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.

Jan 14
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

I love the William Morris fabrics, and I have dozens of them in different colors, all untouched. I owe myself a point for cutting into TWO of them, and for figuring out how to get the circles properly centered from the back. I don’t think this one works so well as some others, it is better in person than in the picture, but it still needs… something.

I got my new issue of Craft on Friday. I like it, but it makes me feel really really old. I don’t know if it is a kind of undergraduate pleasures feel to it, or just-slightly-post-graduate or the whole cutting edge thing is far away from where I am. There have been flights of great magazines, and I am sorry to report most of them died long ago. Some of you might be able to lay hands on a copy of one from the early 1980s (that I think was called Craft too, but my memory is hazy these days). It had sewing and knitting, interesting patterns, great photography and kind,  informal writing.

Then, there is Threads, the old version and the new one. I have all the 1st ten years of Threads, 60 issues safely stashed in holders because I still refer to them. I love the cross pollination between disciplines, and the fact that everyone is an artist and pursuing their craft at the most extreme and interesting edge. I miss the range of interest in the current Threads, so I get it from the library or friends, and it takes minutes instead of hours to go through it.

I like all the different things from Interweave, but I can’t stand having to get 5 or 6 magazines to cover a dilletante’s interest in felting, spinning, weaving, knitting, beading and they don’t have sewing at all because really Threads and Sew News cover the waterfront.

But I digress. Craft is here, and I shall go see what kind of trouble I can get into this month.

Jan 13
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

Whew! Two things in one day, although you only get one at the moment. The postcard is a silk background, cut from a scarf in the stash (1 point) and a real rock glued on, and a picture of a shell I printed on fabric. I needed to get away from the grids, although you may notice the woven check taking its place, but I liked the work-from-the-back feeling.

The second thing I was working on was a page of quilt journal. I am taking a class at Valley Fabrics  (a totally rocking spot). It meets once a month, and this was the first meeting. The plan is to have a page for each month, for the whole year. It looks like a great group of people. Everyone got right to work , thinking about what they wanted to do. I like having people around who have a grip. No whining! (The brits say whingeing)

I got completely paralyzed there, because I wanted to use the computer to print pictures and I hadn’t finished thinking yet, and I had been trying not to over-think any of it and just work, and I had no flow…. It felt much better to be home and start storming around my space again. I dropped the one idea I had had in the store, and pursued the idea I had to begin with, and I have a river running through the middle of it, just like I think I meant to do.

Jan 12
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

Real pennies and dimes, little wooden wheels, and a couple of buttons. I have this incredibly cool punch from a couple birthdays ago (my amazing husband! I adore him) that has enough leverage to punch holes through nickels. A Roper Whitney No 5 Jr. hand punch. I love that I can make dangles out of almost anything that I can punch holes in. Although some materials work better than others. Shells sometimes punch well and sometimes shatter. Glass always shatters. Rock doesn’t work at all. You can see what I have always wanted to punch holes through so I could sew them onto things! Or string as beads.

Today I walked into Ikea for the first time ever. It was kind of cool, and profoundly overwhelming. I am thankful I had a good guide and friend, and we packed snacks. Mostly I looked at things, and thought about exactly how small our house is, but I have some concepts for the closet finally, and a bunch of things to think about for the rest of the house. It is important to get stuff OUT of the house first, and then organize what is left.

It reminded of the old Design Research stuff in Cambridge in my youth, that became (I think) Crate and Barrel. It is nice to have scandinavian design for cheap, and while it is true the stuff may only last for 5 years, at the rate life is changing, that could be a good thing, right? I mean Whoo hoo!! New furniture in 5 years! Could work. The alternatives are expensive new, expensive antique old (which makes me so nervous to use it I can hardly breath) and cheap old which frankly is what we have now and I am sick of.

But I digress.

Jan 11
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

I feel like I am almost done with the grids and the filmy fabrics. I like the feeling of in front/behind (why does so much of art come down to Sesame Street? Grover is IN FRONT OF the truck….)

I was afraid I’d get bored, or run out of concepts, but I seem to be able to spin off ideas from here, and once started I am realizing it feeds itself. Phillip Pullman, whose books I adore, says that inspiration waits for him at his desk. He shows up and picks up his pencil and starts working on the story. Sometimes it flows quickly, sometimes it flows slowly, but it doesn’t get done at all if he isn’t sitting at his desk. Certainly inspiration is waiting in my room.

According to the points scale of yesterday, I may only get 4 for this one. Nothing I made in it, but I hit the stash, I cleaned, and it certainly looks related to the last couple days. Now I have to figure out how to tally the points, and what they are good for.