Dancing Crow

walking across the backyard

I hadn't realized I was so insistent about planting trees at my house.

Yesterday's birch tree was the first thing into the ground when we moved in, along with a lilac bush and 200 daffodil bulbs. When we planted it it came up to my forehead. Now it towers over the house and thinks about visiting Aerin's room. And it pisses off my neighbor, but that is a different problem. 

Today's tree came with the house. It is a sugar maple centered in the back yard where it doesn't aggravate anyone. Half of it died two years ago, suddenly and mysteriously. I was waiting for the other half to go so I could call the tree guys to take it down, but against my expectations it has been fine so I called the tree guys to come and trim back the dead stuff instead. 

I made a rubbing of the leaf with Pentel dye sticks onto silk organza. The Pentel dye sticks feel like Cray-Pas - a kind of waxy pastel crayon in deep colors.  Then it looked like the dye stick was holding onto the leaf so I added some more and ironed it off onto the base circle where it made a faint leaf impression. 

 

mist again

Once I cleaned off the table and flipped over my mat so it was clean there was much less fluff and dust. With less dust, each layer of organza is cleaner and clearer, and it takes more layers to feel distant. Also it looks like substantially less air pollution. Or rain. Or something.

I am very pleased with this one - it is almost precisely what I was aiming for.

 

February begins

February is Pink!

February is also making more use of the embellisher machine, also called a needle felting machine. A set of felting needles is powered by a (small cheap plastic) sewing machine with the bobbin case removed. The resulting fabric has a distinct texture and character. There are some people who can make lovely art with them, using wool roving and other fibers for color and texture. Several Flickr groups exist, including Made with the Embellisher Machine  - that gives you a feel for the kind of whispy, dreamy things you can do. 

Timna pointed out that while she uses a lot of pink, her quilts don't tend to read as PINK!!! because she combines it with other colors. In fact, this one of hers is a study of Pink&___ (fill in the blank). 

In other news, the drawing class is mixed. The teacher knows whereof he speaks, but he tells long stories with no discernable moral. The teaching is what I'm there for. I'll show some drawings at some point. 

twenty three, reversed again

Trying to add enough thread to cover the fabric and foil and show off the stars. Heavy thread worked from the back, thinner thread filled in from the front. 

Migraine today. I'm pleased I got this circle done. 

twenty-two (degrees and circles)

It was absurdly cold this morning -  about 5F when I got up, and 17F when I left the house for the barn. Kaboose and I were invited out on a trail ride, before the next round of dreadful weather shows up and renders the world a skating rink. We went out into the bright cold and fresh snow, and it was so lovely. The snow creaked under the horses' feet in the cold, and Scout snorted at monsters all the way. My toes froze. I might actually need winter boots. 

Yesterday I declared I was Done With Foil. Today I have stars of gold mylar thread (Sulky Sliver) which is somehow less annoying to me than the whole ironing/fusing/gluing process. Thread I can deal with. Thread follows the needle, until it breaks, and I have pretty good control over the needle. 

twenty-one and reverses

This is red foil with star shaped holes over orange silk with yellow/gold thread. Still foiled, still gold stars, just some kind of reverse osmosis.

I have learned some things about foil.

1. it is very (very) shiny
2. it does not hold or carry details well, implying
3. it works better on large areas than small areas
4. it is only smooth when you don't want it to be (and conversely)
5. the surface is easily roughed up or removed
6. gluing it makes for random splotches rather than any kind of pattern
7. fusible web is tricky in small pieces
8. stitching over it is not productive although it can make for an interesting distressed look
9. don't be cheap with foil - one piece doesn't work over more than one ironing, so just plan on using it in a profligate fashion
10. I don't much like it

Having pushing it around for three weeks, and run out of gold, I think I am done with gold foil. I'll make gold stars on the rest of my red circles for January in other ways. 

eighteen

Still experimenting with different glues. I like the swoop down of this one. Although if you turn it over it looks like a fountain. 

seventeen, a river of stars

In all my fussing about fusible web for foil, I totally forgot that I have six or seven different glues, any one of which might work also. So I did some controlled testing on scrap fabric, and liked the way this one came out. Also, lots of close reds (I think there are three different reds in there, so it shimmers in an interesting way). 

 

sixteen and testing hypotheses

I'm much happier with this one. Although I did forget to edge it before I took its portrait. 

You can look away now, if you are not interested in the more technical aspects!

After yesterday's issues I dug out a different fusible (Heat and Bond, vs. WonderUnder). It works at a lower temperature, is thicker and heavier, and seems to be working better. I am encouraged by the intensity of the tiny stars - that was not happening with WU. I prefer WU because I usually need to be able to sew through the stuck down fabrics. Heat and Bond heavy weight is not to be stitched through; it does serious damage to needles, and the Heat and Bond lightweight still leaves strange residues. But it is great for foil. 

fifteen

And a happy natal day to my brother who turns 50 today. I don't entirely understand how that can be possible because I'm a year and a half older than he is and I'm still 36, but maybe that is relative time for you. 

Today I suffered a complete foil failure. I've been using foil that requires ironing onto something sticky. I had a special glue for it, but the glue is really difficult to control. For these stars I'd been using fusible web. Paper punches make lovely shapes from the paper-backed fusible. I'd iron the shapes down, peel off the paper, and fuse the foil to the fusible. With more or less success.  Today only one star of fifteen foiled and peeled properly. The rest were mangled, fragmented or vanished. 

So I begged a piece of gold origami paper from Alice, and used fusible to make punched out stars iron-on, and ironed them on. 

I think I have a short list of experiments left to try with the foil. I need to see if higher or lower iron temps matter and I need to try two other kinds of fusible. If I don't find some combination of factors that works, I'm done with the stuff. It is shiny, but too frustrating if I can't make it do what I want.