As promised

I was trying to embed the video of Sweetie in the swimming pool but I seems to have gone web stupid this morning so here's the link instead.

thunder rolls

The skies went dark and green and thunder rolled just as the Braves finished off the Detroit Tigers so I thought I'd dash out and get a few of the bigger pieces of damask out of the jars for a natural rinse in the storm that's bearing down on us.

These pieces have been stewing in the soda ash for almost two weeks. I hope I haven't hurt the cloth by putting things off  so long. They feel like wet hides, all thick and slimy.

BRAVES WIN!

Jan & I made our annual pilgrimage to a Braves game last night - my first friday night with fireworks game. The Braves won, and  we enjoyed the game in swank comfort thanks to her neighbors unused season tickets.

Jan got me into a shirt for the occasion and I picked our  pitcher KAWAKAMI who had not yet won a game this year, not because he is a bad pitcher but it seemed like whenever it was his turn to pitch, everyone else forgot how to bat! Yeah, I know it's on backwards - anything to get on the JumboTron at Turner Field!

  UPDATE...a few minutes ago KK got his first win in a nailbiter and thanks to our hero on the van Chipper Jones who hit a three run homer run as sweet as red velvet cake.

silk velvet

A few years back I did a booming season selling hand dyed silk/rayon velvet scarves at a few local craft fairs - no mean feat in Georgia. "The Velvet Lash" was quite successful for a while but in a years time were passed over in favor of the trixier ones that were crocheted or knitted with things like Monkey skins or copper wires and such..

I was probably selling them too cheaply but it was a learning experience and I came out ahead of the game. I had a few left over that were too garish for the crowd. They were originally dyed with Procion MX with bonds viciously to the rayon fibers. Since these were 80%rayon and 20% silk, I figured that the Colorhue dyes would not be wasted on them. I was right.

ColorHue Dyes

Where has this stuff been all my fiber life?
I can see with just a little monkeying around that many things are different here. The physics of wet in wet. How far color will and wont wander. The transparency effects and how the different colors work together or not.

I made the mistake of separating the various silks from their bags with labels so I don't have  the right names for the fabric.
This silk is sturdy, shiny and shrieks when you rip it with gusto. It loves the dye.

A little goes a long way and I'm running wild this morning...

Mark making with brushes and droppers. Seeing how far and true I can make my intentions and just how much is left to the whim of the cloth, dye and water.


I feel the ladybugs watching from the treeline, nervous.

Tigers Go Swimmin Wit Bowlegged Wimmin

That title ought to drag in a new and interesting audience!

For the moment this is a picture-less post. A heads up and reminder to self to let go worries and enjoy the good stuff. This is my first Friday off from work in forever and I've packed too much into the day but while it's still coolish outside I'm going to be putting dye to some silk. Pictures will surely follow.

I'll be going to my first ever Friday night Fireworks ballgame at Turner Field tonight.Pray for a Win..I can't imagine enjoying fireworks if the home team gets their ass kicked can you??

As to that strange title - I keep having to pinch myself to believe it happened.

Yesterday Jim and I were drifting around in the pool  when I noticed Sweetie leaning in to take a drink (we work hard to keep the pool clear and clean with minimal chemicals).

I drifted over to her. She didn't spook and split. I scratched her cheeks,  put my arm around her and took her in both arms in a safe grip and stepped away from the edge.

She didn't freak or fight or even tense. I let her legs and body be in the water all the while singing her a little song "tigers go swimmin ...." after a minute I took her back to the deck and let her debark. She was as wet and amazed as we were and scampered off to groom and be cooler.

Next time, I'll try to get pictures. If I didn't have a witness I would think it was a dream.

rescue results

Well, sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn't.





These came
out more subtle than I hoped but then I sometimes get backhanded compliments for being loud...

rag rescue continued

 

This is the step that I like the best - indulging my dot-itis. I made it a dual step this time - while the discharge paste is working, I oversprayed them with a dye/soda ash solution. WooWoo, I've seen some of the results but y'all will have to wait until tomorrow. I need a nap.

remember stitching?

I'm working on a piece now that's designed in a way that I can work on separate elements of the thing at the office, between calls of course. It's going to be a big one when I finally put all the pieces together. It feels good to be thinking in terms of feet instead of inches again. The focus was getting way to close.

Now for the rookies at the office to get up to speed so I am not taking calls back to back, thank you very much. If anyone is thinking about a career that is recession proof, go to work for a company that has something to do with the litigious nature of our society.

Pity the poor restaurant owner who has to worry about a customer making a claim against him because the color of the walls in the dining room upset her stomach to the point where she decided to take the food to go.

She left the food in the car overnight but ate it on the way to work the next morning and then crapped herself in the car as she arrived at the office. She wants to be reimbursed for a day off from work, detailing the car, dry-cleaning her wardrobe and replacing her shoes. Oh, and throw in a pedicure and few free dinners too.

Sometimes my face hurts from trying not to laugh out loud.

belated thank you and shout out

A bit back artist  Marlene Glickman read here about the gift of Colorhue silk dyes that I received and she graciously sent me a copy of her instructional DVD and her information about getting the best out of the product. Thank you SO much!

(That's Marlene trying to dye my hair purple back at the Focus On Fiber week I attended at the ACA in Florida. Really, way back in '07! That week, organized by my friend Mary McBride,  was  the greatest investment in my art career  since SVA back in the stone ages.)

Truth time - the envelope got mislaid in the studio and I unearthed it this morning and found this exquisite silk scarf folded into the booklet. Mere digital photos can't do justice to its shimmering, iridescent reality. I've got the hair thing down now, Marlene! and again, thanks.

rag rescue

Sometimes you can save them, and sometimes you can't. Of course, it's too soon to tell with this bunch.

Jimmy reminded me that some of my best pieces were the ones that started out as head nasties. I remind myself that nobody pays me to pass judgments and today I will focus on relieving myself of that burden and wipe that sneer off my face when I sit down to take my first call later today.

Idle hands - the devil played here

Call someone!
..she's sewing beads on things again. (there are also some of the world's ugliest fabric being overdyed right now!)

My Dixie Mink

From here straight to the pool! I wish I could convince the cats they would feel better after a dip but then I'd be bitchin' about hair in the filter.

I've been off putting up a quick & dirty website for a client ( I NEED CONTENT DAMMIT!) and am just now getting to sort through all the great fabric I dyed last week. A new box of vintage damasks should be hitting the porch sometime today  and I'll be working on them shortly thereafter.

It's been gruesome, August style hot here in Georgia for several days now. We have become accustomed to living without AC but these past few days it's been tough.  Like many people who work in over air conditioned offices I go back and forth between 95 & humid to 68 and crackling dry. Many of my coworkers sit in their cubes draped in Snuggies looking like monks in a cult of monitor worshipers.

I took advantage of the early morning cool to shoot & post five juicy new sets of fabrics to the store  -about half coming from the latest dyefest.  In case you've wondered about the titles, I keep a running list of beautiful, exotic words - place names mostly - the kinds of words you repeat to yourself two or three times just because of the way they sound.  Here's "Night Queen"