Spirit Cloth

A Cold Morning in May

After summer like days it is colder. 48 this morning, it will barely get to 60 today. It's way cold for May, especially at night. The garden is slow. But it's ok. I  can just put a sweater on. The caterpillars that have already begun on the oak leaves, cold slows them and sometimes stops them. So ok. Good.

The man and the beast are sleeping in.  Not me. Up at 4.  I have things I want to do and I am going to do them.

Yesterday, I posted this on Instagram. How the light painted the wall. To look like cloth.  I love this. How it happened. How I noticed and caught it. Because now it is gone.

By the way, Glennis is in Japan, posting pics on Instagram mostly, so if you are over there, might be interesting...

Before sunrise I stitched this. I don't like it much. But probably I am just not finished. I've learned that over time. So I will keep going.

 

The Logic of Creativity

 

Today is Wednesday.

Which makes it What-if-Wednesday.

Because I decided it might be that for a while. Again.

Today I squared the basket. In some simple exercise. To see what I had previously imagined. I'd been thinking about that. I played around with a new patching technique. All the while thinking about the way things form. Rather than wallowing in confusion, how being able to understand that is helping me develop my means of expression. How I have become driven by that.

Technique is important in expression. So is idea. So often they are  separated. One given more value than another. Sometimes though it is important to understand them as equal components of personal style. How one supports another.

There have been so many discussions about the relationship between these things. For me they carry the same weight. Every technique started out as an idea. No idea will live to be shared with out a path to execution. In my mind it is a simple math.

technique + idea = form

evolution of technique + evolution of idea = new form, eventually.

Process is evolution.

Sharing process insures the survival of form

which in itself is the essence of thought.

Anyway, the basket self is enjoying this squaring,  For now, a new form to play with.  While thoughts about sharing brew.

 

 

Going

 

moss

 

Moss

As I continue with the path sections, I begin to use some very old green velvet to fill some gaps. The same velvet I used here. At the beginning of all this.  The cloth is from Mom's old velvet jacket. She loved moss green.  I sit here and realize how long some of these scraps of cloth have been with me. How many small journeys they have taken. We have taken. We have grown old together.

I have finished placing the stones on 2 panels. The sections measure about 9 x 21. For no particular reason except they feel about right. They might be tied together. Or not. I think there will be about 6. Guessing. Like guessing the number of jelly beans in a jar...how many stones are in the basket?

Our moss roof:

Harry

Harry on the green roof.

Harry on the rail.

Step by Step

Path is forming in sections.

Just a walking stitch.

 

 

For walking softly.

(continued from HERE.)

 

Fire inside

Not a silver lining.

Held safe.

Stitchin' the Blues

 

Yesterday I spent 8 hours in the garden.  After some early morning time humming and stitching on a strip of blue from way back. The one that was about a sense of continuing.  I thought how cloth might be like song.  The man spent the day working on his bike.  There was very little talking.  The day was like lemonade.  I slept early and long.  

It's raining today but we  need the rain.

 

Path

It was close to impossible to use all the feathers and stones received... in the cloth we call Home. Without  compromising it's sense of space. And the space is important.

So there are a couple of smaller cloths being put together that work with the main cloth.

One, which I began today. Path.

For small journeys.

I will be a long cloth. Narrow. But wide enough to balance on. Long enough to follow.  Covered with stepping stones.  It might be a bridge. Or a secret way.  A way through. A way back. Who knows.  It might just be a direction . To go.

Cloth like the sea