digging and finding

Spontaneous Construction 42"x43" 

I spent a lot of time this weekend finding old things and seeing what's held up, and what hasn't.

It started with having to restore and update the music on my aging Ipod. The backups have been lost and so I was, one disc at a time, restoring the cuts I crave these days. I found several unlabelled subliminal recordings that sounded suspiciously like whale gut rumblings and I fell asleep with the thing on, earbuds plugged into my head! Who know what cracks in my brain have been reordered or re-routed and with what information?

  It was interesting that more than half of what was, is no more and not missed. Then again I found myself one-clicking one song after the next at Amazon from a long wish list of CDs, new and old.

Then I started in on the bedroom closet and and came across this piece which was hatched out at my first ever class at Arrowmont with Elizabeth Barton.  I was very new to dyeing and we were tasked with dyeing two gradations and these colors must have been assigned to me (although I can't imagine it) because red and green would be the last on my list of choices. A proper image is in order. At some point in my life I took the time and infinite patience to hand quilt this making it up as I went, as was the machine pieced construction. If you have the opportunity to take one of Elizabeth's classes, jump at it.

I also unearthed a fragment of a story that, although unfinished, is worth a second look and some harsh reworking. Who was it said "kill your darlings" ?

mystery PITA crayons

I've just finished messing up my kitchen cooking up this batch of soywax+dyepowder crayons but I'm afraid they are going to be a big pain in the ass to work with. No wonder these pounds of  soywax crumbs were so cheap at Binders. Although the package said 'melts at 150 degrees'  it was a lot hotter than that and the wax is much harder, more brittle than the stuff I'm used to from Prochem whose website is unable to take credit card orders right now.

 Lord only knows if and how I will be getting this stuff out of the cloth when the time comes. I may have to set up the cannibal pot on the lawn instead of just rinsing the  stuff out in the sink with Dawn and hot hot water. Time will tell. The nifty mold comes gratis when you buy a dozen votives at Yankee Candle, it had a nice lid too but I cut it off as it was getting in the way.

historical

Yesterday I got a lovely email from an artist in New Zealand asking permission to teach a class based on the technique I used in this piece which was published some years back.

I never thought of stitching layers of torn strips as any exclusive technique of mine (and I said so) but it was a very civilized gesture. I hope the students enjoy the class.

The first time I used this technique was on a piece that was about a yard long and only ten or so inches wide. I remember working on it while waiting in the car as my youngest son was taking his road test...ages ago. There was a lot of trepidation stitched into that one. Wonder where it is?

eye candy friday

Happy Friday!
Here's a site you should bookmark...but does it float 

 I was led to all of the following from there.

Gunta Stölzl

Art Hansen

Vangel Naumovski

WIP

Closing in on finished here, I've enjoyed working on this one with the simplest of techniques for me, hand  applique.

No trixie embroidery, no layering the threads, no crazed french knots - just a double strand of Sulky 12wt cotton in colors matching the fabric.

 Almost all the the fabrics are hand dyed damasks which has  tendency to creep away and fight the needle at every turn. The trick to needle turning this stuff is pins, pins and more pins and then stitches that are maybe an eighth inch apart. Sounds obsessive but the damask needles like butter.  I'd like to take this technique to a larger field for the next project.

Spring will be on us before you know and I'm daydreaming about the first dye fest of the year.
I have so much wonderful raw material at hand.

flings fly

In anticipation of spring this fling will be flying today.

It's been hanging around the studio since it was made and every time I unearth the thing it makes me grin so now it's going to make my mother and her friends at the nursing home smile and have a cackle.

groundwork

Just stitching on a passage thinking about the story.

I walked alone to school from day one. Across Main under the stern gaze of a crossing guard, down along  the dark side of Maple, past the front doors of the firehouse and the local newspaper and down a footpath through a dark wood.

There was a little wooden bridge over a brook and there were certainly trolls under that bridge but they could never catch me, I was running so fast. You had to hold your breath in the woods or they would be waiting when your feet hit the first board.

 At the end of the path the woods unclenched onto  the baseball field behind the school. It was full of cold sun with the block buildings squatting on the other side daring me come, full tilt.

traipsing

JR and I were loose on the streets of ATL yesterday on our bi-monthly mission of self indulgence. Nobody went to infirmary and nobody went to jail - mission accomplished!

 First  stop - IKEA! who is only too happy to feed people free breakfast so they will have the stamina to shop till they drop well after lunchtime. There was a real bedding frenzy going on..I got mine.  I have not been so inspired to nest refurbishment since Takashimaya was in NYC where I would spend my grocery money on a regular basis buying must haves like transparent turquoise and fuchsia plastic boxes, carved chopsticks in silk cases and acid green eye liner. Who needed to eat? Begging in the streets for Taka-money often crossed my mind.

On then to a quick visit to Phoenix and Dragon for a spiritual uplift and to take a few measurements (more about that later)  ..then we went  applying for part time jobs (just kidding folks)

 
Late lunch found us feasting at El Aztecas on Roswell Rd which had  moved across the street and upscaled quite a bit since the last time we ate there. Fabulous food and the waiter was most understanding about the no carb thing and made off with the dessert menu before I could read beyond Strawberry Cinnamon ice cream.

 Later we found out that "ESTATE SALE" doesn't necessarily mean there's any kind of estate involved. Just a lot of crap that was in the place when someone shuffled off and left it. They did leave this behind, to my delight!

inscription or tattoo

Jude says I have "Color and Heart"...
..thanks for the reminder lady.

"Hopped Up"   2007

(here's a little genesis for this one)

beautiful things

Have you ever seen a rock with a soul?

Enjoy the weekend!

a low level buzz of anticipation

"Just when I thought I was out, they pulled me back in".

The fabrics and stitching that is.
 Out of boredom and frustration, I started thinking spring yesterday with needle and thread. I'm trying to find my way around a serious blank spot in my line of inner sight by  making an end run with familiar techniques and materials.


I'll tell you what is hard...writing is hard. Talk about making something from nothing. Sustaining the attention for your own story, the one you are making up as you go, is like walking into a room full of large fans whilst holding a bunch of helium balloons on very thin, greasy strings.



On the news front, I am talking with the owner of a local bookstore that also has a large meeting/classroom that doubles as an art gallery. They have never had fiber art there.  So far, it looks like a one woman show in April at  a great location that gets a good bit of traffic that didn't come just for the eye candy.  More when the details are hammered out.