You may recall that I signed up for Josh Coffy’s Intersection Direction project. The idea is that 512 artists each contribute a 6″ square, based on a section of an image, resulting in a cool mosaic of work by many different artists. There are four images total, 128 artists per image. Mine comes from the “North” mural, which will look like this:
And here is the teeny-tiny square that I have (which is located in the middle, just to right of center, where the feathers disintegrate into the background):
Josh asked everyone to paint their images, but I wrote in and asked whether it would be OK to contribute a textile image. Josh said, “Great!” So I’ll be embroidering mine. I might throw in a bit of knitted lace in brushed mohair to give a more feathery feel to the piece. Or maybe not. It’s been a long time since I knitted anything, and I’m not sure I want to restart now.
Anyway, over the weekend I bought some linen evenweave fabric as a base for the embroidery. I scrunch-dyed it in a mix of cerulean blue, indigo, and very dark, muted turquoise. I also dyed a ton of silk and rayon ribbons for the embroidery. Together with the threads I bought, they make an exquisite palette:
In addition to the dyed silk ribbon, I’m also planning to use white silk ribbon, white brushed mohair yarn, and several of my dyed shades of 30/2 silk (for the color study) to complete the project. I plan to work on it while traveling to Fiber Celebration next week. I think it’s going to come out beautifully – it would be really hard to screw up with such beautiful materials!
In other news, I have finished revising the lesson plan and handouts for the design workshop I’m teaching next week. I still need to put together some presentations, and select samples to demonstrate how creative work evolves over the course of a piece, but the bulk of the work is done. That’s a load off my mind! Now I can focus on my other commitments, like the color study and the Complex Weavers Journal article I just agreed to write. The article is about using Photoshop to simulate complex color in weaving, and is for the Computer Aided Design Exchange study group (CADE), which is being featured in the Journal this issue. The deadline for the article is March 15, but the editor very graciously extended it to March 24, given the short time frame and my many other commitments this month. So I will work on that while traveling, too.
Not much has happened on the color study for the last few days. It turns out my replacement part wasn’t shipped until yesterday, meaning it won’t arrive until tomorrow. So I plan to repair the loom on Thursday morning, weave off the scarf, weave another sample in the brushed kid mohair, and then (finally!) cut the inaugural warp off the loom. I’m really hoping to get the color study on the loom this weekend. I have no other commitments, and there are only 832 threads in this warp, so I think this is feasible. After that I will need to weave like the wind to finish the color study (and associated article) by the March 31 deadline. No pressure, of course!
The kittens, of course, think all this busy-ness is silly, and are doing their best to provide role models for a more proper way of living. Here, for example, is Tigress, demonstrating the blissful joy of idleness:
Of course, that’s not quite fair. Once she’s done with her power nap, she’ll be running around the house like crazy. Just like me!
