Beginning a Garden

I've officially started to work on the bird garden! (it isn't official until I've gotten totally dirty). Last year we put in a front walk to our door which was a very big project and very satisfying. When we did it was decided to create a garden that surrounded it since the front lawn in that area wasn't really coming in even after 6 years of loving care by lawn guy.

I love to feed the birds but having feeders on the porch leads to much seed and poop so we decided to create a garden with feeding stations throughout it and beds with shruby bits for birds to hang out in while digesting their dinners.

Two weeks ago I bought the posts and some little shrubs, then life got busy and there they sat waiting. This weekend we had some surprisingly nice weather so I got my butt in gear and started to dig. I got the posts set and all of the shrubs in and even started to get the beds dug. This is going to be one of those projects that goes on and on. We have very poor soil so if I want even a modest amount of success with my plants I have to amend it heavily. Each bed must be dug out, all rocks removed (many many rocks), then all of the soil must be mixed with some organic matter (compost and peatmoss usually), replaced, then mulched so it doesn't immediately sprout a crop of weeds. I generally pull out at least one rock the size of my torso per bed dug along with all of its cousins (8 to 12 rocks the size of my head) and three 5 gal buckets full of podadahs* (little rocks the size of my fist)

Its gonna be quite a long summer. I love the idea though and I really think it will look nice when its finished, so from time to time I wil be posting on how it is coming along.

*Rhode Island pronunciation of potatos

Recess

Boy those weekends fly by don’t they?
I spent a good deal of time messing about with a vessel design. I’ve had this particular idea for a vessel made from fabrics that I have dyed… the only problem being that I’m unsure of how to make the actual vessel and cover it with fabrics. I finally bit the bullet and bought some screening and began trying some ideas. I managed some very lumpy experiments the first day and then this rather cute little bag/vessel the second day. Nothing so far manages to approach the ideas I have germinating in my head but concrete progress is always more satisfying than vague ideas. There are still some pesky construction issues to deal with but I feel as though I’m getting a handle on how to approach them.

The bag is actually reversible which wasn’t planned but is kind of fun.

I’m glad I took the time to try these experiments even though I have been feeling a bit oppressed by the to-do list. Sometimes it is hard for me to invest the time into the experimental phase of a project. There is a very skeptical side to my personality that keeps looking at its watch and saying “OK that thing you just spent over 2 hours on looks like a mutant head of lettuce… and this benefits us how??”

But I know in my heart that the really good stuff comes from the stretching of ideas and exploring new paths. I have to learn to tell that particular voice to just chill for the next few hours and then you can nag me about the bottom line when recess is over!

Test Patterns

Soooo the results are in and they are... interesting. I made this handy dandy chart to show the patterns I used for the different swatches. Red is the thread on top of the fabric. Pink is the thread on the underside of the fabric. Blue is the 1/2 inch grid I used for the guide. To the right I put the resulting swatch for each pattern.

The top 2 patterns were dyed on the canvas and using thickened dye

the bottom one is a much lighter weight fabric and unthickened dye in two colors

this is the first one, just a wavy line

The second swatch shows the most promise to reproduce the original.

I can actually see fragments of the pattern I 'm going for here. The difficulty I am having is getting the fabric to push up and down smoothly. Some of this is due to the thickness of the fabric but I'm thinking it may have something to do with the way each row of thread is pulled. This one I pulled 1 at a time starting at the top and working my way to the bottom. Once pulled I tried to work the pattern in and out by poking it up and down with a chopstick...

I tried a second attempt using the same pattern on a much lighter weight of fabric but pulled all the up threads first then pulled all the down threads. I think this one looked better tied than flat.

I think I will give it another try using the first method but really working the fabric up and down as I pull it as well as using the lighter weight fabric.

The third one looked really cool when it was bumpy but lost its magic when ironed flat (possible heat set pattern?) Thickening the dye would yeild better results

Other stuff I learned:

upholstrery thread works really well for this

even lightweight canvas is too thick for a 1/2 inch grid

don't rush, wait until you can thicken the dye

chopsticks are good pokers

I can sound really whiney late at night :) (I kind of knew that already)

INDIGO SHIBORI

INDIGO SHIBORI
Originally uploaded by narablog.com

Best laid plans aside....
So tonight I was supposed to be working on any of the current projects I've recently started. Instead I ended up immersing myself in the challenge glennis set of trying to recreate the resist method used to create this gorgeous piece posted by narablog in the flicker pool
here is what I tried (2 attempts)
using a soft, light weight plain weave canvas I drew a grid of 1/2 inch squares in washout pencil on one I added 1/4 lines as well
I tried 2 different stitch layouts one of alternate rows and one off set by 1/2
(ok that description sucks, lets let the pics demonstrate)
These were pulled to create the lines
and dyed with 2 densities of thickened dye
I will post results tomorrow.

Tool of the Week – Scissors

I can’t believe how many of these I found in my studio, there are more too, at least four more pairs in and around the house that I can think of but I was too lazy to round them up. An embarrassment of riches… if there is one area of my life that has clutter issues it is the studio/project/supply area, well that and paper stuff.
Anyway… I’ve been spending a great deal of time in close contact with the ol’ scissors lately because I’ve been cutting out so many new projects (see my last post for ad nauseum) and I obviously can’t have too many pairs. I do need to get myself a sharpener because believe it or not even at my age I am still too impatient to respect the sanctity of the “good” scissors. I will use whatever is close at hand even if I am cutting paper… come to think of it that probably accounts for the surplus visible here!

Many Projects No Resolution

I've been neglecting this blog like my houseplants. I am actually working on many things (too many) but very little is getting finished. These are the ongoing projects at present

• Discharge brown linen (?) panels- love what I've gotten so far, the shibori is completed and I have a bunch of ideas of what I can do with it but no clear decision has been made for the next step...



• Frequencies #2- this is the 2nd sampler made from the heat set shibori (new name for the series) I'm exploring some new ideas, introducing more colors and playing with the vibration aspect it...sorry no pics at present



• Earth Haori- I got it cut out of the fabric last week but haven't sewn a stitch yet



• Jacket- also cut out a pattern for a jacket, I think I've had this fabric sitting about for 18 years finally got my act together and chose a pattern to use it



• 9 Table runners- all based off of this design, have only gotten the bases sewn and now must add fused embellishments and top stitch them



• Ginkos#2- stalled, I haven't worked on it in a week



• Ginkos#1- so stalled I may abandon it and use the elements for something else



• New Yoga Bag- this is done, its a rough prototype and a bit lumpy but useful to me, I made it from blue linen/cotton with a discharged detail for the pocket

I've also laid out the bird garden...this means there are a bunch of pegs stuck in the ground with twine mapping out the paths and beds to be dug, essentially it is a note to myself that I have undertaken a project that will entail many, many hours of hard labor...but I won't think about that now.

I'm still trying to get new products into the ETSY store, attend yoga, spin and karate, and all the usual life stuff like work too.

This is where I start to feel a little oppressed and frantic.

It is also where I start my Kaizen chant: choose one thing and get a little bit done its all you can do and it is enough...

I know I'm not the only one with this overload, how do you handle it?

Tool of the Week: Needle

Tool of the Week: Needle
Originally uploaded by alsokaizen

The needle, this is perhaps the most basic tool for any one who works with fibers... So when I started this silly little series I was mostly thinking about how it would be a terrific way for me to practice my macro photography (which still requires a good deal of improvement) What I didn’t expect to find myself thinking about was how old most of the tools I use really are (not mine personally but in a historic sense) then in turn how old the practices that I work with are…I wiki-ed needle and (I don’t know how accurate this is) Needles were found just above an ash layer dated to 40,000 years ago at the Kostenki site in Russia. Wow! That’s some serious old there. We are talking about a tool that’s been around since the dawn of civilization essentially unchanged in design, and performing the same function for all that time. I’m suddenly in awe of this little guy…small but mighty, singular in purpose, and designed just about perfectly