treading water with cloth and stitch

Voodoo's eloquently evil expression asks me why I don't spend more time on something productive like mouse farming or tuna fishing?                         Nothing creative floats up that I can grab onto and run with.    

Mindless stitching is almost as bad a endless games of online scrabble - the minutes slip away and you've  nothing to show for it but cat blankets. Still, for the moment, passing time is what I have to distract me from momentary medical annoyances. Then I read about the real travails of Kate at  Needled and MV at Instant Poetry and I can quickly suck it up and quit bitching about a little achey arthritis or jet engines in my head.                                                            

Right after this shot, he bit me on the arm when I tried to take the cloth back and Voodoo, unlike the girls, does not pull his punches. Thanks buddy. You old grouch.

Mahonia Update

Here are some shots of the cloth that I attempted to dye with the Mahonia berries a few days ago.  You knew I would have posted faster if the results were anywhere near exciting.  I am consoled with the notion of dye painting this piece to look like it did when I first unwrapped it all dotted with the crushed berries. Now, That was interesting.

Maybe this coming Sunday if the sun takes part.


Although it's not the best day for taking pictures in the studio, I put together another three sets for Random Acts of Dyeness. 

(every day is) Mother's Day

I had a lovely Mother's Day - I don't care for a fuss. Every day is Mother's Day when you get your props from your family and I do.

I unwrapped the cloth I stained with the berries and shot a video..prepare to be underwhelmed.  And what a stink! I was glad the camera wasn't running when I rather haphazardly tossed the contents of that container over the deck rail and half of it splashed all over my back.

I spent the afternoon painting on a piece out on the deck while listening to a ballgame. While Jim made a fabulous pork roast dinner, Jake took me out for spin in a car in his custody this weekend. Who in their right minds would pay $100,000 for a way to get from here to there and back?  Granted it's nice ride but, geez.

Tradition takes root

The peonies to the right of the mailbox are from my grandfather's garden where they lived in Armonk. When my folks moved to the suburbs in 1956, Pop brought up some roots from the original bed to plant at the new house.

When we bought our house in in Georgia in '98 I brought some roots back down here with me after a visit home. Traditions take root. 

I've let them run wild up there in the only garden space we have with full sun. Anything that thrives up there lives on neglect and dog piss. Looks like the peonies have liked it well enough to throw off a mutation.  The bigger, pale pink blossoms on the left are new this year spread from the darker ones to the right side of the garden. They even have a slightly different fragrance.  The dogged persistence of Nature always lifts my heart.

mad scientist time

Remember these?  Thanks to everyone who helped to identify them for me.
Mahonia, the Oregon Grape.


Well, I couldn't resist an experiment involving cloth when I saw that they had ripened to this.

 Go Here for a wordless pictorial

The cloth is a section of that vintage
tablecloth that I have been hoarding.

Now I wonder if the stains will stay. Should I douse the bundle in vinegar or something to set the colors? Until I hear back some wisdom, I'm just going to let it poach in the sun, wrapped in some plastic....email me if you have a clue.

Random Acts of Dyeness Renovation

I've come to terms with the need for working smaller and have decided that most of the pieces of hand dyed fabrics that I have for sale are probably more than anyone needs. They are more  than I need for sure.

To that end, I'll be overhauling the store -taking down some of the yard sized pieces, cutting them up and putting them together in project sized collections and groupings like this one. 
I've run out of ideas for naming things like this so I'm just going to run the alphabet..here's Archer.

battle banners

This unfinished piece is so large I have no place to hang it for pictures and here I missed the shade opportunity of shooting from the upper deck by about 10 minutes. I'm planning on a lot surface work with metallic textile paint to bring up all the stitched motifs that are lost from a few feet away. Think medieval, illuminated manuscripts, etc. The commercials for the new Robin Hood with Russell Crowe reminded me that this piece and Front Runner were designed as battle flags.

Store Update

It's time to let go.

I've posted several of the most recent pieces shown here for sale at

Hand Music Fiber Art

If you would like to see more images or have any questions including information about international sales and shipping, please email me.

deluge

By my mason jars on the deck we had about 4 inches of rain overnight. Enough to top off the pool and later today Jim will run the new pump for the first time now that the water level is where it needs to be. The frogs are so happy that we are not using the pool yet that they were up screaming about it all night long. With that and the thunder and lightning, sleep was scarce. 

beach

getting his bearings

For those of you who are following the Bear restoration, he can see where he's going now and his inner eye is on the game as well.  Mere buttons would not do here. A nice no-nonsense nose seemed in order. I'm still thinking about how I want the mouth to look but I have to get some new stuffing first and get him back to being 3D before any grinning or dental work is started.

silkwinds

I'm done stitching on this one - the base was starting to deform. I love working with the dyed silk.

It reminded me that I had a whole series of 3D pieces that evolved just so I could wrap them with a variety of transparent fabrics including a rainbow of sheer poly and some cotton lawn all stitched over stuffed damask "heart, livers and other uniformed body parts" .  More of this here

and here. I'm thinking of rounding these up and making them available.
Boy, do they take up a lot of space!

stitching silks

Here's a game's worth of stitching (minus a two inning nap) with some of the scraps of silk that I dyed earlier this morning. I've always been drawn to the possibilities of transparency no matter the medium. It can spell trouble for me, too many possibilities that is - like having the really huge box of crayons used to trouble me. I always felt like I had to use them all.

I held the line at just three colors of silk for this little sample which was supposed to be about getting used to handling and stitching silk and silk gauze.
Lesson one...I need a manicure - I keep snagging the gauze with my leathery finger tip!