Big Blessing

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.

Reward for Hard Work

I spent the day simultaneously updating my main website gallery and finalizing things for the QN entry. I think I have everything in the right places. Who knows what's on that CD - they may get treated to pictures of spiders and cat asses instead of the pieces I intended as entries. I'm sure the judges could use a good laugh after a bit. As I was building the individual pages for each of the six new pieces (new since December 2007- the last time I updated the site) I had to root around my psychotically disorganized server space for various images. I found that, thanks to my blogging habit, several pieces have good "works in progress" posts complete with images and I though about linking to those posts from the website like this. What do you think about doing this? Later on, a fantastic treat. Colin left us a movie to watch after dinner and I spent most of the whole film with my mouth open and eyes peeled. I'm a real tough customer when it comes to movie entertainment and this one has been newly installed in my top five. A complete visual feast to go along with spellbinding storytelling. Don't blink or step out for a snack, you'll miss something wonderful. Rent the Fall by Tarsem Singh, you won't regret it!

friends afar

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.

Last Minute-itis

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.

holding my breath

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.

pFAn

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.

groping & sketching

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.

August Sun

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.

UFO's continued

I got the last 500 or so pins out of this one last night and was dizzy from stitching in circles for hours. It's over 80" wide and is busy overwhelming my design wall. I hardly know what to make of it right now. It's kind of a throw back for me design-wise but I continue to work my way through the UFO pile in hopes of turning up a gem. This one might just be a really nice blanket someday.

house fling

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.

Sugar dyeing

A few folks have asked about sugar dyeing. I wish I had done a few process photos while I was doing the last batch but I wasn't thinking about making a tutorial just then. Plus I was working with two left gloves - someone's idea of fun while stocking the grocery store shelves I guess. Sugar dyeing is not all that exotic. There's nothing really chemical going on. "It's MECHANICAL" to quote Bugs Bunny. When I first started dyeing my own fabric I read bits and pieces about different ways to bring the dye and cloth together including the salt dyeing process I found at Paula Burchs' fabulous site. I took a stab at it but wasn't in love with the results on regular fabric. When I started dyeing damasks, I took another try at it but I had a new idea of what I wanted the salt to do for me. 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.

almost home

Jimmy was sort of half sprung from the hospital today. The medical doctor cleared him to leave pending the surgeon's approval but the surgeon was too busy running through the halls with a chain saw. He finally popped by after I had gone home promising to spring my man in the morning. I nipped out in the middle of the afternoon to come home and see what had become of a batch of damasks that I had pushed into a stew of soda ash the day before Jim's surgery just about a week ago. What was I thinking? When I opened up the container I half expected 20 gallons of mush but the cloth seemed OK so I went ahead and sugar dyed it all. I have a "what if" in mind for some of this fabric. Nothing fully formed, just a notion. I was busy elsewhere so daily life has taken a back seat. My pool has been sadly neglected this past week and all manner of strange things just came out of the skimmer and dip net. I just hope I can get back in the water to do the real cleaning. The water has cooled down a lot and hurricane Fay will be drenching us in a day or so.

caesura

Thanks to everyone who has sent prayers and expressed concern for my husband's recovery. Jim is on the mend. He took his first solid food in a week last night and seemed to be tolerating it when I came home from the hospital last evening. My mock nursing was getting on his last nerve. While I was gone this weekend, Raquel cleaned my house and it was such a pleasure to come home to peace and order when I had expected the chaos and clutter that I had left behind. The only room she wisely didn't go into was my studio. I peeked in, looked around cracked the windows and closed the blinds. A storm is coming soon. The mess in there is dispiriting in a small and laughable way at the moment. I had no photos for this post and found this one in a file on the computer. I know the piece is in the studio somewhere, unfinished, but I'll be dipped if I can find it.