Indigo excitement!

I will going to help harvest indigo at Rowland and Chinami Ricketts indigo farm this weekend. I am sure it will be hard work, but it is really exciting to see how this process works. This is their first indigo harvest on their farm and Rowland's e-mail says that the indigo has loved the cool rainy summer we have had. I hope he will let us take some pictures to record the event so I can post on here.

SteamPunk?

http://www.flickr.com/groups/steampunk/pool/

Totally new to me is SteamPunk, but very interesting in concept. Some of the work here is fantastic and others are obviously crafty. But you have to start somewhere right? Who doesn't like an excuse for adults to play dress up? I need to be doing other things but there is just too much eye candy to look at...

My pretty baby!

So how is this pic related to my blog? This is Miss Coco, named for THE Coco because she is so elegant. One of my fave Coco quotes "When accessorizing, always take off the last thing you put on." So true! You can be too overdone--and so can art--it can be over thought out.



And another quote from Chanel "How many cares one loses when one decides not to be something but to be someone." I ran into a former student the other day and she told me that a lesson I had taught had a profound influence on her and that she still remembers what I had taught her and I was still important to her because of that. So I hope that means I achieved at least once not being just a teacher, but Mrs. B who meant something. It meant so much to me that I had reached one person and I hope there are more out there.

Scooby Doo Where Are You?

While at Arrowmont, my room mate, the wonderfully talented Michelle Cox, and I went over to the abandoned amusement park that is adjacent to the Arrowmont property. It was almost sunset, and everything was kind of surreal looking. We collected some interesting bits of debris for her to use in her encaustics and took some pictures on the abandoned mountain lift. It definitely had that Scooby Doo quality to the experience. When someone moved inside what we had thought was a rusty old abandoned truck we decided it was time to head back...........

More from Arrowmont 2009

Some pics from the finished work from Arrowmont 2009. The yellow is actually an acid dye but the other colors are from natural dyes--persimmon, cutch, cochineal, madder with an iron mordant to darken them. The peach and pink scarf is madder (the peachy) and cochineal (the pink). The peach and pink scarf had a spot where some of the rice paste resist smeared a little. That led to an interesting conversation with our instructor about handmade vs. machine made. Does this tiny glitch make it less valuable or more because it has the mark of the human hand? In Japan, our instructor told us, some of the artisans who actually make perfect work will deliberately make a tiny error in an inconspicuous spot to show that it is handmade and not machine printed.

Busy Days

Things have been busy in the Bullington household--keeping me away from studio time! I think the balancing act of home and studio has to be challenge for any artist and their families. It is no wonder so many artists ended up being alone. I have to give my dear hubby credit for putting up with my art habit, even helping me when needed. He at least understands my urge to create things and how that becomes a priority over dusting. So the house has gotten really dusty lately and we are in the middle of doing some late spring (yes, I know it is summer) cleaning. The problem with spring cleaning is that I find supplies or projects I had forgotten about and I get distracted from what I had planned to do when I have studio time. For example, I found some double point needles, sock yarn and an instruction book for knitting socks. So now I have some hats unfinished because I started trying to teach myself the magic of shaping toes and turning heels! My husband has suggested I make a "boom board" and get a timer to help me plan projects (both home and studio) and stay on task and manage my time better. I am drawn to the idea like a moth to a flame--afraid it will burn up all spontaneity. I long to be one of those organized people, but love how I can let go of the schedule and go with the moment. It is a real challenge. Pics of the socks in progress to come soon and back to finishing up Arrowmont posts!

Shibori Artists group on Facebook

Shibori Artists group on Facebook

In an effort to connect with other artists interested in shibori, I started a group on Facebook. It is growing slowly but surely, and I am meeting some really nice people that share my interest in shibori. I hope that as the group grows, we can get some dynamic discussions going. I love seeing their work and how they are using shibori in different ways.

HAORI from the Taisho Period (1920 ish?)

I was able to win the bidding for this haori from Japan on e-bay. It is quite lovely with the contrast of the indigo and yellow and white of the silk. I am not quite sure what the yellow dye is. I am hoping that I can get Rowland to look at it sometime this summer and give me his valued opinion. The roses remind me of those of Charles Rennie Mackintosh as can be seen on the USA storefront for his designs. The lines of the roses are created with ori nui stitching--the cloth is folded on the line and running stitches through both layers of the cloth are placed close to the folded edge. Ori Nui creates a pattern that resembles a row of teeth. The roses centers are, I believe, ne-maki or thread resisted rings. In ne-maki, a point of fabric is drawn up on a special tool and a ring of thread is knotted over the point of fabric. The leaves of the roses are created by maki-age where the outlines are stitched, drawn up tight and then the cloth inside the lines is pleated and wrapped with thread. Kumo or spider web shibori was used to create the yellow shapes. The center is drawn up and the cloth is carefully pleated around that point and then wrapped with thread.






I really love this piece and I am proud to be able to have it in my collection.

maurices Project Handbag Finalist: Cathy Bullington

maurices Project Handbag Finalist: Cathy Bullington

Hey! They still have this posted. Okay that was self-indulgent of me wasn't it?

Mokume Shibori Tutorial

Another one from my archives on my computer! Let's see if I can embed this correctly....

I made this video (really more of a slide show) for my students when I was trying to teach them shibori. I have arthriitis starting in my hands, and to save my hands from the endless demos, I put this together so they could just hit play anytime they needed to see the process again. Hopefully, others will find it helpful! I now have a video camera thanks to Inspiration software and the lesson plan I wrote. I hope to have my students help me make a video of several different types of shibori this coming school year.