Departure

Yesterday I wanted to try something different from the same 'ole, same 'ole so I took a piece of cotton painted it with dye print paste, cooked it by the woodstove, rinsed it out, didn't like how washed out the colors looked and then proceeded to overpaint the design. I like the simplicity of this and the colors. I am handstitiching it (it's about 8x10" so this is do-able). If you click on the photo is will get LARGE and you can see some of the stitching details. I hope to do more of these in the future. Feels a bit folk arty, doesn't it?

Work continues....I turned this piece around, snipped away some of the overlaying silk in certain areas and started to add some hand stitching. It's looks like primoidal soup, doesn't it?

Ethereal

Suggestive. Filmy. Floaty. And nutritous too???? Someone told me this technique reminds them of creamy yogurt. This one has a base of multi colored hand dyed cotton with hand dyed silk organza laid over top. More hand stitching will be added.

Work Continues

I added some hand stitching over the weekend. At first I was going to load up this piece with stitching but I'm thinking maybe not....perhaps subtle is the way to go...but I'm going to let it sit for awhile before moving forward. I've often found that I need to step back from pieces about mid-stream and let ideas and thoughts come to me as they will.

Respite Saturday

What have I been up to this past week? Besides trying to maintain a semblance of sanity while at my day job? (and the jury's still out on how successful I was at that). I was messing around with silk and silk organza that I had dyed over the past weeks. I created this base and plan to enhance it (well...let's hope that's the result) with hand stitching. This is such a complete departure from my usual work that I'm very intriqued and excited. It's also a larger than typical piece, coming in at about 18x13". Change can be good.

Americana

An internet folk artist friend sent me a box of these luscious shirting cottons that are so finely woven many of them feel like silk. We are going on vacation in about a week and since I can't bring paints and dyes along (doubt our hosts would appreciate newly colored floors and rugs compliments of my less-than-tidy work habits) I plan to bring materials to do hand stitching during quiet times. The cottons are fabric samples so none are larger than 8x4", and will be perfect to mix and match. I figure if I make small appliqued blocks when I get home I can machine stitch them together. Sound good?

Textures

Messing around with textural stitching last night...I think I might mess around some more tonight...no doubt this will have more added stuff before it's done.

My day job continues to prove challenging but I'm surviving. When I'm feeling particularly 'used up' in my 9-5 world I think of art and what I'm working on or want to do and - all of a sudden - everything goes into its proper perspective. My day job is a function I have to perform. It is only a part of my life and meaningless in most ways - but necessary. But, the minutes and hours that are spent creating nourish my soul and have more to do who I really am than an A+ on a job performance rating ever will.

Hand Work

Worked on this last night while listening to television and waiting for Steve to come home from his Nuclear Physics (quake & shudder) class. It uses only my own hand dyed fabric and was done purely intuitively – no planning done on this little baby. I’m actually pleased with how it’s turning out. When finished this 4x6 postcard will be sent to Deb L,
http://morewgalo.blogspot.com/
who is owed a long overdue trade from me. Better late than never is a motto I live by way too often!