another sky line study

As I was getting off the freeway from one of my Appalachian road trips this weekend, I saw this flock of migrating birds on the power lines, rolled down my window and took a few pictures. Here's one:

Fig Leaf Loincloth and yarn p0rn

Yesterday was the first opportunity I had to get over to Loops (here's the website). I've wanted to go to this yarn store since they opened in the spring, but never seemed to get around to it.

I got this lovely yarn in the picture below to finish off my fig leaf project – part of the Wardrobe for Paradis series. It was supposed to be the strategically placed focal point of the Bird’s Nest Dress, but the fig leaf has separated itself from the dress and morphed into a garment all its own – a loin cloth.


The yellow-green yarn is 100% bamboo. This stuff is luxurious. Silky and almost hemp-like. It's beautiful. The pink stuff in the left background is a silk / wool blend -- extremely soft and silky. Both are imported from Japan and carried by Habu textiles based in NYC. Check them out; they even have a silk covered stainless steel yarn. Wow wee. Both the yarns I bought have just the right amount of sheen for what I need in this piece.

Process notes and photos are in the previous post.

Fig Leaf / free-weaving process

I used my own free-weaving process that I sort of make up as I go along. I've laid out the steps I went through below. (Forgive the poor quality of the pics.)

I first drew a cartoon on cardboard from a composite of found photo images – the cardboard cartoon was both loom and a loose color / value guide

Then I cut around the cartoon

Next, I stitched in the main structures (in this case veining) with strong cotton yarn sewn directly to the cardboard

And then stitched it to another piece of slightly larger cardboard and outlined the whole leaf with heavy wool yarn that I secured with thread

I trimmed the base cardboard and cut notches in the edges to hold loose threads… then began free-weaving

I just kept filling in more areas and changing threads often

At this point, I’ve woven to the density I want. This is weeks worth of work for something not much bigger than my extended hand, but is exactly what I want as far as size and structure

…the back side with all the loose threads tucked in their respective notches… and here you can see the source of cardboard – a pizza box from The Red Onion, a fine mom and pop pizzeria with great pizza.

Then I separated the two cardboards with the seam ripper

The two pieces of cardboard

This is the tricky part: I had to cut away the structural yarns from the original cartoon being careful not to pull them out of the weaving

The freed form… looks like a sea creature

I wove the ends back into the weaving as I would with a tapestry… and again, a very long process… only half-way done at this point

The front side

Studio assistant and Bird’s Nest Dress

I'm making what I call a Bird's Nest Dress, which requires that I search out every string, cord, ribbon and yarn that I have to see if it's worthy to be woven into this piece... Thus I have created the perfect cat opportunity.

Actually the full title of the dress is Bird's Nest with Fig Leaf. Ahem. It's still all about the hair.

Home Studio

I keep my threads in a vintage card catalog indexed with paint chips. Above it, I have an inexpensive piece of metal from the hardware store used as a magnet board to hold images related to current projects.


I put the documentation of shows and projects in these black / gray project boxes, slides for teaching in the smaller boxes... more tools and supplies in the tall vintage filing cabinet. I use the smaller filing cabinet for paper filing. I found this great little filing cabinet (it opens from the top and is on casters!) for $6 at the St. Vincent De Paul thrift store in Los Angeles.


more shelving with wire baskets on lower levels holding projects and Frieda, my dressform, in front of some corkboards... and that'd be Frank in the background making salsa or something in the kitchen


more of the corkboards (which I painted white to reflect light and see work more easily) and my trusted old Singer and my and Lily the cat's favorite piece of furniture – the pressing table. I love my pressing table.


the pressing table again, the Consew industrial machine, and some tools

In the ways "we mock our eyes with air" and more about skies

And one of those near perfect pieces of conceptual work: Vik Muniz’s Pictures of Clouds
...right up there with Yoko Ono’s Painting to See the Skies

"It is one of the first imaginative exercises we perform in the world, looking up to find a horse, a flower, a belching dragon."

more pieces of sky

Garden Plot 19: fallow again

Sky Line Drawings

Most of my work begins with or incorporates video or photo sketches.

Here's a recent photo I'm particularly fond of:


I shot this out of a moving vehicle while driving around in the old 'hood in North Knoxville.

I'm making a collection of these sky photos that create a line-drawing effect from, mostly human-made, features protruding in the landscape. And though I don't try to recreate the photos (unless I'm actually making digital photo prints on fabric), I do use the images as references for stitched drawings on canvas or paintings using bleach on denim.

Here are a few more Sky Line Drawings:

The Garden Plot 18