Singing Woman of the Woman Series. (a series of Selves)
I darkened the edges of her world. The indigo vat was so ready.
I am going to set up a project page at the Forever Zone(part 4 of Patchwork in Perspective)for her. For selves. Because she is not done. Not even close. I suppose you might be able to relate.
The Maple.
The first color field to change. The first turnings are the best because the summer color is still there and I feel the process of in between as a kind of broadening of spectrum.
I changed a few things here, (continued from here) stitched it to a base. Now it is a path through. Something. Anything. And I thought there was something missing. I will mend the moon with this patch. To complete the spectrum which always comforts me. Brings the palette to peace. I believe that all the colors are always there in nature, sometimes it just takes a while to adjust your eyes.
It was a glorious fall day yesterday. I restacked some wood under the porch. And dyed a bit of thread. Heated up the old walnut pom pot and coaxed a bit of blue from a few indigo leaves. This is a beautiful cotton/silk thread that I get from Nancy. All her threads are beautiful. I'm dyeing with some weaving in mind. And silk, even as a blend is so nice to work with.
Big Rain yesterday. Big.
Picked the rest of the indigo, which seems to ever renew. Most of it anyway. Figuring it would get crushed in the downpour.
Indigo, the salt method over previously dyed scrap, Pom and oak. I like an earthy color. A colored base layer helps.
This morning. Indigo, the salt method take 2, to deepen the color, promising.
The pineapple top is sprouting, can't even remember how many times I tried this. Enough I guess.
The mellow yellow of the pomegranate dye is developing nicely after being heated and cooled for a few days. Adding more skins as I go, the walnut part of the dye becomes less influential. I've yet to find a source here, I am still using the concentrate made last year before I moved. The color seems to develop in sympathy with the drying leaves here. The days wiz by, my mind has slowed to balance them.
Hanging here, these small loose favorite things, I used to dress up this ugly chandelier when I moved here...(do you believe we are almost a year in?) they have come to be quite handy in these stay at home times.
The thing about hanging...
...is that a thread is often involved, at least here, hanging by a thread.
Thread is good. It's the part of the equation that we can use for change.
This is an old piece. I just named it Coming Back to Life. Normally I might go back and check what I called it way back when. Catch that thread. But I am wondering how useful that is. The story is already in me and maybe the current thread is what I should go with. To continue. Today is a loose patch.
It is still warm here but that will change soon enough. I have collected a lot of plant material here and cooked up an Earth Yellow brew. I often over-dye but rarely over print. I am thinking about that today. That thought is hanging in my mind. By a thread.
Things will be a bit piecemeal here for the rest of 2020. I think I will pull it all together with the turn of the year. Still stitching on Holding Pattern. It's a gift to be given by year's end.
Ps. I feel Good.
Big Beautiful Fog this morning, in waves, coming and going. Clarity, Blur-ity, Clarity, Blur-ity.
I have named her Dear. We've cleared some of the small brush and saplings on one side of the property, leaving the mature growth. There is more air flow and a longer view. Visual Paths.
Soup of the Day. In the big copper pot. Yellow Earth.
I am ready to move on from the frenzy. Let it play out. A soft optimism (joy) has resurfaced and I will not be thrown off course. Sharing what moves through me. It is still quite warm here, we are needing to finish up a few pre-winter chores. I am learning this new computer and have adjusted to the TypePad issues and I think it will all be just fine enough, here and at Feel Free. I am in no way done with all of this. Some audio and video testing soon. 2021. Here I come. If you don't need my blabber about life mixed in, you can subscribe to Feel Free only.
Let's chill out. I will be back to Large Cloth in a more organized way with the New Year. For now, just Living and Healing from an awful year.
Another day, that's a start.
A soft wishing star on the Holding Pattern Cloth. Knowing that we ALL wish for something. Wondering then, how All our wishes can come true. Certainly there isn't much evidence of that working out. I wonder how that works? Renaming this the Hoping Star then.
Stuff to deal with here, but trying not to make today about me. I have replaced my computer. Yet, these troublesome times have me reconsidering people, places and things. I will take it easy for the next months. Finish this cloth by year's end. I am going to test some project pages over at my free teaching site. I will use this one as a test.
This star was made from what I call Marshmallow dyeing. Soft edge dipping. I will be adding that to the Methods Index soon.
I was recently a target of unsolicited rudeness and baseless attack. Not the first time. It's the world we live in. Yesterday I slid right into it myself, wanting to retaliate. I made a rude comment back and then deleted it and closed comments realizing this person indeed began to attack you! After deep thought...I, WE, cannot let this happen. It's hard. Please help me. If you ever see any rude comments here, directed to you or me, Please just ignore them. We simply have to be a community that is better than that.
Thank you.
Wine is on the menu this evening.
Almost 70. Yesterday. Ha, like me!
Rain, sun, wind, fog. No snow. That's coming next along with cold.
The Japanese Andromeda bloomed. Must have been overnight. Reminding me that life goes on even when it doesn't. New York, they say, now has 40% of all cases in the country. The car won't start, even after replacing the battery. The small repair shop within walking distance, a loooong walk, is thankfully still open. We'll see.
I saw my first groundhog this morning. He comes to eat the kitchen scraps I dump in the compost. I haven't rigged up anything official yet in terms of a bin.
I have nothing to show you today, and I have not done a video test yet, but pop over to Shibori Girl Studios. Glennis has set up a page for Moon Making Videos, some how to for all you indigo lovers. I know a lot of you have asked about the process and I don't really teach that... And if you are learning something and enjoying her gift, please consider dropping a few coins in her basket, there is a donation link in her sidebar. Things are tough, more so for some than others, especially those who rely on small business that has all but dried up in this crisis. Every little bit helps. And when things get tough, the tough seem to keep going and giving. I learned my indigo skills from Glennis and I am for ever grateful for her generous spirit.
And say hi for me.
.........
So Ragmates, the audio seems to work as is, and video is just a matter of getting my ass in gear. I will begin soon. With no plan, no agenda, just going. Here, where the group is more likely to be smaller, more intimate. Safe. More like simpler times. I will ratchet down a few details over the weekend because all I know now is:
Patchwork in Perspective part 3
Large Cloth and whatever else gets us through
Thank you as always , for your kind support and company.
The deer.
Among clotheslines. Closer than before. A group of young ones wandered through. Or maybe they are just smaller here? They are more grey, less brown from the other place I no longer call home. Very hard to see against the oak bark. I think they have been more present, just not noticed because not so much in the clearing near the house. This is right outside the window where I put my drawing/drink tea table that sits closer to the ground.
The tiny iron tea pot. And not for drinking tea. I bought it from Crazy Richard in Japan, while considering small cloth. Asked if it could linger there before the move. It just arrived. It's actually my new tiny dyepot, maybe big enough for one walnut. And then, I accidentally left my big old walnut pot behind. I did remember my big copper pot though. But smaller was,is on my mind. Dyeing one scrap at a time.
Scraps of self grow smaller each year.
A warm one. Before another polar vortex. I put my winter bitch in the closet.
I will build one small fire, warm up the stove. Since the sun is out, that's enough for the day.
On a lighter note, this will be a Stoodio Day.
The lightness took over yesterday. When I patched Joy back to my center.
Stitching, anticipating February, weathering a storm before it happens, stitching, sewing snow, S(new)ing...? Snewing. Probably with out the context, we might read it Snoowing. Oh ha.
The patches are half dipped indigo, two stitched together seemed to be a snowscape. The cloth is doublewoven, from an old baby blanket, so I did not add my normal extra layer. Maybe you remember this Cloth Story. More of those to come. Materials are like good friends, every day you learn a little more about them.
If the path before you is clear,
you are probably on
someone else's.
-Carl Jung