Sunday, April 26, 2020

waltzing psychology inconsumably



When you have time the soul begins to decipher things more and more.  -John O’Donnohue

And we do know what it means to 'have time' these days.  It's just a question of how we use it.  I'm in the studio now to pick up my little knitting 'machine' that every 6 year old has-  remember nailing 4 nails into a wooden spool and making yarn snakes up through the center hole?  Well that's it except mine is now made of sparkly pink plastic, cost money from the craft store, comes with YouTube directions for the terminally inept and I am using it to make iCord to add onto my latest shawl.  I figure making snakes is good for quite a few Netflix series since I don't have to actually look at what I'm doing!  Here's the shawl, so versatile, I can wear it so many ways:
 
Shawl needs iCord, I need iBrows

The other thing I have decided is that the latest quilt about Raccoons actually needs RACCOONS.  So I have been mining the inter webs for good pictures and have collected a mess of them BUT my printer is having a problem printing solids black, which I need for their masks.  So much for the easy fix.  Now I am taking the printed images and over-embroidering them which will look better in the end but be a pita to accomplish-  thread painting ain't my thing.  But I have to stretch myself and do it so I have the Rave of Raccoons that I need.  How could I not use this little guy?
                                          

And that brings me to the Squirrel o' the Day, as a Girl Scout badge!





Time now for your AHHHT LESSON!




Artist Ava Roth loves working on collaborative projects. But her studiomates aren’t fellow two-footed friends. Rather, Roth pairs with her backyard honeybees to create mixed media collages combining embroidery, beadwork, fabric, tree bark, and honeycomb. 
Roth pairs with her backyard honeybees to create mixed media collages combining embroidery, beadwork, fabric, tree bark, and honeycomb. The Toronto-based artist builds artworks inside the comb frames, and the bees complete the pieces by encasing them in organic honeycomb patterns. “This project is a collaboration in the truest sense. It involves careful listening, respecting the bees, and cooperating with them entirely, from the choice of materials, size, timing and scope of design,” 

The artist explains that she had been working in encaustic, a painting technique that incorporates wax, for several years, and decided to start collaborating with her bees as she learned more about Colony Collapse Disorder and sought to uplift and honor the bee’s work.


The threadwork in this collection mirrors the fragility and beauty of the honeycomb in which they are encased. By placing the embroideries in hoops, I am also giving a nod to a tradition of women’s work. Since the working bees are all female – and not making ‘fine art’, the finished pieces are very much in the tradition of marginalized women’s work, and sewing in particular. Because both the bees work and traditional women’s work have been largely functional, their beauty and significance have been easily overlooked.


Well, time to get myself and doggie outta the studio-  we are having a hail storm and I guess that's a signal to give it up for the day.
                                                                       Sequestered Sandy (and Ollie-as-shawl)

                                         (note we have the same color hair!)

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