Loving these pieces myself, but with the recent ennui in the studio, i would rather have someone else enjoy them!
Above, SOLD.
Above, SOLD.
As always at FybreSpace, prices are in Canadian dollars, and extra postage paid will be refunded.
I’ll be firing up the dye pots again also.
Above, original drawing/painting from 2012, below work inspired by the sketch, started in the same year (!!!!):
(these 2 clickable for enlarging)
She still needs a few more stitches, and a name though…… As much as i love her, there’s been something holding me back with her, still undefined.
Playing a bit in photo editing (i use Irfanview, a free program and relatively easy to use), i put her into “negative” and got this lovely indigo surprise:
Now THAT gets my juices flowing. Any juice these days is appreciated. I’m still wavering mightily between giving it all up, and scrabbling searching scraping probing studio and psyche for new work.
This necessitated buying some cheesecloth to supplement the harem cloth. Harem cloth is sheerer than most cottons, but not quite transparent enough to layer as i wanted for colour gradations. And i’m too tired these days to worry about purism, so i’m combining indigo dyed cotton , with some fabrics i dyed with commercial dyes as well. I’m using what i’ve got, in other words. I don’t see a lot of use with natural dyed threads either, by other artists, so ain’t gonna fret it. (Though i do have them in the shop….)
Those ***“commercial”dyes are quite pretty on these soft fabrics, cheesecloth left and top, harem cloth bottom right:
Need a few darker ones, as well as a dark indigo for the base, and then i can start laying out, and (probably 🙂 ) stitching at work.
***“Commercial” dyes in my books are everything from Tintex and Rit, to Procion, Pebeo silk dyes, Jacquard products, and other products that are usually predictable colour-wise for everyone.
I don’t like “copying” myself, figuring work should show evolution, not stagnation, but the more i look at this old photo, the more entranced i am.
Origin: noun
1.something from which anything arises or is derived; source; fountainhead: to follow a stream to its origin.
2.rise or derivation from a particular source: the origin of a word.
3.the first stage of existence; beginning
4.ancestry; parentage; extraction
5.Anatomy a.the point of derivation. b.the more fixed portion of a muscle.
Pick one, pick a couple, but i’m going back. Origin was the “word of the year” for me in 2012, not that it’s something i believe will change anything, but it’s good to remember where your roots as an artist are, and is going to be the Mantra for a good while. I got lost for whatever reason.
I think it was 2 weeks ago that i finally figured out how to get into the Instagram account i opened 5 months ago……. I can only add photos from my phone if i’m home on the household Wi-fi, as my “plan” is a pay as you talk” experience. (I rarely use it except for pictures, texting to work or the Greyman, and for possible emergencies. The alarm feature is well used too, for reminders 🙂 ) (And yes, we still have a landline.) I have learned how to add photos from my computer to the phone camera file, and have successfully posted a couple of photos, and now the ubiquitous hashtag, but am still having problems with sizing, resulting in uploads that have features cut off. WHY can’t Instagram just tell me what the optimum SIZE is in pixels (dpi) instead of the damned “ratio aspect”???????
I did manage also to download a photo edit program to my phone, but really have no clue how i did this:
This is what i *wanted* to have posted:
Same feather, double sided. A bit of fun while i was horridatiously sick this past week. All naturally dyed cotton and wool threads on rusted cotton.
I like Instagram: it’s pretty, it’s bright, it’s got kitties and flowers, embroidery and stylishly styled style ( 😉 ) shots of everything from cushions to jewellry, natural dyes and yarns, lovely illustrations and positive affirmation in the comments. I don’t –or haven’t yet–seen any trolling, politics or nasty agendas, almost like FB was in the beginning of its incarnation. I’m still on FB, though i defriended quite a few as there’s no interaction from them, left a bunch of groups as either repetitive, uninformed or face it, just plain Stupid With a Capital 9, put some on “snooze” as i really have no interest in their dinners or their politics, and am generally keeping my mouth (hoofies) away from the keyboard on certain posts. (“BRILLIANT” in my life/family has always been a SARCASTIC comment, that many don’t get….)
So, i’m just picking my way through the days right now, unsure what will/could/might happen in the studio, and not terribly concerned about it right now. As they say in Calgary “It is what it is.”
Throw it and see if it sticks!
Not much happening by hand, but a lot of “research” has been on the table. I ordered a copy of a very old illustrated anatomy book “De Humani Corporis Fabrica/The Fabric of the Human Body” (much abridged and less annotated, as the actual book reprinted costs $1650US………..) Vesalius didn’t get it all right (dog parts anyone?), but my own copy fits the bill for inspiration. I do still love body parts in my own work 🙂
I found out about this book from an episode of either “Criminal Minds”, or “Cardinal” or something similar! Some serial killer had it on his coffee table…and that’s where i keep most of mine while perusing them 🙂
I also signed a great WHACK of textiles design books out of the library, not how to’s, but histories and pattern bases focusing on yardage. Intriguing how design in this field changes, re-occurs, cycles and reflects.
Since i am now dealing with heart issues (mild to moderate damage, so FIXABLE), i have returned to that part of the ol’ bag of bones, squidgy bits and blood we all wear. Inspired by the “electrical current” of the heart, i’ve also been painting and drawing and note making about this:
A very liberal depiction, but adequate for the task. More accurate below, though of course with science and art, there’s never a way to actually capture electricity naturally moving through a body!
Different treatments:
It may be that none of these specifically will make it to cloth, but that black and red combo is really speaking to me again. (I keep remembering Raggedy Black Heart, and red used to feature quite often in my work, pre hand stitch obsession.) I have huge yardages of both in cotton, and have to venture into the back room to dig them out. I have 11tybajillion ideas, but know i am going to be sidetracked, (have in mind some functional objects as well) and that’s okay. I need to be doing something, and that’s all that counts. Maybe the art is there.
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I had my Thalium heart test yesterday, and am keeping my hoofies crossed that the “mild to moderate damage” is more to the MILD side. I’m also giving a round of gold stars and hero biscuits to the tech who could actually find my vein for the IV without butchering my arm ( my veins really really hide but we discovered Left Arm is more co-operative..), the one who cheered me on at the treadmill and took graciously my blurted “well, fuck you” when she said she’d had *her* morning coffee (i’d had none since 630AM the day before, woe is me), the nuke crew member who got the thalium into the IV without me even noticing (!), and the one running the MRI who chortled when i screeched “WHAT?” when the machine told me to stop breathing. I don’t feel quite “normal” this morning, but given that up to a month after, you have to show paperwork that says what was done to you if you are travelling–don’t want to set off those security checks with radioactivity!—-i don’t feel too bad. The only visible sign of anything happening is the bruises on both arms from the blood pressure bands–kept telling them THAT hurt more than the IV! (Apparently Right Arm is the one that can have the dystolic heard!)
Obviously there are going to be some major life style changes made because of all this. I’m not a sloth, but neither have i been a cheetah!
In several respects…….
I have to have a Thalium test for heart issues. An IV is hooked up and a radioactive isotope is shot into your veins (COLD!!!), and then a Gamma camma camera is used to take pictures of your heart as you exercise, showing where the isotope goes (and *doesn’t* go if there is damage to the heart). The worst part of it all is going to be NO coffee the day before and the day of, and the 6 hours the test takes! In fact, for the last almost 3 months, i have been poked, prodded, had things glued on me, pressed on me, wrapped around me, and still more to come in the next 2 months. (I had another suspected angina attack in December, the 6th in 10 years or so.) As with MOST of us, i took my health for granted for so many years, and now i’m paying a price. (Seriously, get thee hied to a doctor, Darlings: you just never know what’s really going on inside that bag of bones and blood you wear every day.) My mind knows i won’t be glowing, but it also wonders about other effects after! Or maybe i’ll have Secret Super Powers just waiting to be revealed in times of whatever sets off Super Powers. Dinner choices? Cat puke in the middle of the kitchen floor? Violet or cherry for the hair? Puddle jumping because the boots leak? Is that cottage cheese or snot on my shirt? The Gawdz know i don’t have an exciting life.
Above, stuffed heart from “the Artist’s Body” series, 2007.
I’m also “radio active” as in i am maybe going to my old self and my more (from-the-past) intuitive stitching results/projects. In one way that’s been unproductive, as i have still had no serious inclinations to make big work, and in another it’s been great for pieces that are “ideas” in solid form. These might be added to the “component box” and maybe someday they will Become/Be the big work. They could be looked upon as samples and tests, but since i like combining seemingly disparate elements in my work, they could might fit together somehow for a story someday.
Above, “Distancing Herself” 2007.
It’s EXTREMELY hard to get away from “muscle memory” and do/try new things. Most of the little bits i’ve attempted are worked on for a couple of hours, until i realize i’m doing the same thing over and over again, sigh……… As evidenced by the photos above, i’m going way back into my files to see what i can stir up.
Things are taking form during my “self directed workshops”, something i haven’t done in a while, things that may not become Actual Things. Just doing, filling in space and time because my hands can’t stay idle. It keeps my brain busy as well, instead of second guessing or worrying about my future. If it were summer, i’d be out getting dirty in the garden as a break, but not so much in this weather.
I don’t really have work in progress: *i* am the work in progress…..
It’s like cutting nerves.
Part of the journey.
Okay, i have to come clean with myself, at the very least, if not with my (few, faithful) readers. This is not a whine. This is not a pity party. This is not a rant or a snivel. I have my Big Girl Pants on. This is not a depressive cycle (something i have fought all my life, and am thoroughly familiar with, thank you very much), but it IS something cycling.
I AM STUCK. I am STUCK as an ARTIST. I can still craft/make/create/do/stitch, but the Big Important Stuff i am ready to give up on. It’s pretty empty in that department. Shuffling paper, paints and fabrics around has a wad of maybe’s, but not for now. If i could actually DO what i wanted to without all the current self doubt, there would be an explosion of work–but i have no actual flame to blow things up. There is no now right now……………… It’s humiliating, frustrating, loathsome and a horrible terrible no good very bad way to be, but it is what it is.
Hell, it’s not even “stuck”–it’s dead in the water. Maybe it’s just not for me to keep on with the so-called Big Important Stuff. That “Epiphany” was mean —-and truthful. Maybe i need to go waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay back, to when things were still a joy, and i didn’t care about what it all meant in the grand scheme of things. I don’t know if even that is the answer. Don’t care either.
So………you may –or may not–see pretty things, useless things, dumb things in the next who knows how long while. I’m hoping that as a VERY valued friend said to me this very morning, that i “will fly when i catch the next creative jet stream”.
Then again, it might lead back to where i want to be.
Please burn this after reading.
In the annual purge that takes place in January, i found an old “mark making” journal. A period of mixed media and a lot of colour, it was my antidote to living and working in my MIL’s basement, a horrible place and situation in many ways. “Notes from Mother Nature” was made in October of 2008.
My “epiphany” is gelling, if indeed epiphanies do gel. Reflective searching thought, and research has led back to some ideas, but unless i actually start somewhere, nothing will take form. Simple, right? There are many many parts i wish to use again: the studio worktable is a jumble of sketches, fabrics, notes and paper scraps.
So, start small, because small can become big when the sum of the parts become the whole dance.
Friends and i have been planning and hoping to get together for literally months to have a play day! All of us of course have busy lives, but finally on the 27th, we were able to commit all at the same time, to the 29th of January.
Lyn has a wonderful second story studio set up, waaaaaaaaaaay out by the mountains!
With oodles of materials to work with from rose to cherry, sumac and grevillea, onion and maple, marigold flowers, rose petals, turmeric, something like sliced betel nut, privet berries and oak, eucalyptus, osage curlings, well, you name it–if it was scavenged locally, buyable or shared, we had a plethora of materials to choose from. Almost overwhelmingly so! We also shared pre-mordanted fabrics, and lots of discussion and tips about various methods and techniques.
We had a pot of onion skins going for one bath, and a pot of superstrong Lac as well.
I had a difficult time choosing, so i stuck to the “tried and true’s” of maple, oak, grevillea, euc and osage, with experimental hints of privet berry, rose petal, the almost betel nut, amaryllis and rowan. (Note, the privet berries give a nice green dye, but do NOT print at all….) Lyn generously shared a long strip of viscose (?) scarf (commercially dyed, and un-mordanted) that we first soaked in vinegar (NOT A MORDANT, but a modifier/Ph adjuster), and then layered with plant materials, with me adding a strip of previously logwood dyed silk in between. I had gone out for a bit of fresh air at one point and picked some fresh fir, tearing it into little pieces and putting that between the layers, with a bit of euc also.
!!!! When this was wet, we couldn’t decide if there was a definite imprint, thinking perhaps it was just an “embossing” effect as the viscose was thicker than most cottons and silks, but yup, fir and euc did the job and discharged just enough to make it interesting. First photo below, un-pressed, second pressed:
(To see more details, all photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.) Part of the effect i think is that some of the logwood “transferred” to the viscose, as evidenced by the darker colour. Even so, i think i’m going to discharge this whole piece, and try again. I might even add a crocheted or needlelace edging after so i can wear it as a scarf.
And look what it did to the logwood silk!!!
We tried some of the haremcloth as well. Lyn got crisp results, mine not so much, but i think mine was too loose a bundle.
I love this green from the onion bath, very atmospheric and reminding me of an old Arthur Rackham illustration.
Great colour on this one from the lac, but the maple, euc and osage is barely visible, except as a contrasting yellow:
Blah, but i like the string patterning, always my favourite part, and usually strong even on failed pieces:
I wish i had a shot of one of Susan’s pieces–she has used alum acetate with a chalking after (mordanting procedure for cellulose fibres) , something i have pooh-poohed as a step i didn’t “need” to do 🙂 However, it definitely made the colours from the leaves and dyes bond better, with maple leaves showing such incredible detail and colour range that you would believe it had been painted by a VERY skilled artist.
These two pieces are the ones though that really made me SQUEAL.
Above, euc, oak and osage on cotton, with lac. Below, euc, oak and osage on previously logwood dyed cotton, in lac.
Obvious to me is that pre-mordanting properly can make a major difference. Click on the photos to see the full glory 🙂
I still have one bundle cooking right now, as it missed getting into either pot, so maybe another surprise or two.
(And alas i don’t have a lot of in situ shots, or pics of Susan and Lyn’s results–oh some were to die for!!– as i forgot to put the chip in the big camera, and had to use my phone. And most of those were blurry ’cause i was so excited 🙂 )
I do believe i could get excited about ecoprinting again. I’m still in “Epiphany” mode though, so taking more time for reflection and doing, rather than showing and sharing here.
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albedo too 
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