– Inspirations and considering what’s next

August 13, 2015 ~ Liz A ~ 7 Comments

I found this when we were picking up trash along Ranch Road 12 a couple of years ago …

It’s a chunk of armadillo road kill and I love it … Don, not so much. I keep trying to convince him it should go into one of his assemblages, to no avail.

So today I had a brainstorm. I’ve been combing parking lots ever since reading bottle tops and stitches on Alice Fox’s blog (and yes, I already have her new book on order). Not wanting to be imitative, it’s been a puzzle how best to use them. Now I’m thinking I may combine them into a rust and stitch reprise of my beloved armadillo relic …

My current bottle top collection

But then again, I’ve had another project cooking on my mental back burner for months. There was a painting titled Door through Window that I photographed at the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe last October (and yes, I did ask first if I could). I couldn’t get enough of it, especially after realizing it was painted the year I was born …

In my mind it has become”Georgia’s Window” and I’ve been searching out (and dyeing) linen in order to make a stitched impression …

Thank goodness for thrift stores …

So now that I’ve gathered my thoughts and my stuff, what remains to be seen is which project will come next.

– On edge: Wood, metal and cloth assemblages

August 12, 2015February 10, 2019 ~ Liz A ~ 7 Comments

Don has been working on a series of assemblages made from repurposed wood and metal, of which this is the most recent …

Wood from Junkology

This angle view shows off his edge work, as well as the dimensionality of the clockwork spring found during last summer’s junk haul at the Outer Banks …

This, in addition to last week’s assemblage, made his original moon phase assemblage look washed out. Since the plan is to hang them all together, he made the edge of the moon assemblage a bit darker (dare I say edgier?) …

Meanwhile, I finished stitching together four layers of linen with coral cotton strips woven in …

a much more substantial piece to give the wood table protection from serving dishes …

Close-up view showing the variation in cloth weaves

I dipped one edge into a simmered brew of windfall lichen …

letting the color wick up close to the first row of cloth weaving …

then hung it out to dry, during which time the color continued to migrate upward …

This persimmon has become my de facto cloth-hanger

A second dip, a-side …

and b-side, shows how much the color on the side softened after drying compared to the wet bottom edge …

Two more cycles of dipping and drying remain to be done on the other two edges. At that point I’ll consider whether to stitch along the boundaries created by the wicking, then put it all in the washing machine to see how the color will stand up.

I think I could get used to living on the edge …

– Almost too busy to post: Updates on assemblages

August 11, 2015February 10, 2019 ~ Liz A ~ 6 Comments

Summer days are full … yard work all morning (before triple digit heat sets in), tending dye pots (they’re not trials anymore), helping the Austin crew pack for their upcoming move, and just plain keeping the homestead running.

Nonetheless, there are some project completions to report: the most recent table mat a-side …