shades of violet

these are the results after the' twisted dry and  smooth iron'
however the soy milk smell was horrid and so the cloths had to be rinsed and some of the colours and definition got lost, therefore I have twisted them all together again and will see what happens next

weaves

first jacket experiment with woven bits

nervefibres connecting different parts of the brain are woven; the American brainresearcher Van Wedeen  (NIMH) made this MRI-scan (NRC Handelsblad 30 March 2012)

bird nest's lining found flattened in the garden, a tight weave

doodle stitch

another attempt at doodle stitching, this time I have transferred the doodle onto the cloth with carbon paper and a pencil, see how this turns out

a couple of hours later and it looks like this

twisted and unstuck

three strips of cloth twisted together after a soy milk soak, the blue stained the white during the soak and I thought I'ld like to see what would happen if I let them dry all wrapped together

residu

have removed lots of bits of cloth and then added lots more stitching, especially on the painted canvas in the middle  and a bit of lace, that could serve as a gate in front of the secret garden

several pieces on the go

am kind of stuck in 'her secret garden' it's hanging in the studio, waiting for my next move

a very fresh beginning on a more colourful version of house and garden

the paler version of house and garden; the house is the nine-patch with a bird on top (our house is called 'the birdhouse') and an arch as a cloud above that, a small patch of garden in front of the house, the lace is the dike at one end of our garden and the blue strip represents the river on the other side, long way to go...

close up

doodle-bird continued

hmm, winter piece,  unfinished this winter

detail of winter piece

old poem

early morning dream

bantering buttercup flies high up,
i can hardly spot her  as if invisble
rubbery legs dangling from a high chair
i pat the cheshire cat who's visiting
from the past; there i fall upwards:
everything's plausible in this place
wriggling my dizzy bum i fail to sit
upright and give up, nearby i hear the
bees' wings buzzing my eyes wide open
as if to tell me something very important
is about to happen, in comes the king
he takes my hand leading the way
to palpable palaces tasty as honey
and milky trails to walk upon all
hazes, watery falls steam the vision,
i guess it's time to wake up after all.

man and dog

knotting willows

......

busy in the garden

today has been more about deeds, less about words; all the bedding has been aired and or washed and because the weather is so wonderful I have been pottering in the garden as well and sitting and enjoying the sun's warmth with the dog lying by my side, he's still limping on three paws and we do not know if he'll fully recover.....have been forced to solitary walks........hmm, prefer having my faithful companion with me 

in the frame

the blue and red and checks were inspired by our Masai visitor 

.....meanwhile on a smaller scale

our lives have moved outdoors again onto the verandah

the red and white quilt and me, nearing the edges

doodle colour in stitches (I think it is done)

found these in the 'uiterwaarden', alongside the river this morning, am figuring out what to do with them

men at work

they are reinforcing the dike along which we live, it's all very big and heavy and masculine, beautiful in an industrial kind of way

more doodles in stitches

so I have added to the first doodle-stitch: another animal and another colour;  in this first doodle I used the doodle on paper as a loose reference.

I started this one without pre-drawing as well and with no reference to the original doodles; in this second doodle-stitch something happened which I had hoped for: whilst doodling with needle and thread, I  'saw' the bird in the lines and I continued from there and once I had run out of black thread, I decided to finish it with white thread.

first doodle in stitches

could not resist doing it in colour because I wanted to use the freshly dyed blue; I refrained from transferring the original doodle onto cloth, for two reasons: too much work and I wanted to try doodling with thread without following a line or pattern and see where that got me.

blue grey sunday

bumblebees are out and about again, a couple of them have moved in to this birdhouse

there is nectar for them in the willow catkins and there are loads of those here in bogland; I like the contrast of the bright lime green leaves and the blue/purples. The blue cotton on the left soaked for 12 hours in the dye pot, the bits of cloth in the middle and on the right were left to soak for appr. 26 hours and turned out purple. All were soaked in soy milk for appr. 16 hours, the same amount of time the black beans were soaking in water. I wrung out the excess soy milk and put the wet cloth straight into the dye pot; I have no idea it drying between soy dip and dye makes a difference. I am experimenting here and have used information I found on Deanna's blog  Eclectic-Meanderings here and Peggy's blog woman with wings here.