Category — Life in general

… just one : stunning.

This great shot of Oklahoma dancer Arastya with her “Mythical” silk veil is brought to you by photographer Ryan Potter of Lrn2Go.Photo.

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.

It has to be loved the way a laundress loves her linens,  
 the way she moves her hands caressing the fine muslins  
 knowing their warp and woof,  
 like a lover coaxing, or a mother praising.  
 It has to be loved as if it were embroidered 
 with flowers and birds and two joined hearts upon it.  
 It has to be stretched and stroked.  
 It has to be celebrated.  
 O this great beloved world and all the creatures in it. 
 It has to be spread out, the skin of this planet.

The trees must be washed, and the grasses and mosses.  
 They have to be polished as if made of green brass.  
 The rivers and little streams with their hidden cresses  
 and pale-coloured pebbles  
 and their fool’s gold  
 must be washed and starched or shined into brightness,  
 the sheets of lake water  
 smoothed with the hand  
 and the foam of the oceans pressed into neatness.  
 It has to be ironed, the sea in its whiteness.

and pleated and goffered, the flower-blue sea  
 the protean, wine-dark, grey, green, sea  
 with its metres of satin and bolts of brocade.  
 And sky – such an 0! overhead – night and day  
 must be burnished and rubbed  
 by hands that are loving  
 so the blue blazons forth  
 and the stars keep on shining  
 within and above  
 and the hands keep on moving.

 It has to be made bright, the skin of this planet  
 till it shines in the sun like gold leaf.  
 Archangels then will attend to its metals  
 and polish the rods of its rain.  
 Seraphim will stop singing hosannas 
 to shower it with blessings and blisses and praises  
 and, newly in love,  
 we must draw it and paint it  
 our pencils and brushes and loving caresses  
 smoothing the holy surfaces.   – “The Planet” © 1994 P.K. Page

Celebrated poet P.K. Page died January 14th, 2010 at the age of 93 in Victoria, B.C.  She will be missed.

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.

Time flies, especially when it’s time off. I haven’t been hard at work at all! What a wonderful feeling to have time to enjoy the tender buds of spring!

I will spare you the description of my rather mundane exploits while I was off and will leave you simply with a few pictures of new pieces added to the eBay store. I’m sure nobody wants to hear about my vacuum cleaner bursting into flames, the flower pot of dirt burting into flames on my balcony while I was away, or my coffee maker exploding its contents all over the kitchen. (there’s a theme happening there that I’m totally going to ignore and just call coincidence!)

I love “Pink Gothling”. I have no idea how I got the pink at the bottom to turn out with that wonderful undertone of violet in contrast to the darker cherry pink at the top. Great black shibori overdyeing marks.

Oooh… “Devil Woman” is so hot, and bad-a**. I’d love to see the look on a dancer’s face when she opens this one out for flight!

And this one, up for auction right now, starting at .99 cents :

I’m rather dissapointed with this one, as it’s a fantastic piece, but the silk is flawed throughout. I have to admit that I quality check this stuff at the microscopic level while I am ironing; I just can’t let that pass, but I don’t think I would miss much with that level of scrutiny. Five momme silk is so tender and shows warp and weft so clearly, it’s often flawed right off the bolt; not my favourite at all, but it’s my very last piece … ever!

I keep saying that, but keep finding stashes of it I didn’t remember stashing. I’m blaming my forgetfulness on the fact that I am now officially “grey powered” … lol.

It’s light as a feather though and the patterning and colours are out of this world gorgeous. Many dancers can make ultralight veils work for them and enjoy it, so up for auction it is so it finds a good home. Good luck!