The bundles that spent the night in the dye container came out very underwhelming. Looking around you can see I have little taste or patience with pastels so they are on a back burner for the moment.
While rooting around in the stash I found these two hot little numbers that had been mummified with soy wax just waiting for something exciting to happen.
We'll see what transpires tomorrow.
Here are the bundles standing on their heads on a felt pad soaked in soda ash solution and sprinkles with some dye powder. I'll stay out of it for the night.
Jackie thought they looked like bones. Hmmm. Now that I look back on them, they did. I have to roll some more tonight and see what comes of it.
I made this jug in 20o3
at the Painted Potter and for the first time it's going to decant something delicious.
I'm mentally packing some art to take with me on an upcoming trip.
The blocks will be backgrounds for a new piece that will have some very different appliqued things along the lines of the recent sketches.
The little bundles are in for a dye experiment this evening. I'm tired of coming home exhausted, feeding
like a pig and then going to sleep.
Unused to working for a living, I have been putting in very long days and console myself with the knowledge that my schedule won't be like this when I get back from NY. Tonight, some music, some wine and some Arting around.
Remember my cool new tool? I had a day long panic recently because I couldn't put my hands on and was afraid that it had slipped out of my bag and was LOST, but then I found it.
I hate that I haven't been using it but the problem is that I can't find a suitable notebook. A hasty purchase turned out to be a disappointment but now Black Cover has come to the rescue in my search for a Moleskine alternative.
I'll be thrilled if I win the set but if not, there's a Borders just across the parking lot from my new job. I think I'll go take a peek today 'cause I really want to get my hands on the large one. New ideas have been passing by and I've been jotting things down on scraps of paper that more often wind up in the wash.
And thanks to MarieZ for tipping me off to this contest!
My hope won't measure or be confined, my hope is expansive and has a wonder filled full moon today, my birthday.
I got up early because I wanted to steal some studio time from a busy day and make my own HOPE banner. I confess to not having read the rules or the mission or any of that stuff and it looks like something is odd here. I just liked the notion. Having hope means looking to the future beyond any troubles or concerns of the present. Before anything else, one has to have hope. I have a lot of hope for our future but I feel like, at this point in time, I have to protect it like a candle in the wind.
I have to remind myself daily that a lot of people feel the way I do and it's not just the folks who put stickers on their cars or go to rallies and get on TV that get the job done. It's also the people who have HOPE.
The translation from pixels to cloth continues to please me.
As most of my stuff , it's a bit wonky but I thinking about mounting this one somehow so all will true up eventually.
Feeling much better today. Being recently under the weather gives me a good excuse to avoid big issues like pressure washing the pool.
Instead, I spent most of the day working on making this come to life. Unlike Jude, I have no patience for silk's delicate sulkiness and am only too happy to pinch it, stab it into submission and then nail it into place with a million little thrills.
Much related to my new job, I have a new appreciation for my Janome.
I have been knocked flat by some sort of domestic Montezuma's revenge. You don't want the details but there is no good way to lose ten pounds in two days. Now that I can sit up for fifteen minutes on a chair that is not porcelain and have the energy to thread a needle and pull a stitch, I've started work on what will be a very slow cloth.
Something about the scope of my design mind has contracted but things that might have died on paper will get a second chance in cloth and thread.
I've been in a nesting frenzy for a few days, cleaning things that have given up waiting to be cleaned. Wanting to paint ceilings, beating carpets...all the things I should have been doing whilst essentially unemployed. That time is drawing to a close. In the meantime, there's some arting going on.
These are some soft muslins that I dyed yesterday and a piece of cotton batting that did a little clean up work and turned into something quite interesting. Yes, more flings on the horizon and there's a slew of sketches for some smaller work. Seems like there's a market for some smaller, less pricey pieces. I have a pile of them squirreled away but I think they need to be mounted on canvas so they won't be mistaken for potholders. Any advice on mounting small works to canvas would be welcome.
I've decided to upgrade my Trunkt listing to premium and will be listing some of my Flings for sale there. Might as well take advantage of all their marketing efforts.
And here's my sewing chair cushion with the printed photo of Karma on it.
This dyed scrap will be incorporated into it. It's from a long ago find on the public beach on Naragansett, Rhode Island.
The weather here in GA holds perfect and I put a batch of fabric into the soda ash pot yesterday. Once it warms up this afternoon I'm going to be dyeing a small batch of fabrics for some new directions. Got to get that Carnegie entry rounded up too.
...is not something I normally get into but Frank Ze's Scribbler lends itself so nicely to it. I go there from time to time to sketch. Too many times I find that when I put an idea to paper it stays there never to be hatched.
Putting ideas into a computer program seems more like dreaming about something than actually doing it.
Makes you wonder how many pieces get wasted .
A friend has decided that the best way to recruit new members to her particular form of crack is to give lovely gifts and I am oh so joyful!
Thanks so much M. I am hard at work looking for inks and papers.
Today was Senior Citizens Discount day at the local Goodwill and I got carded AND I got my 25% discount.
These are all new and close at hand along with what used to be just sewing glasses. I'm on a mission to get the two sides of my brain talking to one another - maybe for the first time.
I took advantage of the alone time today and spent the entire day stitching on this as yet unnamed piece. It was part of the Mob Scene series.
It was dyed, discharged and later overpainted with metallic acrylic paint over a year ago and lost UFO land until the other day.
I'm glad it was put out of "grab and slash" reach.
39"x52"
Here's my contribution to Team Climax.
12 pans of Cliff's Magic Cornbread, oops make that Yankee Climax Cornbread.
We won first prize for it in 2003. This year, it's the chili's turn to shine. Jim looks forward to this outing from year to year the way some folks do Christmas. It borders on obsession but I remind myself it could always be worse and this year all the planning and anticipation contributed to his recovery.
He left early yesterday to set up camp at Stone Mountain for the 2008 Great Miller Lite Chili Cookoff, which despite the sponsor, is a family venue. You are more likely to get your toes run over by a stroller than you are have a drunk spill beer on you. I got up early to bake and Colin will deliver to the booth shortly. I'll post more pictures and judging results later tonight. Cross your fingers!
To the Anonymous commenter who was concerned that this was cheating. Our entries are prepared in camp according to the rules and regulations under the watchful eye of the judge's observers. The food we generously serve to the public for free is prepared with quality ingredients under hygienic conditions. Please come by next year and watch Chef Jim make magic but you had better be up with the chickens! Although we didn't place this year, a great time was had by all.
People who have to cheat to have fun camp out with cowards who make anonymous posts!
This morning I gave my son Jake a ride to work and as a routine part of most morning commutes, I got to grouse about a tail-gater.
Jake told me he had seen this
bumper sticker on a car and was determined to get one for me.
I laughed to tears and made this up as soon as I got home. Just warming up for a big piece to go under the needle later today.
Of course, studio cleaning is always followed by a good sale.
These quart sized storage bags are stuffed full with everything from hand dyed damasks to satin jacquard with lots of hand dyed cottons in between.
Most pieces are hand sized or smaller, some bigger but not much (I throw out nothing) so there's tons to work with here. Every bag has a nice chunk of something silver and stretchy. I have no idea what the fabric is but it's fun.
$8.00 each includes postage in the US.
Email me for availability first deborah@lacativa.com
Late yesterday I found out that both "Exubera" and "Limbo" have been juried into "Art Quilts XIII: Lucky Break" at the Chandler Center for the Arts, Chandler AZ along with a pretty star-studded roll of contemporary fiber artists.
Congratulations, everyone!
Spiders have been routed from the windowsills, UFOs are being tilled up from the subsoil and archeological societies are camped out in the yard.
All operations are being overseen by one of my ablest studio assistants. Boxes and bags are being filled with snips and scraps that will be on their way to other people's studios keeping in mind that there is really NO trash.
Take my word for it, his eyes are open.
I know pictures like this of art studios turned into public dumps are both common and boring but taking them and looking at them has helped me diagnose my Stall in the Fall, my unwillingness to take up serious design considerations and start something new besides another .....
...comfort piece. The time for patting myself on the hand and tut-tutting has passed. Lots of people have had tough rows to hoe and come out the other side in one piece as I have.
Nope, it did not kill me and therefore, I am stronger.
And so, in between other things that need accomplishing, today is Fold & Sort Day. Throw Crap Out Day. Spray it and Wipe it Off and Vacuum Day.
Thinking about a Change? Lisa Miller cuts it to the bone here.
It's been a busy week. I decided on a nice deep border for the Booby Fling. Love those Cherrywood cottons from A. This one turned out a bit bigger than the others and so will take more time to quilt. As the weather chills down, this one is just enough to keep warm under while I work. I'm going to buy a lingerie bag and wash this one to test my care instructions so I can sell off a few of these. Now that I recognize that making them is an addiction I can not only tolerate but perhaps profit from.
Jim had his final, miserably huge stitches removed on Friday. I kept imagining (and snickering over) an old joke that when the stitches were removed, his ass would fall off. The surgeon was mercifully brisk and almost like magic Jim's smile came back, he stood up straight and his ass did not fall off. I look forward to shedding my Nurse Ratchet in Charge of Pain persona and revert to being Queen of His Realm.
To celebrate, I spent the day with my buddy Jan down in her neck of the woods. We ran amok at Los Bravos with taco salads and decanters of Sangria although they didn't serve it with fresh fruit like at the Columbia in Tampa AND they wouldn't let us take the unfinished decanter with us!
OHCO disappointed me yardage wise - for some unknown reason they have removed all the manufacturer's labels from the bolts on the shelves and what was left seemed dirty and picked over. They were delighted to feature tables piled with simple, hemmed tablecloths and napkins. I only bought just this one to see what I might make of it but it was only $3.
Since my camera is on some kind of Mercury retrograde vacation, I've fallen back on the scanner. The last free pages in the sketchbook are looming but it's taken me since 3/04 to come that far. I'm just not a sketcher. Flipping through the pages, most of them have unintelligible scribblings from meetings, lists of supplies for projects unknown, anything but drawings. Thanks to Susie Monday for posting this quote from Annie Dillard. But here's a doodle that recurs and for once has made it off the page into reality. I wanted these leaves to stay soft, the better to be woven into my own version of Judy Martin's protection blankets, but the batting scraps I used must have had some kind of adhesive on them that activated and hardened when I ironed them. Now they are crisp, stiff ...almost mailable. Watch your mailboxes.
Maybe these are coming in advance of a colder than usual winter here in Georgia? The birdy bodies are vintage damasks from my recent sugar dyed batch.
When this one is finished, it's going to be for sale. I have to start making all this needle flailing pay somehow. Until then, I can look up on the design wall and have a chuckle over this silly gathering.
There was a show on TV last night about a lioness who kept adopting gazelle calves. She was cub-less and confused. It did not turn out well. This bunch look as if they would try to hatch rocks as easily as they would eggs. You can't imagine what I went through to find a nice picture of the Boobies they were modeled after!
Addendum - the border came out wonderful but I used another whole damask tablecloth to back this one and , due to the shifty nature of the stuff, it's proved impossible to hand stitch. Rather than machine stitch it, I'm going to take it apart and reback it with the plain muslin that has been so successful thus far. Live and learn.
I've had some time to think about why these light weight, personal sized utility blankets are all I care to accomplish these days. It's only too obvious to anyone who has ever cared for someone at home who is recovering from a serious illness or injury. It's not that there is no time - between all the little things that are needed by the patient there is too much time. Time waiting. Time planning. Time worrying.
So here's to the small joy of inexpensive fabrics, soft and gentle to the touch, white & cream,
as clean and inviting as any blank canvas, completely ready to shape to my will without struggle or argument.
Hand ripped and unmeasured strips almost ordering themselves without so much as a pin and lying flat, sweet and compliant under the machine's needle never giving a moments birdnest or bunch so much so that I will stitch a foot of inches before I notice the bobbin is empty.
Here's to a simple set of bright colors and simple shapes laid into each block with a few hours of hand applique.Then, once the blocks are joined and the top and back fall into place, a few more days of waiting time hand quilting just enough graceful curves and leaves as they occur to me.
The twelve weight cotton thread flows through the two light layers of muslin as easily as thoughts flow through the mind and time slips from summer to fall and when it's finished I'm holding pure comfort. Just enough cloth and weight to keep off the chill of a waiting room, a treatment room or a rainy afternoon, it was every moment a pleasure to make and I know will someday bring comfort and utility to someone else for years to come. This one was my fourth and last night I started a fifth.
I call the points monkeyteeth.
Now I have to consider writing lesson plans for something like this including everything from dyeing the fabric to hand applique. Too much for beginners?
The month is young and I made two major deadlines. Time to start something new.
This piece has been just what I needed these past few days. Something to hang onto and focus on fiercely.
I've started the quilting that joins front and back and will go on with it for the rest of the week as minutes and moments present themselves.
I keep telling myself "all things for a reason" and heard a movie character say "yesterday is history and tomorrow a mystery". Both sentiments to reflect on for the moment.
I am deeply grateful for being Easily Amused. This is a big deal in a consumer driven society.
I stopped by my favorite Yankee Candle shop the other day and frustrated the clerk by taking an hour to select six votive candles:
Evening Air, Autumn Wreath
Fireside, Sun & Sand ,Patchouli
and Sage & Citrus.
The visuals I get from the names alone inspire me.Time to light up and get down to some stitching. There's a Fall Fling in my mind and I need to curl up in my soft chair, breathe deep and just be still for a while.
All I did was say "me, me, me" when Marie offered up extra cigar boxes and look what treasure turned up.
This little flag that came along for the ride lifted my spirits so much.
Thank you my friend.
Marie and I roll along in the same ditches it seems, from Tarot to fountain pens to audio books, I never tire of finding out more of the little things that amuse us both.
I'm willing to bet the farm that I am not the only one out there scrambling to gather up the threads of the Quilt National entry requirements. Even though the post office is closed, the received by deadline is Friday and there's always Overnight Delivery.
Yeah, yeah, I know I said I wasn't going to enter. Did I lie? Nah, I was just unable to commit which three pieces to submit and, as of this very moment, I still haven't decided.
We had a delightful day of normalcy around here yesterday hallmarked by the wonderful smell of my husband's award winning chili. Jim is intent on entering the Great Miller Lite Stone Mountain Chili Cookoff this year and decided it was time to start cooking up the public chili which is given away as tastes to the general public as long as it lasts. Jim tries to bring enough to last through lunch - I hate to guess it's around ten gallons or more - which he makes and freezes in advance. The Judge's Batch Chili has to be prepared on the spot at the campground just before the judging begins. It was great to eat some elses cooking for a change.
With Gustav advancing on the Gulf coast here I am mentally whining about the possibility of a week of rainy overcast once it's fringes reach my area. Some gall.
I went to a meeting of the GA chapter of the Surface Design Association yesterday afternoon. The group has put together an exhibition proposal and was working out the details of which local venues to approach. Talking about exhibits in 2009, 10 and 11 makes me anxious. For several years I have been unable to project my life or career as an artist any length of time into the future.
I started mining out the studio yesterday evening and found myself with a pile of happy playfellows on the work table so I started building houses...again.
Joanie San Chirico is right! No one is ever going to see the things I've made if I don't take action on the marketing front. I joined the Professional Fine Art Network a few months back without giving a it lot of thought - I was flattered to be invited. Now I have to work on making it work for me.
Now that my free (read "unemployed & broke") time is hopefully running out I'm inspired to take some action. As the song goes "you don't know what you've got til it's gone".
I've applied for a couple of small grants and have selected few juried show to enter and my main gallery needs updating. It's August already and I haven't posted any 2008 work yet. The dust bunnies have had babies in the studio too.
pFAn is a networking index for fine artists and consultants working in the hospitality, health care, corporate and public art sectors. Having just spent a lot of time staring at some truly hideous not-art gracing the walls of a hospital, I have a new appreciation for how far a little beauty and positive energy might have gone in that particular setting.
EB had a really thought provoking post yesterday. It actually put my withered brain in gear for a few hours and on into sleep thinking about the answers to the questions she posed. Which art & artists inspired and, more importantly, why.
At first I opened an old sketch book and scratched around with pencil in the dark. There were some old drawings in there by someone I barely recognized. Some were good. Some were awful.
The questions raised were around what we like and how to stay on the task of bringing those elements into our own work. What is it about a particular piece (mine or anyone's) that captures my attention and keeps bringing me back?
The list got long and strange.
-energy
-stealth
-symbolism
-gestures
-"living" color
- that which is not seen but hinted at.
- moods suggested rather than stated
- a "booga booga" quotient.
Not wanting to waste any more ideas (I find that if I commit something to paper it never finds it's way off the page) I dragged some lines around with fiber and thread. I love the way you can force your will on strips of old damask. It's old and full of unknown history and will slither away on it's own if you don't rein it in tight.
It feels like I haven't seen the sun in weeks. Between time inside the hospital - the smoked glass panes made every day a cloudy one - and the blow back we've been having from hurricane Fay, my tan is fading and my swimming pool is green.
I started this little piece of hand music to try to loosen up my appliqué technique. Leave things a little loose, hairy and puckery. There may even be some beads down the line.
We are under the shield of overcast from Fay. It's dark like it wants to rain but so far only a spit or two. The trees toss with strange smelling breezes - winds from somewhere else. Nothing left for this one but as much hand stitching as it take to hold front to back respectably. I rushed the building of it this morning and the side borders are a bit wonky. Just thinking about hurrying is a signal to me that this is the last of the Flings for this year.
I have prayer flags promised and not being much a a prayer, I'm at a loss for the moment. It will come.
Keep in mind this technique may not work unless your humidity is high like here in Georgia. Do you know why you put a few grains of rice in the salt shaker? To keep the salt dry. At high humidity salt and sugar crystals will take on a bit of moisture from the air - simple kitchen science.
I started with a half cup of rock salt in a small plastic container. Left the lid off overnight, out on the deck. Readied a piece of damask soaked in soda ash on my work table. Dust mask plus wet neckerchief and goggles in place. No breezes. (I do all my dye work outdoors- ignore safety rules at your own peril). Folded a quarter teaspoon of dye powder into the salt. The dye sticks to the damp crystals. As I work, I change colors by just adding more dye in to what's already in the container.
With a spoon, I sprinkled the salt/dye mix over the fabric. Rolled the fabric up lengthwise and then coiled the roll. More or less manipulation of the coil at this point will blur and distribute the dye or not. Pop the coil in a zip loc baggie and let it bake in the sun for the rest of the day. I rinse the fabric by hand in a cold water tub and follow up with a hot water machine wash with Dawn and machine dry.
Where does the sugar come in? I ran out of salt! Sugar works just as well as salt.
