Category — Blogs

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!

Technically speaking, the past few months have been nothing but hellish for Shibori Borealis. My website was hijacked by internet drug companies, the database that drives my WordPress installation was corrupted, my business email is still not working right … the list goes on. Which only goes to prove the point that one shouldn’t put all their eggs in one basket, or service provider in my case. It seems so easy just to pay one company for everything, but when things go wrong, they all go at once and you’re stuck on a desert island blowing in the wind … without the help that you thought you were paying for.

I’ve managed to recover most of this website from old backups and bits and pieces, but there are some posts and comments missing. Not bad considering I had to figure out how to do that myself; there’s been a lot of head scratching going on here. I could have paid somebody new to help me out with my problems, but the cash just wasn’t there to do so; neither would I have learned what I did learn from this experience by managing to keep things somewhat running myself. I’m still having issues with the “info” email address, but I’m giving out an alternative on the contact page in case you need to get a hold of me.

As you might have noticed, I have practically nothing left on eBay. The store will be closed any second now. If I have any pieces to auction off, I can still use eBay for that and you will be the first to know right here first. It took a long time to make the decision to move to another venue, but I finally reached my last straw of disgust. I’m looking forward to presenting my work alongside more like-minded artisans. I don’t know if it’s going to fly, but seeing that it’s the quiet time of the dance year, it will give me some time to get my act together.

I encourage you to visit my new shop on Etsy and favorite me if you wish. Your encouragement might very well stop me from having a mental breakdown about my decision. You can find me here : http://shiboriborealis.etsy.com

I’d also like to take this opportunity to say that I’m sorry, and thank everybody for their patience if they’ve been caught in the never-never-land of my technical problems in the past few months.

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.

Just when I thought I had everything under control, the blog/website decides to go on the fritz. So sorry for the very bland new look. It’s a bandaid until I can sit still long enough to figure out what’s going on.