Growing a gallery or: For the time being...

The months fly by, don´t they...
So, at the end of this short one, there´s at least
a fledgling February hanging to present - next to
a still in progress January one. I don´t mind - I
just add one to my gallery each month, unfinished
or not, and work on them when the time seems right...













The time seems right just now, with post No. 500
approaching, to do things different for a while -
in March, for the time being, this blog will be a
more or less wordless one - a photo diary, with
the occasional quote or poem perhaps, we´ll see...

And I´ll remove the links - there are so many
interesting blogs, and not enough time to keep track
of them all, so I don´t feel comfortable any more
with that huge hotch-potch selection as it is now,
but don´t want to shrink it either. So I will store
my list of favourites elsewhere, for the time being...

Batik bungling...

Some first results with batik...













I decided I want to take that up - for creating patterns,
additional to dyeing - and as a means for writing on
fabric...













My new fair trade cantings from Indonesia, which
came in a nice fabric covered box...
I thought I might be able to put together some freshly
batiked fabric pack by the end of the week - but this
definitely takes longer than anticipated...

Printed matter

This week I´ll busy myself with printing and dyeing...













Ages ago, long before the textiles took over, I bought
an old indian stamp, because I liked it just as an object.
Then I gave it to someone who wanted to try some wall
decoration with it, and forgot about it...













But now it´s back where it belongs.
This print (thickened walnut dye) looks better here
than in real, and it washed off too much, and I don´t
like brown anyways...
The first photo shows a card I made yesterday, with a
sponge rubber print.
More soon...

Silent saturday...

Weaving

Some weeks ago I thrifted a little loom. After it had
been standing in the way for a while, I gave it a try
with the wool still in it - no fun...













So I thought: why not use fabric strips instead?













Aahh, better...
























Much better actually...
























Spring catchers. Now I´ll lean back, on a cold and
grey Berlin February day, and wait for things to come.
What will be will be...

Passionate people

Here´s a new tribe...













...very recently discovered in the urban canyons of
Berlin...














And what have they to do with helping spring along?
Well, they´re quite a sensuous and passionate lot it
seems - and thus well equipped for it.
Papes I call them, short for: passionate people...

And what happened with the green silk...?
This...













... and this

Helping (the possibility of) spring along...

Personally, I´d prefer to hang on to winter for a
good while longer - and it´s cold enough around here
to make one believe it is winter still - but there are
snow-drops and bird-twitter, too - so I thought I might
as well make my peace with the unavoidable and open
up the windows of my mind for spring...













My weekly focus therefore will be: helping spring along...













And here´s what I tugged out from the (still way too
big and too chaotic) fabric heap for that purpose...

Saturday interlude

This is a thank you...













...to Wendy Golden-Levitt for including one of my
two-faced Creatures here and in her fascinating work.













And I just asked this little chap to take off and join her
and the children too...

Tackling the scrap-heap...

A little scrap gatherer in the making...

Too many baskets of scraps, too many piles of paper,
too many projects and wips around here - so some
serious sorting, straightening, simplifying has to
be going on...













Which doesn´t keep me from thrifting fresh supply
for the scrap-heap...

I´m rather rapidly approaching post No. 500, can you
believe it? So it might be time for some blog reform,
too...
Anyways, there won´t be another post here this week
I guess...
Take care!


"I try to teach my heart not to want things
it can't have."

(Alice Walker, born February 9, 1944)

Sunday afternoon...

Eggheads

Sitting and sketching, my eye fell on one of the
Creatures residing on the window sill, so I thought:
he might as well earn his stay once in a while -
and took him as a model for a little drawing...













And here´s a mixed-media collage I made, using
one of my drawings from earlier this week.
On the left is a strip of hand dyed cotton I ripped
off elsewhere, and the handwriting comes from a print
a friend gave me of some of his non-word calligraphy
experiments...

Both far from pure form, I readily admit - but even
very different levels of skill sometimes somehow might
lead to similar results...


"When you start with a portrait and try to find
pure form by abstracting more and more, you must
end up with an egg.”

(Pablo Picasso)

Drawing...

... silver-haired figures