Eye Candy Wednesday

There's a little artin going on but mostly fiber fondling. I've been going through the fruits of the last fiber fest and happy to tell you not much of this batch is getting out to the general public. Maybe next go round. This is one of the tighter woven feed sacks, maybe from flour or sugar. It's got a wonderful soft, almost flannel hand. Another of the tight weave, "diaper weight" pieces. and finally, a quarter of an antique damask tablecloth, worn soft and wonderful and bound to become some free motioned flowers soon.

glyphs progress

Sorry for the crappy photo but I'm starting to live/love this piece again and gotta dash. The rest of the goodies are tumbling around in the dryer right now. _____________

Back from the errand dash...and I have Glory & Riches!

colored

This is a long strip of the coarser chicken feed sack fabric from Rosemary. I've learned a lesson about being over impressed with wet stuff. I won't have any pictures of finished products until later in the week. Let's just say I bit off more than I could chew today. I fact, I'm choked. This is one of several salt/dyed pieces coiled up in baggies and waiting to hatch. Damask and natural muslin sandwiched together this time, sharing the crystals and dye. This piece has had soy wax treatment and is waiting for color. It's in the washing machine right now cause I just had to see one of them today. Too much sun, too much fun. I am whupped. Chef Jim prepared fabulous flat iron steak, 'tater salad and 'maters and olive on the side. Summer fare for Summery Sunday.

...faces come out of the rain...

Jude's recent post about faces got me to checking into my image files, stuff that I created, not photos, and I came up nearly empty handed. Now you know why. Seems like whenever I set about making faces there's a strong current of menace and mayhem just waiting to manifest. I find most of them hilarious. I brought some embroidery thread to work to see if I remembered how. This feels like a throw back to "Atavistic Inclinations" going back to 2006, one of my first experiments with discharging. Thanks to everyone who wrote and gave input regarding the feed sack material. It's all been prepped and some of it will go into a soda ash bath tonight for a dyefest tomorrow. It's toasty here in Georgia. Seems like we've skipped spring and gone straight to summer - great weather for dyeing.

archaeology and treasures

Wonderful things come to light when you start digging. I need to get new containers as all these charming little baskets are too small by half for each colorway and you cannot put 14 pounds of cat in a ten pound basket for long. The red pieced thing is "Picnic In Hell" a top that has been missing for more than a year. All this industry was provoked by the arrival of a large box of vintage fabrics passed on to me by my friend Rosemary Claus-Gray. An incredible trove of fabric that may prove to be from the turn of the century. I found a barely visible stamp on one piece that said "Made For A.D.Pierce, Brooklyn, Conn." A little research tells me that this company was a hatchery of some sort. Wonder what they used all this cloth for. Chicken blankets? I also came across this piece of embroidery that used to grace the whole back of a denim coat that I wore until it was pitiable. Then it was on a couch pillow for years. next?

shawl revival

For lack of anything else to do (besides muck out the Aegean stables that my studio has become) I nailed these dyed damask flowers on the pointed ends of my favorite velvet shawl. My seat at the office is close by the wall of glass (for the light) and the door breezes so I mummy up with this when the evening turns blue and cool.

under one flag

Yeah, there's no denying that they are flags. Even hanging across the opening of the laundry and backlit with a 75 watt bulb. I've always loved stained glass and was really thinking about that Tiffany window when I reshuffled the pallette after a false start. Even though I seamed a few of those pieces together, they were dumb as posts and just not happening. A few fabric substitutions and some transparent Setacolor and this one is starting to hum. It's fixing to get grizzly outside so my idea of painting/drying/painting on the deck is now going back and forth between 1/2 of my sewing table and the laundry closet opening which is 60"x80" and covered completely by this piece. I don't know why I think this is a big deal. People routinely made bed covers bigger than this. Here's a shot with flash and half dry so you can get an idea of what's really going on instead of the glowing wishful thinking happening in the first picture. You can bet I'll keep coming back to it and try with paint and other techniques to make it happen for real.

the process

Thanks to everyone who commented on "Front Runner" and the way I documented it's manifestation. Keeping track of my work was my original purpose for keeping this blog. Time to toe the mark. Ever timely, Elizabeth has posed the question "where d’you begin?" I gave it some thought and decided to pay closer attention this time as I'm anxious to start the next piece in this series. There've been plenty of pictures in the past of my studio, almost always looking post-apocalyptic, but pieces of ironed fabric, all stacked and racked, just don't speak to me. It's as if they already have a job - presenting the illusion of order - and have an imaginary DO NOT DISTURB sign hanging on them. I think this is where some folks get carried away with their stash. It does look all nice and orderly all folded and sorted like that but how would you ever know how this red, that nasty, murky piece of table-mopper and that swath of golden damask would look together unless you flapped them off the shelf and threw them about a bit? I started rounding up these likely suspects yesterday. I overdyed a few laggards and recalled one or two items from the wrinkled depths of the closet and heaped them in the Chair. I'm feeling intense. Cat posted this amazing photo a few days back that perfectly captured my color mood much better than my crayons have in the sketchbook. You can see I've already deviated wildly.

Front Runner completed

Hooray for Captain Phillips!

Time

to stop, I think. At least time to stop and breathe. Time to get out the shovel and get this place in order. When you go looking for something that you KNEW was there and can't find it three times in one day, it's time. The stats god tells me that I have had a new and lengthy visit from someone someplace in the heart of NY near Wilmington. I know it's deep in one of the most beautiful places in this country although I'm ashamed to say I was never farther north than Glens Falls. So many people think New York is all paved over, concrete and steel. I'm here to tell you that nothing could be further from the truth.

working the elements

There's been a lot whining here about the limitations and failures I've experienced working with fiber and sewing. Lately I've taken some good advice and started paying attention to what elements I like in a variety of other artists work and I keep coming back to the dimensionality of the machine stitched line in layers of fabric like Terry Grant's work. (Front Runner in progress , 48"x72") This time I'm going to compound the impact of the machine stitching on this piece one pass of stitching at a time and hope I recognize when basta! arrives. The stitching itself is lost on these failing eyes from just a few paces across the room but the shadows that are cast with natural light get my attention like claw marks in bark. For my own satisfaction, I'm thinking I have to find a balance between the broad strokes/energy of color and shape and the finer details of stitching and texture. I've come to accept that the problems of working large is finding ways to reconcile how a piece looks from across a room and what else goes on when you step in for a closer look. addendum - I just read this from Lanie and find a serendipitous parallel .