Lee Thomson

Jun 20
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

I hammered a series of 1/2" holes, then sets of 1/4" holes in between, and threaded a strip of white torn silk through all the holes. It wouldn’t lie flat, and wouldn’t get graceful so I cut the bends, and used the strips to gather the purple fabric into an interesting ruched look.

Today was the last day of school (whoo hoo!!) and I am going to bed now.

In New York, almost all the stations have gorgeous tile mosaics. Gorgeous. Colors, care – just amazing, and in Amost Every Station. And it is only 2 bucks to ride it. The subway may be the part that stays with me longest… all those mosaics.

Jun 19
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

I was staring at the pattern on the towels in the apartment we were using in NY, and realized there was a really appealing pattern of squares that would work well cut out. So I tried it.

Red Kate came with me to school this afternoon, and we made 4" shibori squares with the kids. I was so entranced with the idea, from Shibori Girl, that I sacrificed a yard of silk (and Kate donated another 1.5 yards) and made dozens of squares. The kids were amazing.

We used food grade dyes – easter egg dye, food coloring, and kool aid – so it wouldn’t matter when they got it on themselves. I brought pennies and big aluminum fake coins, big and little document clips and string. We demonstrated several different resists, using the document clips to hold the pennies in place, or tying the fabric over the coins, or making caterpillars, as well as simple folding and dipping. Then the kids went to town. I’m sorry I have no photos, but I was up to my elbows in kids and dye.

They produced all kinds of different patterns and effects, and insisted on showing Mrs Battey, and Red Kate AND me each thing they accomplished. A lot of it was quite impressive. Of course, there’s always one (or two) kids who just dip 27 pieces in the black, but most did pretty interesting stuff. Mrs Battey had fun too. I could see Red Kate having 3rd grade envy as she watched these kids experimenting.

Jun 18
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

I like the way the holes look after I’ve banged out a bunch (6, 8, 12) of (leaves, flowers) with the punches. I stitched the pieces together so they’d stay that way, and then stitched (some of) the punch-outs together to go with.

Jun 17
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

Cathy and I went into a lot pf places, and many of them had cool badges and tickets. When I looked over them all, it made a story, so I attached them to a postcard and here is a weekend retrospective.

home again, home again –

The Big City was wonderful. We had lots of fun seeing other people’s knitting, lace, fashion (FIT and at the Poiret at the MET) and art. We also managed to accomplish a lot of Assyrians with wings, a fair amount of Ancient Egyptian architecture, beat the NYC subway system into submission, and take in a show. A completely satisfactory visit.

Except – no postcards. I may be able to accomplish a weekend retrospective. I’ll resume regular postcards tomorrow.

Jun 15
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

I had made a bunch of swatches, which I liked, so I unified them onto a single postcard.

I’m headed for a train, no post tomorrow, nothing til late Sunday or Monday, depending on trains and times and friends….

Jun 14
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

I succumbed to the Really Big Grommet Punches, only in part because of Wallace and Grommet, but they are not quite so satisfactory as the smaller punches. Nice, handy, smooth circles, really big circles, but the little thrill of each hole is not-so-much as with the littler guys.

Here we have two pink squares with one inch holes in them, one grommetted to the background, both with things floating in them, caged by stiffish plastic. The beaten copper piece is a countertop sample with additional holes punched in it, held on with eyelets and decorated with beads. Note the color of the background. Pink was to produce some Pink Postcards in time for the Pink Postcard Swap, which I did, and then used a bunch more because it was fun, but now, well, orange. Lots and lots of orange. And more holes.

I’m headed to New York city tomorrow, to see some Radical Lace and Subversive Knitting in Manhattan, and then Devorah Sperber’s pieces over at the Bronx Museum. Cathy is coming too, which is nice, but not until Sat. morning, so I get Friday entirely on my own. I’m thinking of how to spend it, without spoiling the stuff that we wanted to do together. I don’t think I want to shop – I’m feeling overwhelmed with stuff, and I don’t need to look at stuff if I’m not going to get anything – but I may see if I can find a different museum, one we aren’t planning on seeing on Sat.

I’ll report back as best I can.

Jun 13
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

Clearly I was channeling bustiers. Or shoes.

Bustiers.

Middle school band concert tonight. I am gathering chi.

Jun 12
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

An exercise in seeing into the piece. Like the problems I had with too many layers of scrim/chiffon, once there are too many layers of holes the whole (excuse me) piece loses some definition. Here it is hard to see that the cut out shape is repeated in all the layers. I could organizing them so they line up better.

I like the gold edging on the top layer of purple leaf cut-outs.

As for Circus… today was our last class. We had a lesson with Caroline, and she had all kinds of ideas for tossing Alice about. We swung her, she walked from shoulder to shoulder to shoulder, she did a back bend on our backs as we stood on all fours, she stood on our backs as we crawled across the floor. Then she practiced globe – balancing on one of those large balls and making it roll along using a funny little penguin walk because if you stand still you fall over.

Plus, I have homework for the summer

• hang from the chin-up bar, tuck-up
• hang from the chin-up bar, one knee then the other tuck-up
• handstand from hands-on-floor – no momentum
• pullups and dips, jumping pullups (let’s you do more sets) and spy pullups (see Mistress Krista)
• back strengtheners: superman and kick-ups
• more stretching

Caroline assures me that all this will result in smoother trapeze behavior, esp getting up and coming down. The handstand stuff, that is for the partner acro so I don’t have to scramble up my partner’s knees.

Jun 11
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

I did it yesterday, really. It was (erm, almost) done. Except I was so cross-threaded with life and the universe, and so profoundly tired, I went to bed.

This morning wasn’t much better. My favorite yoga class is done for the summer, and last week (when I wasn’t there) was when they said so. I’m still tired and grumpy, and sneezy and dopey and a couple other dwarves too, I’m sure.

BUT – I finished this. Then I went and bought the really big punches, for really big grommets. I couldn’t live without them. Well, I could, but I didn’t want to. I won’t bore you with the justifications I applied to myself.

VERY LARGE HOLES, coming soon. Stay tuned. .