May 22 wet
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

So I went heavy for texture – most of these fabrics are silk in various forms, although one piece looks like burlap – with a thickish layer of Pebeo transparent paint over the top. It isn’t dry yet. I finished the patchy part just as it was time to leave for circus class, and had major going-to-bed trauma from Alice.

I am liking the fringy edges, but they stick out past the edges of the card and my compulsive wish to have everything line up is thwarted by the fuzzies.

I’ll re-post it tomorrow, along with whatever I get accomplished before we leave for the eastern part of the state. We have wake and memorial service for Steve Wed and Thurs. Things will probably be done but not blogged.

May 21
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

I was trying to get a particular thing done (I’m all about process) by mixing the Pebeo transparent and opaque paints together, in the vain hope that the transparent ones would sunprint and the opaque ones would make a nice background color… what I got was this lovely golden green (the opaque paints) thing with the purple layered on over the top and the whole piece of fabric stiff with paint and feeling more like gold lamee than anything else. Then bits peeled up when I pulled the leaves off. I love it, and yet like the best of my soups, I couldn’t recreate it if I had to. I am liking the embroidery part too – I managed to keep the internal detail of the leaves and the delicate edges and highlight the complexity of the leaves themselves. I used a ton of thread to unify the background because I was too tired to go downstairs and get the paints out. It works to pull the background back a little, maybe darker thread would work better.

jude – thanks for your comments both on Flickr and here – I am liking the looser backgrounds too, and the smudgy, uncontrolled look of it. I feel a bit foolish choosing these gorgeous batik fabrics for the background only to paint over them to pull back the colors. Yikes! Textures next – then color won’t matter, and I can pull all these gnarly fabrics out of the box and not care about the color at all….

Alice came out to the barn for a lesson this afternoon. She is getting braver about pulling and pushing on this (relatively) patient Fijord pony that just towers over her. The pony has size and inertia on her side, Alice has brains, and is developing courage. Alice’s legs still only just barely reach the bottom of the saddle, and don’t go even halfway down Elda’s sides.

May 20
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

Thank you for your kind words. Kate sent me an article that said, basically, age nine or ninety, you never get enough time with the ones you love, so make what you’ve got count. Steve made all his time count. All we have left is to admire that, and emulate it.

I stared at this postcard for three days trying to decide what to do to it beyond the paint, and I decided it is just right as is. It is nicer in person. I love the way the fern curls across the llittle squares, I like how crunchy the paint dried, even though it soaked into the fabric (and on into the interfacing I use as a base – the back is quite lovely as well, with the paint following the stitching lines from the patches.) If I could make a fern on top that was as lacy and sweet, and still let the veiwer see the way the paint edged the fern on the postcard, I’d do that, but I like the shadowy-ness of it, just like that.

I have been thinking about sketchbooks. I found a very interesting discussion about the private/public aspects of sketchbooks, and just storing ideas in them for later. Read here, and discuss your own experiences. I’ll relay mine when things settle down here some.

May 19
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

My favorite brother in law died this afternoon. He was surrounded by family and friends, in his own home, comfortable and courageous to the end.

May 18 before paint
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

Cearly I am smitten with these little patchy backgrounds. I made a couple of them quickly to use for the next couple of days.

I like this idea, but I think it needs a wash of green paint over it to unify it and make the leaves pop. I did try that, but since the paint isn’t dried yet, and I need to get myself to sleep, I’ll post the final object tomorrow. Still wet, it looks thusly:

Alice is better, thank you all. It was something she ate, and not something she has to suffer through. She had a blissful day of TV, errands and being consulted on nearly every stage of my day. I need exercise and chocolate. She is well and chipper.

May 17
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

My neighbor Joan, of the lawn, has this wonderful tree in her front yard. It has these red, deeply cut, elegant leaves, and I adore them.

I made the background by applying and roughly sewing in place a series of fringe-edged squares from the ends of fabrics I’ve been using. It looked great before I decided to paint it with Pebeo transparent paints, and stick the leaf on it. When light reaches the paint, it darkens, where light is blocked the paint migrates away/lightens, forming these lovely sun prints. I am thinking the paint could be thinner, letting more of the background through, but I do like the way the leaf printed.

Poor Alice is ill, and I am going to bed now so that I can wake up when necessary.

May 16
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

She had her cake on Saturday, but it wasn’t until today she really and truly turned nine. In a fit of brilliance I commissioned this mask from a man who makes outrageous masks right next to the building where the circus classes are held.

Alice was investigating last week, and we found this man at work behind what seemed like acres of cow masks. Some were simple black and white Holstein faces, others were, well,  psychedelic. He was very kind about showing Alice how he made the plasticine bases and layered up glue soaked paper and fabric over the top. The cows are for the Strolling of the Heifers through Brattleboro the first weekend in June. He says he’s aiming at Mardi Gras and a handful of other festivals in that area next spring.

I have the mold this mask was made on (he let us take the tiger home not-quite-dry) and I am thinking of building another cat face onto it, maybe a jaguar, and taking it back as a demonstration of what a great employee I’d be. Like I don’t have enough to do.

I had a quiet day at the barn today. The wheelbarrow didn’t mug me again, although it thought about it. I rode the red horse, walking, but decided against the sideways golden pony today. All the muscles across my ribs and upper chest still hurt, and the bruise on my boob is the most astounding colors – complementary purple and yellow at the moment.

May 15
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

Feed your inner artist. “They” always tell you that. Go look at stuff that is interesting and makes you happy, or is along the lines of what you do, or wish you did. So I did, and found this postcard waiting for me after pages of irritation and feeling insufficient. Roughly pieced background, cut silk leaf, heavily embroidered. I think I’ve got something interesting, but I wish I could make the edges fluffier.

Maybe I’ll stick the hamster to it. She’s fluffy enough for any three postcards.

No, no, I wouldn’t really do that.

But I might shear the hamster and felt the fluff into something interesting. And microscopic.

May 14
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

I found a little fern stamp, and used it on some more of these great wooden circles. My great punch works on the wooden coins as well as the regular metal kind, so I can string them on things. And the fusible works, so I can fuse fabric or foil from chocolate bars onto them.

Kate helped, so her name is on the back of this one too. She’ll go pick up her daughter at Mt Holyoke tomorrow and return home in time to watch House Tuesday evening.

It is nice to be home again.

May 13
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

A stamped leaf applied to a wooden coin, the whole applied to painted and stamped fabric… I like the way it pops out at me when I hold it in my hand.

The sleepover was a huge success.

We’re off to see the favorite uncle. They started Hospice Friday. This is hard.