Abundance Is A Bandage!

Felt button making today was a little like baking cookies. Sofie helped. These were dyed in a simmering bath of dye and vinegar and salt, decorated with french knot dots out of perle cotton. Stitched to a safety pin back.
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Internet auto-translation can be such a rich experience. Any writer can become two, or even three, times better than she ever imagined through this simple application. In my last post about creativity and inspiration, I tried to say that self-censorship is my biggest problem to overcome, and felt I had expressed that idea as well as I could. That is, until I came across an internet site that substitutes any writer's words with synonyms, starting with letters from the beginning of the alphabet. I've no idea why the site exists, but there it was, and this is what I found.

In my version I wrote: "I wonder, Why do I stop myself? I'm actually not doing anything alarming, or earth shakingly over-the-edge. It's only a scarf, and mine is a scarf with crooked edges, and bright moments."

Observe the transformation magic of robot internet synonymization:

... I wonder, Why do I stop myself? I'm absolutely not accomplishing annihilation alarming, or apple shakingly over-the-edge. It's alone a scarf, and abundance is a bandage with agee edges, and ablaze moments.

See how much better?

In Tina Fey's words, rephrasing the lyric "Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose", "A synonym's just another word for the word you want to use...."

Looming Lempi

Deep Diving scarf, plain weave & Rosepath, linen, cotton, silk mixed wefts on Swedish cotton warp.

Creativity, inspiration, borrowing, copying. Where do the ideas come from? For me, they spring from many sources. Some that I'm aware of, and others that I'm not. I'm someone who believes she knows her own mind, but come to find out, I'm too close to the forest to see the trees.

I'm old enough to know there's nothing new under the sun, everything we can do has been done by someone before us. But not quite the way we will make it. That's the way imagination works. It spills, and moves from person to person. Ideas are meant to travel. I've met artists, weavers, who try never to look at anyone else's work, so they'll be sure never to be guilty of being influenced. It might be their method to work that way, but what kind of artist stops looking at anything? I try to see everything, everywhere, all the time. The effect can only be beneficial, and, frankly, I need all the help I can get.

My ideas come through my window, from other artists and painters, from pictures on Flickr and artist's blogs, and some, spookily, seem to come over my shoulder while I'm weaving at the loom. I think it may be a Finnish grandmother suggesting, "Yes, now pick up the unbleached linen...." The biggest enemy to my creativity is self censorship. When I see how far and wide other artists go, I wonder, Why do I stop myself? I'm actually not doing anything alarming, or earth shakingly over-the-edge. It's only a scarf, and mine is a scarf with crooked edges, and bright moments.

Congratulations, Sofia Arnold!

No More Detour

County Highway Y reopened yesterday. No more driving by this lawn target deer to get to Avalanche. I think there is a door in his side like a pinata, where toys and goodies spill out when
the bullet hits the mark.

Looking Around

Today I finally finished sewing the Half-Woolly bag (half of a full Woolly Bully bag) woven in rosepath with wool rag-rya. Then I took my last cotton and linen scarf, with rosepath designs, and hung them in Mrs. Mamakitty's doorway for a picture. She paid no attention.

She needed a new bed of fresh pine needles, since the nights are cooling off, and the big pine tree is dropping its needles just now. After lunch she tried it out, and found it very suitable for an afternoon nap. This morning Sofia woke up with an extraordinary ringlet curl in her hair.

I then tried to call the congressional offices to register my opinion again that, as a self employed person, without health insurance, I support a strong Public Option for All in Health Care Reform. (My call got through, tomorrow I'm going to send postcards).

Tilleke Fever

Another Tree Sack, woven in cotton, linen and rag weave. Applique ribbon from LFN ribbons. The pattern is Swedish Rosepath.


The reverse of the Tree Sack.


Tire burn-out in front of the store, sometime on the night of Sept. 9

Inspired.

I'm hooked on mixed weft weaving: rags, and linen and perle cotton yarns. I'm working with a fresh sense of anticipation. In this I've happily found an inspiration to end all: Tilleke Schwarz' book: Mark Making: Tilleke Schwarz Embroidery.
She is Dutch, and though I am usually in thrall of the Dutch imagination, this time it is true love.

Her desire to make her mark, in densely layered, thread paintings, reminds me of the restless energy of a teenaged driver, screaming up the road in the dark, leaving the rubber from a set of tires, to show where he's been. Not really a reasonable thing to do, but somehow necessary. Tilleke's mark making is probably not so ear splitting. She writes that she is inspired by graffiti, and her work is graffiti style.

I know I'm not the first to know her work. I first read about her in Selvedge, Issue 16. and she has had many exhibitions. There is something thrill seeking about her work. You can see images of her work, and order her book directly from her: Tilleke Schwarz

Nobody Home but us Chickens

Our neighbors are gone for a few days, so we are doing the animal chores. Blue Lace Wyandotte chickens, feed & water.

Hay for Thistle and Violet, a little feed, and check water. They won't drink much. Rub their heads.

Half-a-bale-a-day of hay, and water for the sheep.

Cattle. Count. Two. Already in the shade.

Chica, usually on the porch. Cat food in her dish, and a little petting. Day 1. So far no one has died, been rustled, or run away. I hope I didn't forget anybody.

Putting Things on the Shelves

"Trout in the West Fork of the Kickapoo River" Postcard of a watercolor painting by D. Litsey

Some new patterns of Mexican oilcloth

In the workshop today.

Amy Arnold's new buckwheat hull filled dolls. Reminds me of a game of Red Rover, Red Rover

More local maple syrup. It's so good!

Whitecloud Bags, handmade by Jessica Hooper, oilcloth lined, sturdy zips, carry-on sized, made of an outrageous collection of textiles, including recycled rubber bike inner tube bindings.

Chakrapennywhistle's handmade, eco-chic organic cotton stuffed pillows, silk screened designs by the artist. Also, Chakrapennywhistle's real bank $$ bag wallets, and pillows.

I've been trying to put a new warp on a loom, while working on my storekeeper duties. But the late summer days here have been so sweet, that's it's hard to stay at any task indoors. Still, it feels so good to see the shelves filling up again with good work by my favorite artists, including my maple syrup provider.

And there is more to come. I'm so grateful that my customers keep finding their way here!