Wool @ MindSay

Cold weather means a real shift for me art and fiber wise. Gone are those warm days when i could wash wool on the garden level patio, or felting away while Nina  Simone sang in the background. Winter brings a need to hunker down in front of  the wood stove with a book or a hank of wool. The loom gets moved to a space facing the tv. so I can weave while a Ralph Fiennes movie gives me the rythm one need to get the weft and warp so even and smooth and not have selvages that look like the cat has been chewing them.

It's a more inward time where ideas continue to perk but just as the metabolism of small animals changes so does my artistic metabolism. It's a good time to dye batches of wool as they need heat and I want heat. and it's also a good time to actually sew because the studio temperature invites the steam iron to be on for long periods.

Abigail;s going back and forth between the house and studio gets cut off because the door has to stay closed for the heat to stay in  but I find that  just as I enjoy the smell and comforts of the warm fibers, she makes small nests in the fabric caches and goes to sleep quickly.  Which is good that most of my wool and silk starts white because  as she sheds all over them it's not as obnoxious as when she decides to roll around on a piece of black linen  or velvet.

The fiber group I began this summer I  hope will continue. we have shifted to a sundat after noon as up here in the NW it gets dark quite early. and I have come to look forward to the company of these women. funny how binds can form quickly when one comes together over something passionately central to one's life- creating something from  nothing. our number is up to six. I am considering letting in one more woman because I  lean towards the asymmetry of seven.... but she might be a little anal. even for me. So time will tell. I have invited her. no response. and tomorrow is our next get together. so lulu and louise and beth and pat and kim and I will munch, sip tea, play with fibers and talk about our lives.  doesn't get much better when you want to bounce ideas around. shalom.

when I want to felt large slabs of wool I either turn to the wet felting method- which is messy fun and produces gossamer soft sheets of felt - or I use my babylock machine.


the problem is with the machine the slightest torque bends or snaps a needle and it often the case that as I get tired I take short cuts or speed up and bippo a needle breaks. To buy replacement needles from Babylock means you are paying maybe $3 per needle and it hurts financially to hear that ping/snap/bleep.  So last year I discovered a woman who cut the handle off traditional hand felting needles and sold themas machine IN BULK for amazingly reasonable prices. two weeks ago I order a bunch of new needles and I just  got a refund as she is no longer selling them. I am heart broken. ok a slight exaggeration but still it's a bummer because I go through needles the way one goes through pistachios. okay another exaggeration.  so it's more wet felting for me which is a great summer activity outdoors if it is not 105. yes. I will think about that tomorrow. tomorrow is another day.

almost finished with the little book and started thinking about making a series of these. especially with the color schemes that remind me of my favorite authors. golds and whites for Henry James and blacks and blues for Edith Wharton, and all sorts of brown with a touch of purple for George Eliot. Dickens might require immense razzle dazzle. and i the meantime I am reading total trash by Tami Hoag and loving it.

the weather has cooled down considerably which means I can take to the pebbled patio and wet felt some larger pieces  and tear them into pages.

the bloody finger healed and i found some thin leather finger protectors to wear - thimbles on three fingers of my left hand are way too bulky. that and the cooler weather let me get into the studio to frame a few pieces, work some more on "les chat" and contemplate a grey piece that I have the words for. It's funny how I often start with the words.


Once upon a time I called myself a writer.  Having had professional work, poetry and short stories published I believed that the description was apt. When I wrote I always needed a first time to jump start me and while I am now working in a non verbal medium where the use of too many dashes or a spellchecker do not matter I find myself calling upon the thought as articulated internally with a word  to get me going.

For example les chat came to me while watching Abigail, my studio cat, and constant companion everywhere in the house, obsessively follow large moths we call millers.  She is so determined to catch one and chew it's wings off that she won't be deterred by greenies or a piece of fresh salmon. And of course after finally consuming the disgusting  dusty critter she immediately makes this moaning noise and vomits it up. But I am digressing. While looking at her fur I thought about how I had wanted  Russian Blue but ended with her instead because she picked me ( as most pet owners will confess)... ooops get back on track... I thought it would be whimsical to make different fur cat patterns in portraiture ovals and assemble them into les chat. I have not perfect the calico part yet but the blue and the  curly kirk are good and the grey tiger markings are coming along. But my point was it started with words. This bring to mind one of my favorite poems by Frank O'Hara
called why I am not a painter--- which if I find on the internet I will slap up here because I am not going to type it out... But he discusses exactly the same concept that I am fumbling about in this blog to describe.

Hands down Dharma Trading is your best for dyes for protein fibers. You can buy almost every conceivable color but I stick to buying the primaries and always mix my own colors. Now this  is where measuring and note taking become important... and that is something I am notoriously bad about.  I don't have to replicate colors in large batches  and each piece often gets colors dyed as I go along so making sure I get another batch exactly the same is not important.  As my dear friend- ubu- says- sell the art you make; don't make art to sell.