Cats know of places we didn’t *know* are “places”.
Going to follow that lead.
Walking back.
Author: arlee
I am a Canadian textile artist in Calgary, Alberta. As textile artists, we connect and are connected to communities larger than our Selves, or our immediate environs. We encapsulate culture, technique, history and innovation every time we touch cloth.
playtime
A long time ago, i used to play a lot in my studio. That usually resulted in 4 posts a day (!!!!!), because everything was exciting then: textile arts and mixed media were hot in the blog world, as we were all new to the internet and the windows it opened for creativity. There was MORE feedback then: people didn’t just “like” something and then flit to the next page. There were CONVERSATIONS, friendships made, active sharing and promoting of each other, and well, it just wasn’t facebook/instagram preciousness and staging.
I always enjoyed making Little Things, and at the time, it was part of a viable business as well. There were at least a hundred Yule Ghouls that flew out of my BC studio, innumerable really inexpensive wallets, the ubiquitous christmas stockings, penguin ornaments and artsy bags of all sizes. I stopped most of that when i moved to Edmonton in 2003: the market there was completely different, a lot less explorative, a dearth of innovation, and funky individuality was not cared for much…..it was crushing, as an artist and as a small business.
That coloured things for many years. I got rid of a lot of finished product simply by donating it to the Sally Ann, and once in awhile, even in such a large city, see one of the very creative bags i made, slung over someone’s shoulder. But i know they paid peanuts for it, thrift stores generally not in the biz of charging shitloadarmandleg prices, and so won’t make them again AS part of the bread and butter part of my studio. I also didn’t see the sense of having PILES and BOXES full of Things that wouldn’t see the light of day again.
BUT, i am involved with Contextural again, and there is a Christmas Sale, so let’s just think about that. Stocking up, protyping, testing, MAKING.
Anyways, blah blahdy blah. I made a pile yesterday of recent naturally dyed linens (my new favourite fabric):
I admit to just sitting and staring at it, inspired by the colours and the feel, but not sure where to go. Then i espied an unfinished project and what the heck. I gots lots of those 🙂 Combine!!!! I’m “Goin’ Minoan”, ha.
It’s a start.
meeting a deadline that isn’t there anymore
Well, poop. No surprise though that the exhibit space for Contextural’s upcoming show is closed due to “the Covid”. I had asked the first of March, and yup, the morning of the 17th brought an email that it’s not going to happen. Contextural’s summer residencies have been cancelled for the same reason at AUArts, something that isn’t affecting me however. I did 6 of them myself from 2009-2016, but when the price jumped so high, had to call it a day. That’s why i do ‘self directed workshops” now 🙂 (And i think it’s time for another one, with the recent “isolation” tactic.) I am hoping however that a workshop i signed up for in Edmonton in May will go ahead, through another “group”!!
BUT. This doesn’t mean i’m calling it quits. I still want to finish this piece, and i will, and goal setting, *by* the original deadline. That’s in 12 days, and i *will* do it. Who knows what will happen in 12 days? And technically, we’re just postponed, not cancelled. All written on the 20th, so not as close to completion as i’d like BUT I WILL DO MY DAMNEDEST.
I have to admit too that the current climate with all the closings, people staying home, and online foofarah, that a possibly developing case of agoraphobia may be okay FOR NOW. That started *before* the Covid pandemic happening. I’m having a VERY hard time going outside the house, can’t explain it, not going to, and will deal with it, but in the meantime, i may as well make the dirty bugger work and pay its keep! (That Edmonton workshop is something i REALLY want, so hoofies crossed i can deal with the hidinginthecloset thing….)
I’m also staying off FB, except for the FybreSpace page, because i am exhausted by the constant bombardment of willfully ignorant fiction, plain old lies, magical thinking and profiteering. I KNOW what i’m supposed to do as a responsible citizen/human being, will get my updates from reliable government sites and credible news sources, and hive in to protect myself and my Greyman.
In the meantime, i pulled out old bags of dried plant materials, rightly figuring that i might as well use them. My scant bag of saved onion skins gave me these, not bad for the amount:
I had expected more orangey colours, and deeper, but 2 handfuls of skin ain’t a lot of colourant. Even so, i find it a very soothing palette of texture and faint peachy tones.
Then i used half of my dried silver dollar eucalyptus:
I adore that velvet! If i were a teddy bear maker, i’d probably use it for that!
The bits of cotton eyelet are slated for a project, a colour record i’m thinking of.
So, we go on, things different but not, life changing but not in the end very earth shattering really. There will be financial adjustments of course, but most of us could benefit from that lesson anyways. Hopefully, a lot of us will refine what we know, learn some new skills, calm down and carry on.
“Loneliness is the poverty of self; solitude is richness of self.” May Sarton
“Intersections” progress
As much as i loved the squishy ruchy velvet moon in the previous post, it just wouldn’t “do” for this piece. Here’s its sub, muchly better, fitting, integrated, suitable. Nothing wrong with standing out, but not when it’s not part of the story.
As of today, i have 18 days left. Yup, no problems.
embroiderer overboard!
I had grand plans for this moon as being part of the “deadline piece” but it just *doesn’t* fit with the whole! It’s too heavy and powerful juxtaposed with the more delicate stitching on the main piece. I’ve set it aside temporarily, and it will become something else when the one i’m working on is done!
My stitchin’ fingers hurt like hell too, a lot of manipulation work here, and pulling loaded needles through the mass was cursey to say the least 🙂
Nope. At least i revived some old skills and ideas though!
progress is as progress does….
No worries on the deadline then, unless i hit a snag unexpectedly.
Today i’ll be concentrating on the moon.
24 days left.
deadline, schmeadline, back to stitching
Since i so rudely interrupted myself with all the thread dyeing, i now have (counting today) 25 days to finish a piece for a group show. But i *did* need those threads as the tub was emptying!
Looking rather a bit strange, but that’s how they start sometimes.
I had started with this sketch as the inspiration, but knew along the way that it would interpret itself for a new piece.
I’d also chosen that fabric behind, but realized it had spandex in the blend, which is sticky about needles and threads pulled through….
So, it became glorious pile of this:
TOO MUCH!!!!
It morphed smaller:
I tried to stare it down every time i walked by it, didn’t really like it, and it was saying nothing. Pretty but nothing.
Yesterday i took it down to the Dye Dungeon (where my studio is), and cut a piece out of it, then pieced back in some madder/marigold dyed linen. It’s started to sing now.
There may be a bit more radio silence here than normal, as i meet that pesky deadline.
two and a half weeks of rainbow
I ♥♥♥ variegated threads. I used a lot of commercially dyed ones with earlier work ( pre 2017) but when i switched completely to using naturally dyed, there was a dearth of them available anywhere, and i was petrified at the thought of doing threads! I have since refined my use and skill level of natural dyes, and while i had successfully dyed solids, i hadn’t really thought about variegating any, beyond the simple step of post modifying dipped areas.
Last week i had shown photos to an acquaintance who waxed so eloquently rhapsodic about the colour breaks in these little leaves:
They aren’t variegated threads however; they were “orts” (scraps, ends) of naturally dyed solids that i couldn’t bear to throw away. Just as i have found a use for one inch squares of naturally dyed velvet, so too do i save bits of thread that are at least 3″ long!
But i started thinking about this. Much of my work is finely detailed and there is no way to get such tiny breaks of colour, unless one becomes really neurotic about the method. (Yeah, yeah, i know: some many a few think i AM neurotic but i ain’t that much…) But, never say never. While i will not attempt breaks of 1/2″, i can do 1″. Some of the colour combos too are practically impossible: i’ll never get a half inch of green on a predominantly pink, purple, blue thread, but i can get close in each colourway. And then use 3″ long bits, NARF.
So, for the past two and a half weeks, i have been working with thread instead of fabric, playing and testing, using different combos of 4 dyes (madder, osage, cochineal –that old moldy one STILL!–and indigo) and overdyes, post modifiers and timing and got these results:
The above are two colour breaks, pretty basic, but lovely nonetheless. Obviously, indigo over anything makes magic 🙂
And a mix of the 2 colour variegateds and solids from this work, thrilling to say only 3 dyes, and some indigo :)!
I dyed many of these in larger skeins so i can divvy them up, some for me, and *some* of these for the shop, in 10 yard lengths. All are cotton, except for the three in top photo, the bright red, bright yellow and salmon, towards the right of the photo.
Next i’ll be trying 3 colour skeins and continuing this way, i’m hoping to get to 5 colour breaks, something that my tired brain actually has to draw out to figure the correct sequences.
One thing that made me really happy was that i finally got a lavender/lilac/wisteria/whateverflavour you call it in your palette (centre of bottom photo). This one is NOT going to be anything but what it is, no modifying, no other colour additions. (Until the next time.) Again, from the moldy old cochineal. I’m not saying the mold had anything to do with it, just that there is no reason to waste a dye because it’s gone off, looks funny, or is fuzzy. Yeah, if it was completely foosty, but not as a surface deal 🙂 Obviously, if this happens to you, do some tests first with a small amount, don’t just take my word for it. *Your* mileage vary vary greatly.
I must now get back to a piece that is slated for a show, due March 31st–hurry, hurry, hurry hard!!
Caliente! Picoso! Candente!
Very very happy with latest thread colours, a mix of old moldy cochineal (yup, really, astounding colours), madder, osage, marigold, combinations of, and various post modifiers, all 100% cotton.
The linen was sunny too! Osage over marigold (Only because the marigold was weak. So weak in fact, that it fainted on the way to the dyebath. Dyeing yellow over yellow for any reason still gives you only yellow 🙂 ), and over madder.
The full Panoply of Sweet Pepper Power:
If you click on the photo below, you can see all the lovely nuances in these lavender ash and grape skeins. YUM.
And i’m hoping when this velvet below is dry, that’s as beautiful as i think it’s going to be!
I have two sets of some of the threads in the shop too 🙂 Edit: one set left!
plugged back in, part time
I’ve been reveling in the colours achieved, now that i “know the waters” here 🙂
(All the purples, greens and reds have already gone to a great home.)
I’m working on a new batch of threads, in various weights and plies, as i am running low myself, and would like to offer them again in the shop.
I rejoined a local fibre group, one that while i really enjoyed on an artistic and intellectual level, felt i never personally “fit” in. To hell with that mind set, i am what i am, and if they look at me like i have a third nostril, so be it. If all goes well, i’ll be joining the group show in April (appropriately, themed “to evoke a sense of community, place-making, inclusivity and intention”) with this from 2011 as a starting point:
HA. Or so i thought. This is the ONE piece i can’t find in ANY box of UFO’s, bits, nada, nuttin’ zip, zero, zilch. I *know* i didn’t throw it out during the move because i still see the potential it has–and yes, i really did toss some unfinished pieces in the trash, because i knew i would NEVER finish them, but this decidedly was not one of them.
SO. The deadline for this show is March 31st. Of course it is, because if i could find the above piece, i’d have somehow been working for a show with a further away deadline. You now how it goes 🙂 (That’s called Magical Thinking.) Because i have to start from scratch, i have 50 days to get cracking, and finish. And there’s no guarantee i will get in either, so it could just be an exercise in time management….
This is my base fabric:
See the face?
This is the sketch i’m working from (OLD and used in many ways since it’s inception in 2014):
These are my colours:
I may switch out the peachy toned one for a duller yellow, a rhubarb root dyed piece.
I know too that the pieces i have of these are not all long enough, so will have to re-invent the wheel maybe to get the effect i need.
It’s also going to be a good while until i can show you the “finally” set up studio–we have to re-drywall, move electrical boxes and lights, paint, and figure out storage configuration, so suffice it to say, i have enough room to work, but have to still move piles, or dig to find things. It’s been a lesson in “clean up as you go, and organize as you store”!
albedo too 
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