Bias Cut Caftan

Bias Cut Caftan, pole wrapped, devore silk, shibori dyed purple and copper.  One size fits many.  Best if 5'7" tall at least.  Very dramatic and playful.  Find it at Etsy 

Be Dramatic in Something Gauzey

 

Several yards of silk gauze, shibori dyed, sheer and delicate in purples, reds and oranges.  Delicious!
Only one week until the Kentucky Craft Market in Lexington.  Booth 317.  I will have specially priced scarves for exhibiting artists that want to add a little drama to their "look!"

With candles burning and orange juice, fresh squeezed, beside me, I licked the juice from my fingers. She brought oranges with her the first time. That’s when I started looking for them. The harder I looked, the fuller I became, and the juicier they were.

I have begun to read voraciously to know just what to say at the right time. When I sleep at night, I think about what I read, and when I make love, I think about what I will tell her. I think about ideas. They’ll run over my lips and I’ll flick them out with my tongue. I think about stories that I’ll whisper, and when my breathing gets heavier, I’ll think about poems I’ll yell, and when he kisses me on the back, I’ll remember things I forgot, and the excitement will roll me over, and I’ll forget where I was. It never gets crowded in our bedroom. There is always room for all of us, and when things start getting confusing, I disappear for a while, float up to the ceiling, take a slow ride on the fan and re-enter when I’m fresh again, and we all think it is for the first time.

The poems that get digested get sent out in the mail, and when the rejections come, she listens, and he wipes away the tears, and I weave them into pillow cases, the kind that crinkle to the rhythm of love, and there are more poems popping from the toaster. Someone forgot to butter the bread. I can’t remember if her hair is long or short, dark or blond. Sometimes, it’s one or the other, but those aren’t the things that matter. It’s her voice that matters­­—the one I try to mimic, till I learn it by heart—the one I dream and it becomes hybrid.  The Garden Girls Letters and Memoir

Save Everything

 No Waste

 

My art is in the color, texture and depth.  It's where I ask what if.  Thus everywhere there is color there is art. Everywhere there is texture there is depth.  No waste means using everything I create.  These Shibori dyed pieces were the edges cut off a larger piece of hand felted merino, alpaca and silk.  They are the perfect length for wearable art.  I serged one edge and added my label.  Great to wear several at a time, or hang from a bamboo pole as a mobile. 

Since I always place at least three colors, or shades of one color of dye on the cloth.  This there is movement and depth.  The real pleasure attained using the Shibori technique is when you open each steamed package and discover the results!  The rules for making art are the same rules I apply to writing.

1. Make rules
2. Choose a palette/voice and stick with it
3. Ask “What if?”
4. Don't second guess

The secret to beautiful texture and blend of color is to not use too much dye by learning to read the flow of the dye in the same way a kayaker reads the river before descending over a 40 foot water fall.  The only way to repeat what you discover is to measure and make notes. (Sorta.  You can never really repeat with shibori. )

 

--> “My dear,” she said, “perhaps it is time for you to gather your authority and begin your journey living the layered life of an artist.  --from The Garden Girls Letters and Journal

Snow On The Way

Anticipating Spring

While these purple flowers are from the end of last summer, 

their spring like color is fuel for inspiration.

  

-->

Should I be surprised colors are such a large part of my process?  As I look back at another body of work, my memoir, The Garden Girls Letters and Journal, I rediscover that even my writing was laced with color.

Lavender in purple braids is empty handed, of course; she’s the philosopher.

 I carry him downstairs, his head resting on my shoulder, and fall into my old purple velvet overstuffed chair. With the towel cradling him I reach behind the chair for a book from the bookshelf and pull out "The Great Me and The Little Me." 

The porch is blue, the pansies are blue purple and the fuchsia is red purple. I had visions that we would sit on this porch and converse. They would be slow casual conversations somewhat meaningless, perhaps, because we would be relaxing. 

We would not be driven towards some kind of completion

A Body of Work

What is a body of work?

A collection that has a beginning and an end.  You never really know it is beginning when it is beginning  You only know by looking back and saying, "Ah yes, this is when this body of work began."  And you never know it has ended until it ends.  You only know by looking back and saying, "Ah, yes, that collection ended."  The important thing is that you collect it as a body of work. Define it.  Date it.  I am approaching an ending.  It began in late October when my formulas changed to tones and shades.  This shibori dyed, copper vest of alpaca, merino and silk was hand felted on the FeltLOOM.   Thank you +lanette@feltloom.com  My current body of work will probably end after the Kentucky Craft Market on Mar 2-3 and I begin to ponder colors and designs for summer and the next Lexington Fashion Collaborative Future of Fashion event.  It's always a pleasure working with +Soreyda Benedit Begley and +Sarah Estes to produce this event.

Charmeuse and Velvet

Caftan and Coat

More experiments.  Will I ever get there?  The pole wrapped shibori dyed charmeuse in shades of purple and yellow (which became green when I added the black) started out as a 60" square which I then cut on the bias to create this caftan.  I read somewhere that working on the bias is like working with live fabric.  No kidding.  Every time I moved it the shape changed.  The velvet coat was made from three yards of shibori dyed yardage dyed in shades of yellow (which became copper, rust and olive when I added black.)  I love color theory!  The experiment here was whether or not to dye one long piece or three smaller pieces precut to fit the back and sides.  Just like writing.   Constant rewrites says mentor +Connie May Fowler  Can't wait for the Kentucky Craft Market, Mar 2-3 in Lexington at the Convention Center.

Power of Rotation

Power of Rotation

What you can do with a painting 

that you can't do with a wearable 

is rotate it if it's not working.  

What you can do with a wearable 

that you can't do with a painting 

is turn it inside out and wear it.

 What I'm doing with my paintings is rotating techniques.

After shibori dyeing pole wrapped felted alpaca and merino onto silk with the FeltLOOM

I'm taking remnants to another level by responding to the shibori line with metalic acrylic.

From +Danielle Wittler I'm learning the power of Irregular Design.

Today I turn my felted fabric inside out to make a vest with the silk side showing. 

 

Irregular Design Completed

 At first I wasn't sure that I like the fact that the two front sides were not similar.  Now I like the contrast.  With the focus on color, this one has more green than I anticipated.  Thus leading me to using all yellow with purple and a dash of black next time for more copper, rust and olive.  I love color theory!  And I love irregular designs that become dramatic.

Another Challenge Presents Itself

Another Challenge Presents Itself

Both of these pieces started out by felting .25 alpaca/merino onto 44" silk gauze

After dyeing, steaming and rinsing, the one on the left was put in the washer on the drain spin only cycle. It is now 30" wide and

fulled

much  more tightly. The one on the left was line dried and is 37" wide and more soft. Hmmmm. I was going to make a coat so I guess I will re-wet the one on the right and drain spin it so they are both the same. The question is will the tighter fulling wear better?

Slowly, I'm getting back to my art making routine

Filling every station with a work in progress

Nuno felted merino and alpaca 

waits to be wrapped

Raw silk, rayon and cotton

Wait for a theme, a palette to descend upon me

More for summer? 

Tangerine Copper

 Or is it time to fall into winter? 

Blue Violet

Yesterday I dyed two 44" charmeuse silk scarves in rainbow colors

Today I start a fire in the wood stove

To hasten the drying

When the Weather Changes Everything Changes

Joe Pye, the weed, is falling down, he's so heavy, and the leaves are starting to turn, and it took over a week for the remnants of Irene's rain to finally stop.  Hence, the merino wool I dyed several days ago still hasn't dried.  It's always a debate; does the sun or low humidity dry fabric faster?  Since there was no sun, I put the poles inside hoping the dehumidifiers would soak up all the moisture.  They are still damp.  Hopefully the sun will come out soon to speed up the process.  Yesterday I used the FeltLOOM to felt 1/4 pound merino and silk gauze.  Today, in preparation for Julie's wearable art coat, I began my shibori process.  I wrapped the  felted merino and silk around four more poles, tied them with string, scrunched them tight, soaked each one in 1 part vinegar, 1 part water and a dash of synthrapol so they would better absorb the dye.  Another debate; how damp can they still be to not dilute the dye.  I always know when they were too damp by how much dripping there is.  Another fine line.  Sometimes the dripping blends the colors just right.  Julie wants the fire sunset color that I used before, only no fuchsia.   Fire Sunset is a combination of red, orange and purple.  Eliminating pink is tricky since purple contains fuchsia.  I added a little violet to the formula.  We shall see.

Art to Wear and Art for the Wall

Coming soon Art for the Floor.  Shibori dyed hand-felted wool rugs.

Fire Rage and Art

Use Rage.  Create raging art.  Be outrageous

Sunset Alpaca and Merino Vest, Sold

Handfelted and shibori dyed. Now it's time to make another.  Also time to pretend it's spring and start walking the dogs three times a day.  I need that exercise!

Hiking for Color

For me, it’s all about color. After using the Shibori technique of manipulating fabric by wrapping it around a pole or rope, I always place at least three colors, or shades of one color of dye on the cloth.  The fabric resists the dye and creates a pattern.  Many of my wearable art designs consist of several strips of hand dyed fabric which have been torn and serged before sewing them together. Through this process I frequently recover memories contained in the 5/8” seam allowance I learned when my mother taught me to sew. In her own way she also taught me that the art is in the ironing.  

Some of my newest designs are created by felting alpaca and merino wool to silk before Shibori dyeing the fabric. It is my intention that My Truly Wearable art has a performative quality.  When you wear it, not only are you only one hand away from the artist, you become the art.

Currently I live in a cabin in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, hike the mountain and try to figure out how to formulate the colors I see around me.

Shibori Poetry Skirt with Taffeta Sash

Remember taffeta?  I titled this a poetry skirt because it has rhythm, texture and movement.  Just like a poem, one size fits all.  When worn, it becomes performative and you become the artist.

That Red Dress

Equally fit for the First Lady.
Design by Soreyda Begley
Shibori Silk by Laverne

Shibori and Pieced Bolero with Black Dress

I didn't mean for the dress to be so risque.

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Think Green, Think Local

Thinking green is about more than just the type of paint an artist uses.  It's as much about the work she creates locally and sustainably, and the artists with whom she collaborates.

POETRY SKIRT DETAIL WITH MOVEMENT

First I wrote about art to move through raising teenagers when I was up late, into the wee hours of the morning.  Next I wrote about making art to move through menopause.  Now I make art to move.