Textiles and Tea catchup

Yesterday's post filled up before I got to cover Textiles and Tea, so rather than risk tldr, here it is today instead.

The guest, Valeria Maldonado, is a young Peruvian architect/fiber artist whose ideas were gripping, and I don't think the three dimensional pieces we saw quite fulfilled the premise she laid out. 

I think if they had been monumental in size, I'd have responded much more warmly. They are human scale, just a couple of feet each way. 

These two pieces,  about the fragility of balance,  I responded to most instinctively, the one on the right more so. The color meaning works so well there -- sand, shifting movement, impermanence, I loved this one.

Here's her book

She believes in being true to her hands, and that buildings, like baskets, are only porous containers. I like both these ideas, and would like to see them executed on a big scale. 

She sees art and expression as a way of making space in the world for the artist's ideas and, in this case, for the fibers she uses. Fibers have struggled to be accepted, seen as women's materials, dismissed in the male dominated art world. 

This is changing in the last few years, as museums and galleries other than textile specific venues, have started to acknowledge fiber as a serious material.

She does all her own dyeing from natural sources, cochineal, madder, grasses and minerals, and uses various fibers including alpaca. She definitely walks her own walk.  I'd be interested in your take on her work,  especially if you disagree with mine. Pushback is fine.

This is the last heatwave day, we hope, and maybe I'll get to walk again tomorrow.  Last evening Gary was over watering my flowers which I'd watered twice, and accepted a chunk of coleus to start in water. 

Under the heading of temporary maybe substitutions, I bought a drop-in push-button sink stopper for the most used bathroom, and it improved its appearance significantly after I tossed the ugly old contraption that came with the faucet.  

It looks much less desperate now and I may revise my idea about the faucets that come without a stopper, since I like their appearance. 

I also invested in a small heating pad and jettisoned the rice filled socks which worked for a long time, heated in the microwave. I'm just observing how much I do or don't need a new microwave. Up to now it's not looking urgent.

The heatwave and being indoors have not helped with making. I'm wondering if I need to return to an old project, continue spinning, start a sock, or what. Just musing. The thing is to just pick something up and do it. That's also the hard part. But I need to be doing something with my hands other than wringing them.

Maybe this would be good, the basket I'm making from cordage I made from my daylilies.

 I'm using rescued silk thread to stitch it, and spinning a bit of fiber in for contrast. I've no doubt this came to mind after watching Textiles and Tea yesterday. It's all good.

Happy day everyone, just let your mind wander, you never know where it might end up.

sez Ted and Big Ursy