TA DA Finished!

I'm pleased to show off the batik project, completed on schedule as planned. I decided to change the blog template so the autumn colors wouldn't clash with the "show-and-tell".
Scroll down to review the backgrounds, so you can compare the results.

Work in progress report

Most artists doing a blog will usually wait until they've finished a project before posting. I, however, want to document progress, and some of you (all 3 of you, ha! ;-) might like to follow along.
So, here is the initial work on my batik projects.
First, I used my leaf cookie cutter to apply the wax. Then I gave it a dye bath in yellow. Next, I waxed some of the leaves to have them remain yellow, then I painted the other leaves with dye and allowed it to dry. You'll notice that some of the dye ran outside of the initial lines, bleeding onto the yellow. I'm not terribly worried (yet), because I will wax the rest of the leaves, and finally I will put it in a brown-ish dye bath to dye the background. We'll see if it works.

I painted these backgrounds with dye,
and then I will wax patterns onto them, overdye them with a darker color (reminiscent of your childhood days, when you used your crayola crayons to color a heavy background, then colored heavily over it with black, then scratched out a design. O.K. Not quite like that, but maybe you get the picture.)
Tomorrow will be the overdyeing day, so will post the finished project Monday.
Happy weekend.

Back to Batik

I started my creative journey two years ago with Quilt University taking fabric dyeing classes with Marjie McWilliams. I figured without an art background, I could dunk chunks of fabric into colored water and be happy. From there I went on to shibori (tie-dye, basically), which started the hippie hobby. Then I tried batik, figuring I already knew how to dye. Now, I'm taking another batik seminar with Marjie, so you'll have to stay tuned for progress. For now, I'm posting a preview of some things I made last time around. I hope this time I improve.

You know how sometimes you're disappointed with a project when you first see the results? Then you put it in the drawer wondering what to do with it? Then you take it out a year later and are amazed you did it? That's how I feel right now. Wow, "Once upon a time, I made that....."
I'm thinking about quilting the sun face. Now I'm getting courage enough to stitch with fancy threads. Wait for the "rest of the story."

The Art of a Poem

Maybe the original intent of this blog was to post evidence of my hobby/craft, and though I'm a beginner as an "artist" (notice: still in quotations), I think I've always had the heart and soul of one. One hint of this is that I have always loved poetry passionately. It speaks so deeply and so clearly to me. So today's post is not visual, physically, but visual emotionally. Isn't that what art is, to bring into physicality a deep emotion? Poetry does that so beautifully. Thanks to my friend, Paula, for passing along this gem.

TO BE CONTENT WITH WHAT IS GIVEN
by Roseann Lloyd

to sit in your car at the wayside rest
watching the seagulls
high over the water
somehow they're backlit even though
the fog has taken the sun

to be ordinary
to stop and read every sign on the Nature Trail
unashamed of taking this day hike
this easy hike
hard-driving backpackers scorn

to be present to your life
to walk in the green sweetness
of the spring woods
feeling your winter stiffness as you walk
mindful yet not minding
everyone has scars

to be content with what is given
to take in the dusty sun smell on the piney path
new earth released from snow
to say all the names of the wildflowers
knowing they won't stick in your mind tomorrow
mertensia bunchberry blue-eyed grass

to be gentle to yourself
to walk slowly along the creek
watching the sparkle of rocks in water
pink and gold and silver
the rusty color of root beer
to stand like a cow in the mud

to be open to ordinary pleasures
to watch the fat moon rise
over the lake over
the cliff where the cliff swallows fly
to accept the gift of not knowing
before you got here
that the moon would be full.