I keep to checking to see if I have written anything new, and I haven’t.

Lazy.

postcard backgrounds
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

So the thing about building these backgrounds is that they take time, but the time spent is worth it. Like a well written story, the author has constructed a great deal of it that she frequently doesn’t tell you – it simply informs the characters’ actions. In the same way, the underpinnings of the design is created and present, and informs the object even when it is obscured by the next (several) layers.

I do love the way the silks glow.

I am so sick of transfer paints. I did my last one Jan 31 and I may be finished with them. Although they are not gone.

obsessions – orange, pink, rhinos
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

Like I said – orange, pink, rhinoceri (Wikipedia says I have 4[!] choices for the plural; rhinoceros, rhinoceroses, rhinoceri, rhinoceroi or a bunch of them form a crash)

The pink mother and child is for Alice who requested her own. I have managed to make and wear two of the three of mine today. I have materials for a bunch more thoughts.

And in the further happiness division, there used to be Wooly Rhinoceri. There is a museum quality life size model of one here, for sale for the relatively reasonable price of $110,000.00 Go – it is a great image. Then come back.

I was thinking about this, and decided we could make it in tickets, with extra income from t-shirt and stuffed toy sales but Al says no.

Feb 2a
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

I’ll talk tomorrow

Feb 2b
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

Feb 1
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

So – good start, needs work.

I am thinking that I need to compose the piece as a whole page, stitcking things down with tape or something, and making sure the fit is reasonable and the over lap is negligible. THat means using big paper, or the floor.

Also, I need some way to photograph things larger than 5″x7″ – the bulletin board/large desk light set-up worked well for a year of postcards, but needs emptying of culch before it will work for stuff up to about 15×24″. This is on the ironing board, and that is where the missing corner has gone. A larger flat space for ironing would be nice. Maybe clear floor space would work for both of these ends.

Jan 31
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

I’ve been thinking about techniques. For the TIF challenge I used transfer paints to make fabrics that I chopped up and used to collage the final object.

I have been thinking about composing a large work on a single piece of fabric, using collage ideas and techniques. The idea is to have something that looks like a pieced work or a collage but is really a whole cloth.

Here are many of the pieces that will go into it. It has taken longer than I thought to get the plates prepared. I will start composing and transferring the pieces tomorrow, and post pictures of the interim steps.

January TIF – I Look Up at Trees
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

Whew – in under the wire, ready for the launch for the next challenge tomorrow.

I realized that while I admire a lot of people for various things, frequently at different times, I always look up at trees. I like the way their branches look against the sky in the winter, I like the shade and comfort and friendliness they exude in the summer, I love the colors in the spring and fall. In another life, I was probably a druid, or someone else who worshipped trees.

I had fun working on this. I was dubious about the colors, and really stuck on the concept of admiration, but working out of my comfort zone in one area (the color palette) while still pushing my experiments forward using transfer paints was very gratifying.

Sometimes, I like assignments. Even self-imposed assignments. It helps decide what to do next.

Jan 27
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

My mother (for reasons too complicated to go into) gave me feathers from a deceased parakeet – a bag full of tiny blue fluffs – and I tried to see if I could paint them a beautiful enough blue, and if the tiny fluffy bits would work. They did, sort of, but they are not thick/heavy enough to use as a resist.

Week 4 black ice
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

I’ve been thinking about showing layers of things, veils of snow or fog across the landscape, a scene out a window, or here, leaves in black ice on a pond.

I used to skate (cue old lady voice “back when i was a child we used to have real winters, and we could skate on the pond in back of our house. I used to go down through the woods with my skates clanking on my back to the stock pond. After sitting in a snowbank to get my skates on, I’d push off onto the ice, and see how bumpy it was. After still cold weather, with little or no snow, the ice would be so clear it seemed I should be able to see fish in it. After some skating I’d lie on the ice staring down into it, focusing alternately on my own reflection and how far into the pond I could see. I always hoped the boy I had a crush on would come and see me, either being graceful or thoughtful… he never did”)

I thought about putting in the back of a turtle, or a fish, but then I didn’t.