Dress in the colors of the sun... Special edition

The last time I went to my talk therapist I was wearing a coral t-shirt and fuchsia cardigan with my jeans. Yes, yes I was. This is a fairly normal thing for me to do though some people would snub me for it. My therapist has come to expect me to wear vivid colors, since that's what I do, but that day, I reminded her of a cult leader from Antelope, Oregon in the 1980s. He has a very long Indian name, not unlike Rajesh Koothrapali, only not that. My therapist remembered it after I don't know how many years, but I frankly can't be bothered to remember it. IF you're interested, Google Antelope, OR and you'll find the guy.
Anyway, he had a ton of women (like cult leaders do) and they were instructed to "dress in the colors of the sun." Often this was red, orange, and popular cult color saffron, but included pinks, corals, and purples, too.
Now, I don't hold any truck with cults and their misogynistic leaders, but dressing in the colors of the sun doesn't sound like a bad idea to me. This week our weather forecast is nothing but cold and rain, thunder and fog. Sounds to me like the perfect week to dress in the colors of the sun! So I got my laundry done, making sure to have plenty of sunny options for the next several days. I have layers (since temps will be below normal aaallll week), t-shirts, sweaters, cardigans, sweatshirts; pinks, purples, coral and orange; solids, stripes, patterns and textures. I even have some sky blues thrown in for variety.
The color I shan't be wearing in any variation will be black. No muted shades, no muddy browns, no drab colors of any kind. Well, I may have to wear black jeans, but nothing dark on top. At all. Anything near my face will be bright, sunny and spring-like. I don't have a lot of pastels, but I'll layer them in there. I'll mix colors in unexpected ways and clash like a field of riotous wild flowers.
Something about being bold in color makes me bold in action and attitude. Everyone has something that does it for them. For some people it's a single, signature item or color. For others it's a variety of a type of item. I have a friend who collects very unusual and colorful eyeglasses that go with anything he wears. That's his thing.
Do you have a thing? Do you know if you have a thing? I think it's entirely possibly to have a thing and not really be aware of it. The people you are around will know what it is. They're going to notice, "Hey, when Ralph wears his navy blue suit, he exudes confidence, not so much in the grey one." "Penelope is really take-charge when she wears that emerald green blouse that matches her eyes." For some its a pattern, for others, a scent.
It's weird, isn't it, how we attach power to these things. People and their respective institutions have spent major coin, probably millions of dollars to study the effects of colors, aromas, patterns, and textures on people, but it's so subjective. You have as many reactions to stimuli as there are people. For me, bright colors have boldness and power in them. I love prints and brocades. I'm fascinated by tapestries and the textiles of a wide variety of cultures, though I have to say Indian paisleys are a favorite and Indonesian batiks. I have a few Kurti that I love to wear and they're all (surprise) brightly colored. With the exception of one green one, they are all colors of the sun. I also just made a cotton top best described as a short caftan that is a diamond print in orange, purple, red, black and marigold. The fabric screamed at me from across the store. I swear I only went in to buy thread.
I think it's tempting to look out the window at the rain and pull on some dark, dreary shroud to blend with the clouds. I'm guilty of it. But I've been veiled for a long time and not living my truth. I'm not saying that everyone needs to look like they stepped off the train with the rest of the circus, as I'm sure people must think I sometimes do, but everyone should find their thing. Go find yours.

Thrifty Thursday (Finally!)

I hate to post this, because, sadly, one of my favorite places to get fabric is going out of business. It was in the same neighborhood as my credit union, so it was a handy location (a little too handy, really). They always had good deals, unusual fabrics and probably the best collection of batiks this side of S.R. Harris (which will be one of our future field trips, BTW). Yes, Mill End Textiles is slowly liquidating their stock and boy, howdy! The deals are amazing!

If one of your neighborhood fabric meccas is going out of business, run, walk, drag your butt out in the cold blast of winter or hot steam of summer to get there! In the last three months while Mill End has been liquidating, I've hit the store about 5 times. I've purchased approximately $500.00 worth of fabric for about $175. I got thread at cost, cord and decorator trim for pennies and, in possibly the greatest tool coup ever, an Olfa compass rotary cutter for under $6. I went to a Jo Ann's immediately after to price the same cutter - $32.99!

What?! Yeah.

Of course, you run the risk of not getting enough of something and going back for more only to discover it's gone. That did happen to me. I eventually found the print I wanted in a different color combination that was just as cool as the one I had originally purchased, so I got that in enough for a dress. Yes, yes I did. Naturally I got stuff I don't NEED (like the thing-y to make fabric roses) but it was something I would only buy on ridiculous sale. Besides that, I'm hoping to use it in a segment for the blog, so it was worth it. I've been going through my fabrics at a rapid pace and felt the need to reward myself for a job well done. Granted, I'm only filling up the space I just emptied, but haven't we all done that at some point? (Please say yes. Please.)

Your assignment: Look around town, in the Sunday paper, on the net for places in your area closing up shop. Even if you've never been there before, check them out. You never know what treasures you'll find! Also, don't forget Field Trip Friday tomorrow at the Edina Jo Ann's at 10 am. If you plan on joining me, shoot me an email - totallytoots10@gmail.com!

Trying New Things

I don't know about you, but I have ADHD. I have several projects going at once. My husband thinks that silly, but he's able to focus on one thing at a time better than I. For me, boredom sets in rather quickly and I simply must do something else for at least a few minutes.

A couple of weeks ago I saw a project to make fabric cards for Valentine's day. It required a notion called Timtex, a stiff interfacing used for lining purses and other craft projects. JoAnn's carries a similar product called Peltex. It's a branding thing. Anyway, I decided to purchase some. I doubted I would actually make the Valentines, but wanted to use it somehow.

Now, you can get it where it's fusible on both sides, but I didn't get that kind. Mine's fusible on one side. So it sat in my shop for a while, me staring at it wondering what the heck I was going to do with it. I swear it was staring back at me.

I had some quilt scraps left over from a batik quilt I made for our old babysitter when she graduated and went off to college. I stitched some of those together. None of them were the same size. Not something I could put together in another big piece. Then it hit me! Fuse them to the Peltex! So I did that with as many as I could get onto the 1/2 yard I bought.

Neat!

Now what?

Muslin! Stitch muslin to the back sides. I got a hunk of it and pressed it. I cut pieces to fit all the little patches. Then I started wondering if I should paint the muslins. I got out some acrylic inks and found a stack of dried baby wipes I had set aside to use... somehow. I'll explain later. The upshot of it is, I started playing with the inks and writing quotes on the back sides of these "cards".  I also stitched some 1/8 inch ribbon onto one edge so that they may be hung, either side out, on the wall or from your keychain or whatever.

This one uses a repurposed baby wipe.

Muslin backing. Sometimes I forget to edit my photos. Echt.

The batik sides. One could make Christmas ornaments this way...

Okay, the baby wipes thing: If you've read my previous entries, you may be aware that I'm a big fan of the protection of orangutans. All animals, really, but orangs are my favorite. I've even played one on stage. Anyway, the harvesting of palm oil has become a real problem for their survival and that of many other species. Palm oil use is insidious. Some companies use responsibly harvested palm oil, most however, do not. Rain forests and peat marshes which are home to the orangutans and many other vital species are being destroyed in order to create palm plantations.

Palm oil is not necessarily harmful on it's own, but get too much of it (like anything) and it can be detrimental to your health. It's in nearly every packaged snack food you can name (from Oreos to Twizzlers to granola bars) it's in things which need to be spread, (margarine, peanut butter, Nutella), it's in the cleansing products we use on our face, body and hair. It's even in baby wipes. I used them to remove make-up quickly and easily after a show. I have two sons and you know I used wipes on their li'l behinds. But I couldn't fathom having them touch my face when I found out about the palm oil (listed as stearate in most body and hair products).

I'm also not for just throwing stuff out in a lump, either. So, I decided to repurpose the wipes. I laid them out on my worktable and let them dry. They have an interesting texture. I figured I should be able to use them somehow in my art. They take the acrylic ink very well, too, as I discovered.

I then spent several minutes dyeing baby wipes with the ink. I still don't know for what I'll use them, but at least I now know I can.

Abstract rose study

Detail of the green stripes. I'm thinking snake skins and dragons...

Your assignment: look around your home for things you can repurpose into your art. Those card stock pieces in the tights you bought for your little girl? Book marks, template material, ribbon organizers. Spice jars? Glitter catchers. Pasta jars? Button organizers. Get out of the comfort zone and look at things from new angles.