First Fruits

What's this, you say? Some kind of bread dough complete with mold? Nope. It's a yard of vintage cotton damask hatching out a sprinkling of rock salt (which actually had rocks in it!) coated with a variety of dye powder colors. Yesterday during a particularly slow Braves game I just couldn't stand looking at all that fabric waiting for color. I left it stewing in the soda ash solution since Tuesday as it has been just too cold and wet outside for dyeing. Wet is OK but cold is a no-no. Here it is after wash, dry and iron. I also gave the rusted pieces a thorough cleaning. I made two of each of these pieces with the intent of doing some further surface design stuff to them. Some soy wax, some overdye - who knows. Today is going to be the first sunny day in a week! Today the colors get mixed and the real fun begins.

harken back to days of yore

The recent acquisition of a ton of beautiful cotton prints has me thinking about the genuine blankets that I have made in the past. As with most quilters, my very first quilt was for my first child. Colin will be 28 in a few months. This blankie was used daily as much for dragging around as sleeping under and so was machine washed and dried almost every other day (for about three years) out of necessity. To this day, I'm impressed at how well it held up. Nine months is a long time to fiddle with one project. The only exposure to quilts I had then was casually examining a few dusty relics in antique stores. Even then they were undervalued. I think I took a book off the shelf in the library and put it back. No one in my family quilted. I was on my own with my own ideas about how a quilt was built. I saw it as a building process even then. The fabrics were all special except for the pink backing. I just can't remember where I got it but I know I chose pink to hedge our bets - this was before you could easily know the sex of your child before it was born. The rest of the fabrics were all family treasures in my eyes.Even then I was a fiber hoarder. The pale blue came from one of my favorite dresses back in sixth grade. The light brown print was a shirt that my husband wore when he was very young. The orange, green and yellow print came from a Mumu that my Aunt Jo brought me from Hawaii and the dark batik was a hand-me down maternity blouse given me my own of my longtime friends, Hilary. I can still picture her wearing it. She's a grandma now. I cut each two inch square by hand using a cardboard template and a pair of paper scissors. Once I had piles of squares, I decided that the design possibilities would be improved if I cut each square diagonally. Then came weeks of puzzle shuffling and then the hand stitching began in earnest. It's all hand pieced and was originally tied with cotton floss in the middle of each unit but in early use the knots weren't holding up so I went back and hand quilted inside each and every triangle. What else should one do while watching your baby grow?

Christmas in April

I have not mixed one bottle of dye and the temperature has turned sweater cold and greasy for lack of a better word to describe mist mixed with pollen. I have spent the entire morning paying bills, filling out forms and contemplating (just contemplating) getting our taxes done. Grim stuff. There's a knock at the door- it's the mailman with three packages and right behind him, the FedEx guy with a really big box. It's fabric from Testfabric by way of New Smyrna Beach, and an outfit I scored on Ebay and a really heavy box. Imagine, if you will, that you walk into a new fiber store. One that is stocked with the most amazing array of prints and hand dyed cottons. Drool provoking rainbows of light and texture.Generous cuts folded precisely, colors and patterns in love with one another, bundled together in tiny towers and tied with various exquisite lengths of iridescent ribbon and lace. Your eyes wander, your fingers fondle, you take mental notes coming back to your favorites over and over. Then, the gracious shopkeeper hands you a 20 inch square box and says "Pack carefully, fill it full and take all you can carry." How strong are you? What does it take to respond to such incredible generosity? I have an angel who has just made this reverie come to pass. Thank you A., from the bottom of my heart.

sum up - day 1

No hummingbirds yet but a fabulous Pileated woodpecker stopped by for a second. Got a nice new working surface. Rounded up all the tools including some new big fat brushes. No dye mixed yet. My little deck frig died over the winter so I'm going to stock it with dry ice tomorrow. I can't decide if I got more or less done. There were a lot of interruptions. Post office, plunder JoAnns and Michael's with 50% coupons. {{gasp}}} a Nap! About 50 pounds of miscellaneous cottons, damasks and linen soaking in soda ash solution. Some huge. Some not. I was tickled to find a small packet of alginate in the dye tub. Mixed up a gallon of goo. Here's the first fruits of the venture, I guess. I finally unwrapped those vinegar stinking frying pans. Some Rust. Now, what do I do about my husbands rusty camping cookery? I don't know if I am going to overdye these or leave them alone.

10,000 looks

According to Sitemeter on Mar 31 2008 6:14:44 pm someone from St.Paul, Minnesota,USA was the Ten Thousandth visitor to this blog. Holy Cow! If you recognize yourself (a Comcast subscriber, btw) let me know and I will send one of those relics of the past, a Post Card!

FOF08 - Lawrenceville Frankenstein Dyeworx- day 1

All right folks - daylight's awastin'. I know my awfully early ways aggravated my immediate neighbors at FOF last year but for me, sleeping in is not an option. As I begin my own studio week, one of the things I'll appreciate is having my assistants close at hand. If I can get the Black dye the way I want it, I will be making some cloth in Karma's honor. Such pretty patterns. I did this yardage last night while watching the Braves home opening game. No idea what becomes of Sharpie markings through the rest of the dye/discharge process but I'll find out. The first order of business this morning will be making a big tub of soda ash solution. We are expecting thunderstorms here all day so I'll be inside working the soy wax at the kitchen table. There is also a bundle of cloth, vinegar and rusty frying pans outside that has to be opened and inspected. Is color taking a back seat this year? I dont' think so. Although I have been in a black/grey state of mind for a spell, I'm counting on the dyes to bring me back to myself. C0lor mixing begins later today! Thunder and lightning be damned.

the deconstructed

(mood enhancer just added) I took those shirts apart yesterday and when I was finished I wondered what I would do with the pile of collars, cuffs and plackets . These little headless creatures are not quite what I had in mind. These are benign and silly looking compared to the scary things that I keep seeing in the corner of my mind since Jim showed me this silly thing. At least I got it out of my system before I put all the rest of that great seersucker together. Now I'm I'm sure I'm going to have to do something to it - as yardage goes it's pretty boring. No wonder they put the shirts in the Goodwill box!

Highs and Lows

On the upside, these two pieces, "Baghdad Bazaar" and "Clubbin' " have been selected to hang at the Peabody Auditorium Rose Room Gallery, Daytona Beach, FL. After running a lot of lists mentally, including the things I can and cannot control, I won't be going to Focus On Fiber '08 down at the ACA in New Smyrna Beach. There are too many cons for travel at the moment but I hope to try for the October edition. I plan on holding my own private FOF08 all next week here at the Lawrenceville Frankenstein Dyeworx. There will be pictures and play by play! I plan to try keeping to the same schedule and pace that I set for myself when I was at fiber camp last spring - working "cain't see to cain't see" most days. Both of the pieces above were "born" at FOF07.

recycling old(new) stuff

Deb Roby & I must have been tapping into the Zeitgeist today. She wrote about it - thrifting, repurposing, dumpster diving - whatever you want to call taking old garments/fabrics and using them according to your own design - while I was out doing it at the local Goodwill. Being frugal that is. The awful truth is that if I had waited until tomorrow I could have gotten these 3.99 seersucker shirts for half-price by proudly waving my AARP card around and cackling. I spared myself the mortification 'cause I just had to have 'em. today. (more truth - I may go back there again tomorrow for more stuff even cheaper) I was on the lookout for wool sweaters and silk blouses to cut up and a Bullet Blender (for dye mixing) but I stumbled across these shirts which were never worn! Old Navy just off loaded them. As they are not quite my comfortable size, I'm torn between saving them for the legendary "10 pounds from now" and cutting them into strips for a real bed blanket - something to needle by hand. There is no design plan in my head at the moment so I'll stay the scissors for tonight. ps: to my pure horror the Most Perfect Pair of jeans (that were also had for a song) are un-zip-able and I thought they would be my new second skin. Curse Girl Scout Cookies! Something drastic is at hand.

Quiet Weekend

Some might say "the End Times are at hand!" The bad blood between these two usually runs hot. Now I'm beginning to think the animosity they usually display is a pose for the humans. Jim spent a lot of time at the job this weekend supervising a critical phase and Colin went to Florida to meet the internet GF for the first F2F. Within limits of propriety (and nosy mom-ness) I'll let you know how that went. I couldn't even get in any good consumerizing. All the places I like to shop - Goodwill, thrift stores, HoAnne's & Mikey's - were all CLOSED! poop. Packed? No, I'm still only making mental lists.

Piddling, paddling, it's all good.

I never get tired of catfish. When I was a kid I used to feed them like city people feed pigeons. Catfish raised on Wonderbread! This almost has an Amish feel somehow. Since I don't have a traditional quilting background I know it's an echo of some technique or style but can't say just what. I just know it was fun picking through the scraps. It's a bit too studied (once again) but they are just nailed in place to the wall for the moment. I'll fiddle them around a lot before I pin and baste (you read that right) everything in place so it travels/handles well. It's all going to be hand appliquéd but leaving raw edges everywhere.I like the way the fuzzy edges look water blurry. My point in setting this treat up is so that I'll have something to keep busy with while the dyes batch properly instead of rushing things the way I always do. I might even take it to the beach one afternoon.

We were blind but now we see

I found a scrap of silver lycra that could have come from a great Elvis costume. My little mudcats are very happy to have eyes now. After escaping unscathed through the wild weather yesterday, we settled in to watch three hours of Matt Damon being a stoneface in "The Good Shepherd". Slow but compelling. Three quarters of the way into the movie I smelled smoke. Thinking a neighbor had lit their fireplace to cut the chill and damp that had set in at dark, I dismissed the smell. A few minutes later I caught it again, this time stronger, insistent. I bolted upstairs to see if some nitwit had left the iron on my studio. Nope. A quick trip through the upper rooms and I could tell the smell was wafting in through the bathroom window and I caught an ominous glow just out of view. I dashed out the deck door to see a house completely engulfed in flames not more than a quarter mile away through the woods behind our house. As we stood on the deck watching and hearing that the firetrucks were already bearing down on that neighborhood we watched as the wind lifted sparks high in the air and carried them up over our house and the houses on both sides. We quickly went out and roused the neighbors on both sides (they were sleeping!) to be watchful and anxious with us. By the time we got back to our vantage point it was almost all over. Fortunately we found out today that no one was living in the house and no one in the houses close by suffered any losses. So frightening to think of losing everything in a matter of a few minutes.

hand stitching for stress relief...

[[For family & friends concerned about the tornado damage in Atlanta last night.We're all good, luckier than some with no damage here. We are 29 miles to the northeast of that part of the city and lucky to only have a summer style thunderstorm pass over us. Jim is making the grocery store run right now as we are in for another line of severe storms this afternoon.]] Jude, Lately, the hand-music is all your (inspirational) fault. You and them lions. I wish I could break out and be more free with it though. My stitches just line themselves up like so many little ants. Compulsive hand stitching should be a clear sign by now to myself that I am stressed and should be treated like a minefield until I can broaden my artistic gestures and horizons again. breathe. act. continue. "dervish" (above) and "little sweetie" date back several years.

More mudcats

I've been going back and forth between these little compulsively stitched pieces and the website work. Both things are some very narrow focus kind of doings but I only do what I like so it must be what's called for at the moment. I actually tried starting with a much larger canvas but after a long while of shuffling shapes around in space they wound up congregating again in a tight little ball - all whiskers touching. Must be Spring. (click for a closer look)

website 99% refurbed

I have been at this computer all day and it's still not finished but the fun part, the glory part is done. Now for some nitpicking and some verbiage but my brain is empty. Thanks to everyone who made suggestions and comments - I've made a list and will work through it as time permits. Karen- the "next" link thing was important. Don't know how I could have missed it. Deb -I'm still on the fence about using that nav bar graphic. It's been so long since I've monkeyed around with image maps I'm afraid I'd have to go back to kindergarten to recapture the moves. There are images scattered all over the place, some okay, some have to be re-shot. I'm beginning to worry that my A-95 is having issues. Every now and then the little iris that protects the lens doesn't open all the way instantly. I wonder if the focusing mechanism could be off too. Has anyone noticed that I'm not mentioning quilts or fiber alongside the images? I plan on yakking about my methods and materials in an artists statement kind of thing but I have to think about it some. All I want to do is make another cotton & scraps sandwich, choose some threads and settle in. Jude's Lions are so inspiring. Maybe something lots bigger this time.

more hand music

(14" square) Little mudcats wrangling over fruit. I am besotted with hand stitching raw scraps onto a thin sandwich of muslin and batt.

webwork

By demolishing my index page I've committed to updating my main website. With nearly a dozen new pieces to add from 2007, I though it needed an entirely new look. What that look might be is just dawning on me. Clean, simple and to the point. It's got to be about the art. To keep cobwebs from growing in the studio, I keep pulling UFO's out of the closet and at least turning them into something functional. Idle fiber is the devil's playground? Just look what can happen. This little number will actually keep a small person warm and company soon.

And to remind myself what a lucky woman I am, here we are 31 years ago standing over our wedding cake- a giant strawberry shortcake that I baked myself earlier that morning. I whipped 3 quarts of heavy cream with curlers in my hair as the first of 120 guests began arriving at our home for the ceremony.

There was a piece left over big enough to cover a dinner plate and I think I ate the whole thing for breakfast the next morning.

a dark day

Nothing like dyeing with a mystery black to pick up a dark mood. But for starters, I worked on one of my PIFs last night to see just how happy my Janome was after a tune-up. I highly recommend it for anyone who is in the sewing doldrums. It feels like day one and now I remember just why I was so hot to go into debt over this machine three years ago. I had been dreaming of a design that required a great expanse of dark fabric. There was a bottle of black dyestock in the deck fridge but I fiddled with it by adding some of this and some of that. It looked very neutral on paper. So I threw caution to the wind and hung some fabric just to see what would happen. What happened was my crusty shower got visibly nasty - nice that it cleans up so well. Jim will wonder what came over me. The results were worth every minute of scrubbing. There are three feet draped over the back of this seven foot rack.

Hand work continues.

Waiting on the storms. I took Big J to the sewing machine wizard yesterday. It's been cranky lately probably due to the fact that it's never had a professional cleaning or tuneup since I bought it late in '06. I'm worried he's going to report me to someone somewhere for machine abuse. Still, he did offer to carry it to a more convenient location for me to pick it up at noon, or will They be waiting to take me into custody and put Big J into the sewing machine foster care system?

Caesura

It's time for a little hand music. Something to do while the mind is elsewhere. My mind has been like a rabbit on the lam lately and I won't go on and list all the things I should be doing instead of this but know that I have a list and I'm checking things off one by one. I haven't gotten an email regarding my Visions entry (another person has heard) so I'm assuming that I didn't get in. After reading the fine print on the prospectus which informs that the piece will be gone for a whole year, I'm kind of relieved because the three pieces that I submitted are a set thematically and now I can post them on my website, finish my portfolio and set about the mission of getting into a gallery somewhere. I am gearing up for some real tasty rejection, not the "We don't want you for this exhibit" kind - the "We don't want you HERE" kind. Yummy. addendum - from the Visions website - "March 1, 2008 NOTIFICATION SENT to ARTISTS of preliminary quilt selection or nonselection" so since I have not heard either way, No news is Good news - one of my parents favorite sayings.

Done & done

Here's the big reveal! And no nicks, cuts or scrapes this time. Just blurred vision and a few stab wounds. No blood on the fabric though. Well, the verdict is that I'm happy to have gotten this stuff out of my system and there won't be any repeat performances anytime soon. Making them is kinda like eating Marzipan or Cinnabons - it seemed tasty at first bite but by the time you were finished, you were sick of it. I'm going to re-shoot and measure everything and move it all over to the hand dyes for sale so I can get back to working on things that actually move me beyond the moment. Then again, I might try this one again.It has promise as long as I remember to change the stitch length on my machine.

Pell Mell to Hell

Did I just invent an expression that means "here's what happens when you are in too much hurry to read directions or think through processes." On the surface most of these pieces have turned out pretty good for my first time folding, stitching and otherwise torturing perfectly nice fabric. But look at all those stitches that have to be removed. My eyes have given notice that even this computer is more than they want to deal with for a few hours.

Dye Day!

A small scale dye day underway due to the constraints of my kitchen. Can you imagine - I had to do the dishes first! This piece has been folded, stitched and had hot soy wax applied before the dye. I want to know just who is going to pick all those stitches out. And just a like a kid at Christmas I talked myself into opening just one present on the Eve instead of waiting until morning. Who can wait wait with a color like this?

nudge, nudge

My brother just gave me a long distance nudge indicating that he's a regular reader (and where's the latest and greatest post?). After three weeks of having a cold I just spent 24 hours waltzing with the flu and today feel great for the first time in ages. Wait, it's early but there's fabric stewing in soda ash waiting for me to make magic. Rob - here's a sneak peek at a blankie in progress that will fall into your possession, maybe not in time for the house warming but I'm working on it. And here's another sneak peek at a PIF in progress. Let's just say it's just the right size for a catass.

A Great Saturday

Gifts in the mailbox came first - Nellie Durand's PIF arrived and I am the proud owner of #52.2. in her amazing "Lake Series" series made especially for me. Does this classy packaging tell you what a gem was inside? I'm inspired and reminded that one day last week was the anniversary of my 4th year of blogging. To celebrate I'm finally posting my own PIF declaration: "I will send a handmade gift to the first 3 people who leave a comment on my blog requesting to join this "Pay It Forward" Art exchange. I don't know what it will be and you may not receive it tomorrow or next week but you will receive it within 365 days. The only thing you have to do in return is pay it forward by making the same promise on your own blog." Later in the day I attended a meeting of the Georgia chapter of the Surface Design Association at the home of artist Leisa Rich (go here for some fabulous eyecandy) where we were hard at work plotting a group showing someplace in Georgia so we can all get a taste of that Whine & Jeez!
Here's the contents...my camera does not do it justice

OMG!! My Gills Are Quivering!!!

SWIM WITH GENTLE GIANTS

Reserve your spot today to swim in a 6.3 million gallon exhibit that houses thousands of fish including zebra sharks, sawfish, leopard whiprays, bowmouth guitarfish, humphead wrasses and schools of tarpon, pompano and cownose rays.

Swim Program Description: Swim with Gentle Giants is the only opportunity in the world where you are guaranteed to swim with the largest fish in the world, the whale shark, in Georgia Aquarium’s Ocean Voyager exhibit. Guests will swim at the surface with an air supply with the following equipment provided: mask, fins, air supply, booties and wetsuit. Personal masks are permitted.

Cost: $190 for non-members and 10% off for members. Price includes admission to the Aquarium, all equipment, the swim, certificate of participation, t-shirt and souvenir photo.

When: Six spaces available daily at 4:30 p.m. The swim portion will last approximately 30 minutes, and participants will also view some behind the scenes areas of the Georgia Aquarium.

Who: All participants must be ages 12 and older. Guests under the age of 18 must be accompanied by a participating adult. No diving/snorkeling experience required.

Cancellations: The Aquarium does not offer refunds for the program, but will reschedule your swim.

next?

The "what next" for this piece woke me up at 3:00 in the morning. I should have gotten up and done my mental thrashing in the studio but this lazybones stayed abed tossing, turning and accidentally waking Jimmy up hours before he needed to be. Sorry Darlin'. Somehow I envision lots of texture and dimension happening and what started out as a Queen's collar is looking like a ship's wheel. There will be a stab at trapunto , appliqué and paint. I don't want to get lost in the woods of technique on this one so I'm glad that there's a lot of other stuff to do today to keep my greedy, speedy paws away from it before the groundwork is thought through. Somewhere in the studio (funny how you can't find things when you don't really want to be reminded of failures) is another thing I started and trampled to death a couple months back. yuck.

Working in the Mines

What a day! What an amazing response to my hand dye sale. Thanks to everyone who stopped by and just had to have what I was selling. I can't wait to see what you all make of this stuff so don't forget to send pictures! I have been running up and down the stairs all day alternating between the ironing board, the design wall and the computer. Apart from selling off fabric that I will never, ever (I keep telling myself that as I iron and fold) and making the money I need to go to Florida in April, I keep uncovering these jewels that got squirreled away without a backward glance! Time passes and the things I took for granted or even common have come back to some kind of new life. I have a growing pile of inspiration for new work and the closet still looks full! Does fabric breed in the darkness like rabbits and wire coat hangars? More about the Yellow Rabbit another day..........

hand dyes for sale & new works

I've spent some time rooting around in my closet pulling out pieces of hand dyed fabric that I made a year or two ago. It's time I let go and put this things out where others can take a look and maybe bring them to fruition. The pieces are big and the prices are low! And, I started something completely different

dye day preparation

These are just some of the stitched and clamped resist techniques I'm going to be experimenting with. There are also another half dozen pieces with soy wax on them ready to go. Now all I need is for the weather to warm up just a few degrees. In the meantime, I'm busy digging through past pieces, re-shooting them and posting them for sale on my LikeHotcakes! site with the object of raising the money I need for FOF08- it's a Send Deb To Art Camp Sale! As the new hand dyed pieces emerge from the dyepots they will be going on the block too.

Valentines Day

Here are a few more images of my "slow cloth" work that show the wonderful way that vintage cotton or linen damasks will take dye. This was the last of a piece I called "Tomato Freckles" now in the body of a giant horned newt. Old cotton cut-work doilies are great finds too. I wonder if they take the dye so well because they have been washed so many times or because they were made before the processes that prevent a good dye job? Any notions? The white fabric is lawn cut from an antique Italian wedding trousseau. I wonder when I'll know there's enough stitching on this one. Maybe when I can't lift it anymore. Oh, and by the way, I failed a studio inspection this morning. Voodoo only comes by once in a great while to hurk on something (last time directly into my clever little bobbin holder) and be critical. This morning the criticism was about an empty food dish.