Spirit Cloth

Bright Spots on a Dark Day

It's been so so cold, but today we are above freezing.

It's warm enough for smells. The smell of Earth.

Even on this dark day, enough light to reflect.  Get ready, I have decided to paint this old floor.

And great news, some of you know Helen Lee... and her guy Mark. He has a shop!

And I am thrilled to be the first customer. Gosh, I just love it. This little stove is actually generating warmth, right here. I am going to put a link over at PlaceKeeper so we don't forget.

Ooops! the sun just came out.

Yesterday's Progress

I just let him sit there for a while.

I am not in a hurry.

The stem line, just marked with pen, where and as the thread fell. Started stitching but didn't finish. And yes, that's Deb's thread. Waiting.

Change is at the Heart of Season.  I want to name this that. Heart of Season. I thought how oddly we attach ourselves to the expected outcome and that it is probably just a slow repeating shift toward the unrecognizable. If we only lived long enough. 

PS. I will remove the PlaceKeeper from the top blog menu, it is way outdated. Let me rethink that.

Forest

8:30 AM

Last night, In the muted cloud filtered moonlight, I was suddenly sitting IN one of Valerianna's paintings. I have one right here. On the wall in front of me. It wasn't rolled up but sandwiched between rolls of cloth to keep it safe.

Her calendars are on sale now, I love her work and the life she celebrates. The simple nature of it. Reminds me of Simpler Times. Simple is no small thing these days.

I'm going to take a few stitches. I'll put them here later...

Later... 9:35 AM

I put the eye there. Sooner than expected. You saw it, I didn't, but we are in this together. I have a whole stack of patches with new eyes. Ready.

 

a little woven story band

 

A day in the life of the three little bears squares.

Becoming, set free, resting, usefulness. Loved.   A good day.

 

And

One of my favorite weavers.

The little Japanese hand shears were a gift.  Aren't they lovely?  I love them.  I dyed the indigo wool as I went along.  Just enough.  Finger woven.  Very fine wool on a plied cotton indigo dyed warp.  Cozy feel.  More body than the silk warp.

Happy Monday.

Ding.

Cloth has wings

Cloth gives me wings.

Time to give back.  What if  I made a lot of these?  I did.   Just like eyes, you can't have too many wings.

My links have flown over to another page for safe keeping.   The PlaceKeeper is up in the top menu bar.  

Room to see

So now I am focused on looking around,  at all the beginnings, well , middles really...,  things in process that I chose to live with, out in the open.   All of them.  At the end of Magic Diaries, I decided they should all be out there.    Visible.    To get a feel for the volume of thought.   To understand context a bit more.     And this piece has grown from that.   What was once separate has begun to touch.   And  now it seems to be a little story of a bigger picture.    I renamed it room to see,  because it is about vision and space and  my sense of that.....  Of course this has required  the clearing of wall space.   Everything else needed to go. 

There was a sense of freedom in that (as well as a lot of holes in the walls).   And then, before the Vat became exhausted,  the butterfly was born.   I am trying to use  my new knowledge of shibori to create some other simple components, consistencies,  for my work, in addition to the moons.   Some symbols created in dyeing rather than stitch.   I like the sense of space that resist dyeing gives.   The simple  definition through  negative space.  To me I find it to be another way to divide space.   And in this way I think I have found a way to increase its usefulness in my story.   So far there is  the  moonflower and the butterfly.  I have a few other ideas,   but the Vat needs work.    Maybe I can manage some fresh leaf brews for some quick experiments.

I learned to dye with indigo from Glennis.   She also introduced me to shibori.   I put her link back in the side bar and now I have taken  it off again. I am rebuilding my links in a new space.   Things get cluttered so easily, we lose sight of them.

And now a little space here with posting as well,   as I ease  back into Diaries.  Not to mention it is a holiday weekend,  and My Son's birthday is mixed in there somewhere as well.

Spirit Cloth Diaries is my new long term continuous multi media teaching format Thoughts, notes, design development, techniques, etc. Teaching by example, story style. You can read more about it HERE. 

mama

...mentioned way back here, she is in the studio, waiting to be dusted off. She has waited so long.

She is a Dorothy, made by Leclerc. Unusually modified way back in 1971 for the company I worked for, to  hold 6 castle units, for a total of 24 harnesses. I only have 4 sections attached right now.  When I worked in the sample weave department, we used to work in pairs to thread the loom. One person in front, picking the correct harness and pulling the threads through as a second person sat in the back, following the color arrangement. and handed the threads through one at a time.  Because of the long tunnel that the harnesses make on such a small loom, this was very convenient and quick. It also often eliminated threading errors.. easier to focus. Of course, errors were not looked upon kindly.

Much of the weaving I have done over the years, at least recently has been without too much special equipment. More free form.  Smaller. On makeshift gadgets I have made. Or off-loom completely.

But I am back to the loom. This loom. Because I have it. And to make use of it.  To find new ways to combine free form with loom controlled weave and still work small. Now to find my warping reel. Rescue it from storage. Enough of that. Storage. Use it or lose it.

I will make a silk/ cotton warp. because I have some. Rescued also. And I will try out some of this beautiful Blue-faced Leicester wool in the fill. Hand spun, so fine,  by Dru. It is just gorgeous.

As a side note, I am slowly rebuilding my links (after a crash with Typepad) so they make sense with the focus of this blog.  Little by little. Because that's they way it goes. Thanks for your understanding and patience.

 

feather friday in november

while walking i came upon some leaves.  at the same time i was thinking of feathers.

then i thought        

leaves of a feather might float together. 

deb's dyed cloth is perfect for colored leaves. her spirit and generosity are like the seasons to me. i am creating a category for resource, rather than a page. this way  you can see how i use the products in my own work.  makes more sense to me. i will go back through my old posts to link them....

eventually

self to self

this morning i am holding the conversation close. framing it up and adding some memory of patchwork which is always a resting place for me. 

i ran out of words a couple of days ago . this conversation is going somewhere without words. i am using that to get back. allowing some sympathy for my mood.

yesterday i was quite pleased when i removed a few strips of cloth from the rose colored liquid made from red onion skins, petunias and oak water and vinegar.  boiled for a while and the rested for a week or so. cotton, linen silk. they each have their own character.

and so things seem rosier today.

and the dogwood is playing right along.

season can keep you going.

and today i was moved by this.

sympathy for beyond

.

projection

.

and speaking of thin-ness, i really like this

(the real journal is a very personal  thought catching process centered around on some chosen focus. this year i chose points and protrusions as my focus.)