The day’s duty always: the thing that lies nearest your hand. It isn’t so much our business to be happy - as it is to do the things we are meant to do.

Love in itself is not joy. It is always service and it may be sacrifice. It means giving not receiving: asking not answering. To give which is needed. - Steadily to set self aside - asking for nothing but its opportunity to help - this is love.”

-Margin note at the back of Concentration: The Secret of Success circa 1912.

This photo is public ©

The above accompanied a photo on flickr some time back, the link to which I can no longer find.
(if you are familiar with this please forward me the link- i’ve searched but can’t find it)

I saved the sentiment though and find that in addition to being a good reminder, understanding the cyclical nature of the way things work is essential. It also made me think of Mother’s Day.

We have been having a little fun over at the all things shibori photo pool on flickr. Narablog posted an image recently of a shibori textile that really was intriguing and we’ve set out on a quest to see how close we can come to reproducing it.

Homespun, handwoven cotton
Unknown resist technique
Late 19C/Early 20C

So far, we have several interested parties and Lisa over at Kaizen Journey has posted her first results which are really getting somewhere. Go check it out.
A little reminder about the flickr group. Anyone can go there and see the photos that have been added to the pool and make comments. Only members of the pool can see and participate in the pool’s discussions. If you want to join the pool, just click on the “join this group” link. Please read the rules and know that you need to have flickr photos that are public in order to be approved into the group. For some reason there are several people who have wanted to join but have no public photos which defeats the purpose of the pool which is to share images. So just make sure you have “made public” appropriate photos and sets, hopefully textile related, and you’ll be good to go! So far we have 63 members from around the world and almost 500 images!

Here is another view of the above fabric which shows definite stitch resist lines running horizontally. It’s a little easier to see given the larger field of fabric.

click the image for a larger view

The consensus seems to be that it is a very carefully done mokume pattern. Mokume, a stitch resist method is a parallel running stitch resist that produces a woodgrain pattern. Mokume sanbu nui shibori is a parallel pleated stitched resist. I wonder if the pleating first would help Lisa with getting the fabric to lay more smoothly…….

Thanks to Lisa, I’ll be stitching a sample based on her stitch diagram #2 and see how it goes…. and trying some pleating along with it just for kicks!

just a photo-

perfecting the idea…

Technorati Tags: ribbon, jewelry, shiborigirl

busy getting ready for Saturday’s trunk show at Pudgy Beads and these are the final pieces off the poles today-

still have to sew beads on the tops tonight but these colors were needed to round out the color selection.

and a few more ribbon colors as well….

even had a little time to make some more silk shibori ribbon flowers and play with a piece of the silk organza i got the other day-

Technorati Tags: colorhue, pudgy beads, shiborigirl

If you want to receive email notices of Shibori Girl events you have to sign up in the sidebar. I mention this because I am getting ready to send out a notice with lots of good info on the event and trunk show I’m doing next Saturday May 3rd 11AM to 6:00PM at a great bead shop around the corner from here (Pudgy Beads).

When I look at my stats for this blog I’m always pleased that the readers come from far and wide geographically. But at the same time if you live on another continent you probably don’t want to hear about a sale or event I’m advertising. But if you’re a local or just have an interest by all means sign up to receive the announcement via email by Monday.

Making flowers for proms and getting ready for next Saturday. Monday is week two of the sculpture project in the fourth grade classroom and I haven’t even added the pics from last week to Elementary Art. Oh well…..

This is another swatch done with the Colorhue dyes. This dye attaches quickly. Color mixing is a little tricky and I’m
still practicing.

What I was referring to however, was how quickly I received my orders from the LA Textile show! My order of trims from a Japanese textile company arrived this morning from Japan! All my yardage from Exotic Silks arrived earlier in the week.
I now have bolts of some new and interesting silk fabrics on which to test out some ideas. One of the things I have been *dyeing* to get some face time with is silk organza…..OH the dimensional colorful possibilities! I’ll probably use up my stash just figuring out what I want to do with it…..exciting times!

Technorati Tags: colorhue, shiborigirl

I recently received a request for a referral for an AZ shibori artist. Here’s the details:

Hello! I am looking for a shibori artist in Arizona. I chair the program committee for an organization (Prescott Art Docents, an affiliate of Phoenix Art Museum) that offers art education in the local schools. In order to keep our docents abreast of art mediums from around the world we sponsor weekly art presentations by people from all segments of the art world. However, we have never had a shibori artist on our stage. Would you know of a shibori artist in Arizona? I would be most grateful if you could provide a referral. Thank you.

So, if anyone out there in AZ can help them, you can contact them through the museum or email me and I’ll get you the email address for the Chair. In case you were wondering, there is no pay but they will serve you lunch!

Ah, such is the state of affairs when it comes to art in the schools. I hope it isn’t a “school lunch”.

read article

that Andy Warhol once said that “Business art is the step that comes after art.”
Today I’m attending to business art.

I also spent some time reading this excellent article on “Being an Artist” by photographer Alain Briot. I’m not sure why it is but some of the best realistic and practical advice I have read about being an artist in business has come from photographers.
Today was Monday and we’re doing sculpture in the 4th grade room.

click on each image for larger view and description