Following the thread of a thought

page one ~ from, The Illustrated Glossary of Dye Plants

page two ~ from, The Illustrated Glossary of Dye Plants

page three ~ from, The Illustrated Glossary of Dye Plants

In retrospect, I probably should have named this playful compendium

The Imaginary Illustrated Glossary of Dye Plants

or

The Illustrated Imaginarium of Dye Plants

for I don't believe this will ever be anything but a little book

that lives solely in my mind, produced for a bit of fun on Instagram.

But I suppose it's been good practice should I decide at some juncture

to try my hand at the real thing ...

Along another line of thought, the title of this post is not original to me.

I'm sure I gleaned it from jude at Spirit Cloth at some point and

I sincerely hope she is given fair credit & attribution from others

for all she offers there.

This is a sore subject with me at the moment ...

the *borrowing* - no, let me speak plain - the stealing

 that I read and see running rampant on the internet amongst

artists, creatives, workshop organizers

and a whole host of wannabes, coat tail riders and ladder climbers.

It's a double-edged sword out here on the web; the need & desire to share work

counterbalanced by all those who are watching, researching,

and will so blatantly 

rip others off

in

a

 heartbeat.

Is it really so hard to come up with one's own original words or works?

Is it that difficult to ask permission first?

Or to put some dedicated energy

into coming up with personal work that is truly authentic

and not just a blatant copy of someone else's work?

I've seen this rampant in the world of photography for years

and now sadly, I see it running rampant amongst the cloth dyers

[eco-dyers, eco-printers, contact printers, natural dyers, and many stitchers],

a tribe I am somewhat new to and a little on edge about of late ...

it's incredibly disheartening.

And I'm feeling the need to take care.

::::

I have no intention of getting into arguments with folks over this subject

and I'm half inclined to close the comments section because of it,

but there are some friends who visit here who I don't want to silence

so I'll leave it open.

Talk to me.

Life is not lived in a straight line

"There isn't one right path for you or anyone else.

And there isn't a set of timelines of milestones ...

You're allowed to backtrack.

You're allowed to figure out what inspires you

at different stages of your life.

You're allowed extra time when you need it.

Life is meant to be a series of zigs and zags.

It should look like a mess, but a beautiful mess.

It shows that you have changed and grown.

You've had your ups and downs.

You went down one path, but decided to change course ...

perhaps on many occasions.

That's how life should be."

~ Angel Chernoff ~

First, I'd like to start by saying  Thanks  to each of the kind folks who've written

wondering where I'd wandered off to and why.

A disappearance wasn't planned, but it began and then it felt totally natural

and right to follow and to somehow trust that'd I'd know where I was meant to go

once I got there,

which wasn't to be here it seemed, blogging.

Except now it  is.

Have I confused you completely already?

To backtrack: I resorted to a few fairly strict measures to bring my body back to

some semblance of rightness, and again, I felt inclined to keep my concentration there

and not out here telling everyone about it.

Which is not my way anyway.

So while that was on the slow road to sorting itself out

I unexpectedly found myself on a new threshold

- literally -

when a space I'd put my name on a waiting list for suddenly became available.

This was a dream come true.

A small space for a textile / beading / photography studio ... at last.

Room to stretch my wings, dive into multiple projects at a time, close the door

on big beautiful messes  without having to clean up first  and then 

return the next day to pick right up where I'd left off.

And one of the best bits is that I can bring my dear doggy.

That's her new sleeping spot over there on the left wall

although I think she prefers the little rug by the door actually.

That quote up top from Angel popped into my email this morning and

as I read it, I knew today was the day to say a little something here.

I'll keep it short for the moment

[in truth, I am feeling somewhat rusty at this]

but I have quite a few tales to catch up on,

many pictures to share,

and I'm greatly looking forward to being out here with you all again.