Jan 30 2010
Jan 22 2010
new things
Some tea dying I did the other day. My 4 year old daughter saw the scraps hanging to dry in the bathroom and screeched, “Whaaaaat haaaaappened to those???”
Working on a cat series. I seem to work in series. Right now cats and leggings. One cat is for our niece and one for my daughter. The clothing has been fun to work on. I really like the cat dresses and of course the punk dude’s shirt. Working on a long jean skirt for the black cat. Couple weeks ago my studiomate said, “Oh. are you making clothes for a doll?” I was like, my god, I haven’t changed much since I was eight, mucking around on my mom’s sewing machine making barbie clothes and linens.
Who knows where I;m going with these gals.
got a couple of gifts on the go, no photos yet. my wrist still hurts (from hand sewing of course) so I haven’t been able to the hand sewing finishing bits.
Jan 13 2010
The Davy-Hill House
The Davy-Hill House began last spring when my dear friend Stephanie asked me to make a tea cozy for her husband. A trade was suggested which I am thrilled about since Steph is an amazing artist.
Last spring I was in a thrift store on my usual rounds when I found a glorious tin full of cut-out felt leaves. They were the first inspiration for the tea cozy. It would have living, growing things on it representing her husband’s green thumb. I stitched the main body using a heavy wool sweater I fulled in the wash, a beautiful dark greenish grey. I added sky and green grass.
Although I don’t often work this way, deciding that the tea cozy would have symbols of Simon seemed natural, since Steph’s own work is symbolic. I created a series of LPs, made to look like flowers growing. The verso would have hops leaves and the tea cozy would have three main themes: music, growing things, and beer making. I did research on hops leaves. I went away on and off all summer. I stalled. For months. For seasons.
This fall, Steph was looking at some of my toilet roll cozies and said she loved the 3-D bits which are mainly houses. I ripped the completed side apart. I reworked the whole cozy into a house-on-the-hill scene, something I have been playing with a lot when making the toilet roll covers. The tea cozy had it’s own challenges and excitement since it is a much larger piece and has two halves.
The tree I dreamt about. I woke in the night two times wondering how I could construct it. It took me a week. It had to have strength yet be flexible enough to allow the cozy to be functional. I eventually used a doll making technique of wrapping wire. Using pipe cleaners for their malleability, I wrapped strips of torn cotton and threads, sewing everything into place. “Creeeeepeeee,” my teenager said before I figured out the foliage. And it was. It looked like a spooky, haunted house tree.
You can’t do individual leaves, just like you can’t draw individual hairs on a person or animal, you have to figure out a way to represent the individual hairs AND the overall shape/ emotion/ expression. Back to the original inspiration for the piece, I dug around to find the little cut-out leaves from the thrift store. They were perfect and I added a cotton print I love for a little variety.
I worked on the background, adding a parts of Steph’s sweater and part of a scarf to represent farmlands, probably biodynamic, definitely organic. On the back I added a river to represent our life’s journey which sometimes takes us past the comforts of home and into the wild and wooly places beyond. There’s a kayak or canoe waiting on the shores for restless beings, curious and excited, fearful and yet still willing. The waters are calm now, but there are ripples of current and movement. The field beyond is fertile with flowers or fruit.
Just beyond is the house. The home leans to one side, it is warm and welcoming, has a big heart, and smoke pours form the chimney evoking images of home & hearth, the smell of baking, the sounds of children, and dogs and woolen blankets by the fire.
Outside the front door, the main path meanders down to the road, where friends and family and community are. The tree towers, blows one way and then another. Generations of young ones have climbed her branches, swung from her limbs, eaten her fruit. Teens have told their secrets, tested boundaries, stolen kisses, carved their names. Her limbs are gnarled with age and used, but she stands strong, her roots are deep.
Jan 02 2010
dreams and studio day
Thanks to a supportive and encouraging family, I rode to the studio today, my pack stuffed with supplies. I began a papier mache doll that I keep dreaming about. It was inspired by a conversation I had with a friend at lunch last week. My friend is into fairy tales and story telling, and when she said that one way to look at fairy tales is to see all the characters as pieces of yourself battling it out in some kind of internal struggle, I was a little stunned. And later amazed. Probably all of you knew that already, but I somehow missed that.
Today I began to construct my new doll. I built the armature of her limbs out of wire and wrapped it in cheesecloth and a flour, water, salt mix. I have no idea what it will turn out like, but I love the gauzy quality, the fibers falling out everywhere and that you can see the internal structure. Her body and head I made with the old schoolgirl’s balloon covered in drippy shreds of newspaper. I’m not sure how exactly I’ll construct her, but she will have articulated limbs, hands, and feet. She’s moving a bit more into the puppetry realm.
I’ve been dreaming about puppets, miniature puppet theatres, and performances (something waaaay out of my comfort zone, considering I take ages to feel really comfortable around new people, I can’t imagine wanting to perform).
I am working on this custom tea cozy for our dear friends that will eventually be a trade since one of the friends is an incredible artist. It’s almost complete, though I want to do some more embroidery and other embellishments. Even though I’ve been working on it since last summer, and have completely ripped it apart and reworked it, I’m really happy with it so far. I’m thinking tire swing.
I’ve tried to not be as distracted by the computer this past year (although fb still sucks me in) I’m trying to make my computer time useful and related to art. One way I’m doing this is to read art blogs instead of surfing around. So inspiring! One thing I love is seeing people’s textile work with all the threads hanging out, serger stitches, ripped edges, raw edges, stitches with character, emotion and depth rather than that perfect, neat, preciseness of crafting. That traditional stitching is something I deeply admire and yet feel really uninspired by it. Perhaps it’s because no matter how hard I try, I am never able to do those neat little perfect stitches, but I just love to see how people fuck with it. Here’s my first attempt at playing around with stitching and my new free motion darning needle:
Jan 01 2010
New Year
2009 was a big year for me: the studio, the crawl, the stone soup festival, fun and inspiring studiomates, vending at the Gorge, following 30 or so art blogs, losing 16 lbs, making my first doll with an internal structure, and trying to simplify the rest of my life so I have time for creative work and feeding my soul.
I made approx 13 dolls, 28 creatures, 4 gina dolls, 10 shirts, 3 blankets, 5 toilet roll cozies, 22 mermaids, and 2 fairies. I vended 7 times and did many trades. Here are some of the 87 or so things I’ve created this year:
The Wild Woman card I pulled for this year is Freedom. Yay. I embrace it. I’m not so into making resolutions, but here are some things on my mind in the beginning of 2010:
freedom, puppetry, armature, sole proprietorship, inspiration, drawing, characters, family, balance, fun, connections, puppet theatre, papier mache, embroidery, animation, story telling, happiness, gratitude, friendship
Nov 29 2009
