happy Friday!

I  put the finishing touches on this today. I worked on this through several episodes of True Detective and kept sticking myself. Such compelling acting!

If the sun comes around tomorrow, I'll take some better pictures and post it for sale in the gallery.

That out of the way, I started auditioning pieces for another small thing to clutch and stab when the need arises.

Physical therapy is making a difference in my shoulder. On a happy note, Charlie has declared himself no longer afraid of heavy weather. Hallelujia.

the goods

I think this will work. Directions at the end of the post.

The catchers.

First "table moppers" of the season. We are having a fine steady spring rain. The light is even green.
 For the uninitiated, I spread cotton cloth underneath the cards of thread to catch the excess dye. Nothing gets wasted.
I usually use the same cloths throughout the season and they tend to get kind of muddy.
 This lot might get retired early depending on how they look after a good wash and dry.

ps - we are under a tornado warning right now. spooky.

First fruits

A few were ready. You can see that the color transitions are pretty sharp. I've learned how to control that.

For a while, I've been thinking about writing a book on how to make your own dirty threads, but it seemed like a lot of trouble for four or five pages.

With that in mind this time, I made (mental) notes of all the yes/no, how much/how long, etc. decisions and the outcomes or why of each choice along the way.   Expressing things that have become intuitive is important when one is attempting to teach. And sometimes I did not have any answers for the questions I posed.

 For now, I'll stay a maker.

They are here.

Season 1st

I didn't think the dyefest would get off the ground today. Myriad foolish impediments that had to be dealt with one by one. Stupid stuff. Wrong gloves? Deal. Salt from last year clumpy? Run it through the blender. Forgot to buy small containers for dyestock? Switch to baggies.  Murphy's law was riding high. I got higher and it looks like the first batch of Dirty Threads from the Frankenstein Dyeworx of Lawrenceville is going to be a show stopper! You should see the three table moppers!

Tomorrow. Now I'm going to relax and come up with a suitable name for this lot. I never counted them. Sixty or seventy?

pre-dawn post script. I left them all over the kitchen table and counter, stacked house of cards style, each holding its neighbor up. They are 99% dry.  A few hours of sun and I'll be able to start my favorite compulsive activity- winding them off the dye cards onto the little cardboard bobbing. Feeling the smoothness of the cotton slip through my fingers. Watching as the color character of each one reveals itself in the sunlight. 

Busted wing - update

Looks like vintage chintz but it's my messy kitchen table.

What I should be doing is winding spindles of dmc cotton to transform into dirty threads, but it's not going well.

I had a simple, speedy process in place. The stock arrived. I set everything in position only to realize that, due to the stupid left shoulder injury, I just cannot.

Had the MRI and met with the surgeon. A labrum tear and pieces of floating junk that have formed benign cysts big enough to interfere with movement and cause pain and weakness.

Before any surgery, there will be physical therapy. I will consult with that person to find a way to incorporate dirty thread production into the PT.

The trick? Teach Lefty to do Righty's thing. Lefty is a quick study while Righty is slow to pick it up. Who da thunk it?

finishing

Finishing.

This backing fabric has been waiting ten years or more for being called to active duty.

Once this part is done, I'll be faced with the struggle of orientation, although I may just leave that to the new owner when the time comes.

I'm so ready to start everything new. New cloth, new stories, new me.

Revisions

.

comic book production continued

I was informed that it's not a scrapbook because he's putting words in it too. And that the magazines we cannibalized the other day were pretty picked over. Did I have any others? 

A stack on a shelf in the studio closet waiting to shuffle their way off to the trash. SAQA journals, etc. 

I'm flipping through the pages looking for suitable pages to tear out - easier for new scissor users that way - and something looks familiar.

consequences

A bad day at school evolved into
a tough, overnight bout of stomach upset.

It's so hard to decide how to balance
discipline with coddling.

I don't remember parenting being so hard, then, at the time, I had nothing else to do.

He grows more beautiful as time passes. Still averse to having his picture taken, this one stolen while he was consoling himself and fighting sleep.

Spring break starts Friday.

spring came in on a storm

and a bit earlier in the other direction...

revisions

Re. Visions.

on all the levels I can think of 'revisions' is the new name for this piece.

It's all about changes happening in my art, my writing, my life. Everything happening at the same time sounds like chaos.
It's not.
It's much more like a flow. Pieces have to be considered, tried out and accepted or rejected. Fails to build on. Successes that nourish progress. In all things, balance and timing.

spring cold

Not dropped off the face of the world; it just feels that way.


This deep into the school year and I finally caught a case of Pre-K cooties from my little assistant. I think the remedies laid me lower than the actual cold - I just didn't care as much.

It's a good thing that I can (mostly) do the day job in my sleep. Once or twice last night, I picked up a call, listened to what the person wanted and had no idea what they were talking about. In English. 

There are other things that I'm supposed to be doing but the brain is off wandering on cold meds. Stitching in a straight line is as much as I can manage right now.