Spirit Cloth

Table Basting

 

Table #basting . No knots. Discontinuous. Reuse the threads again and again. #spirtclothfeelfree

A video posted by jude hill (@spiritcloth) on Jul 26, 2016 at 11:14am PDT

 

I am experimenting a bit with mobile posting. More of a real time thing. Bear with me. I am trying to learn some HTML. I often baste like this, short pieces of thread, no knots. A discontinuous tack it where it needs it thing. This is the inner layer of Holding Pattern, the back shown in my last post. I will cover it with silk eventually. It just so happens I found this old thin cotton lawn in one larger piece. Not big enough to cover the whole thing . I will have to patch in some other cloth. I'll show you. But you knew that.

Gosh my hands look like I am 1000 years old.

Fringe Again

Because I am finishing a little long cloth.

I am calling this one The Tendency to Connect.

There is so much of that here. Connecting with old sky, connecting with another, connecting with joy and dreams, connecting with old sea, connecting with the unknown...and you.  And all so much a sympathetic evolution.

I am using up thread ends from the thread nest which is big enough to live in at this point.

video link if you see no player

Fringe is a big subject for me. Said that before.  It's a major component and symbol in my work.  And that is  true for quite few things .  I am trying to figure out the best format  for adding  the Spirit Cloth Language segment to Feel Free.  It most likely will be under Story.

Note to self: Technique is simple to teach. You just demonstrate.  The source of idea (reaching way into self) part is harder to get at. Explain.

Note to self: Continue. Keep trying.

Doings aka UnDoings

It is almost May.

Yesterday we scrubbed the deck.  Once in a while we do this, as the seasons build  layers of moss and mold and  dirt , especially  because it sits beneath the oaks. Not so bad in recent years because of less caterpillars.  This morning April is giving it a nice rinse.  A shower  that lasted through the night actually.  A welcomed undoing of a long dry spell.  Unusual for April. 
I've nine more impressions of April on the wall today.  Numbered to make it easier to talk about them later.   A little game I have conjured.  Or REconjured.  A game of how to.  A game of Nine. This is a new process adventure.  I will test it out on all of you who have signed up for Diaries 2. (Thank you)  Because as always you are my lab rats.  But you might trust me, I promise not to hurt you.

Today the earth is warm and wet and I will play in it.

 

Safekeeping

Unexpected company.  A bit tired.

Probably no sewing today I said to myself...

And then, Oh who am I kidding?  No excuses really.

I continue and continue to stitch to connect all the pieces on the Magic Feather Cloth I still call Home.  Now, without much thought actually, I wander across it's vastness, mending gaps and loose ends. A million small journeys.  Not worrying what meets where.  Because it is all fitting together some how. Who would have imagined?  We did. A dream is kept safe in the imagination I guess.  The how might never be an obstacle if the sense of it is close by.

This is an old drawing.  I once looked at it as silly. 

It seems quite profound to me today. 

Redefined.

Mom used to say It will all work out.  Wait. I think I get it now.

knowing and not knowing part 2

knowing and not knowing

i came across this old roll of paper in the studio, left over from art school days.  i used a bit of it.  it was old paper left in the storeroom at school and when they were discarding it, i took it, thinking, what a waste.  it has never been unrolled.  it is beautiful in its mystery.  and its potential.

and then i thought of rolling and unrolling, and i did some unrolling and some unwrapping,  one of the great things about bundle dyeing, is the surprise. the guessing, the accidental beauty it yields. India  taught us that along with a few other marvelous truths. 

and i thought some more. about process, and craft. about learning and style. it is often quite a relief to be able to make something without obvious intention, poof!,  and there it is without much effort. but is that it?  no, i don't think so.  i think knowing what might happen it a huge part of creative achievement. i think it is both  the freedom in play and the result of hard work and acquired knowledge that makes things seem so easy...  sometimes we get caught up in "the way it just happens", and we forget how it might happen with a bit of guidance or better yet, practical experience. it is so important to keep going, and respect those who have done exactly that.

i think that is what a class is for.  to get feel for what a maker thinks about while making. a sense of history in their persistence. a point a view. a little knowing to add to the wondering.  a little balance. to celebrate the time it takes to balance this knowing and not knowing. i respect the gift that teaching can bring, in terms of deeper vision into technique.  i am not a dyer, and i have been getting some rather interesting results by not even knowing. but i am going to take Glennis's shibori workshop  (my first class!) to get a feel for the basics of the shibori process itself. i have big plans for shibori in my work.

and one of these days i hope to have the opportunity to take a workshop with India...

and who knows?  maybe my accidents will start to become more.

how story might happen

I did not sleep much last night.  Life has reared its ugly side. But I have a story....

This is not the best video,low light, wrong angle, and we are having a problems with the zoom not responding, and it will probably stay that way for a while because a new camera is not an option right now.

I love how the story happened in this one. Actually I am most interested in that aspect of creative endeavor. Especially now, with this whole  whispering thing which is really part of my story on many levels... and has become disturbingly real but necessary for me to move forward. So bear with me.

I like the idea of securing the edge of tradition. Yes. That was a nice unintended touch. There is so much story in the process itself.  I will sleep now.  Good night.

 

Riggidy Raggedy

The Man decided I should try talk into the camera. So a few bloopers are being published, just some silly stuff while I was either unaware of the camera or tried to be more conventional.

  And then I composed myself.

Just for the record... To Compose: To make something by merging parts. To calm oneself down.

  The experiment for the folded tree was based on something like this. 

I like it.

The tree idea....

considering cloth a bit

It's Wednesday. I have 3 bases, one is already a very important gift.  They are basted. And they all feel great. I just lit the fire and that popping noise is the pine cones.

I'm ready for some trees.

When I did this one (which I am still working on) , I asked myself what if I cut the triangles for the trees and wash them up to enhance the fringe before stitching them down..., which I did, but now I want to take that idea a bit further.  See you later....

continued from here.

Today I like this because it is also about considering cloth. I see that here. Quiet honest consideration.

flip flopping

So. What if the darker section is on top?  Ok. Snow, winter, right.  The snow is lighter but it fell to the bottom.  Ha!...There seems to be story in this kind of grounding.  I found this linen napkin scrap.  I love using corner details. And the hand embroidery could just be a ghost of a warmer season, or some snow covered foliage.  I like this variation. And also the scale change, isolating the figures in just one section, smaller, giving the season more power. and of course adding a moon perhaps. 

I like this one. A great way to use some old family heirloom scrap or even highlight some nice white on white texture or stitching.  Maybe just a lovely stitched version of the word snow.  I like that the snow could be a cloth focus somehow. A blanket.

So usually my next step will be this,  but because I am working ragged edge here, in addition to tearing the pieces instead of cutting, I will wash and dry all my pieces to encourage a bit more fray.  I find that if you don't want to use the washer and dryer, roughing them up in some hot water and then rubbing them roughly in a towel,  then hanging them in the wind to dry will get them to give up some loose threads and soften the edges a bit.   So I am off to wash up a few bits of fabric and I will talk a bit more about that step later.  Yes, I want to talk about that more. 

The new sketch and some thoughts if you want to save them for anything. PDF Sketch and story

and a link...Harem cloth

(this post is part of a series and is continued from here. ) And it continues here.