Lee Thomson

Jan 23
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

I found another doodle, filling a plane with circles of differing sizes. It seems more on topic, but – meh. I liked the keys better. May I go back?

Jan 22
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

I like the way I can make the darks sink into the page using dark thread. different from the way I marked all the mid-tones yesterday with the mid colored thread. I also like the way the orange circles disappear on the orange fabric, and reappear on the blue parts.

Technically, I think the keys are more hardware, and I am going to have to postpone the rest of the key concepts for Hardware Month. Which I think is February. So I am still thinking about Circle, Blue for January and probably going back to some graphic design questions. Using regularly sized items, show opposite concepts; heavy and light, fast and slow, easy and hard, ordered and random. I have to get cutting on the circles!

IMG_0057
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

I make dolls too.

It just takes forever to make them, because I like to experiment with fabric techniques and beading and all kinds of other stuff, plus making my own laces for boots and shirts and so forth. They are incredibly time consuming, and then I just stare at them and adore them, and can’t figure out what to do next.

This is the Shaggy Man. His vest is all stitched scraps on the front, he has a good solid belly (a fine figureof a man!), fancy pants with tons of beading, and the world’s greatest boots.

Jan 19
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

I just wanted ribbons.

I also want to not be sick. Little A gave me her scratchy throat and dribbly nose, after giving it to her dad first. Maybe he gave it to me. I generally ascribe to a karmic theory of catching colds – you will or you won’t, it doesn’t matter how hard you wash your hands, or how much you avoid kissing the afflicted. If you are going to get sick, you will. If you’ve had this particular germ already, you won’t. Easy, right?

It only breaks down when I do get sick.

Hah.

Jan 18
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

I made it yesterday, but my mum came out to visit for lunch (great lunch Mom!) and then I crumped at the end of the day instead of getting a chance to post it.

So here is Jan 18th, more wishful thinking than predition or observation. We’ve had a LOT of rain so far this winter, and not much snow. When I think rationally about water buckets NOT freezing in the barn, and the footing staying reasonable, and only mud and water tracked into the house instead of the salt/sand/snow trifecta, it seems like a pretty good deal. But I miss sledding, or more realistically, sending the kids OUT for sledding, and I miss the white light you get in winter, that almost makes up for how short the days are. It could be nice to have one really rip-snorting snow storm, up to the waist, snowed in for two days, etc. and then let it all melt and start the crocuses.

So much for requesting weather, eh?

Jan 17
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

A little happier today, less angst. The circles are not stuck down, so they can flip on the edges. The buttons came from a friend whose grandmother worked in a button factory. They are tiny shell things, very clearly organic in origin. I love them. I was inspired by the clarity of yarnstorm ‘s pictures to try a simple white background.

Jan 16
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

Everyone is fine. Friends suffered a fire in their house over the weekend. Kids broke in and stole some stuff, then set the couch on fire. I went to help catalog stuff that needed to be replaced, suited up in a tyvek suit with the hood up and a mask over my face, fogging up my glasses for a couple hours.

I had not completely understood the concept of smoke damage before. The smoke goes everywhere, and leaves a grimy gray residue that is uncleanable and unremovable. They have two girls, so pictures from them were everywhere, and everywhere they were scorched and grayed out. It was spooky, and scary and sad. I have to go help more.

Jan 15
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

Can you guess the weather outside my window? So far as I can tell the entire East coast is under bucketing rain, and it is heading slowly north and east, making the longest passage right over my head.

I am still engaged in a pitched battle with the code involved in making that lovely little Flickr badge come up over THERE>> in the sidebar (where it belongs). That was the punch line to a long running gag when I was in college. You know how you get punchy with people when studying late; we did fossil charades (the filter feeders all kind of blend together, and sponges are damn hard! they do nothing! trilobites seem easier than they really are, since it requires a fair amount of scuttling on one’s stomach) and asked “where is the braphiopod? In the shallow water, where it belongs!”

So, yes, this page continues to evolve. I moan about having to learn new stuff, but really it is energizing. Mostly. I could use more chocolate.