What's Up?

Please forgive my absence - life has been quite busy - I am knee-deep in a huge project which is simply consuming me - yikes!!! My goal for the month of December to post twice a week - it's a goal, a flexible goal.

A few months ago I created a project for C&T's Creative Troupe that I never reported on - well, today is the day. I was asked by C&T to experiment with their Liquitex Inks and was sent 3 colors - blue, crimson and umber - my mission was to create a project using the inks. I decided to play with a pop-up application - I had wanted to try this with fiber and this was the perfect opportunity. And, this being the year of the bird, so noted by me, I decided to include a bird in my pop-up. Here it is - Flutter-Fly!
I used the inks in a variety of applications - the bird is made of white on white fabric that I painted with undiluted cobalt ink and the magnolia leaves in the background received a pigment wash of crimson ink.

I used a sheer for the center section - I really liked the way the ink took to the sheer, a cotton organza. I used a Print Gocco to create a silk screen to print the Flutter-Fly on the organza.
Here's a close-up of the be-dazzled bird - - - this is so not me - rhinestones, silver rick rack and googlie eyes, but it was just for fun!
I added this stem of flower blossoms that I shibori-ed using the transparent crimson ink. I love the way these turned out.
Take a closer look.
This style of pop-up is referred to as a 180 - quite a structural achievement for me. It was my first attempt at a fiber pop-up, but not my last - I plan on trying to construct another pop-up in the near future and know exactly what to do different. An old friend of mine, Duncan Birmingham from the UK, has written a number of books on pop-ups and provided me with his recommendations. Working with the fiber adds a lot of bulk as compared to working with paper - I think I know what I need to do to make this work better the next go-round.I used the transparent umber ink to shibori the outside fabric to resemble a wooden box.
Hope you all had a fantastic Thanksgiving holiday - here is my brother-in-law Rick. What is he doing - let me explain - Rick has taken the art of roasting a turkey and elevated it to a new level. He cooks his bird breast down for the first part of the cooking process, and then flips it over to finish the breast during the final stage of the roasting process. That act of flipping the bird - stop, I know what you're thinking and that is so not what I meant - of turning the bird over has caused a few problems in past years - imagine trying to pick up and rotate a roasting hot 22 pound turkey without having it fall on the floor. Well, this year Mr. Smarty Pants struts into the kitchen with his new gimmick - his broom stick - which he shoved into the cavity of the bird and successfully rotated that bird breast side up without so much as a slip toward the floor - touche Rick! Hey Williams-Sonoma it really worked - Rick gets the royalties if it's in next year's catalog!

Here are our two veteran carvers going at the bird - this process is as much part of the tradition as the meal itself. Rick breaks the bird down and carves the white meat and Todd handles the dark meat. What you can't see are the hands of the ravenous diners diving in for their share of the warm crispy skin and fresh roasted meat - it's a veritable feeding frenzy. We eat so much turkey during the carving stage few actually eat the turkey at the table - there's so much other good stuff to fill up on.