Snow days

Who doesn't like a snow day every now and then? A day to play, to be a kid again? Make snow angels, go sledding, build a snowman, have a snowball fight? I enjoy all those activities, even more so now that I have children.

However...yes there is a monster of a however...not when Mother Nature decides to dump 15 or so inches of the white stuff on us not only two days before Halloween, but, to add insult to injury as the saying goes, on my birthday. If She had deigned to ask what type of weather I would have preferred, snow would not have been on the list, let alone in the top three.

Those along the northern east coast reading this know what's coming next. Reports of trees and tree limbs down, some falling on power lines. For the second time in two months, we are without power. In September, we were lucky and our power outage was for two days only. The temps outside were much warmer then too. Not sure we're going to be so lucky this time. Seems most of the state is in the same boat we are.

This is the long way of saying that it doesn't look like much art is going to be made at my house this week. I may post a few photos of the snow. Got one of my husband fixing breakfast on the grill yesterday midst the white stuff.

By the way, as I type this on my iPad, which has a long battery life, I feel the need to say thank you to Steve Jobs for his genius, creativity and ingenuity in creating such a great little device and all the other Mac products he pioneered. May he be having a snow day so he gets to play too.

Location:Connecticut 107,Redding,United States

Stripeys

One of my favorite blogs is Be...Dream...Play by Elizabeth Bunsen. Her daily journal pages amuse, inspire, and instill awe in this lowly fiber artist. If you follow Elizabeth's blog, you've seen the stripeys pop up now and then...sometimes mentioned, sometimes settled quietly in the background, but present. As much as I love Elizabeth's journal pages, it's the stripeys that have captivated me.

You already know that I'm a rust junky. Well, I'm a stoner too. Yes. I like rocks of all shapes, sizes and patterns. Cairns hold me spellbound...especially these by a friend of mine.

When I realized that Elizabeth was selling her stripeys, the temptation was too great. Emails were exchanged and yesterday this arrived.

Thank you Elizabeth! The stripeys are wonderful and so are all the little surprises that you tucked in!

In the studio

Remember the stitching that I did during our week at the beach?

It just became these

cards.

Dancing on the wind

We had a bit of breeze here yesterday.

Formerly white t-shirt #2. More on that soon.

My Sunday afternoon

Not much art type work was done over the weekend except for a little photography in the backyard.

In the studio

What to do? What to do? That's the thought that runs through my mind with all of my rusted cotton fabric. I think I'm just in love with the rusting process itself...the mystery, the waiting, the surprise upon opening the bundle and finding something really cool.

My latest is this:

 While hanging outside to dry, it began to rain resulting in the spotting effect.

 The full piece was interesting, but two seemed more so.

 And if two was interesting, three could only be better, right?

The last shot is of how it now hangs. The second piece from the top (which is the smaller of the pieces) was rusted a second time after being soaked in a vinegar/tea combination and using rusty masonry nails. The tannins in the tea added a blackish/purplish color overall which makes a nice contrast to all the rust and white.

Still, I look at it and think, What to do? What to do? There's a piece in there somewhere...but it's still rattling around in my creative mind and seems to enjoy playing hide and seek with me. I'll find it one of these days. Hopefully sooner rather than later.

Fiber Futures: Japan's Textile Pioneers

It's another gray, rainy day here in the semi-northeast. Every day that it rains, I say a little prayer that all this precipitation is not a sampling of what our winter will be like...except with snow instead of rain. If it is, I'm heading south! Actually, no, but I'll be dreaming about somewhere warm and sunny.

Anyway, this weather has me...well...not exactly in a funk, but kind of. I want to work, but my mind just keeps hopping from idea to idea and can't seem to settle on one. After treating myself to an hour at Starbucks, I came home to blog surf and think about doing something creative.

BrownGrotta's blog post about the current exhibit at Japan Society in New York caught my eye. After downloading the iPad app and practically drooling over the amazing fiber creations shown, I thought to share this photo, which is a screen shot from the Japan Society web site, of one of the installations.

Anyone care to join me one Saturday to see it? This one is just too good to miss.

Patterns

My husband smiles and shakes his head when he sees me taking photos of the ground. He's become accustomed to it by now though and even realizes that sometimes I get some really cool images.

That said, I'm not quite sure what he would have thought had he been with me Saturday as I knelt in front of the Natick fire house to photograph the crosswalk. Thankfully, all was quiet as I knelt there, admiring the wonderfully graphic patterns created by Massachusetts weather, the weight of the fire trucks and maybe even by human feet.

Dorothy Caldwell

Oh! To be in Toronto right now to see Dorothy Caldwell's exhibit at David Kaye Gallery.

 

screen shot from David Kaye Gallery web site

To see more of Dorothy's work, click on David Kaye Gallery link above, 

then click on Dorothy's name to the right. Enjoy!

Brown vs bleach

Along with the two black t-shirts and a couple yards of black cotton, the other thing to get discharged yesterday was a brown t-shirt that I'd been thinking about doing something to. It had a small stain right in the middle, like where food had been dropped...yep, I'm clumsy...which just refused to budge to any laundry chemical. Discharging it yesterday was a spur of the moment decision, but one that I am very glad to have made.

The top shot is of the front, bottom is the back. Haven't decided what color was dyed over, but there's a bit of olive green and very pale mauve/gray/lilac-ish something along with the glorious deep purple. Knowing as little as I do about the chemical make-up of commerical dyes, all those colors could go into making brown for all I know. This really is one case where ignorance is bliss because this shirt made my morning yesterday.

In case you're wondering what else has been happening in the studio, maybe this shot will give you an idea.

Bleach vs black

Why is it that whenever you accidentally get even the tiniest little splash of bleach on what you're wearing, that spot immediately turns the brightest, purest white? The kind of white that can be spotted from miles away? You know what I mean. There's bound to be a law of nature that governs the whole thing and I would have liked that law of nature to have been on my side this morning.

Well...now that I think about it, maybe the problem this morning is that I wasn't wearing either of the black t-shirts that were being discharged...on purpose actually, not accidentally.

You see, I'd have loved for either of these shirts to have discharged to white so that my closet would have a bit more variation than rust/orange artsy shirts. They're currently in the washing machine having a good soak...along with a brown t-shirt that made my morning. Photos of that soon!

#2 Experiment with rust - round 2

Thursday afternoon I re-opened the t-shirt bundle and hung it outside to dry. The combination of vinegar and sun turned the rusted areas more brownish than orange which I found very appealing.

Kinda wish I could have stopped there and worn the shirt, but the heavier rusted areas were a bit stiff and there was a slight aroma of vinegar still wafting from it. So into the washer it went. I wore it today when we ventured into New York city to take the girls to see dinosaur bones at the American Museum of Natural History.

Even tried to get a good shot of it tonight after the girls were in bed. This accidental photo was the best and shows just how much rusting was washed out. More orange-y rust than brown now. Not as much coverage. It's still cool, but I need to figure out how to keep more of the color in. If you have any thoughts, please pass them along.

#2 Experiment with rust - round 1

I unwrapped the t-shirt this morning to see what the past 24 hours had done to it and was pleased at the results.

I repositioned the gear and re-wrapped everything for more rusting, but after looking at the photo here, I may just open it back up and let it be as is. What do you think?

#2 Experiment with rust

After rusting the white tunic last week, the temptation to do it again was just too strong to ignore.

Experimenting with rust - part 4

Friday afternoon my curiosity won the battle over being patient and letting the tunic continue to rust. In fact, I wore it yesterday with leggings and boots. Threw it on over jeans this morning to get this shot.

I love the tunic now! My daughters like it too. Ellie has already asked to wear it so I may just have to rust a few shirts or dresses for them as well.