what i did during my summer vacation

My show and tell of what i did during my summer vacation...

finishing, starting, returning...

Jude Hill Contemporary Boro class came to an end...or a new beginning. 

I started taking a few on-line classes with Karen Ruane...still a beginner.

Returning to cooler weather, autumn/fall, milder things and Jude's diaries...

http://spiritcloth.bigcartel.com/product/the-spirit-cloth-diaries

with November Karen will be starting her Embroider, Embellish Create:

http://karenruane.bigcartel.com/product/embroider-embellish-create-2012

So this is the show and tell:

the pieces below were created as part of Karen Ruane's Ledger class: 

http://karenruane.bigcartel.com/product/an-embroiderers-ledger-online-learning

a very fun class that actually took a lot of time.  it was based on creating/finding ideas from elements in your surroundings and extending them in stitched form.  a great tool for brain storming. 

currently i am doing also another class with Karen - Extended Embellishment: 

http://karenruane.bigcartel.com/product/extending-embellishment

another example of me trying to step outside my box to use other colours that i normally might not consider using: pastels, white, and cloth that i wouldn't have even thought about: silk dupioni and scrim (one of my new favorite toys)  you can see my decorative types of elements that i might never have tired if Karen hadn't been standing over my shoulder!  

I also did work on the things that I had started in Jude Hill's Contemporary Boro Class:

http://spiritcloth.bigcartel.com/product/contemporary-boro-2

Again, the class is still going on for many of us as we are continuing under her influence to create/recreate/mend/bend our thinking about cloth.

the boro jacket is what i first started.  it is all stitched together, most of the element that i will add are finished awaiting assemblage.  

the second object i was working on is finished.  it is the linen shirt i reworked.  i altered the hem: shirt-tails to a straight hem.  altered the collar from conventional to a stand up. it went from 5 buttons to 4 and added a patched placket on the buttonhole side.  i also made a strip of cloth patches to use for a trim on the sleeves.

these are the projects that kept my hands busy indoors.

my outdoor project - the garden is just about spent.  i will start the clean up for fall, keeping most of the greens and hoping to overwinter them if we have a mild winter as we did last year.

summer is usually a difficult period for me but so much has to be done, in and out of the house, especially now since there is only myself to manage the care of two households.  weeds are really quite welcome to hang about though.  during my sister's visit, last week in july - august week one, we did turn a new bed and cleared a lot of bramble.  but it has started showing it's weedy little head since we've had some rain in the last two weeks. very little rain and hot hot days really made this a odd growing season.

my short term plans are to finish the jacket (hopefully by christmas for my sister) and keep up the samplers of embellished stitching for the ledger i started...also putting down "subjects for a short story."  a reference to chekhov here,
meaning a place for noting ideas working out things, regarding cloth.

i have started a base cloth too for a new oak leaf cloth:
the weave is made from pieces left over from the shirt and jacket

and my continuing project of the oak fascicles is still on my list.  there is a current one in the works:

so, that is what i did on my summer vacation.  but now it is september, as the old song states: "see you..."

i hope to be a better blogger.  considering not having such long intervals between postings if i make them shorter...more like this is what i did today instead of what i did all summer.
mom's health keeps declining so my time is limited to sneaking in a bit here and there but stitching is my one great relief.  hopefully i haven't lost too many reader/viewer/friends out there and that my absence is forgiven.

thank you to my mentors and guides: my spirit guide and my "chipper" friend, who keep me grounded. and those who have stayed with me through my journey.

take care all and good stitching and or art making as each to their own finds a trail for themselves to follow.

dla mamusie.  

few words for wednesday

The Ides are almost here:

Ides of March cloth

I promised myself that my Ideas of March would be done by the 15th and so it is.

Details of the cloth:

center detail

center leaf detail

Most of the stitching is running stitch and the back split stitch.

I have to post my last fascicle pieces, 3-5. I'll work on that this week. Maybe do a silent Sunday post of nothing but images.   I've prepared a few other cloths for the coming month and working of a little gifting project for a birthday.  But my other pressing need is:

Here today, boro tomorrow!

Yes, I haven't patched a pair of jeans since the 60's! "Those were the days my friend, we thought they'd never end..."


I have to get better at posting...I am going to get better. Even though it's time to get the gardening going for 2012 I will, I will. 


and in conclusion to remind us all:

Caesar:
Who is it in the press that calls on me?
I hear a tongue shriller than all the music
Cry "Caesar!" Speak, Caesar is turn'd to hear.

Soothsayer:
Beware the ides of March.

Caesar:
What man is that?

Brutus:
A soothsayer bids you beware the ides of March.

Julius Caesar Act 1, scene 2, 15–19 


And as Spring is here I bid you all to celebrate Lupercalia as well.  It is the festival of purification.  It is named for the she wolf that nursed Romulus and Remus. Young men would run through the street sans clothing and women would have their palms slapped (unclear if by the naked young fellows) to either ensure a safe delivery if pregnant or become pregnant if barren. Oh how simple those Arcadian days! 


Cheers and thank you for partaking in celebrating the Ides...

eye candy Sunday

Yoruba Vests

All the images that will follow are located at the website Hamill Gallery of Tribal Art located in Boston. (it is a wonderful source of visual information.  They have indexed their holdings in three categories: Tribe, Object, Material and very searchable.) 

I was particularly attracted to the Yoruba Vests and clothing from Nigeria in general because it reminded me so much of Boro cloth. This following reminded me a lot of Judy Martin's couching and stitching, first two images are a Hausa Male Robe, third image is Judy Martin's dyed indigo cloth with running stitch.

Judy Martin's version (link)

 There seems to be a revival of the use of traditional arts mostly basic on economy needs because also, I would hope, in the attempt to not lose those traditional cultural practices.  In looking at Nigerian, these are the objects I know best, therefore I will address these, one can see and trace, almost on a timeline, the insertion of the West.  The earlier culture of the Benin yielded it representation to objects related to the introduction of the influence of the West.  A lot of military objects - guns, bullet belts, helmets, knives appear on the sculptures, replacing the earlier representational images. On the one hand I find this fascinating but on the other, sad that the spirit of the art making has somehow disappeared or been transformed.  But now for the eye candy.  I'm put a select number  here but for more - go to the gallery and look, enjoy, and wonder. 

The gallery had an exhibit specifically for costume/clothing between 2006-2007:

Hope you enjoyed the treat of the day.  Would have been a wonderful "actual" visit.