Spirit Cloth

and then

... for a moment,  she puts the  art   back into it, makes it a potential conversation. Imagines a new form that might emerge as the result of some sort of  exchange. Hopes that this might help her  understand something.  Maybe just one small thing. But of course, she will continue anyway. 

AND

Just in case you might be one of those who has trouble commenting here. It seems it is a browser issue. So try commenting from another browser. And if that works, then you will want to clear your cookies and cache in your preferred browser, since there may be a corrupt browser session that's breaking your commenting ability.  Thanks to this advice from Typepad help, the problem has been resolved for a lot of folks.  Hey ho!

a little love story

...and the little ragged scrap said to the thread, " I love you, you complete me..."

*********

Serena is doing a few tutorials explaining her hand piecing methods...

My favorite line from today's post is:

"...What do I do with my seams? I listen to my fabric and the block in general..."

*********

My brother posted this on facebook, just had to share.

the Lyrebird...

 

 *********

Back to cloth, although I am still laughing.

Todays' ring is filling in slowly. Like the moon.

 

weave

OK. So just one more thing. Weave. Because it is always there for me. It runs deep and has visited me more in dreams than any place else.  This is where I wander off into something more personal.  To find new form. This is where I have always been going.  This is how I will continue.

As you know, I don't read much. Or haven't read much or even socialized much with the textile community. In a way this has served me well up to now. I think because, now, at a later age, I have taken many personal journeys with cloth. Without guidance or company. I think my love of cloth kept me going rather than the struggle to be good at it.  And self discovery has been my biggest joy.  Making me just want to share how that happens somehow.

That being said, I have now begun to read and interact more.  And it is interesting, this backwards approach. Seems easier to digest the words and work of others, without being in the position of awe and/or needing  to emulate. Or even to be led into a kind of blind acceptance without really knowing.  It is more of a conversation now, and equal back and forth. I have something meaningful to say and think. I have  more real way of receiving what is being offered. That's just the way it is for me.  The way it could best happen.  I have finally found a true comfort in who I am. and what I do.  This has been a behind the scenes struggle , like it always is even if it seems not. So it's really a good feeling.

So I'm just sayin' it...

 and thank you Liz....

a cold morning

Up early with not a lot to say, except  the lamplight looks like moonlight.  And the Magic Cloth 2 is on the wall... but not for long.

The nice thing about large cloth is that you can sit under it while you are still stitching it. This morning the Magic Cloth 1 is a shelter from the chill of the studio. I sat under it before lighting the fire. To watch the sun come up. It kept me warm. It is a good cloth.

If you didn't have a warm cloth, this morning would be a good morning to be covered in fur.

I. We. spent a couple of days trying to imagine a world without internet.  A life where building a shelter, growing food and staying healthy and occasionally stitching a warm cloth could be enough, everything.  I stitched while we chatted away.  And the eye that was born by opening a seam just wide enough to see through it gained focus.  I placed the eye's center to coincide with the first simple ring, thinking to myself, that a ring of vision starts with an eye.  The tiny brown kantha lightly defines the nine patch as a symbol of my beginnings in cloth.  The  brown thread was salvaged from the hem of an old skirt and dyed with walnut.

Some say dreaming is a waste of time. That dreaming is separate from doing.  I think dreaming is part of the natural order of living a life.  And when you look back , it seems like a dream anyway. But it wasn't.   Sometimes I think a dream is just a way to reorder moments into a story that can make more sense. To see in a new way 

 Close your eyes .

 

reconstructing fullness

So before dawn, by lamplight, I sat and stitched, remembering the light of the full moon, and waiting for sunrise. It was so dark. It rained so hard, I had to imagine the sound of the needle as well.  But I left a trail, evidence that it all really happened for me, just like that.

Once I had recaptured the shape of the full moon's light, I had fun bending it. I like that about cloth. Its flexibility.  Now that I told you, you know that much more about me and what I like about cloth.

I have set about trying to be less confusing about things.

(If it interests you, this piece is continued from here.)

4:42 PM:

So today it seems I am just feeling sure about some things. Life seems simpler and my direction stronger. Tomorrow we will be celebrating being sure, an anniversary.  We will pull the plug  for a couple of days...making time and space for some  walking and conversation  and dreaming and planning the future.  We decided we will only eat fruit. I will be back Sunday.

I constructed the piece above quickly today,  with the idea that it might represent a ring of vision, and a transition, a way of looking though my current work toward some change that I really have no words for right now. 

On second thought... maybe not Sunday....we'll see.

Later.

 

moonmilk

 9 26 AM:  An image that formed through a conversation with Vicky  (over at Diaries) Thank you. Today's ring  represents the nourishment in exchange.

Later, a quick doodle.

And only a moment later changing.

The Softening of the Stones

 

As the year comes to a close I want to thank all of  you traveling companions for continuing with me, keeping me company in whatever way you have. Thank you for visiting, your humor, your concern, you comments and stories. It all makes my journey here so much richer.

This is the center of the magic cloth 2. The cloth I began in Magic Diaries, among some special friends. Still in process, its center is a ring of stones, perhaps a medicine wheel of sorts. A special heart felt thank you to those of you who volunteered as lab rats as I pulled together this little dream of Diary teaching style. It has really made a difference for me and I certainly couldn't have done it without your support.

With some regrets, I announce that the SEW forum has been closed to the public as of this week. It was a nice idea to open it but in the end, the intimacy of a close community has proved a more useful teaching tool as well as a warmer learning environment.  I made this change after slowly considering  current students and the nature of the internet and my own focus. Although it may exclude a few folks from looking in, it has opened new opportunity for the ring of vision that gathers there. SEW is now the student forum connected to the Diaries Series. They are seamlessly connected as we continue with our story cloth.  A large cloth is like a community in a way.  A gathering of scrap, story and intention into some kind of natural order. Over time it can become shelter from the storm. Today I am wrapped in community, appreciating the warmth it provides. And still continuing.

My presence here will be thinner through the holiday (photos mostly and posting the rest of the gathered feathers). I wish you all a peaceful  transition.

morning rings

first the indigo was inside.

then out. side. and all around.

someday i will develop some better indigo dyeing skills. right now

i depend on Glennis Dolce for that.

i don't have the same kind of patience for it.

it is nice to be able to have a conversation rather than a competition with someone. in this case,a conversation right on cloth. right on cloth. respectfully sharing vision.

i love working with her moons. especially the shaded ones. they are so special and the time it took to make them is right there, you can feel it. . 

i am adding some of her unique blues to my naturally dyed ring series.

more to come.

 

and while we are on the subject, Glennis posted this on facebook yesterday.

take pictures....!

As an added note, although not always obvious, any natural dyeing you see me doing on this blog is directly related to the inspired teachings of India Flint whose knowledge and generosity is greatly appreciated. I cannot say this too many times.

no wind in december

sometimes when i cannot find the words, i often think it is because there aren't any.  a lot of times i solve that by talking about something else.  or not talking and just walking.