IF you count that corner of the table where the pocket lies with a pencil on top of it…….
I’m HYPER neat and organized at the Day Job, but it never seems to carry over to the home studio.
I categorized this post as “Deliberation–do something you don’t do–or haven’t in awhile”, because obviously, cleaning this up hasn’t happened “in awhile”…….
For a couple of years now, i’ve had an idea in my head for a special garment, after seeing something in a trendy boutique window that fired some desire for a similar “Objay Dart” (aka Objet d’art). It was in reds, all patchy and flowing, bohemian though unadorned with any embellishments, simply cut and extremely Spendy. I filed the idea away, as i haven’t made even a pair of pyjama pants in the last 7 years.
But what’s this? There seems to be a plethora of chunks of fabric, all dyed recently, in the madder summer experiment pot. And threads in various shades as well. EUREKA.
I do have more fabrics, but have to dig through some serious piles first! I’m picking up a package from Maiwa today too, which includes more madder, because even though i intend to use up the 33 year old madder currently in the pot, and the tons still left in that bag, i think the best red was from Maiwa. Two madder pots then!
I used to make wearable art, even had a moderately successful small business for 6 years, selling through local boutiques and “Craft fairs”, so i’m experienced enough a designer and construction-ist (i hate the word seamstress…), that i know the cut of this is going to be important. Cotton, at least most of the cotton i have, is not terribly drapey. They’re not stiff slices either, but with not a lot of movement in them, the design has to accommodate that fact and the silk additions, which are drapey. I might go on the bias with some of them though, as that helps a bit with flow.
I could of course just draft my own design, but i pulled out my only Tina Givens pattern, and had a look at that.
Hmm, slip “too” biasy, pants too much fabric. The crop top however might work, but i may forgo the ruffled detail at the bottom, and just lengthen it a bit. Actually, there could be enough silk to do the slip too! OOOOO, wouldn’t that be decandenty-bohemianish-artful-artistry-Artist-y? I tend to live in either leggings and a shirt for work and out-and-about, and a tank and pyjama pants at home! My body has settled into a 60 year old shape (though a “few” pounds could be lost) and i really don’t care to “dress to impress” anyone anymore, but it’s always nice to have something for “good” 🙂
So, though i may have chunks of fabric, and hanks of thread to share in the shop, depending on amounts and time, i will also have something to really show what i’ve been up to. It’s not a daunting project either, as i have no deadline, no rules to follow, and no one to account to. I can do whatever treatment i like to the “patches”, take my time with those as well, enjoy the process (and maybe make learn new skills or at least, new applications of older skills), and go easier on myself in my studio. Perhaps the Muse will return somewhere along the line here, and if not, well, i’ll have some new duds at the least.
***EDIT: For those of us with that 60 year old body, you might want to read this review, with its tips. (Please be aware though that the writer of the post, Lorraine from Calgary, has passed on since…i sure would have liked to have met her in person.)
I think that’s the final “name” too for this piece. As i’ve worked it again in the past 2 weeks, it’s freed up a lot of thought processes and worries i’ve had, and some major decisions were made.
I found a few spots where the initial stitching wasn’t completed either. Sometimes it’s hard to see the trees for the forest, or the forest for the trees — i’m never sure which makes more (non)sense! I figure this will be done by the end of the month, and i might just dig through the UFO pile to see what else has been holding *it’s* breath for finishing!
I’m also going to be combining some media–not glued and recycled bits of paper, metal, cloth, gumwrappers, tea bags and whatever else can be recycled from the Nasty GarBahj, but more in form and for use. If i’m bored with what i’ve been doing, i might as well try either some new things, or go back to some old things!
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.”
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…..
Just stitching. Red scrap salvaged from student scrap box at ACAD. I even left the dart in 🙂
For the need of it.
New wallet!
For the sake of it. Naturally dyed threads:
For the potential, new work component:
All she will have is the honeycombs, i think.
For the nostalgia, old project picked up again (“A Stone’s Throw from the Midnight Lake”), stitching started 2009:
hand and centre ripped out in 2012, going to rip out the heavy leaves at bottom right as well, and the beads in the centre:
Started with embroidery again this past week. And yup, i’m hiding the machined lines with hand embroidery, not that i think it’s bad or not valid, just because i can, and like the heavier/more textural look with hand embroidery. Mixing naturally dyed with the commercially dyed as well, ’cause colour is colour. (And what a ridiculous time frame for such a small piece…. 15.5×23.5″)
I’m thinking an indigo moon might work in that centre? A face? A tree? Mmmm, tree.
For the possibility, new work, sample, done enough to think about:
Idea to be incorporated in piece with the lace figure.
For the practice, keeping the hand in.
~~~~~~~~~~
It’s that Magical Thinking time of the year again. We don’t worry about it, each day, each year much the same (safe, warm, employed, happily married and parenting animals, no drama), but if that turn of a calendar page does something for you, enjoy it. See ya on the flip side.
I don’t think i’ve given my studio a good deep clean for more than a year, and certainly some drawers haven’t been touched, or even opened (!) in longer! When the space is so bad you can’t bear to go in there,and don’t want to work on *anything*, in face feel like just giving up period, it’s time for a purge.
Hauled out 2 bags of actual garbage, picked through said drawers and sorted, tossed and “refiled” a few “projects” that went totally out of sight out of mind. Moved the serger and extra sewing machine to the basement, along with the huge plastic bag of plastic bags stored in plastic bags (apparently i have a secret fetish for them…), paints which i rarely use anymore (after sorting the dried up ones out), stuffing materials, and assorted cosmic debris.
My extra chair has room for a person now, instead of piles of books, cloth and EMPTY storage containers. The books are all put away, but easily accessible, the threads are back in their colour drawers, and the dyeable cloth is in one three Rubbermaids, and the dyes are all in one spot along with their tools, bottles, instructions and adjuncts. I have a floor again! And worktable space!
I found some things i haven’t Seen in a long time: a baby bootie pattern i thought i lost 16 years ago (they were ADORABLE, and i may make more), a sheer curtain i was beading with dragonflies (obviously lost the other matching but unstarted one) which needs only ONE wing to finish, and a blanket “fling” i’d really like to complete as well.
All this was because A. the owner of “Tabula Memoria” will be picking up the work in September, B. because i got tired of tripping and sliding on things (think minefield, not obstacle course) C. i could rarely find what i had in mind, and when i did i had no room or gumption to work on it.
And D. i bought new dyes and i want to be able to use them! Because i had a Lightbulb moment at the beginning of the week: get into the ACAD bookstore *before* res ends. They don’t just sell books, but all the art supplies students need for their wonderfully varied programs. And i don’t have to pay for shipping!
I bought Osage, Logwood and Cochineal, having never worked with the first two, and only minimally with the third. I decided to go the true route, and suss out the real deal from both Maiwa, and Jenny Dean’s books.
I’m realizing too that haste makes waste. I’m sure that stubbornly doing things my way was the reason that my madder dyeing has been less than stellar! Instead of using proper WOF dye material to fabric, i have wasted a LOT of dye materials, thinking there was “enough” being used, and then throwing it out because it gets moldy as i get discouraged and ignore it………………READ THE INSTRUCTIONS: just because the dye bath *looks* rich with colour, doesn’t mean it is.
The logwood and the osage are now soaking, and tomorrow i hope to start dyeing cloth with them. YUM.
A real learning curve! I tried several years ago to do a Blurb book, but got so bogged down that it’s still sidelined.
However, i’m older and smarter now :), and have more patience and persistence, so i go i go i go–for hours, working on the accompanying journal for “Tabula Memoria”.
I knew from the beginning of this project that i didn’t want to send off a haphazard accumulation of the writing, sketches and samples i did as i went along, that it had to be something that would last, possibly be passed on (to “heirs”?), and that looked professional. From the start of this to the end, i kept a separate file for the physical work (said writing, sketches, samples) and a digital one with folders and sub folders (and sub sub folders….!), planning somehow to collate and correlate at the end.
Once you learn the program, it *is* easy. The hard part is picking and choosing what truly is relevant, deciding what should be featured and what is less “interesting”, writing coherently and in a timeframe sense for each photo, and then deciding how many pages really are needed.
From the initial query from Mr X, to the first concept scribblings, through process and progress, thoughts, changes, references and honestly some blah-blah, i’m up to 45 pages, with only a few left to do. You have to know when to stop too! There could always be another book for the “extras”, incorporated for a “how to” maybe…..
And maybe, just maybe, i’ll finish that first one, because there are others i’d like to do too.
Sweating bullets when it was done.
You can see how much the figure disintegrates as memory changes, diminishes and fades. But would it survive, maintain its integrity after being removed and transferred to the actual background?
Yes.
I’ll mop up the bullets, and move on confidently to the other figure now.
Day three, when ever that was (i’m losing track of what day i worked on what piece for this commission):
Added a bit more shading as well. Though i don’t want the figures to stand out too much once they’ve been applied to the background, i want them to integrate a bit more as well. That slight purple addition references some of the shades of brazilwood on the main cloth.
Day whatever, but as of March 14th:
The left panel is within two hours of being done, at least the hex memory part……
albedo too 
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