Diana Trout's blog

Tales from the Dyepot

Thank you for your birthday wishes. It was a lovely peaceful day and I'm well and truly 57.

Funny thing about dyeing, especially of the botanical sort; things so often go awry. Last week, I very carefully rolled up some botanicals that were leftover from a flower bouquet. Eucalyptus (of the little round sort and apparently not of the dyeing sort) and a whole bunch of runuculus petals of a delightful orange.

The cloth was well mordanted and I rolled real careful like India Flint says. The ideal was to let it sit for a month or so. "Ahem," thinks meself,"I'll steam them." I also sort of ignored the part about pressing the leaves for a while. I clearly didn't have the tape wrapped around my classes tight enough.

It was a busy day and evening with the nearly-weds arriving and the bridal shower on Saturday. There were jokes about what Mom is cooking and naked fear on the face of the son who was afraid it was some kind of icky sausage he'd be expected to eat.

Miss Bess and I lay foot-to-foot on the sofa that evening gabbing away. I really REALLY thought that I'd turn the pot off. 

Well, not so much. Burnt bundle bottom. I let it soak outside till Sunday, opened it up and discovered nothing much had happened.

But in the spirit of transparency and the hopes that you realize that this blog is for real and not being carried about by fairies. I offer this story.

We are off to NYC for a long weekend old friends. Back on Tuesday (or Monday if I'm feeling energetic).

Another Year Older

Magically overnight, I turned from 56 to 57! Imagine that. I dressed this morning, looking forward to breakfast out with my pal. In the kitchen, there is a lovely vase of daffodils with a note from the man. The note said,  "It's your party, you can smile if you want to." etc. 

I am having a bit of trouble with birthdays for the past couple of years. Somehow the old "It's just a number" thing feels like an empty platitude. Vanity, I suppose. 

 

Hoping my shadow is gentle and larger than me

 It's rainy here today. That is very nice because I remember a birthday when I was young, 8 or 9. My mother was still alive so it was before I was 11. It rained on that day and she made a tea party for us inside. Not unusual for April but unusual for my birthday. 

I will think today of all of the people I love and am grateful for. That is the sign of the years. Not being loved, but the act of loving. It is powerful.

Happiness and gratitude to you, dear readers. You so often delight me and make me ponder. 

Fabric Collage

A fresh start. Just playing with composition, color and pattern. 

Some of my prints, hand dyes, Some pieces from other, more experienced dyers than I. Back to the stitch.

Thank you for your kind comments on Karen Hunter-McLaughlin's work. Meg Grugan is up next in this series of Artists I Love. 

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Kanzashi Flowers

Another chapter in the DIY Wedding. After lovely daughter found her wedding dress for a 100 bucks, we took it to a local (and fabulous) seamstress for some alterations. A bit of pink chiffon here and there and all it needed was a few pink chiffon flowers.

"Oh! No problem," says daft mother of the bride. I've made simple five petal Kanzashi flowers before using (fused interfaced) silk and cotton. Kanzashi flowers are a traditional Japanese craft. Some can be very intricate. I binged on them a couple of years ago using the simplified instructions in Kanzashi in Bloom. Diane Gilleland uses glue for the flowers. I use needle and thread. Crazed purist.

Chiffon is a totally different beast. There were some swear words, there was some sweat. I found this little gadget and the language and temperature improved. I love the Clover products and this is a neat tool which would be pretty simple if you are using cotton and handy with the needle and thread.

If you have some kind of crazy gene and you want to do Kanzashi in chiffon, here's what to do. First get a  big bottle of fray check. Follow the instructions on the flower maker, remove the sewn petal from the gadget and trim the excess seam allowance down. Run a bead of fray check around the piece.  After the 5 flowers are on the thread and you've pulled all the petals in tight,  run more fray check around the center. Tie off and stitched a bead in the center. A flower an hour and head shaking from the husband and son. 

The dress looks beautiful. But you'll have to wait till after the wedding to see the whole thing. 

Guest Blogger; Karen Hunter-McLaughlin

 

Milky Way, Karen Hunter McLaughlin

Let me introduce Karen Hunter-McLaughlin. Karen is one of my beloved MamaCITA's and she is guest blogging for me today. You see Karen's web-mastery each time you visit my blog. She's the one who wrangled up this site for me, cleaned me up and keeps me straightened out. 

 

Here's what she has to say 

 

I have always loved bold, beautiful, saturated color. Maybe it stems from my love of flowers. I remember when I was young and my father grew a single red poppy plant. We never failed to be totally amazed by the rich deep red set against its deepest blueblack center.

 

Poppy, Karen Hunter Mclaughlin

 

To this day flowers are a subject matter to which I always return. And I now also have a single red poppy plant. Happy Spring everyone! 

NewQueen, Karen Hunter McLaughlin

Karen is working on a new series of embellished relief prints the will include her favorite flower subjects as well as some newer work inspired by childhood memories.

When she's not making art, Karen can be found geeking out at her computer developing websites for other like-minded creatives. 

Karen's Art website: www.karen-hunter-mclaughlin.com

If you need web-wrangling ... www.kmdigitaldesign.com

I adore Milky Way because I feel like I am going to be sucked right up into that tangled beauty. Which is YOUR favorite?  

Stitch

Stitch, paint, dye, thread. These are my tools right now.

Painted Cloth

Samplers at the moment (they evolve each day) and painted cloth. Thoughts come and go with the rythmic movement of thread through cloth. 

I feel very quiet right now.

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Today ...

I am feeling a bit sad. A confluence of my upcoming birthday and a bit of sadness with a good friend who was just fired (!) from a job she loved and did well because she is now older and, therefore, undesirable. Why pay one person a lot of money when they can pay 5 younger people a tiny bit? Oh dear, no. I won't rant right now.

I am working on samplers right now. Tried to take some pictures but they came out very poorly. A friend going through my work last night said "A Journal of Stitch." Yes.

I wanted to thank you all for participating in the last two post conversations. Such a rich response. I keep sending out replies to you via email but nothing is getting onto the blog. What gives Typepad? 

Sewing lesson today on resizing a pattern for my dress for The Wedding. More to come on this. I've been busy with craft and sewing projects for the wedding and will share with you. 

Craftsmanship in Art

Amazing set of comments on Wednesday's post. I hope you'll read through. Now here's the sticky question: how do you manage to improve your craft without freezing yourself with thoughts of "I'm not good enough and I'll never be good enough."? 

Boo writes that she is "accused" of being a perfectionist. Yeah, me too. I ignore those folks and see it as craftsmanship. (And btw, I've responded to all of your comments but they aren't showing up in the list - did you get my replies?)

If you can view other's artwork and craftsmanship as an inspiration to you, this is a good thing. It pushes you forward to make your work speak stronger. Alonquin notes that she's worked hard on her drawing skills over the years and used to confuse this skill with talent. I believe that talent is part of the human condition: it is a desire to communicate (in any artform). The craftsmanship (drawing, for instance) can be learned. Artists are often described as craftsmen in terms of their draftsmanship or drawing. 

I knew a little girl - all grown up now. She would sing at the top of her voice off-key. It may have been torturous for some but to me it was delightful. A big joyful sound. Someone finally told her that she sang off key and that was the end of that glorious song. She could have learned if someone had taken the time. It still breaks my heart.

I loved Jill's story as well. Beautiful Oops by Jamie Lee Curtis is her recommendation and she read it to her children. Beautiful. Karen makes the distinction between a critical eye and a judgemental eye. Read her comment! 

Jeannie has a fabulous story as well about her carpenter-father. Oh my. There is much more to be said. Sing it, sisters! 

Note: I'm devoting my art time on my embroidery craftsmanship. It hasn't stopped me from working on my new art pieces. I'm just slowing down, experimenting and learning 

Perfectionism and Craftsmanship

Perfectionism and Craftsmanship is a topic I've been wanting to bring up for awhile now. I've given this a lot of thought over the years. Shall we discuss? This will be posted in the Taming the Critic category.

From Anthem, by Leonard Cohen

A perfectionist, as I define it, constantly criticizes her work. The notion that the work is not perfect inhibits the individual's ability to show her work or take any pride in it. This harsh attitude brings the creative process to an abrupt halt, you can't progress in your craft. I'm not sure about this, but I think it's a confidence issue. 

A devotion to craftsmanship is the artist's ability to look critically at her work and and see what could be improved and how. I take great pride in my craftsmanship and deeply respect it in others. The craft in everything from writing, to dance, to music to painting inspires me to better my craftsmanship. Craftsmanship = practice.

Here is the link to the original post on Taming the Critic. If you click on Taming the Critic under Categories in the sidebar, you'll have all of the posts in this topic. 

This post just touches the surface of my thoughts on this. I have more posts planned delving a bit further. And I'm sure many of you will have lots to say :)

In the meantime, the chorus of Anthem by Leonard Cohen is quite thought-provoking

Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack in anything
That's how the light gets in

 

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