The Art of Gardening

At this time of the year, I like to escape the studio to spend time in my garden.

I love the smell of the warm earth after a long cold winter. As if reading my mind, my friend Gerry Glavin sent me this funny story.

An old man lived alone in nearby Kingston County. He wanted to plant his annual tomato garden, but it was very difficult work, as the ground was hard.

His only son, Vincent, who used to help him, was in prison. So he wrote a letter to his son and described his predicament:

Dear Vincent,
I am feeling pretty sad, because it looks like I won't be able to plant my tomato garden this year. I'm just getting too old to be digging up a garden plot. I know if you were here my troubles would be over. I know you would be happy to dig the plot for me, like in the old days. Love, Dad

A few days later he received a letter from his son.

Dear Dad,
Don't dig up that garden. That's where the bodies are buried.
Love, Vinnie

At 4 a.m. the next morning, the RCMP and local police arrived and dug up the entire area without finding any bodies. They apologized to the old man and left.

That same day the old man received another letter from his son.

Dear Dad,
Go ahead and plant the tomatoes now.
That's the best I could do under the circumstances.
Love you, Vinnie

midnight garden...sorta

Well here they are -- altogether on a dark background (dark mulberry hand-dye) that lets their individual colour modulations peer through. This piece is off to the shop. Hopefully Jennifer can add some finishing touches. I think that it shows what can be done with Angelina fibres, which was the purpose of this piece in the first place.

I plan to pick more of this stuff as I am now addicted to the immediacy and forgiving nature of the 'hot press' process. I think that a lot more can be done with this stuff, but I have to stop. I have just received notice that my class at Haliburton is a go!!
Alright! Given that I love to teach almost as much as being in studio, I am looking forward to this week-long session later this month.
Gotta go dig up my class notes...

Glitter Wall

I am progressing with these Angelina drawings and this stuff is really growing on me (pun intended). I have bits of shiny stuff clung to all manner of surfaces including me. I have used up three bags so far with one more to go. I only have blue left. The challenge will be to alter the shades with entrapped bits of fabric, wool etc. A nice discovery has been how amenable the stuff is to recycling. The cut out bit from the previous drawing can be included and pressed down with the next piece - nothing is wasted.



The spiral above is made with film.

What to do with dreaded Angelina??

Some love this stuff, others hate it.

I know some even refuse to have it their studio. I have been among this crowd...as I am usually suspicious of sparkly stuff. So why am I wasting my time fiddling with this stuff? My friend Jennifer, who owns a quilt shop, tells me that up here in the Thousand Islands region, Angelina is hot- hot - hot. Many of her customers buy the stuff, want to use it but some run into difficulty trying to integrate it into their quilts. Others overuse it. She has asked me to try it out and ''...come up with something.''

Given that I am interested in exploring what this seduction with Angelina is all about and that I love a challenge, I have decided to take another look at a product that I have previously dismissed. So, I spent this past weekend fiddling with all kinds of Angelina, the shredded stuff the we all know and the newer film.

This is a pick of the shredded candy wrapping- paper like stuff that self-sticks when heated. And next shot is the newer film - same as the shredded angelina but not shredded. Hmm.


This was my first try. A real piece of Angelina GROT.


I think that as a base rule, ''when coming up with something...'' it is important that at a minimum, the effort MUST yield something that looks better than the original product!

Here is another example of Angelina GROT - Yuck!
From a process perspective, I can understand why this stuff tends to be overused as it is fast and easy to work with. It it sticks to itself yet is not sticky, it doesn't ravel and there are no fumes - but other than decorative applications I am having a difficult time finding a serious application.
More yuck - with this piece I entrapped yarn between two layers of the shredded stuff - e-gads!

It was time STOP and check out the garden.
I needed a little nature study to remind myself to stop what I was doing.

I discovered part of my problem... there was no way that Angelina with all its reflective surfaces, could come any way near with what is out there
Back in the studio I went for a different focus. Instead I put Angelina to the task of helping me to express something more personal, more abstract. So, I ironed several 8 x 10 sheets of Angelina, trapping bits of film, wool, roving etc. then I drew directly on these sheets with a marker. Better.

Here is another one.

I liked the drawings so I cut them out and pinned them up on the wall.


This is where I'm at with this. So far so good and I am not done yet wrestling with this stuff. :-))

Just in case....

you ever wondered how your sewing machine really works...check out this link. My friend Mary Pal sent this to me and I was mesmerized. It's downright hypnotic.

Year of the RAT - Happy New year!

Isn't he/she cute? This rat almost made itself from the pine needles of a Christmas wreath I made two weeks ago. These needles are everywhere and rather than vacuuming (bo-oring) I made a rat, much more fun.

So here is a challenge to anyone out there - make a new year's rat out of anything lying around -pine needles, pine cones, wrapping ribbon or other.

Now how do I to preserve this thing?

Avalon Film

Has anybody tried this stuff?
I picked some up the other day at my friend Jennifer's (Picket fence Fabrics), and I have not been able to stop playing with it. My other work has been set aside (alas!) temporarily until I can get this out of my system. Jennifer could only give me 6 feet as she has had a run on this stuff, no wonder - it is soooo much fun!

It consists of a transparent plastic film that is water soluble (don't even sneeze on it...). The idea is that you 'sandwich' bits and pieces of whatever (fabric, paper, thread etc.) between two layers of this Avalon stuff and then sew through all three layers at will. You then spritz the resulting fabric with water - voila - new fabric, held together by thread.

Above, a school of fish sandwich awaiting the sewing machine.

Surface Design Journal

This is a favourite quarterly to reach my mailbox. Yum yum yum.
Oddly enough my copy comes in a white envelope with a very large array of Hong Kong stamps, a total of eleven. The red ones in the picture are worth $2.40 each (Hong Kong dollars), the blue ones $1.80 each, and the green ones are $1.40 each for a grand total of $21. That's odd, as one of my fiber friends who lives in NJ tells me that her copy was mailed to her from somewhere in the States.
The return address on my envelope is:
Silex Ent.& Printing Co.
24 Peacock road
North Point
Hong Kong
Ah, the mysteries of the publishing business!