Bird watcher

Bird watcher, originally uploaded by jckirner.

Simple things today. Caught Dewey the cat monitoring the blue jays outside (those bold birds are brave enough to eat off the window sill feeder). Too enticing for this cat - he tries to sit on the sill and bat at them through the glass.

Things don't go flying though. The knitted window caulk swatch is slightly sticky - objects placed on it don't move!

2009 favorite works

2009 favorite works, originally uploaded by jckirner.

Maybe a scooch early to make this mosaic - there are a couple of days left!

I did quite a bit of fabric dyeing and painting this year, and doodling/drawing worked its' way in. Lots of facial expressions, arms, eyes, but then delicate nature textures, water, forms too.

I wonder what I'll get up to next year?

After Xmas' noise - Nature's quiet

Nature Quiet, originally uploaded by jckirner.

All the excitement and sleepless nights and noise of Christmas, time for the quiet out in nature.

An outing to gumbo limbo nature preserve, walking the boardwalks of the coastal hammocks and mangroves. Surveying the tanks of turtles and sharks, testing the scents of pots of herbs.

House guests are journeying home, now to recover the silence!!

Waiting...

Waiting..., originally uploaded by jckirner.

A scene from Christmas Eve - about 11pm.

Half the house sleeping, the other half tossing with excitement.

Merry Christmas, folks!

USA sampler

us sampler, originally uploaded by jckirner.

Grandparents arriving this week, joining us for Christmas. I'm readying the guest room, rescuing it from it's interim status as kid campout/Christmas practice room. (Daughter and friends have a small Xmas tree set up and have been wrapping up their toys to create a massive pile under it. Sleepover ensues with practice present opening frenzy in the morning. Great fun. Great mess.)

So anyway, on the wall is Mum's USA sampler she embroidered circa 1973. Our initial move to the US from the UK was to be a 2 year temporary stay. We took advantage of being 'overseas' and tried to see as much as we could on a minimal budget. Camping was the way to go. On a month long trip from Michigan to Florida Mum dutifully worked away, stitching the motifs from the areas as we visited them. Look for the red dot in the 'hand' of Michigan to denote where we lived at the time.

Today we'll tackle our daughters' room, where Grandma will be sharing the bunk bed - if we can find it under the pile of plush toys!!

Oh, and that 2 year temporary stay? We never returned to live in the UK.

'Snow' in Boca

'Snow' in Boca, originally uploaded by jckirner.

School's out for a couple of weeks. Weather has backed off from sweltering to cool-for-us 60's with bright skies and breezes.

Local county park hosted Winter Solstice activities - 'snow' dumps in two piles for big kids and little kids, face painting, Santa visits, marshmallow roasting, dreidel games, sack races, cookie decorating.

Kids came away with surprisingly wet clothes (Florida kids - what can I say - it didn't sink in that 'snow' would make them wet), faces painted, and only one bloody nose (snow ball in face is funny in cartoons - in reality it can hurt!!), a pile of chocolate gilt and then hot chocolate by the lake.

Man Shops Globe

Has anyone seen this show on the Sundance Channel?? I've just discovered it and am catching up on repeats of the initial 8 episodes.

Visually stunning, inspiring travel adventure. Envy producing! Who wouldn't like to travel with a guide "find me the arty stuff"!!

Keith Johnson travels the globe to find artists and artisans to provide wares for Anthropologie. He starts with the tourist wares and researches and finds connections to those that are doing more than mass production.

I love how he discusses the difference between mass produced craft bordering on tourist ware and that which is special, more art, a new twist on what has been seen before.

(photos from the Sundance Channel site)

A numbers game

pod, originally uploaded by jckirner.

Ah - year end analysis of the time spent in the college coursework.
This harkens back to days in manufacturing when setting time standards for work to be done and for predicting workloads in the future.

So here goes...

Online art history course:
26.5 hours active online over 112 sessions
18 chapters read in text book, 480 pages over 60 hours
2 essays researched and prepared approx. 8 hours
total effort - 94.5 hours across 16 weeks.

Life drawing course:
75 drawings over 16 weeks
Approx 45 hours actual time.

Typical applied weekly effort 8.7 hours

But why did it feel like much more??? Because my mind was actively processing daily for far more than the applied time, and no doubt those forays from all the inspiration consumed mucho time too!

Pic above - these seed pods fall in my yard this time of year. Destined for the dye pot for experiments!!

Lucky me....

...received this wonderful little package in the mail, a recipient of Where Women Create magazine blog giveaway recently. So delightfully packaged! Thanks WWC!!

Adding on

Adding on, originally uploaded by jckirner.

A true sampler - freeform adding-on to the walnut dyed fabrics.

The red band on the linen swatch is hard to needle through - very squeaky as the thread is pulled and pushed and manoeuvered through. (Looking at it again I get a flashback to the TV program on in the background as I stitched this. Stitching often secures imprints of moments that come back when I review the work.)

A grey day this morning - soft light for photographs. And a busy day with a birthday party here for the 11 year old. YIKES!!

walnut sampler 1

walnut sampler 1, originally uploaded by jckirner.

Wandering pathways hand stitching.

Getting a feel for the pull of thread through different fabrics,

recollecting the sound of the fibers and needle, squeaking through the tough parts.

And relearning the tangle of the pull skein.

The dye pot gets a break

Family time takes precedence - Happy Birthday 11 year old!!

walnut dyed silk

walnut dyed silk, originally uploaded by jckirner.

Hardly subtle at all!

A strip of embroidered silk drapery/upholstery samples originally in very subtle shades of ivory and cream. The scroll strip was seamed in a gradation of 5 shades of the light colors. Yet the overdye is very dominant, the original gradation is gone.

This mornings sun helped in showing the shine of the silks in contrast to some of the walnuts in the background!