stitched leaves

May 28, 2007


May 26
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

I got the leaves on the pre-breakfast hike, the silk was speaking to me, but the pieces kept getting smaller and smaller as i ripped them. So I attached them all on one side and then the little pockets had a purpose – to hold the leaves. I like the rhythm of the stitches, and the way you can see into the layers of silk chiffon. The chiffon is a major pain to deal with – it is all wifty and wafty and sticks to my callouses and rough skin. But it does shine.

later that same day

May 25, 2007

Can’t talk. Must pack for Family Camp. Will return with our regularly scheduled postcards sometime Monday.

Will be making things while gone.

Happy Memorial Day – remember everyone who matters.

Stay tuned.

shrouded leaf

May 24, 2007


May 24
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

well, I know where my head’s at today.

You can tell a good deal about how a person lived life by the size and shape of the hole he leaves. Steve left a huge hole, and so many people showed up to remember him and hug his wife and kids it was astounding to me. The room yesterday at the wake was filled with small knots of people telling Steve Stories, frequently doubled up with hysterics in the retelling. He lived with a huge element of humor in everyday life – constant, casual and easy. People from work, family, friends from all his various sports, all came and said good things about him. The service today was a more formal version, again with stories of jokes he played on others, the precious few jokes played on him, his ways of coping with telemarketers (letting an aluminum siding salesperson talk for half an hour before revealing that the "several small houses" he’d just finished were birdhouses) and his generosity towards everyone. I’m glad I knew him as long as I did. I hope I live as much as he wedged into the time he had.

I am so pleased to be home.

May 22 wet

May 22, 2007


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.

golden maple leaves

May 21, 2007


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.

ferny

May 20, 2007


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.