"Every Moment"

"Every Moment"
48"h x 45.5"w
NFS

This is the piece that I have been working on since May. As some of you know, my son was in a horrible auto accident in mid-April. He was in a vehicle that rolled 3 times on its way down an embankment. Luckily he has healed with no permanent injuries, but it was very scary for all of us for a while. This piece is a celebration of his recovery. It's about appreciating every moment that we are given and celebrating life and living every moment to the fullest. I wanted the piece to be full of life and joy and enthusiasm.

Goldenrod Yarns

These are the yarns from the goldenrod dyepots --- nice variations, mostly on wools or wool blends. The yarn on the right is cashmere. It won't be much longer that I can pick goldenrod for dyeing. The weather is getting too cool, and most of the plants are losing their colors.

On another issue, my desktop computer is functional again........thank goodness!

Another Praying Mantis

Things have been a zoo around here this week. Our son moved home, along with an apartment's worth of stuff. So once again I have lost my painting studio. The upside to this is that I do really enjoy having him around, even if we are all cramped for space right now.

This is also the week that Windows has decided to trash the boot record on my desktop computer, so I have spent two days trying to correct that. This morning I decided to scrap that idea and reinstall Windows. This is one more reason that I love my Mac laptop!

Yesterday I spotted another praying mantis in the yard. Soon I will have enough mantis photos to start work on my next series of work. I am truly fascinated with these little creatures, and I have been researching information for my series.

Ta Da ...

This is what I ended up making with the materials in my bag of stuff from Pokey at Quilting Arts magazine. Initially I was stumped as these did not seem like colors or materials that I could easily work with. Then the lightbulb turned on, and I decided to make a journal cover with a ribbon tie closure. Now I have a new journal for notes and sketches!

Woodcut and Thermofax Prints

Rosemary Claus-Gray read my blog entry where I mentioned that I had forgotten to take photos of her work before she left for home and sent me some of her prints to photograph and include in today's blog. The black and white prints on the top row are the two woodcut designs that she carved while she was here, and we printed them on the proof press at Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts. The black prints on the linen cloth are from thermofax screens made from Rosemary's drawings and photographs.

Rainbow Yarn

This is a newly dyed skein of a wool/cotton blend. I am experimenting with multicolored dyeing, and I am pleased with the end result on this skein.

I also have the goldenrod dyepot going. The goldenrod has finally started blooming enough to make a decent dyebath. But, of course, today it is raining again, so there will be no plant gathering today.

QA Blog Creative Challenge

Yesterday my package arrived from Quilting Arts magazine --- full of inspiring materials! The instructions on the package say "Enclosed are a variety of textured and sinfully fun things. Take them and make whatever your artful heart desires." My package includes dyed or painted coffee filter, silk, paper towel, gold mesh, embroidered flowers, ribbon, wallpaper, cheesecloth, and cotton cloth. No idea what will morph from all of this, but stay tuned for a photo when it is finished!

Painting and Dyeing...

Rosemary Claus-Gray and I have enjoyed a fun week of painting and dyeing and woodcut printing and embellishing and Shiva paintsticks and and and.......

Above is some of the cotton I painted, some of the silk chiffon and organza that I dyed, and some of the silk threads that I dyed. Rosemary printed several woodcuts and thermofax screens of Incan and Mayan symbols and architecture, but I forgot to take photos before she left.

What a great week!

I'm in Love!

Rosemary Claus-Gray is spending several days with me (printing, painting, dyeing), and she brought a fun toy --- her baby lock embellisher. I've never tried felting before, and this is a total blast! I felted roving, yarns, scrim, cheesecloth, you name it. If it fit under the embellisher needles, I felted it. The photos above are two of my early attempts.

Summer Brights

This is a sample of the bright yarns that I've dyed this summer, especially lots of the yellows and oranges. My coreopsis and cosmos are overgrown and blooming like crazy, and I'm too scotch to let it go to waste.

P.S. Rayna, I know these aren't your colors, so I'll post the earthtones next.......LOL.

Not quite Nebraska red, but....

fun colors just the same! These are the results from the cochineal dyepot this week --- a skein of cotton, a skein of bamboo, and three skeins of wool. They're not as "red" as I had hoped for, but I like the hot pink shades. Next experiment will be to shift the cochineal to a more purple shade.

New Project

The neonatal unit at one of our local hospitals needs more knit caps for the babies, so of course I said I'd help. ("No" must not be in my vocabulary). Actually I enjoy knitting in the evenings, and these little caps don't take long to knit. And they are so little and cute! If you want to make some, let me know.

Saga of the Blues

This piece of cloth was painted quite a while ago, but it didn't feel finished. Now I've screened some text on it in white. That helped, but it still needs more. Maybe a touch of yellow or red or both...

Rain, Rain, Rain...

We seem to be getting rain showers every day --- great for the gardens, great for the fungi, bad for an artist who likes to paint and dye outdoors. This mushroom is one of the new crop that is at the edge of our yard. Anyone know what type it is? Maybe I should try dyeing with it...

New Work

Fragments #3
12.5" x 12.5"

This is one of the four pieces that I posted work-in-process photos of last month. The inspiration for the Fragments series is fragments of notes, fragments of buildings, fragments of cloth. The series is now posted on my website. Click here to see all 4 pieces.