Friday, April 29, 2011

Do you know where your work is?

I was waiting for the power to go the other  night and stalling about shutting down the computer by rooting around in old bookmarks. Mine are so disorganized as to be almost useless. It was "404 error" this and "OOPS, page can't be found" that as I opened crusty old links.

Then I stumbled across Saatchi Online and realized I had work on display there and my gallery there was ages old and badly needed updating.  If you signed on with Saatchi when they first made a splash by offering this freebie,  you should revisit them and get your house in order.

Something new, they offer the opportunity to sell prints of your work  but your uploaded images have to meet their size specs and mine are all too small for now.
 
They have completely redone the interface for artists and it took some time to get up to speed. There's much more to be done and I realize that my online time would be better spent at this than playing words games that I almost always lose!

Then I got to thinking about all the various places that I have spewed my work online and my brain starts to hurt!

Oh well, it's a sunny day today, I'm off from work and may go larking about town looking for trouble, film at 11, never mind the Royal Wedding (lovely as it was).

Thursday, April 28, 2011

eye candy relief

The fierce weather left us relatively unscathed. I gave up watching the storm tracks on TV figuring I'd hear the alarm from the fire station nearby. Hardly. 



No art  from me today so enjoy some freedom, energy and excitement.


Branko Bursac
Gwen Fox
Emily Miah Stewart

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Green Bag redux

The overdye and discharge didn't wreak as much change as I had hoped so it's going to be up to me and the scrap bag to set things right. Here's a good start. It's nice to have this distraction from the weather.

We are in the path of the storms birthing tornadoes all across the south. My studio/office is on the top floor and from the window I can see our next door neighbor's towering trees tossing in the wind like so much green surf.

The next moment the wind drops, all goes still and muggy and the sun lights the treetops from an odd angle. It's been on and off all day. They say tonight the real trouble is coming. The tree frogs have been flat out insane at night.

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

new day, new project



From hideous mistake to potential serviceability.
A little dye, some new zippers and a little TLC. Who knows, I may run wild and break out the beads!






I've been shopping for a new bag for a while now with no success and realize it's because I'm hung up on an old favorite that needs a second chance.

Monday, April 25, 2011

Pastel Hell


Lesson learned. Some rot about being conceived or executed in haste. I have paid the price for disregarding a few cardinal rules. #1..let the dye warm up after you take it from the fridge. #2 be positive of the nature of your cloth. This sheet turned out to have a dash of synthetic by the looks of the results.

One of the groups making quilts for the quake survivors in Japan will be getting a whole tops worth of 8" squares by the end of the week.

PS- thanks for all the positive comments. I should know by now that my pastel dreams never satisfy my craving for the bold, daring and vibrant when I am awake and fully aware. I know someone will make something beautiful with these and then it will be given to someone who will appreciate it's function first and maybe it's beauty too. 

Sunday, April 24, 2011

Easter


I hard boiled a few eggs this morning but have left off dyeing them. A giant chocolate rabbit has been being nibbled at for a week already, beyond a Sunday dinner, we don't do Easter now that the boys are (mostly) grown. It used to be like minor Christmas here on Easter. Somehow the notion of new toys crept into the baskets in place of excess candy.

There was cloth to dye today first thing. Sometimes ideas come in dreams.






Whether or not this is a good idea remains to be seen. This fabric has been lolling in the soda ash tub a while now. I ripped it into strips and rolled them, not too tightly.



the dye went straight onto the turkey platter and the ends dabbed in colors.

the rolls then stood on their heads in mason jars for a few minutes...and then taken out and flipped over to take full advantage of gravity from the opposite direction.



and then laid out like so many tasty little Cannoli to spend the day drying in the hot sun.

Now to keep my hands off them for a while.
 
PS...why wait? I unrolled them to dry flat in the sun...quickly.

Saturday, April 23, 2011

spoze-yah update




I like the overall effect but it was a whole lot of work although the process could be refined to make enough fabric for a project in one session. Not as much "creep" as I wanted from the dye...thickener maybe. Maybe doing the creep thing after the blocks are stitched together and wet with soda ash. More trials to come.


I came into a large quantity of thick poly felt and wanted to see how it went under the needle. Machine quilting here is too mannered for my taste. Hand quilting is in order but not for a while.

plotting







I have been captivated by this quilt on the cover of Susan Beal's "Modern Log Cabin Quilting" and spent part of my evening doing my own version of Jude's "what iffing" but I've always called it "spoze-yah" (go on, say it out loud) .










It involves some things I have been warned against, like sewing dyed and painted but unrinsed cloth. Speculating about some of Mary Anne Jordan's pieces like this one and thinking about what the dye will do if you just let it.

no time for tea



I doubt this teapot will ever see any liquid again. Maybe Sangria.  There was no top, so maybe it's not really a teapot but  I saw one just like it in a wonderful film yesterday.
 
Take the time, settle in, watch the faces and listen to the voices. Give yourself over to this one - "Dean Spanley",
  and I promise you will be delighted.

(a very photogenic teapot, here and here are some large, flashy images. my magpie brain is captivated with the reflections)

Thursday, April 21, 2011

phase one, wrap up

It was a long day at the Lawrenceville Frankenstein Dyeworx...even the tools and the tablemoppers had a good time.






the theme of the day seemed to "extra-terrestrial hides" 
there is still a lot of work to do but it will have to wait until the weekend.

Goodwill

I love the Goodwill in Lilburn. There are many people of good taste and apparently great means who bring their barely used things there for me to scarf up on Tuesdays with my SC discount.

(I compensate for these trips by watching a couple of episodes of Hoarders and making up a bag of things to take back to them...)

2$ for a large silver plated teapot? Who could resist? It was dancing on the shelf before my eyes!

No one seems to use top sheets anymore - I scored two brand new, king-sized sheets of very high quality cotton with the intention of cutting them up for the dyepot. After washing and drying I discovered I like sleeping in luxury, especially for 2.50 each. There was also a tan cotton lawn skirt with acres of tiny pleats...pre-sewn shibori I'm thinking.