To Key West & Back! July 2010

What a great trip! We drove from NC all the way to Key West and back to visit my dad. Such a beautiful, relaxing week. Lots of quality family time - just what we needed. A little boating, a little swimming, a little sunning - lots of laughing, relaxing and pondering.

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Ugly Dried Avocado Peel + Silk, Scrim, Cotton and Linen

Equals PINK!

If I didn't see it  -
I wouldn't have believed it.

I've been reading about natural dyeing on quite a few blogs. The avocado dyeing seems to work for some - and not for others.

It worked for ME. So pretty! 

Now I have some vintage pink coolness to use in my workshop pieces.

Next:  Blackberry dye + voile, silk dupioni and cheese cloth.

Have I mentioned - Gizmo loves blackberries (and cheese!)

BUTTON LUST!

Is there such a thing??
Oh I do believe there is.
And I am afflicted!

I don't know when it happened - maybe when I was a little girl and used to sit under the big tree in our backyard in Ohio - with my mom's huge button tin, stringing them together for hours and hours - making necklaces (that she would always excitedly wear) and bracelets and yes - the long, long record breaking strands of  glass buttons, metal buttons, leather buttons, and wood buttons (very few plastic back then.)  Oh how I loved them.

I've recently felt the yearning again to touch buttons as they have found their way into some of the things I have been making - not for purpose - but simply for their aesthetic quality and beauty.  They have the  coolest buttons now - in beautiful colors, textures and shapes.  I picked these up recently on a trip to buy some canvas for a project I'm working on.  I couldn't resist.  I am particuarly enamored with the large purple one and know exactly what I'm going to do with.

I salvaged my Mom's button tin a few years ago.  The day after her funeral, while going through some things,  I found it in a closet in my parents' home.  I immediately reached for it and put it in my suitcase to bring home. It was the only thing I took that day.  The only thing that at the time - mattered. I never add new buttons to that box.  I leave it containing only it's original, authentic contents.  Buttons "she" had placed in there. That  button box remains my most treasured possession. It sits here beside me in my studio - where I can see it - and remember.    My new buttons - well they have their own place in my studio - in a pretty glass fish bowl on the other side of the room on the shelves. Maybe one day Sabrina will have my button fish bowl - where she can see it - in her studio.

Rock Lobster!

Oh the possibilities --  patchwork beasts!  How fun they are to make. 

Can a Lobster become a Patchwork Beast???

Jude's (Spirit Cloth) Patchwork Beasts workshop started yesterday.  

I'm wondering.....

is a Lobster considered a Beast???

In  MY ocean he  is!

Pondering Textures & Patterns Found in Nature...

In the soft fur of grizzlies....

In the rough bark of the trees....

In the random puffy display of the clouds

In the colorful organisms growing on volcanic rocks

and my favorite..... the dancing of the light refraction and ripples of the water in Glacier Lake pools.

Texture and Patterns are everywhere.  Why am I just begining to really (really)  notice these things?  Oh what have I  missed.

                                                                                                                                          (Montana/Idaho/Wyoming/Utah 2010 trip)

Heat Distressing Textiles...

After spending an entire day Friday (from about 7 am ntil a wee bit after midnight) - cleaning the studio ,closets, drawers, cabinets, scrubbing work surfaces and floor, I decided to kick back today.

I've been wanting to make some distressed textile surfaces for stitching, so that was the plan for today.

This is just one of several pieces I made today.  I also experimented by making  a sepia and vintage color surface and a jewel toned distressed textile.    

On this particular piece (all three pictures are of the same piece,)   I
used two colors of thread - a deep plum on one side and a variegated blue on the other.  I definitely like the plum thread more. The lighter thread calls too much attention to the stitching, take a backseat.  I may have to do something about that - maybe lay some color overtop of the thread.

It  was a  nice day with much success.  I always enjoy doing these types of projects. 

Now I've got to show you my nice tidy little studio - it looks so nice and fresh...

Oh I do love working in here when it looks like this!

It really cleans up so nice. 
I think it's the light colors.





A place for EVERYTHING.....

And EVERYTHING in it's Place!  

Sabi-wabi.
Yes!

Gizmo's had a rough year...

Even  epillepsy and a near death experience from eating a gum tree seed pod (geeze!)  can't keep this guy from smiling!!!

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Silence is the absolute poise or balance of body, mind and spirit....

                                                       (Glacier, Montana - 2010)

...The man who preserves his selfhood is ever calm and unshaken by the storms of existence ... What are the fruits of silence? They are self-control, true courage or endurance, patience, dignity and reverence. Silence is the cornerstone of character.

                                             (Ohiyesa, Wahpeton Santee Sioux)

Patchwork Beasts....

Am pretty psyched about participating in Jude's patchwork beasts workshop.

I can't wait to transform some of my favorite beings and non-beings,(bears, corgis and whatever!) into fabric.   Can't you just see Gizmo as a patchwork beast??

 Or how about some of the grizzlies and  black bears I saw in Montana?  Perfect.

This is going to be quite an adventure.  The workshop begins on July 15th.  It will be great fun to follow along with the "traveling companions: on their blogs - while we take this journey together.

Today - I'm looking forward to spending some time in the art cave.  It seems like weeks since I've been in there.   So while my husband is bbq-ing, my daughter is getting ready to go back to UNCSA tomorrow and the corgis are (what else..) sleeping - I will be doing something with maybe my journal, or my trip photographs.

 Something that makes my heart happy.    Looking at this picture I took in  Glacier, Montana where I was a week ago today - makes my heart happy. 

Do something that makes YOUR HEART HAPPY today.

(photo of patchwork beasts pictured, taken from Spiritcloth  with Jude's permission.)

Regard Heaven as Your Father...

Earth as your Mother

 and all things as your Brothers and Sisters.

- Tribe Unknown  

(Idaho - June 2010)

I wish I could say it's good to be home - but it's not.  Not really.

And The Winner of the Hand Stitched Bird is....

Carol!!!  Yay!

Please e-mail me with your addy and I'll get it out to you Monday -  after I put on a few more finishing touches!