waiting

It's hot enough outside ...the dyes are out of the  refrigerator and this piece is well and thoroughly waxed . I let the soywax get very hot and in most places it's penetrated through to the plastic tablecloth underneath.

When we get back from lunch, I'll don the gloves (don't forget) and apron and mix up the monkey blood I have in mind for overdyeing this...pictures later.

basting sails

All of a sudden, it's shorts weather, and once chores and running around were out of the way, I took a chunk of this day off to do some more basting.

Some people may thing it a terrible waste of time but my basting stitches are like Attilla's march and  so I'm perfectly happy snipping and ripping if something needs relocation. I don't even bother sinking a knot at the end of a thread; a back stitch or two will suffice. Pins are such a pain.

I'm going to work on both these large pieces at the same time and have plans to do some some soy wax resist and direct dye painting on both pieces before I make any decision about if, and how, any permanent stitching, machine or hand, happens.

larger issues

 

there's just no telling where larger spaces and room to work will take a person.



several of the tablecloths in that lot are what I would call "service weight". Although they have a beautiful pattern loomed through, there is almost no diagonal give which made me think it would be a good base to build on ..but it's so starkly white.
The empty space has as much presence at the shapes I've basted on....there are more.

(6'x6')

blizzard

There's a snowstorm in my studio! I lucked into an enormous lot of damask tablecloths on ebay last week. I am going to have to haul this and the rest to the laundromat for a harsh thrash before any dyefest can begin..there's starch, fabric softener and other loving touches that will get in the way of a good dye result.

This is day 1 of a short stay-cation for Jim and I. This morning we are both doing chores but I am hoping to persuade him to a late lunch and a movie since the rain has put a cramp in his plans for the day.

I spent the morning filling the envelopes that have come rolling in with scraps and snips from baskets all over the place.
I feel like a crack dealer, giving away the "first taste" of hand dyed vintage cloth for free...and then, they'll be baaaack for more!   Off to the post office.

Richland WA, Huntington Beach CA, Berea Ky, Mascotte FL, Calimesa CA, Canfield OH, Wiscassett ME, and Crescent City CA – heads up! Your packages are on the way!

I'm also fooling with Colin's little Canon Elph since he has misplaced (somewhere in the hell of his possessions) my little Fuji. It's got too many options.

I recently started wearing a watch again because I am constantly (but silently) bitching out my customers for not knowing what date or time it is.

 It's a good thing I have a few days off.

 If one more fool replies "ten minutes ago" when I ask what DATE and TIME an incident occurred, I might hunt them down in whatever timezone they are in and slap them silly. 

And go ahead and give me another phone number without the area code, you huckleberry, and see what happens...THERE'S A WIDE WORLD OUT THERE!!  I feel better now...

the saturday mail

The replies have started coming in from the runner-ups in the giveaway and I never imagined that people would send me THINGS!  besides all the fabulous postage. Wonderful, wordless salmon songs by Jon Parmentier and a wonderful handmade sachet filled with Maine Christmas tree  balsam that just transported me and, yeah verily, led me astray to strong drink. (YO HO, I hear the pirates sing).

When I was growing up my parents found the resources to haul  all of us up to Cape Cod each summer for a week. The cheeky Hyannisport address might  impress some but we stayed in a cold water, knotty pine cabin. I did wave at the Presidential yacht as it motored by one day on it's way back to Hyannis next door.

 We slept in  wooden bunks that were just the size of a small man's coffin and I loved every minute we were there. One of my prized possessions was a little calico cat that was stuffed with balsam needles. To this day, the scent of seacoast pines does me way better than Calgon.

I couldn't sleep last night; fretful with small mother-worries, so I went downstairs and poured myself four fingers of some Pacific coast grape's blood and drank it down like medicine all the while trying hard to taste the wonderment promised on the artsy label when all I could find was red kerosene.

So I lay awake in the dark, mildly drunk, with my Ipod in my ears and the little balsam sachet balanced over my wakeful third eye, until about 4am.

Now the house is redolent with sausage and peppers and noisy with men working on machines and I'm getting sleepy and must nap because I have to work at 3:45.   Kefaya! Tonight I will start picking scraps for those envelopes.