inspiration

Thanks to Red Thread Studio I have a new image to obsess about. I was captivated by this image and then the name "Conquistador" - a Jack Lenor Larsen fabric at the Minneapolis Institute for the Arts from 1966. So much of his work feels fresh and wonderful. The shapes, the lines the colors (even the description of the colorways!) all made me want to drop everything and heat up the wax.I am already mentally mixing a batch of my secret "Monkeys Blood" dye. Until I have the time to devote a whole weekend to dyeing and waxing, here's a new fish under way for while I am at the office and limited to hand stitching.

Catching up

This one is going to take some time. As I'm drawing on the fabric with stitching, and going back to double the lines for emphasis, I can see that I'm going to have to go back in with paint to make the design sit up and holler the way I want it to. The way it needs to be on a piece this size. There's no room for insipid on these banners

Here's what I did with that fabric spaghetti that I won from Diane's blog. Jinx has claimed it for her own personal cat doily. I had to move her (again) just to get this shot.

back to work

It's good to get back to work on the big flags but it turns out that I'll have to take this one to the outdoor space to lay it out and sandwich the back and batting. As yet untitled, this one is as wide as my wingspan, that is 65" wide and 82" long. I had to wait to find batting big enough but it's altogether now and waiting for the fun to begin. Which stitch goes where and why.

Reasons for Being

We were always having a pretty good time. That's Jake on the left, and Colin. August, 1985. And here's my Dad and our newest cousin, Dallas. And heeeeerrres Dallas, and his big brothers Reno and Ryder (did I get that order right boys?)

Happy Mother's Day all you Mothers out there and you know who you are.

we host the hordes

We had to let the swimming pool "go green" early last year when Jim was in the hospital and then we let it become a biosphere over the winter months. I hate putting the cover on the pool. With all the rain, we are about two weeks behind in cleaning and refilling it but the local tree frogs were right on schedule. The racket at night has been deafening. They put up the "Froggy Club Med" sign and have been doing what comes naturally in the spring and now we have about a million tadpoles in 4 inches of green water. I couldn't stand the notion of running the entire population through the sump pump so I got down in the slime with a net and bucket and rounded up about half of them and drove down the block to empty then into the stream. Hope the neighbors downstream enjoy the racket.

Winnings!

I was so tickled when this bundle of wonder arrived in my mailbox yesterday. Imagine winning something you really liked just for showing up and shouting! A long time ago I entered a drawing at the grand opening of a hardware store. I won a fake chandelier, retail value $49.95 but I was living at home at the time and my family's home was a ranch with 8 foot ceilings. I asked the manager if I could choose an alternate prize. He was quick to agree when I asked for a very untrendy bicycle that had probably been hanging on the back wall for ten years. That was so cool. This is just as cool and all the way from Hawaii. Thank you Diane.

Moon over Georgia

I used to spend time making animated gifs but gave it up mostly because they were unwieldy large for the dialup connections most people had to put up with. These days of highspeed internet have cheered me. This image started out over at Frank Ze's Scribbler . From there dropped into my antique (5.0) version of Jasc's Paint Shop Pro which has a built in Animation tool that has a great customizable "fade" tool. The little self movie and mood graphic in my sidebar were made with the same program.No magic, merely technology however archaic.

Hooked deep

My fish fixation continues.The dyed damasks have the same iridescent shimmer that's found in fish skins. What could be more alien than a creature who's environment would kill us in a few heartbeats without scuba gear? I've been watching River Monsters with horrid fascination thinking about all the times I blithely paddled about in strange waters, both fresh and salt, toes and fingers like so many tasty Twinkies. Years ago I lived in Provincetown MA for a summer. Some friends and I splashed about at night in the high summer tide alongside one of the town piers just to watch the bio luminescent microorganisms shimmer green fire ripples around us in the water. Minutes later as we sat dripping with our feet dangling off the seawall, a huge curved shape about six feet wide was outlined by the green glow as it swam in a great curving arc in from the depths to where we had stood moments before and then, without pausing, turn back to deep water leaving a trail of stars in it's wake. It was more than chilling.

It's all in the eyes

Fish eyes

I'm researching fish faces for a piece I'm working on. Ever take a close look at their eyes? I used to fish a lot when I was a kid just so I could get a good close look at them. Never knew anything but catch and release. If I wanted fish, Mom would make Gortons. Even though they are beautiful, when you gaze inside, there's just nobody home. When we lived on the other side of town Jake caught a strange fish from the stagnant little run-off pond in the community. He and JJ came running to me with it because it was scary. I knew everything that swam in fresh water in the Northeast but this fish was something else. Pointy face and a mouth full to overflowing with long, needle sharp teeth and orange eyes as big as nickles. No one has been able to tell me what it was besides a fright. They put it back in the pond, carefully.