A simple shape, unadorned, plain, unassuming, no clear path, unstoried.
Just a start. Some desire the fade into the background, don’t want attention on a personal level, but imperfect circling, coiled spring, comforting ensphere goes round and round only, nowhere. Just an end. Ouroborous unbound, the ultimate allegory.
And now i need to fast forward all the way to Aug 28th, as that’s a deadline for another Contextural exhibit!
That gives me 26 days–i have ideas, and i have a plan, so best get on with it. I’m looking at this again, the sketchpainting that inspired “Ebb and Flow” (2014):
I still have this piece that was originally stitched for the Leighton exhibit. Not used, it could be incorporated into the new work.
First though, i have to clear the decks!
And yesterday we “decompressed” again at Horseshoe Canyon, near Drumheller. That’s the best kind of “pause”.
We’ve never seen the bottom of this geological wonder so green and bloomy!!!!!
Greyman brought his drone, but it was a bit windy as he had to keep rescuing it 🙂
And Nessie, the DogFaced Girl, dogged at her best.
My lovely cards arrived today, and i am THRILLED with them! Available in the shop, and in a couple of days at my Day Job also 🙂
I’ve chosen Mother’s Heart, Leighton Suite Blue: Lady, Flower Moon (also from the Leighton Suite Blue), Alberta Wild Rose and a detail of Strange Soul Take Flight. On the back is a clip from “What Is Never Said After”. Spanning the last three years, i’m proud of these original art works.
Can’t make up my mind!
Did some tests yesterday with some of the tansy and solidago in a leftover madder pot. Meh. Top is cotton, bottom silk, and the thread is cotton—though i do like the thread.
My old method did not work well with the ecoprint though:
The cotinus barely made an impression on the previously ice dyed (Procion) silk.
The cottons were a bit better in the baths (tansy/solidago/madder bath):
and the other side:
Just tansy:
Perhaps if i used the method i developed on my own, i might have got better results. (No, i am not sharing that because as a friend says “every dyer has her own secrets.”)
I’m getting to the point with ecoprinting of giving up, quite frankly. There honestly are many who are doing a much better pushing of the technique (witness Irit Dulman’s incredible work and teaching), and i can’t afford to take a class with her, mostly because of the distances away. I’ll keep the process in the arsenal, as there are certain results i can predict, and use in my own work, but the days are gone of pots bubbling for weeks on end with reams and yards of fabric coming out. I also do still love the natural dye colours, so will continue with that: any colour addition, whether natural or “synthetic” pleases me, as it returns me to the days of “making potions” as a child. As my mother says “fabric is fabric”, no matter whether it came new or from old curtains, so colour is colour!
I’m still in a rut with the making though. Lots of ideas, little inclination to spend the time bringing them to fruition, too much thinking “it’s been done before”, and little desire to keep doing the same thing over and over. The rest of the summer will be spent just f*****g around in the stoodio, with no real plan. I need to give myself a break, overly ambitious overachiever that i am.
It’s been so hot and humid here, i’ve had to do my current ice dyeing in the basement! I did learn a lesson as well: silk just doesn’t give me the same satisfaction with colour breaking and pattern dispersion. Oh well, will just stencil or work more colour into this some other way. Though originally intended for some scarves, i think this one will become a flowy summer top for me.
The cotton “drop/sop cloth” under is lovely, destined to be a cushion cover.
I finally convinced my boss that it would be in her interest too, if she carried some of my “bread and butter” products–though i did have to explain that phrase as it doesn’t translate well into Farsi 🙂
I’ve also added a few more of the “res fabrics” to the shop, and thank you very much for looking and your support!
I’m also planning these again–the Hippie Chick Packs are now an annual summer offering!
Some of the residency fabrics are now listed! They are cured, washed and pressed, have been sorted by living with them for a couple of weeks and i am ready to share the wealth 🙂
There are more in the shop than these samples indicate!
I’m venturing back into the world of printed products–with all the new sites and capabilities why not? I tried printed jewellry in the early 2000’s: DUD. Printed mugs 2013:DUD. Printed clothing 2014: DUD. So what the heck, one more try? Cards? Cheap for the budget minded, unless you’re already downloading someone else’s designs and printing them at home 😦 (Hey, i caught someone doing this with one of my fabric designs from ecoprinting!!!)
Right now, i have 2 designs at Zazzle, but in August, you will be able to order directly from Moi, through the shop, and locally in shops (and hopefully galleries too). The photo below shows 5 SEPARATE designs, with the sixth image being the back of the card. Inside will be blank, so you can customize your own message. You can buy singly, or in multiples, and they don’t have to be all the same design.
Suitable for framing as well!
Well, it is. Pretty even, not my usual thing, but maybe that’s the point.
Start with the known and somewhere deliberately fall off the path. This thing will get bastardized within an inch of its life in the future.
We’ve been off work this past week, a holiday, though we didn’t get as far or do as much as we had hoped to. A day trip to Waterton Park way down by the border was a good de-compression though. I just couldn’t do justice with the camera to the MILLIONS AND MILLIONS AND MILLIONS of flowers in bloom–i’ve never ever seen so much blooming beauty in all my days! There’s an old home movie with the three year old self exclaiming “but where are all the flowers?????” Every story book i’d ever read had pictures of woods covered in colour and form, and the real thing was quite disappointing 🙂 (Never mind that it was autumn with red and gold leaves, when everything is going to sleep 🙂 ) This latest experience was a payback, or a pay forward? for that 3 year old though! Imagine meadows, roadsides, forest floors and mountain sides covered, and i mean COVERED in purple, pink, yellow, white, blue, orange and red, coral and peach, lime and emerald in every form and hue, in every texture and shape, and OH what a glorious feast for the eyes.
I’m still kind of stuck with actually settling on anything of any import, but heck, just get on with something then. Often the doing will inspire other ideas or get the blood and imagination going and flowing, so why not? 
I’ve been switching between weights and types of thread for this, as is my wont, from finer 12 wt to a thicker #5 perle in shades of violet and browns, changing the scale of stitch and motif, hoping to make her come alive. I tried the working of the second eye upside down, and it did seem to work! Her “hair flower” will have more of that lovely wormy jellyfish stitching, but in greys to add more depth.
And now i’m seeing more flowers, floral do-eys on/with her. I’m not about to go all gaga with them though–as much as i’m a flower girl in my garden and day job, there must be a balance of personality on this as well. She will be what she will be in the end.
albedo too 
My garden for the second year in a row is holding its breath–a kind of regrouping, a rest, making sure those roots are deep, the buds turning the right way, and then surely waiting for the sky to blue deeply. Even though i’m a flowergirl by day at work, flowers, plants, roots have been on my mind much more than normal this summer. Time to plant another garden, one in my thoughts and growing from my fingers, deeper soil.
Since the flood in 2013, roots have been prevalent in my work.
I think of how roots not only let things grow, but anchor, delve deep into layers and layers, pierce stone, search water, search earth, seeking nurture and permanency.
Every time we go to the mountains, my eyes find the seekers, the holders of place and time. Taken at Red Rock Canyon in Waterton Park last week, these visible reminders show me the dominion of tenacity, the innate desire and need of solid ground to moor so growth, flowering and seeding can happen.
Roots are veins as well, and tendons, supports, carriers of blood, droghers bearing impulse, explorers of new territory, guardians and defenders of old ground.
There are always cuttings on my windowsills with fine filaments waiting for soil.
I’ve been struggling, seriously doubting, second guessing, sabotaging and burying things the last month or two. Despite a good life, a decent job, and people and animals who love me, i’ve been fighting the Black Dog again. *That* root is unfortunately very strong, going to my bedrock. I’d like to bury that damn dog far below the surface, fossilize it, break it into small parts that will feed new growth, root new stock. Go back to origin. Go to ground. Till over and start again. Make it disappear but for a few fragments of coal.
Or diamonds, should i be so lucky.
I can’t not make, as presently hard as either approbation is.