fall

Things i love about fall:

1. the colors
2. the cool crisp air
3. harvest moons
4. the change of menu from light summer food to heartier one
5. the grape harvest and accompanying festivities
6. the Beaujolais nouveau
7. that mellow light that brings out the reds and tones down the greens
8. those clear blue skies
9. bike riding without sweating
10. the nearness of Christmas

What do you love about fall?

Go here and enjoy.

neki desu

kanoko shibori -untie magic

If you've had thoughts of how horrid it would be to untie all those small tied dots the promised tutorial is here. The system works like a charm.

• hold the fabric with both hands
• put your index finger under a tied bundle give it an upward push
• tug the fabric with both hands and the tie will pop undone. Voila!
• move to the next tie keeping hold of the fabric and repeat the operation
  

It really pays off to do the tying with a continuous thread.
BTW the fabric was dyed with my one and only successful indigo vat.
It isn't dark dark blue, but it's a pretty good blue. Getting there!


neki desu

feeling better -thank you

It's frightening. i miss just one Japanese class and i'm absolutely lost,i have to study triple hard to catch up.

In catching up mode i also wanted to get on with this work that was languishing around. It is part of the More Pictures of the Floating World series in where i'm trying to synthesize all those techniques new and old that were floating around in my studio. Plus my new found love for sequins and beads.
Not to mention using a new to me material such as polyester organza and testing its endurance. It will be submitted to abuse later on this week, as i have yet to catch up with a lot of loose ends.
The title is a cross reference to many things, the book by Katzuo Ishiguro An Artist of the Floating World, Ukiyo-e, and by transference my love for things Japanese..

i like what happens with the hand stitching showing through the fabric and adding visual interest,a curator might say. i much prefer the self coined term of restrained neglect.
Still pondering whether i should clip back the two dangling red threads or leave them as they are.

neki desu

twisted satin stitch- TAST 42

Tast 42. This was a deceivingly easy stitch. At first it was more complicated than what it seemed and i wasn't getting it right. Then all of a sudden it all made sense and i started having fun with it. i like the texture it creates and think it would work well for filling large areas. Where satin stitch sags this one soars! :)
It also looks good used for couching ribbons and you can create pretty cool checkerboards.
Check out Elisabeth's variations for a real joy ride.

i used DMC # 10 perle cotton and spun silk and had to use cotton thread for the seed beads and added some sequins too. This could be a border by itself.
Also changed foundation fabric from linen to Aida. i don't know whether it's Aida in general or this particular one but it's not very firm and gets distorted by tension. i'll have to get used to it.

neki desu

what i have been doing

Sneezing, lots of coughing and nose blowing. Apart from that and feeling sorry for myself not much else. i missed Japanese class on Wed. and the first lunch of the semester, that's how awful i've felt. And bored. Occasionally i'd drag out of bed to do some surfing and get a feel of the outside world. That's how i found this very appropriate cartoon by a Duwayne guy God knows where and i hope not to get into problems. Hey! powers that be, computer police, i'm not claiming the cartoon as mine. This would be the only thing missing right now..

Moving on. Thanks to Annica and Karren of Entwinements for linking back.
Then i've been tagged by Marion Barnett
and i'll do it but i won't tag anyone. So i'll just be half a party pooper.

Here we are, 7 facts about me:

1. i have a strong dislike for cutseyness
2. i spend 3 months in Japan traveling on my own
   
3. i speak 5 languages, some Portuguese and some Japanese
4. i make bread every week
   
5. i have bad luck with rose bushes, they all die on me. Good luck with orchids, though.
6. i've been happily married to the same man for 25 years, pretty immoral oi? :) :)
7. i 'm interested in politics
   

Back to the beginning. Been voiceless for 3 days and already on the verge of going ballistic, so bear with me all this rambling. Can you imagine life as a voiceless consonant? Better drag myself back to bed.


neki desu

fawn spots-kanoko shibori

Here's a short basic tutorial on how to work kanoko shibori.

• Make a dot network template in a half drop, square or any other sequence. This will help in creating the overall pattern. Mark it on the cloth with a fugitive ink pen.
• Fasten the needle to the stand.
• Pick a small bunch of fabric with the tip of the needle (the fabric will stay on the needle by gravity) and without letting it go from the needle hold the cloth between your thumb and index finger.
• Take the bobbin on your right hand and wrap the thread around the fabric and holding the thread with your left heart finger pass the bobbin through the loop and pull the thread taut . Get your finger out of the way. Pull tightly.
• Move on to the next dot and repeat the operation. This will make continuous bound dots which will be easy to untie later on.
• Once the cloth is all tied dye and dry it.
• Untie
• Fabric can be pressed flat or left with the texture created by the binds.

This is the kind of work that is easier to do than to explain. It is also one of those activities in which practice makes perfect or at least makes such activity effortless.
The regimental needle attachment makes work extremely easy.
This is the kanoko shibori needle. Some people use it pointing down i find i can work better if it is pointing up.

Next week i will blog another tutorial on how to untie kanoko shibori.
If you find these tutorials useful please link back.


neki desu

postal blues

Annica from Fab Threads and i exchanged ATCs some weeks ago. Her card arrived like an e-mail,almost instantly. Not mine. Mine got tangled up in postal digressions. It got so tangled up that i started calling the postman all kinds of names and Annica, being more civilised than i was keeping her fingers crossed. After 2 weeks of no show we both agreed to make rag dolls with postman's hats and stab them with pins.

i decided to send her a second ATC and while it was on the way the first one finally arrived. So i got these beauties in return.

The fabric postcard came with a bonus pretty paper card with a yarn tail.
After all the name calling i have to be grateful to the postman.
A word of warning to people i'm trading with: it's not me,it's the postman.

neki desu

more pictures of the floating world

Working on punching fabric bits into polyester organza. Yes, me the purist using polyester!Interesting to work on horribly difficult to photograph. Too bad the iridescent paints did not come through. Bad day for taking photos with natural light.

i find the details a lot more interesting than the sum of all parts. And here they are.

neki desu

bitting the dust and chewing it

It has always sadden me when i read of weavers who passed away and their estates, looms, stashes, samples, in a good scenario, end up at a garage sale with unappreciative people.
Its not that i'm going to die, well, eventually everyone does, but i've had this concern about my woven samples. And while i came up with something to do with them they were ever so often dutifully shifted around from place to place within my studio. Until very recently.

i started using some of the fabric samples as backgrounds for the TAST
embroidery samples. Yes, more samples! Though sometimes the fabric was not suitable for embroidering on and it had to go back to the sample box.

This Sunday the lights finally went on. Why not use them for ATCs?
So i brought out a hand needle felting device i had bought, my brand new heat gun and all the thrums that i could find. i had sworn that i wasn't going to jump into the needle felting bandwagon unless it added something to my work. Same resistance that i had towards weaving with chenille when it became le dernier cri and everyone was doing it.

Nonetheless i had a flawless alibi in that i was recycling everything and not buying more stuff. i even recycled some of the chunky yarns i had from my tapestry weaving days, i'm talking second day of creation here.
As a result these are the first ATCs of the season and they are up for trading. A compendium of materials and techniques in an effort to slim down. The lutradur is courtesy of Annica of Fab Threads and the final push is due to Purple Missus

The stone gray background fabric is a woven sample of a networked twill woven in silk in all its defective glory, the gingham is commercial fabric and so is the ric-rac.

neki desu

grungy zen

Latest completed UFO. The background doesn't show very well, but i like the way the grunginess came out.

First Japanese class of the semester, have not forgotten that much. Coincidentally we were all wearing black T shirts. Makes me wonder

neki desu

and the ATC goes to..

Sorry folks this is all you get to see from my husband :)
But i bet you love the low tech setting!
Lynda send me your addie please.

neki desu

reversed buttonhole bar

TAST week 40 finds me uploading week 39. There's an excuse for this and it is that i'm obsessed with the indigo vat trying to exhaust it before the cold weather sets in and so get on with life.

i thought blahh! buttonhole again, but on the contrary it was quite fun to sample.
i don't know whether i "discovered" it or it's common knowledge, but you can get paisleys with this stitch. Got carried away and did some,very plain mind you, beading. Avoided paisley o. d. ,keeping that for a whole project.
i used size 10 white cotton crochet thread, rayon floss and DMC variegated embroidery cotton on beige linen. This is the last of it and i'm contemplating using Aida for a change. Not sure yet.

neki desu