Category: in progress

Posted in in progress, Madder, Natural Dyes, The Summer of Madder (Study)

while the water’s away, arlee will stitch play….

Posted on by arlee

Some idiot at the major BRT construction site last night hit the water main feeder that supplies our two blocks. We’ve had no water since 7PM last evening, and nothing was done until about 10 this morning, because of course first priority was a fight between the city and the construction company about who was responsible for fixing it. ASSHATS. An emergency water services thingie showed up sometime in the night, and we have to lug big bottles in to flush, wash and water the animals. No word either as to when it will actually be DONE. Better i suppose than having to lug a bucket down to the river——which is impossible at the moment anyways, as the riverbank is unreachable now due to the construction of a new bus bridge and remediation of the banks after the 2013 flood………………..probably a good thing also because i have a hard time keeping a DogFaced Girl on a leash out of the river and balancing a bucket on my head at the same time. Things slosh.

SIGH. So, dyeing requires water. Ain’t got none. Pause in the dyeing escapades then, perhaps a good thing, as i am capable of other things in the studio.

I pulled out the threads again, and have almost finished the first section of the garment for the Summer of Madder (Study) project.

I have a few leaves left to do, a bit on the yellow strip, and have decided that the big floaty roses that worked as big floaty roses on the pocket, need to be “grounded” on this section.

I love these little figures!

Posted in a collusion of ideas, embrilting, in progress, Natural Dyes, The Summer of Madder (Study)

wings

Posted on by arlee

Admittedly, i overthought this section, but i’m happy anyways with the results (still in progress). The idea/execution however is getting a bit *too* “figurative”! It’s time to think of texture and effect as well as the “embrilting”.

As soon as i finished the wing on the upper right figure, i flashed back to 2014, when i was working on “The Weight She Carries”. At the time, though i wanted redder madders than i was getting, i used synthetic dyes (Procion/Rit/Dylon, whatever was in the drawer) to get a range of reds. (The coral/peach “puffs” in the photo are the madder results i was getting at that time.) The feathers on this wing are a textural smorgasbord, and perhaps i can draw from these, literally, in shape, and figuratively, in feel.

I could see wings on the back of this garment,  but that might be a bit much! I can’t/don’t want to make them smaller to fit in a section either, as they would be too fiddly to work, and would lose the point and effect. Perhaps a few scattered?

Posted in Days of Honey, embrilting, in progress, Madder, mordants and modifiers, Natural Dyes, Naturally dyed threads, The Summer of Madder (Study)

embroidery finished on pocket!

Posted on by arlee

I just have to add some beading, and a bit of vintage lace (also madder dyed 🙂 ), a top band and then can move on to other parts of the garment.

I think it’s wonderful that all shades on this, except for the greens, are from various mordants and modifiers with madder on cotton (background), and wool, silk and cotton threads.

I *like* getting madder!

Posted in embrilting, in progress, The Summer of Madder (Study)

looking rosey

Posted on by arlee

I do love this detail.

 

They were a bit naked without the leaves, so dipping into the stash, i found a bit more of my naturally dyed greens.

Of course, as it so often happens when one falls in love with something, the supplies run out….  I have very limited quantities of these wools, because i “never use them”—-HA! Fortunately, i found a small ball undyed, so guess what i’m doing today? (Yes, i hear you groaning “oh fer…more damn madder dyeing….”) AND i have to dye more greens as well, as *that* part of the stash is also very low.

Posted in in progress, Madder, mordants and modifiers, privet, The Summer of Madder (Study)

pocketing the difference

Posted on by arlee

A happy start on the first pocket. To see how it’s progressing, scroll down!!!

Ahhhh, the different shades of madder! These are all cotton, and reasoning that pockets should be strong and capacious, i chose not to add silk to this, though i suppose with the method of construction, it would have been supported by the interlining. (The yellow “anchoring” machine stitch will be removed.)

The threads are silk, and wool. (The greens are from privet berries, on silk.) Because this, as i mentioned before, will have to be hand washed due to natural dye Ph sensitivity, i’m not being shy about using different fibre types together.

(Colours are truer in first photo–another reason i *usually* shoot in my sunny south facing studio between 2 and 4 PM, rather than the AM, like today 🙂 )

The figures looked kind of floaty, so i added a curve below, a cupping earth if you will, and my favourite hexes/honeycombs/cells. And beads are coming, because, well, beads, and for awhile now i have wanted to add a bit of bling with naturals 🙂

I thought this was still kind of flat looking, so dimensional roses will added at the edges, another motif i can carry across the whole garment.

At first i thought i would do my usual embroidered, then appliqued pieces above, (maybe too much dimension for this???) but stumbled across this from 2012:

Never finished, but certainly an inspiration for this project! I do have some chunkier wool to dye, along with some already done, so maybe i will have enough.

There’s a finely worked narrow band of antique lace  and a chunk of vintage as well, and i’m hoping i can integrate those as well.

I don’t want anything saccharine sweet, but it might work. I’m going to have to add a solid band across the top also, as i forgot that gathering it a bit is going to distort the figures! The second pocket will be similar, but not identical–nothing says they have to match.

 

Posted in Deliberation--do something you don't do--or haven't in awhile, Holding My Breath, in progress, Probably talking to just myself

holding my breath

Posted on by arlee

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!

Posted in embrilting, in progress

Hallelujah

Posted on by arlee

Not only can i walk today (LOTS of drugs, water, rest, heating pads and special supine stretches), but i am closer to finishing this six year old piece than i thought.

I was worried i’d run out of the colourway i’ve used, but apparently i have a lot more violets and pale purples than i thought, yeah me.

Posted in embrilting, in progress

running in place

Posted on by arlee

I’m pretty much confined to my stitching corner these past few days. And now i can’t sleep lying down, so now it’s going to have to be made into a nest. Not sure how i’m going to survive my last 6 days at the Day Job….. Robaxacet is starting to not help much, and ice packs make look your bum and back look funny when stuffed down your underpants. (And they have to be Granny Pants to stay high enough for good contact…)

Originally, i was just going to stitch up and down on this thing, but quickly realized it was not only boring in execution but in look as well. Running stitch doesn’t have to go only one way. I was hesitant to do the background this way, but it doesn’t fight with the defined elements after all, so will continue. There are small areas i will leave unstitched, as i’ve always subscribed to the void space theory, giving the eyes a place to rest, not crowding everything. It’s still a bit horror vacuii, but the other details stand out enough that this becomes only the background, not the story.

hand embroidered detail on painted cloth

I’m going to run out of the violets and pale purples soon! And i love this cloth, the result of using a large scrap as a sop/drop cloth when painting something else.

 

 

Posted in embrilting, in progress, Probably talking to just myself

if it’s not one thing, it’s another

Posted on by arlee

This winter has been hell: a fall on the ice in December resulting in a hip crunch that is still bothering me, an angina attack and all the ensuing tests, poking, prodding and stressing, a bad cold that lasted 3 weeks and wiped me out, a spine jarring drive on the bus through a deep pothole that has left my back in agony, and the resignation from my Day job, after 5 years, effective on the 17th.

I’m frickin’ tired, and about all i can do, (besides whine i suppose…) is fill in space and time, so yesterday saw me go back to the strange face. (Previous post)

Since i started this in January of 2012 and have lost the flow and notes, i’m not sure what the intent was, but what the hell.

I’m guessing it was an exercise in colour, and stitch type, and followed/parallaled the making of “Not A Hive Mind”.  I might as well finish it, and then maybe i’ll get it!

Posted in "Commercial" dyes, in progress, Indigo Dreams, Redux projects, Sketchwork

incarnations

Posted on by arlee

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.