the Haul

It's finally coming 'round to hot enough for dyeing here in Georgia after a long spell of wet and chilly. I went to Goodwill this morning to drop off a set of frilly curtains that I've been saddled with for a while. Never went inside! Such willpower. Then I saw the 20% everything sign on the antique/consignment depot that's right next door.

There WILL be a new dye session tomorrow and it's gonna be HOT!

Buggy Oatmeal, Soggy Cheerios and Rice of Questionable Age will be shouldering the color. I'll remix and recalibrate the colors away from the previous sessions. The recipients of all this glory?  A half ACRE of premium, heavy-weight muslin from India, complete with yards of cotton stitched eyelet lace and another acre of superb double damask from Ireland. The latter has been professionally laundered and ironed to death, poor thing. I can barely make out the pattern but the cloth is rich and thick and will drink up the color.

no chimes

I took a fat handful of cloth from my private stash in the river basket late Wednesday night without really looking at the contents. Stuffed everything in a gallon Ziploc bag and took it with me to spend the day with Charlie.

No needles, pins or threads. Just planned on looking. We sat on the floor in the sunlight and dumped the baggie out onto the carpet.

He was happy to help. He folds. Sort of.

I remain uninspired. Tomorrow, early I'll empty the bag back into the river basket in the studios morning light. See if anything speaks up.

Got cloth?

freckles, speckles, splashes, soy resists and so much more..this is the stash that I'm picking fat baggies from and there are two other baskets not in the shot!

Charlie Monday

 I had mixed feelings about this picture, but there's  just no denying that Charlie will be using technology in ways we never dreamed of.

He's so good at it too. The ease and accuracy when he pecks and swipes at the screen is eerie. We've agreed to limit his e-time and I've come up with the sneaky trick of letting him use my tablet only when I know the battery is about 15% or less. When the low battery message pops up he says "Uh-oh!" and when it shuts down he knows that the tablet is tired and has to take a nap. No fuss, no crying.

hot stuff

There's a double armload of cloth from the most recent dye-fest in my stitching chair. You can open this image in another table to see the variety of textures underlying all those freckles. Some of those troublesome batiks are there too, now that I've made them presentable to the public

I've picked what I wanted, and a few other pieces have gone off to other artist's studios.

The rest will get churned into the blend over at Random Acts of Dyeness. If you want a bundle that is ONLY freckles and batiks, let me know asap. There's not a ton to go around.

PS - Arlee. The black bits have to qualify as failed. The blue-gray you see here was as strong as they stayed. Dye age? Perhaps. Operator error? More likely.

Inspirational 10

I am so honored to be included in this special issue celebrating the amazing online resource,   John Hopper's Textile Blog

My association with John reaches back to an article he wrote about my work back in  2009 after accidentally finding it online. Seems like I started something for him that's taken on a grand life of its own.

When he asked me to participate I threw a slew of images at him and he chose my four secret favorites. The man has a magical eye.

"Just to let you know that Inspirational 10 is now on sale. This issue is a little different from the other Inspirationals as I have taken the opportunity of celebrating 8 years of The Textile Blog. In that 8 years, I have been able to feature a whole range of contemporary artists, and I thought that it would be a great idea to be able to revisit them through the context of Inspirational. Therefore, 45 artists have been brought together for Inspirational 10, all showing a selection of new work, as well as a summary of where they are presently on their creative path. Not much writing from me in this issue, apart from an introductory, I have left the artists and their work to speak for themselves."

The names of those other artists dazzle and humble me.

Lisa Hochstein, Valerie Goodwin, Cathy Kleeman, Peggy Brown, Nelda Warkentin, Cynthia Corbin, Carol Taylor, Altoon Sultan, Gerrie Congdon, Pat Dolan, Denise Linet, Helene Davis, Pat Pauly, Deborah Gregory, Ellin Larimer, Wen Redmond, Terry Jarrard-Dimond, Brenda Smith, Domine Nash, Linda McCurry, Erin Wilson, Nancy Clearwater Herman, Diane Savona, India Flint, Rayna Gillman, Jette Clover, Marlene Cohen, Judith Plotner, Karen Stiehl Osborn, Jeanne Raffer Beck, Clare Plug, Andrea Vail, Mitchell Manuel, Stanley Bulbach, Martin Ebrey, Kirsty Wallace, Anthony Stevens, Dennis Potter, Barbara Tomecak, Mary Mazziotti, David Lasry, Roxanne Lasky, Giulia Gazza, Jennifer Gaye

Charlie Monday 5.9.16

For a lot of reasons, I've decided to stop posting Charlie Monday to FB. It's really stinking up the internet these days, so I'm bringing it all back home here.

Charlie was happy to participate in my impromptu game of pick-up sticks, but the question in his eyes was, "If I'm not supposed to put these in my mouth, nose or ears, why?"

These were taken the day before Jake and Colin accidentally killed a large copperhead not fifty feet away from this spot. There's a good reason that I always walk around with my eyes to the ground.

Mother's Day

Me and my Mom. I was the first of a swarm so there are very few pictures of just the two of us.


As I looked through my own extensive collection of photographs I wondered why there were so few pictures of me with my own when they were babies. Everyone else had them it seemed.



Then I remembered what every nursing mother knows. You are wearing the kid like a corsage for most of your waking (what sleeping?) hours so when someone else shows up you say, "Here. Hold this for a minute." and you take the pictures.

1980 with Colin

1986 with Jake

some early returns.

Couldn't resist some early returns. On the left, a dry damask napkin. Center, a woven cotton sleeve still wet. On the right, some very kinky, fluffy cotton gauze also dry.  Below, detail from the center piece. I think the black will stay strong even when it dries. It's that kind of cotton. Grabby.

Mother's day on the burning dye deck

It's hot and breezy and we're in high gear here at the Lawrenceville Frankenstein Dyeworx.

It's texture time so the buggy oatmeal was dug out from the depths of the pantry and the Magik is underway.

There were cottons, linens, silks and damasks in the sauce after the great dismemberment (several skirts, blouses, and coats work taken apart rather roughly) .

Alas, the day job beckons and a nap is a must so the great reveal will have to wait until tomorrow. All this stuff can just poach out here without my help.

Hoarding

Looking around the studio, I realize that's what I've been doing by not finishing, marketing or advertising these pieces. I've been over-invested emotionally in the whole black and white series and just don't want to really let go.

This little one, Karma VI,  in particular, the last of the series. Looking at it here, I'm convinced I want to change the orientation by one turn to the left. There's no sleeve on it yet, so no big  deal.

It's unfinished for the same reason I'm having trouble facing up to the last chapters of my book.  I just don't want this part, the making part, the fun and rewarding part, of the work to be over.  That's going to have to change and soon.

            I'm hoarding a lot of things that I'll have to set free.