Misfits, next figure, bridging cooking and art

Very glad I switched back to Friday delivery. The box arrived about midday, so all the prep was done before 2. It takes a while, but it's only once every two weeks. And I have plenty of raw material for making vegetable stock.

The quality is good, as usual, the romaine lettuce really crisp.  That will be supper, with one of those tomatoes and carrot pennies, maybe in a pita bread. The apples and lettuce are now being shipped in resealable, reusable  bags, I'm happy to say.

And the lemon curd is just a treat for moi. I've made it before but doing it right is endlessly time and labor intensive. So I thought I'd delegate it to good old Chivers. The olives are a little extra, too.

The dates will go into date nut bars at some point.

And yesterday I used the Granny Smith apples to make apple turnovers, one of which I had for breakfast. What? It's apples, it's breakfast food..

While I was at it, I macerated the fruit, and reduced the juice and molasses, then added it back, and the result was deffo worth it.

It reminded me how art and cooking have so much in common. They need harmony in materials, balance, composition, fearlessness, willingness to go wrong, realizing when one idea can just as well work somewhere else, and playfulness. Good art and good food are serious but not solemn. And you don't keep thinking about these lofty issues while you work. You just plunge in. Stepping off soapbox now,  to test a turnover.

They look pretty artisanal, also sticky, but who's counting. Two in the freezer for a future dessert with handsome Son. The rest are in harm's way!

Decks are cleared

And I've moved on to the next figure, which will probably be close to lifesize, unless I decide it's really a bust, we'll see.. 

The face here is mounted on embroidery stretcher bars, the soft wood kind.  Image is 8.5×11. Three layers of fabric, two layers of images printed on transparent silk, one a photograph of Sophocles, one a photograph of my front yard daisies. 

There are references here I can talk about later. If anyone's interested, that's to say. I really like the snooty expression on his face. I'M ATHENIAN, who are you?

The idea is that the stitching will create a low relief sculpture, then the face will be appliqued onto a head. I love this kind of shaping. 

Even to the point of finding in the art closet, late last night, the right stretcher bars and push pins designed for the job, which won't damage the fabric. They come with a special little tool to remove them, too.

I'll make a fabric draft for a full length figure, to keep the idea warm. And I'm wondering  if I'll co-opt part of the green sari, there's plenty, for this figure, either to dress it or to be the actual figure. TBD. I woke up in the night thinking about this. Probably because I can see the sari from my bed.

So all this activity and I'm still a bit wobbly for driving, knocked a couple of other plans off the calendar. It's all good.

Foreground, middle ground, background

So many art projects in mind right now. I think of the mind as having areas-- do you do that?--where at the moment, in the art area, the current figure, not far from completion, is at the front of my thinking, then the pants I'm going to sew, the pockets for the skirt, and other sewing, are in the middle, and a partly woven, partly knitted skirt is in the background.

The last one is the reason the cotton warping thread is out, with ideas for the rigid heddle loom. 

The idea, Sarah Swett's, is to weave two straight panels, a front and a back, then knit side panels for good hang and fit. 

So that project also has its own front, middle and back! I'm thinking brioche, a kind of super rib, would be good for the knitted sides. So first I need to get or make yarn. Then learn the stitch. Then execute the side panels.

The woven pieces also need yarn. And right up front it's possible I may need to spin a ton of it. 

The spinning can be done between other projects, a bit at a time. I think I'll learn the stitch on any old yarn so as to be ready. Then I can spin and ply bulky yarn ready to knit and weave. Or I may use the warp yarn as weft for a sturdy fabric.

So that's the current state of the back of the art part of the mind. 

Here's the doings for getting on with the figure, front part of the mind. 

I'm thinking of wiring the parts together. Then setting it on a stand yet to be made, then the final fabric on.

The clothes sewing, the middle part, only needs time, I know pretty well what I'm doing there.

Meanwhile, I need sustenance, and thought a batch of oatmeal cookies would do it.  I used the official Quaker Oats recipe. 

A friend who knows this stuff told me that the recipes on the packages of any food have typically been tested and sampled and studied far more than your typical cookbook recipe. 

They can't afford a recipe that might not work, since their name's on it. No experiments or tricky steps  She concluded that you'll have a safe, reliable outcome, not wonderful, just predictable.

So I was in the mood for predictable, aren't we all;  it's a big recipe, so I thought I'd halve it. Then I read it. One egg. Oh. 

Maybe I'll make the whole recipe and freeze half the dough.. Then I thought nah, I'll bake it in three batches, allowing for my pans only one of which can go on the right rack at a time. Then I'll freeze half the baked cookies.

So it came to pass. 

 These are breakfast, afternoon tea, and

Late night with a mug of golden milk.

Handsome Son has been working  a lot of evenings lately so I haven't seen him. But there's a buildup in the freezer of his share of various muffins and cookies, shared with children next door, and neighbors on the other side. And me. I do get a look in. But there's a Handsome Son setaside each time.

Here's a YouTube documentary about tapestry weaving, with a brilliant weaver working an art tapestry along with a rapid history of the form.

He designed the subject, then drew it on the warp threads, then executed it. He improvises, too, as the work calls for it. The voiceover explains that tapestry weaving involves the hands as tools as much as the shuttle, adjusting in the process. 

I think this is why I love it. You're in there with your hands, working in partnership. I can only dream of his level of expertise, though.

There are other weaving projects on the doc

Anyway, take a look. It's worth it.

Happy Thanksgiving weekend, Canadian friends, and otherSaturday offerings

Every Saturday on Twitter, the ELG, East London Group, posts this image of a wonderful painting by Brynhild Parker.

Every Saturday morning this appears in my timeline, and it's become part of my life really.  There's more to see and feel each time I see it.

She was active from the 1920s on, illustrated books and created posters, as well as exhibiting paintings. There's a current exhibit open in the UK of two other ELG  members, the  Steggles brothers. 

Most of the group were working class people from the east end of London, who were talented artists. 

They were windowcleaners, office workers, construction workers,  and had to take breaks in making art when they couldn't afford materials. But they developed major reputations and had some significant exhibits. Parker exhibited with them but was from an affluent art centered family, went to the Slade, different kind of life.  All are well worth looking up.

And here's excitement near home

It looks as if one of the Rose of Sharon seedlings has germinated. Unless it's something else. My current track record doesn't give me total confidence, but anyway something's growing next to the toothpick.

And here's some terrific harvest related crafting, snd I'd credit the maker if I knew who. That spiral piece is so beautiful.

This kind of work used to have religious significance as well as pagan origins, about thanks for the harvest and hopes to continue. Debra, can you shed more light?

Anyway, it's here to wish Canadian blogistas a happy Thanksgiving  weekend. 

And speaking of seasons, we're into Season five of the microseasons.

Just a few words is enough to get the feeling of the slow steady changes outdoors.

Indoors a bit of movement with the figure. It's off the hoop, gathered into a ball shape and stuffed.

Next I have to search for materials to mount the headpiece. I'm not thinking of a human body for this one, more of a pillar or something. Still considering the next bit.

So that's what's up chez Boud today. Happy weekend everyone.

October dinner, ginger and friend, new figure, and the gummint

Yes I know it's not October yet, but Handsome Son has a lot of evening shifts lately, so we're seizing the day and calling it October. Like celebrating Thanksgiving on whatever day he's free 

Table laid, last few daisies picked. 

Menu set: pumpkin, carrot, lentil soup with hot biscuits, ham with steamed carrots, couscous, Dijon mustard or horseradish, banana bread with hot tea. 

I like the table organized ahead, makes me feel I'll get there.

This morning  seemed to be a good day to bring in the ginger plant and the moringa plant, of which another seedling broke ground here, so all is not lost with the moringa.

And I have embarked on the next Figure. This is a piece of silk organza with one of my woven works printed on it, hooped over a piece of sari silk.

Here's the original work I photographed and printed out

Monotype background, woven wire, beads, roving mounted on it. I painted the frame to suit, echoing the metallics.

And here's the back of the hoop showing you how this works if you're not familiar.

The design is going to be executed trapunto style. That's where you stitch shapes, through two layers of fabric, sculpting them, then insert stuffing, here very fine cotton roving, into the sections, entering the back via tiny cuts you make,  to render the three dimensional shapes you want.  

It's a way to get more complex shapes going than you get by sculpting into the complete head. This section will be appliqued to a head to form the top of the figure.

And the outside edges I think I'll do as stumpwork, the edges tightly stitched in buttonhole stitch, then cut around to stand free. That way there'll be an impression of wild hair.

If little of this means much, just watch this space and you'll see it unfold. I know we have some experienced embroiderers reading here, to whom trapunto and stumpwork are not foreign terms. We also have quite a few interested, but a bit less conversant,  readers, too. 

So, as the French say in their gummint forms, rayez ce qui est inutile. Delete that which is not applicable. 

Speaking of gummint forms, my Homestead Benefit form came today. This is an annual nod to our proud claim of First in the Nation in high real estate taxes. 

You can get a bit back if you can figure out how to apply. Unless the state Treasury says oh sorry, we can't afford it this year. More likely to happen with a Republican governor, Christie, I'm looking at you. 

But even they manage to find a bit for the downtrodden in an election year, which this is.  Current governor is a Dem, though, and has come through for seniors and other homeowners nicely each year. 

You'll notice they're not in a mad rush to part with your money. See the three year interval during which they've had the use of it..

This refund only applies if you owned and continue to own, your residence. Not if you rent it out nor if you're a tenant. 

And despite the old timey name, mules and plows and such don't enter into it, just a refund of some of the exorbitant rates we've paid. I'll take it, despite all my moaning.

Textile and Tea and new thoughts for the next Figure

Textiles and Tea today featured a wonderful mixed media weaving artist, Boisali Biswas, who loves upcycling everything, sari silk, onion netting, wallpaper strips, and painting her warp and weft. 

She's so free and unfettered in her work and life and attitudes, she cheered up what had been a downish day for me, allergy congestion, coughing, poor me.

Here she us surrounded by her work, wearing an outfit she wove and stitched without a pattern(!). The pillows behind her she wove. That fancy looking piece of furniture is a cardboard box covered with her weaving. 

She says she lives her art. Her furniture is garage sale or cardboard, painted and upcycled, covered with woven fabric.  She says that since she grew up in India she always lived in a reusing culture. 

She painted her backyard, too! With help from her daughter, the kind of floor painting done in India (and on local sidewalks where I live) with rice or flour, but in Michigan in acrylic. And the fence, when they moved in, was ugly so rather than replace it, she decided to decorate it. 

She was admitted while still in India to a prestigious university, founded by Rabindranath Tagore, where  all students pursued the arts as well as other subjects and that was where she found a love of textiles as art materials, and an appreciation for art in all the surroundings not just galleries or walls in buildings.

In India there is a huge tradition in textiles but at that time not as an individual art pursuit. It was a commercial world and materials were not available outside the industry at that time, thirty years ago. 

So she was an outlier, building her own frame looms and figuring out how and what to weave, since other looms were unheard of in homes, other than by commercial weavers employed in the industry with a home workshop. She used strips of sari silk and whatever she could figure out and use.

It wasn't till she came to the US that she got access to a floor loom and went mad with joy and learning.

She often makes quite small work, but her installation here keeps growing. 

It will be seen in Grand Rapids next year, and people are invited to walk among the parts and experience them. I love this forest concept. See the shadows working.

She also likes using translucency and shadows and will mount works away from the wall with lighting arranged to cast shadows as part of the work as you see below

She likes to use the tree of life image, and it recurs in her work in various forms.

She uses a cotton warp which she often paints, but her weft fibers can be anything that works! She's a free spirit.

This was such a lift to my spirits, too, that I began to pull out sari pieces and other transparent materials ready to work on my next figure. Ideas teeming around. She really gave me energy, so happy and full of her own ideas, she carries you along. And she has a website with much more work on it.

So here are my next raw materials, some are my paintings printed on silk organza, some Chinese silk, some Indian sari silk.

And these strips of silk pieces are the thing after that..as soon as I know what it is to be.

Art simply never fails. It's not an escape from reality, more of a plunge into it.