« September 2015 | Main | November 2015 »
6AM:So here I am, working through the technology issue the best I can. On Halloween.
I have to stick with smaller photos for the time being. Which means they cannot be enlarged. I am trying to put larger photos on Flickr but I see the gallery is not updating right away, we'll see. Maybe I will just link the photos here to there. Ok I think that is working.
So a Pumpkin Patch. Nine for Halloween.
This was a gift and I love it.
Nine. I have always been in love with nine. It' a magic number. But when configured as a nine patch it become a multi-layered symbol for me. It' a number, it's a square. it's patchwork. It's light and dark make it magic. It's a kind of basket. Well it is so many things really. In the last Diary Series, Small Journeys, I looked at nine a lot. At patchwork. I crated a lot of these little icons as links to these journeys in my posts. I liked them. I love packaging thoughts as symbols. I call them Spirit Cloth Language...
as the collection they have become. Are becoming.
As I see these, the original nine patch is so many things but it is also, simply, my inspiration. It has and will continue to guide me. Nine forever. And the eye, a kind ot filter, looking through nine, allowing that to expand my vision (the rainbow is that for me. That full spectrum, a full range of seeing) and then the nine that has begun to flow, as one thing might become another. Or everything really.
I'll be 65 in February. I am trying hard to put together a Pictionary. After all these years. Starting from square 1.
I do believe if we learn each other's language, we will know each other better.
Yesterday. I posted a picture of this pillow on Facebook.
Because a late October stray showed up here.
And probably this one will wander right into November.
Today. I just thought I would put the instructional video from Contemporary Boro here, since folks over at Facebook liked this so much. Of course I am in the embellishment stage on this side at this point (somehow it needed to become more), but the other side is still quite rough and I will be working on this in the coming months, out in the open. So just a quick look at the basic cloth weaving, 3D style. I will also add this to Feel Free as a sub page to cloth weaving later today.
Cloth weaving is a way to form a patchwork somewhat seamlessly. The basic method is described as the woven base over at Spirit Cloth 101.
This piece is about 16" x 9". I've further developed the 3d weaving idea, but that could be for another time.
I worked on this pillow a bit more, tucking and weaving and even extending the strips as I progressed by sewing more scrap together. The ends can be folded and tucked in as you go. It is easy to work on such a soft surface and I love the results. Pillows are a great way to use cloth, to recycle scrap and create comfort in the home. Or just something to hug. (I made the heart pillow when Dad was in the hospital, Mom used it a lot.)
I am having a bit of trouble loading pictures in Typepad. I have reduced the size of some of them, that helps sometimes.
Sometimes. When I light an early fire in the studio, the first smoke from damp wood fills the nearby forest with blue light before disappearing.
This morning I caught that.
The blueness , moving freely filled me with a sense of story. Mystery.
And then,I played around with those dyed corners. Again.
So yesterday's nine appeared as today's and nine ended up to have something to do with letting things go.
Nine for That Which Moves Through Me and Keeps Going.
Journal entry 9/10/15
Be honest with yourself.
Know your limitation
and your manipulation of situation
as justification of that.
Note to self 10/26/2015: Here this note to self seems a poem. Considering the context of self expression.
Today's nine is in here somewhere.
Some days that is enough.
We'll walk today. I'll imagine what form my visual journal might take online.
Tomorrow we will fix the part of the deck that gave way outside the studio while it's still warm enough to do that sort of thing.
Today there is rain, welcomed for it's been so dry.
Impressed by the beauty of the day, I went walking early in the damp air.
Raspberries in October. These are new bushes, just maturing. Gifted local cuttings. It seems odd that they are fruiting now. Usually now is the time for pruning. They had small fruit all summer but now, wow. Maybe the birds are confused too. I found them first. Lots more coming. It's a bit warmer so maybe a few pickings. I thought I picked 9 but I picked 10.
Today's nine is really three threes. But looking at that horizontally. A row of (not exactly) blues. A row of (not exactly) greens. A row of (not exactly) browns. Nine as a place, a landscape. I think it has a sense of that.
Today I also placed the PLACE-KEEPER back in my top menu bar. I am in the process of updating, weeding out inactive blogs and broken links. I plan to keep the list more current. Adding folks that interact here and keep a blog going on a regular basis. Thanks for your patience while I update.
Today's nine. ( I'll try for one everyday now. )
I used the contrast seaming (PAPERLESS PIECING style using 2 strands of black cotton floss for stitching) on this one, a concept (!idea) that started long ago when I was wondering what if I don't use matching thread? This led to a private series I have been calling sanity. Sanity in someway has come to mean something about the Undoing of the distraction of too much, letting focus be more simple. In this case, letting the logic of seams represent some sort of clarity of process. My connection to patchwork.
I reconsidered this technique during Small Journeys this year. I have several larger cloths in the planning stages. I return to this over and over, especially when I am feeling in between.
Here is a bit of talking from Small Journeys... which I will file under PATCHWORK-Seams, eventually, over at Feel Free. I will have an awful lot on that page.
Some notes from the post I had titled Not Matching Thread.
Additional note to self: By departing from the rules I might create new form without destroying the old one.
And today talking again....
It's Friday. In the spirit of FEEL FREE, I have opened another class. PATCHWORK BEASTS.
Thinking back to this post, funny how this concept appealed to so many teachers and here I am now offering the class on an open format.
I have included here the collages of student work from the original workshop as well. We really did have fun.
Have a good weekend.
If the path before you is clear,
you are probably on
someone else's.
-Carl Jung