Friday, December 31, 2010

Happy New Year!

I've put this and the last of the stuffed cusspots up for sale in the Random Acts of Dyeness store - I cranked this one out last night between customers and, for the first time, had an inkling of what carpal tunnel feels like. I can do without crocheting for good while!

There are new books to be read and I don't anticipate a busy evening although holidays have a way of bringing the wackos out of the woodwork. Since I'm working until midnight anyway, I've offered up my services as a designated driver so I may be out and about after dark this New Year! A first in many.

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Gallery Updating


The studio lies fallow, but that's ok - it's that time of year for me. There are things on the design wall, in the sketchbook and the back brain burner that will all come into being in their own good time.

Until then it seemed prudent to review so I spent the morning updating the main gallery and being so bold as to post prices again instead of half-hearted and hopeful messages of negotiation or barter.

Here is my work. I am well satisfied.

Sunday, December 26, 2010

Sweetie's first snow

Sweetie has been acting so strange since it started snowing last night, running around the house (she sounds like a herd of ponies) and going around with her hair all up.

Then I remembered that this was probably her first snow. She joined our family last year and spent a good three months sequestered  upstairs, recuperating from being a feral waif, a minor surgery and keeping her from the rest of the crew. I'm sure she missed the brief snowfall we had last winter.

It was hard to get a good shot because she was doing that foot shaking dance cats do when they step in something they don't like.

Saturday, December 25, 2010

Merry Christmas!



A lovely day. Everyone got gifts both unexpected and welcome. Jake and Missy are here, Colin had to go serve the movie going public and we are hunkered down waiting on the first Christmas snow in the ATL since 17 years. The real worry is the potential for ice.


Yes, the pie tasted every bit as good as it looks and the lasagna will be at it's best tomorrow.

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

quiet time





The quiet time took me be surprise last night. I was prepared to be inundated with the complaints of every inept malcontent and miscreant up and walking  last night only to have long minutes of blessed silence between brief, businesslike "let's get it done" calls.

My scrap basket was just within reach so, with my eyes closed, I felt out the pieces of cotton that had the same soft weave and started hand piecing them just for something to do. This is only about 3"x5". Maybe I'll grow it a little more later on. Hand piecing is not a favorite pastime as I seem to stick my self often ...some of those red spots around the edges are NOT dye.

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Looney Eclipse





When will I learn that the time to learn about  proper camera settings is not as you stand on the deck in your slippers and nightwear shivering? The moon was dead overhead so I reckoned that putting the camera on 10 second delay and laying it on it's back on the picnic table would be a good thing to try. Then the cloud cover started racing by. You can even see Venus I think.

The clouds parted for just a second and this shot came out pretty good.  No, that's not my finger...I threw those shots out with the other forty odd that I took.  I even sat up in bed reading the manual for a while. Better than a glass of wine or a pill.....


the one below is my favorite. who knows what the camera settings were?

The creatures were celebrating in their own fashion - I took three dog bite  reports over the course of the evening!

Sunday, December 19, 2010

"Taken By the Night" finished

"Taken By the Night"

2010


It was nice to get something completed before the year ran out. It's charmed and puzzled me every step of the way but last night it really felt finished and this morning I faced it with a piece of even sky colored cotton and called it good.

It finished out at 11.5"x13.5" and is ready to frame. $290.00 includes shipping inside the US and if I get off Priority Mail tomorrow, it should arrive in time for holiday gift giving.

go here for a clickable close up. email me if you are interested.

Saturday, December 18, 2010

Lavanderia completed


Update - I just had to paint over that yellow canvas background - it annoyed me every time I walked into the rooom

"Lavanderia" was a long time in the works. I used it in the mummy making tutorial   but did not complete the process by sealing the front with acrylic medium. There was just too many fiber effects that I knew would be lost - the sheen of the damask, the definition of all those tiny french knots - so this one looks and feels like cloth but is permanently mounted to a stretched canvas.

Thursday, December 16, 2010

Cusspots explained.....

Melly has posted about her recent acquisition of some of my stuffed cusspots, and the questions are rolling in.

 The name "cusspot" came to me out of the blue (like all my titles do) when I was thinking about how to name these little containers that I started crocheting at work rather compulsively. When I made the first one, I put it on my desk and put a few coins inside with the notion that the nickle and three pennies might breed like hangars in the closet tend to. Didn't happen.

Then I remembered how some offices and families have a Swear Jar that you have to put money into if you swear out loud, as a kind of punishment or deterrent to bad language. Where I grew up you got five upside the eyes for anything past "Hell" or "Damn" (and those got you the very evil eye). Of course, we swore like sailors when Mom or Dad were not within earshot.

I swear a LOT on my job, violently and elaborately, but inside my head, at my customers. I curse them all, need it or not. It keeps me from burnout. My  little crocheted container would never serve to hold a day's worth of swearing fines, they were not big enough to be real Swear Jars, they were merely CUSSPOTS.

I started poking thread ends into it instead of letting the bits fall where ever and getting more evil eyes from the vacuum cleaner guy late in the evening. The threads stuck to the office carpet like crazy and he had to spend extra NOISY ANGRY minutes around my desk once a week. In the spring, I pulled all the thread bits out and left them in the shrubs around the office for birds to make nests with.

What will you do with a cusspot? Melly is cooking hers!

Last Chance for Holiday Fiber!

I'm almost done "shop keeping" for this year....


I think tomorrow is the last day before Christmas that I could promise a package arriving in time for holiday gift giving (US) .  If you buy one at the regular price any additional bundles will be 10$ off  and I'll get them out to you by Priority Mail, lickety split. (Note: Dont use those PayPal buttons for this sale..email me for an invoice so I can work in your discount! )

WOO WOO!
Cloth for Christmas!

See the inventory at Random Acts of Dyeness (remember, ignore those PayPal buttons if you want that discount! Email me for an invoice)

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Taken....

I'm starting to get that "what now" message from this piece and have twice forged ahead with uninformed, headlong sort of stitching only to stop myself and painstakingly pick the buggers out. The royal blue damask is particularly fragile.

I can see that I need to do something defining for that birds right wing and the blue moon. I've gotten too close to this one and need to step away for a while. Maybe some cooking, cleaning and shopping? Nah...

Monday, December 13, 2010

Juicy observes



How would you like to turn around in the studio and find this looking over your shoulder?

Juicy is Jake's cat and is just starting to fit in instead of spending every moment in hiding.

Although he is fierce and intimidating to look at, he's a big scaredy cat and bolts the minute anyone but Jake approaches him. Sweetie is quite put off by this incursion and has been walking around with her back fur all up in disgust.

Friday, December 10, 2010

it's Friday!!

 I spent most of my day off yesterday in bed trying to ward off a cold/the cold and working on this piece which is becoming quite compulsive.

Things going are are being revealed to me as I go.  Can you tell that I watched "Elizabeth: The Golden Age" and was quite spellbound with the costumes and wigs, not to mention the intrigues and sea battles.

In a little while I have to report to the office for work evaluation and spend the day there interacting with live humans that I am not related to. I wonder if I  remember how.

Thursday, December 09, 2010

found money art




Alexander Hamilton never looked so good. Melly, do you recognize this guy?

Tuesday, December 07, 2010

Taken By the Night continued

Elizabeth Barton's recent post about avoiding cliches made me focus on why I have not been doing any hand work for a while now. She actually had me sketching faces on paper last night!

The word "twee" kept coming to mind (and gagging me) as I tried one small composition after the next, each time with some literal objective in mind. Finally, I went back to my established way of composing - gathering small bits of cloth that work well together, color and textures, and then stirring the two dimensional pot until a  design emerges.
When something recognizable emerges, like figures, then I start to smell trouble. What is the story? How much to show? How much to leave in the wind? How far into cartoon do I want to dive.


At this point I have to rely on my admittedly limited stitch repertoire to define and refine. Faces are particularly deadly as they usually say too much. I prefer faces to be incongruous, contrary even, to what seems to be going on.
I don't want to to spell it out for the viewer.

Sometimes there are elements that have to be weeded out or brought into focus in an unexpected manner.

This piece continues to compel me.

Sunday, December 05, 2010

sunday stitchin

Sweetie was annoyed that I abandoned our afternoon nap in favor of other things like bothering her with the camera and stitching in the afternoon sun for the scant hour and change that it  comes through the bedroom slider on the back of the house. If I'm ready early enough I can catch the morning sun in the studio now that the leaves are mostly off the trees in the front of the house.

Saturday, December 04, 2010

sweater days


Brrrr. It's a sweater day in Georgia looking as if it could snow any minute. Spending this day chillin', stitching and watching old movies on the tiny TV. (and the occasional Lexulous move)
 Later there will be home made pizza and
"The Town" on the big screen.

Friday, December 03, 2010

just a little comfort

Waaay back when (note the date on the site!)  I did an entire series of digital images that used scans of commercial fabrics as fills. I was learning several graphic programs and teaching myself to write HTML code at the same time.

Here's one of my first websites..I did run right back to a comfort zone when I made my own gallery.



So to get out of the fiber doldrums, I did that little oil pastel and after staring at it for a while now and being pleased with the design, I'm going to try to take it back to the cloth..round and round we go!
but sometimes all we want is just a little quick  comfort.

Thursday, December 02, 2010

Winter Banner

I had to take the Ducky banner down. Daily reminders of the pool at this time of year just make me sad.  Right now this looks like the back reaches of a primeval   swamp. There could even be alligators in there. You don't want to see it now.