Hoodoo

I have just discovered a lovely website which shares photos as opposed to copyrighting them...isn't that so generous, it is called Webshots.  

It is a bit new to me to be linking... so I say sorry to all you out there who do this like boiling a kettle...  But here is my first attempt of embedding (as I like to call it). The website allows you to use, send, or link, to photo-images on the site, which have been uploaded by the public... Nice one.

I was looking for images of the wonderfully mysterious rock formations in Drumheller, Alberta.

Webshots image of Drumheller hoodoos, Alberta Canada.

Hoodoos

Photocredit - John Millson

These are rather special! hoodoos in Pamukale, Turkey... which we visited donkey's years ago... Donkeys do live long and happy lives don't they?  

They are predominantly grey (the hoodoos and the donkeys) unlike the well-known ones of the Americas (Grand Canyon, Yellowstone Park etc) which are red in cross-bedded sandstones. They form as the rock layers erode at different rates.  Often they are mushroom-shaped because of a harder, cap rock which is more resistant to weathering.

In Alberta, maybe all over Canada, I am afraid I don't know, these rock formations standing like sea stacks on land and are called Hoodoos.

They usually go around in groups! as can be seen in the uppermost image.

Working with Shibori and patchwork wadding or batting as it is called here... I have found a way to create 3D hoodoos.. and now I am going to add detail to the rock layers.

More on Hoodoos 

Spirit creature

My son's birthday ??card?? . Hallmark eat your heart out - - maybe a spirit creature will keep a bit of me with him when he moves on to pastures new, which could be soon, who knows.
The mass of lime green on its head is knitted metal thread which forms the brim of a hat, the crown of which you can't see...
Thanks to Milliande who gave me the idea of making this small totem in less than a day... Thanks M. for the great video on the topic.
http://fiberartsmixedmedia.ning.com/video/1097628:Video:61291
First time with Sculpy - aren't I getting into Michael's in a big way... $100 worth and we only went in for Sculpy!!

Oh, terrific excitement

Vertical Coral Growth


I wish I had a month of uninterrupted time.. but I also want to spend time with a life outside of stitching so I WILL go to Fernie to ski for 4 days!!! However....

Great excitement as I play with some more mushrooms... still the same colours and still the same size and shapes...
Firstly a growth of coral stretching vertically for the light... then a fallen coral colony - I need an army of people to make the individual corals so that I can create a whole coral reef!


And the biggest excitement were the coral calyx... now I know I must add colour and stitch and jewels of beading to create the creatures asleep in their calyxs... (plural of calyx anyone??).. for it is only at night that the coral animal bursts out of its exoskeleton to munch.


At last I can break out the shocking pinks of Kemtex!!! (Got to hurry now - meeting at school to discus the Graduation Ceremony for my daughter but next entry will have link to Kemtex beloved dye suppliers).
Now there is much for me to look forward to on my return from the snows of the West.

Side Track 46789-309827

What is wrong with me - why can't I commit!

Above is an image of a (nother) work in progress... actually it just took over so I think there is power in these voodoo dolls.
This one is possessing me today - so I think I might not be stitching chromosomes at ballet but I will brave the sad glances from the other mums and stitch this totem instead.

It is made with the same technique as the chromosomes... The Indian Button method... right now it looks like a bunch of threads...and that is because that is what it is! But already it is holding together and can be squeezed and hugged, holding it and looking at the colours already creates an emotional response. I feel it will tell me its name.

Much to do

The surface I created using the shibori mushrooms on a wonderful fleecy fabric has been on stand by. Now it is held in place (but still pinned). When the light bulb (of inspiration) came on, I added marbles as a reference to the much used Shibori technique that this piece was built on. I think they might be encouraged to shine out when it is finally lit. They provided the fixings that the fabric needed to attach it at back to a mesh/framework/support.

I still have to add the stitched references to the gills and figure out how to get it back lit but if all else fails it will be a tube light like the previous one made using digital printing etc.

Now I go back to preparing more shibori mushrooms for a development in the series. And get those digital printable surfaces ready for tomorrow... the big rush before a skiing holiday over the children's Spring Break next week.

My Epson 2100 has eaten mosquito netting and survived.

I am thrilled to say that the past 6 weeks of intensely working on printing on diverse surfaces has paid off and a side of my character that I didn't know existed has been revealed. Not sure if it is more masochistic or sadistic....
I love the excitement of putting sheet metal and metal woven netting through the domestic printer! Neither of them really like it but I don't they should kick up a fuss because the outcome has such potential which I hope to explore in the coming weeks.
The uppermost image is pretty dull where gel medium is spread over the net and then printing is done on digital ground. Pretty boring cover I think....
However, when we loosen up a little look at what we get...
A watery-theme-constructed image on aluminium sheet, subtle variations are not visible in this image but they are there... and I am working to develop these...stay tuned.

A very icey image on an acrylic skin - I love this one, but am feeling a bit precious about it... I will have to make more of the same in order to make a stitched piece... and keep this one intact.
I have bored people before with my theories on "Why do we all work to a canvas that is rectangular or shockingly square in shape... it is so unnatural... and lo and behold I find I can go with the irregular canvas that a skin produces... (no, that corner didn't get ripped off!) And next time i will invite an irregular form to the canvas... no parallel sides...no sides at all in fact.... will I get shot?

Scientific stitchery

The swirling melting stew that is the potage of motor neurons in the brain has caused a concept breakthrough... Yeh!
How did this happen?
I put a widget on my blog that shows SEM images of natural sources. I go to Contextural and have my work compared to that of the weaver Bev Hisey http://homepage.mac.com/bevhisey/index.html who lets the contents of petri dishes inspire her work - organic again. I stitch worms and funghi in plastic, thread and fabric and take natural environments as my sources. Then I create the 'beads' of previous post. Then I sleep.
When I wake up I have a vision of the beads as chromosomes. I go online to check that I have 'learnt my lines' according to Richard Box and I find I have.
Check out.... http://porpax.bio.miami.edu/~cmallery/255/255hist/mcb10.0.karyotype.jpg ........- Sorry about quality - nice though!, don't you think, very medical, could be lozenge tablets if they weren't chromosomes.

Now the beads have a true purpose. (not for jewelry just yet) I will create the chromosomes of creatures unknown and display them (wall mounted) in symbolic petri-dishes... and they have lots of potential for being ornamented with coloured stripes, lumps and bumps as chromosomes.