Which came first? The chicken or the ...?

As I just might have mentioned before, I LOVE linen.

Especially hand worked pieces.

Especially quirky ones.

Do you know what this round item with a crowing rooster on it is?

Does the second photo give you a clue?

The third photo is a close-up with the rooster as the star.

These are all hand embroidered, all just a little too serious, considering their end use.

They are cocktail linens! Get it? COCK TAIL?

We all know the Rat Pack era was when cocktails reigned supreme.

Please forgive me for using a wine glass to demonstrate instead of a short stemmed glass but I wanted to show you how they are used.

These petite napkins could have been used for just that napkins or for tray liners to carry snacks, nut bowls or petite sandwiches or tiny trays to accompany your cocktail (or in my case a glass of wine).

To me the astounding thing is these rowdy roosters are all hand embroidered! 

The embroiderer would have used a transfer to print the pattern on her (stereotyping here but most of the stitching was done by women) linen or counted the stitches onto the fabric by eye.

Consider that this tiny final rooster is made up of over 240 cross stitches. That means 480 individual stitches conjured this tiny figure less than ONE inch tall. There are 50 stitches along the end of the final napkin, embellished with a crocheted edging.

I would bet it is safe to say this needle artist did her stitching BEFORE she has any cocktails!

Cheers!

Today is Day 11 of #the100day project where I am attempting to write every day for 100 days.

Thanks for following along while I ramble about all the different things that come to mind. I am sure some order or emphasis will shake out eventually. Maybe.

 

Studio Snippets - Wall 1

When we bought this house it was the first place I have ever lived with a garage.

This place had kind of a "fancy" garage - dry walled, painted a cheery yellow, with windows, and climate control. Like I said, FANCY.

This wall is hung gallery style with work from friends and family, plus a traffic sign and a reminder that everything else in this place is supposed to be leaving this place.

When we moved in the garage was filled immediately with an obscene amount of vintage goodies (stock from my old brick and mortar that I couldn't part with, finished art, box after box of books (because this lovely home had no built in storage like our old colonial), art supplies, things that masqueraded as art supplies: stained & ripped linen, antique papers, falling apart books, broken jewelry, random balls of string, you get the idea. It was a lot.  Like that run on sentence. ;)

Frighteningly, these next photos are just one wall of my studio. The painting "Side" if you will.

I've got brushes, palette knives, works in process...

Boxes of random paper, tools I have bought and not used yet (I am looking at you printing press and quilting iron), mark making goodies, inks, markers,  On and on it goes.

The perils of being a mixed media artist is that EVERYTHING is an art supply!

This is just the tip of the iceberg.

Hope you enjoyed this partial peek into my studio.

These two stacked to the side? They are paintings I am in the process of re-working. 

They are what I will be working on while I am waiting for commission layers to dry.

Leila, you are next (finally!). Kathy you are on deck!

Today is Day 10 of #the100day project where I am attempting to write every day for 100 days.

I am hoping by the time this 100 days is in the books I have regained some stamina and met some new friends. Thanks for following along!

PS When my late father came to visit he, the man who sheltered every vehicle he has ever owned, just shook his head, and said "there will never be a car in her, will there?" with a resigned shake of his head and a small smile. 

Sorry Dad. xo

 

"We are homesick most for the places we have never known.' Carson McCullers.

 I must confess I didn't recognize Carson McCullers name when I stopped dead in my Instagram feed when I saw this photo. Upon reading a birthday tribute to the author of 'The Heart is a Lonely Hunter" all I could think of was that she herself looked hunted, or perhaps haunted. The unattributed photo followed my thoughts, I felt compelled to try to capture that look in her eyes.

 Reading a little more about her (like the Wall Street Journal article here or the mini bio here) revealed a complex, challenging life. Now I need to decide which of her novels to read first. Please do tell me if you have a favorite.

Carson MCCullers - detail by TW Stifel

 This portrait is on stretched canvas with a loose collage of vintage and antique papers adhered as a foundation.  I pencil sketched her face. Many erasures later I used Liquitex acrylic paints thinned with gel medium to almost a watercolor transparency to paint her features and shadows. The shirt was sculpted in heavy body acrylic with a palette knife, scraping it pretty hard so the paper was show through.  I am pretty happy with how she came out.

99% of the photos of McCullers are somber so I was delighted to see this one on goodreads.com

Chaos ensues!

 I get LOTS of compliments on how nicely arranged my shop is.  And when I have company coming the studio can look pretty cool too.  When I am actually MAKING art?  Eh, not so much...

 One of the "joys" of mixed media work is that EVERYTHING is an art supply.  The tricky thing is that my work has a LOT of layers so I end up working on multiple things at the same time while waiting for the proverbial paint (or glue!) to dry. 

 Obviously I have a lot going on.  Stay tuned for some actual finished pieces.

I had meeting number one with my personal PMP (project management professional) and his eyes rolled back in his head when I gave him all of my goals and projects I am trying to juggle.  Good to know I can frighten a professional...

PS Sold my blonde babe collage! Thank you Kevin.