Story cloth...

...a bit of a departure for me, this kind of stitching, this kind of story telling.  Actually, it's more than a departure - I think this is a new path.  

There's a marvelous phenomenon happening within the cyber world...online workshops.  Artists are generously sharing their knowledge & experience through the computer these days.  If not for opportunities like this, I probably would never have the chance to learn about telling stories with cloth from a textile artist like Jude Hill.  Spirit Cloth is her blog, an inspiring place to visit and learn.

The 'Spirit Cloth' workshop is over now, but I am still (along with several others) finishing my piece.

Oh my, what I am learning!  I started out wanting to teach my hands to stitch.  And this is indeed happening.  What is also happening is learning the language of cloth...how different fabrics *sit* with each other, how edges speak...or shout, how moods can be created with piecing techniques and how texture lends personality.

My story cloth is also a sampler of sorts, as I've never before done any kind of quilting and I wanted to experiment with all that Jude had on offer.  I am even going to add words, something I mentioned in class that I have always avoided.  Just because I want to break some of my own rules - try on a new dress of a different color  :>]

All the cloth I'm using has been repurposed from something else.  Old shirts, blouses, stained linens, a torn skirt, and a discarded pillow case are included in this making.  Also, precious bits & pieces from blog friends in other parts of the world...Teresa's natural dye fragments from Australia...pink avocado-dyed sheers from Heike at Gerdiary, in Germany...Diane's amazing embroidery thread, all the way from France.

Working style for our class was completely improvisational.  There was/is no plan.  I didn't even have a story to begin with, just a jumble of cloth pieces waiting to tell me where they wanted to go.  And then the story did begin and the cloth went through several permutations.  This way of working is exactly like improvisational bead embroidery (my first love) and the entire reason I wanted to learn how to make story cloth bases.  Because for me, its all about creating landscapes where beads will live...

    

Now, a bit more stitching to do, words to collage into place, and then on to the beadwork...

Here are a few other stories that came from our workshop, each unique and WONDERFUL.
Manya
Cat
Susan C.
Linda S.
Lisa
Sandi
Pat
Suzanna

Till next time friends,

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Over the rainbow...

This story should perhaps start with, "Once upon a time, there was a soulbead sister named Grace..."  What is so amazing is that I've never actually met Grace, but somehow we are getting to know each other quite well through our mutual love of all things beady.  This often happens with bead people - we can't seem to help ourselves.  That's a long story in and of itself, but the important thing I want to share with you is that Grace has sent

the most incredible gift!

A collection of beaded cards - story cards really, each with their own theme - full of so much whimsy and delight, I just have to show them to you. Have you ever in your wildest, seen a flying butler?!  What is he doing out there in the garden with the chameleon and the ladybugs?

~ Chameleon eating buzzy bug ~

Czech brown striped beads, lampwork ladybugs, faceted Prenhite beads containing rutilated inclusions

Grace made all these cards all by hand.  They are hand stamped, with beads from her stash carefully stitched in place.  She kindly provided me the description of the various beads since some of them I had never even seen before.  Oh, be still my heart  :>]

~ Hoarding hedgehogs ~

Lampwork beads: turquoise discs & clear beads with cobalt dots, Tibetan bone beads

I should let you know that I have this *thing* for hedgehogs...ever since living in England awhile back where they'd come out at night and cavort on the lawn.  Took quite a strong liking to the little mites.  But I didn't know that Grace knew this!

~ Sealife ~

Stick pearls, seed pearls, African-trade Chevron beads, Japanese seed beads, vintage glass Czech beads

~ Draw your own beads! ~

Japanese seed beads, German molded glass beads (long "petal" beads & turquoise scarab beads)

I can't say I've left the best for last because all of these are so, so splendid, but I just get so darn happy whenever I look at this one:

~ Hedgies in my garden ~

Peruvian hedgies (ceramic?), green turquoise (tubes & pebbles), Howlite melon beads, amethyst beads

There's just no way to have a bad day when you've got hedgies around doing this,

and when you've got wonderful, creative people in the world who shine their light on you by gifting you something so AMAZING. 

But that's not quite the end of the story.  The evening of the day that Grace's gift arrived, the sky put on a beautiful light show.  I took this photo quite late in the evening across the veg garden.  After a rainy afternoon, the sunset turned the sky all pinky-gold...and this appeared,

a double rainbow.  You can just barely see the 2nd one, off to the right.  I couldn't help but think of Grace's gift as my own very special *pot of gold*...

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Ahh, summer solstice...

"On the Cliffs" by Henry Ryland

...the longest day of the year, the shortest night.  The wheel of the year turns and the traditional anticipation of summer is taking hold... 

I adore this painting.  It reminds me to keep looking forward, to be filled with anticipation and a searching soul. For reasons unknown ~ as I'm not much prone to ritual ~ I'm going to walk today (with dawg) to one of our special places, say some thank you's along the way to leafage, birdsong and the glorious sea air that surrounds us.  A quiet celebration with only two feet and four paws yet one filled with gratitude ~ deep, deep gratitude.

Happy solstice, my friends!

For a beautiful photograph of sunrise this morning at Stonehenge in Salisbury, England, look here.

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June returns on the tide...

Had a brief stroll down memory lane this afternoon...came upon this sea glass that I beaded into little bundles back in 2007...my very first improvisational bead embroidery, the June page for the Bead Journal Project of that year.  It's all about water and I named it  Driftwood.  For that BJP I was exploring a sense of place, my relationship with where I live.

Size 4" x 6"

I love that I can look at it today and know  e-x-a-c-t-l-y  why I placed each bead, each object, where I did.  I cut my beading teeth, so to speak, on this piece.  Holey driftwood.  Perfect for pushing a bead needle through.

Driftwood needs some barnacles, don't you think?  And every tide should bring some pearls to shore.

See this corner - this is very special to me because it is, quite literally, where my beadwork turned a corner.  Those lime-colored bugle beads are surrounded by the first size 15 (extremely tiny) seed beads that I ever sewed onto fabric.  It's uneven, sewn all higgely-piggely but I am quite fond of it anyway.  You know how that is when you're really nervous to try something but then when you do you find that it changes the way you work...forever?

Me and size 15's...we're best buds now.

Back to this stroll I was on today...it began with an effort to look through my stash of fabric, see what I might have on hand.  That's when I realized that I primarily have a whole lot of Indonesian batiks, collected back in 2007 for the above project.  These may not suit an upcoming project coming in on this June's tide.

More about that - and turning new corners - is for another post...

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Rest...

My blog seems to be getting quite heavy with photography posts of late, but I hope you'll hang in there for yet another one.  I've just finished week one of an online workshop, Digital Layers taught by Susan Tuttle, and I'm excited to share what I'm learning.

This photo was from the project called, 'Combining Multiple Photographs' and was the most difficult for me, by far.  The goal was to layer three textures on top of our subject photo and I kept choosing the wrong textures.  It takes awhile of playing around to find just the ones that seem to fit.  Did you know (because I didn't) there is a whole world of free, downloadable "textures" out there?  Yes, free.  What generous souls, they who must spend hours putting these things out there for our use!  

All three textures I used came from ShadowHouse Creations, hosted by Jerry Jones, also known on Flickr as skeletalmess.  If you like to play around with Photoshop, Jerry has some amazing images on offer.  For this piece I used an image of rusty lace, an ethereal atmospheric shot and a sky with birds flying.  


Adding each layer reminded me so much of weaving, like weaving with light, because as you play with the various blending modes, areas of your image fade in and out of each other, providing many surprises until your tapestry is complete...

And now, time to rest.  Wishing everyone a relaxing, holiday weekend and I hope to see you here again soon.

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Capturing the moment...

Where I live, we must take a ferry to travel back & forth to the mainland, the primary  transport across our watery highway, Puget Sound.  The ride is about forty minutes long - a good chunk of time for reading, doing a bit of stitching & beadwork, daydreaming, quality petting time for dawg, snoozing...you get the idea.

Every now & then, I feel like I strike it rich.  The ferry worker directs my jeep straight down the middle aisle to the very front of the boat.  Front & center, I call it.  On this particular evening, I was lucky indeed.  A rain storm was moving out and *god beams* started to appear.  Briefly, ever so briefly.

Not having my camera with me, I grabbed for my phone (ahh, technology). I'd recently uploaded an app called Hipstamatic which provides vintage film effects like the plastic cameras of days gone by.  I remember running around as a kid with my plastic wonder, shooting this, that and the everything - now that was pure joy!   

Here is a joyful moment, a good many years later...

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Wind...

...it came in slowly this afternoon and has been building steadily.  It's often like that on our little island.  A still day begins, a joy for working in the garden, then comes that first gust.  And soon another.  The frequency increases until I'll find myself looking up at the tall conifers that surround our property, watching their tops swing to and fro, and I'll be certain - windy hours ahead!

Time to batten down the hatches.  No more gardening for today...

I grew up in an area of California known for its hot, dry winds.  Called Santanas or Santa Anas, devil winds (translated from the Spanish) were known for their heat because they originated out of the desert.  We always dreaded them - they meant fire season. They'd arrive at the end of summer, at the driest time of the year when all the vegetation was like kindling.  A lot of myth surrounded these winds.  Some said they could make you crazy - something to do with all the negative ions being removed from the atmosphere which makes humans (and animals) unstable.  Myth making, indeed.  But they were parching.  They howled.  And they could continue for several days. Unsettling to me, without a doubt.

Much like the winds here.  Not hot and certainly not dry, but oh, the sound...

It's odd what sticks from childhood.

So I was thinking about how to turn this wind thing around.  I'm inspired by this artist who plays with wind and this artist who stitches wind magic. And this masterful photographer who often captures the wind through extremely long time exposures.  Ah, if I could only wait in the wind like that...

So tell me, what do you feel about the wind...?

'Windflowers', 1903

painting by John William Waterhouse 

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Mingled yarn...

"The web of our life is of a mingled yarn,

good and ill together."

William Shakespere,  from All's Well that Ends Well

Just something I'm thinking about today...the way lives are knit together...how friends become friends, stay friends...or sometimes not...yet once there was a web between, binding, interwoven, unique.  Thinking too, how sometimes that web remains and sometimes it's blown away on the next season's wind.  Like loved ones who are with us for awhile...and then gone.

I took these photographs in early February.  One morning the entire hedgerow behind our pond was filled with these (seemingly) overnight creations.  I don't know which spider spins these webs, but aren't they the most marvelous constructions?  They suit my mood today as I look at them and wonder about "good and ill together."  Threads.  Mingled yarn.  Lives intertwined.

Today is my mother's birthday.  If she was still with me, she would be 88.  I can't imagine her that old.  But I like to imagine that one of those webs in the hedgerow is hers, next to mine, along with all the others we've known and loved...and have yet to know and love.  

Just something I'm thinking about today...

       

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Slow Felt: upcoming workshop with Chad Alice Hagen!

Felting and dyeing and beading and stitching, oh my!

Resist Dyeing and Bookbinding

~  with Chad Alice Hagen ~

June 17, 18 and 19, 2010

Lopez Island, Washington

I had my first experience attending a felting workshop with Chad Alice Hagen last summer and WOW, was it ever wonderful (see my blog post, Resist * Stitch * Bead.)  So I was thrilled beyond belief when my good friend Jan S., was able to "convince" Chad to come out to our little corner of the world - the beautiful San Juan Islands - and have a vacation lead one of her awesome workshops right here!  This post is to let you all know that there are a few spaces available...hint, hint...

I can't wait to learn how to make one of these!

This three day intensive workshop will combine felt-making, resist dyeing AND book making.  Let me quote directly from the workshop description:

The first day's focus will be the dye kitchen where we will not

only learn the basics for setting up a safe at-home dye area

and the use of Lanaset and WF acid dyeing, but will transform

our fine Australian Merino needle punched prefelts into dozens

of brilliant resist dyed samples through the magical use of hundreds

of odd but interesting resist tools and up to 15 dyebaths.

The next days will be filled with stitching and beading those beautiful

dyed surfaces and transforming them into small, exquisite books.  The

class will learn two different bookbinding stitches and two types of book

covers.  With many demonstrations and hands on learning, we will finish

at least two books - a wrapped sketchbook and a wonderful Coptic

bound journal.

The stitching, beading and binding of books is a thoughtful, slow process

so be prepared for delightful hours surrounded by color and texture

and the company of like-minded folk.  The instructor will bring lots of

samples of her books and will lead discussions on design ideas and

variations for using handmade felt in books.

Click here for the pdf which has the complete workshop description, cost, instructor details, and contact info.

Let me tempt you just a bit further - go to Flickr (here) and have a peek at some more examples of Chad's handmade books.  And while you're at it, you may not want to miss her fabulous felted and beaded brooches and ooooh, the Art Pages.  

edge detail on handmade book

The photos above can be viewed larger and in greater detail on Chad's blog - which btw, is also a hoot to read and will provide you with lots more info about her work, studio, travels, sense of humor, and the overall general state of her artistic life living with two demanding cats.  You might want to check out her website, too, chadalicehagen.com.  There's a wonderful photo of Chad passed out on the work table, surrounded by oodles of resist dyed felts.  Ah heck, here it is (hope she won't mind).

This workshop is being hosted and organized by Jan S.  If you have any questions (really, any at all) or would like to inquire about reserving a spot around the dye pots, please contact Jan directly via her website.

Won't you join us...it's going to be a BLAST?!  I'll be there and I would so love to see you!

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Manipulating digital photos...

I've spoken before about my love/hate relationship with digital photography.  It's no secret.

When I stopped doing traditional black & white darkroom work, I sat on the digital fence for a long, long

time,

not happy on it, not happy off of it.

It feels really good not to be working with those chemicals anymore.  I wouldn't want to bring them into the new environment where I live anyway. I no longer throw away mountains of film & slides (and mountains of money on same)...I simply push the *delete* button.  But the flip side to these things is that I no longer have the same relationship with picture making and well, "the thrill is gone, gone away for good."  Or so I thought.

I knew I needed to bring the FUN back into my camera toting life so I thought I'd post a little recap of a workshop that gave me just that.  It was all I had hoped for and more.

I can't remember where I first read about Susan Tuttle's online workshop, "Digital Photomanipulation."  I surf through a lot of blogs - I think someone mentioned having taken this course, and loved it, so I probably clicked on a link and off I went.  Am I glad I did!  Visual Poetry (I really liked the sound of that) is the name of Susan's website for this art workshop series and many examples of her FUN and beautiful work can be seen on her Flicker page here.  Oh my gosh, isn't this the most deliciously *manipulated* cupcake?

Photo courtesy of Susan Tuttle

All rights reserved

The month long workshop was divided into weekly assignments where we learned three new techniques each week.  We could work at our own pace, trying all three, or only one, whatever suited us.  We could jump ahead or lag behind, even work on one photo over & over until we made it sing.  Like this singing cupcake that makes me crave frosting.  I think Susan's photo is actually an Operetta to Baked Goods  :>]  

The technique was called 'Retro Technique 1'.  Here's my attempt:

Below is the "before" shot:

The software we used was Photoshop Elements 6.0 (or later versions, 7.0 or 8.0).  Some people worked in Photoshop, for which Susan supplied supplemental written instructions. I chose to work in Elements since Adobe provides a free 30-day trial of their latest version.  I liked it very much. Other "perks" to the workshop were Video Tutorials for each assignment (these were incredibly helpful - thanks, Susan!), a Forum where we could post whatever questions we had while working, Texture Goodys to play around with and our very own Flicker group for posting our results.  I was amazed at how much I learned by viewing the creative solutions of the other members.

Here I had fun with 'Faux Midnight' where I turned a frosty morning into midnight by moonlight...

...'Retro Technique 2' with some grittiness from a Texture Goody...

'Tinted Grayscale' was about removing all the color then adding back a tint...a favorite subject here...

Oh, and that photo at the top...that's a 'Landscape Atmosphere' technique...

here's the before comparison:

I have a really long way to go, there is so much to learn, so many endless possibilities of how to manipulate my images, get them to say what I want them to say. But I will definitely take another workshop from Susan...and maybe even another one after that!  And I've pre-ordered this:  

Yes, I am definitely having some FUN now and for that I am very grateful.

Hope everyone is having a happy Spring Break, till next time...

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