Hooked deep

My fish fixation continues.The dyed damasks have the same iridescent shimmer that's found in fish skins. What could be more alien than a creature who's environment would kill us in a few heartbeats without scuba gear? I've been watching River Monsters with horrid fascination thinking about all the times I blithely paddled about in strange waters, both fresh and salt, toes and fingers like so many tasty Twinkies. Years ago I lived in Provincetown MA for a summer. Some friends and I splashed about at night in the high summer tide alongside one of the town piers just to watch the bio luminescent microorganisms shimmer green fire ripples around us in the water. Minutes later as we sat dripping with our feet dangling off the seawall, a huge curved shape about six feet wide was outlined by the green glow as it swam in a great curving arc in from the depths to where we had stood moments before and then, without pausing, turn back to deep water leaving a trail of stars in it's wake. It was more than chilling.

It's all in the eyes

Fish eyes

I'm researching fish faces for a piece I'm working on. Ever take a close look at their eyes? I used to fish a lot when I was a kid just so I could get a good close look at them. Never knew anything but catch and release. If I wanted fish, Mom would make Gortons. Even though they are beautiful, when you gaze inside, there's just nobody home. When we lived on the other side of town Jake caught a strange fish from the stagnant little run-off pond in the community. He and JJ came running to me with it because it was scary. I knew everything that swam in fresh water in the Northeast but this fish was something else. Pointy face and a mouth full to overflowing with long, needle sharp teeth and orange eyes as big as nickles. No one has been able to tell me what it was besides a fright. They put it back in the pond, carefully.

A touch of Teeth

Just a couple more tiny teeth, I promise. I've spent a quiet overcast weekend building some new small things to be stitched another time and thinking about possibilities. There's no end of willing helpers when the spools are brought out

Supernova

Everyone's entitled to go supernova from time to time. I've been working on this one between calls and one of my coworkers inquired with concern "Do you have kids?" I replied "They're grown now, you're too late" and chuckled. Lately I've been irked about not being able to afford the crap shoot of entering major shows but I finally committed to a local art fair this coming fall. I was flattered to be invited back to the Norcross Art Fest where I had a very successful weekend a few years back. Now I can relax and devote my spare minutes to making some market friendly pieces instead of fretting about missed (and imaginary) opportunities, I'm going to be making the best of this new one.

Eye Candy Wednesday

There's a little artin going on but mostly fiber fondling. I've been going through the fruits of the last fiber fest and happy to tell you not much of this batch is getting out to the general public. Maybe next go round. This is one of the tighter woven feed sacks, maybe from flour or sugar. It's got a wonderful soft, almost flannel hand. Another of the tight weave, "diaper weight" pieces. and finally, a quarter of an antique damask tablecloth, worn soft and wonderful and bound to become some free motioned flowers soon.

glyphs progress

Sorry for the crappy photo but I'm starting to live/love this piece again and gotta dash. The rest of the goodies are tumbling around in the dryer right now. _____________

Back from the errand dash...and I have Glory & Riches!

colored

This is a long strip of the coarser chicken feed sack fabric from Rosemary. I've learned a lesson about being over impressed with wet stuff. I won't have any pictures of finished products until later in the week. Let's just say I bit off more than I could chew today. I fact, I'm choked. This is one of several salt/dyed pieces coiled up in baggies and waiting to hatch. Damask and natural muslin sandwiched together this time, sharing the crystals and dye. This piece has had soy wax treatment and is waiting for color. It's in the washing machine right now cause I just had to see one of them today. Too much sun, too much fun. I am whupped. Chef Jim prepared fabulous flat iron steak, 'tater salad and 'maters and olive on the side. Summer fare for Summery Sunday.

...faces come out of the rain...

Jude's recent post about faces got me to checking into my image files, stuff that I created, not photos, and I came up nearly empty handed. Now you know why. Seems like whenever I set about making faces there's a strong current of menace and mayhem just waiting to manifest. I find most of them hilarious. I brought some embroidery thread to work to see if I remembered how. This feels like a throw back to "Atavistic Inclinations" going back to 2006, one of my first experiments with discharging. Thanks to everyone who wrote and gave input regarding the feed sack material. It's all been prepped and some of it will go into a soda ash bath tonight for a dyefest tomorrow. It's toasty here in Georgia. Seems like we've skipped spring and gone straight to summer - great weather for dyeing.

archaeology and treasures

Wonderful things come to light when you start digging. I need to get new containers as all these charming little baskets are too small by half for each colorway and you cannot put 14 pounds of cat in a ten pound basket for long. The red pieced thing is "Picnic In Hell" a top that has been missing for more than a year. All this industry was provoked by the arrival of a large box of vintage fabrics passed on to me by my friend Rosemary Claus-Gray. An incredible trove of fabric that may prove to be from the turn of the century. I found a barely visible stamp on one piece that said "Made For A.D.Pierce, Brooklyn, Conn." A little research tells me that this company was a hatchery of some sort. Wonder what they used all this cloth for. Chicken blankets? I also came across this piece of embroidery that used to grace the whole back of a denim coat that I wore until it was pitiable. Then it was on a couch pillow for years. next?

shawl revival

For lack of anything else to do (besides muck out the Aegean stables that my studio has become) I nailed these dyed damask flowers on the pointed ends of my favorite velvet shawl. My seat at the office is close by the wall of glass (for the light) and the door breezes so I mummy up with this when the evening turns blue and cool.

under one flag

Yeah, there's no denying that they are flags. Even hanging across the opening of the laundry and backlit with a 75 watt bulb. I've always loved stained glass and was really thinking about that Tiffany window when I reshuffled the pallette after a false start. Even though I seamed a few of those pieces together, they were dumb as posts and just not happening. A few fabric substitutions and some transparent Setacolor and this one is starting to hum. It's fixing to get grizzly outside so my idea of painting/drying/painting on the deck is now going back and forth between 1/2 of my sewing table and the laundry closet opening which is 60"x80" and covered completely by this piece. I don't know why I think this is a big deal. People routinely made bed covers bigger than this. Here's a shot with flash and half dry so you can get an idea of what's really going on instead of the glowing wishful thinking happening in the first picture. You can bet I'll keep coming back to it and try with paint and other techniques to make it happen for real.