Welcome to the autumn winds...

... the bits on the left are what remained from
last year´s...

I´ll unplug for a few days. See you...

Behind noise...

So, here it´s finished (sort of...)
The story: Friday I was talking with a friend about
how increasingly annoying it is riding the subway,
with all that music booming from earplugs, private
matters being shouted into mobile phones, five
papers to support the homeless being boosted
between as much stations, guitars and accordions
(sort of...) played for money etc. - and he, being a
buddhist, said the only way he can stand it these
days is to make it into a practice, not shrinking
away from the nuisance but attempting to plunge
into it deep enough to see that behind it wisdom
and happiness are to be found...













Well, in any case - that was on my mind when I set
about making this, from one piece of silk of the
kind I´ve been dyeing for my October Silk pack to
come - had only used smaller pieces of it so far
and wanted to find out how it is to work with...













It´s rather firm, and unslippery - I like it.
Hope you will, too - the packs will be ready next
week (there´ll be, according to the patterns and
the material, less but bigger pieces as in the
other packs in this one)...

Silent saturday...

Fly away...

Seeing this, I decided to make a butterfly, too -
using, letting myself being further inspired by Lisa´s
beautiful one, a page from an old book on Heinrich Heine
and a copy of a drawing by Else Lasker-Schüler...

That´s the story behind it: Trudi Sissions of Two
Dresses Studio is gathering handmade butterflies
to support the "The Butterfly Project" by The Holocaust
Museum in Houston, Texas, the goal of which is to
collect 1.5 million butterflies as a remembrance of
the 1.5 million children who perished in the Holocaust.
In Spring 2013, these butterflies will be shown in a
memorial exhibition.













And the September piece grew a berry...

Morning de-light

The September piece took a dip in chokeberry dye...

Attention into leaves blown...

Well, I said it already - acute leaves mania...
















































"And possibly color is
divided
into the octave

gradations of
into love into
impalpable

in spite of into careful
attention into
leaves blown

into autumn blown
into tension into
between

growing into and
into ungrowing
desire into and into"

(Rosmarie Waldrop: PRE + CON
or POSITIONS + JUNCTIONS 5)

Silent saturday...

Autumn Mauve

An Autumn Mauve Pack has just fallen from the
fabric tree, right into the shop...













And what´s that? A glimpse into the current production:
Black chokeberries... A friendly Berlin reader sent me
them - straight from her garden - in a parcel, thoughtfully
adding a plant description (from which I learned they
originate from North America).
More about that soon...

Leafkeeper

The annual Gerdiary leaves mania seems to be
getting into full swing...
























This was inspired by the vine on the yard wall
putting on its beautiful red...













It´s made with a leaf embroidery from an old
doily and embedded silk leaves...

Monday

Have been busy dyeing on the weekend, and preparing
a new fabric pack. It will be in the shop towards
the end of this week (I´ll notify who´s on my mailing
list shortly before - anyone who´d like to be added
to that list, just let me know...)
Thanks, again, for liking my packs...













And I´ve been making some fabric beads...
It´s soothing working on little things sometimes -
and it´s a splendid way to use even the smallest,
unshapely scraps, and beads and buttons. I like beads,
just don´t know what to do with them, most of the time.
I´ll do more of these I guess, perhaps even put
them together, make some fabric jewellery...


"I am a lover and have not found my thing to love."

(Sherwood Anderson, born September 13, 1876)

Silent saturday...

Leaf blues, again...

The September piece has grown some blue leaves
since last time - a velvety one I got from Dot,
and one from a silk scarf I bought at a thrift-store
the other day...













My hand has not grown a blue carbuncle, though -
it´s a ring pincushion I purchased from Karen.
It´s pretty, and it hopefully will help me overcome
the health-hazardous habit of going about with a
needle in my mouth...

September mood

There´s a cold wind blowing here, and the days
seem to vanish with breathtaking speed...
























Here´s a small calendar piece wip...
As far as I remember, I made three pieces with
the name of the month stitched on them last year -
in September, October, November (and started one
for December, but didn´t get far with it, realizing
I just did it to complete the routine...) -
ah, well, as the days dwindle down...















"Most modern calendars mar the sweet simplicity of our
lives by reminding us that each day that passes is the
anniversary of some perfectly uninteresting event.”

(Oscar Wilde)

Old leaves, new ideas

When about 2 weeks ago I was talking about the
backyard chestnut tree already letting go of it´s
leaves, Kaite suggested I could steam some in bundles.
I had not been familiar with that method yet
(I´ve been wanting to read India´s book for a
while now, yes - but somehow found out that at
british Amazon it costs about a third of what
they want for it at the german version - so I
set my mind to buy it there, naturally, but they
seem to keep kicking me out whenever I try...)

Anyways, as the chestnut leaves landing on the
balcony are dull brown and very shrivelled by now,
I collected some other leaves - and here are
first results...



"I can't understand why people are frightened of
new ideas. I'm frightened of the old ones."

(John Cage, born September 5, 1912)

Future project, busy day...

Here´s something I´m planning to work on -
it´s a very worn kitchen towel and a piece of
rather stiff cotton with fabric/paper/papier maché
fragments that once were to become alphabet hearts -
lost interest in them I suppose, so I gave it a
dye, which makes them look very worn, too...













I´m thinking of machine sewing on the letter parts,
and hand stitching on the white, soft areas...

But, first of all, a thank you to all who welcomed
my latest fabric packs so kindly and enthusiastically
- and a sorry to everyone who wanted to buy and found
them sold out already...

I´ve been, thanks to Jude, very busy today...













And I´ve been asked whether there will be more packs.
Certainly I´ll make new ones - it might take a
couple of weeks though, as there are other things
I have to attend to, too...

In case you´d like me to send an e-mail when I put
new fabric packs into the shop, just let me know...
Thanks, again...