Of ice and women

I fell on my keister tonight, coming in the back door. While I like having the snow I really don't enjoy falling face first on the concrete!

I finally got the webcam moved to my wet studio, my friend Brenda - yes I actually have friends - helped me through the fine tuning, she was at home viewing the studio. I went out and bought grey felt, hence the reason I fell on the ice, so that the glare would be reduced. Eventhough I tried painting the white canvas on my screen printing table, with a wash, it was still too bright. You couldn't see the white fabric that was laying on the white canvas.

Normally I could care less about this, but from a video taping perspective this was a major problem. So now the problem has been solved. Or I should say challenge not problem.

Got Snow?

We do! The weather forcast was for an inch to three inches, we have six so far and it's still snowing!

Cigar box as storage

If you purchase a cigar box that is less than pretty I suggest gluing some pretty papers onto the box. Paint will cure a lot of woes as well. I didn't paint my box, I liked to color of the wood, I did however, tear out the cigar brand label and then proceeded to glue pieces of nice inexpensive papers. I have old vinatge buttons and ric rac I plan to glue to my box. My water color crayons will live in this box, I have a couple of brands, Caran d' Ache being my favorites.

Critique This Again

Actually the fact that my use of lines and that the dots seem to drop off the piece bother you works for me. I have to ask "why" does it bother you?

The fact that is bothers people got me thinking and jogged my memory on where I was going. Perception, memory and perception. I'm working on a series of 2D and 3D pieces for a body of work. Memory of land, memory of the women who came before me, the sacredness and solitude of barren places. Memory and perception of memories, how do we percieve the past? Things we've seen, places we've been, events that have happened, all personal here. How do they get distorted by time and distance?

The lichen encrusted fence posts were topped with cowboy boots of a teenager that died, he was the farmers only child, killed on about his 18th birthday but still in high school. The boots were this kids favorite possession, btw it was one of those weird vehicular accidents where a semi fell off a bridge onto the interstate below. The parents, the mother actually, dealt with her grief by putting the son's boots on the fence posts of the land he would have soon inherited, as they are nearing retirement now. The boots now have lichens growiing on them, many of the feet are gone, but the shaft part is still attached to the post, bound to the post with bindweed and morning glories. Hmmmmmm ok another idea. A life cut short? New life - lichens - memory, or the perception there of.

Indigo Vats and Studio Sinks

Ok so my sink really isn't supposed to be blue, I just get lazy sometimes and I dye a lot of fabric with indigo so it has a tendency towards the blue range.

The salad spinner is sitting on the instant indigo vat. The bucket to the far right is the fermentation indigo vat, which the tank heater is plugged in on the wall up behind the stove.

I'll try to get a better picture of my set up later the digital camera needs charging, I really need another set of batteries for this creature. But I have racks above the sink for storing stuff, and yes it's a mess.

Silk Crepe de Chine, crinkle fabric, dyed in an fermentation indigo vat. 

Indigo - Fermentation Vat, Silk Crinkle Crepe de Chine fabric. It didn't look like much, the color should have been greener, but yet I was greatly suprised by a beautiful pale bright blue. 

Indigo Dyed Fabrics, the paler pieces are from my fermentation vat, the darker piece is from the instant Indigo vat. 

This is what my sink IS supposed to look like. I have a couple of stubborn areas that need extra scrubbing. FYI I removed the crud with good ole baking soda. It makes quick work of indigo, which is why the sink was blue. The salad spinner is for spinning moisture out of fleece, ribbons, and yarns. 

Critquem This

Ok Critique: Click on the word "critique" above and you will be taken to the enlarged image of the quilts below. They are shown side by side, before and after shots, the before shot is on the right hand side.

It doesn't help that so much time has elapsed since I started this piece, and that I am continously interrupted, so much so that I forgot what I was saying. The sad part is I journal about every piece I make, either before, during, or after, and this one I failed to do so! I may have some odd notes about it someplace. As ususal it's a Prairie piece, and I think I was looking at old lichen covered fence posts when I started the work.

The piece that is about 12" wide by 49 inches long.

The fabrics and the embellishments have all been dyed with natural dyes. The bottom coppery fabric has been compost dyed. It's all machine stitched and the red peices are tied on, using waxed cotton thread, by hand.

There are sew puckers/pleats in the fabric and this is
intentional. I did the sewn puckering before I added batting and
backing fabrics.

The piece has started to nag me, it's bothering me in my sleep,
therefore I think it's time to finish it and move on to the next pieces

Here's a before and after comparison, the before shot on the right. It looks better but needs more work now. I need to carry the blue into the bottom portion, and the red into the top portion some how. 

My other bead collection. I went to the local bead shop, risking smelling like pachulie for the rest of the day, so I could get some findings for my turquoise necklace, the piece at the top. The leather has become worn and brittle, needing replacement. While there I had the owner fix the head pin on the stone to the left. I tried three times last night, and broke three head pins in a row. I finally concluded that I don't do this enough to know what I'm doing! She, the shop owner, created the loop on the headpin for free, it helped that I was buying findings. Needless to say I had to wipe the drool off of my stones when she was done fondling them. 

Glass Beads. If I were to admit one thing about my self it is this, I am a thrift store junkie! I bought these glass and wood beads today, I thought it was a bracelet actually, for a whole $1.06!!! I have plans to make them into a bracelet. I like to colors of the glass beads the best. I can only wonder what they were hanging from before. 

Drought and Garden

While I should be resting I decided to go work in the yard this afternoon. It is dry here, really really dry. Seems that everyone to the north and west of us are getting rain and or snow but not us! So hubby and I raked up all of the dead and dry stuff from around the house, we have about half the job done.

We live on a very busy street, on the way to the grocery store, and people like to toss their cigerrette butts out their windows, I know this because I find lots of them, of all brands and sizes, in my front yard. And I really don't want my house burning down because some jerk doesn't have the decency to use the ashtray that came with their vehicle!

The up side to having done this is I can see that my flowers are coming up, and I have lots of them. We need to get our fences up to keep the rabbits from eating all of the Iris, Tulips, Hyacinths, and Jonquils. My Coral Bells survived the winter, as did my Black Hollyhocks. I am not sure what happened to my Hens and Chicks, but I'm thinking they may need thinning and transplating. I'm hoping, later in April or May, to transplant my Hosta's from the backyard to the frontyard. Then we can fence in the backyard for the sheltie, giving her some room to run, and she needs it.

Next weekend, if the weather is nice like today, I will have dh repair the grape arbor, which is a glorified 1 x 6 nailed to 4 x 4 posts. One of the posts has rotted off at grass level and needs to be replaced. I trimmed the grapevines back, and hard, way back in January or so. And we will tackle the blackberry bushes, that I"m now starting to regret having bought and planted. I wish I would have bought more grapevines instead. I may be feeling like this about the Jerusalem Artichoke I planted last year as well.

Aunt Sondra

Hey Sondra, as I know you'll read my blog I got the message last night.

My aunt lives in Springfield Illinois, where the tornado hit last Sunday, she went several days without power and wasn't ever really able to get out of her little cul de sac due to all of the trees and big power poles that were down. She's now staying with her daughter, which is good we won't have to worry about her freezing to death now!

Life Columns I in progress still, I know why I waited to put the rest of the red dots on, they were quite difficult to tie. 

The bottom of Life Columns I. Now I know why I have been putting off putting the rest of the red pieces onto the quilt. The hand tyeing takes forever!!! 

Old Works New Ideas

I'm a thinker. When it comes to my work I'm very process oriented, I have about 85% of the work done in my head before I ever touch a piece of fabric. Also I find that it I work best, on a piece, if I think about it while working on other pieces, less I overwork the piece I'm currently working on. Hence I tend to have 5 or more pieces going at once.

I actually work better this way. My work is of higher quality, and I produce more of it if I'm not fixated on it at the time of execution. Usually when someone interrupts me and starts asking me questions I start to overthink the situation and that's when the grand mistakes begin. My husband noticed this about two weeks ago when I was painting some images of buffalo. He started talking to me and I started screwing up. Now he stays out of the studio if I have brush or needle in hand. Need I say that the piece I ruined was a personal favorite of his so now he really understands.

I'm journaling again, I have found that coloring the pages has an interesting affect on me, if it's colored I can't write anything bad on the page. An interesting phenomenon to say the least. I've also started glueing things into my journal, some things obviously won't work as they are 3-D but I can draw their likeness and put that on the journal pages instead.

Well I'm off, though I'm still suppsed to be on bedrest, with my feet elevated no less, I have tons of work to get done that won't wait for the fat lady to sing.

Detail of the last piece, the lighting is bad in my studio today and I did not feel like putting up the lights. It needs more embellishment. I have an idea for something more to be added to this piece, I just haven't resolved the execution yet.  

Again, months later I'm still staring at this piece as well. I know what it needs but yet can't seem to bring myself to drag out all of the beads and such and continue stitching.