A New Year - 2015

There is a lot of joy in working as a museum curator - story telling - creating exhibits - digging out the interesting details and history in significant and not so significant artifacts - caring for the collection, etc. (New database software arrived Friday! An excellent way to start off the year!) It takes a fair amount of creative energy and most days my energy gets consumed at work. No complaint - just fact. This is why long periods of time can go by when I don't post. The work I've produced in my studio over the past year is often "just for fun"...restorative.

This year I'm seeking more of a balance. Maybe more fun, and maybe more of significance. We'll find out.

Dyeing fabric is always a surprise, and I like surprises. In this case, the little afterthought bundle turned out to be the most interesting. I folded up a scrap and popped it in the leftover dye that ran off into a bowl when I poured the soda ash over it. I'm assuming it fixed more quickly to the fibres than the pieces which I added a dye-only solution to and  poured the soda ash liquid over afterwards.

The result of the braid are the three blue and black strips; the long blackish strip is a simple fold; and the white and black/turquoise grid pattern is the afterthought. I like grids.