Spirit Cloth

Things come and go

Many arrangements were washed away with the day.

I ended up with this.

She. Still standing. Not swept away. Washed by it, that which flows through. Kantha legs are strong.

The additions are all silk. Which started with the foggy silk moon, veiled in summer leaves, a reflection of the moody day, the dot itself in sympathy with the house of time passing. The background in sympathy with blue already there. Blending.

And then the river. Nobody does flow better than Glennis. I love her shibori silk ribbon because of that, and how it is so liquid. You can make it flow around anything, if you have the mind to try.

I imagine there will still be wings. It's not time yet.

Time Lapse

A wet day. But not yesterday.

Last evening, red sky.

Late night wishing star, golden but leaning toward other colors, # 55 out of the intended 99.

The begonia. This morning. Watered by a leaking roof. Looks like more rain for days. Begonia is happy. ( ha! A is for April Showers.

This morning, A. Just a doodle to mark a beginning for the Indexing. A is a seed in a way. An Alphabet is an easy way to go. It's musical in my mind. And it's a kind of game that leads somewhere. I will create an online template for THE Index today. An index that will serve as a resource for Feel Free, Spirit Cloth Language and Loose Pages. Feel Free to join in.

 

1-2-3 Wednesday

One. One of a kind is on my mind.

Because one of a kind has always been how it is for me.

My original internet name was onebyjude.  Before spiritcloth.

It was about handmade I guess. Not factory made. But also originality. In a softer way. Maybe the celebration of what moves through me us. How special that is.

Anyway, I rarely try to duplicate anything.

Handmade kind of insures that. Variation. Imperfection. Slow evolution. But not duplication. Sometimes I go with a thought more than one time though. I sort of copy myself. But not copy, continue. To witness evolution in my own path. To remind myself not to stand still. Of the opportunity to build on what went before. To feel the flow. 

Note to self: Sharing thought, through teaching, is a way to expand it. Sympathetic evolution is not duplication. It is design mending when we feel free.

Two. Two bases. Again, but not really. The base process is simply that. Creating a foundation for thoughts and experiments. These are small but I bet I can cram a lot of small journeys into them. I suppose a lot of you have been through the Base Lesson over at Spirit Cloth 101. So I am doing the same thing really, here. Starting something. I added a bit of thin cloth. Harem cloth in this case. Because I have some here.  I have a lot of it. And I don't think I need all of it. So maybe I can share some of it over at ThreadCrumbs in small bits as a free addition to some of the component packs. Just big enough for a little something. You only need a bit. No sense in buying a whole bunch of it before you try it. I've put a link to it in the resource list anyway. Up to you. I try to get away from more stuff. Hence the stray bits approach.

This is a patchwork base. Put together rather freely. Maybe I will make a few more using other methods. See how that leads me in other directions.  I have already pinned these to the thin cloth. To begin to give the base some weightless substance. I switched to safety pins this last year, I stuck myself too many times. Besides I like the idea of safety. The holding. My next step is the glue stitch (the invisible baste).

Three.

A few things about Three. On the second base I stuck with the Three groups of Three. Across. I also used Three larger elements in the center vertically. To balance the horizontal flow I guess. But also to accentuate that in between standing thing. Which happened yesterday. I also added a new star idea. That square format that comes from patchwork. The one I like to call the wishing star. Simple. A square. I had dyed one before the vat expired. I used a couple of small square ceramic tiles, left over from redoing the bathroom, for the resist.

Again, just a simple walking stitch. It's path leaving a shaped trail. There could even be a story there. Later.

I dyed 3 more. To play with.

Couldn't stop one of them from beginning a spin.

There are many ways to make shapes on cloth. I've been dyeing. But while I wait for a new vat to ripen, I'll try a few more ways. One at a time.

Also, walnuts are dropping.

First Freeze Coming and 1-2-3.

 Third Sunday in October.

ONE.  The squirrels got into my acorn walnut dye soup while I was tidying the studio. Ok.

Start over.

TWO. Still green here with the first hard frost expected tonight. So...

Hung a flag to help things along.  Some October color. Old tie dyed silk scrap by Richard Carbin, like only Richard can do. If you need any vintage silk to dye, he's the man.... I met Richard though Glennis. So there you go. He is in Japan. She goes there often for her Silk Study Tours. On occasion you might find some old silk in her shop as well.  Some folks were asking about  a source for that. You can buy new silk of course but really I would rather support folks trying to make an honest living to support their families. And really there is nothing like old silk. To Dye for.

THREE.  I just unrolled this and named it Feel Free.  Naming things for me has a lot to do with the moment.  I named it something else before, but today it's Feel Free. I started this one during a teaching series, so I will probably be able to find some old videos and stuff.

But right now, some last minute garden rescue is in order.  The Man feels fine, I feel free and the camera issue has been resolved.

 

After Many Septembers

 

A stray cat

might dance in in it. With it.

My intention was to walk you through the process of this one a bit, but this week has been a bit hectic and I sneak away to stitch now and then. When I can.

Some Deb cloth again, atop some gloriously old and deep indigo from Crazy Richard. Right there in Japan, he is.

I'll call this one Dances with Leaves. For now. Names often change in sympathy with the day.