Crafting Chaos

Leaves and a scarf

I’ve made more leaves for the Green Man. This is some wool I bought at that sweet yarn sale I went to last year.

I’m planning on felting these.

In other knitting news, I’ve started a scarf for my friend Helen. I’m going to make her a version of my scarf hoodie.

I’m using my handspun three ply and the Mountain Colors yarn I bought in Seattle.

1 comment March 5th, 2010

My furry assistant helps with the Green Man

I’ve been sewing, sewing, sewing leaves onto the Green Man. Prana has been helping:

I’ve been working on a new leaf. I found this pattern via Crafty Galore’s blog. This is acrylic boucle so I took Prana’s cat brush to fluff up the leaves.

Speaking of Prana, he wanted to help with the photoshoot:

This is one of my favorite photos of him. I call it “Prana in the wooly jungle”

Add comment February 25th, 2010

Mother piece project

I finally started the central figure of my mother art piece.

I had put it off because I hate dolls. They just seem like brainwashing to make girls think they should have babies. Abbey told me to think of it as a figure. That worked for me. Here’s the figure on the womb for scale:

Then came time to open the figure’s womb. As I sat on my bed and cut the stomach open with scissors, I felt movement in my entire body. It was like a weight moving down my face, arms, stomach and thighs. It was intense.

I’ve also been researching images of Endometriosis. Not pretty. But it does translate well to fiber art:

The woven universe piece needs to hibernate for awhile so the Mother piece is going to be in this year’s Beyond The Fringe.

2 comments February 20th, 2010

Woven universe progress pics

The Green Man is going along great. The Woven Universe…not so much. Here’s some embroidery I later frogged:

It was supposed to be symmetrical then just wasn’t. I tried to accept that but couldn’t let it go.

This spiral of creation is nice though:

And this little star and purple bit of space both worked out well:

My vision for this piece just isn’t matching the reality. SO frustrating! Artist angst…blah blah blah.

Add comment February 14th, 2010

More Green Man leaves

I’ve been working on more leaves for the Green Man. These are my Pinon branches:

I knit I-cord and then threaded bits of green yarn randomly through them. It took awhile but I’m pretty happy with the results.

The next batch are rain forest leaves.

Like I’ve mentioned before Prana loves the Green Man project. He insisted on being in this photot shoot. Apparently he thinks the leaves need more felting:

1 comment February 10th, 2010

Green Man progress

I sewed some leaves onto the Green Man canvas.

Prana loves the Green Man. He acts like it’s half cat bad/half cat toy. He just noms on the leaves so I let him get away with it. I figure he’s helping me to felt the fleece down when he makes biscuits on it.

Oh man, I need to make a bunch more leaves! I have about forty more to add today.

A close up:

But it’s turning out like my vision so that’s good.

2 comments January 30th, 2010

Flaming Womb

I added flames around the womb for my Mother piece. These are dyed mohair locks that I got at last year’s Wool Fest.

You know those flaming hearts that are sometimes in religious paintings? I find them both repulsive and fascinating. Those paintings inspired my flaming womb.

There is so much anger and resentment between my mother and I. I’ve also had anger and resentment toward my own womb. My periods have always been painful. This piece is part of my healing. I want to release the anger and the resentment and the pain so I’m pouring it into this art.

I’ve also added scars. The meaning is twofold. The scars represent my relationship to my mother-we are both emotionally scarred from it. While researching Endometriosis I learned that the womb can develop scar tissue. I don’t know if I have scar tissue but I probably do. My mother certainly does because she had a hysterectomy. The scars are black because the wounds are toxic. The stitches over the scars are blood because the blood heals the wound.

December’s period was the worst I’ve ever had-fourteen days total of bleeding. The second half was spotting but still-it freaked me out. I took it as a wake up call and changed my diet. I’m on a low fat, low dairy, low sugar, low caffeine, high fiber diet. Cutting back on coffee is by far the hardest sacrifice.

But this month’s period was way better. Five days of normal period, four days of spotting. I felt relieved at my improvement. After more research I suspected I had a Progesterone deficiency. I started taking wild yam pills and cream. So far I haven’t noticed much difference. But my hands are now warm which is new; I’ve always had cold hands.

The mother piece hasn’t been worked on this year. The Beyond The Fringe artists can only have two pieces of art in this year’s show. I need to make time to work on it again soon. It just feels like I should.

2 comments January 24th, 2010

Woven canvas

I finished my woven canvas and took it off the loom.

Most of the yarn is my handspun. The bright blue variegated yarn is leftover yarn from my Water goddess.

It’s six feet long and fourteen inches wide. I can’t believe it’s taken me since September just to weave the canvas. The show is in March-I’m feeling the deadline!

This piece is tentatively called Spinning Into Creation. The Goddess stretches her arms and galaxies, planets, moons and stars form.

I’m going to have parts of it coming off the canvas. I think that’s a cool effect.

Add comment January 7th, 2010

Beyond The Fringe 2010

Beyond The Fringe
A fine fiber art exhibition

Venue
The Stables Gallery
133 Paseo del Pueblo Norte
Taos, NM 87571
(575)758-2052

March 26, 2010 through April 1, 2010
Opening Reception: March 26, 2010, 5-8pm

There will be workshops happening during the week.
Beyond the Fringe Workshops

Concept
Invited artists have been asked to create pieces for the exhibit “Beyond the Fringe”. Work submitted is to be fine fiber artwork that is non-functional, non-wearable, weaving, felt, knit, crochet, cloth, embroidery,and quilt in a two or three dimensional form.

Contact curator Merce Mitchell at mercemitchellathotmaildotcom for more information.

Artists

Violette Alby
Linda Berger
Linda Michel-Cassidy
Connie Fernandez
Lois Fernandez
Kimberly Hamill
Carolyn Hinske
Jana Greiner
Twilight Kallisti
Mary K. Lyon
Merce Mitchell
Nina Silfverberg
Faith Welsh
Karen Wittwer
Abigail Z

This post will be updated frequently.

2 comments January 5th, 2010

Beyond The Fringe 2009

There’s going to be a Beyond The Fringe 2010! The page “Beyond The Fringe” will be for the event in general and will link to this post and one for the 2010 show.

Beyond The Fringe
A fine fiber art exhibition

Venue
The Stables Gallery
133 Paseo del Pueblo Norte
Taos, NM 87571
(575)758-2052

April 3, 2009 through April 7, 2009

Opening Reception
April 3, 2009, 5-7 pm

Concept
Invited artists have been asked to create pieces for the exhibit “Beyond the Fringe”. Work submitted is to be fine fiber artwork that is non-functional, non-wearable, weaving, felt, knit, crochet, cloth, embroidery,and quilt in a two or three dimensional form.

Contact curator Merce Mitchell at mercemitchellathotmaildotcom for more information.

Artists
Violette Alby
Noel Anderson
Pat Dozier
Connie Fernandez
Lizzie Gulick
Kimberly Hamill
Carolyn Hinske
Mary K. Lyon
Merce Mitchell
Nina Silfverberg, progress pictures here
Twilight
Faith Welsh, progress pictures here and here
Abigail Z

Art from the show is here and opening reception pics are here.

Progress pics can be found under the Beyond The Fringe category.

Add comment December 28th, 2009