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A Very Busy Day

celestialblackhole

This morning, I got myself down to the studio so that I could finish this, now named Celestial Black Hole. Last night at my theology class, I unquilted the black areas. It really was a mess and the wrong thread — a metallic silver and black — which kept shredding in the needle. I sometimes like pulling out quilting threads. I don’t know why. Maybe it is because I am fixing something and that is satisfying.

I requilted it with a wavy line using an understated black, copper and gold. I then added some celestial glitz with some gold mica chips in gel medium. I am not all that thrilled with this piece. I am hoping that I can do a better job of finishing the other piece. I have this problem of not wanting to do work that is too perfect (probably because I can’t!), but really, even if I could, I like a more organic look to my work, but this piece is a little more sloppy than I like to show.

Here is a detail:

celestialblackholedetail

I took the photos using my new lighting system that arrived today. There are two of these lights with fancy carrying cases. Not sure  where I would take them. Anyway, I got my piece uploaded to the Fast Friday Fabric Challenge (not fast for me) Yahoo site and Blog.

newphotolights

Yesterday, I received a sweet little package from Kirsty in Australia who is part of the 12 X 12 group. She just opened a shop called PomPom Rouge. She had these gorgeous hand-dyed embroidery threads that I loved. She sent some to me. Can’t wait to use these.

kirstyembroiderythread

Tonight, I got to have 15 minutes of fame at High Fiber Diet meeting. So I packed up a selection of my quilts. It was fun to show some of my early work.

I had leftover lamb from the week-end, and I made the best lamb and lentil soup which we had with feta cheese garnish and pita bread. We had to eat early so that I could rush off to my 6:30 meeting.

During the meeting, we made Momigami paper. This is a way of treating paper so that if looks and behaves like fabric. I used some magazine pages. You start crumpling the paper.

crumpledpage

It is a great way tor relieve stress. You just keep kneading it in your hand and then add a drop of oil to your hand and continue then add another drop of oil and keep this up until you have added 5 – 7 drops of oil. Then, you iron the paper between paper towels or brown paper. Here are my two sheets,

momigami1

momigami2

These can be cut up and used in collages. Depending upon what you start with, you can get very different results.

So that was my very busy day. I wish I had had time for some Expressive Drawing. I am feeling so much better and have a lot more energy. I was afraid that I was going to start acting my age!! Not yet.

8 Responses to “A Very Busy Day”

  1. Vicki W says:

    CBH turned out great and those yarns are YUMMY!

  2. Always stimulating to see what you have done lately. The momigami paper reminded me of when I mixed compost and Celluclay to make masks. Transformation of materials appealed to me too.

    Mary Maxwell will present her quilts here at Terwilliger; I look forward to seeing them and telling of your and my blog connection…thanks for that.

  3. Deborah says:

    I am entranced by those papers. What kind of oil??

    I think the black hole is lovely! I can’t wait to see a full shot.

  4. kathy says:

    Does the oil change the colors in the papers? I guess I will have to try this too!
    Your black hole piece looks very interesting.

  5. Karen Rips says:

    I’m curious as to what your hands look like when you are done with the paper and oil! Have you tried out the new photograohy equipment as to whether it makes a difference in your pictures? I’m having a hard time photographing my pieces that have a lot of black in them and think the umbrellas would help.

  6. I like the effect you got with those mica chips, Gerrie 😀 And the momigami looks most intriguing. Does it matter what type of oil is used in the kneading process?

  7. Laura Beehler says:

    I’m glad to know what the paper is called. I took a class from Cass Holmes years ago and we did this – just didn’t know it actually has a name! Yes, it is great fun to use these papers and they do behave like fabric.

  8. Kristin L says:

    I’m so glad to hear that you’re not acting your age!

    The momigami paper looks fascinating. I’m intrigued by the way the colors changed.