MADELEINE'S HEP HERD

Both life and death have been getting more attention than the virtual world recently. At the end of April I lost an old friend to a sudden heart attack. David Johnson first came into my life in the early 1980s as my brother's composition tutor at Napier College. He was a composer, musicologist, performer, teacher, arranger and a square peg in a round hole (a bit like me). We didn't always share the same outlook on life but friendship isn't really about being the same. It's the differences that make it interesting. To see the worth in those differences while recognizing the similarities is to find a friend. I'll miss David's singular opinions and his impressions of characters from the Goon Show. His obituary in the Guardian describes his public life at least as well as I could. This photo was taken in December 2007 (hence the Christmas party hat) and is the most recent photo I have of David. I may post more when I dig out the pre-digital archive. As I said...

Today is Ada Lovelace Day and I must fulfill my pledge to blog about women in science and technology. The brief for this plegde is very general and as a result I've drafted and discarded this post several times. I'm still not sure what I'm writing about but here I go again. I keeping with the theme of this blog I thought I'd point up some connections between technology and fibre arts and the work of one of the many women I've encountered on my journey. Having had a scientific education, I never really separated my art and craft from science and technology. A lot of knitting and weaving machinery is controlled by punched cards - so were computers for a long time. Knitting patterns are not unlike computer programmes in their coded language and logical structures. Dyeing and printing fabric requires a knowledge of chemistry. Spinning involves an awareness of physical principles. Many patchworkers have an instinctive grasp of geometry. I could go on - some of yo...

Ceremonial Pinning! Originally uploaded by MadeleineS . (l-r) Dr Joerg Sixt, Prof. Andrew Ranicki , me. This was at the opening of rm art (yes, it's upper case free) on Friday 6 June and was taken by Ida Thompson. Being topologists, Andrew and Joerg had come along to see my Mobius baskets. Andrew bought one of my Matisse-inspired brooches for Joerg and insisted I pin it on his lapel. It does look really good with the red t-shirt. It was a really nice opening with lots of good fizz to drink and interesting and unexpected people to chat with - including Simon Gage, director of the Edinburgh International Science Festival . I'm not sure why, but it always amazes me how the networks of people in Edinburgh fold back on themselves. Apparently gallery owner Rosie's children go to the same school as Simon's. Six degrees of separation is really quite a lot sometimes. I discovered that one of the staff in Fabhatrix is friendly with the the landlord of my studio space. I s...

Klein Bottle Originally uploaded by MadeleineS . Here is what I hope will be the first of many felted Klein bottles. I'm looking forward to many more adventures in knitted topology. Readers who know their science fiction will hopefully be interested to see my rendering of the planet from Christopher Priest's Inverted World . I plan to have it ready for my exhibition during the Edinburgh Festival Fringe this year. I took the picture during a shoot I set up for a new gallery that will be exhibiting my work. rm art opens in just under two weeks and looks like stocking a lively selection of Scottish fine and applied art. As well as large scale paintings, there will be functional and sculptural applied art. This Klein bottle is only a prototype and so won't be there. Pop in to the website or better still the gallery in St Stephen's Street, Edinburgh to see what she does have. If you can't wait till rm art opens come and ask me at the Arts Market on 31 May where I...

Well the arts market came and went - it went well and I'll certainly do it again. As you can see I didn't get the best spot being at the back of the hall in front of some scaffolding but I did have access to power for my spotlights. Not nearly as necessary as I feared but they'll probably come into their own at a winter market. The atmosphere was so much more open and positive than the traditional craft and design fairs I've been to of late. I'm still trying to work out why. It certainly attracted a younger crowd more interested in the work and having a nice day out. Of course they may all be other stall holders and their friends and in the end the "taking in each other's washing" business model will fail. But for now it's worth persisting. There's a new collection of my hats and knitted scarves in Fabhatrix - Cloche hats, "seaweed" scarves and Mobius strip scarves & collars, mostly in black with purples and pinks and als...