leaving well enough alone

"Jellies Matriculating" 2008 12"x12" Hand dyed silks, cotton damasks and flannels machine stitched with silk, cotton and rayon threads.

in the morning, it's all potential

The morning sun gets into my studio first thing. Everything is dazzled with potential. Strewing stuff around is enough to get things perking. As fabric and ideas fall into place, it's time to nail things down and the work starts to bristle and balk. The background for this piece started out a dark grey, then I transferred it all over to a piece of plain muslin. Still no satisfaction. More rummaging in the stash for the stage. Because the color and energy of the elements of this piece it became clear that the background was going to have to step up and have something to say also. More stitching is on the agenda but "Jellies Matriculating" is solving it's own riddle nicely as I go along for the ride.

brewing

Here I am with a pile of potential art in front of me and, for the moment, it's just too much. I should probably put 90% of it back in the bag but that leaves which 10%? When I first started to use crayons I always had to use every single color in the box every time I colored. Something about not wanting to let anyone feel left out (or they would get out of the box at night and Get me while I was sleeping. Another reason I never slept much as a child) I also got sucked back into 4"x6" postcard country yesterday thinking I could whip up some holiday cards while here at work but what normally took me 15 minutes on my machine at home took over an hour on an unfamiliar machine who did not much care for silk. update - it never fails. Set me parameters and I start grinding my gears. I made a 14 inch square design boundary to complete a fifth piece for the show and how those fences are chafing!

Gonzo Glass

Since I've gotten nothing exciting in the works at the moment, take a look at what my buddy Jan Thompson has been up to.

A while back she abandoned fiberworld for the Hot Glass Darkside and has become a total convert to glass bead making. Check out her work here.

One day soon I expect she will pull up to my house with a large dumptruck full of her fabric and make a deposit on my front lawn so she can move her glass studio out of her cold basement into her cobweb strung former sewing room!

more creature gestures

I've been researching and documenting (in my mind) gestures for years. Fancy myself pretty adept at reading body language which gets pretty interesting when there's no body. "Waltzing Asses" takes shape and when it's done I'm going to do a step-by-step of securing this one to a stretched canvas. I won't call it a tutorial because that seems to indicate I know what I am doing. That remains to be seen. When I started this piece I made the base sandwich about 15 inches square and basted a 12"x12" boundary inside to contain the design elements.

As you can see by the overlay of my trusty 12x12 studio assistant, I came pretty close to staying "in bounds" so there will be a little design dribbling off the sides of the canvas once this one gets stretched.

Charming, ain't he? He looks like my brother-in-law the Hunyak.

new presentations

I've just finished my first attempt at wrapping one of my finished pieces around a pre-made canvas and am quite pleased at the way it turned out. The best part is cropping by positioning the image to fit the canvas, in this case a 12"x12". This one and four others are destined for the "World of Imagination #2" at the APW Gallery in Queens, NYC, NY. The second best part is getting the canvases one by one with 40% off coupons at JoAnns.

Computerized Embroidery

This is my first attempt on one of our computerized embroidery machines, the Viking-Husqvarna Topaz 30, to be exact.

Now that I have the process down and know what the machines require of me (change the thread color and push the start button) I plan on investigating the limits of the software package that comes free with this model.

The software is supposed to be able import almost any digital image and convert it to a design that the machine can then stitch out...now, that intrigues me as much as duplicating the pre-set designs leaves me yawning.

Of course I tinkered with the color scheme offered with this hummingbird and you have the ability to mirror or flip the image but that's it.

When I go back to work on Tuesday I plan on seeing what the Topaz30 will make of my "Waltzing Asses"

a note about the Bookstore

For those of you who have made a vow to buy useful holiday gifts, you can never go wrong with a good book, a good USED book! A note about the "Bookstore" link in my sidebar. I was lucky enough to be around for the sad downsizing of a major fiber and craft library. This is a link to my Amazon bookstore where I have an amazingly eclectic group of fiber, art and craft books available at the lowest prices on Amazon. Most of them are new, the rest hardly fondled. If you see something you like and want to negotiate the price, drop me a line.

Never mind the Great Pumpkin...

....it's the Great Ass of Gaffney, SC. Well if you are whizzing by at 70 mph it's an ass for most of the southbound view. The Leaf shows up better going the other direction but that new restaurant sign really completes the scene. Raquel snapped this on our way back from dropping Colin off in NC on his way to a job in NY. The things we have to do to make a living these days. Today, I'm taking my featherweight and whatever materials I can carry over to their house to wait on the cable guy. I'll see what "11 to 2" can come up with and post it here later. I've committed myself to a 5"x7" piece for the Byrdcliffe Guild in Woodstock and five (yow!) 12"x12" pieces for another show that's in January. Got to busy myself.

Still here, still stitching

Life and working for a living have sniped deeply into my "free" time formerly frittered away on the computer. I've been working on free piecing a small top so I can learn how to use the MegaQuilter that will be set up at work soon. You would think I could find a better, more creative way to take advantage of this amazing resource. I'll work on it. This could become a "creature" backdrop! I'm a bit stunned with lack of sleep. For unknown reasons I woke up in the middle of the night and started to watch "Windsor Castle - A Royal Year" on PBS....and couldn't stop watching. For those of you who might have a nodding acquaintance about where and how the British Monarchy does the day to day, check this program out.It was mesmerizing! To all my friends and readers in the UK. I was just astounded at the depth of pride in the tradition of service expressed by the people whose work keep things running smoothly at the Queen's favorite home. It was marvelous to see people costume and conduct themselves with such purpose, each pleat, fold and flourish having a meaning that reaches back into history.