Thursday Through the Throngs

Today there were just throngs of photos to go through and edit and resize and decide on. It's busy work. I'm always amazed at how quickly the time passes. 

On your left here is my side yard. The woods that I live in are precisely why I love living here. This morning I was sitting out side talking to a dear friend and two birds came really close by and I was surprised because I never see them that close and I really thought that maybe they felt ok about being there because I was busy talking on the phone. I felt like they knew that I was not going to pay them much attention. It made me imagine living in a space that could have the view of the outdoors during the day .. large windows in the middle of the woods and then at night I could close that off so I wasn't a movie for everything outside. 

Anyway .. I have a lot of images and ideas and the creative juices have just been flowing overtime lately. Not sure why but I'm not complaining. Just trying to figure out what's next. 

This is a little illustration that I've done on vintage book pages and then painted with some white paint. I have done so many of these little illustrations it's crazy to me. I think I have about 100 of them. They are all different and most don't have the full scene behind them or an animal with them. Just girls mostly in various poses. I've thought of just mounting them like this on an old book cover and selling them .. but not sure anyone would buy em. I however love creating them. This is the part where I totally feel like a little girl, coloring and drawing my own coloring book. Hmmmm .. maybe I should make that! haha. .. 

This is the wrapped piece that I posted on the previous post. I loved the way it looked wrapped and may just use that image as a photo for other work. This is the wrap with the strings off. I am going to unfold it and reveal the fabric. This is always my favorite part. I love this so much I can't wait sometimes to take it off but I waited about a full 24 hours haha .. which is good for me.

I used a thin piece of wood to wrap the fabric around which would give a firmness to the string that was binding the fabric to it. There is something about this binding process and the unwrapping that is really meaningful for me... and i am really compelled to investigate that alot more. Sometimes I have felt bound, tied up, restricted. I wonder if as people who sometimes do become unbound or unwrapped, unrestricted if we have a treasure that we reveal when we are finally seen. I like the idea of that. And so I also want to mention that I purposefully folded the fabric that I was wrapping on this piece of wood in a way that would create some symmetry. I am that way sometimes. Not always but sometimes. Anyway .. I carefully unfolded and was pleasantly surprised. What I am discovering in this process is that I am not dyeing things in the careful deliberate way of adding or mordanting the fabric so sometimes I worry that I am using a great deal of effort for naught but then there is the aspect of the image that I can photograph for use in other ways so I'm keeping a record photographically. I can't possibly show all of those photos but I will show what I think are the highlights. I also realize that even though I waited 24 hours  of drying time the cloth was still damp with dye. I love the richness of the wet dye on the fabric and the design that it creates. Now just so we are clear this is damp dyed cloth hanging on a wooden dowel in front of the sun. I'm sure you can tell that... I just love the design here. I am excited by the folds and the string impressions. 

Same cloth dry before washing. I almost didnt want to wash it and you will have to come back tomorrow to see the washed fabric. But since I don't have that image just yet I will show you another wrapped experiment I did and those results I was very very happy with. So I am adding another element to the dyed fabric and that is acrylic paint. What I like seeing is the contrast and the   results of the binding clearly evident. If only could people could see the scars that were left on our hearts ... but alas they can't and that is probably a good thing. But this is about the fabric right? So I digress. The next and last image for this posting is another dyed cloth that I was not happy with and I used the same board and same string and paint. Here are the results of that. I hope that you enjoy seeing some of my process. And some of my ranting .. 

And now that I have put the picture here I have to tell you that it is the varigation of the lines that I enjoy most and there is a spiritual element to this for me. Perhaps it is a sort of repetition of crosses or the contrast of the light and dark. I'm not sure yet but I'm bound by it .. and funny to use that word bound to be bound by it in this I mean that I want to look at it alot. I spend long times looking at it. Bound up in the binding piece. I'm grateful to have this visual journal regardless of anything that may occur. 

Until tomorrow.