That Poor Old Girl

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That poor old girl

She strips the buttons and bows from the discarded dresses

That poor old girl

She strips the zips

She strips the cuffs

That poor old girl

She strips the collar and hem

She strips the bodice and the skirt

That poor old girl

She strips the sleeves

She strips a nice yoke

 That poor old girl

 From the old dresses

She pieces a quilt

That poor old girl

Grows a big piece of cloth out of scraps

That poor old girl is braiding the selvage

That poor old girl coils and stitches the braids to make a hat or a basket

 That poor old girl saves for tomorrow

That poor old girl saves for tomorrow, today

Extracted from upcoming collection of poems “Value to Man” by Afua Serwah Osei-Bonsu

Design is?

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By, Afua Serwah Osei-Bonsu

Design is:

  1. Necessities
  2. Considerations
  3. Problem Solving
  4. Quality of Life
  5. Helms
  6. Analysis

Considerations + Technological Precision = Design

Considerations +Technological Precision + Testing=Design Quality 1

The formative process= cracking down aspects

A research car was issued for a longitudinal study

This one the defogger gave it a high safety rating

This one has advanced cargo space

This one parks with ease and has an advanced reverse steering mechanism

This one is a cargo van with a short front end that drives like a small car

This one is a heavier weight and stronger engine is more suited to winter

This one has a low chassie and cannot get through the snow

This one is a light material that dents easily, but has the highest gas mileage due to its light weight

That woman said she could nearly go a month on one tank of gas

The material was barely conductive and could not well maintain heat

The light material she said was the cheapest gas, but the worst in winter

In her winter state, she nearly died twice in the car

Each environment likely needs its own car

The unique radio/stereo company gave the brand its claim to fame, tourists drive them to hear national music

He says it’s not the price of the car, but the “metering” and actually price of it’s gas

She has problems to read the symbols and be knowledgeable about her cars operations, if the word is short why not write it, does direct knowledge improve its safety rating?

The steering was so “soft,” she didn’t feel safe, it had a low safety rating

Design is then the long-term perfection of one model

The development of the design

The more sensitive the considerations

The greater knowledge over time

The comfort

The ideals

The safety rating

The safety rating getting higher and higher

The testing more precise and sophisticated

The design and advancement of the making, of the manufacturing

The comfort of the maker

The measuring of his head space, leg space, the testing of the passenger’s air quality

The visibility, the greater safety rating

Many had died trying until at last greater perfection equaled greater safety, the design normalized and evolved

The designs subsequent value within the transportation for work and within the supply chain created an enormous value

The new design, will they move things without the vehicle, will they move cars without the road, the further considerations.  And advance still the roads?  The heated driveways.  The heated highways.

She considered the dress without the thread, without stitches, with cutting, with fusing?  She placed within the dress a series of holes and the dress wrapped around her body via the three arm holes. 

Fusibles, interfacing?  Fine buttons?  Inlay buttons.  A new high end?  Should we weave the seam?  Should we vapor the seam and fuse.  Stain resistant, endurance?

Making something “purposeful” versus making something intellectual (art) or just beauty. Making something that achieves a point or is made for analysis (type of art) versus something made for a specific purpose with specific considerations. Hence, the dividing line between art and design emerges.

Up to Snuff #50: Winter Reading List 2018 with emphasis on African Writers

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Up to Snuff #50:  Winter Reading List 2018 with emphasis on African Writers

By, Afua Serwah Osei-Bonsu

Put together a box of books, cover your coffee table with books,  light a fire or head to a cottage or good “reading city” and read, read, read and maybe practice piano, throw in a few page turners, some classics and what I call “kb” or knowledge based books, stash articles, research a nice PHD read, check for Nobel Laureates in Literature and don’t forget to take your child to the library once a week to satisfy a young readers consumption, maybe 2 books a night, maybe even take a book run vacation and collect foreign language books to build a linguistics profile, buy or build some book shelves and build your families library, read, read, read.   A good hobby to have is researching books or getting good classes with good book lists or go to a school with a good library or asking colleagues for a book list, read, read, read.

 

Sommerset Maugham –all books

Tolstoy

Nikolai Gogol

D.H. Lawrence

Daphne Du Maurier

Jane Eyre

Nathanial Hawthorne

Alice Walker

Euripides

Bulwark

Falun Gong

Find some good Latin books

Spanish novels or newspapers or little pamphlets

Try to read/earn a few skills

Read across an area all you can get your hands on or a writers complete collection

Carlos Casteneda

T.S. Elliot

Aga Kahn

Prentice Hall books (Publisher)

Gandhi

James Baldwin

Jose Saramago

Breton

Satre

E.O. Wilson

Oscar Wilde

Read Recipes

Fareed Zakaria

Pablo Neruda

Octavio Paz

Rosario Castellanos

Paul Ricoeur

Confucius

Aleksandr Dugin

Jurgen Habermas

Nick Land Alt Right

Bill Gates

Complete Guide to Sewing, Readers Digest 1995

Designing Apparel Through Flat Pattern Fifth Edition, Fairchild Publications

How to Draft Basic Flat Patterns, Fairchild Publications

Ross, B.H., This is Like That:  The Use of Earlier Problems and the Separation of Similarity Effects.  Journal of Experimental Psychology:  Learning, Memory and Cognition

Schank, R.C., Tell Me a Story:  Narrative and Intelligence, Evanston, Ill, Northwestern University Press

Schank, R.C., & Abelson R., Scripts, Plans, Goals and Understanding:  An Inquiry into Human Knowledge Structures, Hillsdale, NJ, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates

Spiro, R.J., Coulson, R.L., Feltvich, P.J., & Anderson, D.K (1988) Cognitive Flexibility Theory:  Advanced Knowledge Acquisition in Ill Structured Domains, Tech Report No 441, Champaign, Ill:  University of Illinois

Center for the Study of Reading, Sternberg, R. J., & French, P.A. (Eds.) (1991) Complex Problem Solving:  Principles and Mechanisms, Hillsdale, NJ, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates

Voss, J.F & Post, T. A. (1988), On solving of Ill Structured Problems, IN M. T.. H Chi, R, Glaser, & M.J. Farr (Eds.), The Nature of Expertise (PP. 261-185), Hillsdale, NJ:  Lawrence Erlbaum Associates

 

The Complete Greek Tragedies

MLA Style Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing

Writing Your Dissertation In Fifteen Minutes a Day:  A Guide to Starting, revising and finishing your doctoral thesis/Joan Bolker

Sicily by Katie and Giancarlo Caldesi

The Italian Baker by Melissa Forti and Danny Bernardini

Mozza at Home by Nancy Silverton and Carolyn CArreno

Henry and June

Tropic of Cancer

Cities of The Interior, Anais Nin

Balzac

The Rhinoceros  by, Ionesco

A good almanac

Collect Maps and study them

 

 

Some African Writers

Afua Serwah Osei-Bonsu

Peter Abrahams, Mine boy, This Island Now, A Wreath for Udomo ( South Africa)

Chinua Achebe (Nigeria)

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Jose Eduardo Agualusa

Mohamed Naseehu Ali (Ghana)

Germano Almeida

Elechi Amadi

Ayi Kwei Armah (Ghana)

Sefi Atta

Ayesha Harruna Attah

Mariama BA

Nadifa Mohamed

Chris Barnard

Mongo Beti

Andre Brink

J.M Coetzee

Mia Couto

Tsitsi Dangarembga

Mohammed Dib

E.K.M. dido

Assia Djebar

  1. Sello Duiker

Daphne Williams

Buchi Emecheta

Daniel Olorunfemi Fagunwa

Nuruddin Farah

Athol Fugard

Nadine Gordimer

Alex La Guma

Bessie Head

Moses Isegawa

Rayda Jacobs

Tahar Ben Jellouon

Cheikh Hamidou Kane

Yasmina Khadra

Camara Laye

Naguib Mahfouz

Charles Mangua

Sarah Ladipo Manyika

Dambudzo  Marechera

Darlene mattee

Zakes Mda

Thomas Mofolo

Bai Tamia Moore

Meja Mwangi

Ngugi wa Thiong’o

Lewis Nkosi

Flora Nwapa

Nnedi Okorafor

Ben Okri

Deon Opperman

Yambo Ouologuem

Alan Paton

Pepetela

Sol Plaatje

Nawal El Saadawi

Tayeb Salih

Wilton Sankawulo

Karel Schoeman

Olive Schreiner

Benjamin Sehene

Ousmane Sembene

Wole, Soyinka

Amos Tutuola

Marlene van Niekirk

Yvonnne Vera

Jose Luandino Vieira

Joseph Jeffrey Walters

Birhanu Zerihun

Ama Ata Aidoo

Georges Andriamanantena

Jared Angira

Kofi Anyidoho

Kofi Awooner

Sahesillasse Birhanemariam

Breyten Breytenbach

Dennis Brutus

Glynn Burridge

Abena Busia

John Pepper Clark

Jose Craveirinha

Viriato Clemenete da Cruz

Getinet Eniyew

Tsegaye Gebremedhin

Abbe Gubenga

Hadraawi

Ingrid Jonker

Jonathan Kariara

Joseph Kariuki

Susan Kiguli

Ahmadou Kourouma

Antjie Krog

Jack Mapanje

Eugene Mapanje

Eugene Marais

Don Mattera

Bai Tamia Moore

Togara Muzanenhamo

  1. Moses Nagbe

Arthur Nortje

Gabriel Okara

Nii Parkes

Chrisotpher Okigbo

Okot P’Bitek

Lenrie Peters

Jean-Joseph Rabearivelo

Jacques Rabemananjara

Elie Rajaonarison

Ny Avana Ramanantoanina

Pierre Randrianarisoa

Jean Verdi Saloman Razakandraina

David Rubadiri

Tijan Sallah

Leopold Sedar Senghor

Debede Seyfu

Bewketu Seyoum

Warsan Shire

Adam Small

Veronique Tadjo

Dagnachew WERku

Armenio Vieira

Patricia Jabbeh Wesley

 

 

Credit:  Wikipedia African Writers List (see for more detailed list)

 

 

 

Art and Design

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Art & Design

By Afua Serwah Osei-Bonsu

 

Scenario 1

Traveling with a sewing machine and a tool box of art supplies and paints.  Extension cord from the house to sew outside.  Planning a “taller” pronounced “tie-yare,” or independent enterprise in an undeveloped pueblo.  Climbing in the mountains, getting floral dressed, walking in a dry river bed.

Dying cloth with coffees and teas and traveling one hour by bus to get dyes and bolts of fabric.  Getting a large car size amount of fabric delivered from a distributor in the city to make a large amount clothes.

Having dying parties with made up garments then hand painting them.  Memorizing songs, dancing with bells around the ankles (a musician).

Scenario 2

The “art house.”  Dying textiles on the balcony, making up braided hats, making up hand dyed clothes with a seamstress, then photographing people dressed in the clothing, and reserving sets around town.  Making drawings, large photo prints, postcards, which culminate in the full moon bazaar or events in tune with the full moon. Printing on the postcards the upcoming dates of the full moon. Collecting instruments, hiring models, drawing mostly self-portraits, a dress rack of clothes, shopping for fabrics in old jobbers, back drops and an obsession for color photography, making homemade lip balms while maintaining a corporate job in the stock market. Walking to work to stay in shape and playing castanet rhythms on the way.  Studying flamenco.

Scenario 3

Off to school of Art and Design. A collection of research photos.  A taste for photos with white borders.  Sketch books. Silk screen fabric prints for garments, silk screen paper prints for art. Silk screen fabric prints for art too.  Embellishment.  Fashion illustrations.  Making up garments, taking pictures.  Small mini drawings, making printed boxes to put things in, making shoes, making boots, printing techniques, visiting silks in the fabric district.  Collecting sole prints and deconstructing them into new combined textile patterns.

Scenario 4

A pedestal to draw still life’s or a variety of daily objects.  A stage to draw costumed models.  A stage for prosperous zeros.  Collecting and sampling the entire environment in drawings.  Nibs for the garden paintings.  A drawing board and horse in the house for portraiture.  The home office with 5 stations.

 

 

 

 

Book List: Art & Fiber

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The Painters Handbook:  A Complete Reference  By, Mark David Gottsegen

Water, Paper, Paint By Heather Smith Jones

Tie-Dye The How to Book Virginia Gleser

Book Publishing Company

P.O. Box 99

Summertown, TN 38483

1-888-260-8458

http:/bpc.thefarm.org

Dharma Trading Co. Fiber Arts Supplies Catalog

Dharma Trading Co., 1994

P.O. Box 150916

San Rafael, CA 94915

1-800-542-5227

catalog@dharmatrading.com

www.dharmatrading.com

Goodwin, Jill  A Dyers Manual. London:  Palham Books, 1982

Museum of Contemporary Crafts of the American Crafts Council.  Fabric Vibrations:  Tie and Fold Dye Wall Hangings and Environments.  New York:  Museum of Contemporary Crafts of The American Crafts Council, 1972

Shaw, Robin and Jennifer.  Batik:  New Look at an Ancient Art, New York, Doubleday and Co., 1974

Toshiko Ito, Tsujigahana.  The Flower of Japanese Textile Art, Tokyo:  Kodansha International 1981

Yamanobe, Tomoyuki, ed. Opulence:  The Kimonos and Robes of Itchiku Kubota.  New York:  Kodansha International USA Ltd., 1984

Harmony Enterprises

512 14h Street

Modesto, CA 95354

1-209-571-2767

www.harmonytie-dyes.com

(to order tie dyes, dye kit and book)

Pro Chemical and Dye Co.

P.O. Box 14

Somerset, MA 02726

1-800-2BUYDYE

www.prochemical.com (more dying instructions)

Rupert, Gibbon and Spider, Inc.

P.O. Box 425

Healdsburg, CA 95440

1-800-442-0455

Batik

The Art and Craft

By ILA Keller

Suppliers

Craftools Inc.

1 Industrial Road

Wood-Ridge, New Jersey 07075

Aljo Manufacturing  Co.

116 Prince Street

New York, New York 10012

Geigy Chemical Co.

Box 430

Yonkers, New York

Ciba Chemical & Dye Co.

Fairlawn, New Jersey

E.I.  Dupont de Nemours, Co.

Wilmington, Delaware

Beckers

Sveavagen 42

Stockholm, Sweden

Boil Proof Color for Cotton and Cellulose Fabrics

Levafix Dying

Veronal Dyestuff

Box 385

Union, New Jersey  07083

Wax, dyes, tjantings, stretchers, dyes,

Tjap

Block Prints

Tjanting Pengado

The Art of Batik By R. Soeprapto

Art and Crafts in Indonesia (Ministry of Information, Djakarta)

Oriental Brushwork  Wang Chi-Yuan

How to Paint the Chinese Way  jean Long

Sashiko   Mary Parker

Lessons in Bobbin Lace Making  Doris Southard

Lacemaking Channerr CC

Practical Skills in Bobbin Lace  Bridget Cook

Pillow Lace  Mincoff and Marriage

The Technique of Torchon Lace Pam Nottingham

Technique of Design Chuny Lace , L Paulis

Milanese Lace Read and Kincaid

Introduction to Honiton Lace Susanne Thompson

A Dictionary of Lace Pat Earnshaw

Lace and Lace Making Marian Powys

Beggars Lace

P.O Box 17263

Denver, CO 80217

Cindys Stitches

588-A Roger Williams

Highland Park, IL 60035

The Lacemaker

7721 230th Ave SW

Edmonds, WA 98020

Lacis

2982 Adeline St.

Berkley, CA 94703

Robin and Russ Handweavers

533 North Adams ST.

McMinnville, OR 97128

Robbins Bobbins

Rte 1 Box 1736

Mineral Bluff, Georgia 30559

Van Sciver Bobbin Lace

130 Cascadilla Park

Ithaca, NY 14850

The Great Lakes Groups

Mrs. Robert A. Campbell

207 Wilson Ave.

Ypsilanti, MI 48197

International Old Lacers INC

124 W. Irvington Place

Denver, CO 80223-1539

The Silk Painting Workshop

Painting, Marbling and Batik

Jane Venables

Decoration on Fabric

Pauline Brown

Silk Painting

Vibeke Born

Authentic American Indian Beadwork

Pamela Stanley-Millner

Diane Fitzgeralds Favorite Beading Projects

Designer Bead Embroidery

Kenneth King

The Kashmir Shawl

Frank Ames

Soft Furnishings By Hamlyn

Complete Guide to Quilting  Better Homes and Gardens

Formulas, Methods, Tips and Data

Swezey and Scharff

Geometry for Dummies

Reference

Ypsilanti District Library Collection

The Big Designers 2

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The Big Designers 2

By, Afua Serwah Osei-Bonsu

Necessity is perhaps the ruler of all design.  One example that stands out is a department store concept called “Destinations.”  Destinations represents a formula where designs correspond to events and locations or destinations.  Perhaps Destinations falls under a necessity button and becomes the kind of richness of a necessity met, when you have exactly what you need for a specific purpose.  Destinations because of the level of achievement of necessity, becomes a number one best seller. What destinations could suggest is something like playing the child’s card game  “Go Fish,” does your card match my card, “No, go fish.”

The methods one uses to achieve advanced necessity satisfaction can be lucrative and rewarding.

At this juncture in history, what becomes really evident is how the objects in for example a department store, eventually exit the department store and become the “culture.” A designer’s task is to become a cultural builder, or perform cultural branding.  One needs to be cognizant of “building techniques,” building people, cultures, respect and great nations.  Great designers or the big designers are “great builders.” One good example is a newspaper that desires to achieve something within their community and become a “community builder.”

Early design paid close attention to era and a lot was hinged on how to brand the time period or decade which had wonderful results.  Teapots are a nice case study.  Many teapots appear to fall under “era and charm.”  If one sat down to design a teapot they may study many, many teapots and wonder about the je ne sais quoi of teapots.  Teapots may charm one because the design informs the taste of the tea, they have phallic imagery and divine qualities.

Perhaps one creates an “ideal” and matches their designs to the ideal to achieve a result within their community.  For example, if your community has Paradisian ideals, one may endeavor to make their appropriate Paradisian clothes underneath a Paradisian helm-how the Paradisians became the Paradisians.  Even the school for the Paradisians could become a school for the design of Paradise and the protection of Paradisians.  Designs are buried even there in how the school is designed which will reflect what is contained within the nation or on the planet etc.

So how does one design the clothes for the Paradisians?  There is what they are, what you want them to be, how you want to develop them and how to meet their necessities; or perhaps it’s how you love them, showcase them, satisfy them, beautify them, brand them, even teach them.  A Paradisian may be a values based choice and the corresponding Paradisian clothes may be values based.  A Paradisian may have cultures and subcultures that also informs design choices. Within a Paradisian concept there is probably always nature or natural elements including florals.

The challenge living together with diverse and interesting peoples is with cultures and subculturalization and what that can include.   In an American State such as Michigan where few leaders may have been  directed towards cultural development in particular or some may be engaged in cultural branding.  What could be included are things like sports arenas, specific department stores, outdoor amenities, recipes, holidays, music, the wealth of the people’s accomplishments and ideas like humility or even seasons.

 

 

 

 

 

 

You build it, you make it

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You build it, you make it

By, Afua Osei-Bonsu

The abstract manufacturer that desires for example “peace” and comes to realize that peace has tangibility, you can build it, and you can make it.  Other things are tandem with peace like humanity becomes also something tangible that you build and make or a community builder-tangible, you build and make it. Even science often concerned with the search for discovery and the study of the natural world at times could use a build/make formula-if it is necessary one does not need to look for it, but to create it fresh.  Caring, you build it, you make it.  Values you build them, you make them.  Quality, you build it, you make it.

 

 

The Big Designers #1

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The Big Designers

By, Afua Osei-Bonsu

The big designers in life very well may be three things 1)necessity, 2)war and 3)just because we could.

“Necessity” it has been said was utilized by Chinese manufacturers and marked the focus of early eras in design and engineering. Underneath the helm of “necessity” most of design falls out.

“War” is another design pioneer that inspires a lot of technologies and teachings.

The third big designer is “just because we could,” that has to do with things like dinosaurs that apparently may have been whimsy of early scientists and according to one scientist, dinosaurs may still be existence on some far off planets.

Still other things in life become big designers such as those things that shape us and inspire change. Perhaps big designers  4) are the “shapers,” like policy, taxation systems, popular culture,  politics, poverty, education etc.

Moving on to the current century with most of necessity completely in existence, a new big designer may be #5) “Secondary Concept” where you make a dress from for example  a sugar bowl, which becomes the secondary design when you look in a former design-in and around it and using deconstruction.

Another big designer is the constant drive to evolve, #6 is evolution.  Evolution inspired most of innovation.  The notch and notch way that one inches upwards using research and development creates innovation formulas and new propelling designs.  With every technology it is as if, we can now achieve this xyz therefore the following must also be possible, and the designer takes a step, then still another step connecting all the dots.  If one can fly, they can place the star on top of the giant tree, if one can vapor they may perform a heart transplant without incision.

Of course we design and redesign necessity in a constant.