Connections

Connections

Sunday, August 14, 2011

Life is what it is...........


Some days my perception of the world is better than others. Today .. life is just what it is .. nothing spectacular .. ordinary sleepy day .. with some work smattered through out ... enough to break a sweat and need a rest. So right now .. i'm peaceabley tired. Satiated......enough.....

It's a nice place to be. Amazingly a word read through my blue colored glasses can on occasion come acrossed as a searing bolt of whitesh blue ... like lightening striking me hard .. a blow to my heart. I never know when it will come. I never know when my minds going to think that no one cares, i never know when the world will appear only black and white .. I never know when it will feel as if the sound stops and I hear no one talking. I never know when I will feel invisible. Sometimes I know that that's what it was like for real .. for really real long ago. Long ago..

So today .. I'm just here .. thinking, feeling stuff... just passing through it. I will never be just like anybody else .. I will always be just me. Hoping that sometimes I could just take off those blue colored glasses and wear a pair of red or purple or yellow colored or just plain so the colors I see are never even slightly altered but just the colors that they are... of course I'm speaking metaphorically here. I think that things in life that happen to you cause you to see through colored glasses. I know this, but no one else does until they get to know me. But I really just wanted to talk about the pictures.

So ..yesterday .. I was thinking .. I love to take photos of all the incredible bugs in my yard. I think it's funny that I love to see the creatures that inhabit my space .. even the ones i don't like .. and even the ones that have to go.......but i also realized there are alot of other things I like .. fabric for one .. and I came from a woman that loved fabric too .. she sewed all my clothes when I was little. When I was five years old we moved from the USA to Africa... imagine that .. during the cold war........an odd but wonderful time to live over seas. For six years. Wonderfully exciting times in my life!!! without a doubt .. My mother sewed our outfits for all of our trips. My sister and I wore matching dresses .. sometimes me and my sister and my mother would all have the same fabric in our dresses. I loved that .. I so so loved that!!! . It was so exciting to be going on a plane .. and we had to look presentable. We looked spectacular!!!! My mother was a wonderful seamstress!!! She never just sewed one or two outfits but three or four ... and other pieces to complement other things .. so we always felt like we got a new wardrobe. She did also sew for holidays and special occasions. She sewed my confirmation dress, my prom dress and my wedding dress and even an extravagantly beautiful cover for a bassinet when my daughter was born. I hadn't realized that sewing is probably just in my blood. Happy memories surround fabric and sewing. So I have a love of fabric just like my mother. And I love many other things too as I'm sure my mother does. I know that I got a huge creative streak from my mother. That and dragging me out to every single museum and art gallery that she could on our yearly summer travels through Europe while traveling from Africa to the US and back. This certainly influenced my creativity. Today .. i realized I haven't shown too much about what I've been creating lately even though i think photography is another one of my creative outlets.I do enjoy doing more hands on art even though it's hot out side and even though I'm not boiling things up .. i've been making a stash of fabric .. that I've dyed or rusted or just sun streaked. Here's some of my stash .. oh and even some is thrift store bought . I never go to fabric stores and buy anything new. It's either a yard sale or a thrift shop.or a dress that has a fabric that I love, it's just the way I am. So here's some of my stash and what do you know but while I'm in the middle of the shoot of my fabric .. a beautiful butterfly lands on one of my dye pots .. and he stays there a long time .. even gets on the fabric. Then flutters up to my fabrics that are all laid out and pressed and sits there in front of them and then on them and then flies away and I am brought back again to grateful. For the butterfly is all the affirmation I need. And I feel the transformation continues ...and i see his colors plainly and they are spectacular!!! So below is my yard and all my fabric on my car .. it makes a great table in a way. Then there are the solar dye pots. The yellow is Turmeric, the brown I think is a bit of rust and some walnut and oak galls that I'd forgotten for months. The purple is the blueberry.. the green pot that the butterfly visits? That's rain water, vinegar, and a copper pot with pieces of fabric and it looks like it's developed some mold on top. I know there are a lot of photos here so .. just look or don't. The long strip of stitched cloth is my version of Jude's straps, I like it so much I may not fold it .. not sure yet. I may just put a back on it and make it that wide.. but I love the colors on it. I like the edges of things .. I like drawing on fabric and stitching on parts and not other parts.. I love dyeing fabric. I love nature. I love the sun dotting in different places. I like defused focus of sunlight. I love seeing with a camera... maybe thats how I see best!






This is the back yard. I have put up a table
out here and want to move all the dyeing
to back here. I like the quietness of this space.


Misty, she loves to survey the land from the front
porch. I think she mostly loves the cool concrete!
strips of cotton and silk eco-dyed

Turmeric glass jar dye pot, center is the walnut, rust, oak 
gall pot and the right one is empty... waiting for something. 

Cotton dyed in a walnut pot
red cotton ribbon which also
transferred to the fabric.
This is on the side, I can see this looking
out my kitchen window. I love the sun 
streaming down the path.
Eucalyptus dyed silk!



Silk shirt piece where the buttons are that I used as a strap for tieing up other silk bundles. 
I love the texture of fabric like this!
I do love to draw eyes! 






























The beginnings of a beast maybe? This is discharged black cotton that was something my son had and was going to trash. I got it before he did that. I have a matching pair. He was using this fabric to tie something in his car where it got several years of exposure to the sun. I love this haha!!! 























































Peace everyone .. I know this was long .. but this was just one day. Now I know why I don't do this so often. There is a lot of work in just editing photos. 

27 comments:

  1. What a great post, love the photos and your words. I too have my mother to thank for my creativity and my love of fabric. You have captured a wonderful moment in time with the butterfly, I felt the peacefulness of your surroundings.

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  2. i learned so much about you in this one wonderful post. loved all those photos. great eyes. great colors in the cloth. the holes look like mouths and eyes and that glorious butterfly. thank you for spending the time and sharing with all of us who want to know more about you.

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  3. Wow Tammy what a GIANT post!
    love the photos and all the details, the blues, the holes, the stitched narrow strip (at least I assume it's narrow ...) and then as icing on the cake that butterfly
    !!!! Thank you!

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  4. Holy Toldedo, Woman--that was one hell of a jawdropping post! You're cookin'!!!!

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  5. Judy, Thank you and yes sometimes I don't realize these things like knowing that I get my love of fabric from my mother. I know she still keeps a big stash of cloth.. that she sometimes stitches .. maybe I will inherit some of .. and maybe she still has some scraps from clothes she made me .. I feel like i have a new purpose for a visit.. it's a lovely connection I think!!! :) Thanks for stopping over though ..

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  6. Deanna .. thanks for your always stopping over and posting a comment.. your so sweet and yes I saw those holes in the cloth as eyes and a mouth too .. some were kind of scary haha .. always nice to see your words!!

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  7. Els.. It was a giant post wasnt it .. but you know when I take photos it's often that way .. there are so many that I don't post .. so today I just thought what the heck.. And yes .. i just have to tell you I get emotional about the littlest things .. that really did it for me.. I was just so pleased to have it stop by.. and such a beautiful butterfly .. THanks for stopping over !!!

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  8. Oh Arlee!!! THanks!!! I'm going to try to do more but .. I honestly don't know how you do all that you do and post as often as you do .. I think i'd be sitting here all day!! Thanks for stopping over!!!

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  9. a feast. a Celebration. a
    WonderLand.

    a very beautiful woman.

    could not be more...more anything.
    this is so
    just
    fine.

    and tell me again, where are you?

    i always so much love the glimpses of people's yards...their little piece of the earth that they perch on

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  10. What a feast for the eyes. I love the butterfly on pots and fabrics, wonderful!

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  11. Grace I have to tell you I posted this thinking of you really .. thinking that I had to show you my back yard. I don't have all the wonderful furniture you have or a place to cook outside but I do have my solar dye jars .. and I do have the woods.. and lots of rusted metal.And I do love to take photos. I live in northern part of South Carolina just near the border of North Carolina. So sometimes I can see the blue ridge mountains when I am out and about !!

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  12. Valerianna .. thanks for stopping over .. the butterfly was a lovely little gift for sure!!!

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  13. i love that you love so much. and that strap stitching is great and all of it! i own some blue colored glasses, too. but they give perspectives that others miss, i think they let you see deeper. i bet a lot of artists have them. take care.

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  14. those glasses... what a good way to think about the alternative views we have.no two people see things really the same anyway. but as i get older it matters less more of the time. i still have my moments ... but loving things ... its so wonderful...even with the glasses... the loving comes ... but in different ways... that butterfly wasn't just a coincidence... or at least your view of it wasn't. tammy thank you for posting this... i'm glad i popped in. i like it here at your place.

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  15. Well Tams the eyes are riveting. Amazing in so many ways. Etheric too.

    Remarkable in what they say, or what one might think they are saying.

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  16. cletus also was stunned by them eyes. How about a full feature of just eyes.

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  17. Thank you. simply thank you. A feast for my eyes. The fabric are all gorgeous. The butterfly - beyond beautiful. Your yard is like mine. I dye outside among the birds and bugs. It really renews the spirit. I just wish your butterfly would visit!

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  18. I just went down and down and it just was all so wonderful...

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  19. this is a real story (cloth) so much beauty
    thanks for sharing

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  20. this post deserves close inspection over time that is how i like best to absorb something meaningful of someone's heart and soul. i have violet lenses seeing the world and personal experience. And of course mirrored shades but you have to be very careful with them ...

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  21. Hi Tammy

    Thanks for stopping by my blog and leaving such a lovely comment. You are very talented. I love the butterfly kissed cloth.
    Jacqui

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  22. have you ADDED to this? i saw
    many new things this time....

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  23. Dropped by from "Spirit Cloth" to enjoy your blog. This is such a lovely post: the text, the photos, your dyed fabrics and drawing. All very lovely. Love your textile pieces inspired from Jude Hill's classes. I also collect fabrics from used clothing.
    best from Tunisia,
    nadia

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  24. What a gorgeous blog today...l too am following Jude's diary but started late due to illness. It is great to see what you are doing here. Love the butterfly kissed cloth. yes it is hard to blog and then down load your images but it is fun to read the end product, especially if people read it and like it. Also l find it is a great way to record your work. progress and thoughts. Keep blogging......xlynda

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