linen shirt

very slightly modified linen shirt; dyeing details here and here; I added a bit of 'lace' to the neckline. I'm quite pleased with the result, suits a hot day like today.

strange bird-bag

the blue linen strip is a  trouserleg, which is the base for the bag; it was a puzzle how best to use the leg and strange bird-quilt; I wanted to have several pockets, but then each pocket would be too thin and have to have a lining and what I wanted was to make a relatively simple bag. So in the end I decided it will be a single, lined pocket (if that makes sense) with the bird on the front and the sun-moon bit on the flap, so that meant cutting the quilt, and this way when closed the quilt is whole again; I can always add a pocket later on on the inside; I like the way the back has turned out with the band of trouser-blue in the middle; now all that remains is to stitch it all together.

forever Ai Weiwei

handpainted porcelain sunflower seeds, detail Sunflower Seeds

Rocks (2009-2010)

Forever (2003)

Trees (2009-2010)

 Ai Weiwei (Beijing, 1957) Artist, architect, designer, curator, fervent social media adept. This rainy afternoon was spent at the museum De Pont in Tilburg, the last day of Ai Weiwei's exhibition.
A quote from the museum brochure:" Until I discovered Marcel Duchamp I had no idea that art could be a way of life (...) It was my salvation and immediately ended my struggle. I understood (...) that art could be a gesture, and such a gesture can take any shape the artist desires. It can become a painting, but also something completely different."

For me personally 2012 is the year I changed in the way I see my art, so this exhibition struck a nerve.
Nice detail: the museum is situated in what used to be a textile factory

mending

 reinforced the waistband with a strip of cow parsley yellow and sewn on a new button, voila , these thin orange trousers can be worn again as soon as the sun decides to come out as well!

tear sewn together and reinforced on the inside, so that my son can safely wear these shorts

black linen/viscose trousers from thriftshop with frayed leg-edges have been embellished with blue linen strips stitched on with different shades of blue embroidery thread, I also went up the outer legseams and onto the frontpockets to bring the blue up.....

three pairs in one day, a day well spent!

less is more

weaving with goat's wool and bone needle; the yet-to-be cloth, needle and thread for 'a rather useless cupboard' to be found here the cupboard measures 7x7x37cm=1.8 litres
the more I'm thinking about what I need, what I want for survival and then some... the more I've come to realise how Truly little that is! first the list of essentials grew and then it shrank, like when you're packing your back-pack for travelling...paired down, pairing down, honing......

Dutch title: 'kastje waar niet zoveel in kan'

behind

the back of the weave: horizontal threads of nettle-dyed goat's wool

weave

experimenting with a weave, for days now, ever since I reorganised my studio in fact, I have been thinking off & on about weaving in a frame; because that's how my mind 'works': I see the canvas-stretcher and the goat's wool and the two mesh in my brain (during a walk, in my dreams..) and the idea evolves and all of a sudden I'm drilling holes and choosing which colours to use and I have no idea what the outcome will be and this is the result; a useless weave, useless in the sense that you cannot wrap it around you, too loose, too small and yet I have learnt 'something' am not quite sure what that is, anyway it doesn't matter, the ideas have materialized.

just for the record: back row is nettle-dye, middle row from the forgotten pot (cow parsley/comfrey/tealeaves), front weave: cow parsley yellow and original white
the frame measures 20x20 cm

beginning

working title 'a rather useless cupboard'
eggshell, feather and bit of blue plastic found on the walk - so you get an idea of the scale

the inside measures appr. 7x7x37 cm, so not a lot of storage space; however during my walk I got to thinking what if I put (parts of) everything I think is essential to me in there and see how big it might turn out to be and then take it all out and spread that on a sheet of paper and see what I consider to be 'essential'.
There are quite a few conversations-in-blogland on sustainable living going on these days, downsizing, consuming less, recycling etc, it got me re-thinking and this piece has become about that: being aware of how much or in fact how little I need in order to survive....which perhaps is not the same as what I might need to live a happy and fulfilled life.........

water&air

Vlissingen yesterday evening

jack sparrow eat your heart out

tear repaired with patch on the inside

shirt as a whole; what I particularly like is that the shirt has kept the original lightness, the original looked like this

,

patch on the inside

details of seams: I have handsewn over the machine stitchted seams, not to hide them, but to acknowledge   their exsistence

detail of back, more pics here

detail of front: plackets stitched and the 'shape-seams' (correct term?) emphasized with stitching 

cuff
the Jack Sparrow shirt is my first finished project for  Jude Hill's online Contemporary Boro 2 class; more pics of the shirt's evolution  here.
A labour of love, needlepricks, excitement and frustration, have already gotten started on the next project(s)....

done!

it's late, will post more pics tomorrow

ghost birds

strips&light

two new skylights in my studio, thanks to B.

I have no idea what I want to do with these, yet, but I know i want to keep them

accidental photograph, light moving

amber-onion and pinkish-sorrel

latest colour: botttom right amber goat's wool
simply left in a jar of onion skins and water for 5 days

sorrel-pinks, with shades of mauve
fresh sorrel was chopped, (I used the entire plant minus the roots) just covered in water in the pan,  a generous teaspoon tartaric acid,  brought to the boil  and left to simmer for appr. half an hour, fabric added and left for 5 days with a couple of rusty bottle caps thrown in, these are responsible for the darker spots

in&out of the dyepot

top left: onion-dyed goat's wool, scrunched up in a ball: sorrel-dyed linen, in the pot the onion&sorrel-dye mixed together, cotton wrapped around tin can plus rusty bottlecaps

unexpected

am reorganising my studio and everything passes through my hands (yet again) and I come across stuff I had forgotten about, like this t-shirt our youngest son decorated at least 5 years ago for a school-camp.....it rubs against my chest.....

excuse me, may I ask you an impertinent question?

....is how I approached this young man. Fascinated by his torn, worn trousers I popped the question: please may I take a photograph of your trousers, because..... As you can see, he cooperated. All for Boro-Art!

not that I would want to repair these, I think they're perfect the way they have evolved.....

wicking from top to bottom

the top half has been dipped in a cow parsley/onion/tealeave dye + tartaric acid for a couple of hours, resulting in a pale yellow with a few brighter spots

simple stitching

I started this piece in winter, it was meant to be a winter-piece, hmm maybe I 'll manage to finish it before next winter. The cotton fabric was used to soak excess paint on 'everything is connected' I 'm simply sewing running stitch, sometimes following the lines, sometimes not. I want to keep it as simple as I can.
there's more information on the original painting here and here

and  here

life inspires

from our kitchen window we can see this bird's nest

worm-nibbling slug

lots of tiny eggs