Spirit Cloth

give and take

spending sunday with mom was fun. she always helps put things in perspective. maybe just because she is still here after so long. i like how she just keeps getting smaller but at the same time she has become a bigger part of who i am.
we still have visitors so my time for posting (and blog visiting) is short. i have been thinking about the shop and selling things and trying to understand it a bit better. i might be selling a bit cheaper than i should but now thinking about that too much has become silly to me. i am approaching it from another angle. one of give and take. i want to get paid fairly for what i do so i can live and keep doing it, but i want to give part of myself as well. so it is a balance. only part of the compensation is the money.  i also get to witness the story continuing...
keeping the shop full , well i am not going to worry about that. i can't really deal with that. i have a lot of work here  and some of it is really complex and probably the appreciation will never translate to dollars anyway. and the posting process is quite annoying so i do it when i am in the mood. i am also inclined to pick things up and add to them before i let them go. so far the transition has been smooth and controlled and when i have more time i will ramble about this some more. this one is the only one left in the shop right now.

the nature of magic

.....i have mentioned amulets on this blog before... ( 1 2 3 ).  a simple mother's day gift has reminded me of the origin of my work as it relates to gift giving.
...and i am back to my thoughts about the things that have meaning to us. and how interesting it is that much of what we believe in is a product of tradition and history. but how a symbol evolves on a personal level interests me more. and how much magic a gift can contain. after all it is, in its purest form, the best protection we can offer, the symbol of love, which is all there is really.
.....i did get a few moments to stitch these past days if only to put together a few fragments of personal magic... an old what if, a new gift of old faded velvet, a raw silk fringe from elsewhere. the beginning of a new series of amulet, magic mini carpet qu-ug type thingies. little story cloths that might lift off and take you to safer place in time....the keepers of small journeys.

undoing plans

plans are really hilarious. it will be really busy around here for a few days. and although i had a plan for a tutorial on printing on fabric and some shop talk, i will just never get to it until next week. i am running around mailing packages after a flurry in the shop. and it is mother's day this weekend. and my son is back from a cross country trip. and we have visitors from turkey.
....SO... yesterday i was fooling around with a binding for crazy leaves  because i finished quilting them and they caught my interest because they are SILK. and i was  planning to finish this up as a mini quilt and put it in the shop. and well i got carried away into a swirl of color. the yellow was just what it needed.
.....i got caught in a pile of yellow scraps which got me started with some yellow ikat, cotton SILK of course.
and then....i got to thinking about that shibori silk and when it is flattened out how much it reminds me of leaves, the veins in leaves. this time spring leaves. yes, today after i take mom shopping i will take a little break and sit and experiment with  shibori applique in the form of leaves.
...this one will definitely make a strikng pillow. didn't plan that at all. and that's probably turned out to be a good thing.

undoing misunderstanding

...it might all be about timing but it is definitely about meeting points. and conversation. during the morning walk, after thinking all day yesterday about where the root of judgment is, i found some delight in a new friend that had sprouted... one i had given up on long ago. there it was, i guess i hadn't looked close enough or given it enough time. and i was thinking how fragile communication is. how our own narrow focus can eliminate the opportunity of understanding others. or ourselves. or anything for that matter. i suppose it might be all this thinking about the value of things (somewhat shop related) and why we like certain things and not others. how we so clearly define what we do as worthy of respect without realizing that this does not happen if there is no understanding of it. i see this as an important element in the whole art and craft battle, and no i don't want to open that can of worms here. these are just random questions that float around in my head all the time.

there is definitely something to be said about conversation. the whispering and the listening and the speaking of truth through teaching. are we listening to ourselves enough to hear our own true voice? . maybe if the answer is no, what we put out there is lacking something. are we listening closely to what others are saying through their work? do we take the time to understand? does being focused require excluding the thoughts of others? or is it the other way around? is it understanding that makes the difference?

....it is raining and very green here. i ramble on these kinds of days. i am still thinking about conversation. fabrics speak to me.  i try to interact with them and know them better. i often notice that unlikely combinations occur by noticing their connections, the stories they tell, understanding what makes them hold together, what shapes their character. it took a while to get to this point. i remember not having this kind of patience years ago. i was doing a lot of talking but no listening. now i think i understand myself more and what it is i am doing... i am always learning something and i enjoy explaining this. 

 the conversation today is between me and silk and linen. and between silk and silk, linen and silk, old and new, you and me. i tore an edge from an old silk kimono which was worn to shreds. it belonged to my father's mother and it came from the phillipines. it was one of the only pieces of silk i had come in close contact with before i started this blog. it is very fine and crepe like but not a crepe weave.. it crinkles because of its thread construction, very fine spun silk widely spaced in the warp and a feathery loose spun fill, like a cloud that fills the spaces. it is opaque but transparent in hand feel. it seems to talk directly with the gauzy silk and i decided  that even though the print is quite geometric, it would fit as a border for this piece. the old and new silk seem to know each other from somewhere. i want to say that the silk atop the old green linen napkin has given it new strength without losing drape that comes from wear. the silk layer has actually added some undefinable new quality to the surface. quite unexpected and delightful. silk and i have alot to talk about today. the shop talk will have to wait till tomorrow.

doodle wednesday relief

...a crazy few days ...i am pooped. the little sheep who found they could fly are off to a new home.  i have found a few more sketches i had on the back burner. sheep and a bit of comic relief are in order today along with and  a trip to the post office and a bit of sleep. to balance things out.

maintaining lightness

...i am in a tangle of things right now. you know how things can get all knotted up even if they are good things. and so i have taken some time to sit with some fabric this morning because after all that is the source of my peace. the center where i can undo the tangle and organize my thoughts. and it is silk, amazingly sheer shibori dyed silk from glennis, who is off to japan today on a new adventure. this stuff is perfect...especially today. it floats with a lightness that seems to speak lessons to me.
...there are thanks in my head, thank yous for lots of things...for support and opportunity and for old friends and new friends and for fabric.  and when you want to say thank you, why not say it in cloth? it is spring and this thank you in green fits right in on this rainy day in early may.

doing and undoing

monday is always a good day to get back to business. even if you have no job.  ha! so yes, i did open an etsy shop. didn't put a lot of effort into it. didn't bother to announce it (some of you found me anyway)...because i just wanted to see what it was all about and get a feel for it how it works.  it works but i don't like it much. it's not as fun over there as it is over here. i think i may close it and replace it with a shop i have been putting together for this site (almost done) . that is what i am thinking now. or maybe i'll leave it there with a few things in it. i am also planning to be at Crafts on Columbus here in new york in october. yay!  anybody ever attended that one? i have heard good things. i haven't done a craft show since i was 21! and i was weaving back then.

so what am i doing today? i am gathering all my unfinished business in one place so i can do something about it. and this is only part of it. no shortage of WIPs around here.

...pictured above she is becoming more, in procees for a while now.

it IS a long journey made up of many short ones. thank you for sticking with me.

undoing distance

...a moody and wet day here. i found a some fragments of spring glued to the path's slates with morning  mist and then a few steps later it seemed all the pieces had been re-assembled into a magnificent promise for tomorrow. the sun is due to return but today i'm not so much in a hurry,  you can just enjoy the cool damp days at this point in the season and trust they have a purpose.
...my mind is definitely going everywhere at once. i have begun to bridge a gap between yesterday and today and i am excited about connecting a lot of small journeys into a new path.  i just started with the desire to relate my woven experiment to quilting. (i noticed how much i like the natural edges of the woven strip)
.....so a few things have started to come together in the patchwork of my life. weaving, quilting, hand piecing, free piecing, silk... a new story. perhaps. and this is chapter one. a ceremony of some kind.

inching toward a natural rhythm

....i was weaving at dawn. and after about an inch it was clear that the fast lane had become undone. i slipped back into a rhythm so familiar i hardly noticed. the right path goes everywhere at once. you can trust it.
...so it was what if i weave dots, and what if they are ikat, and what if i use marker, permanent marker? and what if it takes forever to finish. who cares?
...it is hard to put how good i feel right now into words. i will just let you imagine it.

redefining intent

...my relationship with fabric started from the ground up.

...the change in season has me focused on resurfacing and how that applies to the layers of changes that design our lives. after watching neki and her latest adventures in weaving, i felt a shift back to woven texture as a surface theme. the fling  from last season has changed course. it is just a whisp of a thing and can definitely tolerate another layer without losing its original character. i started by applying some masks of gauzy hand woven raw silk. sandwiched between a kantha stitch and the lightweight base it holds together surprisingly well and i think it will be quite functional.

.....i am surrounded by the tools for making my own fabric...and i am thinking what if i do that?