Mandala CCLXXXIV: Boy Scouts

 

(Above:  Mandala CCLXXXIV: Boy Scouts. Custom framed: 26" x 26".  Found objects hand-stitched to the back side of a vintage quilt. Objects include: A yellow child's 45 record on which is stitched a brass dish, a yellow plastic lid, and a felt Boy Scout Jamboree patch from 1944; assorted, vintage Boy Scout badges; yellow telephone plugs; airline pilot pins; blue and orange plastic lids with green rabies pet tags; brass hinges; sewing machine bobbins; small, white plastic dogs; felt piano hammers; an orange folding yardstick; View Master reels; cabinet hinges; eagle pins, fluorescent greenish ice cream spoons; antique cardboard egg lids; assorted buttons and beads.  Click on any image to enlarge.)

 Even before I went to the Southern Highland Guild's Summer craft show, I finished stitching this mandala but never found time to mount it, frame it, photograph it, and finally blog it.  The Boy Scout items were donated to my stash from a friend in Asheville.  The little white dogs came from a wonderful lady who once took my workshop in the Hudson River Valley.  Other items were also donated or found at the flea market!  Since returning from Asheville, this mandala finally was fully finished.  Waiting was a good idea.  Why?  Well, the show was my final step in earning membership in the Southern Highland guild.  Turning all my attention into preparing for the show was needed in order to secure future opportunities.  This week, I got my acceptance letter.  Immediately, I applied to do their flagship event, another craft show at the Harrad's Cherokee Convention Center this coming October.  I'm very happy about this!

 

(Above:  Detail of Mandala CCLXXXIV: Boy Scouts.)

Yet, this is not my only good news!  Very recently I was asked to join the Octopolis crew going to Burning Man ... not just me but my Lace Forest!  Once upon a time (back in June 2024 ... click here for a blog post!), I had a solo show at the Springfield Art Association in Illinois. During the few days when I installed the show, a suggestion was made for me to visit the local Creative Reuse Market ... a location where I might find additional objects for my Found Object Mandala series.  I went.  I found lots of cool things but when I went to pay, I looked up.  There on the top of a floor-to-ceiling shelving unit was a giant box labeled "lace".  Innocently, I asked, "What's in that box?"  Adena Rivas, founder and president, looked at me as if I were totally nuts.  After all, the box was labeled.  She answered, "Lace" but added, "The box next to it is full of lace too.  You want to look?"  I must have looked at her as if she too were nuts.  After all, why would I ask if I didn't want to look? Both boxes were brought down to the floor.  Both were entirely crammed with big spools of lace.  This amazing stash had to be the remains of a fabric store shuttered at least a decade earlier.  Miles and miles of lace.  I asked, "How much?"  Adena looked confused. "What do you want, a couple yards or what?"  After all, most people would only need a few yards for most projects.  Even at recycle shops, lace is usually sold by the yard.  My answer was simple, "I'll take the two boxes."

(Above:  Detail of Mandala CCLXXXIV: Boy Scouts.)

Stunned, Adena asked how much I wanted to pay.  I suggested two-hundred dollars.  Sold!  Trust me, this was pennies on the dollar. The boxes were very, very heavy!  Naturally, Adena wanted to know what I planned to do with this much lace. I told her about my Lace Forest.  At the time, I had thirty finished 8' long strands and was running out of lace and they were headed to their debut exhibit at Featherstone Gallery on Martha's Vineyard Island..  This new stash of lace was later transformed into at least twenty more strands which were accepted into 2025 Fiberart International in Pittsburgh.  Since then I've found lace here and there. Currently, there are fifty-four strands.  They were most recently shown in their alternative presentation as Cascades in my solo show at the Pickens County Museum of Art and History.  But ... back to Illinois! While loading the lace into my van, Adena asked about my inspiration for The Lace Forest.  I told her about once visiting the Monterey Aquarium and falling in love with the kelp forest.  Apparently, Adena remembered this important point ... kelp! The 20' high octopus that is part of Burning Man will include just over 100 illuminated eggs surrounded by "kelp", my Lace Forest!  I'm super excited.  I'll leave on August 21st to join Adena's Springfield caravan headed west.  She's transporting the octopus' fabric "skin".  The metal armature has been made in California by Adena's sister and her crew.  I'll be in Black Rock City during "build week", for the main Burning Man event (August 30 - September 8), and for at least a day-and-a-half of "strike" (the time when the playa is transformed back to its natural, high desert landscape.  Later, the metal armature will be sunk in the ocean as part of a coral reef restoration project!  This is so exciting!
 

The Craft Show of the Southern Highlands

 

(Above:  Booth 415 at the Craft Show of the Southern Highlands.)

It's not a great photo but the distance from iPhone to booth was rather long and the lighting was low!  Why?  Well ... it was taken before the show started ... from the upper levels of seating used for performance and when the convention center lights weren't all on!  Thankfully, everything else about the Craft Show of the Southern Highlands was terrific!  Lots of the artwork in this photo have found permanent homes!  I'm thrilled, of course, but still waiting to hear from the guild's jurying process as to whether I've been accepted as a member.  Having a booth in this show was my final step in the application submission.  With any luck, I'll be back in Asheville this coming October for the next show!

 

Lancet Window CCXLIV

 

(Above:  Lancet Window CCXLIV.  Custom framed:  31 1/4" x 11 1/4". Layers of polyester stretch velvet fused to recycled black synthetic felt with free motion machine stitching and melting techniques.  Click on either image to enlarge.)

This is the last piece I'll make for next week's Summer Craft Fair of the Southern Highland Guild, July 16 - 19 in the Harrah's Cherokee Convention Center in downtown Asheville.  I'm a little nervous!  It's been well over a decade since I was inside this space.  In fact, I'd never had a booth at a fair when I last visited this convention center.  Thus, I don't know exactly how my booth will be set up or if I'll have a small storage area behind my space.  The worries are moot; I'll figure it out!  Steve and I will have fun showing off this piece and others.

 

(Above:  Detail of Lancet Window CCXLIV.)

Lost & Found XVIII: Tin Horse

 

(Above:  Lost & Found XVIII: Tin Horse. Custom framed:  11" x 22".  Found objects hand stitched to a section of an antique crazy quilt.  Objects include: A tin horse, separated into two halves; a faucet handle; assorted buttons and beads.  Click on either image to enlarge.)

I almost resisted buying the tin horse at the Pickens County flea market.  Steve and I walked on down the aisle but I went back.  I'm glad I did!  The tin toy was super easy to take apart.  It was the ideal size for this strip of an antique crazy quilt.  I've got lots more "strips" from this quilt because I used the decorative center for Mandala CCLXXIX: Children on a Porcelain Plate. Perhaps I'll find the rest of the tin animals that undoubtedly were once part of a wagon cart or other horse drawn carriage.

(Above:  Detail of Lost & Found XVIII: Tin Horse.)

Before attaching the horse halves and faucet, I put a piece of black netting/tulle over the antique quilt.  This layer protects the fragile fabric.  It is nearly invisible because I've added plenty of embroidery over the surface, blending old and new.  The feather stitching was the original.  I added running stitch, chain stitch, colonial knots, straight stitch, herringbone stitch and others.  When stitching, I feel like I am collaborating with an anonymous woman from the distant past.  The other unique thing about this piece is the use of very pretty shank buttons.  In order to get them to "sit up straight", they are all stitched to a boarder of black hooks that were part of old-fashioned fur coat closures!  I hope to create more of these nostalgic pieces in the future ... if the flea market provides just the right "found object(s)"!
 

Lancet Window CCXLIII

(Above:  Lancet Window CCXLIII.  Custom framed: 31 1/4" x 11 1/4". Layers of polyester stretch velvet fused to recycled black synthetic felt with free-motion machine embroidery and melting techniques.  Click on any image to enlarge.)

The old saying goes: When it rains, it pours.  Well, here in Cateechee in the Upstate of South Carolina that doesn't seem to be the case.  When it rains, the humidity goes up.  Like much of the country, we are in the midst of a heat wave.  What rain has fallen has done nothing but make it muggier and sticky.  Even Minnie and Ernie, our cats, are staying inside to avoid the weather. My sanctuary/studio does not have heat or AC.  Yet, it does have a giant ten-foot ceiling fan.  So, I'm still working and just completed this Lancet Window.

 

(Above:  Detail of Lancet Window CCXLIII.)

I hope to make one more Lancet Window before the Southern Highland Guild's Summer Fair, July 16 - 19 but that might not happen.  Why?  Well ... when it rains, it pours ... as in "I've got several other things to do too!" I just accepted a large commission!  Next week includes the de-install of my solo show at the Pickens County Museum of Art and History and I have two or three other pieces of art currently under construction.  Thankfully, I love to be busy.  I just wish it weren't quite so hot outside!

 

(Above:  Detail of Lancet Window CCXLIII.)

 

Happy Fourth of July!

Bessie's Quilt is becoming part of the Upstate Heritage Quilt Trail

 

(Above: Bessie's Quilt. 2007.  51" x 44" Xylene photo transfer on muslin with vintage fabric sashing and buttons.  Click on any image to enlarge.)

Bessie's Quilt was made way back in 2007.  Despite that being nineteen years ago, I was a blogger then and the original post is HERE.  It was made in anticipation of my solo show, Blues Chapel, when scheduled for a 2008 summer at the Pickens County Museum of Art and History ... a place where my current solo show, Cascades, is now showing.  When Blues Chapel opened in Pickens, I created a little video.  CLICK HERE to see the show.  Bessie's Quilt was made for the wall on which it hung then but it has been lots of other places since that first show.  Still, when I think about this quilt, my mind still envisions it on that wall, in Pickens.  So when the Upstate Heritage Quilt Trail contacted me about sponsoring a painted quilt panel for our Cateechee church/home/studio, I couldn't imagine any other quilt except this one. 

(Above:  Bessie's Quilt hanging beside the panel being painted.)

An Upstate Heritage Quilt Trail representative has been keeping me updated regarding the progress of the painted sign.  This week Steve and I were invited to come see it and help paint a few of the squares of colorful sashing.  I was stunned as just how beautifully done Bessie was.  Drawn entirely free-hand and in pencil, the figure was already sprayed with a fixative and covered with paper so that none of the paint from the sashing could accidentally mar the center.  (For the picture above, the paper cover was temporarily pulled away.)

(Above:  Painting the selected squares black ... two coats!)

Careful attention is paid to every  quilt trail sign.  There's documentation of the quilter (if known), the date, the size, the location where it will eventually hang, and lots of other details.  There's a full record of the Behr paint colors used.  The Upstate Heritage Quilt Trail has three different workshop locations.  The one in which Bessie's Quilt is being painted had five other signs in various stages of production.  I helped paint the black squares of the sashing. 

 

(Above:  The Upstate Heritage Quilt Trail production workshop in Oakway, South Carolina.)

Everything is done by volunteers.  The first quilt trail sign in the Upstate was installed in 2010 Now, there are over 300 panels are located throughout Anderson, Oconee, and Pickens Counties.  Steve and I learned all about the substrata, its prep work, the way painter's tape is used to isolate sections, the stencils collection, and the final weatherproofing/sealant.

(Above:  A volunteer rolling out the first of several coatings of marine sealant.)

Soon, Bessie's Quilt will be installed on the side of our church/home/studio.  I can hardly wait!