handstories

October

    Sometimes I have a sense of the shapes while drawing with my eyes closed each morning.  This bear felt like a surprise gift to myself.

    The tree tokens keep coming.  There was a moment of imagining one hundred of them all together.  It's not likely to happen, but who knows?

    All of the tiniest scraps have a place to land.

    I love October.  Always have.  Just waking up knowing it was here brought new energy.  Two boxes of stuff from the past were even brought up from the basement and gone through.  Most of the contents can go now.  Funny how a few years has made a big difference in what matters.  This stained glass was made in high school, I think I was 15.  I remember picking through the pieces, looking for the blues (it really has been a life long love affair), and being in excited disbelief that we were going to get to make something so real.  This I'm keeping.

light & shadow

 

    Oh, the light is terrible today- very bright or dim and full of clouds, but really, there is a sparkle on that spoon.  The spool of silver was bought in the early 90's, but quickly set aside because it was a pain to stitch with.  It still is.  But it did its job of glittering things up today.

    Thinking on what will fill this- a fairytale, a wished for one, and maybe a few starry memories.  Originally the thought had been to keep things light in spirit and recollection on this cloth.  Try as I might, what flows through has a dark side.  Then again, so do most fairytales.  Gathering thoughts is not coming easily these days, just a jumble... it's sure to all sort itself out in the end, one way or another.

    And does anyone else see the polar bear here, in the bottom right corner?!  A story begins...

    Cloth and variegated thread by Deb, and moon from Jude.

bear & baking

    Last night there were dreams of snow.

    Working on another bear, started yesterday in painting class while the teacher talked.  It's an abstract class, so when she started around the room I began the assignment of the shapes, lines and patterns of a twig of leaves, and hid the bear under the table.  Silly, I know.

    Which reminded me of high school home-ec...

,,,making chocolate chip cookies and snatching extra chips, eggs, butter, etc, off of the supply table, so that we could have extra cookies.  Just as we finished mixing up a double batch, Mrs. G. was approaching.  My partner panicked, I scooped out half of the dough and threw it in the drawer.  

    And the time we were decorating cakes . . . Most of the class was working on creating beautiful frosting flowers.  I convincied my group to make a cemetery atop of ours.  There were flowers- right next to the little tombstones, and a gallows with a marshmallow man hanging from a shoe-string licorice noose...

    Maybe I've told these silly stories before?  Oh well, that's how memories are- popping up now and again.  There were a lot of other moments in that class- a broken table, an out of control omelette, snapped needles, all moments full of exasperation for poor Mrs. G.  I probably should write her an apology.  I've always been a secret troublemaker.  K. (and a few old teachers and bosses) would say not so secret.

practicing polar bears

    Polar bears have been in my thoughts for a few years now, and seem to be growing stronger.  I'm not sure what it's all about.

    The other day, leaving an appointment, there was a sudden urge to walk to a nearby used bookstore that I haven't been to for at least a year.  Walking in the door, past the woman at the register, turning right . . . all of about seven steps . . . there, above a man and cat on the bench, was a polar bear on the cover of a photography book about the Arctic.  Saying an, "Excuse me," to the man and cat, I reached over his head, took it the three steps back to the register, paid the ten dollars for it, and walked out the door two minutes later.

    Yesterday there was some sketching, it's been a while.

    And then some trying with cloth . . . 

    It didn't go as planned, there are all kinds of things to work on, but she's ok for a first go around.