I Could Happily Discharge All Day

   ,  what i actually mean is : I HEART BLEACH!

Trying to find a background fabric for Acey's page is a bit problematic; i don't want it to overshadow the spiral, but neither do i want it to disappear just *as* the background. Got out a couple of pieces of cotton velveteen---love those thrifting bits---and my teenynozzle bleach bottle and had at 'er. 

This one is too "regular", too crowded and too predictable. Back on the shelf.

 

This one is better, but maybe stilll a bit too busy and also too small. Back on the shelf.

 

This one i like. Might use it. 

 

Nope. Too pretty. Not that i don't want Acey to have it; it's just too nice to hide behind something else ;} EDIT: DEC 1/06 I AM going to use this--it's too perfect NOT to use--looks just smashing and there's enough "void" space that the spiral fits in nicely and still shows off the patterning on the purple---yeah!

Now i gotta go find the green and the turquoise cotton velveteens for other projects........... 

 Doing colourstudies for my Textile Tuesday thingies too. These are cut and pasted magazine parts, omg "collage'--i promise no stoopid crowns, victorian ladies or dumb dream text-----which hopefully will strike me with inspiration for translation into textiles!

City:

 

Woman:

 

Egypt:

 

And a VERY old colour study:

 

FAJ Acey's page

I'm not sure what kind of a background this is going on, but here's some progress shots:

 

The fabric itself has spirals as part of the pattern; serendipitously, some of them are very visible and "centred"! I have yet to attach the moon, star and bird. The shaped beads were picked and used purposefully:

Heart=belonging, love, connectedness

Bird=freedom, expression, exploration

Shell===natural world, healthy and burgeoning with vitality and freshness

Star=dreams, vision, potential

Red Drop=peace, no blood spilled, no acrimonious conflict (we *do* need some conflict to keep us thinking and stretching!), also Life with a capital L lived fully and passionately!

Coin=prosperity, not in the  fame and fortune sense, but in having our needs fulfiled and our souls satisfied

Leaf=growth, regeneration, reproduction whether in a physical, emotional or hands on (art)result

Pearl=wisdom

Moon=a long life coming to a happy celebratory conclusion

These are Peace Prayers i wish for Everyone!

Here's a detail:

 

FAJ Anthology page----Acey's

I've finally secured the design for the first page i will actually be creating! I initially gave everyone 6 months for this project: a--*i* always wait until the last minute and b---now i have a better feel for the participants. One technical  lesson i learned from my first faj (Sea of Electricity) is that it's not necessary to pad/enforce/strengthen the pages so much! I have a piece of work that is only 4 pages doublesided, but that weighs about 4 lbs and is 4" thick! ( I realized also i never posted a pic of the completed piece, so that will be coming as well :} ) It has a lovelyhefty "hand" to it, but looks a little intimidating too. The Anthology pages will not be "armoured" as much!

Since i am now enamoured of the faced dimensional applique pieces i've been working madly on, i decided to explore the use of shape more with this technique. Acey's theme is "Peace Prayers", a hard one to "illustrate" unless you use symbols, in *my* mind at least. I decided to go with the spiral, a natural fractal, and one that has historically represented the cycles of life and  spirituality. Acey is connected intimately with/to her Self and the Earth, so i figured this would be a perfect symbol for her. I'll post pictures of this as well, when i have a bit more to show. At the moment, the main spiral is "floating" on my work table, needles poked in it, beads surrounding it and ephemera clamouring to be included with it. Given my natural propensity to embellish embellish embellish, i am restraining myself a wee bit and listening more to the form than to my Decorating Demons. :} There can  always be another piece that i can go Monkeylove on :}!

Cliche DAY!!!!!!!

It's a frickin' snow day week!

From torrential downpours, boil water advisories (on the Mainland, not here thank goodness), major flooding and wind, power outages and ephemeral net services last week, we have gone to -9 to -16 degrees (that's Celsius to you foreigners), whiteouts, wind and, power outages and ephemeral net services and  a foot of snow!!!!! I'm currently doing this in Wordpad to transfer over----our power, phone and cable service are intermittent and we are keeping thermoses full and hot water simmering, candles handy and thick socks and slippers, sweaters and fleecy robes on various and sundry body parts. We had to go out on Sun for prescription refills---HA---nothing was open and when we got home, no power-----since Coffee is the Elixir of Life around here, that means that keeping the IV's flowing is Essential. We will gladly eat cold sammidges, but had to pull out out the handy dandy blow torch to heat the kettle for Coffee! Fortunately, no eyebrows were set on  fire, but the bottom of the kettle is warped a little.....

I had wanted to take a picture of our neighbour's apple tree last week during all the wetness. There were still five arboreal hero apples clinging to its branches ; yesterday i managed to get a shot of it with all the whiteness----there are only three left hanging on, two having decided to sacrifice themselves to passing deer, though only one was brave enough to chatter its teeth at me :}

Can you see that red in the middle of this?????

It's SO frickin' cold here that when i opened the door to get this shot, a bird flew in! I didn't see it, just Mo flyin hell bent for leather over my studio table, through my hibiscus tree and smack into the wall. Cats! Thought he was having a fit about the wind and snow blowing in; then i saw the feathers......the poor bird had smucked into the window by my sewing machine---Greyman tried valiantly to do something to help it but we realized a broken neck had resulted..........

And the cats hate it, not that they are outside cats. They just *thought* they wanted out.....

 

Snow....Christmas...Snow =Christmas...Christmas presents get harder to do every year. Everyone is  older and has everything. Even my Yuppie Son is difficult to buy for! Art will be the solution this year. Since i live so far from my family, they don't see the day to day activity that goes on in the studio, so this year i am gifting a bit of me this way for/to them. And with power outages at the moment, i can still do handwork :}


OOOOOOOOOOOOO ClothPaperScissors and QuiltingArts are both going to published 6 times a year now, instead of the 4 we all wait with bated breath for!!! Whoo hoo!!!

Romantic entry

Greyman and i have been together awhile; we celebrate our third anniversary on Jan 8th. And last night, we had our FIRST dance together, can you believe it? We never go anywhere where they *do* dance, as we're not terribly social. But last night at his company Christmas dinner, "Unchained Melody" started playing, our eyes met and there we were, on the dance floor, sweet and compliant. What a lovely warm wonderful feeling.

ArtShare Meme Redux

If you are participating in this with me, please send your snail mail address!!!! There's an "email me" link over there on the right sidebar.

Did you know this??????????

What the hell????? 

 "Our Community Guidelines state that non-photographic
images such as screen shots, paintings, drawings,
illustrations, graphic designs, scanned images, or digital
art are not allowed in public areas of the site. You may
still see some, but these types of images are generally
blocked from appearing in searches or the Explore pages."

"Blocked"?????????????????????????????????????????? 

Read more here and respond email to Flickr----POLITELY--and find out why artists are beingtreated this way. Good luck though: apparently beyond responding with the above paragraph, they are not responding! 

http://digg.com/tech_news/Flickr_forcing_artists_into_hiding_quietly_making_them_invisible#c3945944

And now for something completely different!

These are my brothers!!!!!!! From the Sidecar Racer's site at http://www.sidecarracers.com/photos.html

 

 

 

Couple thousand words

A picture is worth...............

First, the earrings that go with the pendant:

 

Butterfly converted to pin--was originally one half of a pair of earrings (remember what i said about singles?):

 

Small pendant, embellished commercial print (scrap leftover from 4" of kindness):

 

Below is part of something i cannabalized and reworked. NEVER throw out your mistakes; they could come in handy! (http://burningdesign.livejournal.com/4199.html This is from the right side of the "purse that didn't work".)  First i was goingto do this as a pendant for someone....but i burnt the back with the iron. OOOPS.

 

Then i thought i'd do it as a piece of _{i don't know} wall art?  something to be added to something else as an embellishment?

 

Or even as the front cover of my Fabric Artjournal for the Anthology? (HEY MAUREEN!!! Look at the wonderful mask i found! :})

 

The actual "chunk":

 

And so it ended as a little art wallpiece. Of course as soon as the main piece was stitched down, i was thinking "more beads, more glitter, more beads!" I restrained my natural inclination to overdo   and am leaving it thusly, attached to a lovely discharged cotton velveteen. The finished size is  6 and a half by 9 and a half inches. I give you "Artifact":

 

I just love the way it seems to "float" above the background---not sure if it's because of the colour contrast, the fact that it's a faced dimensional piece, or the texture! 

 This means in one blow i got rid of a UFO and a WISP--whoo hooo!!!

Chasing the Alpaca

I see from other blogs that 2007 is designated as what looks like "The Year of the WISP" : get all your "works in slow progress", make a pile, finish one a week--or at least add a few stitchies to them :}, then post your progress. I should probably do this. I have a few. Two or three maybe. ^{that's self directed sarcasm.}

My name is Arlee and i am an inveterate unfinisher.

Once in awhile,  Often i take an idea from one of my many sketchbooks and run with it, only to drop it after we near the cliff edge. I get bored all too easily. I've started working smaller and smaller to combat this, but when it comes to things that "go" together, like earrings, or series, forget it: i have a lovely collection of singles that will languish through life with no soulmate. I digress. I have started doing the pile part at least for the WISP's; i truly would like to show you pieces i started aeons ago, all fired up and excited by the possibilities, before i jump on the next idea, abandoning the previous one. My proudest piece as a WISP took me a whole month to do-----spread out over 10 years.

I need deadlines. That's the only way, the best way for me to finish things. I deliberately gave everyone participating in the Fabric Artjournal Anthology swap 6 months to do the pages---not just because of Christmas and all that jazz, but because i knew if i didn't, *i* would do everything at the last minute and not be happy with the results. (Swapswap is a poignant reminder of this for me) At the same time, i am aware that committing to too many things also over extends my capabilities and interest level and then the deadline is terrifying. A necessary terrifying paradox.

And because most of my interaction is online----really must get to a real guild meeting or the like with live people------i don't have any deadlines except for those i impose on myself. Discipline! I have managed this week to FINISH a pendant and a PAIR of earrings to wear Sat to Greyman's Christmas Do. I'm quite proud of myself. I even like them. And i was inspired enough to do a couple of other thingies that will go with the Dreaded Swapswap, in apology for UNinspiration, and lateness, because yes, they will be late as usual............

SO, WISP's--gotta finish em. Gotta gotta gotta. A year is enough, right?

_{and i'll explain the title later too :}}