Poisoned Apple!

My Mac done Sizzled and Fizzled!! For some reason the Socket on my laptop got very hot and Charred----yes Charred!!! Think Steak and Ribs and that crispy black stuff on Barbecue that I just found out is supposed to give you Stomach Cancer. But it was my MAC! Yikes.

Josh--the Apparent Genius, at Apple, was very nice and told me it would cost $106 to fix, and then told me it would cost nothing, but I don't have it for a week!!! So I am missing my New Found Blog Habit--but I'll be back after the weekend. For now---I saw this online from an artist named Amy Long---I thought it very interesting.


But I am actually On the Clock at the moment---but keep your fingers crossed for my laptop!

xo
perpetua

The Softer Side of Bling

In Work Department, I have been getting really frustrated with how long everything is taking. Which I know is Crazy and everyone will tell you that it's not about Product, it's about Process. But when I am going crazy getting frustrated, it's not about the Product at all---it's about all the other ideas that float by that I can't catch and start because I am chained to an epic project. In Short: Anne Boleyn's Time Line Project is on hold. And in the meantime--I am making these Embroidered Box Rings!!
I kinda love them. In my early twenties, I was at Parsons School of Design in NYC, and I got fed up with how art school was. I was so disillusioned by what I saw going on with my education. It was a business, and I was sad. So I moved to Cape Cod and got a job at a bakery. And they taught me to decorate Wedding Cakes. These Rings totally remind me of doing that!!! They are like tiny little bitesized wedding cakes!! The one above is still being finished. Anyways. The length of the project allows me to switch gears if I get another idea, or if I get sick of one color combo, it's practically finished and I can go look at Blues or Greens or whatever I need to at the moment.

In a way it's kind of a discovery about my Process, to realize that I feel Trapped when I get involved in a long project.... I have to think about that a bit...... I also tried my hand at dress designing---it isn't that impressive. I really like it, but it was pointed out to me that it looks like a 1940's Jail Uniform for women....but you know, I am okay with that. What I need to understand better is how to deal with that saggy middle part, while still allowing myself to get in and out. Darts, yes, but then you are assuming I can deal with zippers, which I cannot!!!

So today is Bound to be Glorious---off on our bikes to have Brunch with my Love, hit our favorite junk shop, then this afternoon we are going to try to design unusual Sky Lanterns---this is a new obssesion I haven't mentioned to date..... Then tonight I am sleeping over Stella's, and tomorrow we are going to try to go Apple Picking!!! Very exciting Fall Weather kind of stuff.....

Today's Tea was Almond Oolong: So, it was ok. I think I need to get off the flavors though. I am missing straight up good old fashioned tea. A nice Assam. A Ceylon. A proper Oolong. I think when they flavor tea they use a lesser grade tea leaf, they are all short and stubby, and they don't blossom the way good tea does. A good tea leaf is pretty to look at wet or dry. And these are really depressing looking bits of mulch.....

xo

Perpetua

Embroidery Baldness

Well I have been Super MIA this week. It's been a combination of things--- all put together, Shaken and Stirred. And it all resulted in me not writing. On the Life-Affirming end of things, My sewing machine is fixed and I started to finish projects that have been Frozen in Time.Nothing more depressing then walking into your studio and seeing projects flopping around on the Floor Like Half Dead Fish gasping for air. So the most Fantastic thing I finished was this:

My Fall Bag!!!! I am so thrilled.

Lemme tell you---it's not exactly the most amazing example of Stitchery ever. But I found this old blue leather coat for $8 and I cut it all up and Voila!!! I have a Fall bag. Very satisfying.

And I am working away on the Anne Boelyn neckwarmer. I am very frustrated about how long it's taking. This is the thing with Embroidery and me. I say "I will make this one simple" and so I start to and then I look at it and it looks like it's Balding. And Embroidery Baldness is not a Pretty thing. So then the French Knots start up and suddenly I'm in it for weeks. And I pick a teeny tiny strand of thread!!!

But I do like the texture of teeny tiny french knots. It's very like pointilism from a Colorists perspective. I wonder if I could do work like Chuck Close but in french knots....

And Finally.....

My friend Patrick walked into a woods a few weeks ago, a beautiful magical woods, and he did not come out. I wish I could do him justice here, and say all that he was. But I cannot. By the age of 23 he had started a circus in the detroit area that is still running today. He made the best coffee in the world and never gave away the recipe. He believed in magical things. He really liked fire. He dressed up in kevlar suits and had people shoot fireworks at him. He had a cat named Herman that travelled everywhere with him in a beat up old van covered in Advice. He made glass frogs with different hair-do's in wire. His favorite medium was polished cement. He taught me to weld---the first thing I made was that question mark up above. And now when I look at it, I think, well, that really says it all.

I heard from him on September 2nd. I had told him I had a dream about him. His P.S. to me was "I hope in your dream -- I was seen as a strong and joyful being." And so, dear Patrick, that's the way I am going to remember you.

Your mission today, Lest you not hear it in the words above-go call your friends, the people who are dear to you. Let them know. Send care packages. Knit scarves. Just let them know!

XO

Perpetua

Patience and Perpetua

I am working too fast. Not like "Oh I am so prolific and woo-hoo look at all this beautiful work!!" It's a lot more like Stumbling around a Dark Garage tripping over Oil Cans. This collar had such promise--Weird Color Scheme, but the Bullion Stitches really coiled all over themselves nicely. I have not been sketching them out before hand, These have been like doodles in thread---which I like, but then you get a Mutated Red Flower at the focal point, and you think --- well---I should be planning maybe a wee bit!! So I need to really just get back to loving this and slowing down.

In other news: Film! I am beginning a documentary about women who use the Domestic Arts to make Gallery Art. The Idea came from Yarn Bombers that are popping up all around town. I did a great deal of research and discovered artists who were using Traditionally Female Duties and Squeezing beautiful Art out of Them. Magda Sayeg in Houston Texas, touted as the Originator of the Yarn Bomb trend, has agreed to be interviewed for it. Also Rebecca Purcell whose ideas on Adornment are Fantastic. I have artists for cooking and housecleaning as well.

At some point soon I will have to put up a blog about it. The Hitch has been the title! I was going to call it "Woman's Work". I kinda like that. But it's lacking in color and flavor. I want a good word, or to Coin an all descriptive phrase about it. Like Tarnation, or Religiolous. And I can't come up with it.

I think Titles are Terribly Important. If the title is Right, People know what you are talking about before you utter one word.

If anyone has ideas, please do offer up!! I'll give you a credit in the film!! Title Creator? Is that a job? Well it is now!

Perpetua

Oh Henry!

OK---I am admitting to my addiction. I know it's already Over, and I know that it was actually, in all Reality, a Soap-Opera----but I am addicted to The Tudors. I just watched all four seasons in like Two weeks. I thought the last two seasons were depressing, so depressing. I guess Mortality was very a very hard Apple to Eat for Henry... and I could not quite get past Jonathan Rhys Meyers take on the aging Henry---He sounded more and more like Marlon Brando's Godfather as time wore on. But that aside---I have suddenly become immersed in Tudorage. I am reading a good bit of English History, and I can't help but think that my World History Teacher from 8th Grade would probably, at long last be able to Breathe a Sigh of Relief for me (I was a Terrible Student--T-E-R-R-I-B-L-E) terrible.

Anyways---I started thinking a lot about time, and then TimeLines---and Voila--suddenly I started embroidering Anne Boelyn's Time Line. I am going to make it into a scarf. And the Irony was actually lost on me for a bit of time. Then I realized I was making a Scarf out of the Timeline of a Woman who Had her Head Cut Off.

I am fascinated by her. Not because she was a bad girl slutty kind of Minx---but because she actually completely altered world history for all time. This one chick was the catalyst for unimaginable change---and she had no idea at all. I'm not waxing poetic here about her---she was living her own brand of Get Rich Quick Schemes---but it is incredible to see how this persons actions changed EVERYTHING.

Tea this morning: Grapefruit Oolong (I will admit to anyone that it is blasphemous to add flavoring to Oolong, but this is gooooooooooooooooo-oood!)

Number of minutes late to bus this morning: 20

Willingness to go to Work this morning on a scale of 1-10 1 being lowest: 0000000.0005