Spirit Cloth

refining the place idea

i have finished the first in what i was planning to call the gallery series... some quiet cloths that seemed driven by design. but design is never without story (the idea is a place to go)  and the story of place seems to be about where we touch things and the impression that makes.  this one, which is called places i have been, is complete. it is simple and now i want it to be simply functional as well.  while photographing it with some other things (dots) i collected in different places, i decided i like it better as a home for souvenirs... a place map, or better yet...a redefinition of the place mat.  a table top time keeper.  a sampler of story fragments.  a collection of tiny journeys.  touching.

place

since i have been rambling about where this touches that... here and in my head ... i have come to a new focus on place.  the place i thought i was going to by adding to the first nature of dots piece became way too big.  it wasn't a safe enough place.  i didn't like it there.  at least not last night when i cut all the chatter off the edges and made it into the place i needed it to be.  a long cloth but not too long, a short journey. it is a place where i have been. i have been thinking about dots.  and dots as other places i have been (the new title for this piece).  saving them up.  putting them in little boxes . squares.  squares can be places too. 

i added just one little square as a sign of a new place i might be going to.  i left the edge open ended to make it easier to go there.

a place is simply  where we stop for a while, somewhere we can relax, maybe a shelter we build around us or a space we squeeze ourselves into.  it could be just a set of rules to test and examine, and maybe a window for others to see us through (or the other way around ) . it is definitely a way to crop life into bite size chunks.   being in a place is a way to make a mark and move on.  or stay.

nature of dots 2 is on the work table. i am off to somewhere new....and  i magine the place where the dot meets the square will  generate a lot of energy .

where plant touches cloth

although i have many bundles of cloth and leaves touching and resting for the winter months, i could not help opening one of these little presents earlier than planned. after just 2 weeks of brewing in some pomegranate soup on a sunny sill, a few oak leaves and (some unidentified leaf friends) rolled in 2 layers of silk and bound with string have softly given the cloth some color and pattern.

i love the little dots that happened at the tips of the stems.  i am now asking myself what if i just use lots of those stem tips ... could i make a dotted fabric? !!!

and the outer layer which collected most of the dye, took on some of the string wrapping pattern where the dye collected in the soft cotton.  what has impressed me as much as the result is the gentleness of this whole process.  i feel JOY! 

another kind of story

 

you might  see me jumping all over the place this month. the end of the year is a mix of old and new, a time to tidy up and close some doors, a time to reorganize and open (or re-open) others. and so it seems something like a tornado here. i am spinning around , a bit dizzy, sucking up everything in my path, but knowing generally which direction i am going in.

i am finishing up a few pieces that i started a while back. i see them as a bit different than a lot of my work this year. the story behind them is based more on design. they are less illustrative and their story has more to do with the elements, the shapes and the fabrics and how they speak to each other. i might call them more "arty" probably only because they are meant to hang on a wall. perhaps they even might appeal to a different audience.

anyway, i am quilting them. this one is from the nature of dots series, #1, ( there are 3) . i like to put space between start and finish of things, just to clear my head from intention and then to go back and see if the same thought emerges... if i am communicating with myself.  i am not linking backwards on these because i want a fresh start.  this one coincidentally contains the smallest square i ever patched into a cloth. and i used a sewing machine and it is a dot.

december dots

a dot could be edgeless if it is glowing.

a dot could be a memory, weightless and far away in the past, but awfully heavy when brought back into the present. this is a paper mache  christmas ornament, one of the first things i remember making. too heavy for the tree, but mom saved it anyway.

quilting a toss

i love the day after a storm... usually blindingly sunny and little pieces of everything...(dots?)...are scattered about.  yesterday, in the wind,  the leaves were flying and i thought of them as tree feathers. (i was also noticing the small space left between the back stitches has the look of couching)

and so that feather showed up again like a fallen leaf and as a reminder that is a somehow a permanent symbol now. maybe even a signature. (i embroidered tossed some red dots into the mended edging to encourage a conversation with that woven dotted fabric)

this piece is really about tossing. pieces of different times and places all mixed up and thrown around. seemingly out of place... and seeing the beauty of that. i have often been told i am all over the place (not as a compliment). i might have even caught myself pressuring my own son with that phrase. but today the toss seems a good thing. and i bite my tongue. that early chill may just be the first few stitches in natures blanket of change. just a new pattern. maybe things need to be rearranged to refresh usefulness.

now i will go collect all the storm' s debris. it is a good day to gather kindling.

coma and dot diary - holes

today i am thinking about dots as holes. and holes as viewfinders. eyes. and viewfinders as masks. and masks as choices, and the difference between looking  from the inside and from the outside.

and then the  sameness of that when a narrow opening in concerned. and how getting rid of the mask can increase vision from either direction. how real vision is a bigger experience.  a view after all is a limited idea. a point of view is a tiny hole.

i am working on the second long cloth because it has become  coma related. it is about stepping outside oneself and discovering many eyes.

dot diaries - eyes

it is a sunny morning. it feels like i can see for miles. and today i am thinking,,, a dot can be a point of light, a tiny pinhole, a simple yet very special kind of lens, a gateway to perception, the very center of a personal universe. the beginning of vision.

and i cannot stop looking at that  distant dot of the sea's reflection growing larger each day, and noticing that it seems now to be looking back at me.  can that dot then also be a point where two universes collide?   i am looking back at some old notes about eyes.  eyes that are now dots.  dots that are being scattered over the surface of coma.  old eyes.  new eyes.

last night i saw this.   i really like it.   it is simple and honest with a story and person attached. i added it to my i really like this list.

new dots and old dots

in november the scenery starts to change the view from the sleeping loft. the house is not two floors, the loft is really the attic. we took the cheaper alternative and just knocked out part of the ceiling, pushed the roof up in the back and added some windows, a whole wall of them... so we could catch a water view when the leaves fall. this morning i saw the first little dots of reflection through the thinning leaves.

this afternoon i reworked an old what if using a wash of color as a ground for some reverse applique. dots. details here.

it reminded me of a mini coma. tomorrow it is time to return to the main coma. the year is almost over and i have been sidetracked. i have decided to replace the holiday frenzy with a slower form of consciousness.

doodle friday and frozen dots

well i know it is only november but time flies so i am thinking about frozen dots, december dots, and the dot as a radiant motif. which is kind of cold and warm at the same time. a snowflake is a dot.

and this idea reminds me of those hawaiian applique quilts.  such a warm place but the arrangement of the floral motifs  always reminded me of snowflakes.