Completely Unresolved

When I sign up for a workshop, the date is usually a long way off. Originally, I intended to go to the retreat in Taos, New Mexico in June and only shifted to Ashland, Oregon in March after buying (expensive) hearing aids mostly because it's far less expensive for me to drive than to fly and rent a car and a machine and all that. However, March is sooner than June - although considering how excited I am, that's probably a good thing. In terms of savings, three months is a lot less than six and therefore a tighter budget which is not a bad thing, it just is. Getting organized in advance and using what I have as much as possible are two ways of limiting expenses. This past weekend, I started on the prep work. 

For the creative clothing component, Diane suggested bringing a collection of fabrics that work together and stitching a small piece of fabric-from-fabric that could be used for a pocket or collar. This is big enough for a large pocket and uses medium-weight denim scraps. The lighter shape top right is from a pair of pants and the light vertical line is a dart. The two horizontal white lines are selvage edges. I'll take the rest of these scraps, some denim yardage, and a couple patterns to harvest shapes from and I know from experience that it'll be more than enough. 

For the textile art component, Paula asked us to bring 14 x 14" quilt sandwiches in black and white with colourful backings. I didn't want solid colours so these are molted and less stark. We are also to bring black thread, white thread, and a black to white variegated thread. I had a lighter and a darker variegated thread but not one that did the entire spectrum. Oh well. Again, even though it's not exactly what she asked for, I know I will find a way to make it work. 

Speaking of thread. It's been over ten years since I've done any textile wall art. In the past, I used a lot of rayon threads. Not anymore. If they don't last in the jar, what happens with the piece? Do the threads start snapping? With all of these spools, when I pulled on the thread, it snapped - useless - only that's a significant amount of money and gorgeous thread that I didn't want to waste so I unrolled the spools and put the loose threads back in the jar to make lace with. This is the second jar of thread with many more spools to check and unroll. At some point, I'll need to make the lace. 

My youngest son came on Saturday and painted with me for a while. All three of my children are creative in different ways and none of them are what I'd describe as makers... yet... I live in hope. One of my biggest regrets from when they were younger was that we didn't play together in the studio very much since I was running a business, working from home, and single parenting with their Dad constantly out of town for work. On multiple levels, I couldn't afford for my projects to get sidelined. Knowing what I know now, we'd have made a mess, had way too much fun, and used the good "china" so I'm grateful when I get that opportunity and I definitely make messes with my grandsons. 

The image at left is abstract 7 of 100. It's not intended to be a resolved work. It is - as I told my son - nothing serious like an attempt to answer questions such as am I creative or do I have artist ability. Yes and yes. It is simply about putting paint on paper and seeing what happens, trying this and trying that, and seeing if there's enough energy in the playing to call me deeper into painting.

With this piece, I wanted to pull in lighter values since I tend to work in the medium to dark range and I used a grasshopper stencil to see how a realistic image would go with the abstract shapes. I also incorporated some of a previous palette on deli paper that I'd allowed to dry and turned into collage materials. Above right, I deliberately created a stenciled collage paper with left over paint to use in a future piece. 

For week two of the 100 day project, days eight to fifteen, I prepped all seven papers with the same tinted gesso. In the past, I've done textile projects that all began with the same starting point and found it really fun and stretching to follow the same start to different conclusions. So far, I've been getting ready to start the next day by transferring something from the current one to tomorrow's paper. In this case, I used the same stencil and paint colour as well as rubbed the remaining paint onto the surface of the eighth piece. This morning, this is the one I'm working on and I'll only be playing, no resolving. At the end of the 100 abstracts, it would be fun to take all that learning, go back through the pieces, and take them forward again. 

Something else that is completely unresolved is this sweater. The cotton blend yarn was bought at Webs in Ashland in 2019 - I think - but it could have been earlier. I've started numerous projects with it and have always unraveled them including several attempts in the last month. I think the reason why is obvious in this image. Cotton is heavy and stretches. I did not expect the neckline to be that deep in the front. I thought it would be about the depth of the back. That said, even though this isn't the look I was going for, I've decided to work with it, add a neck band using a smaller needle and tighter stitch, and then add the sleeves. They're knit up to the cap and I'll determine the final length once I see where the shoulder seam ends. I may work on that today or...

... do some sewing. On the weekend, I traced several patterns that went nowhere except folded up and back into the envelope. I didn't end up sewing the skirt I mentioned in Friday's post because I noticed the skirt I was wearing looked fabulous with the floral t-shirt and decided to take it instead. To complete my holiday wardrobe, I have one more top to make and I'm debating a corduroy swing coat. First, the top. 

Talk soon - Myrna

Grateful - painting, a walk, lunch with my son