By sion, on October 31st, 2006%
 spent a few days at the folks’ place. Originally intending to do some printing and to build a bench for my microwave, but it turned out dad had reformatted his box (this is why I need a laptop! heh) and the timber I had in mind wasn’t suitable. So I did some beadstuff with mum instead. I think I got about 7 bookmarks done, which upon reflection seems a fairly pitiful effort. Must have been too busy talking and sleeping – it really is nice to get a chance to nap without worrying that I’ll wake up to chaos & disaster (I woke up surrounded by grated cheese and biscuit crumbs here the other day, because somebody else woke up from our nap first).
Anyway. Saturday’s girls are about ready to start quilting, although Sandra had misplaced a bird and a frog so hopefully has found them & will stitch them for homework.
   Finally got some pics of Kempsey’s beautiful magic tree. I used to live over the road a ways from this tree, and despite having fallen in love with it on sight I’ve never gotten a photo. I’ve only lived here for most of the last ten years now, and have to drive past it every time I go see the folks … anyway. Isn’t it marvellous? The fence is fairly new, and I love that they built around the tree. It’s going to wind up in at least one work, now that I finally got my pics.
 Painting the other day was enjoyable. I tried a view from my balcony and it was immensely ordinary, so I tried including el chasing bubbles around and that was just heinous, so I went back to basics and did a still life. Ordinary but satisfying.
By sion, on October 27th, 2006%
… is pretty much the story of my life. Every now and then it sinks in how bloody silly I am though. I’ve woken up this morning thinking about painting, and how much I miss it, and the collection of small blank canvases and paints out there on my lovely balcony, and the easel sis bought me for Christmas LAST YEAR which has still not been used (well, not for its intended purpose), and while I was tossing up more sleep/get up, I decided to go out there and just paint today.
So, I got up, made coffee, and sat down in front of the computer for my wake-up round of forums and email and (when appropriate) sorting out ebay stuff. Problem is that neither of the two forums I spend time on are functional today – one is spinning into eternity on a blank tab, and the other is showing as a white page with “e 1″ in monospace font at the top – and ebay is being slow AND my bank’s online stuff is down. I was still poking around hitting reload and reading through the WC support forum (inexplicably renamed to something about mothers and toddlers) when it occurred to me that it qualifies as Bloody Stupid to get all bent out of shape when my little routines are fouled up by circumstance. Being stubborn and determined in this particular case just means sitting here all day mildly frustrated at the universe’s recalcitrance while my bum spreads and nothing useful gets done. So I’m going to go paint, even though it’s kind of rainy and miserable out there.
  And while I’m at it I’ll think about what the hell I’m going to do with the wee felt balls I succumbed to when I was buying fibres from Highland Cottage Crafts. I linked them to my son, and he said “they’re crap mum, and you know it”, and my sister said much the same thing with a little more tact, but I ended up going for them anyway. Little felty balls! Squishy felty balls! I just have to think of something exciting to do with them now, or they’ll be full of toldjaso. I was seriously, seriously tempted by the felty dreadlocks (art dolls, which is another thing I’ve been wanting to make), but they’re a bit exxy. She’s getting some silk hankies and coccoons in for me, so I might get some dyed wool and make me own.
Hmm. Little felty balls might make interesting heads for little arty dolls …
By sion, on October 26th, 2006%
  Can’t remember if I mentioned it, but a week or so ago I found a source for snake castings, and tonight I finally got around to trying to do something with one. It was kind of a shame to cut it up, but I couldn’t think of anything suitable for an experiment that would involve an entire ~6-foot-long diamond python skin. So I cut some postcard-sized pieces off and played. The pieces on the left are ready to sew and embellish or whatever, & I’m especially happy with #3.
 The piece at right was skincast laid over a sow’s ear multicolour hand-dye, and has been stitched (metallic & poly threads) and painted and blah blah blah, and then I ballsed it up by pressing a glossy coating that obviously doesn’t like heat. Made all the areas I’d put this stuff bloom white. I tried washing it off but there was obviously enough heat to set it, so I added more paint and stuff. If it doesn’t come good as it dries it’ll probably wind up cut into little pieces.
 This piece was kind of interesting to do. Annoying at first. Having put it all together I was a bit stumped when it came time to quilt it. Since my main intent was to figure out if it was possible to make a “fabric” for stitching from these odd ribbons, it doesn’t really matter. The ribbons stitch up well actually, and in fact seem more supple woven together like that & quilted to some cotton batting than they are straight off the roll.
 This last one was an attempt to use velvet and fusible and imitation gold leaf, which I figured should be pretty much the same as foils. I think I figured wrong, upon reflection. Attempted calligraphic freemotion satin-stitching for the “wishing”, and lots of loose threads caught under the net.
By sion, on October 25th, 2006%
 Tuesday ladies are really close to done. Joy (right) was the first student, and between missing some sessions and being very panicky about “spoiling” the work she’d already done, she decided to just work on the one block. I suspect that now she’s finally relaxed a bit and had some good results with her threadpainting she might regret not sticking with the original plan. It’s very pretty though, ready to quilt next week, and (bonus!) she’s finally gotten to play with all the embroidery threads that came with her machine whenever the Janome MC 8000 was new out …
 Roma (left) is almost finished quilting and even has her binding mostly on – I’ll try to take some closeups on Thursday, when she’s finished. The left side and bottom are faced, sort of – the hanging was half-bagged, basically, so only the right side & top needed binding. She’s used Heat ‘n’ Seal to turn a few of the ferns etc on the lower right into 3D flappy bits, and sewn them so they project past the edge of the binding a little. It’s looking pretty damn good in the flesh, and given the trouble she had with her sewing machine (almost all her “free motion” is actually very determined straight sewing with a regular foot) it’s amazing.
  Chris started late, and despite spending most of her time in session cussing out her machine and telling stories, she’s managed to catch up and keep up with people with a few more classes under their belts. She’s ready to quilt, as is Joyce (right). Joyce works slow mostly because she goes off into a little meditative trance while she’s sewing, like she’s waltzing in her head. It’s very cute, and she’s SO happy with herself it’s adorable.
 While they were all swearing and singing at their works today (and while my poor darlin girl was on the losing end of an altercation over a train … big bitemark on each arm; she’s awfully distressed about nasty old Tim trying to eat her and “he doesn’t want to DO dat because it hurts myself”), I was seeing how much thread I could waste in an attempt to do something with that sow’s ear of a paisleyish thing. I ended up kind of liking it, but lordy there’s a lot of threadwork on it lol.
By sion, on October 24th, 2006%
I’m still trying to feel my way around this blogging deal. Whether I should make two posts on days I’m covering two subjects or wotevah, y’know. And whether I’m a dork for replying in my own comments because you’re supposed to go haring off to the other person’s blog to respond … here I am again, iggerant of the RULES dammit!
    First up, classes. I didn’t get pics on Thursday because it was one of those whirlwind-packups where everyone worked til the last minute & then bolted. Roma’s almost done though; because she’s got to go away, she’s been coming to extra days and doing lots of homework, so even though her machine’s been giving her merry hell she’s almost finished quilting. Joyce is having a lovely time with the freemotion drawing/threadpainting/whateveryouwannacallit & is nearly ready to start quilting. Karen’s missed a few sessions (school holidays and a gazillion kids) but she’s not too far behind. The Saturday girls are a bit slower but then again they also were a bit more ambitious – they’re doing their freemotion now though, and might start quilting next week if they do a little homework meantime.
 In the meantime I’ve been experimenting with more stuff in postcard format. Two unfinished ones appear to the right. The flowers & berries is a from-memory (because I forgot to take the cutting with me) of a plant out the front of my house, no idea what it is. I quite like it, but I’m also going to enjoy the comparison between it and a proper still life/nature study. 
 The crewelish/paisleyish one is all fused scraps from the ever-growing collection, and frankly looks like several different flavours of complete shite since I started sewing on it. I don’t think freemotion zigzaggery is going to be my thing. More stitching may salvage it, or (more likely) it will end up as a quilt for one of el’s umptybazillion dolls.
The ones left & below are just freehand sketches with the machine, rather fun to do, not sure how happy I am with the results. The face is kind of an object lesson in having at least a bit of a plan to start with, and/or maybe permitting yourself a bit of a guideline for eye placement (poor girl looks like she’s got Bell’s palsy). The failure in translation from imagination to machine is what prompted the still life.
By sion, on October 19th, 2006%
I like this one. El and I took a walk the other day and picked flowers by the side of the road, including three gorgeous coreopsis, so that’s what ended up on the “holy” fabric in the background (wasn’t that brave of me, hacking a holy up into wee rectangles with no plan in mind? heh). Free-motion outlined some other flowers in the background first, and 4 of the petals in the top flower are 3d.
To make it so, I had my first experiment with soluble fabric. Me no likey too much. Will try with a hoop (yes yes, I know, but I hate hooping and stabilising and all that shite so I wanted to try it without), and if that doesn’t help considerably, machine lace & this sort of thing is just not going to be in my repertoire. It’s not pleasant to touch while sewing either, and the gooby slimey bit when you’re trying to wash it off is downright grody (mind you, I’m the person who nearly barfed the first time she touched that “peachfuzz” fabric that was all the rage ~10 years ago, so I’m probably the only one who’s creeped out by solvy etc. Pity, it’s fascinating in theory …).
Anyway. Surfboards below. Still eh, although the surf was kind of fun. It’s just so thuddingly ordinary. Predictable, cliched, and no magic happened at all – normally I get at least a little squeee going somewhere along the line, even if I bollix it up later, but nada. Oh well – at least I finished it instead of throwing it across the room. Trust me, that’s an accomplishment in itself!
By sion, on October 17th, 2006%
When el is having One Of Those Days, I usually take her shopping. Most times she a) has mucho fun gawking at crap b) scores some crap because she’s behaving beautifully and I’m a sucker, and c) falls asleep in the stroller at some stage (what the hell am I going to do when she’s outgrown the stroller?? Oh wait, this is el; she could conceivably fit in a stroller until highschool …)
Anyway, so, we toddled down to Big W today, where it turned out they were having a clearance in the manchester dept – so I scored myself a memory foam topper for $25 and her some little critter kits. They turned out to be surprisingly well-done little patterns, and it only took like an hour to make both (I made the mouse while she was having her bath actually). Are they not cute? She thinks they’re great.
 Before I hit the sack last night I played with one of the stripe pieces, bunged a few surfboards on it. Eh. We’ll see what happens when I start stitching. I also started assembling some coreopsis blossoms on the multicoloured one, no pics yet. Top layer of petals are double-sided, therefore loose, and guess who ran over one with the rotary cutter while trimming something else? Bah.
Finished this one tonight:
The stripes courtesy of the variegated thread aren’t as visible IRL as they are in the pic – there’s another layer of satin stitching over top, so it’s more like a sublte nod to the aboriginal flag than a big lairy stripey thing. Still, I doubt I’ll be using that sort of variegated thread again.
Oh, and I keep forgetting to say – the pale yellow hand-dye in the background isn’t just stuck there for giggles; that’s what I’ve used so far for backings.
By sion, on October 16th, 2006%
   
I’ve had a reasonably productive day today, despite a late start, a late nap, and el spending the day being fairly pesky and then coming over ill again tonight. Enough with the snot already, universe!
So several in progress, this one finished:
By sion, on October 15th, 2006%
I only had one student today, so while Margaret didn’t need my help working on this:
(isn’t she doing well? I’m tickled pink for her, she’s rapt. And ever so slightly envious, given it’s twice the size of my original challenge piece. Anyway …)
… I worked on these:
and now I’m going to bed, because somehow it got to be after 3.30 am again dammit.
By sion, on October 14th, 2006%
I’m all intrigued by the idea of little works now, especially since I’ve been spending so much time exploring blogs lately. I get sidetracked a lot – I kept sitting down to doublecheck the sizes yesterday, and getting lost poking around muttering “wow” at someone’s work, or googling some product I’ve never heard of to see if it’s available in oz, and so on. I did eventually remember to find the actual sizes though, and I had remembered right, but it was too enjoyable a “search” to call it wasted time. I did find this brilliant tutorial, too. Cracked me up. No idea if half the products she mentions are available here, but I think I have equivalents of most of it.
the worst thing about age creeping up on me is that when I get all philosophical and have some sort of amaaaaaazing Deep Insight and shit at like 3 am, I’m too freakin tired and foggybrained to put it into words. Trust me, I had something angstily insightful to say about art and creativity and where you draw the line with things like collage, when at least part of the “primary production” of creating was done by someone else. I make jewellery, but it’s pretty much just stringing beautiful beads (someone else’s art) together in pleasing arrangements, not really making jewellery, you know? So, I wondered, is using commercial prints as components of fabric collage basically the same thing? Have I got a farmer’s granddaughter Thang about primary production being more valid (and often less valued heh) than anything else, or am I just having an insecure spazz because that’s what I do? Not really insecure actually, or if it is it’s so old it’s comfortable. Just musing. I suspect it might be a bit of both, but mostly the latter, because I find different things to spazz about when I use only fabrics I’ve painted or dyed myself.
Anyway, yawn yawn yawn, that was a sidetrack. I started waffling about postcards because I’ve been trying to knock a few up. I’ve got 2 frog cards ready to sew, and was about to start putting together a plant sketch when a certain little miss woke up squawking about something. Since then she’s been sprawled across my lap, all stroppy and whining and grumbling in her sleep, so what little productivity I’d dredged up went out the window. I thought I’d play with the cards partly as something to do during the boring bits of teaching (when they’re all busy and nobody wants help/answers/whatever) and as examples for the freemotion work. Still trying to figure out how & what I’m doing with that “if you’d been only half the man …” idea. Also been thinking of self portraits and onions, but I think that’s about the self portrait challenge for the SCQuilters retreat (I think? I signed up for it, whatever it was heh) next year. I may even shock everyone and produce something genuinely abstract … then again, I’m likely to be concentrating on cats for a while.
I left my cats with the ex when I moved out. When he decided to go to Thailand for some indeterminate length of time, he packed the cats off to some woman down on the Gold Coast. He emailed me saying she’s got a family emergency and he can’t afford to pay for boarding ($1200 odd?!?) so can I sort something out about picking them up, otherwise they’d probably end up at the RSPCA. Well, I WOULD organise something, if he would answer his bloody email, or RING ME maybe, or (now here’s a thought …) if he’d had the goddamn sense to give me this woman’s bloody contact details in the first place. No idea how urgent it is even; he didn’t even include that sort of detail. Argh. I’m going to go to bed before I work myself up any more.
By sion, on October 12th, 2006%
first, as promised, the back:
and bound.
Ended up with a peculiar ribbon which looks like mulberry paper and acts rather like fine tearaway. I bought 5 metres each in 3 colours, because it occurred to me that there was quite a bit of potential in such a beast – it sews, it tears, it takes paint, and I reckon it will make an interesting addition to silk fusion. Everything else looked like arse, basically – too heavy, or the wrong feel, or too attention-grabbing, something. This stuff is a bit more subtle in the flesh than it looks in the photo; it’s very open & lacy, so you can see hints of the fabric underneath.
I plan to rub some gold wax over the binding very sparingly tomorrow; otherwise it’s finished (except for whatever support options I decide on; at this stage I think I’ll attach both the hook side of velcro and a couple of tiny rings to each piece).
Oh yeah, and a label. I really suck at the labelling thing, I don’t think I’ve done a proper one yet. BAD me, BAD BAD BAD.
By sion, on October 11th, 2006%
I ran this up tonight, getting a bit antsy with helping others work instead of doing stuff myself. I snapped this pic of el back in February, and I love the angles & shadows and her sweet little face.
So, first I did a drawing – watercolour pencils on fabric pretreated with thinned textile medium, ironed and then given a bit of wash with more thinned medium:
Now see, the original idea was to pretty much sketch with the sewing machine, having applied a little colour. I didn’t really like the drawing though (I’ll probably try again but use textile paints instead of the pencils) … so, right sez I, I’ll bung something sheer on top & see how it looks. I obviously need to buy some more of this type of photo-print floral, because it’s proved extraordinarily useful for tonal play. Anyway. So, pink hand dye on the back, cotton wadding in the middle, and a chiffon overlay on the fabric sketch:
Pretty much liked the look of it on my test piece. Was going to use a dark rayon, but thought I’d try some smoke monofilament thread I discovered in my threadstash (must have nabbed it from mum at some stage, gods only know when or why). Rather liked the effect over the chiffon. Am a little nervous about the sproingy misbehaviour of monofilament ends, but eh.
I think I’m going to bind it with black lace. Everything else looks too clunky, but unfortunately I don’t have any black narrow enough. I’ll post a finished pic after I’ve done that, and of the back while I’m at it. I’m amused by kind of preferring the back, again … maybe I oughta try again, light sketch, with every intention of using the “back” as the front once stitched. Clear as mud. I know what I mean! Cripes, 4.20 am, past even my bedtime.
By sion, on October 11th, 2006%
the abstract that grew like topsy has certainly been out of my comfort zone. Deservedly so, I suspect :)
By sion, on October 9th, 2006%
I’m still pretty wiped from that awful flu, so between classes I seem to spend most of my time sleeping and feeling woozy. It’s getting old. The girls are doing very well though, it’s lots of fun watching their work come together.
thursday class progress:
  
saturday class progress:
  
By sion, on October 4th, 2006%
I made some “silk fusion” experiments yesterday, and used one piece behind the moth. Kind of fun. I thought it would be finished once what’s done was done, but now I think it needs something more. I may mount (quilt, stitch, tie, whatever) it onto the extra piece of silk paper it’s lying on, or …? Not sure.
Anyway. Fake suede moth with cotton body fur, handpainted details, cotton batting, mounted on threadpainted fusion/paper stuff made from soy silk (both bleached & natural), pima cotton, hemp and paperbark. Wool, cotton and rayon embroidery threads used in freemotion work – some of the wool thread was fluffed a bit, esp on the ends of the antennae.
By sion, on October 2nd, 2006%
 I realise I’m very very late to the party, but I had my first play with tyvek yesterday. Crayons & paints on a couple of strips, bunged them between sheets of baking paper, and played with the iron. Interesting. That childlike magpie in me that gets all excited about every unexpected gem of colour when dyeing or handfuls of beads reflecting light or whatever is entranced by the possibilities as discrete objects. You could have a LOT of fun just working on enormous sheets of the stuff purely with heat and colour, big textural abstracts that look like gemstones and dragonskin and landscapes and wonderful treasures of colour. I’m not, however, at all sure I want to use it in textile work. I’m going to experiment some more with fabrics & tyvek joined in various ways, but at the moment my feeling is that the tyvek seems flimsy and hollow compared to the richness of fabric. Cheap, even. By itself it’s intriguing, but as soon as I sit the little bits I did on fabric they look sort of tacky and some of the illusion is lost … perhaps because there’s not much body behind it. I’m not expressing myself very well heh, the brain’s still on strike a bit from being crook.
Anyway.
 Did I mention I’d decided to join in a journal challenge? I joined the list late so I’ve got some catching up to do – others have been working on theirs since Jan, and I’ve got until December 15 to get five A4 pieces to the coordinator. Anyway, that’s what the little harlequin abstract is for. Bound with black satin ribbon and a variegated embroidery thread in the end. I’m not over the moon about it to be honest; I think it lost some little something it had during the quilting and now it just looks BUSYBUSYBUSY. Whatever, it was an interesting experiment, & there are a couple of things I might like to play with on other projects.
So that’s the first one done, and there’s another one brewing in my hot little head (theme: “if you were only half the man you seemed …” or maybe it’s “if only you were half the man you seemed …” – and as a charming soundtrack I have that stupid old song that goes something like “he’s got big balls, and she’s got big balls, but we’ve got the biggest balls of them all” stuck in my head. Interspersed with, thanks to Love, Actually last night “and they called it puppy love”. It’s fun in here, oh yeah!). Anyway, where was I? Oh. Yeah, so I got all thingy about moths while I was working on Tamborine Moonlight & Spring in the Valley, and I keep carrying around this delicious piece of fake suede I bought in case I get a chance to start on one … and today I did. Sketched a moth on light fusible interfacing, ironed it to the suede, and sat outside painting some details on for a while. Ironed some more interfacing on some weird ultrasuede stuff that has a cotton pile on the other side, clipped it a bit and added a bit of colour. Pretty happy with him so far. Pencil included for scale – basically he fits just within an A4 page.
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Finally got some pics of Kempsey’s beautiful magic tree. I used to live over the road a ways from this tree, and despite having fallen in love with it on sight I’ve never gotten a photo. I’ve only lived here for most of the last ten years now, and have to drive past it every time I go see the folks … anyway. Isn’t it marvellous? The fence is fairly new, and I love that they built around the tree. It’s going to wind up in at least one work, now that I finally got my pics.
Painting the other day was enjoyable. I tried a view from my balcony and it was immensely ordinary, so I tried including el chasing bubbles around and that was just heinous, so I went back to basics and did a still life. Ordinary but satisfying.
CHITCHAT