obsessions – orange, pink, rhinos

February 7, 2008


obsessions – orange, pink, rhinos
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

Like I said – orange, pink, rhinoceri (Wikipedia says I have 4[!] choices for the plural; rhinoceros, rhinoceroses, rhinoceri, rhinoceroi or a bunch of them form a crash)

The pink mother and child is for Alice who requested her own. I have managed to make and wear two of the three of mine today. I have materials for a bunch more thoughts.

And in the further happiness division, there used to be Wooly Rhinoceri. There is a museum quality life size model of one here, for sale for the relatively reasonable price of $110,000.00 Go – it is a great image. Then come back.

I was thinking about this, and decided we could make it in tickets, with extra income from t-shirt and stuffed toy sales but Al says no.

orange, pink, rhinos

February 7, 2008

I’m having my usual spring fidgets. I am bored with the transfer paints and I wish I didn’t still have half of them still to use up. I am sick of leaves, and discreet colors. I am waking up earlier and earlier, probably part of the whole spring-is-here and the-sap-is-running thing going on (even though it is still dark when I wake up, and the ground is still frozen and really? the sap hasn’t started yet).

I find myself obsessed with pink and orange, and rhinoceroseses (rhinocerii?) to the extent that I have ordered this jacket from Landsend, in brilliant pink with orange trim. And then I was trolling through wallymart trying to find pink and orange shirts for exercising. I found some pink, and some orange, but nothing with both. So I bought some tank tops to layer over short sleeved shirts. The orange isn’t orange enough, but they’ll do for now. Until I can overdye  them. I think the colors are making people’s eyes hurt.

300pxdrer_rhino_full

Did I mention the Rhinos? I’ve been working on transfer pen versions of Mr Durer’s rhino, and some others, so I can transfer them to the new shirts. Possibly to the new jacket as well. And rhinestones.  They have to sparkle. Leading me to contemplate new terms for them…. rhinstonoceros? rhinocerostone?

I can’t begin to tell you how amused I am with myself for thinking of sparkly pink and orange rhinos.

Pink_rhino

Week 5 velvet leaf

February 4, 2008


Week 5 velvet leaf
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

I found a pile of ripped strips of black white a gray cottons leftover from December’s postcards, and I realized I missed making them.  I don’t like polyester much, except for exercise clothes (I have a separate rant for that). The transfer paint is getting boring, but I swore I’d use it up. I have a lot to go to use it up….

But I realized I could still use old fabrics, and old techniques, as well as the current obsession focus. So I have one of my beloved patchy backgrounds, with a satin and velvet leaf heavily embroidered into it. Hah.

In other news, I am beat. I did the Y thing this morning, then went to the barn and cleaned stalls, carried water buckets and pushed around (enormous) loads of sawdust across treacherous ice. Then the kids had climbing class, and I belayed children to keep them from falling out of the sky. At the end, I got a chance to try climbing again. I addressed myself to a more difficult wall, and fell off once (What a RUSH – in a Really Bad Way) and beat a little higher. I didn’t make the top, but I did respectably. And then I made this postcard when I got home.

Told you I was good for it.

good night Gracie.

new experiences

February 3, 2008

I have accomplished nothing today – except for one huge milestone/millstone that has been hovering over my head for (…counts quickly…) sixteen months.

I finally woke up my Etsy Shop.

It looks pretty good too, if I do say so myself.

But having made the banner, and the avatar (the little tiny crow picture) and listed two items which required
cropping and resizing a bunch of pictures and two different computers, I’m knackered, and done. And there are no transfer paint experiments, and no thing of the week. I’ll have to do it tomorrow. But you will all know…

Feb 1

February 1, 2008


Feb 1
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

So – good start, needs work.

I am thinking that I need to compose the piece as a whole page, stitcking things down with tape or something, and making sure the fit is reasonable and the over lap is negligible. THat means using big paper, or the floor.

Also, I need some way to photograph things larger than 5″x7″ – the bulletin board/large desk light set-up worked well for a year of postcards, but needs emptying of culch before it will work for stuff up to about 15×24″. This is on the ironing board, and that is where the missing corner has gone. A larger flat space for ironing would be nice. Maybe clear floor space would work for both of these ends.

Jan 31

January 31, 2008


Jan 31
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

I’ve been thinking about techniques. For the TIF challenge I used transfer paints to make fabrics that I chopped up and used to collage the final object.

I have been thinking about composing a large work on a single piece of fabric, using collage ideas and techniques. The idea is to have something that looks like a pieced work or a collage but is really a whole cloth.

Here are many of the pieces that will go into it. It has taken longer than I thought to get the plates prepared. I will start composing and transferring the pieces tomorrow, and post pictures of the interim steps.

January TIF – I Look Up at Trees

January 31, 2008


January TIF – I Look Up at Trees
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

Whew – in under the wire, ready for the launch for the next challenge tomorrow.

I realized that while I admire a lot of people for various things, frequently at different times, I always look up at trees. I like the way their branches look against the sky in the winter, I like the shade and comfort and friendliness they exude in the summer, I love the colors in the spring and fall. In another life, I was probably a druid, or someone else who worshipped trees.

I had fun working on this. I was dubious about the colors, and really stuck on the concept of admiration, but working out of my comfort zone in one area (the color palette) while still pushing my experiments forward using transfer paints was very gratifying.

Sometimes, I like assignments. Even self-imposed assignments. It helps decide what to do next.

TIF 7 almost done

January 29, 2008


TIF 7 almost done
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

I need to trim it up square, and decide on borderage.

Also today was circus class with Red Kate. We worked really hard on handstands and stretching, and finished with things we were practicing – I did a roll up on the fabric (getting more interesting) and Kate is working on splits.

See?

Lee_fabric_roll_upImg_3285

I am hugely amused by the mother/daughter straddle-up head stands. Sorry it comes up so huge, I’ll fix that soon.

Oh, and Red Kate here –

Kate_headstand