Thursday, April 14, 2011

back to the wall

Remember this one?

I was so in love with it at first but I left it hanging on the design wall, sideways (as it was built) and only pinned in place - I could not take the next step of basting it.

Deep down, I knew it was fatally flawed.

Thanks to E, who clarified what I knew to be true, there really was no way to unify the two disparate halves and what I really had here were starting points for two separate pieces.  Here's to heading off false starts before they become groaning disappointments.








You know what I am supposed to be doing at this moment, don't you.

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

the personal stash



 After the storm front moved through last night, it's turned cold again. There are sleeping cats draped all over the house.
 

I was busy at the computer and didn't hear her come into the room and clamber up from the ironing board into my personal stash...




So I asked her, "Sweetie, what the hell are you doing up there?
Casually, slowly, she turned around and showed me what she thought of my efforts.


a humble Thank You


to Jude Hill who has been so incredibly generous in featuring my hand dyed fabric on her resource page along with the work of several amazing artists.
You won't go wrong here.

Jude, I am scrambling to live up to your recommendation.

There will be Born Again Overdyes, Sugar, Salt and Buggy Cereal cloth, discharged,painted and dragged behind the mule fabric (just kidding)...lot's of new and interesting things to share in the upcoming weekends.

Monday, April 11, 2011

half baked still

Here's more what I was thinking about yesterday. The oval/circles I like best come from discharging - the hot wax is much more willful and harder to control. These processes are both time consuming and messy and this whole week I am very short of free time so I am going to let everything rest until the weekend.

I'm going to be pulling many pieces from the stash for similar treatments - they thought they were safe, all ironed and folded on the shelf. HAH!


I did a rare thing last night -spent four consecutive hours watching TV (I should have been sleeping) the pilot and second episode of "The Killing" on AMC.

I can't put my finger on what is so compelling about what could be boiled down to yet another cop drama. The complexity and dominance of character reminds me of "Homicide, Life in the Streets" and there's a dash of David Lynch. Strong performances from unknown actors. It all adds up to really good TV. 

Sunday, April 10, 2011

Yesterday - 1st dyefest of the season


It was great fun to hold the first dye day of the season at Elizabeth's studio.  We are both always on the lookout for happy chemical accidents, neither one a stickler for rules.  Here she is working over a piece that came to her from another well known fiber artist (a prize if you guess who via email). They have a swap going, each taking turns changing the piece.  I don't know when they are going to stick a fork in this one and call it done.

Another view of the day's doings here.

This is part of my murky results, but murk was just what I was after because I've been having visions of those discharged discs and have a half baked idea along the lines of Shell Vapors and I'm fresh out of spots.


Overall results ran from the sublime to the ridiculous, as usual, which means something for every occasion.


There were great lessons remembered and new ones learned like, don't waste soy wax on wet cloth, make the wax hot enough in the first place, split peas were a waste of lentils and SHAKE THE DAMN BOTTLES! and don't forget to check your gloves once in a while..you don't want to see my thumb.