Jan 26
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

The transfer paper I have suggests that I could paint or draw on it as well as running it through the printer. So I tried.

Sharpie markers: ripped the transfer medium, didn’t work
water color paint: went on nicely, transferred nicely
oil pastels: went on nicely, didn’t transfer well
basic crayola markers: if new and juicy, went on well and transferred well
water soluble crayons: if wet worked well, if dry ripped medium
Pitt art pens: nice and juicy, transferred well
colored pencils: too hard, didn’t work
basic crayons: too hard, didn’t work

The flickr picture has little boxes around the different media, and small commentary. I’m not really thrilled with any of it except the water color paints, and I’m not sure when I’d want to use indirection with water color paints rather than just use Pebeo paints directly on the fabric. However, I have this knowledge for future reference.

TIF 5 center
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

I was thinking about the overwhelming urge, imperative even, to “work into” the leaf some more, even though I love the way it looks right now, so I thought to try embroidery using nearly invisible thread. I am not at all sure I like it. I preferred the visibility of the veins in the purple side, and they have been obscured now with stitching, even though the thread is clear.

I used the same thread on the 1/2 leaves in the border. Aside from the crinkling where they are tacked down over velvet I rather like the upholstered look. But that center piece… dunno

TIF border
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

Week 3 lace and feathers
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

The week 3 work. I am still working with natural materials as resists and substrates for transfers. I remembered I had pressed some Queen Anne’s Lace in the phone book at the end of the summer to make it thin enough for sun printing. It works well for transfers as well, showing the sweet branching nature of it very nicely.

I am still coming to grips with the delicacy of the resulting images, particularly on satin. I don’t want to work into them because they feel perfect already – I can’t add anything to them by stitching them, so I tried stitching around them to make their perfection pop out. The best example here is the golden/brown feather at the bottom. I rather like the way that came out, and I’m thinking I should pursue things with more elaborate edges.

I still have the TIF challenge to finish up over the next two weeks. Yikes!

Jan 17a
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

I sprung for a new transfer marker today – browsing Michaels craft catastrophe and the marker followed me home. So did a small packet of dried ferns (for transfers) and a new pad of list paper because I’ve lost the other two pads I had for shopping lists.

I mention this only because I am trying to Not Buy Anything because really I have enough stuff to make decades worth of postcards. Or what ever else I decide I am going to make this year. So – no more stuff. I’m shopping my stash, and it is pretty fun so far.

An entire day of running errands. Not peaceful, but nice to be done. And there is more light in the living room.

Jan 15a
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

I have been experimenting with layers of transfers, stacked up. Windows seemed particularly alluring because of the different skies that I see out of mine. I like how the clouds came out best. I used cotton batting as a resist. The snow needs to be flakier, and in layers against a numinous gray sky. The night isn’t bad – but I need a better way of incorporating stars.

There are other windows, with curtains, and sunsets, on Flickr. Two days worth, in fact. After posting about how to waste time, I wasted a lot, but I still got my art in last night.

Snow day for the kids, which means not having to get them up and make breakfast and lunch all at once and get them out the door in a timely fashion. That is a relief. We get to have a slow breakfast, random lunch and probably Al underfoot as well, until the snow stops and we dig out.

OK Abby – this post’s for you. Some of us have January term and copious amounts of free time. For the rest of us, I advise poking this post over the course of weeks if not months.

I present some of the things on the internets that have been sucking my time and brain power. The last time I fell into something like this, two whole days vanished into Questionable Content and the kids had to make their own suppers and I forgot to take Aerin to flute group. I haven’t fallen quite so hard lately, but I have found A Girl and her Fed  which has much less back story  but makes up for it with political intrigue. I have always read Pibgorn, and 9 Chickweed Lane both by the same author. Pib has gone to a Mon/Wed/Fri schedule  and is hard to get into without backstory, but  Chickweed is easy to pick up and filled with people I wish I could talk to. 

Shaenon Garrity deserves her own paragraph because she is incredibly prolific and almost every strip makes me laugh. She has clearly been doing this for a long time. I found Smithson first, but it is laughably short and I wanted more in less than an afternoon. So, cleverly following links, I discovered Narbonic which made me snort so loud Aerin wanted to get involved. Within the first  week, Shaenon managed to introduce Mel, Helen B. and Dave, and incorporate "evil coffee" along with a doomsday machine and giant mutant gerbils. Aerin and I roared through the whole thing, and she’s been infecting friends with it, which is gratifying. After finishing that, we started L’il Mel,  one character’s growing pains.  Now Shaenon’s started Skin Horse, which I have to wait for like everyone else. Totally worth the wait, but agonizing nonetheless.

But then, just when I had a grip on my time in front of the computer, Elizabeth Bear and three (deranged, but in a very good way) writing friends (including Emma Bull and Will Shetterly) have come up with an ongoing fiction over the internet, complete with story, backstory, character dossiers, and even (my mind boggles) some characters’ blogs. They have Livejournal blogs, which they (the [fictional] characters) post to with some regularity. And a bulletin board for the onlookers to keep up, and attempt to keep it all straight. Fans of paranormal conspiracy theories should be particularly pleased. My advice is to click everything, and check to see if there are hidden links on every page. 

Someone posted to the bulletin board ecstatic that they had gotten a reply to a comment from a completely fictional character. On their blog.

I completely understood the joy. After all, I’m the one that dragged my family to picnic on a completely fictional island, in the rain.

OKay. My work here is done. Go waste your time.

Happy Blogiversary – I started this project one whole year ago.

Dec 31
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

I was so smitten with jude’s pieced window that I adapted it for use with fireworks, and stuck it to a postcard. The fireworks are anticipatory – we don’t get them til 6:15 tonight – but I remember what they were like from before.

I love fireworks. I, who startle easily and hate loud noises, revel in the bang and boom. I, who flinch at blinking lights of the season, adore the sparkle and pop. It think it may be my favorite part of the night.

Happy New Year, everyone: old friends (you know who you are), new friends, new readers, mom.

Dec 30
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

Woven torn strips for the background, the black bar was an attempt to bring a third direction into the weaving but it failed utterly. However, it looked cool storming off the edge of the page. So the big triangle sat on it, and the white silk pages hung from it and here we are.

Very, very quiet day. Everyone is sleeping a lot, and it makes for long quiet mornings. Tomorrow we go about town for the afternoon, celebrating the early part of First Night (which we call Last Afternoon instead) watching local performers do fun things. Then supper and fireworks, and blessings on the people who organize the fireworks for midnight Greenwich Mean Time which is 7:00 pm for us, so we can see them, cheer madly, and go home and be warm.