Lee Thomson

archives: Haystack fiber studio 2012

January 17, 2015

In 2012 I went to Haystack Mountain School of Crafts for a two week course with Marian Bijlenga. It was intense, and lovely, and the food was amazing, and I had a wonderful time. We were working with water soluble stabilizer, making fabric out of thread and strange objects and thin air.

coiled twigs, pinecone sections, stitched velvet circles

velvet scraps in thread grid

coastline study, perle cotton, invisible thread

Before I left for Haystack, I was having trouble sleeping, and having stress dreams about not fitting in, not having the skills I’d need… Eventually I had a soothing dream about going to the shoreline, and choosing rocks, and sewing little velvet coats for them. When I got to Haystack, I was fine. I had all the skills necessary, and wonderful people in my studio to work with and share with. But my dream of little coats for rocks stuck with me, and I made several.

And when I got sick of velvet, I made some lined linen jackets for more beach rocks.

The application of whimsy is almost always a good plan.

archives: nine patch, not so humble

January 16, 2015

These three pieces are from 2009. I was experimenting with wool – felting it with a machine (dry felting or needle felting) and felting with water and agitation. I incorporated the resulting fabric into pieces with woven fabric and stitching.

Nine patches are a classic block for quilting, but they also make a nice canvas for experimenting with composition.

wet felted and iron stained felt with cotton strips

machine felted purple and white squares with black wool strips

commercial felt machine needled to black wool and embellished

three more from the archives

January 15, 2015

Three abstract works, with an emphasis on the rhythm of repeating squares and circles;

From January 2007, a fabric postcard from the daily ones I made through 2007

From 2008, a larger work about rhythm and counting

And from 2009, counting to fifty. I was thinking hard about turning fifty years old, and wanted to count things. There are fifty tiny shells threaded on five different threads, and centered in fifty silk circles. It was cathartic to make!

three from the archive

January 13, 2015

I realized when I was changing platforms that I had a lot of work completed. One of the things I am particularly pleased with is the set of four seasons at the edge of a classic New England pond.

In summer:

in fall:

and in winter:

Epiphany and cold

January 7, 2015

Yesterday was Epiphany, or the Three Kings Day, but I like to say epiphany (say it with me: eeeee-PIFfff-aneeeeee) and I love that it means sudden insight as well as the layers of religious meaning it has accreted.

I have had no epiphanies lately. I am working steadily on making this site smoother and more professional looking, but most of that work is under the hood so to speak, and not readily visible. So have some poetry instead:

The Journey of the Magi (1927)

T. S. Eliot

‘A cold coming we had of it,
Just the worst time of the year
For a journey, and such a long journey:’

…..

For the rest you’ll have to go over here, but it remains one of my favorites and I recommend it highly.

continuing on

January 4, 2015

I keep plodding along on the changeover from one hosting platform to another. If I do the next obvious thing, and then the next obvious thing after that, eventually there will be a working website.

And then there is nothing to do except the eternal tweaking that keeps a website ticking along: updates, new photos, and a periodic freshening of design.

I’m nowhere near that yet! But things are better now. I have galleries, and an About page. And more on the way!

always something

January 4, 2015

I am working to shift the blog from TypePad to WordPress – not, I hasten to add, because there is anything wrong with TypePad! They have hosted Dancing Crow Designs since 2007, when I first started this online experiment. I’m grateful for the support that exists for small blogs like mine.

But the only constant is change, and it feels like time for something new. Thus WordPress, blog exports, homepages and endless fussing until I like what I have better than what I had.

So I post a photo of a work that is still in process, to prove that process is never-ending…

And I’m descending back into the pixel mines. Wish me luck!

it’s ALL process

January 2, 2015

I am deciding how to rearrange my presence online, and part of that seems to be creating a home page and gallery that are easier to navigate, and with any luck easier to maintain as well. If you're interested in the rough beginnings, check out the new homepage here.

With more reading, and fussing, it should get cleaner and easier to navigate.

as a friend of mine says: Onward!

so behind

December 29, 2014

I am so far behind if I slow down just a little, I might see the back of myself running away.

Or something like that.

I have not forgotten that I have a blog, nor that some people like reading it (thank you, lovely people!) I just completely ran out of steam over the last month. I did spend a lot of time at the high school, and I have learned a good deal more about the lights and sound in the auditorium, but it makes for precious little artwork to show, when I don't get home until after my bedtime!

Some of this slower time is going towards thinking about new projects. Timna and I are thinking about a group show in Northampton, I am thinking about what skills I want to improve, and how to go about doing that. I'd like this summer to be the one with an artist residency in it, when I go somewhere and just make things, and possibly feed myself, in some gorgeous surroundings. That takes applying for, but I can do that. This might be another year where I take a run at a daily project. I tried to do that last year, but didn't like my selected project enough to keep going.

So I am still here, still making, learning, going out into the world. Just not talking about it so much!

Skin of Our Teeth

November 30, 2014

The show happened, and then I slept for three days, and then Thanksgiving happened, and this is all I have to show for it!

It was a great show. It went well. The kids worked incredibly hard, and to a remarkably high standard.