Picture Fall Day 1 - Part 2. . .choose



Berry/seeds Solomon's Wreath



Insect on a fall leaf of Purple Cone Flower

Asparagus with captured leaf and rain drops



I barely missed stepping on this!



Raspberry in fall



medium white tail deer through windshield of my truck



Day 1 Picture Fall + Recluse?



Today is the first of 31 days for the Picture Fall Photo Workshop
It is raining here right now, so I photograph inside.
I have a huge bite on my arm from a spider.
Here it is rather blurred but I think the color blends well with the leaves.



This shot is interesting but not quite focused.



I am trying different angles to see what is more interesting to me.



I love the color in this shot but it is not quite in focus.



I like the composition in this photo but I am not quite sure about the focus.
I think I need to get the tripod out for this.
You see, my camera is quite a few years old. It is a Canon Power Shot A20.
I set it for no flash and I zoom in and out trying different things and it is set
for close-up photo's.
The light is my dining room chandeliers and some daylight.

The sun is supposed to come out later and I will try to get some outdoor
shots of leaves.
hmmm
I have to decide which one to post for my class.
As always, that is the hardest part.



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!