Emergence

2010-12-29T09:04:00.000-08:00

Actually, I'm now over at Typepad.

Thanks Neki for pointing out the blip!

Hope to see you all over at my new home soon.

Emergence: A new leg of the journey!

2010-12-26T14:14:00.000-08:00

Friends,

A note to say that I have arrived here http://littlelightshining.typepad.com/emergence. Please adjust your settings and follow me.

'Tis the season...

2010-12-19T13:58:00.000-08:00

Thank you, friends, for your messages of seasonal cheer following my previous post. It's true, I was feeling un-characteristicly gloomy, but a few kind words make all the difference. A special thanks to Deb who wrote me a couple of special emails about her experience of Christmas. Sharing is a powerful act!

Although I've been stuck at work, I've been snatching moments to celebrate this season's gifts as they occur here in the tropical world. Here are a few of my favorites images to share.

A Jicaro tree (Cresentia alata). An tropical twist on baubles!

Scarlet flower of Hibiscus rosa-sinensis.

No snow. Fallen flowers.

Late afternoon clouds.

The sun sets. New horizons!

I am thinking about moving to Typepad in the New Year, and wonder if anyone has any advice or comments about that idea? Pro's and con's?

Hope everyone had a relaxing weekend.

Letting go of Christmas

2010-12-12T07:31:00.000-08:00

On Friday morning it finally sunk in that, for work-related reasons, there will be no Christmas for us at all this year.

As hard as I'm trying to ignore this fact, and focus on my professional duties, I have that horrid wrenching feeling, that comes when one is forced in a direction that is clearly not of the Spirit's choosing! Which manifests, first as anger, and then as profound sadness.

I'm reminded of a story that my mother recounted to me when she one day tried to take my older son, Eben - at that time a young toddler - into town in his stroller, and she had taken a different route than I would normally have taken to make that journey from her house. He threw a massive tantrum, and began screaming "Wrong way! Wrong way!".

I was raised in a home where Christmas was a big deal. It was a time of wonderment (is that a real word?) and family tradition.

About 2 weeks prior to Christmas day, my father would take me to buy the tree and then he would lug it home over his shoulder, as we never had a car. I wasn't usually allowed to get involved in decorating it, as he was -still is - very particular about the way he likes things done. I respect that about him. And certainly as far as tree-decorating went, he made it look perfect!

My mother would bake a cake (based on a Dundee cake) a few weeks in advance, and feed it with brandy in the meantime. She could do that without needing to follow a recipe or cooking instructions. She was an amazing cook! My father would line the baking tin for her with brown paper and string. I loved the smell of the paper as it baked. He was also responsible for mixing the ingredients, which, with so much fruits and nuts was very hard going, and also for the iceing and decorating. A hard white iceing over a marzipan base brought into stiff little peaks, inevitabley with a little sledge ornament and some holly. And I remember something odd about that, when they mixed the iceing they added something called "blue bag", a laundry blueing, which made the iceing stay whiter than white. And although I never liked that cake, it was still an important part of Christmas for me.

My mother also baked homemade mince tarts. She made the fruit mincemeat herself, adding real farmhouse "scrumpy" cider (you have to remember, that we are Somerset folk!) that my father would procure from a nearby farm. The house filled with the smell of baking and spices and fresh pine tree and she and I would get a little bit tipsy sipping scrumpy as we baked.

These are just a few of the wonderful memories of this season that I have. Most of which are visual and/or olfactory in their nature. And more than anything, are about that indescribable magical feeling of cold, dark Winter evenings, lights and sparkle, sharing and excitement.

When I moved to Costa Rica, life changed alot! I have never been able to come to terms with the fact that Christmas falls at the beginning of Summer here. Forgive me, but the thought of hanging out on a tropical beach on a stifflingly hot Christmas day, just doesn't do it for me! Then there's the fact that there can be no replication of traditional meals as it is not possible to find any of the ingredients here, and no tree will survive more than 3 days in the house even if watered.

Add to that the impossibility of leaving the Peninsula to shop for Christmas presents for Nilo, who has just turned 8 years old, or , more so, of creating that build of excitement that comes through craft making and preparation together, I realize that, somehow, I have to let go of Christmas altogether this year. I'm not sure how to do that! I wish for the Spirit of Christmas past to manifest itself and lift us off into the "how it used to be". But instead, I am working long hour shifts, with no real breaks, in the blazing sun, full on, until the day itself, and then starting all over again on the 26th!

Friends, please continue to sew holiday cloths... bake as much as you can, go do late night shopping surrounded by pretty lights and pretty window displays... make homemade christmas cards... beautifully wrap presents... relish every sprig and sparkle... enjoy the company of your friends and family... take lots of pictures... and blog about it all!

Snowy egrets roosting in a bare tree, lake edge yesterday evening.

A few hundred stitches later...

2010-12-05T13:58:00.000-08:00

It's strange to be reading about everyone being so cold, as I am sitting here stitching and sweating, sweating and stitching!

A few hundred stitches later... following on from my previous post... this is how the little cloth is looking. I haven't thought too hard about it. Just having alot of fun letting it take me where ever it wants me to go!

Hope everybody's had a great weekend!

Little time, little cloth

2010-12-05T05:39:00.000-08:00

I have so little time these days, I'm finding it hard to settle into something that I really want to work on. I also forgot to bring the iron again!

It has to be little. So I have the sense of possibley finishing something. For me that's become important somehow.

I found these scraps, which looked pretty nice together. Many are just thin strips an inch or so wide. What to do with them?...

I notice that alot of you lovely people have been busy weaving cloth. So I thought I'd try my hand at it.

Not to copy... but to learn more about technique.

I know so little, and it's easy to find oneself doing the same old-same old thing.

I'm playing with this pale little cloth. Maybe as a gift for another friend who has a birthday coming up? Lots of raw edges.

Some simple outlining.

I want to show you the amazing moths that have appeared here over the course of the weekend. Someone might find inspiration here!

The perfection of carved wings...

The vibrance of color and pattern...

The smokey rainbows of shadowy scales.

On a black moon in summertime, we get hundreds of beautiful and bizarre looking insects. And I often look at them and wonder how many of these have ever been seen before!

The Summer is finally creeping in here, and now we can see again the blue mountains of the Cerro Rincon.

Just look at this from Arlee and this from Karen.

I have so much to learn!

Cloth doodling

2010-11-28T10:03:00.000-08:00

Cloth doodling?... Well, I can't think of a better name for it! It's what you do when you just pick up the cloth and thread and without really knowing where it's going, you start something ;)

It's what you do when you forget the iron and your sketchbook!

Calico and two strands of DMC embroidery thread.

A design outline sketched in graphite and then stitched using blanket/buttonhole stitch.

Couldn't resist peeking! Reverse applique using a scrap of hand-dyed, upcycled silk, in a slightly darker tone as the under layer.

For successful reverse applique it's important to do the stitch so that the passing of thread through thread happens on the inside of your design, where you'll be cutting through the top layer of cloth.

Intricate designs are hard to stitch in this fashion. It's diffiuclt to get around all of those complex corners!

This is how it's looking so far.

Reading through missed posts on Jude's blog yesterday, I was introduced to Manya Maratou's blog Mythcolor. If you don't know Manya already, I recommend that you visit her soon! Have a lovely Sunday afternoon!

Tropical Botanical Miami

2010-11-27T08:57:00.000-08:00

Back at the farm and only just catching up.

I really like this from Sandra at inanna shamaya.

Waterlillies at the Fairchild Tropical Botanic Gardens in Miami.

The Fairchild gardens have become one of my favorite places on the face of the planet.

I was there last Wednesday. But due to the Thanksgiving Eve traffic, only for 30 minutes before the gardens closed.

And it seemed strange to us that they would close the gardens at what might well be the perfect moment for viewing them. During the cooler hours, with a soft golden sunlight creeping along the pathways...

And the shadows are growing long...

And things get kind of hazy...

And magical!

Do you want to know if everything glittering will turn into the gold...
Heart of Mine by Peter Salett, & clip from one of my favorite (shamlessly romantic!) movies "Keeping the Faith"

Of Old Roses (and other pretty flowers)

2010-11-20T17:32:00.000-08:00

I've been out and about in Escazu this morning. Escazu is my husband's home town. Thesedays, it's the Knightsbridge of the San Jose area. It sure makes for some great window shopping!

This pretty sofa caught my eye. Upholstery that wouldn't last 5 minutes in my house! I love this color combination right now!

A little self-indulgance! A new blouse from Zara, a label which I'm finding often has something for a girl like me *:) It's so hard to find stylish smart/casuals for the nearly 40's! I really like the micro pleat details on the shoulders and the pretty old rose print! Feminine, not girly!

And, today, I had my first ever manicure! Not the prettiest of hands, but they look a whole lot better here than they do when I'm at work!

Simple pleasures! [Did you know the sugar and hand cream trick?]

Right before I left the farm last weekend, I grabbed this stash of cloth, hand-dyed earlier in the year with logwood purple, which, for me at least, produces a pale shade of prune, or of old roses. Pretty pale shades that are calling to me at the moment! Each of the differnet cloths in these images come from upcycled clothing items.

Prune and rose.

Wax resist on silk and linen.

Wax resist on linen.

Detail of wax resist motif on a textured silk.

Detail of wax resist stencil work on linen.

I was really excited at the idea of getting my teeth into this new project during travel time this coming week. Until it dawned on me that all sharp items - such as needles, scissors and quick unpicks - would be rapidly confiscated at customs :( PAH! So it's just going to have to wait!

Learning and moving on

2010-11-14T10:38:00.000-08:00

In one of her October posts, entitled The nature of woven cloth, Jude wrote:

"The basic understanding of your materials is crucial in developing the character and individual style of your craft and the satisfaction that comes with that...."

For folks like myself, just beginning to translate into cloth, this is a fine piece of wisdom. Because, not everything works! And that kind of understanding only comes through experience, trial and error, [and in my case, some pretty steep learning curves!]

This morning I finished the embroidered pillow that I've been working on for the past few weeks. Hurrah!

It's far from perfect! But I did my best, learnt alot, and will be moving on shortly. Before I do that though, I'll share a couple of simple little things that I learnt - or was reminded of - along the way with this piece [although not illustrated by the greatest images!]

The importance of trying to make even-lengthed stitches, particulary when filling in geometric patterns.

Blanket stitch twists the thread as you stitch. The finer the thread, [in this case I used a regular black cotton thread to hand piece the central panel to the border] the more it twists. This makes for a lot of knotting when you try to pull the thread through to the back!

White embroidery transfer paper does NOT vanish when made damp, after a while!

Kantha stitching, on some cloths, acts like elastic smocking. Instead of just adding a pleasing surface texture to the cloth, it gathers the cloth and pulls it out of shape. I started to do a running kantha over the borders of this piece, but ended up unpicking all of it because it just warped the cloth too much, even though it was stitched even and loosely.

This is the finished center panel before being pressed. I was reminded that I least like the part of construction! Hence, the appeal of moving into scarf design!

And here is the finished item [momentarily stuffed with some kapok to give me some idea of how it will look when it finally gets a pillow inside it]. Wish I had some fancy piece of furniture to model it on, instead of the cream-colored plastic patio chairs that we have at the farm these days [the nicer wooden chairs are in the house in town].

Kellie, forgive me! ;)

I'm hoping that the next time this piece gets featured here, it will be sitting pretty on the sofa that it was intended for. That should be the week after next, as I have an upcoming business trip to Florida. YIPEE! A brief escape and a few hours of in-flight time to work on whatever I plan to do next!

Hope everyone's having a great weekend :)

The need to move swiftly

2010-11-07T05:37:00.000-08:00

One thing I'm still learning about inspiration, is the need to move swiftly when that sense of something stiring breezes through. It's like catching butterflies. You have to hope the inspiration will alight somewhere nearby, and then you need to creep up, and throw your net over quick!

Typically, these days, I'm finding that I don't have the time, or the materials, to translate my ideas into something tangible when the inspiration alights. And before I know it, the idea has metamorphosized, or, I find myself off on the next butterfly chase.

I had been Planning on Pink. I started a pink theme board with my new account at Pinterest, which you can visit here. Now, I feel the idea growing into something new... and I don't know what that is yet! Patience...patience, Catherine!

A silken white moth, with feathery puffs, seated on a cotton scrap, dyed with Lac extract.

Sopa de ropa: The last of the Lac dye and some other recycled fibres simmering on the stove this morning.

And here it is turned out of the pan, looking for all the world like a Summer pudding!

This is more like the intensity of color I was hoping for. Hmmmm, I think Summer pudding is a good name for these shades of deep pink, [yes, the sun has pushed his way through the clouds for a few minutes!] And for those of you who love to cook, a recipe for Summer pudding can be found here on the Barmy Baker.

I'm excited by this small scrap. A silk shirt that Megan and I wax batiked with a stencil we designed earlier in the year, now over dyed with Lac extract to achieve a deeper shade.

A new motif that I'm playing with. I like it's formality. I like the fact that, if I play with it some more, I could probably make the negative space into a formal motif as well.

This almost reminds me of Suzani textiles from Uzbekistan, which I admire very much. You can see a couple of my favorite online examples on the Flickr photstream of Circa by Courtney Pyle, starting here. I also love the colors of this.

Hope you're enjoying your Sundays!

Still here, still at it.

2010-11-06T15:37:00.000-07:00

Thanks to all of you well wishers following my previous post:) We are all doing fine here. Just growing tired of the relentless cold and damp, and hoping that Summer starts soon!

It's still raining.
I'm still stitching this...

I've sheared of the excess fabric around the edge of this central panel, ready for the next part of the process.

I'm aiming to have this piece finished by the end of next weekend (although, originally the plan was to try to get it done by the end of last month.)

HA! Lesson #1: Never underestimate the amount of work involved in stitching something like this by hand!

I would carry on working on it tomorrow, but I've just realized that I left my iron at the house in town!

Hope everyone's having a great weekend.

The edge of Tomas

2010-11-05T13:19:00.001-07:00

I should have known when I saw this last week, that we're in for some serious rain!

Costa Rica has been on red alert for the past 48 hours, a national state of emergency has been declared...

Towns are flooded, main roads closed, people have been lost or killed in landslides.

There are swamps everywhere! There's no way out of here.

We're on the edge of Tomas, and it ain't much fun!

A little rain

2010-10-24T06:31:00.000-07:00

Just before I went to bed last night, I poked my head out of the back door to look at the rain. Didn't think it would work, but I took these photos.

Another galaxy?

A cocktail dress strung with silver sequins?

Tom Waits - A little rain.

My daisy cloth soaking up a brief moment of early morning sun.

Every flower...

2010-10-23T08:55:00.000-07:00

How often our posts relate - in a big or small way - to the subject of inspiration, personal reasons for creativity, and/or of finding ourselves falling unsuspectingly into that darkening pool, which acts as creative quick sand.

This week I was touched by Karen's creative questioning (and, BTW, Karen has moved here) and by Arlee's quest for originality, and was also reminded of a lovely comment left in response to one of my recent posts by Anya, saying:

"It never stops to amaze me how much effort, work and knowledge goes into creating something beautiful. It is always a labore of love at the end and the final result will always reflect the amount of effort put into it. :-)".

Which is so true!

Every flower must grow through dirt.: -- Anonymous

I'm fortunate, in that, I seem to have the inner critic - that inimical voice that says " You're so stupid... that's such a dumb idea, etc." - well under control. Also, I rarely find myself without inspiration. If anything, I have too many ideas, and it takes me a while to gather these thoughts into something tangible.

Of course, it doesn't always work out the way I imagined! And I frequesntly don't end up with a "finished" piece... oh, you already noticed that ;) But, since what I most enjoy about it all is the initial design phase, the research and exploration, and learning the process of making cloth - because I have no practical experience at this, folks! - the fact that it doesn't become something in the end, doesn't matter.

Nothing we do is useless!

Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars
-- Les Brown

Recent sketchbook page: Further developing pattern ideas from my last post.

Planning on pink

2010-10-17T08:23:00.000-07:00

Somehow... amidst all of my weekend report writing and visiting of Nilo's virtual farm (at you know where!)... I came up with some plans for what to start on next. And guess what... I'm planning on pink!

I found that I had some Earthues natural dyes left over from Megan's visit earlier this year, and there just happened to be a little bit of powdered Lac extract and and little bit of powdered Quebracho red. And so I dyed a few little scraps of cotton, having first boiled them up with a little alum. Surprising what a difference the alum makes!

Some pleasing results in pretty shades of rose. The bundle on the right hand side is still wet, so I'm expecting that paler shades may result once those cloths area dried and ironed.

This is one of my recent palette designs: "Plum coco". These are more or less the colors that I'm planning to use next.

This is one of my palette designs from last year: "Hot Chocolate". Similar, but it has those rich chocolate browns (which I LOVE).

More inspiration: Hot chocolate and marshmallows.

A tree of Tabebuia rosea (Bignoniaceae) flowering like I'd never seen it do before!

An infloresence of Conostegia subcrustulata (Melastomataceae)

A few flowers in a sweet little garland.

Sketch 1: This idea has some way to go yet!

A setting of buds: Probably more like the direction I'll go in.

Sketch 2. When I simplified the pattern formed by the buds, it reminded me think of something like this...

An elegant garnet piece from Titanium Jewelry Only

How all of this will eventually blend into a cloth piece, I still don't know. But it's something to be thinking about during the week. At 3pm we travel back to town. And tomorrow it's back to school and back work... again!

Almost!

2010-10-16T11:54:00.000-07:00

I have two more weekends to finish the piece that I've been working on all month.

Still impossible to photograph!

There are still many green flecks and a few more leaves to stitch around the edges, and the petals of the third flower in the central (vertical) row to fill. Then I have to make it into a pillow cover. But I think I might just get it finished!

Long weekend

2010-10-15T10:44:00.000-07:00

I actually have the day off work today. We've come up to the farm for a long weekend. Plenty of time - I hope! - to stitch and to dream about cloth, texture, and design ideas

I want to play with these:

A textural feast, from the native palm Attalea butyracea

Off the top of my head. Pattern doodles that sometimes grown into something more.

Thinking about the word "Coconut".

I'm just catching up on everyone's posts for the week.
I really like this, this and this.

Further developments: Fire and Brimstone!

2010-10-10T10:05:00.000-07:00

I haven't done any stitching so far today. But have continued to develop my ideas for future cloths projects.

I can't remember if I ever told you about the site Colorlovers ? Well, for anyone who's looking for a color testing ground, this is for you! I've been a member since August 2009. You'll find me here under the alias as Ohsafaraway. So far, I've created 295 palettes, 428 patterns, and 212 colors. Just for fun! It's fairly self-explainatory. That's to say, if I can figure out how to use it, so can you! Basically, you can invent color palettes, either off the top of your head or by attaching an inspiration image and working from that. There is a pattern section which lets you play around with palette variations [although, having been away from the site for several months, now I return I find I don't so much like the patterns they have available]. The great thing about this site is that it lets you watch who is loving what you do, and you can watch what other members are up to as well.

Yep, that's where those professional looking palette graphics come from, like the one that appears below.

But before we get to that... this morning I've been working on this.

A start to my "Dahlia" theme board. I have a long way to go with it yet! But this is helping me to feel my way towards what it is that I would like to do next. And ok,Jude and Deb,you were right... looks like there will be more exuberance than I had first anticipated!

The threads that appear on my theme board come from ARTFABRIK by Laura Wasilowski, who I mentioned here. I am planning to buy these beautiful threads to work with. Somehow!

This is a basic palette based on the "Dahlia" theme board, which I've called "Fire and Petals".

My birthstone is the Garnet, and this is my all time favorite color. Dark, fiery garnet, like the color you'd see starring into a full glass of blackberry wine, or like my favorite rose Josephine Bruce produced by the "King o' Roses", David Austin. To me, the epitomy of elegance would be a garnet colored shot taffetta dress in Victorian style. But I somehow don't think it would work with my construction boots ;)

Yes, I am a closet romantic. I feel a deep connection with things which are old worldy. As far back as I can remember, I have thought that I was born into the complete wrong century! So, now it's time to make up for it :)

What's your all time favorite color?

Mara: A pattern based on my "Fire and Petals" palette. That would make cool fabric!

Iyam

2010-10-09T17:18:00.000-07:00

The house did not fall down during the night. Nor was I crushed by the breeze block shelf system beside the bed. Today I note a distinct lack of blog presence on behalf of many of those I follow, so I'm hoping that it's just that you all are busy leading very creative lives, and that nothing untowards has happened to you either.

Thank you to those who commented on last evening's post regarding the new banner. It's been slightly modified since then, and I think it looks better. I was particularly intrigued by comment's from Jude "i like the new banner, seems quiet for you..." and from Deb "very soft & subtle but I sense more exuberance from you. Do you have a secret up your sleeve?"... because I tend to think of myself as a pale cloth sort of gal [who, ok, from time-to-time, does something a bit bold!]

Whilst I've been stitching today, I've been musing about these comments and thinking some more about my "style". Who am I? Or more specifically - since it's always wise to have at least one plan - who do I want to be?

A while back I saw a blurb somewhere [don't remember where I read it now] which said " Why follow fashion, when you can lead it". And that's a good place to start out from. Beacuse we all know that trying to satisfy someone else's taste is instant death to the creative spirit!

Do I have a secret up my sleeve?...

Well, I have been thinking about making fashion apparel for a while now, that much you already know. First of all it was bags (and probably will be again someday). But right now, I think my next thing might be scarves. Why? Because I rather like the simplicity of the format, and the fact that one could do alot of embellishment within a small area and still create something stunning in a relatively short time span. I also like the fact that it would be simple to work the whole thing by hand, and not have to be distracted by the construction. Because that's not my strong point!

If I think about the things that I have experimented with during the past year, the things I have been most pleased with, and have most enjoyed, have been the more subtle cloths, the ones that were composite pieces, incorporating dying, printing and stitching. So, thinking about some possible future direction, that's really what I would like to focus on next.

I like the orderliness of repeat patterns. I like the idea of creating 'all over' prints by hand. If you think about it, both of these are usually machine generated these days, and usually I find that machine-generated perfection is tedious on the soul, in the same way that industrially colored cloth is. I welcome imperfection. It adds character!

I've started making notes on color too. What kind of palettes I would like to try out. I created this as a starting point.

Palette: "Mollusc". Inspired from the colors of a particular kind of bi-valve sea shell that I've seen on the beach here. And also this...

Palette: "Golden Mushroom". A richer spicier palette inspired by the image below.

A velvety fungii I spotted at work on Friday.

I'm going to keep playing with these palette ideas. But what I'm thinking is to make a series of cloths. Perhaps a few designs/patterns made in different color ways, or the same color ways using different designs/patterns. What I'd like to do is have an exclusive, hand-made collection, a limited number of unique pieces each season.

So...we'll have to see where the ideas take me!

And the name of the future label?... Iyam!

New banner!

2010-10-08T18:55:00.000-07:00

I have a new banner! What do you think?

She wrote... in the middle of an earthquake!

******

Oh good... it stopped! Earthquakes always make me dizzy. Especially when the vase of Heliconias infront of me start dancing of their own accord. Takes a moment to figure out what's going on.

Play time with Owen Jones and the NYPL

2010-10-08T16:06:00.000-07:00

Owen Jones?... Owen Jones?... For those of you who haven't yet had the pleasure, Owen Jones was a British architect during the 19th Century, and famously the author of The Grammar of Ornament, which was first published in London, 1856. You can read a little bit about him here. For anyone who is suffering from a creative block, I strongly recommend that you do a google image search of "Owen Jones + The Grammar of Ornament", and I promise you, that'll get your juices flowing again!

As anyone who follows my blog has probably already noted, I am especially inspired by elements of historical ornamental design. And this stuff really does it for me!

The Textile Blog (a mine of historical and cultural information) has many posts about Owen's work. I searched the blog under his name and these are the results available, for those interested.

The New York Public Library [NYPL] has a great digital library, which happens to present some of Owen's decorative plates which you can find here. The fun thing about this particlaur site is that you can select a plate image, and from the page that opens, you can then select the zoom option, and the plate will open in a new window which allows you to explore the image in great depth. Just click on an area of the image and select the zoom again. You can pan around the image and get quite creative with it. For example...

This came from zooming in on a plate from Nineveh and Persia. This little section reminds me so much of Jude Hill's gracefully stitched feathers. Jude has several posts on her blog which relate to her feathers, it was hard to choose between them, but I like this one alot.

And from a plate of Elizabethan ornament...

A fabulous repeat pattern - oddly Indian in it's appearance I thought - that I might do something with one day.

And...

From Leaves and Flowers from Nature Ornament no. 10: Passion flowers. (1856). Now wouldn't that make a cool embroidered pillow?

Now, if you'll excuse me... I am going out to play with other featured works on the NYPL digital library!

Want to join in? :)

P.S. Check out the bugs! here . This is for a new blog friend, Susan Fletcher Conaway over at Fiber Art and craft. I am really enjoying her work and posts!

Linking up

2010-10-07T17:05:00.000-07:00

Remember this? Remember that I was on the verge of starting a small design business with my friend Megan from California and then got hired as a landscaping foreman? Well, Megan and I have not lost contact (actually we were just on the phone) and although she and I put our joint plans on hold, she is going ahead and launching her design label Philosopy of Love which you can like on the label's FB profile. Her website is coming soon. I'll let you know when. Anyway, I want to congratulate her, because she is a very talented new designer, and these bags are beautiful!

Shoulder purse by Megan Houseberg: Made with recycled leather and hand dyed silk, with beaded embellishments.

This is my personal favorite from the portfolio right now!

As for me... I've been battling to try to get a better picture of the cloth piece that I'm working on right now. And it's just not happening! This is the best I can do. I don't know if it's the camera, or the lighting, or the color of the thread and the cloth, or all of the above. But this is where I'm at with it so far.

I only have until the 31st of October to complete this!

Early morning bird notes

2010-10-07T14:18:00.000-07:00

Even though I'm here in the New World tropics, dipping into to some of my favorite blog spots, I have a sense of that Autumn-slipping-into-Winter time, that many of you are posting on. I've had a couple of days here in the new town house on my own. And I have a couple more ahead of me. I've taken to sitting on the back step with my coffee in the morning. I am up at 5am.

With all of the rain that we've been having - October is the height of the rainy season here in this part of Costa Rica, and we've been having some severe floods and landslides over the past 10 days - the morning skies are dark, but the colors rich.

I decided to snap some of what's about at that time of the day (although it's not the best time of day for an amateur to get good shots!).

A country idyll! Maybe you can make out the Snowy Egrets that always accompany cattle in this part of the world, and the two white Ibis birds, which had just alighted in the tree above the grazing cow?

I'm not an avid bird watcher. I mean, I love to see them but I don't go out of my way to spot and identify them. But still, one can't help noticing that they're everywhere!

A fiery-bellied Aracari (tucanet) perched on the upper most branch of a dead tree.

Some kind of hawk, puffing it's feathers in the cool dampness.

The same bird, but zoomed in. And talking of zoomed in...

... A chestnut billed Tucan in flight. They have a perculiar manner of flight, they flap their wings a few times then, gliding, they swoop to a different level. Given the characteristic shape of their beaks, it made me think of needles passing invisible threads through the air.

2010-10-03T12:41:00.000-07:00

Although I have been working a bit on my latest cloth this afternoon, I've decided not to show any pictures of it this weekend. I have the real camera, but now I can't find the USB cable to download images! So, it's either more crappy pics of flashed out stitches - as taken by the camera on my phone - or nothing. And nothing got the most votes! :)

I'm feeling happier about it as more of the areas are filled with stitches, and now that I've stopped beating myself about the fact that this particular piece seems so slow to develop. I mean, really, couldn't that have something to do with being a mother and a wife, the 70 hour/per week job, and the single strands of DMC thread? Oh yes, and somewhere in amongst all of that, we moved house for the second time in 2 months.

I should say, we moved town house, because of course we live in town during the week, and try to get back to the farm most weekends.

I like this new place. It's simple and functional. It's actually on the outskirts of town and when you open the back door, you see this...

Which is a small portion of this...

And there are hundreds of Parakeets and the Squirrell monkeys pass through, and it's far more like home according to my interpretation of that word.

Anyway... Friday night, I was standing on the doorstep, staring at the builders rubble outside on the driveway, and this caught my eye...

And it almost seemed that I had caught it's eye too. And it intrigued me. At first, in the darkeness, I thought it had been carved, but on closer inspection saw that someone had drawn this grapic on the rock with a marker pen.

And I wondered who, and why, and what it had meant to them?

And after that brief philosophical moment, I thought to myself, "I shall steal that simple motif for some future stitching!" ;)

Sixty minute feast

2010-09-26T08:30:00.000-07:00

I couldn't help myself! Sixty minutes of image feasting! A quick dive into some 19th Century print images, and more thought about repeating patterns and lace motifs.

By the way, I forgot to show you this, which I feel certain you'll adore too! It comes from Poppalina a blog that I discovered recently.

A little indulgence is ok, right? ... so I did some quick sketches (and took some more poor quality images!)

This is an initial idea for a repeating leaf motif, which would probably make a neat border.

This is the second one.

I'm not sure yet how I'll develop these sketches or translate them into embroidery. But sooner or later I figure they'll find their way off the paper and onto the cloth. And I'm excited about that!

I stepped outside and spotted this...

A neat repeat right there in the mud! It's just where the rain has dripped off the roof laminas. And I see some opportunity to incorporate small glass beads in place of the gravel. This also reminds me of those repeating leaves that I did a while back and still really love. You can see an example here.

While I was feasting on the 19th Century prints I came across this magnificent beast! You have to admit, it's begging out to be transformed onto cloth. And moments later I found Susan Fletcher Conaway's marvelous blog Fiber Art and Craft and fell in love with her work and particularly with her strange bird. Just perfect!

Strange!

2010-09-25T09:31:00.000-07:00

Strange things happen!

For example, all of a sudden I find myself fired up by things that would never have occurred to me previously, - right now it's vintage lace - It usually starts as a glimmer of an idea, something very simple, usually something visual that catches my attention, and I start googling around that initial idea for further images to feed from, and.. POW!... I find myself in a whole new realm, considering new possibilities.

Does that happen to you too?

Currently, Nilo and I are reading C.S Lewis' "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" from the Narnia series. It just struck me that he had such a good point, about how we come to enter magical "places" (Narnia) by first entering the "everyday" (a wardrobe).

It's interesting, when you think about how much time so many of us - we who blog on cloth and other expressions of creativity - spend appreciating, reflecting upon, and even incorporating into our creativeness, those humble, everyday objects and occurances. And I continue to be blown away by all those who can work magic from it.

From the blog of Pia Jane Bijerk, entitled Enhance The Everyday - a blog that I follow whenever I have the time - I came across this link, introducing the work of Hannah Bertram. WOW! There are obvious references to historical patterns. I think my favorite pieces are those which, to me, have the appearance of vintage lace, and which feature in the series Now they are gone, I hold them. And for somereason these intricate installations also made me think of the shadows cast by plants, particularly at night, and how those are like lace, with their their forms and transparency. Hmmm... hold that thought (since I have no time to play with it at the moment!)

Another strange thing, I want you to meet my new friend. A very special little cat that I spotted running out of the garden of the house we rent in town last weekend. At first, I thought I was imagining it... but no, it's true, he has spots! I have no idea what he is, perhaps a domestic cat crossed with a Marguay? Whatever he is, and wherever he comes from, he sure is adorable! Have you ever seen anything like it?

We're experiencing a cold front (if you can imagine that!) it rained and rained and the river in the village burst it's banks. This is how the day looked from the balcony of my house...

The power went out for most of the day, which provided me with the shove I needed to get to work on another billion stitches on my latest piece (which, let's face it, is going to take me FOREVER to finish!)

This is as far as I've got. Forgive the poor image, taken with the camera on my phone!

Small - and rather over ambitious - beginnings

2010-09-18T17:34:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm back at the farm again for the weekend after a very crazy week at work. More tree planting and a day of driving - ok, of being driven - across the southern part of the country looking at plant nurseries, which is always interesting. I'm pleased to say that this morning my pattern drawings showed up. So, little by little, I am edging my way back into it all.

Today I started out just fiddling with white on white, and white on neutral. That's not a new idea, more like a reoccuring interest, and I will definately be coming back it at some point. This is what I came up with:

It's not quite there yet, but I rather like it. I'm going to let the idea rest with me for a while, and then see where it takes me.

But back to those patterns... I have a very good friend who's birthday is coming up at the end of October, and I've been wondering what to give him, and decided that I would stitch something for him. Because, certainly, nobody else is going to gift him with an embroidery piece! A few months ago he took over a new office space, (see image below). Black, white and green being his company logo colors.

And do you notice that white sofa on the right side of the image? Well, I decided to make a cushion cover to go on it. This is the beginning of it (I don't think he's ever read this blog)...

In stark contrast to where my day started out, the design will be embroidered in white and green on a black background. And after 500 hours of running chain stitch with a single strand of embroidery cotton (I'm such a sucker for punishment!) this is how it's looking...

And closer up, it looks like this...

And I can't tell yet whether I'm happy with it or not. Think it could go either way. I think one of the reasons that I'm finding it hard to judge is because these are not colors I would ordinarily choose to work with. What d'ya think?

Months back, I had my mother-in-law - the amazing Mercedes Fernandez - work on the center panel for something (still haven't decided what), using the same base pattern, but in red, green and blue on a black background. This is how it finished up...

More like my colors!

What's interesting is to take this pattern, which was originally born out of an idea for something quite traditional and folksy, and see how, by just changing the color combination, it has a completely different feel. I've no idea if I'll be able to put in the hours to finish this new piece, given that I have a (more than!) full time job now. But I'll keep you posted.

Hope everyone's having a good weekend!

Missing!

2010-09-12T13:02:00.001-07:00

As you can see, I'm trying to do a better job of it. Getting here and getting there (i.e. to visit what you've been doing recently).

When I started working full-time, I moved into town, and somebodY (?) cleaned off my desk, packed away everything on my shelves and bagged the fabric stash. This weekend I am up at the farm, noticing little twitches of "clothiness" pulling at my hems, and feeling that I want to get back to it. The problem is the inspirations is fleeting, you have to jump on it while it's there, and I have a billion things to do and no idea where anything is!

Where is my last set of designs? That would be a logical place to start...to pick up where I left off. But No amount of turfing out junk has made these appear so far!

I am thinking about very simple motifs... leaves again.. and have fallen in love with antique-styled printed thin cottons (I treated myself to some new blouses in Zara, the last time that I was shopping in San Jose recently!) old lace, and a hint of the sea. Where on Earth did that all come from! Perhaps more importantly... where is heading?

Hope everyone is enjoying a peaceful weekend.

Dropping in for a visit

2010-09-05T10:57:00.000-07:00

Hello dear friends!

It's been so long! So long, infact, that I've forgotten how the blogger.com functions work, but I'll have a go!

I am at home on the farm (this is only the second weekend that I've managed to get up here, since I started working full time, what... 5 months ago?) Alot has happened since then. Alot has changed. For one thing, I decided to see what it was like to go blonde for a while. And why not, eh? Afterall, you're only young once, and... Opps... I'm a little late! ;)

Well, I've been missing you all and I'm really miss following everybody's creativity! I haven't had a chance to do anything with cloth and needle recently. My own creativity has been diverted - at least temporarily - towards creative management choices and finding solutions to things like, how to get 15 meter tall palm trees from one part of the country to another...

...and how to plant them when I get them there.

A strange transition, no? From stitching to supervising heavy equipment! Life is just full of surprises ;)

Luckily, in all of this, I have a fabulous crew who work directly with me, and who, over the weeks, have become like family. We laugh alot, which is what gets us through some pretty hard physical work, out there come rain or shine. We're either soaked to the skin or toasted! That's the tropics for you!

Above: a whole new take on reforestation! I love this image and often wonder what the folks in the car coming in the opposite direction must have been thinking.

Some of my best friends: The landscape architect and two of the landscape crew making braces for the larger palms. I have this thing about taking pictures of these people at work. There's something about these images which reminds me of the brass statues that one fsometimes sees in public areas, which represent Freedom, if you know what I mean.

This is another from that series.

And this one too! The crew literally pulling a tree into position for planting, in the late afternoon.

Well... just thought I'd share that with you. I have to head back into town now, but I'm hoping later to drop in on some of you and catch up with the news.

See you then!

Time out

2010-04-28T18:21:00.000-07:00

I've been so busy this week. Some cloth work... some driving around the country looking at plants... and some stolen moments to hang out with friends and family. :) My design partner Megan returns home to California tomorrow. I'm going to miss her, but have a feeling she'll be back again in no time :)

Nilo and I on the sea front in Puerto Jimenez.

Partners: Bainbridge & (Megan) Houseberg

Houseberg and Bainbridge

Nilo's first batik. This is Megan and he (apparently). So sweet!

It's been so long...

2010-04-23T05:47:00.000-07:00

I know, I have been away for such a long time. But I'm trying to sneak in now and again and check out what's happening out there in bloglandia. You have all been so busy!

I've been busy too!

Eben came and went. Our time with him passed all too quickly. He was here for a week but it was great to see him after a two year absence. Who knows when we'll get to be together again.

Nilo hugging Eben.

A rare picture of us all together.

My boys ❥

Shortly after Eben left, my design partner Megan Houseberg arrived. We have spent the whole week dying cloth (exhausting stuff!) and working hard to figure out the direction of our small label Bainbridge&Houseberg. Finally, today, we may get to work on some of the bag designs for our Fall/Winter collection. It's been very hard work, but lots of fun.

One of the patterns I've been draughting recently.

Logwood purples.

bainbridge & Houseberg...

at play ;)

I hope to have more images to show you soon.

In the midst of all of that, and quite unexpected, I was offered a full-time job, supervising the landscaping of a 30 hectare garden on a property owned by one of the richest men in the world... but can't tell you who!;) I took the job! I start next week. As if my life weren't crazy enough! I'm still be going to be continuing with my design work and all of the plans that go along with it (getting women involved, etc) and I'll be blogging when I can. Guess I'm going to be busy!

Hope everyone is doing well and I send my best wishes to you all :)

And one last thing. I have to tell you about Couture Millinery Atelier Check out this amazing blog and all of the fabulous creations featured there. I adore it!

Still here!

2010-04-05T08:55:00.000-07:00

Yes, I'm still here!

Eben left for San Jose last week and flies home on Wednesday.

Nilo is back to school this morning.

Husband has been working on this new blog in his spare time.

And as for me, I'm still working on my designs. But I'm trying to keep my eye on you!

Yesterday we watched a green vine snake devour a live frog head first. When we scared it, it started off into the bushes with the frog's legs hanging out of it's mouth like handle bars. A rather bizarre sight!

Here's a neat beetle for you. I have to get me some of those sapphire blue shoes! ;}

(c) Reinaldo Aguilar, 2010.

Net absence

2010-03-28T05:50:00.000-07:00

Hi, it's me! My son, Eben, arrived safely last week from the UK and we travelled back down to Osa with him on Wednesday. When we arrived home, I discovered that the cable on my Mac is bust. Actually, there was smoke coming out of it when I plugged it in. Typical! We were at an Apple store the day before we travelled home, and now we're a million miles from civilization. We have to head back to San Jose next week, so I'll buy a new cable then. In the meantime, I am borrowing Reinaldo's Macbook (which I hate!) and don't want to download my recent images to his computer, so I'll have to wait until mine is back on it's feet again (the images in this post are his!)

Nilo's first time catching a juvenile Jesus Christ (Basilisk) lizard that was in the house earlier this week. He was just thrilled!

Although they have no teeth, these critters have hardened jaws and will give you a decent nip! I once saw an adult Basilisk attack a hunting dog!

I've been super busy, this week I had a surprise meeting, and all kinds of big things have been happening in our small lives.

How about you?

I have alot of catching up to do on emails and blog posts, etc. But just dropped in to say hello and I hope everyone is well.

P. S. Thanks for your recent comments. You can contact me at: cvbainbridge@gmail.com

Photoshopping and the False Tile

2010-03-19T18:20:00.000-07:00

Nilo has been off school for the past couple of days. He's had a throat infection. While he's been home, he's been drawing and drawing and coloring in, and it's been great fun! I've also been working on my design ideas. But since I can't show you any of that just now, I'm going to be posting his stuff instead, which is, in anycase, pretty inspiring stuff I believe. But then, I would ;}

First of all some Photoshop drawings. Please note that I have his permission to publish his work here, so long as I credit him and use his titles.

"Dangerous Love" by Nilo Francisco Aguilar Bainbridge.

"Watch out in the sea (the 3 urchins)" by Nilo Francisco Aguilar Bainbridge.

Now for some fibre tip work...

"The False Tile" by Nilo Francisco Aguilar Bainbridge.

I think I'm going to commission him to stencil the kitchen wall :)

I have a friend coming over in the morning. She just lives in town but I haven't seen her for nearly a year, because we're both always so busy.

Because I've been otherwise occupied, and because our power was off all day today, I am behind on reading everybody else's posts. But I will catch up!!!

P.S. For those of you who speak - or at least understand - Spanish, here's a short Channel 11 report, which aired last week, featuring Reinaldo commenting on the gorgeous endemic plant Osa pulchra (Rubiaceae - the coffee family)

Packages

2010-03-17T18:38:00.000-07:00

Reinaldo just come home from town with two packages for me.

One from my friend Angela, who used to live here in Osa, but who has now embarked upon a different journey, and is studying to be a vet in Winsconsin. And she's going to be a great vet! She sends me alum, soda ash, urea, and Yogi teas. Better not confuse them! Thanks Angela. This is going to be very helpful in the course of the next few weeks.

P.S. Good job we didn't get pulled aside for suspected traffiking... this being Latin America and all ;}

A package to dye for from Angela Braun ;]

The second package comes from our blog friend Suzanna Klein. A lovely selection of patchworking cloths, threads, buttons, a tape measure, quilting needles, one of her gorgeous embroidered bees which you can see more of here, one of her own lovely cards and a couple of pieces of her shibori. She is learning online from shibori goddess Glennis Dolce. Thank you so much for your generosity, Suzanna. These are lovely gifts and will be greatly enjoyed. I'm amazed just how quickly this arrived!

Sewing supplies donated to A Common Thread from Suzanna Klein.

Now here's a thing...

2010-03-17T06:47:00.000-07:00

I've been up for a few hours and am doing stuff, but it's still fairly early here and I haven't checked anybody's new posts yet. I just wanted to show you this, which I came across when checking through Nilo's workbooks last night. He is doing the senses right now (tedious stuff, as he knew this like five years ago!) and the teacher had written Draw two things that would make a sound. And he's drawn one. And it's divine. And here it is.

Any ideas?... Answers on the back of a post card! ;]

Peek-a-boo

2010-03-16T08:36:00.000-07:00

Thanks to everyone who left a comment on yesterday's post. I'm curious to discover if any of you know of a way to get blogger to allow me to respond to a comment, directly following the comment itself. Or is that too advanced for blogger? That's a problem, no?

If you haven't already been over to Jude Hill's this morning, Go there next! She has some fabulous images posted today! I really love this. Guess it's one of those times when, without knowing how or why, ideas collide in the ether. Why do I say that?... Here's a peek at the start of one of my new lines for the B&H autumn/winter collection, which will be available in September. Or... maybe late August to you *:9

A touch of South America... Sorry folks, but this is all you're getting right now ;}

Check out Sandi Manning's "Gorgeous Girls" here! Go Sandi!!! Beautiful sisters... beautiful stitches! You weren't a finalist.. but you're still a winner! :)

Blossom

2010-03-15T13:41:00.000-07:00

I'm back home. I've been busy all morning on an idea for the Autumn/Winter collection. It's a secret. All I can tell you is that I have fallen in love with cotton jersey! We're going to go with traditional fashion seasons, at least to start with, and we're going to jump forward, because it's going to take us several months to make a small collection saleable by September. It's also going to take a while to figure out how to incorporate my ideas about how to get local women involved in textiles.

Nilo and I had fun in San Isidro over the weekend. Shopping for fabrics and thread...

Here's a snapshot of one of the best thrift bins in Costa Rica! I should point out that teh lady in teh yellow shirt on the left is actually in the bin. I always find something in here. This time, I found a whole bunch of different cotton based fabrics, which will be great for dying when Megan arrives. We have treated ourselves to a Color Collection dye kit from Earthues.

Nilo loves digging in the Lycra bins. There's always a tonne of ghastly printed fabrics in there! Great fro making lizards and stuff :)

Shopping for Bionicles...

Nilo, in our hotel room, wearing his latest creation.

Window shopping...

A cute little dress with a pretty embroidered motif (probably machine embroidered!).

And it's a lovely time of year. And nothing beats Cherry blossom... except for Tababuia rosea (Bignoniaceae) that is! A native tree that leaves me speechless!

Leaving my island

2010-03-11T05:39:00.000-08:00

I am leaving my island shortly, heading north to a... town! I'll probably be back at the weekend. Do you need anything?

I just wanted to share with you, before I go, something that Eliza has just said to me.
She says;
"Cada cabeza es un mundo."
- literally translated -
"Every head is a world."

I've never heard that expression before,
but I really like it!
Have a great day :)

Making Movies: Monsters in the Middle of Nowhere

2010-03-10T08:19:00.000-08:00

Nilo is off school and making movies.

Gone stitching - Or, one cloth, many possibilities!

2010-03-09T06:34:00.000-08:00

I am going to be stepping back from appearances on my blogs for a while. I mean, I'll still be posting, but just not so much and not so often. Just so's ya know!

My son, Eben, will be arriving for two weeks on the 22nd of March. YIPEE! - haven't seen him for 2 years!

Eben Ptolemy Bainbridge

Here he is , my baby, in his uniform. He studies full-time at college and works as a customer care assistant for a new branch of Sainsbury's supermarkets, in Cardiff. I like that my boys learn to pay their way in life! My father always said, "Freedom comes hand-in-hand with responsibility". He was so right! Eben has had alot of freedom - he left home at 14 years of ageand lived, studied and worked in the city alone for 2 years before going back to the UK for more of the same there - and turned out to be a very responsible human being. I guess that wouldn't work with every kid! I count my lucky stars :)

Anyway, shortly after he leaves, my design partner, Megan, is coming down from California for 3 weeks of intensive studio time [makes me laugh, 'coz I'm old enough to be her Mom too] We're going to be working to mesh and meld our ideas for a collection, dying, printing and painting cloth, and generally playing around with different techniques that focus on manipulating the surface of the cloth. So, the next few weeks are going to be super busy! But I am still here, and will still be dropping in and leaving comments at all of my favorite places :)

Last year, I bought several, meter-long remnants, of this soft jersey knit fabric, which I hauled out of the bottom of a seconds bin in San Jose. I love the deep reds, and the print is kind of Ikat-ish I guess. Well, it was cheap, about $10 for the whole lot. Most places here sell cloth by the kilo, 'coz most places in Costa Rica only sell seconded or remnant fabiric! You have what there is and you don't have more! Which works for my needs. This is nice fabric to work with, it's just that, who wants to wear a jersey knit in the tropics, right? So, yesterday, I set about starting to come up with alternative ways to make use of all of this fabric. Today, I'm going to show you some early-in-the-process ideas that I plan to develop further today. And, nevermind all the other sewing projects that I have underway already ;} I always say, you have to go with the inspiration when it touches you! Surprisingly, perhaps, I think that's what makes me a pretty productive person, inspite of all the day-to-day stuff that I have to do too, like cook, do dishes, manage a 7-year old, organise homework, etc, I still manage to get alot of creative stuff done. Last night, 3 guests arrived, for 3 days, doing field work, and Reinaldo flew to San Jose this morning, so I'm managing that too.

Blah Blah Blah!

Ok, back to the cloth part.... which is what you're really here for, right ;}

The cloth in question.

Cutting the cloth into narrow strips and stretching!

Weaving the strip. I also made the "counted cutholes" in the cotton (what is that called, anyway?)

Cutting the stretched strips into small rectangles, stitching these down, and trimming level.

The off cuts from the trim.

Using the off-cuts from the above trim to create a dotted surface. Everything has a use :)

Making the dots fill a space.

Very rapidly combining that idea with some very crude stitching.

How about combining that idea with a border of the original cloth?

Alternating couching.

A button flower.

Small sections, looped at one end, and then stitched down. This makes a wooly hooked-rug effect.

This is one of my favorites. Look at that gorgeous, tweedy, tonal effect! Very nizzzz!

Coiled. I see this has massive potential too.

Ok, gotta run now. Later this morning, I will be off on my bicycle, collecting Nilo from school and sharing this baby out amongst the villagers.

An 18 kilo squash to share. Reinaldo bought this in the next village yesterday for $7

Eliza gets the machete stuck in the squash and I end up having to do the job. Pure muscle, me! ;}

Taking half of the seeds out to plant. Who knows, we might just get lucky!

Reinaldo and I.

And just so's Eben isn't really pissed with me for showing you his recent photo, here's one of my sweetheart [husband] and I. Funny huh? I'm quite tall for a woman (5' 11') and Reinaldo is a [typically] small Costa Rican, and definate proof that the best things in life are worth waiting for and come in small packages. I just don't wear heals when we are out together ;} Imagine!

Bye! Have a great day people!

Flowers

2010-03-08T05:59:00.000-08:00

I'm sending you flowers this morning.
Orchids.
Epidendrum fluxuosum to be precise.

Happy International Women's Day!

2010-03-06T15:34:00.000-08:00

I've had a busy day. To see what I've been up to you can read this.

Guess what? Reinaldo came home yesterday afternoon after a couple of days in the field with a package under his arm.

It was the purple package from Kaye Turner. WOW! That was super fast in getting here!

Apart from the lush purple pretties that were intended for me...

... Kaye has kindly included another pack of mixed fabric scraps for the group I'm planning to start shortly, as well as ribbons, beads, and threads and other bobs and pieces, as Nilo says :)

Thank you so much for your generosity Kaye! I love it all... but promise to part with at leasy half of it... and your package of pales and textures will be on it's way to you shortly (now that I have your mailing address again!).

This is fun! :)

I have a big headache. Too much sun. But I'm stitching the panels down on my latest creation, the "Leafing into Spring" bag, otherwise known as "Islamic rain". Arlee is one astute lady ;}

I have woven a single metallic white-gold thread through the buttonhole stitching. Adding a subtle sparkle. In Kaye's package there was a small wound of organza and satin white gold ribbon... it's very tempting!!!

Leafing into Spring: Part III

2010-03-05T13:10:00.000-08:00

Further to this...

The first panel for the front of my next bag is done. Right now I'm stitching it onto the second panel, a biscuit colored natural canvas fabric, (which was part of a package that my design partner Megan sent me at the end of last year. A package which began this blog as a matter of fact!), that will provide a border and break up the cream on cream in a gentle way, because the actual shell of the bag is a vanilla-colored velveteen. There's So, it's back to pale neutral toned cloth again! The next one will be brighter. I promise.

Leafy!

Finished applique panel, 21 x 23.5 cm. Hand embroidered.

Makes me think of something, but I don't want to mention what, because I want to hear what it makes you think of first!

Leafing into Spring: Part II

2010-03-05T01:38:00.000-08:00

Following on from yesterday's post...

One of the things I'm always trying to teach master Nilo, is to be economical in his craft work. He is a big fan of the TV shows "Mr. Maker" and "Art Attack" and it drives me crazy - just as it did my mother - the sheer level of waste on these types of programs! "Now we're going to cut a circle of card for the sun...." And what do they do? Cut one measly 2" diameter circle from the absolute center of an A4 sheet of card! It's the same with paint. They need to paint something the size of a postage stamp, and prepare a half gallon of acrylic paint!!! End of rant. We lead by example! So I showed him this, which comes from part of what I'm working on at the moment. It may seem obvious to many of you, but it's surprising how many people still don't consider the need for us, as humans, to economize, in all areas of our lives. And so I'm thinking, as I write this, about the relationship between waste and wastfullness.

Leaf outlines drawn out onto a small corner of one of my recycled fabric scraps (yes, one of the ones dyed with Neurosa Yellow, which is the name I've decided to give the dye from the native plant Neurolaena lobata (Asteraceae), known locally as "Gavilana".)

The backside of my work (talking of which ;} I've been up since 2:15am this morning with more of the same plumbing related issues that I've been experiencing recently - I have an inkling of what that might be about). I'm rather proud of how neat this is all looking. Usually the back of my stitching is as inpenetrable as a Malaysian jungle (I'm not sure that they are, or are they? I just made that up).

The arty shot. Always remember to throw into your portfolio at least one or two of these types of on-the-slant images, which always seem to make things look so much more interesting than they might otherwise be ;}

The work so far. Believe it or not this has taken me the best part of 12 hours to stitch! As you can see, there are 4 rows so far, but today I hope to add another two. More and more, (currently... 'coz you know how I have a habit of zipping off into a completely different direction with little advance warning, if any), I'm thinking how much I like the idea of creating an all-over print effect using applique or stitching or both. And if you're thinking that this reminds you of something else... you're quite right. It's a new angle on this.

Over the weekend, Arlee sent me this link, and I wrote to the lady responsible for the project, Fiona Wright and she responded last night and is opening a dialogue between us by writing this.

It sure is exciting to connect with the world!

Look at that, it's still only 4 am! ZZZZzzzzzzzzz

Opps! Forgot to mention these. I can haz niz shuz! *:)

Leafing into Spring: Part I

2010-03-04T08:54:00.001-08:00

I have to start by saying a big thank you to my friends Arlee Barr and Jude Hill for plugging my blogs and my new adventure over at A Common Thread . Also to everyone who has already joined me there. Welcome! And don't forget to tell all of your friends :}

And... sheeeeeeeeeeee's off! A new idea. But this is all you're getting right now, because I have to get on with it... a sneak peak of what's on the work table today. I am busy busy here!

Leafing Into Spring

Before I go... remember folks... there's very little that a serving spoon of Nutella can't fix! ;}

Nilo. That's one happy child!

Being koi

2010-03-03T09:20:00.000-08:00

Following on from this...

The Gavilana dyed cloth is in off of the line and ironed on a very hot setting.

First try at capturing the color results: The camera is reading off of the wood of my work table so the cloth is looking more muted in this shot than it actually is in real life.

Second try to capture color results: I placed all of the cloth in a stack on a piece of white notebook paper to see if I could get the camera to read the color of the cloth on balance with the white of the paper. This image is more accurate. I'm going to have to come up with a good descriptive name for this dye, because the actual color rang is somewhere between tan, seaweed, moss, and goldenrod.

SHHHhhhh....Don't tell anyone, but I quite like it now ;]

Trying to stitch a Japenese koi fish into the shashiko-style pond. This is what I've managed after three earlier attempts. Still misssing fins and tail and watery swirls. Now I have to make lunch. But after that I'm going to move onto something else!

Natural Dyes: Gavilana

2010-03-03T06:36:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, I did a short post(!) on experimenting using the leaves of the native plant "Gavilana", Neurolaena lobata (Asteraceae), and I wasn't very pleased with the color while it was in the pot. I left the whole lot stewing over night with the intention of putting it out in the sun for a few days. But I decided I'd go ahead and rinse the cloths this morning. So now I can share my results with you.

What's on line this morning.

Cotton weave and cotton and hemp cloth

Synthetic and peachskin cotton mix (?) and unbleached cotton.

Silk weave. Tie-dyed.

Damask type cotton (from an thrifted pillow case slip) with shibori effects.

Unbleached cotton and damask type cotton (from an thrifted pillow case slip) with shibori effect.

Ok, so I admit it, you were right! It was successful. Mostly! But your golden yellows have a fair hint of sea algae-green to them. I would like to find a way to moderate that and bring up the bluer tones. But it definately works! So, given the ease with which this plant grows here, I'd say we're in business ;}

Last night I stitched some more on this.

A shashiko-syled pond patch, stitched with 2 strands of cream colored DCM thread, on upcycled denim. Part of my next bag-ular creation.

BEHOLD! I have made SLIME... again!

2010-03-02T07:54:00.000-08:00

This post is a follow on from Arlee Barr's recent post wittily entitled "BEHOLD! i have made mud! or snow dyeing part two, the results".

For quite a while I have been thinking to try an experiment dying cloth with the leaves of the plant locally known as "Gavilana", Neurolaena lobata (Asteraceae). This plant has several medicinal properties and is used locally to treat a range of ailments, including for "cleaning the blood" (whatever that's supposed to mean!) and as a deparisitite-er (sorry, don't remember the word for that in English). The latin name would also suggest some medical linkage, no?

Anyway, for some reason, I got it into my head that these leaves might be high in tanins and therefore good for dying with. The plant grows like the plague all over our property, as a weedy herb that reaches up to nearly 3 meters. So, wouldn't it be good if I could actually use it for something? So that's what I've been up to for part of the morning.

"Gavilana" - Neurolaena lobata (Asteraceae)

In the pot, bringing it all to the boil. I decided to start it off with a fair amount of heat, before placing it out in the sun for a few days.

And so far, it's looking like this! YUCK!!!! It looks like cow poop! But, ok, definately works as a dye! Maybe this would be something to add to another dye to get a nicer color?... Or, maybe I should just forget the whole thing? ;}

Great!... a brand new month!

2010-03-01T05:02:00.000-08:00

Hey, it's a brand new month... anything could happen... infact, you can expect it to! :) And you know what that means don't you... we have a winner for the Giveaway bag! A rather fitting way to celebrate my 100th post!

No, Eliza is not helping herself to snacks, she's drawing the winning name (you know me, nothing fancy... stick all the names in an old snack box!)

And the winner is .....

Sandi Manning of Puddle Duck Farm blog. Congratulations Sandi, please E-mail me your postal address, and I'll pop Tulip Bell in the post to you shortly :)

I had a busy weekend, thinking and writing, and generally being pestered by my men folk. Nilo is better though, and has returned to school this morning, a little forlorn and crumpled around the edges.

I am closing my eyes to the fact that my house looks like this from top to bottom...

There's Reinaldo - botanist, photographer, garden-hand, and carpenter extraordinaîre - cutting "machimbrada" (tongue and groove) planks for the new floor of the front corner of the house.

We are botchers, in the traditional sense of the word. We make what we can with what we've got, or what we can afford at the time. The floor of my house looks like this (see above) as the boards were layed in a hurry, and the wood was still a little green, and what happened?... It shrank! Which means that, in some places, there are 2 inch gaps between the boards. Which, actually, has been very useful in terms of sweeping. Well, I like to look on the positive side ;} Anyway, we finally decided it was time to clear out the old office and lay a nicer floor (on top the old one) and have a quiet time space. This is how it's looking now...

Ok, so we need to paint the inside of the walls, But, this is luxory to us! We're planning to get a nice little two-seater bamboo sofa in there, so we can read and stitch in the house of an evening, and Nilo will now have a space where his lego is not going to disappear under the house! And hopefully, everything will return to its former orderly state... Orderly?... Who am I kidding? ;}

Yesterday, thinking and wandering in the upper garden, I spotted this...

An Aristolochia that I'm propagating by woody cuttings. It's doing very nicely. This is a vine with very ornamental leaves. A native species with a lot of garden potential! Incase I never told you, I adore vines and design native plant gardens.

I also found this...

A frothy native Begonia species flowering right now in my small fern garden beside the stone table and benches. It's the closest thing to snow that I've seen recently. Either of these images would be great to stitch from, no?

Talking of stitching ... I have done some. This is the latest project on my work table...

A 10cm square. Shashiko style!

Never heard of Shashiko?... Oh, you're gonna love it! You can do a Google image search on that word or, there's a nice little shashiko tutorial over at Purlbee blog, which I'm adding to my links list on the right there, 'coz there's alot of neat stuff on that blog.

Added 2nd March: Diddis on Flickr has a wonderful selection of Shashiko. I found that while I was checking out Jude Hill's new Flickr group for those who are quilting with indigo, which showcases some truely beautiful indigo work that I covet ;}

Anyway, do have a go at Shashiko! They say it's easy to master. Personally, I find it quite challenging, but definately relaxing.

Here's a slightly better (?) picture of the "No Boundries" bag that I'm just finishing up with.

***

Now, about the women's textile group:

I have been adding on to the new blog A Common Thread. You can click on this link for a little bit of background. Don't forget to add your name to the followers so you can get updates. We need your support! And thanks to you who have already volunteered to mail supplies. You lovely people! :)

I'm very excited, 'coz my mate Arlee sent me this fabulous link. I'm writing to the founder, Fiona Wright, so let's see if she replies. We can always learn from other people's experiences. I also found the design company Dseyno founded by Marrissa Perry Saints (I'm going to write to her as well!)and there are so many similarities between that and what I've envisaged doing here. I've added a short movie about the company on the homepage of the new blog. Well worth a view!

Finally, I'm planning to prepare a project outline to send to the Dutch Ambassador, enquiring about their embassy's funds for sustainable community development projects. If you don't ask, you don't know.

You have to give people the opportunity to help you!

Still here

2010-02-27T08:43:00.000-08:00

Checking messages from friends who live on the coast, and seems that the predicted Tsunami has missed us... so far! I keep checking the view, to see if their is still water in the gulf... or more water in the Gulf. For the past two days we have had monsoon rains (this is the 'dry season') and terrific (!) electrical storms, which have blown the power out twice. Friday evening saw us eating bacon sandwiches in the house in the dark, at Nilo's miniature table and chairs. It was like a midnight dolls tea party.

Another reason I haven't been around much is that, on Wednesday morning, we had a phone call from the school, asking us to go and collect Nilo, who had fallen over, and landed badly on his hand. His wrist was pretty swollen for a few days, and is chest was a bit scrapped up. Poor little guy!

The next morning he was also vomiting (I think it was something he ate) so I've been chilling out for the rest of the week with him, at home. He can move his wrist now and so I guess he'll be back to school on Monday. I have to say, I rather like having him home again. He's been doing alot of drawing and lego building. He's amazing! Look at his turtle design.

I could never come up with something as sophisticated as this. It reminds me of Inuit design.

Thinking that I was going to San Jose this weekend, I got a move on with the "no boundries" denim bag that I started a couple of weeks ago, and it's finished (all but the details on the handles).

Stitching in the lining.

The lining is a light blue flecked cotton, with a slightly linen look.

The label.

The closure detail.

The finished item. Quite a sexy little number. Might keep it for myself ;}

Eliza, our model this morning.

Now that it's done, I guess it would be ok for me to start something new, right? ;}

Reinaldo is busy taking the house to pieces, in an effort to re-model the old office corner.

I have also been working on this. There's a link on my side bar. It's nowhere near ready yet, but you can visit and add your name as a part of the broader community and get updates as they happen. This week - now that my trip has been cancelled, due to the inclement weather - I hope to set these wheels in motion and send out a general invitation to local women to a sewing/coffee morning. I'm planning to put up a flyer somewhere public (which, here, is either at the school, or the two churches, since there isn't even a village store!) and see who shows up! That way, it's open to anyone who's interested and avoids any personal preference. Afterall, the idea is about forgetting our differences, and working together, on the basis of sharing a common thread. Hmmm... I figure that's going to be the hard work in this!

Finally, I have added music (and other media interest) to the blogs. My father is a musico and so I was raised with very ecclectic tastes. Everything from Rachmaninov to rap, rock n' roll to gospel. The selection will change, according to whim.

Look... Listen... ENJOY! :)

Tsunami Alert

2010-02-27T05:21:00.000-08:00

We are waiting to see if, within the next half an hour, a Tsunami will hit the coastline of southern Costa Rica, including a few kilometers from where we live. The alert comes following earthquakes which hit Chile (8.8!) and Japan, in the early hours. Going to eat breakfast now. More later. Trip cancelled. Again!

Color overload

2010-02-23T05:40:00.000-08:00

It's finally raining a little more, although it's normally dry at this time of the year. I think our Summer was pushed forward. Well, I'd like to imagine that, and that it is going to rain more now. The plants are very happy about this. We don't water the garden, and it is really amzing how anything survives, but it does! Yesterday afternoon, Nilo and I just made it home from school before the downpour. D'you know, I cycled 8km yesterday! Which is why, today, I am firmly rooted to my cushy office chair and Rey is doing the school runs ;}

I want to say thank you to all of you who left a comment on yesterday's post, and for the observations and support that everyone is willing to give to my ideas. You are a wonderful bunch of ladies, and bless you all! This is a very positive example of [the] net working! :)

I've decided that I'm going to leave for San Jose at the weekend to see if I can get an appointment with my GP early next week. But when I return, I'm going to start putting out pheelers to see who would like to join a sewing circle... or maybe it will be a sewing square? Who knows! Oh yes, and thanks also to those who suggested a potential wheat intolerance might be the root of my current problems. Yes, I'd thought of that too. Last year I did start a celiac diet, but I wasn't strict enough, or at it for long enough to be able to tell. I'm definately going to bring it up with my Doctor (again!) though. It would be wonderful if the problem turned out to be that straight forward! Ojala! (pronounced OH-HALA - that's like saying, "I wish!", or, "With any luck!")

Well, I'm here this morning with a bit of a dillema on my hands... I have total color overload! Can't make up my mind what to work on today. Or brights???... or pales???... WAHhhhh!

Yesterday, I started playing with a couple of the scraps that Sandra of Inanna Shamaya swapped with me recently. And while I'm here, you have to see how nicely this is coming along! Go Sandra! Anyway, I've been using an acid green and turquoise piece (Sandra, do you know how this effect was achieved, looks like some kind of wax resist, and/or acid bath? It's an amazing cloth!) combined with sky blues, on a grass green flax linen.

That's one wild cloth! Makes me want to go back and re-study the color theories of Johannes Itten.

I like the way the scrunch or tie-dyed blue piece lifts those dots right off of the cloth!

The blue scraps are already kanthared down. I'm just looking at these very bright and contrasting DCM silk threads and wondering where to go next???

I have to tell you about what I've discovered whilst playing with this. When you kantha stitch over a light blue, scrunch or tie-dyed cloth, like the one I'm using here, it makes it look just like a a fair weather cloudy sky, (this is not the best image, I know). Anyway, I thought you might be interested to know that. Could be useful?

A Summer sky?

Another part of my dillema is this pretty grouping of pink and ecru threads here on my desk, together with some very cool brown paper packaging, that was wrapped around a couple of new coffee cups that Rey bought home yesterday.

Strawberries and Cream?... Which reminds me, tonight, we have students staying, and I'm going to make fresh strawberry ice cream... Mmmmm!... my mother's recipe... which is a family secret. Ha! :P

I also spotted this on my desk this morning (I've been re-stashing my fabric stashes!) A couple of pieces of shot silk dupoi (the bigger scrap as was, the smaller scrap as was after the original was solar-dyed by me using red cabbage) placed on a bamboo fiber(!) indigo cloth. Very nice! It gives me another idea... Oh dea[r]... Too many idea[r]s ;)

My problem is this... I LOVE color! I just get so much pleasure out of playing with color, and not necessarily making it into any thing!

Here's a classic example. As I was telling Karen at Threadstory, who posted this recently, I am the proud owner of 100+ shades of Unison chalk pastels, donated to me 9 years ago by Unison themselves, and which are now very crumbly indeed, but still as loved as from the very first day! Admittedly, I haven'y used them recently. They have been stored in my drawer. As much as drawing with them, I always loved looking at them, re-arranging them in their boxes, according to different schemes. I'm definately crazy! *:)

Unison. The cream cheese of chalk pastels!

I ma about to re-house these pastels, because the packaging, that was once soft and spongy, is now brittle and crusty and it disintergrates at the touch. I need a printers styled drawer with many little compartments. I might even have one made, because these pastels are worth a fortune!!! A veritable color treasure trove!

And I'm looking forward to receiving my purple scrap swap package from Kaye at Stitching Life who has been doing a far bit of fieldwork recently. Very nice!!!

Finally, let's celebrate with Sandi at Puddle Duck Farm as she'll be getting extra studio time. YEAH!!!! And with Jude at Spirit Cloth for going live yesterday. Can nothing stop this woman? ;}

Recently added: For those of you in the Brisbane area of Aussie, you have an invitation.

Step #1: A sewing circle

2010-02-22T07:24:00.000-08:00

I haven't been able to do very much these past few days, as I still have stomach type problems and envisage that I am probably going to have to leave to seek medical advice about this later in the week. In the meantime, I have continued to work slowly away at stitching this.

More kantha stiching.

A close-up. Not bad, eh?

Softened again by the early morning light.

I'm very pleased with the waythis piece is coming along, and now that I have nearly completed the kantha stitching on all but one of the chocolate-colored panels - and isn't it lovely, the way that the cream-colored stitching has softened the contrast of the chocolate? - I'm putting this to one side as my evening cloth.

Apart from stitching, I have been thinking. Alot! I find that the two go rather well together, stitching and thinking. In the same way that walking and thinking go well together, or gardening and thinking. Anyway, I've been thinking more about my idea of setting up a textile "thing" with a group of women from the village. At the same time I have started to do some research online about similar projects, in different parts of the world. How are they managed, what do they make, etc, etc.

What's interesting, to me at least, is the fact that so many other cultures, where this kind of idea has been implimented, already have traditional artisan skills to draw upon, like weaving, dying, and embroidery. Here, where I live, the majority of the woman remain unskilled, many not even having completed their education. That's not to judge them, of course, it's simply to acknowledge the reality of what might be involved in developing my idea. Before we could begin making things, I am going to have to teach them certain basic techniques. Which is fine. But before I can do that, I am going to have to teach myself ;} I'm just trying to figure this thing out, out loud. And by sharing my ideas here, maybe something will ocurr to you, that i haven't thought of yet. So it could be very helpful.

Yesterday, I blogged a little about aspects of life in our village. The day before that, I blogged briefly about my idea to create a women's textiles co-operative. Both posts received some really lovely comments and encouraging thoughts from you. Thanks so much for your support!

Over the weekend, it dawned on me that helping a small group of women to help themselves, is infact an indirect way to help the school children. One of my concerns about donating money and supplies to the school is that it comes in, is used, and then we have to look for more. So, although I plan to continue with that at the moment, I see it as a short term solution. I need to be creative and dream up a middle to long term solution, which is what I think my idea might be. Ideally, one which provides women with access to a little income, which will help them with the cost of school supplies, medical care, clothing, and food. Nobody wants to be permenantly dependant on charity! And I happen to believe in the benifits of a family having a mixed portfolio, and teh power of micro-economies. With the world climate - environmental and economic - the way it is these days, you just can't afford to put all of your eggs in one basket!

So, first things first... How to begin?

Having thought quite carefully about this idea over the weekend, I think the best way would be to start a small sewing circle at my home. Invite a few of the women to a coffee/sewing morning type of thing, and offer them some fabric and threads, and provide a refreshment and a snack, and the chance to for them to explore and maybe learn something new. That way, I am not raising anyones hopes with the mention of making money, and at the same time, I get to see who is genuinely interested and has some potential. I have to be realistic with myself about this. It's no good thinking that I can help everyone, and not everyone is going to enjoy or be any good at this kind of thing. So, we have to start out with baby steps, while I'm busy working on the bigger picture.

I have been saving my money - that I earn from having guests - to put towards building an open workshop, in the lower garden area. That's going to take a while, but will be somewhere where, eventually, the women could work, at dying and printing and stitching cloth.

So, my immediate considerations are these:

* Making sure I have some supplies for a small group to work with over the course of a few weeks. Probably when I next leave the Peninsula, I will rummage through the thrift stores for nice fabrics. Threads, I am probably going to have to buy, along with needles, and pins and tape measures, and I would love to get my hands on some of those very cool washable markers, but they don't seem to exist in Costa Rica! Say! If anyone is interested in this idea, you could donate by mail a light-weight start-up pack. Yes... that's a brilliant idea!!! :) Doesn't have to be big stuff,'coz the idea is to recycle fabrics and use scraps to complete small projects that can be given a within-reach retail price,($25-30) but which also sell in higher numbers than a higher priced piece might... if you see what I mean? I'm thinking, small coin purses, cushion covers, notebook covers, etc. Anyone got any other suggestions for cool, viable, contemporary, small projects?

* Resources. I guess I can download quite a few resources online. I am also thinking to get my mother-in-law down here from San Jose, because she is deft at needlework. Infact, I've been meaning to show you these for a while now.

Silk pansies. Detail from a cushion slip by Mecedes Fernandez Zuniga.

Wild berries. Detail from a cushion slip by Mecedes Fernandez Zuniga.

Birds and berries. Cushion slip by Mecedes Fernandez Zuniga.

These examples were the results of a commercially-bought kit. But not everyone could produce something as lovely as these!

This, on the other hand, is a simple, traditional, design, that a crafts teacher sketched out, and Mercedes chose to work on on a black cotton. I LOVE this piece! To me, it has something very gypsy about it. I really want her to do more work in this style, to incorporate in my designs.

I am also thinking I might start a seperate blog to document the journey into my women's group idea.

Finally, I found this in my drawer over the weekend. A simple tapestry(?) piece of a rose bloom that I began(!) a few years ago. I threw it into a pan of beetroot juice, along with some other scraps. We'll see what happens!!!

If Life gives you Russian salad... dye cloth! ;}

Country Living... none of yer fancy stuff!

2010-02-21T07:35:00.000-08:00

Great news!... I just had an email from my son, Eben, he has bought his ticket and will be arriving for two weeks on the 22nd of March. HURRAY! It will be the first time that we've seen him in nearly 2 years. I'm very excited.

Yesterday, he also sent me a whole bunch of photos, most of them taken by my father, during his visit last February. I really wanted to show you a couple of these, plus some others, which maybe give you an insight to rural life, here in our village.

A few members of our friends and nieghbors, the Solorzano-Leíton family. They're passing sugar cane through a hand operated cane press to make "agua dulce", a sugar cane drink, which, I have to say, I'm not that fond of, but it's all good country fun! In this photo you can see our friends Cheila (the mom), Irene (the youngest daughter, who has since had a baby boy, infact, that was the day that she told us she was expecting), Juan Carlos (the son-in-law, married to their older daughter Jenny) and Dorian (the youngest son, chewing his nails!)

This is my Dad, Francis Charles, testing the cane. He's usually up for a laugh!

Nilo and Sandy (Alexander), the eldest son of their family, and - besides my husband - my best friend down here. This was the Los Charcos paper aeroplane contest. No doubt, Nilo won, 'coz that's just how it goes around here ;}

Sandy with a "terciopelo" or "Fer-de-Lance" pit viper, which he stumbled upon at our water tank a couple of years ago.

Here, you can just about see it's deadly fangs. Field work here has always come with risks and this particular snake - which is by no means uncommon in this neck of the woods! - is just one of them!

It also has it's special moments too. Like this one, when I got to spoon-feed a baby "tepisquintle" or "agouti", whose mother had probably been killed.

And this one, with brothers Dorian and Sandy, when Dorian graduated. Just about the same age gap exists between them, as does between Nilo and Eben, (of nearly 12 years!)

Children of the village school to which Nilo attends. Those were all of the allumni of 2008. It has about the same number of students this year, ranging from 7 to 12 years old. After that, any child who continues in education (and they are few and far between) will have to travel to the next town to attend college. Most of these kids come from economically poor homes, where families tend to be large. Work around here is tough, mostly done by the menfolk, and limited to the agricultural sector. People either work with cattle, rice or oil palm.

Here I am with the class, Christmas 2008. Rey and I have tried to promote the school's needs to people beyond the Osa Peninsula. With the help of a very generous friend in San Jose - Jacqueline Monocell, who, in turn, round up a group of her family and friends - we have secured small amounts of funding which have helped to improve the school dining facilities and to repaint the school house, and Jacqui has also helped to provide some much-needed basic school supplies.

In addition, for the past two years, Jacqui's group have sent a Christmas present for each child and Rey and I get to be Santa.

This is Ronald. He's 10 years old and has Spina bifida. Most years, he undergoes a series of operations in an attempt to straighten his feet and legs. He's a spirited little chap, and I've never heard him complain. Jacqui's group sent him boots, because he had spent years dragging his poor little broken feet along in rubber boots. However, this is a classic tale of how you can't always help people. The boots were so nice, that Ronald's father decided that they should be kept for best. So Ronald continues to spend all day in rubber boots and has probably outgrown his comfortable boots, having never really benifited from them. Life in this part of the world is a constant battle. Sometimes you win... and sometimes you don't! The important thing is not to give up hope!

Stripping maize kernels to make fresh "chorreadas". The kernels are then put through a hand mincer and the paste is cooked with a little oil on a hot skillet. You can either add a pinch of salt or a pinch of sugar to the minced kernels. I like mine hot and sweet ;7

It's a family thing. Jenny and Irene and their aunt are preparing the maize, and Sandy waiting to pass the kernels through the hand mincer. Now that takes muscle... and after years of working the oil palm, Sandy certainly has some of those!

That's me, over on the left again, in their beautiful hand-made kitchen. Just watching. An important reminder that we all have something to learn from each other!

Sharing an idea: Poverty elimination and the environment

2010-02-19T09:02:00.000-08:00

Isn't Life funny?... The twists and turns.... the subtle nuances... the sparkley moments... the gifts intended for us...

...the marshmallows... Ok, so they're totally unrelated to the dialogue, but I couldn't resist their pink and white poofiness and wanted to record it for my own purposes :)

We just had a change of guests. Chris and Roslyn Darling are visiting from Canada, and they stayed over at Los Charcos last night, on the recomendation of mutual friends and earlier guests, John and Mary Noyes.

John and Mary Noyes, of Kew (UK), having a knees up at Los Charcos with Nilo.

We've known John for many years now. He's an entomologist, and has just retired from the Natural History Museum, London. His wife Mary is a music teacher to primary school children and an avid ornothologist. They stayed here 2 years ago and loved it so much that they came back earlier in the week.

Chris is also an entomologist and a Professor of entomology, and Roslyn is a textile artisan! How about that! Coincidence or what! Needless to say, while our husbands were off hiking the Los Charcos forest trails, Roslyn and I had a good old natter. She spins and weaves and does hook work rugs and dyes and is currently doing her masters in textiles. I really admire that! I can't wait 'till she gets back to Toronto, so she can send me links to images of her work, and maybe she'll let me publish a few of them here?

Chris and Roslyn Darling of Toronto (Canada).

Anyway... we got talking about an idea that I've had for a couple of years now - which is the idea to establish a small(!) woman's textiles co-operative here in the village - and it was great to share this idea with someone else right now, because recently the idea has started developing into something more tangible and within the realms of possibility.

Today, I'm going to share this idea with you! So grab yourself a cuppa and get comfortable ;}

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Sustainable development: "development which meets the needs of the present, without compromising the needs of the future."
The Brundtland Commission, Our common future, World Commisssion on Environment and Development 1987.

As some of you know - at the same time as raising two fabulous young men- since 1994, I've been working in the vanguard of (tropical) plant science and conservation, in one capacity or another. I was very young - and naïeve! - when I set out on that journey, with lots of ideas of how I was going to help "Save the Rainforests".

However... collectively, my experiences over the years have taught me that, if hope exists for the environment - for life on Earth in general - it will come about by a)the complete desimation of the human species, or, b) addressing fundamental social issues - particularly that of rural poverty. I believe there is alot to be gained through supporting the role that women play in rural sustainable development. I say this, not as a women's liber, but because it's a fact! The sooner we start to enpower women from rural communities the better it will be for everyone!

I can't tell you, how tired I am of clashing horns with people who pitch up on the Osa Peninsula and think they know it all. I'm tired of listening to the constant whining about hunters and loggers. I'm in reverse gear, backing away from all of that, reclaiming my own creative life, and thinking more and more about helping people to help themselves. Particularly women. Specifically, women from my own community.

So... that's what's on my mind! There's more to it, of course, but I just wanted to sound you out about it first.

I would love your feedback and commments.

I would love to hear from anyone who's actually done something like this or knows of someone who has. I would love to hear from anyone interested in getting involved mentoring an initial program (either by coming down here or by teaching me new stuff online so that I can then teach others) focusing on capacitating women in a range of basic textile based skills. My own training - about 150 years ago - is in Batik an resist dying.

I would especially love to hear from anyone who might be interested to inject a few dollars into a start-up program.

As always, I would love to hear from you! :) :) :)

Please forward this message to anyone you think might be interested. You can also blog about it and link to this post.

Thank you!

P.S. Still stitching away here!

More dash than stitch!

2010-02-17T07:48:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was hectic, what with managing guests and Nilo being back at school. I didn't have much concentration for stitching either. Although, I have started to stitch down the pinwheel patches. Doing it as invisibley as I can, given my crude stitching. Let's face it... it's going to take me forever to finish this and the chikankari/dessert inspired cloth, which you can see here.

By the way, whatever you do, never run a google search on the word chikan, it must be chikankari (easy to remember if you think of chicken curry!) Turns out that chikan is a slang word for public groping in Asia! If you search for only that, you'll be in for abit of a surprise. Don't say I didn't warn you!

Stitching down the patches with a hem stitch (is that what it's called?)

Instead - snatching a half hour here and a half hour there, between cooking for guests and getting homework done - I've been exploring... stuff... and taking snapshots around the place, as well as following up on favorites (and favorites of favorites) on Flickr.

Here are a few of my favorite snapshots from yesterday. You can see more on my Flickr profile (there's also now a mini slideshow of my images over on the right hand side here).

Clouds above Cecropia trees.

A tank garden that I'm experimenting with, with the view to later creating a small ecological pond in teh Los Charcos gardens, and somebody has just put hundreds of their tadpole offspring in there!

No time for self-reflection... I have dyes to rinse out!

The cloths I've been solar-dying with the seeds of Genipa americana or "guatil". You can read more about that here.

Hanging on the line to dry. I got some very pale(!), but very lovely, blackberry tones, all on natural fibers.

Silouhettes of the inflorescence of Stacharpheta frantzii dancing behind guatil dyed cotton weave. Colored shadows... Hmmmmm.... now there's an interesting concept!

Guatil dyed cloths once steam ironed and dryed.

Amazing forms created by dried tree fern fronds...

... on guatil dyed cottons.

It was all purple and brown. What a majestic combination! Cadbury's obviously know their color stuff! ;}

Speaking of color... For friends who are buried beneath the snow right now, and anyone suffering from sunlight deficit... here are a couple of extra snapshots that I took in my garden yesterday. Wish you were here! :)

Heliconia latispatha and Cecropia trees.

A small sunlit patch of the garden. Color and form!

No Boundries!

2010-02-15T08:26:00.000-08:00

Nilo will be at school from 7am 'till 1pm today, which seems to me to be a more reasonable amount of time than last week's 7am "till 11am.

Our guests, John and Mary, from England, arrived mid-afternoon yesterday, and are now out walking the trails in our forest.

I've spent the morning cutting and piecing upcycled denim, styling a new bag. It was going to be something like the sketch that I showed you here... it was going to be called "boogie"... but while I was swapping and switching the pieces around, I saw something else that I liked, and decided to go with that right now. So here's a quick peek.

Placing the pinwheel patches at the bottom of the frontside of the shell of the bag.

What about adding existing seam work? I like that.

I've been thinking about pockets too, because Megan and I agree that alot of people like to have them. Coin pockets. On the outside. you can drop your change in quickly whilst hopping onto the bus.

I'm going straight for the kill, and have added a reclaimed pocket (from a pair of ripped dungarees). Actually it's two pockets, one's hidden under the other.

I turned the shell 90 degrees, to get the seamline in the vertical, thus, dividing the space into two equal areas. Once the edges of the pocket were ironed under, I notice that the pocket has the exact same length as two of the patches, so I'm loosing the third patch.

Visually, it works better for me, with the pocket on the right-hand side, and the patches on the left. I have also added the garment label from the dungarees that the pocket came from. It says

no boundries

Guess who's just noticed the text size button on the new post bar ;}

I like that label. I like what it says as the title for this design. Design should have no boundries. That's why I'm able to ignore the sketch I made and go with what I've coem up with this morning. Spontaneity! Pura Vida!

I'm going to line it with this white cotton print fabric, the print of which is kind of bleached out. I think alot of the fabric remnants taht I buy from the bargain bin in San Jose were probably once window displays in fabric stores elsewhere. Sometimes, the stores here will even sell you fabric, off the roll, as perfectly good, but which has been light damaged. I don't mind so much, as it usually offers some interesting effects. But imagine if you'd bought it to make a regular garment, and then when you got it home found it was all streaky! Pays to check first!

Now I just(!) have to piece this design together.

Nilo and Reinaldo came back from town yesterday afternoon, with flowers and chocolates. :)

A red rose eye!

I've fallen in love with these, the site was linked from a recent Fibercopia post.

Boogie: Giving it a new spin!

2010-02-13T07:58:00.000-08:00

If you follow my blog regularly, you'll know that I have been working much paler recently, and am now adding a little brightness to that... to give a new spin to my design work!

Here's a series of images showing how the new slow bag design - Boogie - is developing so far.

The pattern for giving the cloth a new spin.

Drawn out in... yes, Kaye you guessed it... biro!

The first blade stitched and cut (the reverse applique technique that I am so fond of using).

The second blade stitched and cut.

The second blade stitched and cut, and shot on one of those clever angles that always makes work look 100 x more interesting than it might ordinarily appear to be ;}

The third blade stitched and cut.

The final blade stitched and cut.

Here's the first upcycled denim patch with all the blades finished.

Now for some kantha!

Photoshopping... a sneak preview of where this is headed.

The reverse of the reverse applique. Not too messy.

First patch done! How great is that?

More later!

P.S. Eben, incase you're reading this, "hOney, I used your old jeans!" Love from Mum xxx

Digital Thank You's!

2010-02-13T07:28:00.000-08:00

Before I blog on...

This morning I would like to say a big thank you to two very special ladies, who have become blog friends, since I started to emerge in this space. They are, Arlee Barr of Albedo, and Sandra Smals of Inanna Shamaya. Because, yesterday afternoon, Reinaldo came back from the post office with two beautiful swap packages!

Swap scraps from Arlee.

Swap scraps from Sandra.

As a humble token of my deep appreciation for these jewel-like gifts, I have made each of you a small digital art quilt, using pieces of your own work - images from your own blogs - of things I have much admired, together with a sample or two from the swap pack that you sent to me. Each piece of cloth is splendid and exquisite, and will no doubt start to feature here, soon! :) :) :)

Digital art quilt for Arlee.

Digital art quilt for Sandra.

Thank you! It's a real pleaure getting to know you both, and to be inspired by what each of you do!

Boogie!

2010-02-12T08:00:00.000-08:00

Following on from yesterday's post...

Now that Nilo is back to school, I am going to have to progress with my real design work! I've kind of been fiddling around these past few weeks, in all sorts of directions. Which is important too, of course. Play! I don't know about you, but that's usually where my best ideas are concieved of, even if the end product is nothing like the thing that I started out playing with. To me, good design could be defined as the successful outcome of a good What-If.

Ok, this is wierd for me... but I'm looking at these bright colored cotton scraps! Well?... Gotta try everything, right? At least one time! ;}

Bright colored cotton scraps from Boquete, Panama.

This morning it occurred to me to try the confetti spiral again but this time as a donut, and I really like the neat little twist that's added to my initial idea.

I've been thinking about working with indigo and or upcycled denim for a while now. Looks like I'm not the only one. You should definately take a look at this and this. Both of which are fabulous examples of [re]using denim and of posts that have popped up recently that I really ❥ed.

Of course, one cannot mention indigo without drawing your attention back to this and this.

Ladies, I salut you!

And following on from this, I'm still thinking about putting a new spin on things. I like this one alot!

Talking of making design progress... this is where it's all heading now.

"Boogie": A neat little shoulder bag, from upcycled denim, muslin, calico, and cotton scraps and colored silk thread.

It's my project for the coming week. Something to be working on even though we'll have guests. I want to come up with something that is funky but chic. Something with a sense of fun about it. Watch this space!

P.S. And for Kaye's sake, you should know that only the best sketch with biros!

Celebration!

2010-02-11T11:34:00.005-08:00

I have never been one for bright colors. So with my move towards white, yesterday afternoon, I decided to try something different, using what I call confetti colors. Typically, for me, these consist of the following colors, which, ordinarily, I avoid like the plague, or at least, would never mix with each other!

The above image shows confetti colors... according to me.

confetti |kənˈfetē| noun small pieces of colored paper thrown during a celebration such as a wedding. ORIGIN early 19th cent.(originally denoting the real or imitation sweets thrown during Italian carnivals): from Italian, literally ‘sweets,’ from Latin confectum ‘something prepared,’ neuter past participle of conficere ‘put together’ (see confect ).

I continue to be fascinated with trying to find new ways - that is new to me, anyway! - to use simple/recycled cloth and threads in a slow and decorative way. It's actually rather challenging, but I'm enjoying it immensely.

Remember the fiddlehead muslin from the end of yesterday's post?... Well, this is where it was going. A simple twisted muslin spiralled wheel.

Being stitched down onto an un-bleached calico ground.

Then re-stitched with chain stitch along the ridge of each coil, changing the thread color as I went.

This is where it led me. That's interesting... but think I can still do better... Start again!

Take a strip of muslin, pin it at one end to your work table, twist, and when fully twisted, pin it to your work table at the other end...

... like so!

Next, couch, at intervals, the entire length of the muslin twist with alternating confetti colored silk threads. (I wonder how this would look if I used wool thread instead of silk???)

Until it looks something like this... which reminds me of prayer flags, flittering in a clear Ladakh sky. Nice!

For me, this works really well in strings...

... and as a spiralled wheel. I prefer this attempt, it feels more like mine!

Which version do you prefer?

Added later the same day: Looks pretty sweet with denim too! :)