Spirit Cloth

Pomegranate

So it was me who said, pomegranates don't really grow  here.  But He, who grew up in a place where they grow like weeds, said let's try.   So we saved a few seeds from the ones we purchased in the market.   Planted them in pots last summer and brought them inside for the winter.  This one is now five feet tall.   Thank you to a very sunny window and some loving compost.  Since then we have found a   Russian Pomegranate that should withstand the winters here outside .  So planting a string of those along the road's edge is on the list for this season (a string of trees, I love that) . Growing  them . Because we love to eat them. They are good for you. They are beautiful.  They are ridiculously expensive to buy here.  And as you might recall, you can dye with them,  without a mordant...

I have been getting  more of a tan on cotton,  yellows on silk and wool,  but amazingly, a very rich greenish brownish gold  on the silk velvet (a bit of mom's wedding dress) that was left soaking in the copper pot over the winter.  Like 4 months.  Forgotten and rediscovered. 

And it is doodle wednesday.

Liquid Thursday

The man so kindly whipped up a strawberry kiwi cucumber breakfast drink while I spent a lot of time just looking at silk velvet which seems to move even when it is standing still. A moment later I noticed how the raindrops were hanging from the deck rail like a row of half-moons.

Already March. And what ordinarily would be snow is more like April showers a month early. Soon it will be already June. And so it always goes.

friday's landscape

I have been  wandering backwards , weaving new paths, gathering thoughts of new horizons. Wool and raw silk. They are so much easier to spin than cotton or linen. Especially if you don't mind the thick and thin of it.

The texture of imperfection is like the earth.

 

ring of the day

the 6th ring. dyed over a woven and stitched silk gauze.

this one was unwrapped today and i like how the dye has fallen unevenly into the plied yarn of stitches.

i also really like the effect that yvonne has achieved

(the ring series is inspired by dye methods i have learned by watching shibori artists glennis dolce and eco dyer india flint.)

november soup

this morning there is a bit of fog. colored fog. fog is sort of dark and light at the same time. and i intend to go walk in it.

yesterday i hung some dyed silk on the studio window. it made it seem foggy even though it wasn't. and that had me thinking.

oh too late. while i was posting, the sun came out.

a patch of rose colored sky

mom and i just sat around talking today. there are things to be talked about. i added a patch of rose silk to this fragment because it was in my pocket. luckily i also had some rose colored thread to make it more comfortable.

i'm home now where bigger cloth is waiting.

the walnut shirt -part 2

it always annoys me that the facing on the button hole side of a shirt isn't stitched down. and how it wrinkles up after washing. so i stitched it down. i think i thought about that for 15 years or so. some things take time.

i like the way it has given the edge more weight. and stability. the linen touching the linen. the thread is walnut dyed cotton floss. i don't like stitching with linen. linen thread is stiffer and harder to control the tension of the stitch. silk thread is nice but adds drape, softness i think. for the edge, this functional edge, the cotton seems just right. gentle body.

portrait of a jacket called 'without end'

this project which i worked on a bit in 21st century rags ( the name i have chosen for my book by the way) , also continued from here, has become my magic feather coat. i thought i might work on it in sympathy with the project....

so i have it hanging around. i'm looking at it.

working on it slowly.
i added some old gifted linen scraps . thank you elizabeth! i decided these pointy pieces can hang loose, more added. overlapped like feathers, maybe i can fly away. when i get around to it i will line it with some brown silk i plan to dye with walnuts and acorns. at least that is what i am thinking  today.

 i had a long deep sleep last night and i feel good.

i won't be posting here until monday.  just check on the feathers once in a while.

and to day i just love this.

heat wave

today we will lay low.
at 6 AM it is already close to 80 degrees.
petunias left an amazing stain on some oak dyed silk overnight. just sitting on the wet silk, they give up an amazing amount of color. i have a lot of them growing here so i will play with them a bit. 

i chopped this piece up with the idea of doing a nine patch from each experiment. might make a nice color sampler quilt type thingy.

an easy summer project.

a nice gift.