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So you can see the velvet stump in the last post… and the silk spruce cone but I thought I’d show you details…
And another in progress shot with my handmade leaf skeletons and a cedar branch… circled… I love how they came out…
I’m having a lot of fun with this project.
Out of the hoop, and sampling threads to finish… you can see my cone, a bit… and I’ve also made a wonderful velvet stump…
I had been on the wait list for notification of enrollment for Fleur Woods Joyful Embroidery for a while when suddenly in July she offered one of two kit patterns free so I chose her moss one. I love the way her patterns are merely suggestions, I think that is a great way to approach patterns, it feels more like you own work when you’re finished. The pattern sat in my mailbox for a while but I started working on it after I had finished my tree, which you can finally see on my making journal.
I took Fleur’s suggestion to try using some velvet as a background, never having stitched on that heavy a background before. It is a little tougher to pull some threads through but it does provide a luscious looking ground. So as I’m working through these first modules of the course I’m also working on this piece. I mentioned above that I like that her patterns are mere suggestions. For almost after the first few stitches my rebel stitcher is saying “ Well what if I did this instead, or sometimes… I think I’ll just do this and see what happens”. For I learned early in my sewing years that patterns, especially those for clothes, were often vague, and had to always be adapted for me. So…. Isn’t that the way of all Patterns?
Here’s what it looked like as I began. I’m sewing in an eight inch hoop.
I shared this photo with my other embroidery group and one of my friends said what are you going to make of it… , referring to my desire this year to do mostly 3D embroideries. I hadn’t thought about that but to be sure I was not thrilled with doing just flat work again… so that week I thought…hmmm… I think that instead of moss, I will think of this as “forest floor” so I wonder if I can make a cone? A couple of hours later I had a beautiful silk replica of a cone that will be placed just so, somewhere in the work. ‘ Til next time!
So I posted in Making that I was taking a class with Fleur Woods, and I have made a collage cover for my sketch book that will hold my comments… I think I will post here about the class as it is supposed to grow my skills and the making page will maybe show what the results might be and anything else I’m working on outside of the class… if anything… grin. So far she has talked about supples and grouping some fabrics together that you love or that bring you joy because, as we all know fabulous fabrics and threads give us inspiration for a project. I’m interested to see where this might take me, for up to now, I mostly use my photographs as the inspiration jumping in point. I don’t think I have ever just started a project with fabric and threads as the starting point. I have done tiny sketch scraps, grin…. Remember I don’t call them samples or I end up yawning and avoiding completion. So it was kind of fun to go to my stash and,pull some fabrics, I had mostly forgotten about and getting excited about them all over again. Here’s something I might be working with in the near future… I’m excited about getting back to some colour!
Fabric then. fabric and threads…
Some of you will remember I did a flat piece last year the was based on a tree branch that had new growth filling a cleft… well now it has become a hollow log… and we all know that hollow logs are homes to many .
Here’s to changes and homes and logs and trees and stitching!
Loving this too!
As I have said before I have found some animals that seem to watch over me and I have made one for each of the elements, earth, water, fire and air. I thought with the completion of the Arctic Fox I was done but I have decided to also do a red fox, two foxes but they have very different energy for me. I have always love the red fox but when deciding on which one seemed dominant for me,I took the Arctic fox because it was more playful and curious. The red fox is often portrayed as sly or crafty and I wasn’t sure I wanted to encourage that kind of fire energy. And yet, I have got a red fox head traced on a beautiful piece of hand dyed fabric that looks to me like a forest and it is ready to start using the same lovely silk yarn I got from my brother.
I was thinking about the spirits and another guiding,principle popped into my head, and it may be correct. As well as standing for the elements and how I,perceive them, these spirits also align with the other personalities in my family. One each for my daughters and the two foxes will then represent me and my husband. I’ve always known we had fiery ,hmm,” discussions”, that we are often on the same side but come at problems from different angles. And that fits with the two foxes, for apparently though the two foxes often are in the same habitat, they often spar so once again this fits nicely together. Something that I’m not sure the two different foxes do that we certainly do is share the alternate sides of an event. So a good match if a little volatile.
Can’t wait to start stitching but I think it will be slower to complete than the Arctic Fox.
As I said last time I love putting things together just to see how they look. One day I was looking at a big photo combination that I had printed after a trip to France. I had framed it but this day I decided I didn’t need it there anymore so I sliced it up and over the next few days came up with this combination. Photographs strips, found words from magazines and a similar construction photo of the Pompidou Centre I love. Windows informs this work too.
Taking and printing lots of photos was fun. Still is. But I found that I had a lot of trial photos that it seemed a shame to throw out. So I began keeping them in a drawer and then every once in a while I would pull out some and make some collages. I had more fragments of paper for I love handmade papers of all kinds and I have collected a good stash and use them for frames or backgrounds for photos but off cuts are also kept.
This was in fact a habit I picked up when I was a grade school teacher. I loved displaying my students work on a bulletin board and I always did a lot of theme elaboration and when I cut out something I also kept,what I now know to call,the negative space left from the cut out. I used them too sometimes so amassing bits I guess has always been a way to increase the usefulness and reduce the amount of paper I had to use over all.
Once I have some interesting bits on my table I let my hands take over and let new pictures materialize. I started small, mostly with book marks, which I often left in library books as they were returned for I was usually done with them at that point. I would also make bookmarks for my Bookclub members instead,of sending Christmas cards to them. I would take a number of bookmarks to a meeting and let them choose the ones they wanted.it was always fun to try and make them for specific members and see if those were the ones they chose. I think the results were about 50/50.
You can see a few I made a while ago in my paper photos.
I wanted to make fabric collages too but found it harder to start but now I seem to be able to combine paper and fabric more easily and of course that is because I kept playing and fiddling and letting my hands,scissors and mind work with no plans or expectations in place.
As it is often stated, it is in the doing that art and intuition and authenticity find each other.
I’ve been thinking a lot about just how and why I make the things I do. I have spent many hours over the years reading about these aspects of making art and I’m going to attempt to digest some of the quotes and stances I’ve discovered that make sense to me and my practice as it seems to be changing directions once again.
I have often wondered why, for example,I basically stopped writing poetry and began doing visual art. For if you had met me fifteen or twenty years ago I would have said I really wanted to be a writer, and I had worked hard to do that,I’d taken senior level university courses, and managed to get some poems published. I read the journals to see what work they might accept. I attended workshops with writers I admired, all the stuff that lines you up for success. I still have a whole book manuscript waiting in a file. It has been sent out to various publishers to no avail. There was a creeping feeling that my time to break in was rapidly disappearing. I began to notice when reading other poets who had broken through,that what they had to say and how they said it held little interest for me. The long story short, I decided what I had to say in words was not as relevant to others as it was to me, and coupled with the effort I went to to polish and shape a poem I felt these words were costing me too much to create and none of the process was making me feel happy, appreciated ,no it was in fact becoming a chore.
I think around about the same time I began taking photos. This brought me joy, I love flowers and light and capturing a moment just so. I took some online photo courses, and joined a flicker group that was really supportive and I began making cards with my photos and then I started reading about how one could print photos onto fabric, and art quilting was taking off, so I followed and had a ball. I still do enjoy taking photos and enjoying the rare ones that come straight out of the camera but also the ones that I can alter to make better or altogether different. My Dad was also at the time tweaking photos and he told me there is no bad photo.One can always find a piece and crop it or manipulate it into something better.
So photos took me into my visual art. One of the many classes I took suggested shooting still life, arranging objects and capturing them in different lights or from different angles. But being a rebel by nature I decided it was more fun to capture a still life, in situ. So I have for years now seen something just for a second and I go to get my camera to take a shot and see if I get it in time. My husband laughs and tells a story about when we were re siding our house. He came to get some dried boards and I had my camera out.
It was fall of course… and the wind blew this leaf onto the board before I started painting… and then this one… happened just after some painting had been done…
And the journey continues, with lots of reflections I hope to share over time.
And there is so much happening in the world today, I have been reading some politics, as well as novels. An Indian in the Cabinet. By Jody Wilson -Raybould is an interesting read from many perspectives . Raybould is a very articulate indigenous leader who Justin Trudeau convinced to run for parliament. She was the Minister of Justice and Attorney General from 2015-2019 and proceeded to work hard for what she believed was her mandate. Only to discover that her views and the prime minister’s were different and how that all played out for her as a minister ,a woman and indigenous leader. It is disturbing to me to see just how politics has degraded even in Canada to doing only what is necessary to be re elected.
I don’t even want to think about Alberta politics right now. There seems to be no room for common sense and civility. One can only hope this is a passing phase that will rapidly lose its appeal.
Novel wise my choices were not that much lighter. Brit Bennett has written wonderful book , The Vanishing Half, that deals with complex family, racial and gender issues. How people lie, and hide and how prejudice affects both sides of the equation. This is a very Human book.
I’ve been reading a lot. Reading more than writing. Maybe even more than making but I love the way books always gives me something new, or surprising. This book,”The Book of Form and Emptiness “ by Ruth Ozeki was a big surprise. It is a complicated story but well told. The characters are real and full and even though their story is not always a pleasant one there is so much joy in the book. And Books have voices of their own, which makes it very unusual and they have a lot to say about how they help us grow and see . It is a wonderful read.
Just finished reading ,A Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams.
Wonderful story and well written. It is a treat to read about someone who loves words as much as I do. Especially in this day and age where abbreviation seems to be the norm. All the tiny slips of paper, and defining sentences is a wonder. Enjoy. It as a leisurely read. I remember a junior high school teacher giving me a gift when the school year ended. She had collected her favourite quotes and mimeographed them for me to have. This book reminds me of that special connection with another person and the words we use and collect to define us.
Another book to look for if you love gardens, The Morville Hours by Katherine Swift. She is designing and restoring an old garden and at the same time you learn about lots of old fashioned knowledge that most of us today do not even think about. A fascinating read, recommended to me by an embroidery friend. Flowers, gardens and sewing, do I need anything else…. Um only music and I am happy !
My day lilies this summer put on a gorgeous splash.
Reading a fascinating book called The Fabric Of Civilization by Virginia Postrel.
I’m only about half way through this but she is making a very good case that fabric has driven a huge number of the technological advances that we study as the industrial revolution, the age of machines, and world economies.
She suggests that the invention of string, then thread then cloth is a natural progression alongside all the usual progressive advances we study, and in fact, thread ,cloth then bolts of fabric both woven and knitted has built the world that we know today.
This brief summary doesn’t of course do the book justice, so if you are at all interested,I hope you will seek this out. It is an interesting alternate view of the history with which we are more familiar .
Being a textile person I think she is right. I have read other books that talk about world textiles and have been amazed at the similarities that exist between patterns.
Maybe this is truly the thread that binds us!
I read all year! Of Course! And usually my summer reading was not the light fare that most seem to associate with that term. But this July I have been reading two books that are just good stories. Good characters, interesting places and simply enjoyable.
Bloomsbury Girls by Natalie Jenner and Women in Sunlight by Francis Mayes
Thinking this morning, that even though I am really tired of hearing about Covid, there must be something positive that has happened in these past two years. So here is my list:
I learned about and acquired a lightening cable for my iPad so I could stream opera ,first, then our own philharmonic orchestra streamed a number of wonderful chamber works because they still wanted to play but couldn’t in large groups. I heard some wonderful repertoire that I wouldn’t have otherwise.
I made more art work because I had more constraints on my practice. I had to use what I had because shopping was not pleasurable, and that also made some of the combinations of fabric and paper more interesting.
I became extremely efficient shopping for groceries. I can now do a shop in under 40 minutes and still get exactly what I need.
I took Jane Dunnewold’s creative strength training course, and found some long distance friends at the same time rediscovering I really enjoy hand stitching more than machine stitching.
My time wasn’t spent planning it was spent doing or walking .
I have always enjoyed my own company and I find now I still choose to be alone more than I choose to socialize, which also give me more time to read and write, make, and listen.
When I did travel, it was less hectic, planes were quite civilized barring the mask wearing which was a nuisance but less than I figured it would be.
How about you? What positive things did you uncover from the experience?
Yesterday I listened to a workshop recording from Jane Dunnewold to learn about Joseph Cornell and his assemblages and a wonderful Mary Chapin Carpenter song . We were to then try to collage something using symbols we thought related to either song or art or both. I spent a comfortable hour cutting and pasting and stamping and this is my result. I found first I know more about positive and negative space than I thought I did. I was surprised that I could free cut a bird’s wing. And I got to try some stamps I’ve had for a long time. Just goes to show how we often unknowingly stash things and suddenly they become something that is just right for a project.
Often when I wake in the middle of the night I get up and read in the dark on my kindle. I love reading poetry on my kindle simply because it is a great place to get poetry, which my bookstores don’t always have on the shelf, and I can re read as often as I like. Finding that single phrase that has been crafted for maximum impact by the poet is often the key that triggers a deep breath and the relaxation that I need to get back to sleep. Last night I was reading Mary Oliver’s Long Life, and this was the magical big breath and release from tension.
“ All the eighth notes Mozart didn’t have time to use before he entered the cloudburst he gave to the wren.”
Happy Valentine’s Everyone! Flowers are important on this day so I’m posting some summer garden ones. It is always wonderful to re look at past gardens especially in this Brown month here in Canada.
