fiber apostasy

I felt the need for some retail therapy yesterday. I got some nifty gift cards for Christmas and have waited to pair them up with some 50% coupons. At Michael's I  scored a long coveted set of Derwent Inktense blocks and busied my self seeing just how 'tense the ink was. I opted for the blocks instead of the pencils -why pay for wood?

They are pretty blazing amazing on paper but not worth wasting on cloth..I've dyes for that. Can you tell by the rainbow riot that I'm a little parched for color so deep in the B&W series? I feel a tattoo coming on.

inktense on muslin

questions from left field

The strangest things will come in dreams.

I had a dream that I was looking at a painting - it was a very large, old oil landscape, something like a Frederic Church spectacle - quickly, the painting morphed into an intricately worked leather belt and, when I looked again,  a bracelet of layered silver links and then, a very large watercolor seething with flowers.

Then I realized that I was looking at these things from the perspective of a person who had no concept of "making" anything - a pure consumer of end products made by others, the mysterious Makers.

It was the oddest feeling; an off-putting incompetence with a dash of defensive arrogance. I thought of a TV show where a crystal skull was being examined and it's provenance could not be explained so it was attributed to aliens. It was a little scary. Who are the Makers? What was their objective in creating these things?

My Maker guise quickly stepped up and took back control of the dream and I was left with questions.

Who are the non-makers and what do they think of Art? What does Art matter to them. Are they another tribe altogether? When does resentment fade and wonder take over?  Do they ever get over being on the outside looking in? I have to ask around outside of this space since I know 99% of my readers are Makers of some sort.

2013

"Starwatcher"  by Moebius

"The start of a new year can be like opening a magnificent gift"
 Thomas Haller Buchanan

my 2012

music by Choi Seung-hyun from the film "old boy'

close comfort

The last of the posse was just too eclectic to join forces with any of the others. All on it's own, it's acquired a little color and, as time passes, a lot of hand stitching.

So all told, in the B&W series ( the Karmas) there are two fairly large pieces, one with a mix of machine and hand stitches, the other strictly machined, and two small pieces; one hand and machine and this one,  only hand stitching. I have a feeling that I'll be setting up an entire segment of the cloth closet strictly for the B&W. I love the drama!

There's a disturbance in my personal force right now; both my brother and my dad are in the hospital and my baby sister is sick..everyone with varying forms of flu-ish things.  Here I am dispensing old wives wisdom over the phone and clutching at my cloth 800 miles away.

good studio day

Got this one oriented to my liking and stripped off a lot of "fluff" including half a dozen snitches of color that I added just because they were snaking around in the basket at my feet.
Glad that I pulled back from that cliff before I ran off it. I won't say I'm starved for color yet, just appreciating it more in smaller doses.

There will be very little hand stitching in this one. There are extra layers of fleece underneath in places where I want the machine stitching to carve the cloth.
This is the largest one so far, maybe 40 inches on a side.  More tomorrow.

very happy friday

Things are really hopping in the studio right now and I am SO GLAD  this work week is nearly over. All of the B&Ws are clamoring for attention at the same time.

My day job entails listening to  never-ending of tales of woe, stupidity and venality and it gets so tedious after a while that I get giddy and long to tell some of these people which train goes straight to hell and where they can get free tickets! I do remain grateful to have ANY job, but this weekend I will only be an artist.

Don't forget the full moon's promise tonight!

morning cloth herding

Late last night I started trying to get some of other members of the gang to work together but it wasn't happening, mostly because I was insisting that this one, the original B&W, be one of the players and he wasn't having any of it. So I took it up alone this morning to see where it could go.

The black linen background is just too strong to try and incorporate with the others which are grounded mostly on a softer black damask.

Color is creeping in and I'm glad.  It seems that  nothing is totally  black & white. Nothing satisfying anyway.

banish the wintertime blues

All that's needed is a Braves game on the radio, some cherries and the Sunday NY times.

home made!

Ok,  haste made for hilarity!

 Here's the chef and his custom made apron (and evil assistant) now that the pocket has been  sewn back on the FRONT of the apron (below the J)  instead of the back where it was when he first opened my gift.  There was much jesting about what he might stash in the pocket in it's former position.

And speaking of home made, a new Lacativa joined the tribe on Christmas day. Landon Vincent Lacativa is Jim's brother's first grandchild. Mazel Tov to the families!

Christmas Eve

Yesterday was given over to baking, some for us, some for neighbors. I have to call over there and check on the survivors. Although I make a stellar apple pie, this was my first ever made-from-scratch crust, recipe courtesy of Joe over at man handled threads.

Today, everything is wrapped, there was a little pre-lasagna prep work and now, time for a little hand stitching. Merry Christmas everyone.

Karma 1

Karma 1"    2012    27x36

I didn't have anything to say about this one right away because I was quite taken by surprise when it threw up the checked flag and said “stop..done, finished” and for once, I listened. 

 There is some hand stitching planned that won't really be noted from a few steps away because I intend on matching the thread to the cloth and keeping the stitching low key. It will be faced unobtrusively and I will honor the irregular edges rather than crop the off. It will be nice to have this to occupy the few spare moments I'll have over the next few days. 

The next one in this series is pieces in the closet and will have to wait a few days for the holiday festivities to subside before I start anything new.

I want to be able to give it full focus.
1 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup all-purpose flour

Still shopping? Me too.

Still Christmas shopping? Yeah, me too. I wish it was this easy for me but the family members still on my list don't know which end of the needle to thread; they leave that stuff to me. But if you need a gift for a textile or mixed media artist, I have just the thing!  Come see....  and don't forget to be good to yourself too! Happy Holidays.

B&W Reset

After spending several long sessions of shuffling these pieces around on the bed it began to dawn on me that this method what not going anywhere happy.

Each one is a composition all it's own - I could hardly find two that could work next to one another..just no way to go about designing a cohesive piece. So rather than scrap the whole project I'm going to go back to considering them one at  a time - instant series.

Karma did B&W with such flair, colors paled beside her.

in the Spirit

I left the house before sun-up this morning to spend time in the dentist's chair. After a little Christmas shopping I came home to this delight.  It's good to be the Queen.
Thank you my darlings.





Meanwhile, upstairs, the rest of the subjects ran amok in total disregard of my authority.

the posse

Here we have the cast of characters that we will become intimately acquainted with in weeks to come..love them, hate them, turn them inside out.. this is the bunch I'm rolling with.
There's more of that deep black linen and an expanse of
snowy double napped
 flannel .
I feel a novel coming on.

back in black & white

It's back to the B&W for me. I've stopped all hand work, saving the trixie and precious for later once the ground work falls (or is bulldozed) into place.

There are two more new elements on the design wall this morning and two more are in the process stage. It's getting pretty big, six feet long, so I may be finding the limits.

There will be much more  cutting, swapping and scrapping ahead. There are only two passages here that I am solid with..and, yes, I see that the gator head is back in the picture.

My black velvet wrap in the closet may be pressed into service.

what she wrought...

How's this for spectacular?
 Serena described it like this-
"Grandmother's Fan pattern hand drafted and set in  the Love Rings Orientation. Entirely hand pieced. White Fan pieces all  from my great, great grandmother's (Mary Katherine Ferguson's) linen napkins. Hand dyed blade fabric all hand dyed vintage linens from fiber artist Deb Lacativa...creams all 100% cotton either Kona, broadcloth solid, or shot cotton."

I'm honored and terrified that something so precious has been constructed from cloth that has already lived it's life, been discarded and then resurrected with color. But then I have seen and held one of her finished quilts all hand quilted ..old school all the way. I know it will be spectacular someday!

holiday prep

I was predictably unhappy with the holiday stamps this year, again. I should stop complaining and submit my own designs but lord only knows what hoops the government puts artists through!
 That being said, I decided it was time to stop hoarding the postage stamps I've been hanging on to all these years. Buying whole sheets of new issues is a habit I picked up from my mother but I have been very discriminating about what stamps I purchased. Rosalie had a long career in the Post Office and always purchased full sheets of whatever new issues for her "collection" but I think when you stuff things in various drawers and boxes after acquiring it,  it is really called "a hoard". I have no idea what became of all her stamps, probably still in a box in someones attic. I've decided to put mine to work on envelopes to people who will appreciate the gorgeousness.  You know who you are.

I also found where I put the boxes of lovely Christmas cards that I bought so cheaply the week after the holidays last year but one of the older boxes was filled with pictures. That's a typical hoard in my house; boxes and envelopes of prints are everywhere.

Here's Rosie visiting with us not long after we first put in the pool in '98. She loved nothing better than hanging out in the sun at any pool or beach she could find. Her signature scent: Hawaiian Tropic.
Mom reveled in Christmas and now that she's gone there is a hollowness to the holidays.

Also in the same box, a shot of agriculture workers at harvest time in, COLORADO...Yeah. That's were they were, Colorado. Or was it Washington??

B&W ch.3

This is going to take a lot more time and study. There are four independent elements here just pinned together. And to think I was going to make another four or five before beginning this dance!!
I am not feeling what I was looking for when I first set out. It's always a matter of scale.