What I plan to be doing for the next year.

Lately my work studio has been filled with graphs, maps and molecular structures. Perhaps I'm crazy, but I think I've found a way to connect all of these seemingly disparate subjects into a new series.

A work wall in March.

I'm in the process of creating a contemporary quilt pattern language. One that reflects our current society's issues. For years, we've replicated the 'wagon wheel' and 'jacob's ladder' patterns in more traditional quilts. And as I've learned from my past series, they can effectively used to record history and even offer new knowledge to viewers who were previously unaware. These traditional patterns are certainly beautiful but why not attempt a new pattern language for today? I was inspired when I read about the myth of the Underground Railroad quilts. If it were true, what a brilliant idea! So, why don't we utilize patterns to talk about what we're dealing with today? Issues like climate change, the digital era, migration, water and food security, etc. There are certainly plenty of artists addressing these issues but I haven't found anyone who has created something that could be used by others to generate new pieces and new ideas. So I'm setting out to create a body of work to start the conversation.

Pages from the fabric book with conceptual wall pieces sketched below.

To kick off the series, I wanted to create some sort of book to reflect these new ideas. A lot of us know and love Louise Bourgeois' fabric books. What better way to pull of these ideas together into a cohesive form? It allows me to work out the fabric construction while exhibiting the patterns. I'm only using black and white at this point to really focus on the graphic design of the pattern making.

This pattern is about migration, the pattern was
inpired by looking at my daughter's flip flops one day.

 The patterns in the book act as a starting point to generate larger pieces. There are so many ways to use a pattern: altering scale, color and fabric. It's endless. Based on the patterns, I will create a series of large wall and floor pieces that are just one interpretation of the ideas.

The stories about these patterns are still evolving and the wall pieces will reflect this. They will be presented using relevant visual mapping, statistical information and structuring, whatever the subject calls for. For example, below and above is a piece about Colony Collapse Disorder occuring in the bee population worldwide. If we don't resolve this problem soon, our bee population will dwindle to the point of not being able to pollinate our crops and hence, grow our food. I'm simply laying out the molecular structure of the current causes of CCD, a series of pesticides called Neonicotinoids overlaid on top of the natural structure created by bees, the hexagon. Curious how visually related they are, isn't it?

I suspect this project will keep me busy for at least a year. I'll delve into each of these patterns as I develop them. The possibilities are endless.

A weekend of indigo dyeing

I just had the highlight of my summer in Sonoma last weekend. My talented friends Myrna, Katrina, Sonya, Patty, Shelly, ReCheng and Neiley drove up to the wine country to spend the weekend with me indigo dyeing fabric, paper and even a few ceramics.

Last summer I took a five week indigo dyeing class with Barbara Shapiro. I left the class with a wonderful recipe for a Greener Indigo formula. The best part of the vat is that it is ecologically sensitive and has no fumes. It's also really easy to start and to manage. We left the class with several useful handouts and a lot of dyed fabric. Take Barbara's class or workshop and you'll have access to her recipe which is derived from Michel Garcia's indigo formula. Starting the vat was WAY easier than I imagined. Well, at least once I learned how to read a ph test strip accurately!

On Saturday morning, seven lovely ladies arrived with piles of fabric to experiment with.

We spent the morning clamping, tying and bundling and dropped our fabric into a Synthropol solution (another bonus, no pre-mordanting!) to soak while we enjoyed a potluck lunch with some of my Southern iced tea.

After lunch we got to dyeing!

We pulled our fabric from soaking (there was a lot of awesome fabric in the mix).

Let me tell you this vat was potent which was good because we dyed a lot of fabric! Everyone's personality came through, some people with very controlled results.

And some with looser styles.

Meanwhile all of our kids ran amuk in the yard, picking ripe grapes and green beans to their hearts content.

After two days of many, many dippings the vat seemed exhausted until my friend Shelly told me to test the ph and just add more indigo to it. I did and the next day it was going again, like magic! 

What a weekend! I plan to do it again and likely before summer ends as the vat does best at 82 degrees. The temperature on Saturday was exactly 82 degrees! How perfect was that?!

Japan!

I thought I'd kick off an early spring (it was 70 here in San Francisco yesterday!) with a few features on Japan. What does spring have to do with Japan? Well besides having a culture that celebrates spring like no other (life revolves around cherry blossom season), we're taking a two week trip there in late March! This will be my second trip to Japan. When we visited thirteen years ago, I was obsessed by photography (see my photos below) and carted around my vintage Leica that required a tripod for every shot. This time we'll have our eight year old daughter along with us which will make for a very different experience.

Cleaning person's sandals at a Kyoto shrine, 2000.

I know the best place in the world for textiles and ceramics is Japan, so I've got a lot to try to see while we're there, all the while trying to make this a relaxing family vacation. We will be staying in a traditional ryokan in Kyoto, hop over to balmy Okinawa to visit family and end in Tokyo, where we will stay at the Ritz Carlton for free (so there is an upside to my husband's countless business trips last year)!

Kyoto street scene (left), Tokyo street scene (right), 2000.

We're all so excited! In the meantime, I'm researching like crazy trying to figure out where to visit and what to see. It also helps that quite a few of my fellow students at the pottery studio I attend, Sharon Art Studio, are from Japan. I've been able to practice my rudimentary Japanese with them while they offer all sorts of advice on what to see and do.

Ladles at a Kyoto shrine, 2000.

I've purchased Hello Sandwiche's Tokyo Guides, read through DesignSponge's Tokyo Guide and have started compiling a list of cool places to visit and of course places to eat. When in Japan, it's also all about the food! It helps that my daughter's favorite food is Japanese, she gets excited when she sees a plate of masago.

Garden clogs in a Kyoto ryokan, 2000.

I plan to post a lot of the research I find on Pinterest this time, so be sure to follow my Japan board if you're planning a trip over there yourself.

Marimekko

I couldn't resist a post about Marimekko today. I just returned from their new store inside of Crate & Barrel here in San Francisco. Zoe complained about being dragged through the store until we turned the corner and saw this.

Image courtesy of Dwell.

She was speechless by all the colors as was I. She kicked off her shoes and made herself at home on one of the beds so I had a few moments to shop in peace. I eye-shopped today but I would love this teapot. I'm just waiting for my current one to break first.



Rasymatto teapot.

You could always buy Marimekko here in the states but only a few pieces here and there. This year, they've opened up several areas inside of Crate & Barrel stores as well as a concept store in New York. You can find all of their products at the concept store including their clothing.

Aavikko Leggings.

Here's a little video about the company.

It was nice to finally feel the fabrics in my hand and see just how large the patterns really are.

The concept store is currently having a large sale with discounts on all their fabric as well, uh oh! Be sure to check out their website as well. Lots of eye candy there too.

UPDATE! I just learned that Marimekko will be increasing the prices of their fabric in January 2012 due to the rising cost of cotton and the worldwide cotton shortage. Just one example is regular cotton will go from $39.00 per yard to $48.00 per yard. A pretty high increase. Yikes!

Foreclosure : assembling ...

It's been hard to show my progress in the past few weeks since we haven't had much great natural light for photographing not to mention that squares after squares of the same fabric can't be so interesting to look at! Nevertheless, I've got some progress to share on my foreclosure quilt series. Here was my final experiment where I finally determined scale and representation of foreclosed lots.

Foreclosure experiment remnant, 6" x 6". Linen and cotton.

I then decided to use the blue wool scrim as my quilt top fabric with red sandwiched behind and a rear layer of the natural scrim. Cutting away from the blue to the red is a much more powerful image.

Now, onto the assembly! I've started working on Las Vegas first which, thankfully is a sea of grided arterial roads. This makes it easy to layout the quilt pieces. Within the grid roads, the streets are all unique (some have some badly appropriate names). I plan to quilt the secondary roads using a contrasting thread. And now onto assembly!

I have larger panels sewn together but they're hard to photograph at the moment. I hope to have more to share over the next few weeks.

The solid fabric on the bottom represents retail and civic areas in the neighborhoods. I love how civic and retail occur in patterns on a map and this simple treatment on the quilt subtly highlights them without taking away from the real point. I'm excited to see this idea finally come together!

In the meantime, I hope everyone in the States has a wonderful Thanksgiving and a relaxing long weekend! We plan to spend it with good friends here in the city. Their flat has an amazing view of the Pacific Ocean. Happy Thanksgiving!

work table : button up

I'm working on a new Idiom series piece this week called Button up. Making this series has taught me a tremendous amount about fabric's possibilities.

A month ago I would have had no idea how to make what I'm making today.

I love how something that looks so simple is actually quite intricate and involved behind the scenes.

One of the constant underlying themes in my work is exposing just a hint of the process. As my side stitch studies come to a close this month, I might do studies next month about process.

SWEET SPOTS ... inspired by Good Measure blog

I've just discovered a new blog which I want to share. Good Measure is a lifestyle blog written by the artist behind Inklore. Inklore's block print items are so beautiful and simple. Her blog this week talked about 'sweet spots'. Spots around your home that inspire you and bring you joy. Here are some of mine:

The top of my studio bookcase where I keep all my small tools, thread and string for my pieces. This is one of the first places I go when I start a new piece. The wood box holds scrap fabrics.

 

The sewing and drawing area of my table. I have an amazing view to the garden and my work wall from here. This is where I do all of my hand embroidery and detail work on my pieces.

My inspiration area of my work wall. Every sewn remnant and other leftoever bits of discarded parts of pieces end up here, ready to be reused for the next piece.