Cats in Space

Things I learned today (when not doing serious physics stuff):



I knew about Laika and Ham but did not know that anyone attempted to train catstronauts. There is more information here. There seems to be some real confusion over the identities of Félix and Félicette, and which was the tabby and which was the black and white cat, but since I found a peer-reviewed article in Médecine aéronautique et spatiale which states that it was the female cat Félicette, I figure that must be true, and I thought you (especially Faunalia) should know that the French sent cats into space in 1963.

That is all.

more unicorns

Unicorns & Umbrellas

So, the first three Unicorns Amongst Umbrellas are either sold, or framed on my wall... thus, I decided to continue with a fourth.

Carved in linoleum, and printed on variety of Japanese washi paper (kozo, or mulberry and chiyogami and katazome-shi patterned paper) is a unicorn, strangely amongst a welter of lovely umbrellas. This piece employs the techniques of printmaking and collage. I am making a series of these multimedia; each one is unique. This is forth in the series.
Dimensions are approximately 12.5 inches by 18.5 inches (32 cm by 47 cm).

Also, I've been making some bookplates!



My previous bookplates were all octopus-and-books, for some reason.

Predicitive Twittering Abstract Poetry

So I know some of you hate the idea of twitter, some of you love it. I've been using it for quite some time now (@minouette), and enjoy it a lot more than I would have suspected. If you're curious there are many tricks to making it work for you. It's pretty easy to avoid the mundane, the shrill, or otherwise unfortunate users, and their existence shouldn't deter you from the entire concept. I find it a great news source for specific interests, and a means to filter the internet for interesting links. (I can follow everyone from @NASA to @feministhulk to @DAVID_LYNCH to @rebelmayor (William Lyon MacKenzie, Toronto's first mayor and 1837 rebel) to @sockington (a rotund cat) to collections of artists and science journalists, and of course several of the people on my friends' list here and this works for me). But it is, what it is. I doubt anyone's tweets warrant archiving (I'm looking at you, @librarycongress the Library of Congress). One can only be so profound in 140 characters. So, after that verbose caveat, let me pass on this funny Twitter tool du jour, That Can Be My Next Tweet, which employs your previous tweets as a means to predict your next (via teenangster, who calls it "like magnetic poetry, except way more embarrassing and personal.")

Here are some of the funnier suggestions for @minouette:

“More block print of Memories’ wedding guestbook will show up the pussycat… pillow. congratulations!”

“You promised tweets. Still waiting. : enough seismic data. perspective is crazy, but luckily not inside.”

“Haha! I watched a carpentry tool? It ought to Scott Walker and eating a documentary about reindeer and.”

“Radiolarians block prints. Will be at Pearson. Somehow, I’m listening to radiolarians Working on my block.”

“New monster avatar : today too!”

“Model wireless solar-powered charging ‘tree’ for a block printed pillow new monster avatar ; drinking tea?”

and, my favorite, (though I do love the idea of listening to radiolaria at the airport),

“Debugging imaginary problems is crazy, but more elegant than Toronto Street Team.”

Etsy Magic Monday link

One of my fellow T.E.S.T. team members Lisa of Girl Can Create just dropped me a line to say she's included me in her Etsy Magic Monday post on her blog. Check out her blog for more art, Etsy goodness, and events in Toronto, several of which she hosts herself! It's great to receive such a lovely compliment, particularly on a Monday. ;)

Thank you!

Cloud Classification Pillow

I took my cloud classification block and made a pillow!

A who's who of the clouds in the sky are handprinted in a cloud-like mass of circular diagrams on blue-indigo cotton, in this one of a kind pillow. The clouds represented are shown as they would appear in the sky; the lower altitude clouds are lowest, the mid-altitude clouds in the middle and the high altitude clouds at the top. We have cumulonimbus, stratocumulus and cumulus at the bottom. There are three types of altocumulus and one altostratus in the middle. The top level contains cirrocumulus and two types of cirrus clouds. Each is denoted by its own symbol. The reverse is a cloud-patterned print fabric. The pillow itself is cloud-shaped.

The pillow is roughly 38 cm across, 30 cm high and 7 cm deep (15" x 11" x 3").

Toronto Etsy Street Team Spring Craft Show!

Come find handmade wares from things from secret minouette places and 19 other vendors at the Gladstone, April 30!