Iyam

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!

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.

Celebration!

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! :)