getting to see cotton growing in the fields, then transformed into beautiful fabrics was an inspiration. what will i do with the pieces we brought home?
the trip of a lifetime.
mom and i took the trip of a lifetime to Uzbekistan. people, cities, food, mosques, history. the place was magic, but the time with mom was even more magical. how lucky are we!
go easier.
at first i was making this harder than it actually is, and it took time to see that the pattern is just a honeycomb. honestly. if you look above, you can see where i was trying to outline all the things and it was a struggle. doesn’t have to be that difficult. i think the yellow will be great. not sure how i’ll fill the middle or sides but that will come.
watching The Mandalorian, pelotons, runs, cooking…and of course working on this. good slow time. Madonna this week. like a prayer.
laurie's shoe.
i have two running besties. laurie and michelle. made a piece with michelle’s shoe tread a bit ago. started with laurie’s, but it was more complicated and i got stuck creatively. because there are diamonds and triangles and those are hard. back to it, have reconsidered and hope i have a path forward this time around.
basically this is an imprint of laurie’s shoe tread, one which had miles and miles of running together on it. so it is meaningful to me.
side by side.
all right. here’s the plan next to the final product.
finishing touches. great memories.
will add everyone’s favorite song in beads but can’t find the beads. like friendship bracelets. and will use the show bracelets as the side hangars.
bejeweled.
because we were bejeweled. adding details and then moving to maggie and ruth, below the roll.
fan forward.
working on the iconic fan from the Eras tour opening. designed three types of panels - matte beads for bright color panels, shiny beads for lighter, more dimensional panels to recede, and fabric for air and lightness. doing this to try and recreate the billowy nature of the fans. i like it.
this weekend is the Super Bowl and should be fun to watch. Taylor might try to fly back from Tokyo to be there. fun to follow. snow this weekend.
4 people and one fan.
this one is going fast. LZ looks great. have beads to decorate his outfit and will add those later. working on the iconic opening fan used at the Eras tour opening. on the fan, i’m alternating shiny and matte, hoping to give it more depth and yet retain the bright appearance.
The Best Day of My Life
idea: celebrate what LZ said, and i agree, was one of the Best Days of Our Lives. The Eras Tour in Denver on July 14, 2023. selected some pics of us, and made stickers, printed, laid them out on the canvas. the fans at the opening were iconic, wanted those in the background. the pics below show the steps from pics, to eliminating pics, to cutting out figures, placing them, and preparing to sew.
excited about this one. it will be fun to take this stocking out years from now and remember the preparations, the outfits, and the event - which we are still talking about.
ruth and maggie were in Las Vegas, coming home from being at Gram’s airbnb in St. George. thought they were flying home. i surprised them at the airport and took them them to see the Eras tour at Allegiant instead. epic.
LZ and I coordinated outfits, LZ in custom denim and me in a denim dress for the Denver show.
she's close. lions win. it's negative eleven.
yay me. just a few squares remain. will come close to finishing today. should i pull out the beads because they do not look good…or let them stay as a reminder of the creative struggle…thinking the latter.
it’s negative eleven and stuck inside. and the Lions won a playoff game for the first time in 32 years. LZ is happy. he’s been a Lions fan since he became aware of the NFL, age 5 maybe. way to be a superfan, LZ, and for sticking with your team!
the voices of people i care about.
this one is a treat. once others shared their ideas, the piece got better. receiving a few more thoughts, and luckily, a few more open spaces to fill. this piece is more special because of the voices of people i love. thanks, all. :-)
it has found it's voice.
i had a vision. it was supposed to be fields and islands, built on beads i bought from a local artist and a trip to santa fe to buy beads in the color scheme. but once the yellow was down, the beads didn’t look good. and i tried twice. instead i added words about 2023 and i think the piece is speaking now. ruth added her words, LZ added his, and Maggie hers. it has found it’s voice. yay!
give it a chance.
idk if this is the right path. do we ever know? it’s the best i’ve got right now. didn’t like the other takes on it anyway, so moving forward. something will happen or reveal the finished product.
in the meantime, going to stretch fabric for the next project. have been thinking about art and volume. i like artists like O’Keeffe and Kusama. no political statement, instead, a focus on one beautiful thing. one flower. one pumpkin. i wonder if i could create something that focuses on one beautiful thing. thinking on it.
it's own voice.
this project has been a creative struggle. what i thought was the path doesn’t seem to be, and i need to let the piece speak for itself. my original plan is suffocating it. not on purpose of course. the yellow background is beautiful, and adding beads inside diminishes their voice.
i would like the yellow to breathe. have decided that the insets are like windows, like a curator’s case. the edges wander purposefully. i’ll play with that now, and build on it.
no me gusta.
love the yellow silk background. the beads i’ve sewn on are totally uninspiring and i have not wanted to work on this because of it. removing and going to try again. sometimes creativity goes sideways.
DC. the best.
had the best time with LZ in DC for parent’s weekend. visiting him is the best of the best. the time, the adventures, the city. thanks, LZ.
it's fall. so trail runs.
this year i’m going to enjoy a favorite thing, trailing running. taking a break from road running for a few weekends. this is me and Roo on mt. bierstadt. what a great day.
a run on the west side of Kenosha pass overlooking the FairPlay valley this week. long shadows of September and the most beautiful of days. a long run that was joyous and easy. i was the only person on the trail this day. just some elk and a kestrel otherwise.
all on.
okay! the yellow silk background is on. it’s a bunch of single large pieces of yellow with cutouts to match the resin shapes. now for the beads. thinking about how to do these in a new and interesting way. have a few thoughts and may diverge from the original plan because some of the new thoughts seem more interesting. also i have time and might start a second project just because.
have another idea and not sure i want to wait until this one is done. maybe 2x projects!
yellow yes.
I like the yellow. Going with it. I think i’ll finish all of the background before starting with beads. this has to be done in segments since the yellow is a solid piece of silk with cutouts. making it is a bit tricky. lots of needles to hold it in place.