Nothing to lose but FeAR

Some of you may have read my previous posts where I have talked about the gospel choir I joined this past fall. Now I have had this passion for singing, music, dance since i was a child. Unfortunately I was not encouraged much as a child, otherwise I think I really would have flourished. Too late to teach an old dog new tricks? Well, who knows. I can play guitar, piano, and sing, sometimes. Anyway at an open mike coffeehouse recently I was talking with a friend about how I really wanted to go on stage and sing my chant a la Thich Nhat Hanh. She said well, what have you got to lose? And I said Fear. We went on about that for a bit. All I had to lose was fear, what a novel approach. Is it that simple? And recently I thought, maybe I can give up this lifelong dream of music and be at peace with that. Part of me did feel relief. Now maybe I will suceed at it with less pressure on myself. And all I may lose is fear. : )

Would that clear the way for more love?

FLoW

Ok , so I promised to post my recent tapestry weaving, and here it is!

This is the drawing I did, which is called a "cartoon" (above).

Here is the weaving. I had been thinking about life, balance, flow, and stuff like that, so I wove about flow. It was a meditative piece about all these things. It helped me to focus on the idea of how to achieve all these good things into my life. It was relaxing to weave it, when I wasn't struggling with all the "hows" of learning to weave it.

This is the second warp I have ever worked on in tapestry. I am weaving on a tapestry copper pipe loom designed by Archie Brennan of New York. This first section of the warp is actually two pieces, and the other piece I will describe when the time becomes right. ; )

I LOVE the checkerboard pattern which is two passes of one color, and one pass of the other. Remember in tapestry it takes two passes to cover each warp thread! One pass covers every other warp thread, thus covering 1/2 of the warps. : )

Here is the loom with the cartoon attached. I have a lot of warp left to weave on here, so another section will be woven soon (I hope : ).

Here is the back of the FloW weaving. On this piece, I wove from the back of the loom for the first time. It was easier in a sense than weaving from the front, but a mirror would be helpful so one could see the right side of the weaving... During the weaving I invented a way to suspend the pipe loom so I could flip it from front to back easily. Tapestry weaving is back breaking work, and very time consuming (some of the famous large tapestries took a team of weavers years to weave!).

I hope for love in the weaving of your life.

FuLL CiRcLe

This design work on fabric is the result of another project we did in Youth Arts this summer. This was the first project.

This one was the one I made quickly to try out the methods. : )

I was explaining to the kids about fabric structure and the difference between weaving and knitting. We did some "de-weaving"; pulling out the weft to reveal the warp as fringe.

We also talked about the use of dye to color the fabric. We used the dye in crayons to color the fabric. We ironed out the wax to leave only the dye behind. The kids found this fascinating!

This little guy loves Pokemon!, and he knows I love the swirly stuff of Polywrath, so he made this for me. : )

This little guy designed his to honor his love for his mom and dad!

The first time I was teaching Youth Arts, it was the same program that I taught this summer, in the same small town! Then was the first year it was run through the recreation Commission (1983). Now it is run through the Arts Council (where it has been for many years now). That first time I had been pushing for the program to the head guy, David Speed, for a year before he started it up. David was a good guy. I worked on the program with a guy who had graduated from Emily Carr in Vancouver.

I have never lost my joy of working with children. I have succeeded with that dream, now that I am a mother (thank god!). I have worked as a nanny 3 times over the years, I volunteered in a daycare holding babies in New York, and have also done two stints working for the summer recreation programs for kids, with the Recreation Commission.

Fibre Arts. This is what I know, and love.
I really
enjoyed the challenge, and
was thrilled to be asked to teach
Fibre Arts to
kids this summer. This is truly
the easiest, and most
joyful job in the
world to me. After years of personal
growth work, to
get in touch with that
little "child within" me. I am healed. I love,
understand, and
identify with little
children. When I was nineteen,
and I explored my
future career options
through aptitude tests at the college,
it became a
toss up for me to choose
between, the fashion industry, and early
childhood education. Fabric is a natural
for me, and teaching it to children (and the young of heart : ), well why
not?

Full circle, in this small town. Full circles are weird, but Hallelujah! They are what life is all about. Watch for them.

I like these words by Woodie Guthrie, (even though I AM GLAD to be grown up. I still feel the joy and wonder a child has). :

"Watch the kids. Do like they do. Act
like they act. Yell like they yell. Dance the ways you see them dance. Sing like
they sing. Work and rest the way the kids do.
You'll be healthier. You'll
feel wealthier. You'll talk wiser. You'll go higher, do better, and live longer
here amongst us if you'll just only jump in here and swim around in these songs
and do like the kids do.
I don't want the kids to be grownup. I want to see
the grown folks be kids."

FrOnT MoSaiC PaTh PlaN

Ok, I digress from weaving for a moment.

I volunteered at the door of the coffee house last night, so I brought paper and a pencil. I have had a mosaic path plan, brewing for about four years, and here it is mapped out. This will lead to the main door of my funky design studio. People will LOVE to walk over it on their way in. Hey, it's another reason to come by and see what goes on INSIDE my studio.

Now hopefully, my 86 year old friend still has the set of yellow, 1920's chipped dishes, available for me to nip up with the tile nippers! His dishes have been in the family since before he married his wife, of 63 years! The funky purple, 1" tiles, (with the metallic strands through them) that I collected, are here, and ready to go, as well as an eclectic collection of broken china, dishes, and beach glass. This is going to be fun! I will be indebted to my multi-talented friend Debra for her expert tutelage about mosaic!

Next time, I'll probably post something about fibre arts, clothing design, woodworking, or my recent trip to Watts Towers, in Los Angeles.

LiPsTiCk aNd A BirDie

Ok, this is cool. I think. Well, we will see how it goes. I definitely have things to say that I want to share. I told my son the title of my blog, and he said that's weird... I said why? ... and he said Art Chicken Action, what's that? Ha ha! Well, he knows I love roosters (since long before this last trend of the last several years!-- which btw, makes them easy to find in stores...), so he thought the title was related to roosters. But, I am a chick, and this blog is about me, my art and design, and my profundities (well, I hope you think so, too!)

The pics today feature my very first foray into tapestry weaving. This piece titled, Pit Bull with Lipstick, and a Birdie (ask me), was recently in a juried art show on beautiful Vancouver Island, British Columbia. The tapestry will be encorporated into a purse (as will 7 metres of loom weaving -for 13 purses- I'll show you another day : )

I am a fashion designer, FIT grad (NYC), with a BSc. in Apparel Production Management. I am currently a mom with a home based business doing alterations/custom work. In my "spare time" I am exploring fibre arts of all kinds, and I create one-of-a-kind items for sale via klozhausfunk@gmail.com (until my nephew sets up my website!!) If you are shopping for unique and "funkygreen" products, e-mail me, and I will send you pics of items for sale.

ciao, for now.

love the planet and all beings on it