who knew feathers could be dramatic?

this scanagram thing is really fun. and it's super simple. just lay items on the scanner, leave it open and scan. leaving it open is what gives the dramatic black background. the fun is in arranging the items on the glass, just so. it's rather addictive. i love how the feathers turned out, especially the little dotty woodpecker ones. beautifully dramatic. perhaps something for our upcoming spring exhibition, where the theme is tæt på (close up)?

finishing my torso (for now)

we're going to show our torsos this thursday with a big opening splash! so i've been frantically working on finishing mine. it's been sitting there on the sideboard, covered in words, painted blue, but unfinished.  i know i want to somehow incorporate some feathers, but i don't know yet how - perhaps this little feather bouquet i found on the beach contains an answer to that.

otherwise, i've been sketching and painting some small drawings of places i love and places which have been influential in my life to decorate the torso. this is the church of sv. jovan kaneo (john the baptist, if i remember correctly) at lake ohrid. influential since i met husband in macedonia, tho' not in ohrid.

st. basil's to signify my russian soul. i sketched or printed old sketches onto some pages from an old encyclopedia - that way the pictures still incorporate words, as words are important to my conception of my torso (and thus myself).

i couldn't resist using the colorful houses of nyhavn in copenhagen to represent denmark, which has, you may imagine, become an enormous influence upon me, having lived here for 15 years now. i loved those colorful houses along the canal when i first visited and seeing them still makes me smile.

and chicago, a sort of composite of places and buildings and that chicago pizza. it's the place from which i jumped off to my life in europe, so it had to be there.

and i couldn't resist a few helleristninger (nordic petroglyphs). they just speak to my soul. i drew them with that fabulous payne's grey ink.

i love this circle of life helleristning. it's long been a favorite. and symbolizes a feeling of community that spans the world (and which centers on this blog in many ways). it is essential to include on my torso.

these were some new helleristning that i came across that i'd never seen before. i love how the one figure appears to be floating away on a balloon. that felt symbolic and important as well. and in general i love that circle with the cross inside - it's the nordic sun symbol. light is so important in this part of the world, that it had to be included.

it is once again evident to me that i am a person in need of a deadline. i'd been procrastinating working on this and tho' i've thought about it pretty much endlessly, nothing was happening on it. but now, when the exhibition looms, ideas are coming together. i came across a package of little bitty people that i found in an antique store in the US last summer and i thought that since i've not used any photos of husband and sabin, that i'd use some little bitty figures to signify them. i included sabin's lost twin as well, because she's also part of who i am.

funny how once you start working, you get in a state of flow and ideas come and things just begin to happen. a garland on which i've written a bucket list to decorate the hanger. in that flow, i hit upon a way to incorporate a few feathers, which i seem to collect wherever i go.

i don't think i will be able to declare my torso officially finished on thursday when it goes to the exhibition, but it will be finished enough to show. i suspect that i will continue adding to it and it will change and grow evolve. just like me.

remembering to be different

i had a lot of thinking time over the past week. it's kind of ironic that it takes being sick to give you the time for proper thinking. why don't we give the attention to thinking time that we need to on a regular, daily basis? and it struck me that we humans, we're never satisfied. i complained all week about being sick. instead of appreciating that i got the chance to rest my body and my mind during a week (the winter holiday) when not much work could be done anyway, i whined about it on facebook. instead of appreciating that i could lay in bed and read harry potter 'til my eyes crossed, i whined about it on facebook. (i'm starting to think facebook might be the problem. if it wasn't such a forum for whining, would i have done so?) there was actually no better time to get sick if i had to be sick.

early in the illness, i talked to a friend who had come to my drink & draw evening. she thanked me, said she had enjoyed herself and that it was a very different experience. and i couldn't help but bristle at that characterization. which only proves that we humans are never satisfied. i had done all that i could to make it an experience that departed from the norm - from the food, to the tonic to the gin to the drawing to the conversation. and yet, when it was recognized as being different, it gave me a moment of insecurity. i suppose i felt a pang of it being a bad kind of different (tho' i'm quite sure that's not what she meant). and i just couldn't help but feel a little bit insulted, just for a moment. and then i relaxed and remembered that being different was what it was all about. it's good to be different.

* * *

who's the barbarian?

* * *

why we love the pretty.

bringing back finishing friday

it's -15°C, so perfect for staying indoors and reviving the old concept of finishing friday.  i've got a stack of leather that's ready to be turned into iPad cases, some stones waiting for their feathers, a couple of sweaters in need of repair (not pictured), a scarf i'm working on for myself (there will be no way to finish that today, at the rate i knit), and book 3 of murakami's 1Q84. the book has to be back at the library in 10 days (not that it will take me that long to read it), so i fear that the book will win out. tho' it's nice to feel the inklings of creativity beginning to return, so perhaps a bit of sewing or painting will be in order as well.

happy weekend, one and all. what will you finish today?

sparkle feathers

now available (round 1)

new stitched-up photos - now available on big cartel

two new quilts - now available already sold on big cartel

old norse series: a new set of feather touchstones with the names of nordic mythological goddesses
for the goddess in you.  on etsy.

i took photos for over an hour yesterday and i'm still nowhere near finished with editing, resizing and writing listings! it's a process that takes a long time! but i will be adding items to the shops all week.  still to come...fish, clarity birds and feather scarves (as soon as i figure out how to best photograph those) and a few other surprises.  i'd better go get some more photos while the light is good!

panic sets in (in a good way)

my very first market draws near. it will be on saturday and i'll have a table, together with jude & elizabeth at a spring market in sønderborg. the local fish shop guy had the idea last year and they hold four of them per year. it's a mix of food and handmade items and they want to have a focus on organic - i imagine the june and august markets will have more local food. but i imagine a lot of things about the market, because i've never been to it, nor have i ever participated as a seller myself.

sabin has selected a few of her stones to sell as well (tho' i have to sneak a few back out since i want them!)

it feels like i've been working towards it for forever and a day, but i suppose it's really only since january. i have quite a good stash of items built up, but there are lot of unfinished items as well, that aren't going to make it this time. i'm trying to be kind to myself about that. i have plenty - i have birds and stones, a couple of quilts, a tea cozy, a coffee cozy, some sweet little duvet covers for the baby duvets they use here in denmark (baby dyne, as they're called), garlands. lots of items.

a new helleristning viking ship - now i'm branching out a bit more from the originals.

my sewing machine broke down in earnest on the weekend and i was a bit panicked as i have a number of unfinished things for the market that need sewing. but i came up with an idea for some scarves made of jersey that won't need any sewing! i found beautiful, thin, soft jersey in soft spring colors and got out my gocco printer.

i drew up some feathers and burned two screens and got to work with the fabric inks. i've done plenty of gocco with paper in the past, but not much with fabric. i learned so much about how the ink behaves and how the screens behave. the hours melted away as i worked on the scarves. in a very good way. it was definitely a feeling of being completely in flow. and that's what it's all about, really.

i am absolutely delighted with how they turned out. again, an instance of something that's even better in reality than it was when the picture popped into my head. it's also an interesting exercise in how necessity does indeed breed invention. i was a bit panicked about my sewing machine and wasn't sure i'd get it back in time to finish the last items that i wanted to take to the market, but then this idea came to me (surely a product of hours of browsing goodness on blogs and online - but also my own) and i was able to do it without needing the machine.

better photos of the scarves once they're totally dry. i'm really excited how they turned out! and while i had the screens out, i did a little stack of moleskines with feathers for the market as well.

i have all day tomorrow to finish the items i can finish (i DID get my machine back - more on that later, as it's a story itself) and then i'm ready. i'm really ready. i have no idea whether anything will sell, but if it doesn't,  my etsy and big cartel shops will be well-stocked next week. and the process itself has been worth it.

seeking balance

dear balance,

please come and hang out with me, i need to spend some time with you.

i've got all kinds of beginnings going on and not a clear picture of where they will take me. quite a lot of fear seems to accompany all these beginnings, even if it comes hand and hand with excitement and happiness. there's also a lot of pressure. and at times i feel that i will burst into a zillion pieces just thinking about it.

so i paint feather stones, trying to find you, balance. the light and the heavy together in one place. in a size that fits perfectly in my hand. reminding me that it is possible to hold balance, even if only for a moment.

love,

/j

just listed - a limited number of feather stones

i've just listed a few feather stones in my big cartel shop. don't worry, i've also saved a few to put back on the beach the next time we go. and remember, you can also win what is quite possibly the best one by leaving a comment on this post over at se'lah's place.

finding balance

trinsch is right, it's totally therapeutic drawing feathers. during about a week without internet (ok, five and a half days, but still), i found myself painting a lot of them. the problem is that these little feathers just leap out onto the stone and i'm done with them so quickly, so i have to paint another one.  soon we'll have to return to the beach for more stones.

something just appeals about this juxtaposition - light and heavy, delicate and solid, cool and warmth. i think somehow it's about balance, finding harmony. i have one that i haven't photographed yet. i did it in teal and black on a rather dark stone, modeled on a feather we found in singapore last summer. and i've been carrying that one in my pocket. feeling the cool smoothness and the reassuring weight of it in my pocket when it all gets to be too much. i think the stones remind me of the weightier things...of what's important and the feathers remind me to take things more lightly, to float above it all. and the two together help me remember to try to keep it in balance. good reminders and exactly what i'm needing at the moment.

interesting how you find your way to these things exactly when you need them.

* * *

i've done up quite a few of these and tho' i thought about putting them back on the beach,

i will be putting a few of them in my big cartel shop later this week.

as soon as the sun returns and i can get proper pictures.

little reminders about balance.

to carry in your pocket.

drowned broadband cables

we had a horrible rain storm last wednesday and it washed out our broadband cable. they said it would be fixed by friday, but if this scheduled post goes up on sunday evening, it wasn't. oh well, it's probably best for me to have a bit of analog time. don't you love my latest obsession? painting feathers on stones (thank you, trinsch for the idea). and even better that i could pose it fetchingly on my great grandmother's quilt so that it looks like an eye! this particular one is for a very special purpose. shhh, don't tell.

oh and don't you love the new iPhone photo app i found? it's called CrossProcess. go and get it my iPhone lovelies. it's great!