THE AUGUST REVIEW: Unemployed Artist Learns to Code (Makes Lots of Art Also)
Ah, August, a month of reflection, bug bites, and being unbearably sweaty. The month it sunk into me that oh, I really have graduated uni, now, and scrolling a social media site most believe to be dead, rewatching a sitcom that finished airing before I finished primary school, and complaining about how there are no grad jobs is not a great way to spend my time. I decided to get my act together: I sat down, put my English degree to good use and wrote a review for The Passion of New Eve. But where to share my masterpiece? Could it be I should finish setting up that website I started coding way back in March, so that even if I can’t achieve my dream of living off an art career, I can at least pretend I gave it a shot?
CHAPTER 1: Coding 101
I was very apologetic about the unfinished state of my website in the Instagram post I made about the review, only to become completely obsessed with Hugo and get my home page fixed literally days later. I haven’t coded since I was at school, and my computer nerd partner endlessly makes fun of my so-called tech illiteracy, so becoming a GitHub user was not on my 2025 bingo.Fortunately for me, Hugo is very straightforward. Once you have a few nitty-gritty bits of toml or yaml or some other coding language that would be a lovely name for a baby girl, you just type as you would into a text editor, with a few extra underscores here and there.
Unfortunately for me, the very useful Hugo feature of themes has an irritating quirk where, if you switch themes, stuff sometimes stops working. My friends who code have told me this is a pretty classic coding experience, so in that regard I’m giving myself a pat on the back. I’d recently switched from Papermod to Rusty Typewriter, and was failing to understand why my ‘_index.md’ file under ‘content’ now had seemingly no correlation to my homepage. But great news! The very best part about Hugo? You can just scour the GitHub of the person who designed the theme until you get a headache, and you’ll probably work something out eventually.
In this instance, I found out I was supposed to be editing a completely ‘content.toml’ file under ‘data\rtwt’. Deleted the previous homepage file and, as if by magic, the website you see before you was fully functioning! At least, it was for now…
Will I be following in my partner’s footsteps and becoming a Linux user? Stay tuned.
CHAPTER 2: Sleepover Arts and Crafts
Meanwhile, I made this awesome collage during an arts and crafts hangout with my friend:
Felt like a proper trans artist making it. I could explain my thoughts behind the piece, but wouldn’t that ruin the fun? Really, it makes a lot of sense that trans people like to collage, what with our being drawn to radical acts of recreation from pre-existing parts.
CHAPTER 3: The Isle of Wight
I’ve had a Praktica film camera since 2023, and I got into the habit of taking it pretty much everywhere with me. The main downside of this is that I stopped taking pictures on my phone as much, so I have a lot fewer pictures in general, but I can’t really complain. It feels like I’m living in the moment a lot more when I’m less focused about how something will look on a picture I’m probably not going to look at again. You have to put so much more effort into each picture on film; it makes you appreciate them a lot more.
Unfortunately, my camera broke. It’s probably fixable, but the camera already wasn’t great, so it’s not at the top of my agenda.
On my holiday to the Isle of Wight (in the middle of my Hugo obsession) I decided I’d take a pen and paper everywhere with me and practise sketching. I love drawing, but since I’ve always been better at other things, I don’t really practise so this seemed like a perfect opportunity.
… I didn’t draw very much.
The only quick sketch in a location that I did - which I was pretty pleased with - was this, scribbled while at Yarmouth Castle:
The other drawing I spent the holiday working on I worked from a reference image over hours… and I still haven’t finished it.
Hopefully I will soon. Hopefully.
CHAPTER 4: Mending, Upcycling and Unfinished Business
Reduce, Reuse!
Despite the fact that I got really into darning recently (it’s a great hobby for those of us who hoard our old socks and are too lazy to put effort into an actual embroidery project) my dad nearly threw this old shirt because it was full of holes…? Instead of giving it to me…? As if throwing things away when they have holes in makes any sense at all.
I went for bright, contrast colours, a perfect way to improve my dad’s signature beige, although you can’t really see it super well since most of the holes are on the collar. It’s not the sort of thing I generally wear - my two fashion modes are ’loud and femme’, and ’too formal to wear to Tesco’ - but I can probably make it work. If not, stay tuned; I might try selling it soon.
Birthday Presents
It was my partner’s birthday at the end of July, and in classic The Patchwork Press fashion, I made him what was originally intended as a patch - which I did not finish in time for his birthday. I presented it to him in its embroidery hoop, and asked how he would like it finishing. He asked if I could make it into a room decoration, which I’ve never done before but I was happy to take on the challenge.
Continuing in classic The Patchwork Press fashion, I decided to make it out of things I found in my room through sheer trial and error. My first idea was to stitch it to some plain cross-stitch canvas. Because I temporarily forgot how hems and seam allowances work, I cut said cross-stitch canvas down to the size I wanted it to be on the finished piece. Since I did not have any correctly-sized cross-stitch canvas left, I abandoned this idea and set my sights on my hoarded cardboard boxes.
This worked much better! I cut the cardboard to the same size I did the canvas, and put PVA glue on the overhanging edges of the fabric to stick down on the “wrong” side of the cardboard. To finish, I used a darning needle to blanket stitch around the edges of the piece. It’s not perfect: the back looks unfinished, but it is the back for a reason. I’m super happy with it, and my partner loves it.
My First Buttonhole!
I made my first choker way back in March, my original use for my original scrapwork fabric. I love it and it’s gorgeous, but I was so determined not to face my fear of sewing buttonholes that I sewed on the button then made a loop out of embroidery thread instead of a hole in the fabric.
Don’t do this. The thread will fray, and the choker won’t fit properly. One day I will come up with a better solution to this issue; today is not that day.
I found some embroidered love hearts in the botton of my sewing box this month, and decided that I wanted to have another go with textile jewellery and make another choker. A lot less labour went into this one before it got to the point of needing to make both ends connect, so I didn’t have an excuse to avoid learning this quite important sewing skill.
I prefer hand-sewing when I have the time and patience. I followed along with From Carly B’s video on hand-sewing buttonholes, which was super helpful:
First, I had to switch to a smaller button, because I quickly realised my original button was too big. My second button doesn’t match the thread I’d sewn the (very messy!) border in, but I think it’s still suitably complementary. I know many people recommend matching your thread to your fabric so your mistakes are less visible, but I consider this an excuse for making the world boring and uniform and I prefer embracing my creative mistakes.
And, to say it’s my first buttonhole, I think I did a pretty great job!
I would love to make more textile jewellery going forward! I am very much open to commissions for chokers: I want to try make them for different neck sizes, not just to fit me!
A FINAL NOTE
Psst! Are you a small shop that promotes makers like me?
I’m currently looking to sell patches with local shops! Whether you want to commission something specific or leave me to do my own thing, if you stock the work of small artists I would love to hear from you! Please email enquiries.patchworkpress@gmail.com or DM @thepatchworkpress on Instagram!
If you just want something specific on a patch, I would also love to hear from you! Info about how I price individual commissions is available to read on my Contact page.
Thank you for reading my first of hopefully many monthly creative updates. Have a lovely, creative September!
lots of love,
The Patchwork Press