winding down...

as the gregorian calendar winds down to its inevitable annual conclusion, i am finding myself examining old techniques and digging haphazardly through unfinished projects and attempting to see them with a new eye.  one of the "old techniques" that keeps showing its face is rust and earth dyeing...two humble aspects of eco-dyeing. i went foraging the other day and came up with a pile of divinely rusty objects of various sorts. add these to my already heaping pile of rusted grates, expanded metal, pipes, bolts, nails, buckets, flotsam and hibatchi, and i've got a fairly extensive palette from which to create rusted surface design!  now to dig through my fabric scraps and see what alternatives to boring old solids i can come up with on which to make my marks...

along with digging through my fabric horde, i've also begun deconstructing many of the old garments that i've gathered from my own closets and local thrift stores, friends and miscellaneous other sources. i'm finding it every bit as relaxing and focusing as needle chanting. scissor chanting, perhaps?

i'm finding a growing pile of button strips and collars that will await future further deconstruction beginning to fill baskets and boxes... and the lovely bits of salvaged fabric filling shelves that were once filled with commercial quilting fabrics. i am continually entranced by the selection of textures, prints, and variety that is simply unrivaled by quilting fabric!

tonight will find me needle chanting the "new year" into existence...

namaste'