when orphans are no more

"i feel akin to the platypus.

an orphan in a family.

a swimmer, a recluse.

part bird, part fish,

part lizard."

-trevor dunn

everyone knows how much i enjoy working with orphan blocks. they somehow seem at home in the selvedges of life and creativity where i reside. these all roads blocks (pattern by angela waters) are fast becoming a family of favorites!

my mother-in-law began making these half-sized from the original blocks in red and white a while back and then orphaned them as she grew bored with the monotony of them. knowing how much i love orphans, she gave them me, along with a stash of red and white minnick and simpson charms and jelly rolls.

after playing with them a while, soaking up their beauty and possibilities, i've begun to really have some fun with them. toss in some greys, blues, plums, and creams and all of a sudden they are coming to life and coming together in their new family! with each unit measuring in at only 4-1/2 inches finished, i've got several hundred to go before i can call it a quilt, but 4 dozen done seems like a great start!
.
namasté

thread chanting

"chanting is the

waxing moon

that spreads the white

lotus of good fortune

for all living entities."

-sri  chaitanya-caritamrita

if you have followed me for any length of time, you've heard me speak of needle chanting many times. it is a term coined by jude hill long ago, referring to the meditative nature of hand sewing and kantha stitch. lately I have found myself contemplating this concept in my own work and how the focus has shifted.

needle chanting becomes thread chanting. the focus moves from the act (needle) to the legacy (thread). from chanting to that which was chanted, and its lingering effects.

chanting is very powerful because it aligns our core energy, centers and raises our personal vibration through vocal resonance. it is much the same with stitching slow cloth. a meditative process that chants with needle and thread. holding self in the present. creating with intention. the silent chant of needle echoing softly as thread is pulled through fragments of cloth. the voice of slow cloth, a quiet voice of the soul. silent whispers becoming the roar of peace, harmony, creativity, and all possibilities!

namasté

glowing against the grey

"only connect!

that was the whole of her sermon.

only connect the prose and the passion,

and both will be exalted...

live in fragments no longer."

-e.m. forster, howard's end

it is strange, how ideas fold in on themselves and re-present themselves. a stray fragment whispered longings for something to make her shine. i gifted her with a star. seeing her joy, i sought to give this gift again. before i knew it, there was a tiny galaxy of stars, just there, glowing against the grey.

soon other celestial bodies whispered into existence.  moons. suns. planets.  these could be any or all, for what is in a name?  tiny echoes of the sunbursts and moonglows that have been manifesting in my studio. celestial fragments.

they look familiar. yet different. new.  ah! but of course! inspiration bathes us in its own celestial glow. jude hill's nine series of indigo moons and stars. pale resist-dyed "threadcrumbs" luminous in their deep indigo sky. jude has ever been a beacon in the star-filled sky of my creativity! so to keep that element, these celestial fragments are grouped in nines as well. to pay homage to the one who seeks "a cross-pollination" which "seeds a larger and exotic garden of delights."

so very different, yet related. these smoldering rust-printed celestial fragments would play quite nicely with jude's mysterious indigo jewels in that garden...

namaste'

an untrue story?

"if history

is any indication,

all truths will 

eventually

turn out

to be 

false."

-dean kamen

"the untrue story of ship's manor"... how can you not be drawn in and enamored by an introductory line like this??  erik shipley, the mind and talent behind this untrue story of ship's manor, creates the most exquisitely hand-dyed cotton and silk threads that you could ever dream of needle chanting with! my very first selection of his threads arrived this afternoon and i've been stitching away with them all evening. they are a delight! so vibrant and full of energy!  now, as you know, i've never been much for flosses and silks, preferring rather to throw in with the more substantial wildflower threads from caron. however, these sumptuous strands of erik's have carried me away on gossamer wings into a rich landscape of stitching pleasures! of course, this means, naturally, that you simply must have some, too!

meanwhile, on the other side of the needle, meet my new old friend: a 1964 brother 300 deluxe push button zig zag sewing machine! this sexy little number, dressed to the nines in apricot and deepest charcoal, followed me home for a local charity shop. now, i won't be so ungentlemanly as to call her cheap, but she was as easy on the wallet as she is on the eyes, let me tell you.  included in her travel valise are all of her original accessories, original foot pedal, original manual & warranty card, and her original bill of sale. in a society that seems to worship nothing but vintage singers, it is always a joy to find a gem like this one quietly shining her light beneath a basket. she sews like a dream and has obviously been treasured for years and will now be treasured for many more to come! who says other machines can't sing? i have a whole choir in my sewing room, and only a few of them are singers!

namaste'

somewhere in the darkness

"time changes everything

except something within us

which is always surprised

by change."

-thomas hardy

time has been sitting on my mind of late like a bear on a stack of salmon bones. perhaps because i have had more of it (whatever that means) these past few weeks. perceptions begin to shift whenever routines change. the greater the change, the broader the shift. you begin to look at people and situations differently. realizations that once flickered like a tiny candle in a deep, dark room become a brilliant blaze which illuminate seemingly every corner. of course, at first the eyes must adjust to this new found clarity before the brain can begin to comprehend what is being seen.  in times such as these, it is good to fall back on something known.

i pulled this cloth out this morning and found myself stitching color again. bright, festive colors on cool, impersonal white. life dancing in all its brilliance across the blank face its absence. there is something liberating about this. perhaps there will be more of it in the coming days. this brilliant dancing of life. color. music. celebrational activities. perhaps a lot more...

namaste'

a thought in white

as many of us contemplate the nature of white in all its guises along with jude hill in her latest diaries series, what-if diaries, it is amazing to me what a seemingly insignificant thing can spark an entire line of thought that grows wild and free in my mind! while engaged in my own fruitless what-iffing, i had been content to enjoy everyone else's journeys in white until my eyes rested upon an old spool of time-tinted white cotton thread making its nest upon a white fragment of cloth... a panorama of thought and image was born!

now to begin bringing a fragment or two of that new world into form...

namaste'

mixing some media

i'm just continuing my thoughts about mixing free-motion machine embroidery with hand stitching and then taking it another step down that brambled path that is the intrepid "what if" trail by adding in some other media besides thread and cloth. i've tossed in some metal and buttons; safety pin and metal beads. before we are done journeying down this road there will most likely be glass and paper and who knows what all else added! all the while keeping within this year's focus: fragments.

i don't think i have really talked much about this focus yet. the intent here is to allow these seemingly "unfinished" pieces to stand on their own. they will range from simple cloth fragments with snatches of thoughts embroidered with simplicity on through the gamut to ones such as this one, exhibiting a riot of color and materials!

of course, i have much still to do with this piece and it seems to be full steam ahead, filled with passionate momentum! there is much embellishment to be done in the lower left corner amongst the metal bits, the knots running diagonally across the cloth are only just beginning to emerge, the bird is still largely untouched, and upper corners and borders need further development. the idea is offset the rather bleak fragment of thought with a counterpoint of joyous color and riotous activity to illustrate that even dressed up. decorated. a broken heart is still always going to be broken. of course, there are many ways one can go with this idea. but that travels well beyond this humble fragment's purpose...which is merely to pose the idea. compel you to think and draw your own conclusions.

namaste'

fragments of word and cloth

i have a mind to embark upon a new journey. a journey of cloth. and words. i am done with attempting to coerce myself into completing cloths that simply don't have their heart in being completed. that's not to say that they will never find themselves finished. it just means that i am tired of beating myself into submission to try and finish something that isn't ready to complete its cycle of metamorphosis. to this end, i have designated my great-great-uncle's old steam trunk as home for wayward cloths and will continue to visit, live with, and work on (as they allow) on my various creations of cloth and fibre, have pulled my travelling boots on and pointed them in a new direction.

i have an extensive collection of thoughts and words. my own. those of others both known and unknown. while sitting by the fire and allowing my shoulders and neck time to heal this past week, i had a thought or two that ultimately lead me to an idea. one where fragments of word and cloth come together and instill deeper thought by their seemingly incomplete natures.

there have been many whispers bantered about in mind with regards to what will be done with these fragments. incorporate them into something more? or simply allow them to remain in remnant form? i imagine the answers to these whispered wonderings will emerge at a much later time...

in the meantime, the fragments will flow and manifest and simply be allowed to be what they choose to be. transforming a seemingly impossible situation into a very possible one!

namaste'

hellcat has arrived!

i am so stoked! my new tim armstrong hellcat guitar arrived today!  it is a stunning fender guitar based on tim armrstrong's beat-up old sixties acoustic on which he writes all the songs for the legendary punk band, rancid. of course, my baby is gonna rock out some awesome blues and will probably never know what punk sounds like. ha!

tim added some wicked flair and style with pearl hellcat logo inlays on the 3rd, 5th, 7th, and 9th frets, along with a couple of cool skulls on the 12th fret. of course, not to be outdone, i found an amazing canadian hand inlay artist, scott swirski, and commissioned him to make a new truss rod cover for my own personal hellcat made of ebony and mother of pearl. he finished it up over the weekend and it will arrive toward the end of next week (i can hardly wait for it to arrive and can only hope turkey day won't slow delivery down too much).  here's the pic he sent me of the finished truss rod cover:

this sweet guitar even has a pre-amp with a built-in tuner so i'll be able to take it to the clubs and not get lost in the din!  it has a rich, balanced tone with a nice bass line and responds well when played soft and easy with a warm, mellow sound, yet rings loud and clear when you dig in hard and get aggressive!

looks like i might have to get the mic out again and do a little recording...

namaste'

inspiration: susanna bauer

we all find inspiration in the world around us. sometimes, i spend hours contemplating the sources of my inspiration. wondering about who and what inspires others. i thought it might be interesting to you, gentle readers, to see, from time to time, where my inspiration draws from.

susanna bauer is a bavarian modelmaker in england who, in her spare time, does the most amazing things with leaves, rocks, and bits of wood. some of her concepts mirror those many of us explore and experiment with in cloth and fiber. especially in what she creates from leaves and thread! it seems most of her personal art is created from natural elements found during her walks. her sense of balance between the natural element and the man-made is provocative...

to see more of her work, journey across the web to here.

i hope susanna's work inspires you as well!

namaste'

urban guerilla boro

it is always inspirational when we meet someone finding new ways to connect their art to the community in which they live. michael swaine is one such artist. i did not run into him on any of my forays into san francisco, but hope to some day. i would love to spend some time chatting with him and hearing more about his "performance art" project.

here is a man who is a potter/sculptor by trade (teaches at the san francisco art institute) who reached out into another medium and found a way to express it in a new and elevating way. he designed and built his own mobile sewing station after finding an old treadle machine in the trash. has spent the past couple of years wandering around one of the roughest neighborhoods of san francisco known as the tenderloin, and mends local residents' clothing. but he doesn't stop there. he connects with the residents in meaningful ways. talking with them about life. about mending. or sometimes just about the weather. whatever they need to talk about while he treadles boro patches and mends seams and rifts in their clothes...and, quite possibly, in their lives through his outreach and warmth.

between his mobile forays of urban guerilla boro, michael is currently building the free mending library in the tenderloin area at 509 ellis. it is a place to borrow thread and sewing machines and talk about life.

i wonder what other ways we can connect with our community through our art besides the more traditional gallery?

namaste'

forgetting as an option

"wouldn't it be nice

to just live for today

and let the past

just slip away."

-robert boughter

as many of you know, i work four nights a week at a local green house cottage for the elderly with alzheimer's. most people who hear about what i do immediately think "how awful! those poor people who are forgetting everything. how can you stand it?"  i even had someone suggest that this must be doubly terrible since our guests are at the end of their lives so they are "just going to die on you, so how can you invest so much in them? especially since they won't even remember all that you are doing for them!" my answer to these, and many other similar questions, is always the same: how can i not?

while it is true that i have attended more funerals in the past four years that i have worked in the cottages than most people will attend in a dozen lifetimes, our guests have provided me with more joy and fulfillment than i could ever have hoped for in life. i am so fortunate to be able to share in their daily wonder and delight. to be be a part of their lives and families. to be humbled by their trust and unconditional love. not to mention the plethora of lessons and wisdom i have had bestowed upon me by their very act of living.

one of these lessons is how forgetting can bring contentment. true, our guests have little choice in what they have forgotten. or when they forget. but they do get to choose how they will respond to their forgetting, and most of them choose to respond with joy. the joy of living in the moment. from the guest who is only just entering into the early stages of the disease who fills in the blank spots in her memory with happy alternatives, right on down to the gentle lady who introduces herself to me every time she sees me whether it was yesterday, or less than five minutes ago, and does so with a smile in her eyes and joy in her heart at meeting someone new that she can welcome into her home!

these amazing and beautiful people live in the now. find joy and peace in each moment, in spite of their physical and mental maladies. how can i not try to honor them by seeking to do the same? it isn't always easy. i struggle with depression and loneliness. but i have so many shining examples around me who are struggling with so much more.

one arena that i am focusing on in this moment, is to bring this forgetting into my art as an option. by this i mean that i want to try and forget to judge everything i do. to move forward with each peace in joy and be content with its outcome. to forget what other people my think and say about my art based upon their own biases and opinions, and to create for the simple sake of creating something beautiful and wonderful to my own eye. just as our guests in the cottages live each moment in each day. forgetting the pain and the slights life, and often family, have offered them, in favor of finding joy in a cupcake...or the warmth of a caring touch.

i once had a guest who was blind, in the advanced stages of alzheimer's, and suffered from crippling arthritis, who always knew it was me before i even reached  her room and greeted me with a big smile no matter how much pain she was in. i asked her how she always knew it was me and could always remember my name but no one else's. she told me it was because whenever she heard the jingle of keys on my belt heading down the hall, she knew that "joe, who has kind hands" was coming to see her and it always made her happy. of how she always looked forward to "seeing" the highly textural cloths that i made with her in mind. of how she enjoyed spending time, telling me about the things she "saw" in my art cloth through her fingers.

she has been gone for two years now, but i can't think of her without a smile touching my lips and a tear washing my cheek. it is for her, and those like her, that i mean to strive to create art with forgetting as an option...

namaste'

sometimes found...

i've been thinking a lot about this ragged cloth lately. well, perhaps not immediately about the cloth itself, but about the emotion that seems to emanate from its fibers. there isn't anything particularly amazing about it. no fabulously wonderful fabrics were used. the crazy stitching is decidedly lacking in the "crazy" department as the creator used only two different stitches. even then, they were executed with a quiet innocence, not masterful skill. the backing is a dark flannel with little outstanding character. the batting too thick. rather than being beautifully quilted, it is plainly tied. there are chunks missing here and there as it was obviously used by someone else as a cutter. it is not an ugly cloth...but a decidedly...average...cloth.  marked  by its journeys and tribulations. tired. lost in a world that reveres youth, blind beauty, and skill.

oh, i'm sure that along the way this tattered cloth was was sometimes found by a kind heart or two. loved. allowed to embrace someone and bring comfort. provide warmth. just as it was also clearly used. abused. tossed on the floor. dragged about by uncaring fingers. put away in a musty trunk. forgotten again. later to be discarded. elated to be found once again by adoring eyes, only to find out those eyes harbored different ideas before cutting into its flesh with shears. tearing bits away from the cloth's filament to be repackaged into something else. distorted. the admiration aborted now that it was no longer whole.

truth be told, even i cast a speculative gaze upon this cloth with thoughts about how i might chop it up and utilize its lingering simple grace in something new. different. had given thought to what might not be salvageable for my own ends and what to do with the remains. but found this cloth to be filled with a gentle whispering. and, listening to these murmurings, can no longer bring myself to malign its nature further. this cloth deserves love and honor for its own sake. not for what i or anyone else can turn it into. there are plenty of other cloths about that would...and will...rejoice at being re-imagined. re-invented. re-purposed. but not this cloth. this cloth has integrity and wishes to continue to love and provide warmth.

i will listen closely. divine its yearnings and allow it to be what it longs to be. help it realize these dreams where i can. honor its life and will be simply be.

i understand this cloth more than you might know. as we travel through this life, there is an affinity residing between those things that wind their way into our lives and our own hearts... i wonder if i will some day be afforded a similar place in someone's life? honored. loved. allowed to be as i am. cherished for who that is...

isn't it odd where hope can be sometimes found...

namaste'

ed. note:  8/27 - 9:30 a.m.:  

gah! obviously, i need to stop watching romantic comedies and listening to adelle while working these long, lonely night shifts! ha!

a treadle and a crank

i've been asked to whisper a little more about my treadle  machine and why it has such a prominent place in my heart when it comes to sewing machines. if you know me at all, then you know that i have too many sewing machines. ha! is there such a thing? actually, it isn't as bad as it sounds. i know people who literally have hundreds of machines and don't think twice about it. however, i prefer to live smaller than that and would have no place to sleep if i had that many machines. at last count, i believe it was only 6 or 7 machines, ranging from a high-end, newfangled computerized pfaff on down to a little toy singer lock stitch machine!

one of my "go to" machines is an old treadle singer machine that has travelled half way across the world to live with me.  i purchased it at a yard sale in duarte a couple decades or so ago from a woman who purchased it in cairo several years before immigrating to california.  it was originally made in england, according to serial number records and has a lovely sphinx decal set. when i purchased it, it had been set into a reproduction treadle stand as the previous owner had to replace the original after it fell over in one of many earthquakes in that area and had become damaged. i have since acquired a wonderful, vintage oak cabinet and relocated the treasured machine into happy new digs!

i really enjoy sewing with my treadle machine as there is something nearly mystical about it. the rhythmic rock of the treadle is soothing and the hiss hiss of the leather belt turning the wheel is near hypnotic.  this machine and i have a long history together as it first came to live with me back in the 80's when i was making artist teddy bears. many a bear has come to life under its wondrous needles. since then, it has helped me create dolls, quilts, rugs, costumes and clothes. now it focuses on slow cloth and salvage re-invention garments.

one of the benefits of sewing with a treadle machine is that thicker, tougher fabrics can be sewn in many layers! since you are basically stepping on the needle by stepping on the treadle, so long as you have a good strong needle in place, you can really push through some of the thickest layers of denim, duck and canvas!

yes, yes. i could sew more quickly with the computerized machine. i could incorporate several hundred decorative stitches. my studio could be filled with the brassy beep beep of electronics. in truth, it is...but usually only when burning out a baby quilt or other gift that needs to appear post haste!  but my heart stays with the treadle. as i rock its gears into play, i can almost hear it whisper stories of past dressmakers and designers it and its forebears has known... there really is no substitute for this sort of connection, and this way i get to utilize the tool known as a sewing machine, but still feel a close tie to history.

however, if you would like to meet my deepest desire when it comes to sewing machines...then you want to shake cranks with this little gem! this baby is a treadle machine that has been mounted into a bentwood portable cabinet and fitted with a hand crank. now...i can already hear the groans as you begin contemplating the nature of this machine and its operation. coordination?!? you mean, you have to be coordinated?!?

yes. you do need to develop a little coordination to work this machine since you must crank the wheel with one hand while directing the cloth being sewn with the other hand. but it really isn't as complicated as it sounds. believe me...i am not one who can pat his head and rub his belly at the same time...but this machine truly is a breeze to operate!

why would i want to jump through so many hoops to sew with a hand cranked machine? it is as near to hand stitching as one can get with a sewing machine. it is extremely accurate as you have complete control of the machine. as well as it speeds the sewing process up a bit...

ever wonder how the kuna indians of panama turn out so many wondrous molas? yes, a great many of them are done as they have been traditionally created...each painstakingly hand-stitched!

however, they are not always stitched by hand. hand cranked sewing machines have been around for over 100 years and they have been put to good use by the kuna indians, chinese, malaysians, indonesians, europeans, eurasians and more!

lest you think that reverse applique by hand crank machines is an anomaly, the treadle machine has a long, time honored tradition of being used by masterfully skilled hands (and feet!) of embroiderers across the globe! i have seen amazing examples of traditional clothing bathed in embroidery that would boggle the mind when one stops and realizes that it was all created by hand....on a machine!

read one woman's recollections of her grandmother's "precision, control and skill in manouevring her embroidery hoops back and forth under the steady up-down-up-down of the [old treadle] machine needle" (and see other examples along with examples of hand-manipulated cut-work embroidery done on treadle machines) on her blog here. i dream of one day developing a fraction of the skill her grandmother had!



still can't believe it? watch a treadle machine in action here!

i hope now you may understand my passion for remembering and re-incorporating sewing machines into the process of cloth-making. when we are able to shift our perception and realize that the machine is merely another tool, then all sorts of possibilities open up to us! i personally tend more toward manually operated machines such as the treadle and hand crank machines since i feel i still have total control over the stitches i am making with the machines. however, i am open to the possibility that more modern, electric and computerized machines are simply another extension of these tools. but for now, i am loving my treadle and hand crank machines all over again!

namaste'

unexpected boro opportunity

as all y'all know, i've been taking another of jude hill's amazing workshops, contemporary boro 2. i've been struggling with ways to incorporate her techniques into my own garments with an eye on actually being able to *wear* them afterwards. "what's the problem?" you might well ask. well, most of the inspiration found in this workshop is just too...well, um...*girly* for me.  i can't see myself tromping around with the boys in a shirt that's had the cuffs torn off and re-purposed into plackets, much less had salvaged lace or skirt fabrics boro'd into place here and there to create a stunning moonlit scene. ha! it's a sad, but true fact: men's clothing is decidedly boring in the modern age.

the other day i did happen to notice that my favorite jeans with the blown out ankles were getting a bit too "blown out". mind you, i actually *like* blown out ankles on my jeans. it's one of the reasons i purchase them so long. that and because i like the way the extra cloth bunches on the front. but, with time, they become *too* far gone.

i was about to toss them into the scrap basket when an idea hit me! contemporary boro. duh! clearly, i have been stuck inside the envelope lately... so, i dug around in my overflowing scrap basket and found another pair of jeans whose knees had blown out so bad that i couldn't see wearing them anymore. at least, not without getting arrested for indecent exposure since the tear had ripped nearly through to the crotch! tearing my eyes away from that frightening possibility, however, i also noticed the cuffs were only mildly worn...just to the point of the beginnings of seeing some fringe. one of my favorite stages before going into all out FRINGE!!

as you can imagine, ideas began whirling about and out flew the shears as i began hacking away at them, deconstructing seams, and digging around in the thread box to begin basting my little heart out...

next step: kantha, kantha, kantha!

namaste'

an ode to was

photo: janet at art journey

the most amazing tribute

to an amazing feline friend

of an amazing artist friend

by a most amazing artist!

you simply MUST click through to janet's blog entry!

namaste'

frenzied feline and a new project

synchronicity is a strange thing, you know. i came across this little frenzied feline while trying to figure out how to describe this past week. he demonstrates exactly how my week has been... chasing about, trying to fit unexpected work shifts into my schedule. trying to stay ahead of everything so i don't get run over. all the while, uncertain how my little paws are actually reaching the pedals!

needless to say, i haven't done a lick of stitching this week. though i have been gathering raw materials for another project. remember that i started remodelling my studio a while back? i came across a little idea that i like so much, i'm thinking of including elements of it throughout my house!

pallets? is that seriously a stack of old pallets? yes. yes it is! i've been gathering pallets like a mad man (and i'm quite certain my neighbors have all decided that i've taken leave of my senses as they've watched me haul these buggers in by the truck load). now, before you begin nodding your noggins and agreeing with my mislead, but well-meaning neighbors, you have to see this:

the wall in this picture is constructed entirely of pallets! keeping in mind that i have been slowly but surely turning my home into a rustic getaway with barn wood, vintage artifacts, plank flooring, and the like... i think this wall treatment will be absolutely perfect to finish off the effect!  of course, it's going to take a lot of time and a lot of work...dismembering pallets, sorting slats, mixing colors, installing and so on. but i'm going to simply approach it as though i'm salvaging fabric and creating a story cloth. though, perhaps, of a much larger nature, and in this case, one slat at a time! so, if you see project updates interspersed between the cloth whispering, you'll understand...and hopefully not send those nice young men in their clean white coats to take me away in a butterfly net!

namaste'

bundle of joy in the mail

i was the lucky winner of an amazing little bundle of joy from deb over at more whiffs, glimmers & left oeuvres this month. . .and the reality of this joyous bundle far exceeded any expectations garnered from the pics on her site! granted, i was already familiar with her amazing dyeing techniques as she had sent me one of her wondrous burritos a few months ago simply because i asked her what they were before i had ever seen one (such a lovely, and generous lady!).  i was flabbergasted by the sheer volume of marvels that she had managed to stuff into one of her little cuss pots...and with the beauty of the spring-filled damask napkin...and continued to be amazed as i dug deeper into the parcel to find a mountain of colored floss!  i'm already playing with ideas as i listen to these treasures whisper quietly in my ears...

thank you so much, deb!!

and now, i'm off to my studio to get some much needed selection time for a long-overdue australian package and a trip to town to find a post office!

namaste'

still standing in the snow...

tonight's arctic storm has inspired me to pull out the old man in the snow winter cloth and work a bit more on him as the snow continues to waft down around the cottage. he isn't really a "santa clause" so it doesn't matter that xmas has already been packed away once again into its boxes for yet another year. does it? not in my demented world in any case...  perhaps he will be in need of friends? either way, there is still a lot of thread chanting to be done before he has whispered his stories into the cold, snowy night air.

meanwhile, i am in full gratitude for the crackling fire that burns on in the hearth and the comfortable chair beneath my backside as i stitch into the wee hours of the morning...

namaste'

tattered beginnings

cutter cloth. there's nothing quite like it. soft. delicate. weathered and worn. so much history whispers from the depth of stitches and the woven threads. stories humble and grand...sad and joyous! nothing else churns the creative ocean quite like cutter cloth. some are folded neatly on shelves where they whisper quietly night and day. others are sliced into pieces and woven into other cloths to create new, yet tattered beginnings, both grand and diminutive in scale.

a thought, whispered quietly into my patient ear, has begun to manifest. the idea: to cut stars, hearts, moons and other shapes from cutter cloth scraps and incorporate them into larger cloths as dimensional applique.  now, to find the time to allow these larger cloths to coalesce...

as you can see, the snows have all but melted away now as warmer weather creeps silently in to steal any lingering dreams of a white holiday tomorrow... at least the lights are still prettily lighting up the dark night!

and what to do with so many of these old book blocks that are beginning to pile up? in my bookbinding journeys (which have not appeared much in this particular blog...yet), i tend to deconstruct and re-use old books, much as i do old cloth. book boards are stripped, recovered, collaged, or otherwise redesigned and given new life. individual pages are frequently harvested and re-purposed...

into new manifestations such as paper wreaths...

...paper flowers, amongst other things...

and you can only tie up and display so many book blocks before your home begins to look like an old, misdirected book shop...

so, what to do with so many book blocks? right now, i am simply quietly waiting and listening for them to begin to whisper... but i have faith that their stories will soon emerge.

namaste'