thrifty kitties

someone must have donated all their kitty cross-stitches to the local (to mum) thrift. of course i had to rescue them. not sure yet what i'm keeping, selling and gifting, but i'm loving them all in the meantime.

Show Update!

If you haven't already, send in your submission info for the Gay for Eagles fiber art show! The deadline for getting me your info is coming up quickly - it's this Friday, Feb. 18th, so send it! All details are here. The show is shaping up to be incredibly cool, but there is still room for more!

*(and btw, if you're on the fence about submitting because you're not sure your work fits the theme, send me an email so we can confer. the show will be more interesting with wide-ranging interpretations of our theme.)*

happy valentines!

Aglaé et Sidonie

I finally listed some handspun yarns in my new shoppe... some of them inspired by (or at least named after) these adorable characters, Aglaé et Sidonie, from a French tv series that ran from 1968-1975. If anything can excite me, it would be this combo of vintage cute + Frenchy (thank you dear M!) I have a feeling this is just the beginning of my yarnie love affair with this series..

my heart, and some quilt loves too

zero-draft proposal

i want to share with you all the very, very beginnings of my new dissertation project. here's the short description that i had to send to the graduate committee of my department for approval. the 3rd paragraph is basically there to argue that my previous work is applicable so that they wouldn't make me re-take my comprehensive exams. i know it's a little academ-icky in how it's written, which i'm hoping to avoid in the future, and i'm not 100% sure of any of this - especially whether the farming connection works or doesn't. but one has to start somewhere, right? and right now, that means reading everything i can get my hands on that seems related.

and soo... i cannot begin taking oral histories from real people yet because that requires the approval of our institutional review board, which i'll be working on soon. but i hope anyone who is interested will save up their stories to share with me. even if you aren't in the u.s. south, but you have a family history here (i can think of a few of you!), your stories would be relevant. and if in the meantime, anyone has any thoughts, resources, citations, i'd be grateful. this is going to be a collaborative project in that it will depend on the people and their histories and the fabrics that are shared with me.

I have just returned from a leave of absence and am beginning my 7th year in advanced standing. I have decided to write my dissertation on memory and mourning in contemporary textile work in the US South. The notion of craft as a form of therapy is a common refrain among textile artists, and in recent years there has been a marked trend toward making and embellishing of "memory quilts," shrouds, and wrapping-cloths, often by hand. The working-through of memory in and through needlecraft has a long history, but has also taken a collective turn among textile artists who are using their using craft in activist contexts. [actually that's not new at all, not sure what i was thinking.]

Part of the memorial nature of this textile work seems to be the use of materials which have specific histories and meanings, and thus I will focus not only on the artist's experience of making, but also on the materials themselves, including the means of production. New generations of crafters and fiber farmers are in transition, and in many cases are seeking to use humane and sustainable methods and materials. I am interested in how methods of fiber production (and animal fibers in particular) intersect with a textile mourning practice. Gender, race and generation are likely to figure into my analysis as well.

Although the subject matter of this project is new, the theoretical and methodological bases remain the same. I will still be doing visual anthropology (or, "anthropology of the senses") within a skill and memory-based culture. Although I will not undertake an entire ethnography, I will observe and collect oral histories from research participants. Moreover, the historical and cultural context is similar in that I will remain in the US South, and my research participants may be primarily located in rural areas. This project will also deal with animals and animal products, although not as its central concern.

I plan to proceed with obtaining IRB approval right away. I will complete a more detailed proposal for my committee by the end of February, and a new review of relevant literature by the end of March. I will then begin to take oral histories throughout Spring semester and during the summer. I will prepare a detailed outline by September 2011, and produce chapter drafts during the 2011-2012 academic year. I will work steadily toward completion by no later than the end of my 8th year in advanced standing (Spring 2013). [actually it would be Fall 2014, whew!]

so that's it. i think i need to begin with the history of mourning embroidery and memory quilts...

two-tone bunny paws and new shoppe

i was so happy with how this pair turned out, with a special sequined vintage trim i've been saving for the perfect thing. they are off to ellen, fancy mitts for a fancy girl! btw, i finally opened a new etsy shop, to separate out my handmade and vintage. so much fun!

golden hours

the gorgeousness of the weather permeated my studio today... cosy with a kerosene heater, the balcony door wide open, a cool breeze and karen elson.

there's an interview with me over at folk reveries! i'm not sure how it happened, but i'm the new team captain, and so far it's been really fun. i had to get (another) new email for twitter, and i got folkreveries@gmail.com! so it was meant to be.

lots of good news.. my new proposal for school was approved, and i'll have a new co-advisor now who will help a lot. now on-to some less fun paperwork.. but i also got some new local quilting connections, so i'll be joining a bee or two. i made my very first three quilt blocks today, ever.

dye-ary

i am no-good at keeping paper notebooks, never have been. so i'm going to record the results of my dye experiments here - all of em! i've always been both fascinated and intimidated by natural dyeing, but i've been newly inspired to try with the inspiration of india flint and friends working with solar dye processes and gentler ways of dyeing.

all i did was bundle up some plants and rusty bits of metal in old handkerchiefs and toss them in a pot on my woodstove. the pot is a rusty enamel that i imagine is made of steel and so i don't think that acts as a mordant, although the rust probably did something. i didn't even do a separate extraction process, although i plan to next time.

the first bundle of dill did a whole lotta nothin'..


the bundles of rusty bits (found in the yard) are pretty spectacular:




this was a bundle of rosemary leaves and stems, and even though it looks kind of like a bunch of grass stains, i will thrilled to actually see little leaf prints! my first eco-print!!




this last one i didn't do on the stove. i just bundled up orange peels in this old monogrammed hankie and put it in a canning jar with wood ash, and stuck it outside in the cold. the yellows are quite pretty!




i'm especially excited to dye some linen with these methods and use it as a background for some embroidery. i think it would add a lot of dimension to plain old stitching.

oh, and like i've been moaning about on facebook, our porch collapsed under a big load of firewood. it's been threatening to go for about a year. it'll be a huge pain to fix, but for now, more firewood!

Gay for Eagles

I sent this out to everyone who has contacted me about the show either here, on facebook or via email. I'm posting it here though in case any one hasn't heard yet!

I'll be curating a gallery show of fiber art to be held at the Hotel Hadley Studios in Siler City, NC. The show will open on April 15, 2011 from 6-9pm and will run through May 14.

The title of the show is "Gay for Eagles," based on a military-themed piece by Alexandra Walters. Feel free to interpret this theme broadly (for example, work could in some way engage with themes of war, peace, conflict, paramilitary, black ops, resistance, revolution, etc., possibly as it relates to gender and/or sexuality). I see many possibilities with this theme.

Please confirm your submission to the show by sending me the following information no later than February 18, 2011:

-your name as you would like it to appear in the promotional materials and online
-title of work(s) submitted (up to 5) with all the following information for each piece:
-medium
-dimensions (this is very important)
-date
-price if work is for sale (or state if NFS)
-photos of work (or, if you are creating something specifically for this show, a detailed description *with dimensions*).

Once I receive this information from everyone, I can make the final selections of work that will cohere and fit within the space. If your work is selected, I will send you a contract to be completed and submitted when you send me your work. I will ask everyone who is selected to contribute $20 toward the cost of the exhibit, a 15% commission on your sales, and provide a prepaid shipping label back to you.

Please email me at drucillapettibone@gmail.com if you have any questions at all. I appreciate everyone's interest and look forward to putting on an amazing show!

more dish fetish

i've been forgetting to show you my other stitchy-dishes.. these have a cross-stitch design in the center. i love that the design on each plate is at a different stage of wear ... kind of a reverse stitchy-progression. it's a huge thrifted set complete with sugar, creamer and gravy boat. then more recently i found a newer, unfaded version with the same design to round out my set. j'adore.

i'm feeling terribly drawn to traditional designs right now. am obsessing over shakespeare's peddler. i found her when i made my first treasury! even if i could live forever, i still wouldn't be able to do all the stitching i'd like to do.

p.s. oh, there's also a sneak peek of my recent woodstove-top dye experiment.

bunny paws

this is the third time this winter i've been backed up on orders for bunny paws, my custom-made angora mitts!! these are made from the fiber of my very own bunnies that i comb or shear every couple of months, and then spin and then crochet or knit into these mitts. sometimes i add pearls and lace (for the "fancy paws"). it's kind of impossible (or at least un-fun) to make them the same each time. and i'm so pleased that i've had repeat customers!! i was a little worried when i started selling them because angora can be tricky - some people are allergic, or feel like it sheds too much. but so far, people have loved them and ordered more for their family and friends!!

i hate having to turn people down while waiting for the bunnies to grow hair, but that's just the way it is right now.. slow cloth and all! plus, i can't take *all* their hair off in these super-cold temps. i have five rabbits, although only four of them have good fiber.... and it tends to take two bunny harecuts for one pair of mitts.

in the past, i dreamed of having a rabbit farm where i would make angora products, but then i decided that the rabbits were so much work, and i have no interest in selling rabbits, that i would just take in angoras from from people who didn't want them any more or couldn't care for them. that's how i got three of my bunnies now (the other two came from denise, my rabbit-mentor in kansas). they are really quite a lot of work, especially the satin angoras - their coats can matt so easily and they can even die from wool-block if the hair stays on too long! with the five bunnies i've had now for almost two years now, i've gotten a lot better and more efficient about caring for them and understanding what they need.

i've been skeptical about my ability to make money as a farmer. i couldn't make decisions about animals based on productivity. and i don't want to sell them as pets since i don't believe that they are good pets for most people. they aren't really the most pet-like creatures. they don't show love like a dog or enjoy cuddling like a cat. but i appreciate their personalities, which are very individual. junebug especially is especially sweet and docile. prissy is downright grumpy, and poor junior is mostly blind, so he's always jumpy.

but so with this run on mitts, i've thought about breeding henry and june... i spoke a little with denise about it, and i might try in the spring. i go back and forth on this a lot though, because with five i have now, they can all live in the house (they live in the enclosed porch). but if we had babies in the spring, we'd soon have to build an outdoor rabbitry.. and do i want to spend most of my time caring for bunnies and working with their fiber?? although like my hub said, we have this farm and we don't raise anything, so it would be a way to make it productive. oh well, a lot to consider...

in the short term, i should probably take my custom listings down from my etsy store since i can't keep up with the orders... but i love some of the pics so much that i posted them here..