my first sighting!

i saw a female varied thrush today... they will be around for a couple of weeks if we are lucky...

the photo is from wikipedia...not mine. but she was on our bird bath!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varied_Thrush

a mossy pile

this is the second project i have set for myself in jude's class. i've gathered together another pile, this time of mossy fabrics... the colors aren't true...today the natural light here is not dependable... the sun is just daring to come out and as soon as we get a peek, he zips back in behind the clouds.... but i intend to make a runner with the woven piece i started in c2c2.

and here is the woven piece with the napkins i bought from local dyer and quilter, bonnie bucknam http://www.handwerktextiles.com/ its going to make a wonderful table setting! but again the colors aren't true... the napkins are a bronze and chartreuse and are dyed old damask. really lovely. you should check out her website.

a pile of blues

oh my. what a pile of yummy cloth. a lot of the beauty comes from glennis and heike...and some of my old clothes. i'm hoping to make a vest with blues fading to creams. it is inspired by the sea, the sky and the moon. i will have many moons on it and some of them will be glennis's moons some my own. i have a pattern that i like ... hoping it will fit on an old skirt for the lining...if not i have some old silk that has been washed and softened. i got it in thailand about 25 years ago.

i am so excited to be back into my cloth projects... my room is almost in order...enough for me to start anyway. and life has settled down enough too... for the moment!

i have signed up for jude's contemporary boro class. i'm not sure what we will do but i have some projects i want to work on... i will be gathering more for a second project and will show you that as soon as i gather them together. judes first assignment was to make piles!!!

my heart is grateful

thank you everyone who waited through this past week with me. it was rough...we almost lost her twice. but she is stabilized now and has been transfered to a skilled care facility where she will have pt everyday and grow stronger, have the proper diet and all things she wasn't doing for herself. i am so relieved. and so grateful for all your sending of energy, prayers and wishes.

my sister

i am thinking hard about my sister... sending her all the strength i can. she has been in icu since jan 6 and its been a rough, up and down, trail. i think about living with the idea of our mortality. we all will die. this moment is what we have.

cheryl has had such a hard life. i won't go into it but through it all we have remained close. we are closest in age... she is 3 years younger than me. i am the oldest of four. she is the one that holds all of my childhood memories from traumas to joy. the others were too young.

there are so many things calling my attention. i have still not finished organizing the last few bits of my sewing studio. i have signed up for jude's new advanced boro class and haven't even checked in yet. and there are all the normal things i do in my life, exercising, housework, the dishes...always the dishes. but i am slacking. things are piling up... i am spending hours on the phone checking her status and talking to my other sisters keeping everyone up to date. and crying a lot in while stacking the dishes. tears are cleansing after all.

this is not the normal post but i wanted to share and ask, if you are inclined, to send healing thoughts our way.

namaste

a sheltering sky

there are so many times when i look up at the sky and it has changed to a new image... yesterday the sky was like that. big sweeping clouds... sweeping away all the old and bringing in the new. just like in my life.

there have been a lot of changes going on this year. for one, my youngest son moved back to portland last january after a serious back injury on his job. he is really doing well after a year of therapy but recently he has found it necessary to move into our home. i have given him my old sewing room as it was the largest room and where he would be the most comfortable; it would also afford all of us the most privacy. we are all pretty easy going and so far this has been really nice... especially now that we are almost through with the big move.

moving into a smaller room gave me the chance to get more organized. i stored some things but i reduced a lot too. it made me become conscious of which things i wanted to devote my time to. it all comes at a good time.

new years is a time i like to reflect a bit. am i living the life i mean to live? sometimes i forget to ask myself if things fit in the larger plan and just let things happen. but at this time of year, i like to examine a bit just to keep myself from getting too far off the track. i tend to try to do too much and this past year i really tried to not get too distracted. i am pretty happy with the way things played out. for the most part, my new activities support my creative life. i started a blog, i joined the board of our fiber arts guild and i took several classes that furthers my arts.

i question about this blog, however.... i started it just to keep a record of what is happening in my creative life. but i see that i have limited it mostly to photography and stitching and haven't shown as much of that as i could. i get wrapped up in a project and off i go... forgetting to blog about it or not feeling like i have time. i think i need a more organized approach to blogging. i am thinking this new room will be good for that because now i am on the same level as everything else and though i will not have as much seclusion, i think all in all it will be good. i use a lap top... and it seemed last year it was never where i was. if i was downstairs stitching and wanted to photograph and post, the computer or the camera was upstairs. not that its so difficult to go fetch...but its more opportunity for me to get distracted. (just one example) so i am thinking fewer steps might mean fewer distractions. did i mention that i am a gemini?

well, as is quoted on jude's blog...hey ho... and off we go under our sheltering sky.

thank you to everyone who stops by here, keeping the faith that eventually something will appear. i enjoy that you leave such wonderful and encouraging comments. its nice to know i am not here alone! i do want to wish everyone of you a happy new year. may you be of good health and cheer all the year long with plenty of time for creativity.

namaste!

encaustic... a process explained

encaustic is basically using hot bees wax to cover a foundation. what i did in judy's class was learn the basic technique and then some different techniques to add or embellish. we started with a board. you could use a stretched canvas, some people have put encaustic into their journals. once you have chosen your base, you can choose to paint it or not. i used acrylics to paint my backgrounds, then i did a collage with photos i have taken, glueing them down securely. then i put on the first layer of hot 160* wax. after the wax sets, you can use a blow torch or a heat gun to set the wax. it melts a little and rids the surface of brush marks. its a technique that needs practice to not get the wax too hot and to be certain to cover the entire area. then you can do a number of techniques, by scratching the surface or intaglio, then adding another layer of wax and heat setting it again. or a stencil, gold leaf, shellac, adding a tissue image, or burnishing a reverse transfer . there are so many techniques and combinations... but each time you add wax you must heat set it again. another process is painting with hot wax... you can use pure pigments or oil paints or pre-colored wax blocks to color the wax... the trick is to take small brush strokes since you can only paint while the wax remains hot. after every little bit you should stop and heat set it. this is the exercise i found to be the most difficult. if you go to judy"s website http://judywise.blogspot.com/ to the dec 13 post... the heads that are shown were done with hot wax... we were told to turn our sample upside down and copy it that way. i am not good at drawing and this method seems to make it possible to achieve some what of a likeness. i'm sorry i didn't explain the process in the beginning. it really has nothing to do with stitch ... i just have to do something different once in awhile to soothe my gemini nature.