Beltane ripened

The veil is thin.

At the post office, there was a dish of candy out on the counter. Shocking in that this post office rarely even has functioning air conditioning. There were two pieces of my mother's favorite candies. I took them both.
                         
 When I got home, the first of the peonies were blooming. The ones I brought from New York some thirty years ago.


And these were rioting out on the work table.

I'm supposed to be working on dialogue for the living, but the ghosts are having their say, so I'll be still and listen a while.

some cloth

It's hot and muggy here. I rounded up an armload of lackluster cloth and marched them down to the dye deck.

A half-dozen technicolor lumps are basking in the sun, soaking up the color with the heat. I wish it would rain so I could leave them to their own devices, but I'll be doing the wash-out tonight. Then we'll see if there was any kick left in those dyes.

Conversations

It's what happens between thread, the needle, and the cloth.

Somehow, I'm not a part of this conversation. It seems to happen while I'm not paying attention. My mind is elsewhere, on other conversations.

GOT spoiler alert...

...but really, if you're not watching, why? I screamed. I cried, I covered my eyes and the cat ran out of the room disgusted with me.

It's such great theater. Reminds me of old school soap operas, although those writers never planned endings. This one is going to break my heart.

I don't watch much TV.  Didn't start watching this one until early last year. I'm always late to catch the wave. So glad I did for this one.

the dirty thread boogie

I want to thank everyone who ordered threads this weekend. There are a few more sets to post, then there will be a week or so before I can set up the next round.

In a world where the phrases "hand-crafted" and "artisanal" get tossed around pretty fast and loose, I can assure you that those expressions really do apply to Dirty Thread making. It may be messy and time-consuming, but I think it's worth the trouble.

As you can see, I got mine.

ghosts

As I pack up orders for thread and scraps, I have to restrain myself from holding things back on the off chance I might someday do something with them.

The river basket is full of bits and pieces of possibility - anything more would be a distraction.

After a busy morning of chores and errands, I picked this new piece up for a timed hour of stitching before my nap.

The trees stir in the warm air and confederate jasmine is as strong and effective as marijuana.

getting it done

I'm on my way to the post office. If you've ordered anything to date,  it's on the way!! Have a great weekend. I got stuff to do.

some days off...

  ...are full of delight. Spent the morning in a very satisfying meeting with my word wizard.

Then, a little retail therapy on the cheap at Goodwill.

Yesterday, it was the after school book fair where it was easy to read someone's heart's delight. What started out as a baby cat speaking it's first word (Hi!), became a wand/scanner gathering mystery sounds in the yard.

this is manifesting now.

More new threads

 they are all out there basking in the Sun waiting for the winder to come home and see to them.

.

happy Friday!

I  put the finishing touches on this today. I worked on this through several episodes of True Detective and kept sticking myself. Such compelling acting!

If the sun comes around tomorrow, I'll take some better pictures and post it for sale in the gallery.

That out of the way, I started auditioning pieces for another small thing to clutch and stab when the need arises.

Physical therapy is making a difference in my shoulder. On a happy note, Charlie has declared himself no longer afraid of heavy weather. Hallelujia.

the goods

I think this will work. Directions at the end of the post.

The catchers.

First "table moppers" of the season. We are having a fine steady spring rain. The light is even green.
 For the uninitiated, I spread cotton cloth underneath the cards of thread to catch the excess dye. Nothing gets wasted.
I usually use the same cloths throughout the season and they tend to get kind of muddy.
 This lot might get retired early depending on how they look after a good wash and dry.

ps - we are under a tornado warning right now. spooky.

First fruits

A few were ready. You can see that the color transitions are pretty sharp. I've learned how to control that.

For a while, I've been thinking about writing a book on how to make your own dirty threads, but it seemed like a lot of trouble for four or five pages.

With that in mind this time, I made (mental) notes of all the yes/no, how much/how long, etc. decisions and the outcomes or why of each choice along the way.   Expressing things that have become intuitive is important when one is attempting to teach. And sometimes I did not have any answers for the questions I posed.

 For now, I'll stay a maker.

They are here.

Season 1st

I didn't think the dyefest would get off the ground today. Myriad foolish impediments that had to be dealt with one by one. Stupid stuff. Wrong gloves? Deal. Salt from last year clumpy? Run it through the blender. Forgot to buy small containers for dyestock? Switch to baggies.  Murphy's law was riding high. I got higher and it looks like the first batch of Dirty Threads from the Frankenstein Dyeworx of Lawrenceville is going to be a show stopper! You should see the three table moppers!

Tomorrow. Now I'm going to relax and come up with a suitable name for this lot. I never counted them. Sixty or seventy?

pre-dawn post script. I left them all over the kitchen table and counter, stacked house of cards style, each holding its neighbor up. They are 99% dry.  A few hours of sun and I'll be able to start my favorite compulsive activity- winding them off the dye cards onto the little cardboard bobbing. Feeling the smoothness of the cotton slip through my fingers. Watching as the color character of each one reveals itself in the sunlight. 

Busted wing - update

Looks like vintage chintz but it's my messy kitchen table.

What I should be doing is winding spindles of dmc cotton to transform into dirty threads, but it's not going well.

I had a simple, speedy process in place. The stock arrived. I set everything in position only to realize that, due to the stupid left shoulder injury, I just cannot.

Had the MRI and met with the surgeon. A labrum tear and pieces of floating junk that have formed benign cysts big enough to interfere with movement and cause pain and weakness.

Before any surgery, there will be physical therapy. I will consult with that person to find a way to incorporate dirty thread production into the PT.

The trick? Teach Lefty to do Righty's thing. Lefty is a quick study while Righty is slow to pick it up. Who da thunk it?

finishing

Finishing.

This backing fabric has been waiting ten years or more for being called to active duty.

Once this part is done, I'll be faced with the struggle of orientation, although I may just leave that to the new owner when the time comes.

I'm so ready to start everything new. New cloth, new stories, new me.

Revisions

.

comic book production continued

I was informed that it's not a scrapbook because he's putting words in it too. And that the magazines we cannibalized the other day were pretty picked over. Did I have any others? 

A stack on a shelf in the studio closet waiting to shuffle their way off to the trash. SAQA journals, etc. 

I'm flipping through the pages looking for suitable pages to tear out - easier for new scissor users that way - and something looks familiar.

consequences

A bad day at school evolved into
a tough, overnight bout of stomach upset.

It's so hard to decide how to balance
discipline with coddling.

I don't remember parenting being so hard, then, at the time, I had nothing else to do.

He grows more beautiful as time passes. Still averse to having his picture taken, this one stolen while he was consoling himself and fighting sleep.

Spring break starts Friday.

spring came in on a storm

and a bit earlier in the other direction...

revisions

Re. Visions.

on all the levels I can think of 'revisions' is the new name for this piece.

It's all about changes happening in my art, my writing, my life. Everything happening at the same time sounds like chaos.
It's not.
It's much more like a flow. Pieces have to be considered, tried out and accepted or rejected. Fails to build on. Successes that nourish progress. In all things, balance and timing.

spring cold

Not dropped off the face of the world; it just feels that way.


This deep into the school year and I finally caught a case of Pre-K cooties from my little assistant. I think the remedies laid me lower than the actual cold - I just didn't care as much.

It's a good thing that I can (mostly) do the day job in my sleep. Once or twice last night, I picked up a call, listened to what the person wanted and had no idea what they were talking about. In English. 

There are other things that I'm supposed to be doing but the brain is off wandering on cold meds. Stitching in a straight line is as much as I can manage right now.

not hungover

On Saturday, March 9, 2019, I typed ~fini~ and sent it off to a professional for an overview.

It was started, give or take, in the spring of 2014 and didn't get a title, a name until a long time after that.

For no other reason, I feel hungover.

ps. just got off the phone with a very talented advisor.  I may have the words corralled for the moment, but we are a long way from home (published). This was fully expected and I'm fine with it. More learning, more adventures lie ahead.

Progress

At least I can hold the hoops now.

the fix

There. That's better. Some color, even if I'm a little puffy around the edges from too much sleep.

I feel a little more like me evil self today. Yesterday, I finally saw the doctor about my left shoulder. Xrays said no bone fragments or arthritis.

 Let her stick an enormous needle full of voodoo juice in the joint and let me have the full jolt. There will be an MRI to see the extent of the damage and then we'll talk about what's possible, repair-wise.

drifting

WIP

I'm having a hard time getting the value changes I want using thread alone.

This always happens with large pieces. Scale is a demon.












There could be paint in this thing's future. I've done it in the past.

the penny from heaven

This past Tuesday while I was waiting to pick Charlie up at school, I looked in the mirror and realized my earring was missing.

I don't have a lot of jewelry. Never buy for myself so anything gifted to me is precious. Jim bought me these when Colin was born almost forty years ago. He hid the JC Penny's bill from me all summer. I wear them day and night, rarely changing them for something else.

I had the strangest pang when I saw it missing because the night before, I dreamed that I'd lost it and in the dream, I was unaffected. I usually go nuts looking for something like this until I find it.

It had been a busy day - a half dozen errands. Me getting in and out of the car with a new scarf on that seemed to catch on everything. I made a few calls, stopped off at the place where I had coffee. Nothing. I remained emotionally removed. By the end of the day, I was resigned that it was gone forever.



Jake just sent me this message. He found it in the very busy parking lot in front of his apartment building. For this simple thing, and a few other more important ones, we are being looked out for. We have an Angel.

the work in progress

I've been contemplating what to do with fifteen (you read that right) years of babbling here. All of these bits, bytes, and pixels are as ephemeral as a cloud rolling across the moon. One blown transformer somewhere critical, one bored hacker and all of it gone as it if never existed. I've downloaded a few posts here and there, but my recent computer crash - the hardware sort - has given me pause about this electronic life.

Right now, I'm just grateful that I didn't have to dig too far for the provenance of "Cave Dreams". It's still a long way from finished, but I know what I want for it and how to go about getting the effects - mostly a lot more hand stitching. 

Until it's completed, here are some links to its evolution:

From the earliest raw cloth.  Compositional fumblings here and here. To a more solid starting place.

Digressions  and   displacements..this is about when the Black & White series took over my studio life. All thing color got put on hold for a very long time.

self pep-talks are good.

(from  Tuesday, March 17, 2015)

nailing it

If you are any kind of creative every now and again you'll step back from what you are up to and go “Yes!” or “Good!” or, in my case “Fuckin' Aaa!” and you'll throw down the tools and get that little chill and be thirsty for a celebration because you nailed it. You won't even feel the need to drag anyone into the moment for their agreement. This moment is for you alone.

Last night I was pondering the demise of the writers group that I've been going to for a little more than a year now. The two founders have drifted away. Life, of course, must take precedence over follies like gathering over bad food with snotty waiters and embarrass ourselves and each other with our attempts at writing and so the group has floundered. It's been a learning experience and my only semi-social connection to the world since my husband died. I will be looking for another bunch of similarly plagued individuals and if I can't find what I'm looking for, I'll found my own.

So I made the mistake of looking over a bit of the book I've been working on for almost a year. I worked on it constantly while I was at the FOF retreat last year in FL. 

The writing was puffy, awkward and self-indulgent. I was bummed thinking how I thought I was closing in on a rough draft when all I really had behind me was clouds crap. I sulked and went to bed. The last thing I remember was that there were a couple of lines out of some twelve pages that were really good. Keepers.

In the dark hour before waking, on a day when I didn't have to get up, I turned that chapter inside out in my head. I had a sit down with each of the characters. Assessed their needs and their wants. Established who knew what, when and why it mattered. Addressed the problems and found answers, all before ever putting my toes on the rug.

I've got this and knowing it feels great.

Heart's blood

I was just starting to get the hang of text on cloth when I stopped making these badges.

I ran out of red cloth.

Never a favorite, I'm as hard to please red-wise as I am black. It has to be just the right shade or I won't use it.

That will be a dye project in the upcoming season.

Blood on the tracks.