How was your week?

For some reason, I always seem to have a difficult time settling into the new year. The first weeks find me drifting along, unable to focus for long on much of anything. Lists are made and promptly lost in the clutter of the studio - so more lists are made, ideas jotted down on whatever is at hand and promptly lost or inadvertently discarded, etc, etc. It's a vicious cycle that can only be broken by one thing - a good decluttering of the studio. That done, I was finally able to be productive this week.

Much stitching took place while listening to several recorded books - Sarah Addison Allen's Lost Lake and First Frost. Next up is Alan Bradley's latest Flavia DeLuce novel, As Chimney Sweepers Come to Dust.

While working on my piece for Silvermine Arts Center's Signed, Sealed and Delivered fundraiser,

the abstract left on the newsprint when ironing the excess bees wax out of the piece caused many new what ifs to spring to life.

We had a skiff of snow earlier in the week

which graced the rusty gears with just enough to be charming.

I played with photographing shadows

and yesterday morning's pre-dawn snow

which was heavy, wet

and perfect for making snowballs and snowpeople...or so I've been told.

You see, while the family ventured to the ski mountain yesterday (my little urchins are on the ski team's development squad this year), I trekked upstairs to the studio

where cutting, cropping, repositioning, stitching and bees waxing took place. 

It's time to heat up the iron and see what emerges.

How was your week?

Last week

Mother Nature graced us with a week of perfect spring weather last week. You know what I mean - cool nights made for sleeping with the windows open, warm days filled with bright blue skies and gentle breezes carrying the scent of newly bloomed flowers. Ahhhh....it was splendid. It was also great weather for working outside.

Inspired by all the discharged pieces hanging on the line, I intended to work on another large piece of black cotton. This time, the plan was to discharge with a bleach pen as well as by immersion in bleach. Combine free form and control. Ha! Seems the cosmos had other ideas for how my time should be spent and nothing seemed to go as planned. Really. It was one of those weeks.

So it came as a great surprise to me this morning while photographing more rusted cotton, to realize that I actually had managed to work on a few things last week after all. And not all of them involved putting stuff in a baggie and forgetting about it.

On Friday, I played with discharging and bees wax.

 And this morning, I opened bags of rusting cotton.

The first two rusted pieces really are different pieces. #2 was rusted in 2 days by dipping the fabric in vinegar first. #1 was vinegar-less. #3 was wrapped around a plumb bob. #4 is the one from yesterday's post that got rained on. Night time worked it's magic and produced way more rust than was there when I went to bed. All in all, not a bad week's work.