.

5 Nov ’08

On my desk

On my desk:

– a papercut in progress
– german class homework
– herbal tea
– my heart, jumping with joy for the good news that are arriving from the north of this amazing continent

These are small big things that are making me happy today.

15 Oct ’08

On my desk

Tax day. Need I say more?

(more desks via kootoyoo)

8 Oct ’08

On my desk

I cannot believe another week has passed. Thanks to kootoyoo´s on my desk I update this blog at least once a week.

On my desk today there are sketches and clippings (not visible on the photo though) for an illustration I´m finishing that is due on Friday. I hope it gets selected but if it doesn´t, I had a great deal of fun coming up with the idea and executing it.

My website is on beta testing stage and finally almost ready to be launched. I expect to do it sometime next week, so do stop by again in the next few days. In the meantime, you can visit my old website here.

To check other desks, visit kootoyoo´s.

1 Oct ’08

On my desk

My desk has been nothing but a huge to-do list of things that I´ve been carefully crossing as I complete them. It seems like finally my website will be ready soon, as I´m just waiting for some style sheet changes from the programmer. All contents are uploaded and ready to be showed to the broad audience that is the internet. In the meantime, if you´re curious about what I´ve been doing, check my flickr photostream, which seems to be easier to update. At least all the programming is on the flickr´s team side – and what a great job they´ve done!

In the meantime, I´ll leave you with this photo of a series of skeins of wool I bought last thursday for the things I hope I manage to knit in time for Christmas.

Not totally unrelated, but certainly not to the point, I´ve realised I don´t suffer from the so widespread startitis I read of on the internet. I only have one project on the needles at any given time. (Now it´s the time to ask, am I normal?)

More of what I´ve knit here.

More desks via kootoyoo´s blog.

17 Sep ’08

On my desk

My desk is so uninteresting these days that I chose to show you one of the exercises from last Monday´s painting class. It was difficult for me to get the proportion of the front leg right but I think I managed to do it better on the second (“second”? no, actually, “nth” would be much more accurate) go:

More desks via kootoyoo´s.

11 Sep ’08

On my desk

Yesterday, Wednesday (the usual “on my desk” day) was spent ouside of the studio. Sometimes I get too attached to the computer and forget to go outside to get inspiration. It´s a weird balance, isn´t it? It´s like you need to step away to freshen your view, but then again there isn´t too much time to do it, because there´s work that needs to get done today. Well, I guess I was lucky I could leave yesterday – so I´ll give you my desk today.

There´s my computer, of course, and ever present element; the same goes for my tablet; there are to-do lists (written, of course, there´s no pleasure like running a line over the task that has just be completed) and there´s my sketch book, showing my hand.

See more desks via kootoyoo.

13 Aug ’08

On my desk

I´ve been neglecting this poor blog the last few weeks but still you keep coming back and visit. Thank you so much for that! Well, the obvious reason is that I´ve been very, very busy doing design related work, meeting clients and finishing files to go for pre-press. The pre-vacation stress is taking its toll and I just can´t wait until saturday, the day we actually start our three-week vacation.

It will sound like a paradox but the summer semester in Goethe-Institut started this week and today was my first class. I´ll be missing the next three classes, but will try to keep reading in german, so that I don´t disconnect totally. I promise no homework, but I´ll fondly think of my classmates when I sit at the beach soaking up the sun and staring and the sea. If the weather helps, that is!

Today I was pleased to receive my german language exam results and actually very glad I decided to take it: studying for it made me learn and memorize a lot more than if I had decided not to. So the good results were the cherry on top of the cake. Next year, same time, same place, next level´s exam!

On my desk there´s tea, of course, my faithful and reliable computer (has been working very hard these past few weeks… hmmm, actually, “these past few months” would be more accurate, but never mind) and my pocket moleskine where all doodles and ideas land. I´ve got to-do lists, books, my agenda and sheets of A4 paper scattered everywhere, but there´s nothing like good cropping to make it look organised.

See other desks at kootoyoo´s.

30 Jul ’08

On my desk today

My messy desk

The almost finished baby placket sweater

The couple of weeks before leaving on holiday are usually terribly busy. There are some projects that I just don´t want to leave incomplete before going. The best part is that new projects keep on coming, which is very good, considering I´m a freelancer.

Well, on my desk there are lists of things to do, there are some letters cut out of paper, left around after not using them in a preivous illustration (I like to look at them and maybe someday I´ll know what to use them for) and there´s my tea – of course.

The baby sweater is almost finished – I haven´t had a lot of knitting time, lately, and that´s such a pity…

See other desks at kootoyoo´s.

23 Jul ’08

On my desk

This isn´t exactly on my desk – it´s way too messy to show – but it is certainly on my mind: it´s Purl Soho´s Child´s Placket Sweater. I got the idea seeing Pepperknit´s baby sweater and even the colour she used was inspiring. As I have at least another two waiting in queue, I used green wool for the first one; there´s pink yarn and yellow yarn waiting to be knitted into the other two baby sweaters queued. I´m enjoying this pattern very much, specially because it is a great way to learn to knit in the round with circular needles, with quick and very nice results.

There´s lots more on my desk as I´ve been closing final artwork files for a whole identity package for a client, but it´s the kind of thing that I can´t show until it´s ready neither has the appeal of a fine miniature knitted garment.

And tea, of course, there´s tea. And heating, which fortunately is up and running again after a couple of very freezing days with layers and layers of clothes on top of me.

16 Jul ’08

On my desk

On my (messy) desk there´s an illustration I´m working on.

(I think today´s tea is easier to spot…)

More desks at kootoyoo´s.