Category — Blogging

There, it’s out. I was great at blogging regularly … a long time ago. Remember Tribe? Apparently, it still exists, but like many regulars back in the day, we got tired of getting jerked around and hightailed it out of there to find more functional pastures.

Then Facebook happened. Need I say more? Everybody’s on Facebook; your grandmother’s on FB, I bet. I spend a lot of time in solitary working at my craft, but a world of like-minded company is at my fingertips there whenever I need just a little reminder that the world hasn’t stopped. Facebook has been wonderful for me to connect with others from far and wide with similar creative afflictions. The quick and dirty status update is just the right kind of micro-blogging for me. At a quick glance, I can see what everybody in my new tribe has been up to. Neat. I didn’t know there were some many of you!

So what the heck have I been up to? Well, it’s the busy belly dance season, don’t you know. I think most of you know that I also have a day job. I wish I had a clone, but … I don’t. I think we all wish we had one, so I don’t feel special. It just is. I could cut down on sleep, but … no; that’s not for me.

I have been distracting myself once in a while. Distraction more often than not still involves more dye, but the end result doesn’t have to be a veil.

It may involve trying to find the perfect black gutta. Gutta that will wash out easily — I can’t stand the look or feel of gutta that’s been left onto silk –, yet leave a neat black dyed line after it’s set and washed. A quick dooddle on a scrap of silk might look like this :

I know what you’re thinking. Eeeww; what the heck is that?! It’s my first attempt at black gutta, so please forgive my lack of elegant technique. It’s not so bad when you throw in a little colour.

Yes, I know it’s bleeding through in a few places. Disastrous if it’s a good piece, but not so much if the intent was purely experimental. I managed to cover most of it up with the next colours, and the border (no pictures of that, sorry) is black which hides an infinity of sins.

Pretty cool, if somewhat demented. I think I like it!

Anybody remember the veil from one post down, Am I Blue ? I’ve been hacking it up to pieces, all with the intention of preserving it. The back story on that is that there are parts of this veil that deserve to be presented as art. A piece of fabric can be magnificent, but chances are its reception in the art world wouldn’t be a success. You need to frame it — not just physically — but also put it into the standard gallery context. That means mounting it somehow.

My first attempt : gallery canvas pre-made frame, padded with cotton batting, silk wrapped around the lot.  Undecided on the results.

Is that an ugly light switch or what? I left it in there for effect : The Beauty & The Beast. Not a great picture, but if I spent my time taking the best picture I could, I wouldn’t have time to blog right now.

Experiment 2 : Dorland’s wax medium. I got my hands on a small jar of this a couple of weeks ago and have been itching to spread it on something. First, mounted the silk directly onto canvas board with iron-on fusible. You have no idea how this stuff simplifies the process! (I’m going to document this process properly someday; promise) I just wish my silk had been a bit thicker, or my fusible a lot lighter because it melted right through the surface. Praise be, Teflon pressing sheets, or else I might not have been able to peel it off the iron. Here it is, in process, silk fused to thin canvasboard, one coat of Dorland’s brushed on lightly with a soft brush. I already like it. The silk gets darker and the details more apparent, just like when it is still wet.

I can work with that. Adding another coat of wax, melting it in smooth and dropping it into the recessed frame just to see what it might look like finished made me happy. When it’s cured — whenever that is — I’m going to buff it with a soft cloth to a satiny finish.

Yum, yum; yes, I’m liking it indeed. More bits of silk and framing experiments to come.

Please bear with me as I test out a new-to-me plugin. If you click on the image, you get a larger picture overlay, which is an improvement to my old method of linking to a different window. Any feedback about how this works out at your end would be greatly appreciated.

Here is “Am I Blue” hanging on Bambi. The patterning is exquisitely detailed and I’m having a very hard time deciding whether I want to sell it or not. That seems to be happening a lot lately!

Your patience with me is appreciated while my blog undergoes some maintenance and tweaking. Simple is best, but simple isn’t always that simple. The for sale page may look especially funny … for some reason that I haven’t been able to figure out yet, but it works … somewhat.

Yes, I am. Frenzied, that is. If I’ve been a bad, quiet blogger, that’s why. It’s not just because it’s the middle of a very long winter that takes its toll on my energy levels either.

Twice a year I go through this. Dye every piece of silk I possibly can so my local dancers can get their pick of the crop. Try out new things, pull out some old but loved techniques. Run the gamut of every colour scheme possibly imaginable. By the time I hang every thing on the rack ready to go, I’ve bewildered myself with the available selection.

Last weekend, I had an attack of the oranges. Orange makes me happy. It’s not a colour that people first think of, but when you see it splayed out in an interesting combination on a fine piece of silk it can be more than a little glorious. In costuming, it goes through phases; a couple of years ago I spent 3 months solid dyeing nothing but custom veils that were orange based. I didn’t like orange for a long while after that. I do very little custom work now so I don’t get caught stuck inside the box. The whims of fashion can be creativity killers.

So yes, I love orange, and I love mandalas too though I haven’t made very many veils in this technique for a long while it seems. I only made a couple so far, but damn … I’m good at it! I needed a reminder it seems. Somebody on eBay started selling mandala veils and the like a few years back for a disgraceful pitance, so that pushed my interest away from this technique. A shame really. There should be more of these beauties gracing the stage. Done well, they look like stained glass rose windows; quite stunning really.

Anyhow, to make a long story short, if you’re wondering why the blog nor the for sale page are being updated right now with the new pieces : it’s because I’m busy making and hording. For those of you in the region, do please come and see me Sunday, February 22nd at the Ottawa Dancer’s Bazaar. There’s lots of other vendors and artisans too presenting their wares for your sparkly shopping delight. Just follow the “events” link in the navigation bar for the where and when details.

It just dawned on me that I’m a terrible blogger. Nobody please count on me offering up daily pearls of wisdom or long winded accounts about the daily grind. I don’t think that’s what you’re here for, in fact, if I base it upon my own experience reading many other blogs … some people blog too much. Some people should be cut off. Not all thoughts are worthy of public consumption. I’m not that interesting.

Suddenly, I’m not feeling too guilty about not having written anything in a couple of weeks. Absence makes the heart grow fonder.

If you’re wondering what’s happening here, let me warn you — in case you don’t know this — that it’s belly dance high season : year end recitals and many, many public performances before the sultry lull of the summer. Which means that those of us involved in dance in some way, shape or another, are running off our feet trying to deliver costume pieces to make those dancers shine.

I am lucky at this point of my career that most of my clients realize that if they want something unique and custom that this takes time. Even when I make a reiteration of a previous pattern, I try to make that new piece unique in its own way. This takes time too; sometimes the creative process involves much thinking time. I’m not so much in the business of selling veils as I am in the business of making them, making something special. It’s the art of dyeing that moves me and I don’t mind going that extra mile, not so much to make the sale but to please the craftman in me. I like to see the end results evolve and I like to see myself continuously learn: from my last piece, from reading and studying anything and everything about dyeing and from watching my product and others move on the stage.

Speaking of which, one of my babies is making an appearance on a new video about to be released produced by Michelle Joyce and her Cheeky Girl Productions. It’s entitled By dancers for dancers, volume 3. At about 00:34, there’s a flash of Bahaia veil dancing with one of my babies, the original “Peacock Strut” actually. You can check out the clip on Youtube when you get the chance. (if you click on Youtube, the video should open in a different window; if it doesn’t, let me know!)

Oh my. Look at that. I’ve blogged too long! Picture in this post is from this weekend’s bumper crop of greens. A truly stunning rendition of the aurora borealis, if I may say so myself. I’m tickled pink by greens!