Monday 24 April 2017

Rock Gardens


A stone can perhaps look like a bear


A stone can perhaps look like Google Maps


A stone can be a near perfect sphere
that fits the palm of your hand


A stone might perhaps be a maze


A stone marked with the spiral of energy
would surely be a special stone.


Or perhaps it might be a delicious layered cake
with a bit bite taken out of it!


And finally a stone might become invisible
or at least lost.
Has anyone seen a strange little stone covered in black dimples?

Since Spring is supposedly here
This week I laid the stones on a flowery tablecloth 
embroidered in my childhood.

Don't miss an opportunity to stitch!

Monday 17 April 2017

Circles Grow on Stones


This chocolate beauty is a favourite
The circle symbol has been adopted by just about every culture
including North American Indians.

"Everything an Indian does is in a circle,
and that is because the Power of the World always works in circles,
and everything tries to be round.
The sky is round,
and
the earth is round like a ball,
and so are the stars.
The wind, in it's greatest power, whirls.
Birds make their nests in circles,
for theirs is the same religion as ours.
The sun comes forth and goes down again in a circle.
The moon does the same, and both are round.
Even the seasons form a great circle in their changing,
and always come back again to where they were.
The life of a man is a circle from childhood to childhood,
and so it is in everything where power moves."
Black Elk from Black Elk Speaks.

I think I need to go to the beach and find more circles.


Speckled stone


A stone that always makes me smile.
The first thought when I see it is grouper fish.


Simply silk


The colours of a Rose Breasted Grosbeak in a stone.
A surprise in a stone.
Maybe a stone that would rather be a bird!
Because it is Easter
I decided to colour with crosses
Seemed appropriate
but I do like the resulting texture.
Might use this on a larger piece.


Gee whizz
The yellow DMC thread was right next to the cream thread
and it was only after I finished stitching
that I noticed I had picked up the cream rather than the yellow!
Must get new glasses.


Some plain Jane's long for just a wee bit of pattern sometimes.

I hope that Spring has sprung wherever you are.
Somewhere out West got 8" of snow for Easter.
Brrrr.

Friday 14 April 2017

Working to a Specific Size


Along with the piece I wrote about on Wednesday
this is another piece for a show this summer.
They all have to be a specific size
I don't like being told what I am or am not allowed to do.
But once committed 
you have to follow through.


At the beginning of March this one looked like this
So it has changed a bit


It's been stitched with thick threads
 and thin threads


Two boulders coming together


I have just started to embellish the leaf print section


 Sometimes well meaning friends
tell me to stop stitching
leave it plain


but that is not the way I work
the more stitches


the more textures


the more interesting things become to me


and the drape of the cloth with all that thread on it
is part of this medium that draws me in.

Wednesday 12 April 2017

How Things Change


This piece which is not yet titled
is what I have been working on for the month of March.
Not quite finished
ran out of thread.
It is silk on an old blanket
You can see the raw edge of the blanket along the bottom edge.
Really like that.


This is what this piece looked like at the beginning of March.
It wasn't working for me.


Stitching the larger rock
I was thinking of the moss covered boulders
we find in our woods in these parts.
But as I stitched and stitched I was also reminded
of the beautiful tattoos of New Zealand and the Pacific Islands.


There are a few lines of shibori on the top piece of silk
They were left clear of stitch
Pathways across a stone.


I 'm tempted to leave the rows of smaller pebbles plain
no decoration at all.
At the moment I like the contrast
but
we shall see.


As I photographed I noticed this pile of yummy natural dyes
lying in a pile below the design wall
waiting their turn to be covered with stitch.


Aah the texture!

Monday 10 April 2017

Seven Plus One


One is for speckled


But it is also for oneself
because on the first day I was at drawing class
where we had to do a ginormous self portrait.
We were told to come prepared to get dirty
Boy did I get dirty!
This was drawn with charcoal from a fire pit.
My favourite bit is the three little holes in my T-shirt
created one summer while bleaching fabric.
I'm looking very serious
and my excuse is
that I was looking at small bits of myself
through a very small hand mirror!


Two is for special
This rock I carry everywhere with me
It means a lot
Fits in my hand perfectly


Three is for stripes
Layers of growth
Nature's layers so much prettier than mine.


Four is for rusted favourite


Five is for marbled smoothness


Six is for Springtime pink!


Seven is for mended
When a stone is scarred with a chunk missing
You cut into your fabric
then
seeing a tiny mustard coloured mark
you have to turn that into a tiny darned mending.

Monday 3 April 2017

Memory Lane


The importance of memory in art.
Perhaps the first art was created
through a society's need to remember events
of their time
or to help their descendants learn about
what went before them.


Perhaps it was from a society's need
to honour individuals or events.

Lest we forget


Maintaining
Our collective memory
Our collective conscience


Art surely keeps alive
the beliefs and accomplishments
and memories
of a society.


The memory of the senses.
The smell of salt air
The rhythmic sound of ocean waves
brought me back to live by the sea.
My work has changed
since coming here.
Did coming back to the sea
stir up unconscious of memories
that I need to put down in thread and cloth?


I know that as I get old I have a need
not only to recall memories
but also to create new ones.


Perhaps memory is not just looking backwards into the past.


I seem to have chopped off the first pebble of the week.
Woopsy daisy
 I might have obliterated a memory!

I hope you have a week of creating wonderful new memories.