Beyond Blue

It's been so long since I posted anything, I have been working so hard to get multiple projects done for multiple shows. But here is my latest, Beyond Blue. It's a spool/scroll book - an embroidered poem spooled around a seal knuckle bone, a map sewn into a piece of indigo dyed cotton, an agate from an ocean beach, and a salmon leather box I beaded together. The salmon leather was made by my sweetie, Billy.

I'll be making more salmon leather boxes, and I do have a few more bones to wind . . . so it's back to work time already!

Below is Mother's Measure, my first embroidered spool/scroll book.  It features two poems, the second a found text within the first. It celebrates my mother's dedication and sacrifice to sewing my clothes when I was young.

As a letterpress printer, I have always loved the way setting type has slowed me down and allowed me to take in each letter, sound, and the sometimes silliness of English. I am thinking that sewing texts has become an even slower, but necessary antidote to all the digital video work I am doing of late.

Lessons in Dyeing

Thank you Velma for telling me about the bedstraw–the red lines are exquisite. I owe you!

It seems ironic that when my mother died in December I suddenly was ready to bulldoze forward to experiment with dyeing paper–nearly 3 years since Velma taught me what to do! It's just two words that sound the same, but a funny coincidence none the less.

I am finding the contact plant dyeing process extremely rewarding. It is one more expression of lessons learned from the plant world. My life long passion for plants is largely due to my grandmother Alice - my mother's mother. When my grandmother died, through a last act of my grandmother, my slight interest in plants was suddenly transformed into something meaningful and vitally important. 

I don't mean to imply that now plant dyes are connected to my mother–just interesting timing with the words dying and dyeing. If anything, my connection to plants feels much more directly experiential and not sentimentalized. Some years back, when I wasn't paying attention, a great transformation happened. I no longer needed the plants to keep me close to my grandmother. Rather, I can be close to the plants for the the simple appreciation of the plants. And I can feel my grandmother without the plants to help me.

And when it come to people, I see these papers and think of Mary, Velma, and many other friends. I especially think of, and give thanks to, my sweetie Billy who works along side me in the creative process.

Learning from Velma

Right before I went back to school (a few years ago now), Velma Bolyard (Wake Robin) made a visit out West and we did some paper making and dyeing with plants. Finally, I have put her teaching into practice.

I will admit that I can be a slow learner, or at least slow on the action. When I buy or am given new clothes to wear they often sit in my closet a few months and then suddenly they are my favorite thing to wear till it falls apart.The same with a new dish or some beautiful piece of paper. It takes time for me to integrate something new into who I am.

Recently I made small pieces, just testing out different plant material.

But already, a moon book in the making. On the right - dandelion, a small violet, and grape hyacinths. Thank you Velma!