This was my first attempt to work with those elegant long rectangles that so struck me in the large wall pieces. It didn't do ANY of what I expected. It is floppy, and has large, loose holes in it, and it would take way too much thread to make it a more stable object. 

It drapes in an interesting way:

shown here across the top of the sewing machine with light behind it. But it is not at all what I was thinking of. 

The first of the Anatsui inspired pieces.

The original that inspired me was made of planks of wood cut into grids, the grid lines are black, the tops of most of the squares are the color of the natural wood, some with small glyphs on them. In several pieces, there is a ragged, burned and gouged area that runs across the grid, like a river or worn fabric. 

This is the beginning: ripped strips of old pants (thank you Al!) stitched to a thick interfacing, then cut into squares and attached to a rough black silk background. I am going to experiment with the heat gun to see if it will burn in interesting ways. I think the silk will do well, but the cotton of the pants fabric will probably burn in a bad way. Paint could also work, as could cutting with scissors or knife. Whatever I do, I won't do it inside – it'll be outside!! I promise! 

There was a special exhibit of works by Ghanaian artist El Anatsui at the Wellesley College art museum. I loved it. I came home with six new ideas to try, and I've been up in my room trying to decide where to start. I was not allowed to take pictures, so I cannot show you how they looked to me, but pictures of his works are around on the internet. Several different media were shown, including pen and ink, paintings and some wooden pieces that felt very intricate and rythmic.

My favorites were the big pieces made of bottle caps, bottle tops and the metal parts that wrap around the neck of liquor bottles.  The pieces felt like fabric, with drape and character. The little parts wired together made for acres of textured surface that the curators of the exhibit pinned into folds and waves to emphasize the fluidity of the large pieces. 

further reading

A picture here shows the fabric made from long thin parts wired together, and here that shows the different textures he gets from using different parts of the bottle closure. This is one of my favorites here; I like the way the silver goes across, and the lines that look like rivers go down, and the bulge of the red on the left interrupts the lines of silver.

There is also a nice site for the  Wellesley College museum website itself, and an  interactive site developed by a student for the exhibit.

Before I went to the museum, I visited my mum. We spent all the time talking, as well as driving about, and sitting about, and talking. I dropped a flyer off with a gallery in Ipswich that carries some fiber arts and would be a nice match. 

I made a great little doodle, and then realized it could work as a fabric piece. There is more that will dangle underneath, with straight lines and little squares. 

I finished the leaves in a tin, and posted them to my shop on Etsy. They are perfectly charming, and I dearly love the way they tuck into their tin. The green ribbon holds them together as a group in a nice way, although I admit I had fun shuffling them into different orders before they were stitched down. 

It is astonishingly hot, and worse in my studio, so I've been working later in the evening. It means I don't have enough time to post here before I fall asleep, but it is much cooler!

Aand now, the start of the next project:

You could say I am coming out in spots. Well, except for the leaves.

Yesterday the fabric women got together, not all together at once but eveyone showed up at one point or another.  We used the Pebeo light reactive paints to make experimental fabrics. Timna's daughter helped, as did mine, and there were parades of plastic animals across the pint leaving inetersting footprints as well as leaves, flowers, stencils, jar lids and keys. I have the world's best box of keys, I got it for $5 in Brattleboro when a woman was clearing out her studio. It is filled with all kinds of random keys, old ones, new ones, "do not copy" ones, moderately useless flat ones – they make me fabulously happy.  Timna shows hers here, Audrey will soon, and Lynne swears she will have a blog soon. 

And today I rode two horses. Just as I think my riding schedule is returning to normal, because the gray horse left for his summer home, I was offered a ride on a little black Morgan mare. She is zoomy and fun, and needs some more leg stretching Mondays and Fridays. And then I made these tonight. Five leaves, to fit into a leaf shaped tin. I think they might need fabric on the back, and a ribbon to hold them together, and they are done. 

aaaaaand…

Aerin's prom was cancelled part way through on account of weather. Or as the saying goes at our house "on account of adverse weather conditions at sea" (the reason on ALL the absent/tardy notes we sent to school for my brother. And all true.) So they have repaired to the young man's house, where they will watch a movie or two and visit. Probably with friends. It will be quieter, and less stressful.

I am still stunned to have produced a child that 1) was invited to the Prom and b) decided to go.

On the whole, her prom experience has been NOTHING like any of the movies or TV shows I have ever seen that mention it even in passing. This just reinforces that.

really the tree fell down, originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

Everything always happens at once. Time is supposed to keep that from happening, but really, it doesn't, and in such a routine fashion that the joke is more in the telling.

Anyhow. Aerin was getting ready for prom.

 Her friend Rozi offered to help with hair and makeup, and following a fine family tradition of out-sourcing what we are bad at, Aerin said yes. So we fetched Rozi because there were Giant Thunderstorms headed our way and we could hear them, and they got to work. 

 

And then the storm hit. And there was a loud crack, like the beginning of thunder. And when I finally finished looking out all the other windows to see what might have happened, I saw the neighbor's tree across our driveway, in the narrow slot between garage and house – it has some branches against the house, and some against the garage, and the top branches lapping at the bottom of the steps to the back porch, and nothing broken as far as I can see.

Everyone is fine. The neighbors are fine. The neighbor on the other side is freaking right out because she is convinced my birch tree will fall on her in exactly the same way, but it didn't this time. Also my tree is healthy, at the moment, and the one that fell clearly had rot going on. 

Rozi, calm under fire and Aerin whining,

 

and

 

And the tree is still tipped over.