New Construction Inspires A New Wool House

We have a new neighbor building a house across the street from us. After one or two false starts over the years by previous owners of this challenging lot, Tom finally got it right. Our neighborhood has building guidelines which include a 100-ft easement from the street because our lots are large and everyone likes the country feel (even if we are 30 minutes from downtown). The lot across the street is tough; approximately level from the street to about 75 feet back, then a good drop-off. That's "hill country" for you. My hat is off to our good new neighbor Tom, who designed a lovely home happily nestled into the hillside, while amicably facing our direction. I'm delighted with the new addition to our little hood. It is even an improvement over the cedar-clogged view we used to have!

Maybe that's why I was inspired over Thanksgiving break to finish this little wool house that I've had constructed but unadorned in my sewing room for months. If I thought it were Tom's style I'd give it to him in a heartbeat. But clearly it's not! I think I'll put it over at Martha's League Studio Gallery and see if she can sell it at her open house this weekend.

Now we need to think about decking our own halls for Christmas!

Another Bird in Flight

Long ago, I signed up for an inkjet transfer group with Yahoo Groups. At the time I believe it was moderated by Lesley Riley who has used transfers a lot in her fibert art and whose class I took many years ago. Every now and then I get an email from Yahoo with some new pics. This is one I like by someone who frequently posts pics in an album called Marianne K's transfers. A bird in flight; get it? This artist's work is beautiful...even the thumbnails I receive in emails are usually enticing enough for me to open them. I don't know who she or he is because her profile is private, but I always enjoy looking!

On that note, I think about all the stuff I have here on the internet. At some point I just decided, heck, if I tell the truth and use some discretion, then I don't mind sharing online. Since then, I've shared a lot of thoughts and opinions, some of it conflicting, but that's how it is! An open book many times, I still keep a lot to myself. I do understand why someone would like to post pictures of art, but no personal info, like that Yahoo gal/guy. The art, which seems personal, stands on its own. No identifier needed.

Room Dividers Could Rescue this Office

I'll admit I am lucky. I have a space of about 20 x 10 feet to work and play. Divided into two equal rooms by a door, I use the bright side for fiber art. (The picture doesn't look bright because it's night.) The dark side is truly dark; it was designed to be a dark room, fitted with pipes for a sink and everything. I use that for my office/writing space and more art supply storage. Not very inspiring, I can tell you.

Aside from the frequent visitor of the feline sort, practically everyone else in the family stays far away. This could be because when the children were younger, I came in here to be alone, to listen to music, or just get some quiet time, but mainly to play and make something. The kids are trained to stay out, and really, not much interests them in here anyway. Bill has no interest whatsoever what I do in here, so I've never even been asked to share it. Realistically, this space is so unwelcoming, who'd want to be here?

Trying to make this a better place to spend time is important because my other (non-art) writing business is beginning to keep me busy and there's really no reason not to enjoy where I'm working since I have the room. I have 200 square feet of office/creative space and I tend to bring my computer out to the dining room or kitchen to work; how silly is that?

These lovely closet doors and room dividers are from The Sliding Door Company (top pic) Closing off one end of the room for closet space would allow me to hide the craft and sewing supplies. Keep it all going or cut way back; that is the question.

I've been thinking of scaling back my art&craft hobbies anyway. Lately I find I want to just get rid of stuff and lighten up. That includes art supplies and fabric (what is this new feeling?), for my eyes are not what they used to be and I just don't have the bug to create,create,create every day like I used to.

Weird thing is, my appreciation of the fiber arts is as alive as ever; I just don't have the burning desire to sit down and make something. I can read about others' creations and collect craft supplies and fabric all day long, though. The fire didn't totally burn out, it just moved over or something.

Sometimes I hope it comes back. If not, it's okay. Life moves on (like the shadow of a bird in flight), right?

Meanwhile I'm cleaning up and out. I'm thinking of making Sweetboo.com (my old website) into a craft supply site. That could be fun if I only had some extra time. Wonder if all my craft supplies are really just me wishing for more time...This thought just occurred to me. Shazam! Must be something I need to pray on/contemplate. What a silly and indulgent little life I lead...sheesh..."Mortality" just took a second look my way. It probably is time to move on.

Any Idiot Can Make a Log Cabin Quilt....

Them's fightin' words.



Mark Lipinski's blog from Pickle Road is a hoot. I found him from a local quilt store's review of a new thread called Aurifil, which I Googled. I guess I'm a curious enough crafter to want to know why a thread is so special; I mean, how can you improve on thread? Well, this Mark Lipinski did a video from a quilt show raving about this thread in such an entertaining manner, that I just had to check out his website.

If you watch the review of the book above, you'll hear the challenge, "Any idiot can make a Log Cabin quilt..."

Oh, really? This idiot just may try it one day.

A Great Trade!

Check out the trade I made last week! A sculptor of faces [Diane Briegleb] commented on one of my box dolls and I offered to send it to her. She agreed to send me a face or two in return. And look what she sent me!

Here's what she wrote:

"I am an old woman of 75 years and I have done my faces for at least 30 years...I have been inspired by all the wonderful things people have done with her. Your piece really touched me as over the years there have been times when I have felt like I was in a room with no dorrs or no windows. And so your lovely doll really struck a note with me. I hope my pieces will bring inspiration. I am happy to be part of such creativity that I have seen over the years, and I am bonded to each thing that others do."

So now I will need to step up my efforts and make a doll or two that are worthy of such fine craftsmanship as Diane's faces. What an honor!

Patience or Mania?

What does it take to stitch a photo like this?

Jill Draper, whose photo-realistic stitched tapestries I viewed with awe on telegraph.co.uk, says that she stitches on her machine at such a manic pace that she gets headaches. She works on a few square inches at a time, carefully following a photograph. Then she hand stitches final details.

I believe that it takes a great reserve of patience to even undertake such a project, but I can understand the crazy manic type of work required to make headway with such small details. It's a mind-boggling process, to work on something so large in scale compared to the infinitesimal gestures needed to complete even a small portion of it. A few years ago I hand stitched a self portrait with DMC embroidery threads and was astonished at the speed required to keep my mind in the game. On top of that there is the mental concentration involved in keeping track of the slight variations in color needed to shade and add contours to the image.

That type of work, I imagine (I have never done work like that on a machine) has to be something like patting your head and rubbing your tummy at the same time -- times one hundred. While you furiously stitch with eyes focused and bright light shining on such a tiny section of the embroidered painting, you are trying to fly over the whole scene from high above with a part of your mind that can envision the end result. That has to be a mind bender!

Kudos to this Jill Draper. She is 62 years old. I hope my brain is as able to round up the intricacies required by my craft in 20 years!

The Aesthetics of Joy Blog

I read a blog called the Aesthetics of Joy, by Ingrid Fetell. Great stuff. Here is a video she talks about in one of her recent blog posts. It will eventually be a book, which I hope to buy, but for now I enjoy reading her ongoing revelations. She's kind of brainy, and uses BIG WORDS, in an art historian kind of way, and she is delightful.

Do you ever see something that just makes your heart sing? She is studying the common, quirky, unexpected things that for whatever rhyme or reason make us smile (or gasp, or blink, or gape in a good way). Think dancing, wildflowers, toys, bright pink dyed hair...

She also looks at the large sweeping artistic monuments and gestures which transport us, as the artist or architect (or God) intends them to. Think cathedrals, the Grand Canyon...

Fetell asks tough questions, too. I remember one blog post (featuring a picture of Charles Manson) pondering if evil-doers feel joy when they commit their atrocities, and if that could rightly be called "joy?" Ick.

I like to read about art, but sometimes art history seems a little pedantic. That's why I like this take on design and "joy." The subject matter itself is light-hearted, but down-to-earth, even while the discussion of it is at times challenging. Anyway, Aesthetics of Joy is worth checking out.

By the way, I like Sr. Wendy, too, but I've never read any discussions about street art from her...only classical art. Contrasting Ingrid Fetell to Sr. Wendy automatically comes to mind because while Sr. Wendy exudes her appreciation and love of the art she describes, the joy Ms. Fetell writes about seems to be somehow missing from her poin of view. An academic approach to what makes humans feel joyful is a very interesting topic indeed when written in an objective and discerning voice, which is how Aesthetics reads. She is certainly passionate about her subject, though; that comes through. When you think about it, it's a tough subject.

Most of the other art/design blogs I read are all breathless with love, love, love for their artistic discoveries; a whole lotta sugar, which I don't seem to naturally possess. That is why I read them, probably. I am a voyeur of "pretty" things, but the stuff that really brings me joy are tinged with something a bit wry at the end of the day. I laugh at the wrong places in movies, too, a personal characteristic which is only now at this late age beginning to embarrass me.

Historians and students who love art, design, or craft -- and can write well about it -- are precious.

Be-Dazzling the Piano (and other serious concerns)

The piano, this morning...No, I didn't do it (husband would put me in an institution), but I wanted to!

While watching Twilight with the kids last night I started an article for a scrapbooking website I periodically work for. In the midst of hunting around online for creative fodder, I found myself inside some great websites I haven't visited in awhile: Flickr, some paper arts sites, art blogs, etc. The process of writing the article while watching the movie got me thinking about a few issues closer to home:

1. Would my favorite opaque white gel pen ink take to the piano's glossy finish? How many barrels of plastic red monkeys would it take to cover the piano? Has my favorite gel pen dried out since I last used it?
2. Wonder when I'll be getting my next art quilt block for the round robin I'm involved with? (It's the only creative project I have going, and it seems to be slow-going, unfortunately.)
3. When the movie's over I'm going to have to put in my two cents worth with my kids regarding not only Team Jacob/Team Edward (gotta go with Jacob), but also on the soul belonging, finally, to God -- not theirs or anyone else's for the selling and/or trading. I know, I'm the one who agreed to the PG-13 movie, and now I will pay.
   

Of course at least the two older kids will roll their eyes and say how it's just a movie, and it's not real, and "Mom, why can't you just have fun and not be so serious about stuff," etc. My response being, "Who me? I'm the mom who would glue monkeys to the piano, if the family would let me...Who's serious?" But by then, I'll have already put the stick in the mud.

I wonder if anyone can relate? We moms think we're pretty fun, don't we? I know for a fact that kids broaden my sense of humor, which must mean necessarily that I have lost some sort of edge. Any world sophistication drops way off when I listen to middle schoolers talking away in the back seat of the van, oblivious to mom ears. It amazes me, by the way, that they don't realize that the chauffeur is listening (at least some of the time). And sometimes, it's actually entertaining. When I jump in with a bit of my own, the car goes silent for a beat. Then one of them says, "yeah, mom." and like a switch, the conversation magicaly enlivens again.

I watch movies like Twilight and make jokes about Jacob's chronic shirtlessness (kids go "sshhh!") and I realize that mom-funny is a lonely kind of funny, because the regular audience is always 30 years younger and they don't appreciate the jokes. They also take these types of movies very seriously. In any case, while I'm cracking fun at vampires (no one says "cracking fun;" I do realize this), I'm also mourning the loss of my creative outlets, which is my own fault completely, and thinking about how and when I'm going to volunteer my parental obligatory comments about some of the behaviors and themes in this silly movie.

There are the easy ones, interjected briefly: "You DO know never to get on a motorcycle with a stranger. In fact, don't get on a motorcycle, period." Then there are the ones that hopefully cause a little healthy mental interruption: " Maybe Bella should volunteer at an old folks' home or something."

Still, at the end of the movie, there are those remaining open-ended ideas that take more time, gentle revisiting over the course of a few days, like the soul stuff. One more thing to squeeze into a busy day, but crucial. I make a mental note: Don't make a huge discussion out of it, just turn the idea over a time or two.

My kids are coming into the age where I can't shelter them from stuff I disagree with. Nor the stuff I don't believe in. I don't want to, either. I'm not anti-supernatural, or prudish about monsters and magic and but Whew, pop culture keeps me on my toes!

And all I wanted to do last night was kick back, watch a teen movie, look at art blogs online, and imagine monkeys and crystals encrusting the piano...

Bali 1977

Bali 1977, originally uploaded by Mistifarang - el primero Unico de l'Escala.

I found this picture on Flickr. From Mistifarang - el primero Unico de l'Escala. Imagine.

My "Chops"

Ok, they're called Tjaps.

I don't even know if mine are from Indonesia, as the copper ones are. I got them in an antique store, but I don't know how old these are. I'm guessing people still use and design with these overseas. Not everything is made in a factory, of course.

These wooden handheld implements are wonderful and artistic in themselves. When I use them (which I will later on tonight), I pray for the hands that made and used them originally.

What a connection we have on this small planet!

Copper Tjaps are Hot Hot Hot.

A shipment came and went again.

I watch these things with curiosity and always take a look when they come up for sale at Dharma Trading Company. They send me an email whenever they get a shipment of these beautiful design tools and, just as they promise, these Tjaps from Indonesia do go fast -- within 24 hours the entire shipment of 300 have flown out the door. Vamoose.

One of these years I will jump in there and get myself a couple. In the meantime, I do have some wooden ones that I purchased at an antique store. I've used them on paper and fabric, sometimes with very nice effects. But the disadvantage of wood is, of course, that wood gets broken, so some of mine have irregularities that might drive the fiber art perfectionista a little crazy. I don't really mind since I use them for texture more than anything else. A couple of my wood ones also have a felted material sort of squished up between the actual wood carvings; I suppose to soak up excess dye (?).

These copper ones would be wonderful to play with. Batik artists seem to have the corner of these for their craft, but you could use them for all sorts of things. If you want to try them out you have to get on the Dharma email list or their Facebook page and have them alert you when they get their next shipment.

As usual, summer gets my creative juices flowing; I don't know why that is...more free time, more ideas for things to do. Lately (sadly) I'm more inspired to look at art than to actually try to create anything. A whole 'nother thing entirely, but just as satisfying in some ways.

The Red House Quilt

I've had the red house picture hanging in my studio for over a year now. I love it; something about the strange colors juxtaposed with the red house. It seemed so "quilt-like", and I was waiting for an opportunity to use this idea in a fiber project.

I got my chance last night. I needed to make an 8 x 8-inch "quiltlet" for a round robin I am doing with some ladies from Art Fiber Fest last year. The theme for this one is "inspirational quotes."

As I was puttering around my studio last night I came across the Emily Dickinson line, "I dwell in Possibility- a fairer House than Prose. More numerous for Windows -- Superior -- for Doors." (I can't remember her exact capitalization and dash use, but this is close.) I've always loved this line and it seemed to go with the red house by Russian painter Kazimir Severinovich Malevich, whom I have never heard of, but whose primitive little image made in 1932 I adore. The fact that it is nearly a perfect square helped me make my decision to use it for my contribution to the quilt project. The colors I found from my scrap stash are not perfectly matched, but they are pretty close.

My favorite part of the composition is the pink strip at the bottom.

League Studio

My friend and neighbor Martha League Calhoun is a working artist in Spicewood, TX. Her work includes very large water scenes and abstracts like the one above. Recently, she kindly asked me to display some of my dolls at her place. I brought over a ton of stuff and she managed to find space in her tiny studio at the corner of Bee creek and Highway 71 west of Austin, TX.

I have been long away from the days when I made dolls; it's been almost two years! Some days I almost hope for a small disaster to take them all from me because I can't seem to get rid of them in an elegant way. Art that strangles and haunts is not good anymore.

I can learn a lot from Martha. Here is Martha's style: she has a deep discount sale that says "This is the way it is; if I can't move this stuff I can't make more art...and art is all I do. Please take it off my hands so I can create." I'm paraphrasing; if you want to see what she says about it, visit Martha's website.

I love Martha's style. She is not afraid to abandon what she has done before and try new things. And more importantly she is easy-going about letting go of her work and forge ahead into a new creative stage in her life.