bricolagelife

learning from a master

... more stories from craft days with jean. jean is teaching me to needle-felt, a skill i've been wanting to develop for a long time. my brain absorbs new techniques better thru human interaction than thru diagrams and written instructions. so i started begging her to teach me over a year ago. and on thursday my pestering paid off, big time.

the piece above is jean's work. she opened a rusting altoids tin and handed me a needle. i dug out my stash of natural-dyed wool fleece (saved up just for such a possibility) and a couple of fresh kitchen sponges. with very little hoopla, she said "you just do this, over and over... and see what happens..." we began to play around with the supplies at hand. as we chatted she cut this silhouette freehand from a felted sweater and proceeded to turn it in her hands, punching in the little details until she had this gorgeous finished elfin cameo. she is amazing.

the photo below shows my first attempts.

the work is pleasingly slow and meditative, i am already addicted to it. and i can hardly wait for next thursday :)

friday archives

many years ago, between being a kindergarten assistant and owning my own shop, i was a decorative painter.

this technique is called lazur and it involves one person applying thin wet layers of pigment like a wash while the other follows behind with a dry brush blending the color over the surface. the pigments, binders and sealers used were all natural and smelled so good. there were usually four to ten coats of glaze in each job... over the entire room, or house, depending on the desired result.

my back hurts just thinking about it.

but the finished work was very satisfying :)

found photos

these people really liked taking pictures of the backs of each other's heads. or was the news particularly interesting on this day? hmmm....

(from his storage locker)

see kirsty's found photo album of jessie's adventures here!

noticing

elan gombart of my monkey puzzle made this amazing video called micro atlas and i just can't get enough of it! prepare to be mesmerized... about it, elan says:

"it was such a lucky little chance happening......what are the odds of me noticing AND having a little camera handy?!! At first I thought it was the air causing the motion, I discovered the little bug as I was filming! It's amazing what you can notice when you are sitting very still."

i've been thinking about that a lot. and finding that the rewards for noticing can be quite unexpected every day if i stop, be still, really see and listen...

what are you noticing?

what's in my drawers

like old and foreign stamps, i seem to be compelled to collect coins and currency that seem in some way exotic and beautiful to me. not for any possible monetary value, but for the history and adventure they represent. we don't seek them out so much as we happen upon them. this is a small sampling.

some of these are souvenirs from a trip to france before the euro. who wouldn't love to have the little prince printed on their country's paper money? the others were accumulated by chance and we still have a handful from w's first trip abroad. mixed in are many wheat leaf pennies (which we consider good luck, especially if you find one from your birth year), old public transportation tokens, wooden nickels from carnivals past, enameled and squashed pennies. i love these tiny treasures you can carry in your pocket... or stash in your drawers :)

a walk in the park

and something sweet to pass the time... via my bro.

big big rummage sale!

and prairie bluebells, walking back from the sale.

and my loot back at home.

and the best part is i didn't even spend twenty dollars.

happy mother's day

winding our way slowly home along the two-lanes from my uncle's house the summer my son was a baby, we stopped to spend the night in a tidy little roadside motel. flowers were blooming in every patch of earth to be seen around the grounds and the elderly couple who owned the place came out to our car to greet us. my son, a sweaty sweet bundle, slept as i lifted him from his warm car seat and pressed his head against the hollow of my neck.

as i turned to the kind woman who was showing us to a room, she reached out and caressed my son's little fist with her crooked finger. she asked the usual friendly questions about his age and name and where we were from as she walked us to the door. as i waited for my husband to get our few bags inside, she looked at me and said;

"you can never love your mother as much as she loved you. and you never know how much your mother loved you until you have a child of your own."

then she walked away, leaving me standing there with my mouth hanging open. i wasn't sure if i wanted to laugh or cry, but i have never forgotten that tender encounter with a stranger. i recall it especially on this day.

i wish you all happy mother's day!

a friendly reminder

i was having a lovely day yesterday and i was on my way to a lovely evening when i looked up and saw this on a wall in our neighborhood... i thought: i really need to have this tattooed on me so i could look at it every day and be reminded.

i may have to embroider it on something instead. tho i sometimes wish i was, i'm not really the tattoo type.

anyone up for a trip to paris? she is killing me with these.

i saw this at elizabeth crane's. i can not get it out of my head!

friday archives

i'm joining loobylu and posting a little something from my "archives" on fridays. i happened to dig up some old work recently and posted about it here and here. then by chance i discovered an actual organized meme on this theme. so, here goes...

the photo above is from my last days as a clothing designer. this grainy scan of an instamatic photo (taken by a helpful audience member) is the last evidence of the last fashion show we co-produced and showed in. our theme for the show was pink on platinum. we actually spent a couple of long weekends haunting local clubs and asking total strangers with platinum blond hair to be models in our show... for free. i still find it hard to believe we got seven volunteers to agree to show up for fittings, rehearsals and two performances. i know we fed them well and drove them around, but i don't recall what other compensation we offered. what good sports they were!

i made this cinderella dress. it is difficult to see, but the bodice is made of a beautiful piece of upholstery weight tapestry of 18th century type picnic scenes. a frilly, blousey undergarment of layered, gathered pink cotton batiste is filling out the front and the skirt was made of a soft pink floral with patches of the same print in different colorways. i never do this kind of pattern-making or intricate construction sewing anymore and it is a little shocking knowing that i once did. or could.

but my favorite thing was the wedding dress we made for our finale. it was based on miss havisham from dickens' great expectations and was worn by a wonderful older woman we had met thru a friend. she had an awe-inspiring shock of pure white hair and walked the runway in her shredded lace and white orthopedic corset, leaning on an ornate walking stick and cursing the crowd. she was heaven-sent. somewhere there are photos... i'm certain.

the night of the show was a hellish 100 degrees, humid and perfectly still. the venue was a windowless, fanless, air-conditioningless art gallery... with about 200 people in attendance. it was also my first experience of a migraine. the pain was so intense and so unfamiliar to me, i didn't know what to do. i was given an otc pain reliever and a quick lesson in reflexology, but anyone who's suffered a full-fledged migraine knows these won't do a bit of good. i didn't know it then, but i was past the point of no return. by the time the second show was starting, i had to leave. i made it home, threw up and passed out.

good times, good times...