Blank Pages? Sketchbook Project



I stroll around my studio
thinking about the Moleskin notebook. The pages are thin. This
is not the regular sketchbook. It is the notebook. So, I consider
this as I look at what is around my studio and wonder what I am
inclined to use?



My topic is Secret Code. . .
Hmmm, what can I do that I have not seen a million times
before?

If I tell then it is not a secret, right?

What are you going to do with this project?
This is reminding me a bit about the museum in a box?
What is in your museum in a box, now?
What does your box look like?
What does your Moleskin Sketchbook Project look like?
Is it fat, or not?
hmmm. . .

Batik or what?



Hello,
This is a rainy day clean-up day
You know the kind. . .
The problem is always. . .
I get distracted.
I would much rather be. . .



Eco-Batik

I went to MISH MISH yesterday in Blacksburg, Va.
my local art supply store. . .
to buy Bee's Wax and a Tjanting tool.
I have always loved Inger McCabe Elliott's fabric;
When I had my first home in Dallas, Texas,
I used her fabric in every room that I could.
I love Batik fabric but I love the traditional older designs most of all.
I have her book Batik-Fabled Cloth of Java which I glance at
every now and then from my collection of Fiber Art books.
Working in the "Slow Cloth" movement
I find that I want to tackle this technique while
coloring fabric with natural dyes found from nature.

If you click on the link above it will take you to where other artists are doing this too.

Oh yes, one more thing. . .
My personalized Moleskin notebook arrived from the Sketchbook Project!
Now I can work on that, too.
(I have already started and my topic is Secret Code) 

I was dyeing to see. . .

From the same batch of Goldenrod dye
this piece of folded and clamped Itajime
on silk changed and became darker with more time
in the dyebath, also I
introduced some vinegar. The iron in the
clamps, I believe, changed the color
to more of a darker greenish color.
(See previous post where I dyed with Goldenrod)

Fiber Sunday

Sea the Sea 2009

Hand dyed felt/beaded/mixed media 2009





It Is Not What You Say















Lost In The Thickets

You must travel at random,

Like the first Mayans.

You must risk getting lost in the thickets,

But that is the only way to make art.
Tezcatillipoca

Dyeing with Goldenrod today was quite an experience.
I soaked the flowers for a couple of days prior to simmering them
in water for part of the day. Then I placed the shibori prepared silk
into the strained mixture and waited while it simmered, barely.
It was a very dry hot day so that when I removed this fabric from the
pot I immediately hung it to dry. It dried this afternoon. I removed the
metal clips and gently unfolded the piece.
I have another, still in the cooled dye pot, that I will leave for a day or so.
I can see the difference, then.

Today



"Poetry is just the evidence of life. If your life is burning well, poetry is just the ash."

Leonard Cohen



Lost My Way?



I began with words
because I like words
but. . .
I operate from the right side of my brain.
How can that be?
I have to wake up every morning and decide
which will it be?
Pictures or words?
Poetry?
Photographs, they take both sides.
I am working on that.
I will make the old camera that I have. . .
do what I want it to do. . .
But first I need to know the rules.
So, you KNOW, I will break them someday.



How Long?



Traces left behind on silk
of
a
Summer day

     waiting. . .

for

a silken thread

for "Found Stitched and Dyed"



Eco Colour ~ And Angels ~ And Canary Feathers



Traces left behind of. . .





pansies, petunias, and morning glories
on silk
soaking in a mordant solution while. . .





traces of my canary
mingle with folded copy of my painting That Angel
in gouache on vellum in 2009



Hapa-zome ~ happy dog ~ happy day

On this day I will remember this sky. . .

this collected goldenrod by my husband. . .

these pansies from my garden, petunias, morning glories, and silk. . .

hammered into the fiber leaving colorful traces behind. . .

fall leaves and green grass. . .

and my Jilly for her help!

Andre' Malraux Museum Without Walls/Museum In A Box?



I think of this book while I look
for things I put
into the spot
created


What is in your box?

 .

Background

This piece is more sculptural
I think I will do more
that breaks from the background.
I am in a contemplation mode.
I hope you have a nice weekend!
I am working with Goldenrod and Elderberry in the crockpot for dye!

Nic Marks: The Happy Planet Index | Video on TED.com

Nic Marks: The Happy Planet Index Video on TED.com

Eco Colour Trouble/Play

India Flint's Book, Eco Colour, finally came in the mail last

week, the cover, which I just scanned into my computer is

above.

My friend SaraMuse has been working with this book for a while.

Tantalizing images and words from her have been on my mind while

I have been so involved with the new school year and my classes,

painting the inside of my house, and working on interesting techniques

for my thread paintings.



Elderberry is mentioned in the book as a good source of color and this is

an image I snapped of an old old bush on the side of my very narrow road

which is a one way road with two way traffic high upon our mountain.

This shot  makes me think of a Monet painting.



This is a bit closer view. The problem is that this bush is on the edge of a very

steep incline and very high from where I can stand on the road.

I asked my husband if he might clip a clump of these elderberries so that I can

use them to dye some silk, which he readily agreed to do. He promptly left me

at home and took my beloved red pick-up truck with the ladder and some gloves

and a tree limb clipping tool. I expected him back, right away.

I waited, and waited, while I was preparing dinner for the three of us, and I

waited some more.

I was ready to drive the Jeep to where I knew he was to see if something bad

had happened.

About that time. . .







He backed down our driveway with all of this!







I said, "A clump," he heard, "All of it??"

We then stripped the clumps off of these limbs and put them into four kitchen

trash bags and then put them into our freezer because that is what

India said to do in her book. Now I am anxiously waiting for a day to use these

berries to dye some silk so that I can participate in the Found Stitched and Dyed

international sewing circle that India started on her blog.

I will follow SaraMuzes lead and visit some thrift stores for silk to reinvent,

re-use, and invigorate.







Next, I am after goldenrod and Black Walnuts!

How Can One Say. . .

Turned inside out
Is how I feel. . .sometimes

In this age of the internet
but. . .a real jewel
in the form
of a real live friend
who lives and breaths and shares and inspires. . .

Who is always there. . .for real
through years and years and years

with similar life experiences
one who truly understands
because they have walked the path
chosen
who can expose you to new trouble
like Eco Color
How can one say. . .
How much you are treasured
How nice to have you as my friend.