Dancing Crow Designs

all the weather

All the winter's weather is happening right now, all at the same time. I woke up to bucketing rain, drove to the barn in fog, and freezing fog (a whole new level of dreadful driving) and while I was there it warmed up 1o degrees to simply mist, alternating with stair rods of rain. A very impressive display.

I spent most of the drive up and back composing doggerel regarding the things in the other seasons I wish for when I'm in this one, and the drawbacks I forget about the other season.

This piece is everything, all at once. The underlying image transfer and a layer of silk organza, stitched in long vertical lines to indicate rain, with a layer of plastic bag with drawing on it, topped with a last layer of silk organza. I like the way the plastic glimmers through the organza.

sun showers

Today was so much warmer, we were talking about it being distinctly balmy at the barn. A degree over freezing!! Break out the bathing suits?

Driving home, the sun was shining from one part of the sky and snow was sifting slowly down through the branches of the trees next to the road. The snow was stuck to the tops of all the branches too, so everything was strongly shaded, bright on top, deep dark wet bark colored below.

I tried two layers of plastic bag for this one, with white paint dotted onto each layer. Margaret very kindly offered a series of useful suggestions for snowflakes, including paint, gesso, glitter glue and toothpaste. I'll try gesso and a toothbrush tomorrow, but probably not toothpaste because it is water soluble.

experiment

Today was much warmer; all the way to just below freezing!

Thursdays are peaceful for me; I have lunch with Al, I have a Theater Tech meeting, and then I go home and do a good deal of nothing.

I was interested in trying a method to show how shiny and icy the ground is. I stitched a piece of plastic bag over an opaque transfer, and used marker to accentuate the shape and color of the tree. I think I can experiment with stitching on the plastic as well.

 

 

 

shiny!

Today I braved the cold, which wasn't as bad as yesterday's cold, and went to ride the red horse. The day was shiny and sunny and bright, and all the rain that fell all Monday and froze up yesterday was reflecting light.

I'm getting whiplash from the weather changes: 45F on Monday, and 0F on Tuesday, and back into the low 30s by the end of the week.

cold and blowy

As every knows who watches any weather on TV, or probably listens to it on the radio, we are in a Polar Vortex (that you know the Weather channel is pronouncing POLAR!! VOOOORTEX!!!!!!) and it is pretty cold around here. I mean, New England gets real winter every year, with snow and nasty driving; not the way Chicago or Minnesota or Michigan's Upper Penninsula get winter, but we're a pretty hardy bunch. But still, this feels epic.

I was trying to show, with twisty thread and experiments on saturaing the color in the transfer image, how cold and blowy it was. Also if it looks like a migraine aura, there is that involved as well.

To get the darker image, I used a transparent transfer on silk organza, and then used the same image on an opaque transfer on the dark page. I lined them up, and stitched the top and bottom to keep them from shifting too much, and then free stitched the blowing wind.

I am delighted with the way the gray thread blends into the sky, giving it motion without too much extra color, but still stands out as it crosses the dark branches. That is something I can pursue further.

my morning commute

The driving this morning was stunningly lovely and very, very, very foggy. Today's page is an interactive exhibit on the wavering depth of field as the fog rolled around and the rain came pelting down. It took five pieces of silk organza to emulate the thickness of the fog, but it kept shifting and lifting. I left one edge of all the organza pieces free to indicate the variability of the fog.

I was so glad Kaboose is at a barn with an indoor ring today. The footing was sloppy and slippery, the driveway a skating rink, school was delayed two hours to let the ice melt some.

comparisons are illuminating

At least, I hope they are illuminating. Because I wanted to clarify for myself how differently the light-fabric and dark-fabric transfers worked, I printed the same image on each kind of transfer sheet. And then I realized I had failed to reverse the printing on the light-fabric sheet, so it would be backwards. (* headdesk *) This is the side by side comparison, on light and dark fabric, of the two different transfer sheets:

 

Okay - from here on I am calling them opaque and transparent transfer sheets. On the left page, the left side is opaque, the right side transparent. You can see how the white fabric shows through the snowy parts of the image (it is mirrored around the center line) so it looks snowy. On the right page, the left side is transparent, and you can see how the image is nearly invisible against the dark purple page, while the opaque side still shows lights and darks, although they are muted a bit because the opaque sheets kind of melt into the fabric when you iron them.

My experience with this experiment seems to be that all transfers work better on light colored or white fabric. I imagine printing things onto tea or coffee stained fabric would yield interesting aged looks.

In other news, I rode two horses today, the first was the red mare, and we went out in the woods with a friend and had a great time. This is a picture of us afterwards, taken by Elaine who obviously loves us both:

And then I rode Brooks' beloved, ancient gray horse Nuada. We went out in the field, because it is lovely now, but the rain is supposed to come tonight and make the lovely snow vile and wet and then freeze solid so that walking becomes deeply hazardous and un-fun. So: canter cincles in snow = deep happiness.

moving in the snow

This piece is a mirror image of the view across the street and past Mac's barn to the big trees in the conservation area. I printed it onto the light-colored-fabric transfer sheet, and since I wanted it to show up, I ironed it onto white fabric and stitched it into the book.

It is still wicked cold out, moderated some from last night.

We helped Red Kate move into her apartment (here! in our town!!! Yay!!) at the top of 14 stairs. We know that number well. Arein and I went earlier and helped her dad get the trailer emptied and off the road. Then Al came and helped schlepp the things still in her van. We made the bed. We found her pajamas and toothbrush. Al and Aerin fed her supper. She is at her own place now.

Which is why I missed Timna's opening over ath the Jones Library in Amherst. I was delighted the opening was not on Thursday while everyone was freaking out over the snow, but I forgot we'd be helping at the new time. I will still go see it, and write in the visitors book (how is that pluraled and possessived, anyhow?) but I'm sorry to miss the cookies and the crowd.

 

 

tech specs

the specs;

7 pieces of purple fabric 5x10" stacked and stitched down the center to give fourteen pages 5x5" (two weeks)

The transfers happen two different ways - transfer-to-dark fabrics and transfer-to-light fabrics. To transfer to dark fabrics, the image is printed right side up (text reads correctly) onto the sheet. The thin white plastic that carries the image is peeled off the backing paper, and ironed, right side up, onto the fabric. In this image, I drew onto the transfer sheet, peeled that off and ironed it down - this is a freehand sketch.

To transfer images to light fabric, the image is reversed, and printed onto the transfer sheet. The sheet is ironed face down onto the fabric, and then the backing is peeled off, so the image is right way around.

The distinction between light fabric and dark exists because of the idea of background. For the reversed transfers, "background color" is the color of the fabric because the image carrying medium is transparent. When the image carrying medium is white, it forms an opaque layer between the image and the fabric, and allows for white and light colors in the image to show against darker fabric.

veils of snow

This piece uses image transfer to get the tree onto white fabric. I colored parts of the tree, an oak in Ellington, CT, with marker, and then put two layers of silk organza over it and stitched them all down to the page. I need some way to get specks of white onto the layers of organza - paint might work or might be too heavy.

I am unexpectedly fond of seeing the air full of shifting moisture. I rather like rain, especially when I'm inside, I love snow falling, and looking through mist and fog is an enduring pleasure.

Today was a banner day for seeing snowy landscapes with more snow blowing about. I went north to Greenfield for some horse supplies, and then back to the barn and rode the red horse, and then slowly home watching the landscape obscured and revealed.The snow has picked up this evening, and we're forecast to get a couple more inches. My mother, on the coast, is being hammered, and is slated for twice what we are.

The kids have today and tomorrow off from school, which is fine with me. It feels like a longer vacation, and I am happy to make use of it. More sleeping is a good plan.