Spirit Cloth

seeing beyond

i am signing off for the holiday weekend and a bit beyond. 

i will be sending out the password and access information for Magic Diaries on friday, july 1, late in the day.  the actual diary entries will not begin until the 8th.  please check your paypal email or your spam folder if you have already signed up and have not already received my initial hello. and yes, you can still sign up. anytime.

there will be a shop update on the 15th with the moon. no preview.

the Man was 58 today.

see you later

 

shape

 just thinking

about boundaries

and physical form

 and the balance of forces that shapes us.

how much of that is choice

or even belief.

there have to be days

when we all might consider

edge-less-ness

as a more useful solution

to world peace.

integration

well, i am still at it. painting something white is a funny process. it changes everything else around it. i have decide, though, to keep going. and then go back and adjust the whites differently, adding a drop of color to the paint here and there. to create a tapestry of lightness by adding some darkness back in.

i am now very involved in thinking about weaving tapestry, but with close color. and cloth. tapestries of shade. rebuilding colored cloth into larger usable pieces.

...from 50 years of scrap that is now sorted by color, to help me do that.  it is like dyeing in a way. creating a whole colored cloth, where there wasn't one before with bits or fragments of similar color. like reuniting a family.

the word tapestry has many technical textile definitions, but i like the one that goes:

..."something felt to resemble a richly and complexly designed cloth"

the Man is flying home tonight after a small journey. 

Time out.

(thanks to julia moore for some little blue silk scraps in this piece, her blog is now password protected so i didn't include the link)

weathering a storm

yesterday was a blur.  i worked on this and that. i looked for a long time.  there are days where everything seems to run into everything else.  they are not bad days, they are just hard to explain. when i loaded my pictures in this morning.  i found this and i said ha!. it wasn't my imagination.  i spent the latter part of the day working on a contraption to help me weave larger cloth.  something i might wrap myself in.  and i thought about  the weave thing and where it might go for me.  because it needs to keep going.  in a very big way. and so it shall.

yesterday  it was mostly dark again with a promise of clearer skies. today the sun is out.

i'm glad because i learn so much out in the garden.

goings on

so the friday fun spilled over and i find myself thinking again about the flow of one thing into another. the blending of moments, like stew or soup. we are soup, yes. or wine maybe, but whatever it is we are always brewing.  i suppose everything i touch right now becomes sun moon stars related. but it is interesting really to pick up an old cloth in a new moment and see how you approach it with new eyes.  maybe stop to count how many eyes you have after all this time. use them to revise , reconsider or simply look. maybe close them all at once and open them one at a time. or the other way around.

a bit of work is due on alphabet soup.  i am thinking of the alphabet as something that might evolve, with self. i know juggling has taken on a whole new meaning.

if my pictures seem a bit dark, it's because there is no sun here for days. it fluctuates from dark to darker and back.  hard to tell where you are in time really.

(there is a category for alphabet soup if you are not familiar with the cloth)

the silly cloth

happy houses seems to surface now and then. providing some comic relief. everyone should have a silly cloth i think.  to play with. to bring on that feeling of freedom and no cares. something without too much judgement in it.  to remind of us who we are inside. big overgrown kids.

 

never underestimate the power of a good giggle.

(that's one of eva's cloud prints woven in there, and not because it is silly.)

 

managing positive energy

i am still working on some details of what i will name  generosity.

i think it needs to be the center of something bigger.

not that it wasn't already.

i will be sending a welcome note out to the magic diaries traveling companions by tomorrow. at least those who have decided to start at the beginning (which isn't really the beginning, really).  if you have signed up and don't hear from me in 24 hours please email me. don't forget to check your pay pal email. for those of you who might decide to join in somewhere in the middle, don't worry, there are threadcrumbs to follow and you will not lose your way.

i am also reconsidering my ability to host the the diaries and this blog at the same time.

i will consider carefully how thin one can become without disappearing.

poof.

see you later.

to dye or not to dye

sometimes it is quite amazing how a question can trigger all kinds of justification.  i think mostly, these questions here, are those that i am asking myself.  sharing my confusion out in the open.  and even if we ask ourselves the same questions, the answers will always be different. they need to be. and then there is always the question of communication. is the question even understood?  it is always a fun exercise for me. so this is where i ended up...personally.

i don't need to dye cloth.  i find unlimited already dyed cloth everywhere. to dye more is just to waste what i have or add to the volume of my collection. if this wasn't true, i might need to dye cloth if i wanted dyed cloth. 

i am not a dyer, meaning i don't need to dye cloth for a living. but some do. i repect that.

if i am curious or  wondering what will happen when i dye cloth, well then i am in the position of needing to try it to learn and see.

if i am worried about chemical dyes, well i could consider natural dyes, but i might consider no dye at all, right?  if i just needed cloth, which was the source of my original question.

the cloth itself can be used without dyeing, although dyeing can revitalize an old stained cloth.  but i like the stains, which are sort of dyeing anyway. 

i could see needing to dye cloth for camouflage but i tend to associate that these days with fashion, fitting in to society's color scheme.  blending into the trend more or less. 

and then, the need to leave your mark on the cloth. there is always that.  the art part which i was not really thinking about when i asked the question. that is such a big question.

melanie had surgery yesterday. i am thinking of her courage.  she stamped some feathers on some white, light as  a feather cloth a while ago. just for me. i placed a piece at the bottom of the copper pot in winter. things have come and go in that pot. i like the way time has left its mark and the new colors that evolved with that.  color is magic. the way it appears and disappears and transforms a surface.   i simply like the way that cloth can hold that process, that story. 

summer

happy solstice.

when blue is green

indigo. and now woad.  a friend has advised that i could grow madder here if i plant it close to the house on the south side.  probably along with the oak and petunias and onion skins i could complete my personal rainbow for cloth. but i have those questions having to do again with want and need.  and do i need to dye cloth?  i am stuck on that.

while cleaning the studio for painting. i unearthed this. cut away  from the back of an old worn cushion cover. from India i think. i cut away all the colored scrap which was too shredded to survive. a beautiful piece of obviously hand loomed light weight cotton remains.

intact. accidentally stained by the dyed cloth it had been stitched to.  i paused to look before removing the last remaining threads.

***

audio file in case you see no player

 

i've been whispering here a bit. just because i am in that mode lately.

The magic diaries, this is it really. a permanent teaching format. i know it. i have decided to leave it open. to sign up any time. because really, this is it, cloth whispering, the way i pictured it, the way it will be for as long as i shall continue. after the new year it will be a seasonal thing. in 3 month chunks. and it will simply be about sharing the details of cloth making wherever it takes me. thank all, so many of you, for your encouragement.

i will be deactivating  the cloth whispering page this week. all class information will be switched to here.