Every flower...

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

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!

Leafing into Spring: Part III

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 I

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!

Color overload

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.

More dash than stitch!

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!

New... Summer/Autumn 2010

In the past 24 hours I've been stitching and thinking... tearing, and cutting... stitching and thinking... blah, blah, blah.

Now, you get to have a very early sneak preview of what I'm working on for the bainbridge & houseberg lines for Summer/Autumn 2010.

That's right, Summer/Autumn! Because I think they go better together. As do Winter/Spring.















You recognize this, right? The little leaf stamped cloth, but now embroidered. Same-color-on-same-color, I love that, as I've mentioned in previous posts.

So, this is the value of play. When I started playing, I wasn't planning that the soft pale cloth, of still no name, would be anything. I was just doodling with stitches, fabric paint and recycled cotton cloth. But you know how, something miraculous happens... a little shift... a faint glimmer.... and if you can capture that, it all falls into place, unforced. That's what happened! Of course... there are many hours of sweat and tears involved, before one reaches that moment. ;}



















So I took it all apart again. Lost that Wheatear stitched bit, that was becoming so problematic for me, (but don't worry, I haven't thrown it away, it always pays to stash stuff like that for a rainy day). Last night, I started working with this gorgeous scrap of chocolate and natural, printed linen, of which there is hardly any, and so I've been saving for "something special".



















I think this is it! ❥ A chikankari and dessert inspired piece! ❥ I'm being serious! You never know where inspiration can fall from.

I can't tell you how happy I'm feeling today!

I also want to share this because I enjoyed finding it and I think you will too. And, to give a warm welcome to the blogging community to a special lady called Tao, who is an amazing chef, and a neighbor of mine, here on the Osa Peninsula. Happy blogging Tao! :)

Osa... Art... Life... Advance

A pale cloth idea on the go.

I've been thinking... Oh! So that's what the noise was! ;)

A while ago, I started to think about the possibility of offering creative "retreats" here on the Osa Peninsula. And now, so many people have commented about this amazing place where I am fortunate enough to live, that I'm thinking, maybe, people would like to visit. In turn, that got me thinking about the word "retreat" itself.

retreat |riˈtrēt| verb [ intrans. ] (of an army) withdraw from enemy forces as a result of their superior power or after a defeat : the French retreated in disarray. • move back or withdraw, esp. so as to remove oneself from a difficult or uncomfortable situation : it becomes so hot that the lizards retreat into the shade | [as adj. ] ( retreating) the sound of retreating footsteps. • withdraw to a quiet or secluded place : after the funeral he retreated to the shore.

Thinking about it from the perspective of visiting another place and kindling/fueling/firing one's creativity, in a fluid way, it suddenly seems like such a wierd word to use! What I have in mind is more about throwing oneself headlong into life... so, less of a retreat... and more of an advance! Not some kind of pre-planned course, with a teacher. Just one or two people at a time, immersing themselves in all that the Osa Peninsula has to offer.

I'm putting out feelers.

Just imagine it... 7-10 days of self-indulgement, creativity, exploring a tropical paradise! Painting, sketching, writting, needlework... or whatever is your thing. I'm trying to think about places to go, that would be inspirational, (yeah... that's not hard here!) and how to keep the costs down. I reckon it might be possible to organize something amazing.

Any one got any ideas or observations? I am just trying to gather some ideas for what might be possible. And I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Turned out just peachy!

A while back, before Christmas time, I started some solar dying experiments. Some worked out pretty well, given that I didn't use any mordant (this year I'm going to try that!). Here's one that I untied yesterday. It was dyed using bark from a local tree species (can't remember which now, will ask husband about that and add the name later) and by wrapping small sections of the cloth around little pebbles and tying them with string, (which probably has some lovely-sounding technical name, except I haven't learnt it yet!) I don't know what I had expected, but it turned out a lovely soft rusty peach color.



















It was fun when I unwrapped it... looked like a volcanic clothscape.



















Or... belly buttons!















This is what it looked like once ironed. Very subtle color variations and little moon-flowers. Have some dusky-peachy-rose colored DMC thread. Might see how I go with that today. If I can find the sun-cream I might stitch in the garden even.













I like this... it goes well with today's cloth!


Arlee Barr kindly informed me that the technique is part of what's called Shibori. I've been admiring this technique on other people's pages, but hadn't got that the pebble-wrapping bit was part of it. If you're interested in finding out more about this traditional art, then you should definately check out this link, to where master clothmaker, Jude Hill, has a plethera of posts relating to the subject, with some fabulous examples, great explainations and links to others who are far more skilled at Shibori than I probably ever will be! :)