Seamless Skin

She Who Holds Tomorrow

It all started with a writing prompt that Crystal gave on magical realism and wondering what I could come up with in fabric.  I sketched out some ideas and although She Who Holds Tomorrow was my less magical, she was the one that began to send me telepathic messages...in the original sketch there are huge vases behind her that she asked for, then I decided to embellish the vases...then she asked to be made in cloth...I said hold up, you'll have to wait. 

Yesterday was her time...it was the 2nd day this week that I couldn't focus...felt tired, mentally blank, so I piddled instead of beginning the third top in the Poetry Series.  Ran the screens on a sample cloth, then made more marks on the cloth with Nsibidi writing using Indian Ink with the fine line writing tool.  Mo came home yesterday from her intro to Pan African Studies class asking about Nsibidi writing. It just so happened that a few months ago I had ordered a book on African writing systems and had read about Nsibidi writing so that was kinda a cool connection.  The writing on cloth became so good to me that I started making up my own marks.  The cloth ended up redeemed because the screen printing I did on it was a bust.  In some spots the drawing fluid wasn't thick enough so the screen filler filled in places that should not have been. 

Then I turned to my first sketch of She Who Holds Tomorrow and did a small exercise of her in Tsunikeo Inks (I know I just butchered that spelling) and prismacolour pencils.  This is just a practice on a piece of fabric that measures 8 inches by 11 inches.   

Grace asked about the drawing fluid and screen filler and whether or not she could use just the polyester mesh screen without a frame by taping the mesh around the edges...since I'm not an "expert" I would say go for it and try it...On Jane Dunnewold's Complex Cloth DVD she fuses tulle between two sheets of iron-on stablizer...she also demo'ed this on an episode of Quilting Arts.  I like the weight that the frame gives me, making the piece feel more stable when pulling over it.

Last night I dreamed that I flew to Accra, Ghana to hear a concert given by the UofL orchestra.  I was with Estella, a long time friend.  After the concert was over the very large group went to sit on the steps of the concert hall to watch a very elaborate parade of floats on water that ran in front of the concert hall...Beyond the water I could see the urban sprawl of Accra with buildings in salmon, yellow, fushia and trolleys and busses and huge long blocks of vegetable and fruit stands.  Estella had a Nikon D40 and I had my camera and we both where taking pictures of the parade and then of the areas beyond the water.  So I'm wondering now if She Who Holds Tomorrow is from Ghana????

 

Knocked out by Joy

Fridays are typically set aside to spend with my man since he is off from work that day but after Thursday's class with Juanita Yeager at the Carnegie in New Albany, Indiana I was over the top eager to return to my workshop and get down and dirty with what I had learned...a quicker and more comfortable method of dye painting that I had previously been introduced to by Hollis Chatelain last year in Berea.

The armless spirit women I did in class (not sure why I drew them.  I didn't overthink or think much about it at all, but just started drawing them out of the blue):

This image is prior to washing out the rice paste that the dye is mixed into.  The 2nd yard was started on Thursday with stamping the numbers but the class ended before I could do the background.  This could have easily been a week long class but in grand Juanita style, she always manages to give lots of info and instruction when needed into any amount of time spent and Thursday was no exception!

The 3rd piece I started from scratch on my own but will wait to share it after its completed.

Meanwhile I'm truly digging these numbers and the blending of the background. 

Oh, but prior to getting to my workshop I took my mother to see Juanita's solo exhibit Friday morning and when I left my workshop in the evening, (I changed clothes first but still had blue hands), I picked up a friend and returned to the Carnegie for the artist's reception! 31, no make that 31! gorgeous quilts!!  Most of them produced since her move to Missouri...and her quilts hang sooooo beautifully...I prolly should have taken the finishing class over again.  I could kick myself for not taking pictures at the reception.  The Carnegie holds the best receptions with delicious food and a live jazz band.  The exhibit is up til July so if you're not from this area and plan on passing through...put it on your agenda to stop and if you're in the region, its worth the cost of gas (no really it is) to make a planned trip to see the show.

Today will be spent resting and refueling and doing what I'm suppose to do health-wise and recovering from so much Joy! peace...

 

 

 

 

5

I was really sleeping good having decided last night that today would be a day of rest and then the maintenance guy came in to repair the kitchen faucet and the ceiling fan.  I didn't hear the doorbell and was startled by him calling out rather loud "maintenance".  I had drifted off to sleep while watching a film based on Howard Zinn's autobiography You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train on LinkTV.  Zinn's background was such a ordinary one that I wonder how many "zinn" like people we come across in daily life that get dismissed because they are "too crazy, too radical, too weird, too fill-in-the-blank".  Today I'm feeling that warm and hopeful feeling knowing that there are people devoting their full time pursuits to crafting legal, spiritual, political responses to debaseful events and attacks on our humanity, people such as Senator Keith Ellison, Prof. Charles Olgletree, Rev. George Regas, all of whom I've seen on TV in the last 24 hours.

Here are the last of the fabrics I dyed a few weeks ago:

The colour is eggplant and the fabric is unironed...I seldom iron my fabrics until I'm ready to use them...just not a task I can redeem enough to make me want to be proactive about it.

Here is one of the three 10"x10" quilts.  The image is scanned so the sides are cut off and I've not put a binding on it yet...I think I'll put a dark green binding on it.

I used the circular attachment to quilt it.   

6

The last of the fabrics that I dyed weeks ago is soaking.  I thought I had distinguished the fabrics that I had pre-soaked in soda ash from the ones I didn't but the evidence proved contrary...so I still don't know if adding the soda ash before or after the dye really makes any difference in the amount of dye absorbed...what I really want to understand and apply is colour that vibrates!  What really makes colour vibrate...not jarring but smooth and rhythmic?  And can it be done or how to achieve it using 1, 2, or 3 hues...I know this much, that value is the key.  But how can it just pulsates off the wall???

In an earlier post I mentioned doing postcards for the remainder of the year but that hasn't happened...instead, I'm looking at previous dyed/painted fabrics to see if I can cut them up, what would go together, etc.  I have such a difficult time cutting up my dyed fabrics where 3-4 colours form abstract movement across the length of the piece...I just want to quilt it as is...no cutting.  And its even harder when the pieces are patterned...for example, I love these fabrics below and I'm going to take a leap and combine them in 10"x10" quilts...

 

The top one on the left I groove with the most and I thought about just quilting it with low contrast thread and love it as is...but since matters of love are never that straight forward, I thought I'd torture myself by trying to put all 3 fabrics in one piece.  That is my mission today.