Done.
I thought about water lilies, but I didn't like any of the things I made, so we have lilypads and it is fine. I keep thinking of other things I want to do, in the same way that house cleaning can be a distraction from a larger, worser task. But I really have to make another of these sized pieces, and do some moderately good photography of them and get prints…
I think I got used to smaller projects, that get done faster. The time this one is taking is not what I expected at all. Although if 8×10" takes about a couple days, then 12×16" can reasonably take longer. And take a lot more thread.
I find myself composing smaller parts of this piece, as well as looking at the whole thing. I have more work in the upper reaches, but this part is coming along well. I would like another green-with-touches-of-red multicolored thread to work in the lily pads, and I need to dye some silk PINK for the water lilies.
You can see how more layers get added in. Here are some skinny saplings sketched in with heavy thread, worked from the back. The balck at the bottom of the picture is silk organza, dyed today, ready to be stitched in for the pond.
Still thrashing – this piece is harder than I expected. Or I am working harder. Or something.
Al and Alice and Aerin made me a cake (sour cream spice cake with orange butter cream frosting) and figured out how to write 51 on it (in Roman numerals) and it was wonderful.
Alice has also been making birds:
including this rather lovely raven.
It is true, I will nevermore be 50.
And a happy Mother's Day to my mom, on the anniversary of the birth of her first child.
Which sounds like "Bringing in the sheaves" but isn't. In which we start putting down trees and leaves (and some pine needles) that will form the background of the finished piece. The deeeep background.
I use silk for sky these days. I used to use various painted cotton fabrics, then sateen which is nicely shiny, but silk has a luminosity that can't be matched. I have several different weights, from sheer organza to nicely slubby noil and even some very heavy, drapey satin weave.
I have to dye the colors I'm looking for, which isn't hard. I have a handful of Colorhue dyes which are very easy to use. They work without chemicals, mix easily, dilute easily and produce brilliant colors. This piece though, I used Inkodye which comes out of the jar a gluey, muddy color that develops in sunlight.
If I wanted some control over results, the Inkodye would drive me crazy. But I like the surprise of the process, and the colors are always interesting.
This is the beginning for a pair of pieces.
I know – it has been a lot of family stuff. I think that is part of starting school and getting all the extra-curricular things restarted and slotted into place. But I'm back! With news!
I'm so pleased! Because Follow the River posted their list of artists for October.
I am listed as an area artist (which is true) and a fiber artist (which is true) and my work will be up in Forbes Library (again) which is lovely. How awesome is that?
Alice has sharp knees. And because she grows slowly, they wear away at the pants longer in one place. So I've gotten creative mending her pants, because she doesn't outgrow them fast. She's had pandas, cats, dolphins, and a spiderweb that said "some pig".
When I saw these monsters on a friend's page, I knew Alice needed one.
These have braces too, out of silver thread. Because even monsters need to have nice, straight teeth.
What I forget, and I shouldn't because I used to be there, is that even a person who doesn't follow or believe in fashion still has a very, VERY firm sense of what they want to look like.
Alice brought that home to me last year when she wanted a pair of boots. She who had lived in slip-on black Merrels for four years (she doesn'r grow very fast) wanted something she couldn't even describe very well, but when we went to Target she walked down the aisle, sorting and discarding options until she came to one in particular. And that was the one. Mid-calf, brown suede elf boots, with a zipper up the side. She wore them all through the school year. When the zipper broke this week, we had to replace them.
This year, the choices were heavily skewed towards Ugg equivalent boots, kind of clumpy and way too warm for her, but we found a couple choices she kind of liked, and she walked out with mid-calf, purple suede elf boots that perfectly matched the purple hoodie shirt she wears.
This is just to say that self image is a deeply mysterious thing.
Lee Thomson 