09.11.09
Posted in Classes at 2:39 pm by deRomilly
And Havi Brooks of Fluent Self… all wrapped into a nice not-so-tidy bundle.
Yes, I know it’s been two weeks since this event. But what a two weeks it’s been! And, quite frankly, it was/is a difficult experience to quantify.
The workshop ran from Friday evening through Sunday noon, and was non-stop intense “destuckifying”. One of the other participants remarked Saturday afternoon that she thought there might only be so much destuckifying a body can take at one time. I agreed, and then we all went that step further, which was amazing, much like breathing into a stretch and extending the muscle just a tad further than yesterday.
We spent the weekend writing, doing brain exercises that truly evade description, and practicing Dance of Shiva. (Note, yes, that’s an affiliate link. If you decide you want to buy stuff, I’ll get a percentage. But I’d tell you about it anyway – really.) Now, I’m a very new practitioner of this (I bought the starter kit and started using it less than a month before the workshop) so my thoughts on the subject are still a bit half-baked and soggy in the middle, but here goes –
- Havi promises hot buttered epiphanies – and it has delivered. In spades.
- The basic focus – that of using new patterns to break down old ones in your mind is something I’ve been playing with for a while in my dancing – I tend to call it “sacred movement” when it is intentional and focused on creating something larger than just movement. The concept fits in with my rather wacky pagan view of myself. Shivanata takes the concept a step further and attempts to order the chaos even more. You are supposed to be confused and flummoxed – if you aren’t, you don’ t get those promised epiphanies. This is NOT easy for me. I don’t like what appears to be choreography to confuse me.
- It takes the least time in my day of all the things I do for learning – you can practice shivanata effectively while your tea water boils!
- It’s something I’ll keep doing.
- Despite Havi’s repeated statements and assertions that it isn’t a dance, and it’s misnamed on several fronts, after watching her perform one of the higher levels in a dim room on Saturday night, i would state that the grace, flow and sheer beauty I saw fit my definition of “dance.”
But then again, I go to martial arts competitions to watch the “forms” (kata, poomse, what have you) because they’re dance-like/dancing/sacred movement as well, so maybe I’m not a good judge of the definition of “dance.” (I also really really wish I could have heard Maude Gonne intone Salome, but that’s neither here nor there – that’s sacred sound, which while related, is different!)
What I learned at the workshop, other than specific techniques, was very personal, and some of it I’m not prepared to share yet. I need more space and comfort in my life. The state of my studio has become priority number one for a while. I also need to trust myself more and realize that when my intuition takes the time to tell me I need to do something, it’s not because it likes the sound of its own voice. LOL
Oh. And Selma the Duck? Havi’s business partner. And a really, really cool fowl to hang around with. (But then again, I might be biased… I graduated from the University of Oregon, which makes me… a Duck!) So I had to knit her a scarf of her very own… which she proudly displayed in Havi’s Friday Chicken right after the workshop…
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06.10.09
Posted in Classes at 7:00 am by deRomilly
I miss needlework shows. I miss CATS (and having it local so I didn’t have to fork out the cash for a hotel room). I haven’t been able to afford EGA Seminars. I miss them.
I was reading Havi Brooks blog archives the other day (it’s taking me a LONG time to get through them because there’s so much wonderful information that I have to stop and digest as I work through it…) And she said this about what happens at conferences:
Connections. Friendships. Torrid love affairs of the mind. This is sometimes also called “networking”.
~Havi Brooks (& Selma)
Yup. That’s it exactly. I MISS sitting around the table talking to Eileen Bennett about the 5 different ways we know to do a chain stitch and what’s the easiest to use when… I miss being able to go book shopping with Linn Skinner (of course part of that is the fact that we no longer live in the same town, but still…).
I met one of my best face to face friends on usenet – rec.crafts.textiles.needlework way back when and when I moved to NC, there she was. 
But for me, working on a computer 8 hours a day means I don’t necessarily want to see one when I get home, so the online community suffers a bit for me. I have what appears to be odd taste in needlework (I like a little bit of everything, from crewel to cross stitch, to stumpwork and everything in between), so I miss the big needlework shows and conferences.
All of which adds up to: I need to start attending art workshops and the few needlework shows that are still out there… we need to support them or they’re going to disappear in this economy. And dance workshops. And any workshop or conference that is part of something you are passionate about. There’s just SOMETHING cool about being in a room full of people who “get it” and don’t look at you like you’re insane when you start babbling about how mad youare that they discontinued DMC Medici wool — or that you just HAVE to have another jingly hipscarf, even though you’ve got thirty hanging in your closet… You may start out alone, but by the end of the first hour you’ve got more people to hang out with than you’d think. (Oh, and the “celebrities”? They’re just people who love what you love, too…
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03.01.09
Posted in Classes at 8:19 pm by deRomilly
Block 1
I am taking Sharon Boggin’s Encrusted Crazy Quilt class this month through Joggles. Despite all the bellydance workshops and shows this week, I managed to get two blocks pieced.
The first wasn’t as successful as the second, initial design-wise, but I’m hoping I can fix some of the problems in the embellishment stage: the most glaring being the horizontal line a third of the way down that goes all the way across the block! That came from using a block that was too big as my first block, and putting it down too close to the bottom of the block off the bat… Lesson learned. But I REALLY wanted to use the entire leaf!
Block 2
The second block is better balanced, but to my eye it seems VERY busy. Of course, I was told to “overload” it, so this may be a good thing!
As usual, click to make bigger.
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02.27.09
Posted in Classes, Dance at 7:00 am by deRomilly
Not much time today — I’ve got to work a half day and then come home and change and put on make up and go all the way across town for a bellydance performance.
Luckily, I’m (theoretically) up near the beginning of the show, so I’ll get to enjoy watching the rest of them without worrying about whether or not I’m going to fall off of the stage or bean someone with my zill (finger cymbal).
The show is the beginning of a weekend-long workshop, so I won’t be posting my yellow post until Sunday afternoon at the earliest. Hopefully I’ll have bellydance pictures for you, too!
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02.19.08
Posted in Classes, Free Patterns, Threads at 8:15 pm by deRomilly
2001-2008 by G. Romilly Mueller (Goodfellow) all rights reserved
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Geometric Stitching (Hardanger, etc.) Techniques
Some of the same principles apply to stitching geometric-type designs, for example, any type of satin stitch.
For the example in Figure 12 (the chart is figure 13), I used one strand of Caron Wildflowers in the Nefertiti color, with the graph to the right (each grid line represents one thread of the fabric. This design works better on a linen fabric or other evenweave than on aida.)
Play around with this one. Don’t be afraid to cut colors out of your threads. In the example in Figure 11 (last post), I did just this in several places around the outside “petals”. I wanted them green, and durn it, they were going to be green! (or entirely pink, for that matter…) On the other hand, I’m generally lazy when it comes to starting and ending threads, so they aren’t entirely green!
You can get completely different looks from the same color of thread by stitching the color in a different location on the chart.
Using a different color or type of thread to stitch the design will give you a completely different effect. It’s always amazing to me the difference that stitching the same design with Tropics instead of Nefertiti creates.
Conclusion
This article is just an introduction to some of the effects you can achieve with this type of thread. Each different type of multicolored thread, whether the evenly spaced variegated floss, or the random overdyed types has its own peculiarities. In a stranded thread, each strand will have the same color changes, so if you need a mirror effect, keep this in mind if you are using a randomly dyed thread.
The more colors there are in the thread, the more bizarre the “blended thread” techniques can look. But this might be just the effect you need. Remember to keep experimenting. Even the most expensive threads are relatively inexpensive when considered individually. The amount of pleasure gained from learning their tendencies becomes worth the cost when you create a project that is truly your own.
I hope this small discussion has made you more aware of the possibilities multi-colored threads have for your stitching. Remember, when you’re stitching, you always have the last word as to how your piece looks. If you like it, it’s right!
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