Hello Everyone!
It’s so hard to find the words to express the abundant emotions swirling around the entire GLOBE! I truly believe we are experiencing a long-awaited Paradigm Shift on every level relating to our Human Existence on the Planet. We have a lot of Work and Healing to do to move forward as a Loving, Kind, and Compassionate Culture.
The Solstice arrives on Saturday June 20th at 3:43 PM (MST) and according to Lena Stevens of www.thepowerpath.com. It is always a time of honoring change. This year we have both an eclipse and a new moon the day after “which gives the solstice an extra infusion of power, so let’s use it wisely and embrace change.”
This time is finding me “choosing” not to teach this Summer because of the Pandemic (I had actually thought I might be able to last month) and finding an alternate way to put Beauty, Creativity, and Love back out into the world through doing the work I am so compelled to do.
I am offering for the first time publicly a small group (14) of my 2-yard textiles for people to create their own wonderful works of art with.
I created a series of 7 Black and White pieces. I have always loved the Simplicity, Elegance, and Power of Black and White. The group ends with a Black and Red and a second circle pattern overlaid with a linear pattern in delicate earth colors.
I am putting out some of my new naturally dyed textiles as well. In the last 4 years I have been experimenting with natural dyes as well as Indigo (of course). Being true to the type of experimental dyer I am there are lots of odd-ball mixtures such as Chestnut, Pomegranate, Madder, and Onion Skins. The last 2 pieces (#15 and #16 are small size pieces that would make lovely scarves).
Natural dyes chestnut pomegranate and madder
The majority of these new works are Silk Organza which I dearly love for all the reasons people usually dislike it. Its stiffness (which can be made soft), It’s sheerness, which can be made translucent/opaque and its ability to take color (sericin) very deeply or to take it very lightly when the sericin is removed. Because of it’s sheerness it can take many complex manipulations and still read as an incredible overall pattern. It is the primary fabric used in “Bojagi” (a Korean piecing technique). It can be manipulated through process to be both light reflective and matt in the same cloth. Design can be put into the cloth by actually changing the very nature of it, making the design an integral part of the cloth and not just by putting color and pattern on the surface. This cloth allows me to push myself outside of my creative box by its very nature and I love a good challenge!
Naturally dyed organza mesh madder and lac showing sheerness
Here are some of the things you can do with this cloth:
Felters, you can Felt through it and by using different colors of wool you can shift the colors of the piece and get a re-imagined pattern on your felt from the pattern in the cloth.
Sewists: Create the Haute Couture Scarf by cutting or tearing a 2-yard piece right in half lengthwise and stitching the ends together and hemming the sides….4 yards in length 22” wide it can then be wrapped and draped in numerous ways.
Bojagi and Quilt artists: cut or tear it up and reassemble the pattern into something fabulous and unique.
I like to take mine and piece it with all kinds of similar weight fabrics that are opaque, matt, shiny, textured, for a very rich surface that changes at every turn.
I hope you will all enjoy these offerings. We have made some changes to the shop on the website and now there is a drop-down tab that has 4 categories: Art Wear, Art Cloth, Felt, and Mixed Media. I have also created some new Felted Neckpieces (3 new ones offered right now) and have put these into Mixed Media, because they are truly evolving to incorporate some of my “new imaginings” stay tuned, more coming…
Thank you all so much for taking the time to read my newsletter/blog. I hope you are all staying Safe, keeping Healthy and being as Creative as possible. Please forward this to any of your friends who might be interested in purchasing my Art Cloth.
