detour / mexican sunset

it's funny how things get started, where ideas come from. Margie posted this photo taken on her mexican holiday a few weeks back. i thought it was beautiful, but didn't think that much more about it. but then Sonia chimed in, suggesting she could picture such a scene stitched up by me. hmmm...that got me to thinking. after i finished my little crab friend, i was in the mood for a change of pace, a detour of some sort. that photo was so different from my own main source of inspiration, and yet in common by celebrating the beauty of the world around us. and so this little piece came together, a mexican sunset.

it is fairly small, about 7"x5", and besides the base canvas stitched entirely in naturally dyed fabrics. the rich colours seemed to suit the mood. i picked fabrics based on colour, not material, so there is a mix of cottons, linens and silks. some are dyed by me, and some are from the little stash from Margie.

a very simple scene, but effective, i hope. a quick meditation on a high desert landscape so different from my own wet coast, where the rain is falling heavily outside my door today and the world is mossy and green with new growth. and since this idea was 'given' to me, in a way, i think it's only fitting to give it again. please leave a comment here before friday morning, if you like, and i will pick a winner to send this off to.

ETA: Thanks for all the kind words! Comments are now closed and a winner will be announced Saturday.

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i'm stuck in a funk today, a bitchy, grouchy mood, so i'm keeping this short. trying to repeat the mantra learned so long ago from miss Erykah....let it go, let it go, let it go, let it go...

flotsam & jetsam...

okay, that term is more correctly used to describe floating or washed up wreckage from ships, but it has evolved to mean bits and pieces in general, so i think it works quite well in describing my ocean stitchings these days. just wanted to share some recent pieces i have been working on, a few things inspired by the shore. above is no.4 in the shore fragments series, a corner of sunflower star (did you know they can have up to 24 arms?) spread across the sand, with a mussel shell and other bits, including some strips of real cedar. there is a lot of texture in this piece, helped by some of the hand dyed fabrics (not by me) that is hard to appreciate in a photo.



i did use a bit of my purple cabbage dyed linen for the sea urchin shell above. while eventually most shells bleach white, many times i have wandered along the shore and found small pieces of purple shell dashed amongst the rocks. finding an urchin shell in one piece is hard along these stormy shore, but a real treasure when you do. anyway, i thought this purple linen was a good fit for the purple of the shells, layered with white and purple stitching.

did you know urchins and seastars are in the same family (echinoderms, along with sand dollars and others), and all have five-part symmetry? you can see that symmetry in the stitching on the urchin, and more clearly in the five arms of the ochre stars below. i have made quite a few purple ochre stars but i thought it was about time i made some orange ones. i also added more detail stitching on these ones. i think maybe people recognize them in this colour more clearly, although purple ones are by far the most common along the inside waters of vancouver island. i like them either way, and the orange ones remind me of the exposed west coast.



while i am always stitching away, i haven't added anything new to the shop just yet. we may have a postal strike in canada starting tonight, so i'm a little on the fence about what to do. i think for now i will keep the shop open, and if anyone would like to order anything, i can hold the order until the strike is over, or put items on reserve. i feel that using a courier service would increase the cost quite a bit, so i will hold off on that option unless some asks specifically. if you are in a canada and have an online shop of your own, what are you doing?

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things i like today:
• in anticipation of a sunny weekend, i'm drooling over these homemade fudge popsicles
• eva's indoor indigo vat has me plotting my own
• bryant austin's ocean photography has me speechless.
• and this sea lion pic just makes me chuckle every time.

sea anemones, two ways

on my recent wanderings on a nearby beach, i have been surprised at the way that many sea anemones nestle in sand, rather than clinging to exposed rocks as i am used to. i've since realized that of course there are many types of anemones around here, and each has their preferred habitat. this led to these new stitched pieces, continuing in my shore fragments series. on left is a moonglow anemone (similar to this one), on a sandy spot with a few clamshells and other shore debris. on the right are a pair of giant green anemones tucked under a barnacled rock.



each cloth measures roughly 8"x8". while on my last fragments piece i added a braided cord for hanging, i am thinking these would look nice framed with a wide white mat, and i think i will mount them on archival stock so that they are ready for framing. a shadow box frame would work well so that the glass will not touch the layers of fabric. i will let you know when they are available in the shop



with pretty much all my work originating in the wilds of the west coast, the creatures that inhabit this area are very important to me. there are areas of this coast that are natural jewels, where the way of life has been the same for thousands of years. recently, an oil company from the alberta tarsands is lobbying to build a pipeline over the rocky mountains and across northern bc to the coast, crossing many sensitive watersheds. once this dirty crude reaches the coast, it will be loaded on tanker ships to head to markets overseas. there are no oil tankers on this coast right now. annie wrote about this recently, as she lives much closer to the affected area than i do. however, if there is an oil spill on this coast, we will all be affected. and with our winding waterways with many islands and tidal challenges, even the oil company admits it is a matter of when, not if that spill will come. if you get a chance, i highly recommend the 44 minute documentary spoil. it is a breathtakingly beautiful look at the great bear rainforest, and shows what would be lost if oil tankers are allowed on the coast. i try not to preach very often, but this is a huge issue that could change our coast irreparably. i spent the whole film on the verge of welling up, both in awe at the scenery of the coast, and how it could all disappear.

okay, enough out of me. i hope you are having a good (long, if you are in canada) weekend. i am headed out later this morning with my friend who is going to show me how to harvest some cedar bark for weaving. i have been wanting to try this traditional first nations activity for a while - i will share more if i am successful in my weaving!

shore fragments

if you've stopped by here once or twice before, you may have gathered that i like to take beach macro photos. heck, i now have a growing set on flickr devoted to just that. my fascination with the close up world of tidal life has been around since i was a kid peering into tide pools. and really, i was peering into tide pools as recently as last weekend - it's still a favoured pastime.



so it seemed only natural to me to try and recreate these tiny worlds in some stitching. this little piece is a start, thanks to the inspiration provided by Margie's fabrics. i've got ideas for a whole series, although i don't have any timeline, number, or end date in mind. just a focus on little stitched glimpses of shore life, and so i'm calling them "shore fragments". this piece is no.1, a trio of ochre stars clinging to the exposed rocky shoreline, bit of seaweed and barnacles surrounding them. it is all hand stitched, and measures about 4" x 12", with a bit of braided cord at the top for hanging.



the colour on this piece felt like a bit of a departure for me, as there is no blue in sight. it's not that blue is necessary, but it does often seem to predominate when at the shore (gee, i wonder why). when getting up close and personal though, there is so much other colour to be found, and it was fun to play with that here. on top of the wonderful natural dyed fabrics from Margie, i also purchased a big bundle of hand dyed linen from Carol at yorktown road, leftover scraps from all the amazing bags she makes. so i'm feeling a bit flush with gorgeous natural fabrics these days, and eager to start using them.



what are you up to this weekend? A is coming home tonight, after being away for almost two weeks, so i'm looking forward to some time hanging out with him. the forecast looks somewhat promising, so with luck there will be some outside time. i'm progressing very slowly on the bigger beach scene i'm stitching, but i feel like it's nearly there. soon, i hope.