Charlotte Gibson's Magic Folding Cube

 

  

  

  

  

This is a hand carved stamped on wooden blocks.

  Has to be the coolest thing I have seen yet.

Here is a link if you would like to make your own.

Thank you Charlotte!!

Feburary 1 What Is On Our Desks

I am working on the I in my Vision Calendar prayer flags. 
The little Select Tomato box came out of a box of tubes Joe got today.
I think it will make a cute sewing caddy.

 

Working on printing book mark, I have made a lot of proofs.

If anyone wants one of my proofs just email me for my address and send a self address stamped business sized envelope.

Isaac was building a "new" computer for his mom and dad.

This is Joe's antenna table.

Joe's project on his table.  It is either a receiver or a transmitter or an amplifier.

Joe got a box of goodies yesterday.  The large tube is a television tube for a camera in the 1950's.  Joe said they would rotate these tubes.  After a while the tubes would start to see through the persons clothes and they had to be given a rest.  So the TV stations would have about twenty of them that they would rotate through like a snake in the box.

The other little boxes are television tubes that are also used in Ham Radio gear.

This is Winston's desk.  He is learning how to program his new Micro processor design board.

I didn't get Catherine's desk....another day.

Low Tide

 

It is dusk and Winston went out and took this picture.  

 

As you can see when the tide goes out the boat just sink into the mud.

Reminds me of this quote:

Warren Buffett quote - It's only when the tide goes out that you learn who's been swimming naked.

High Tide

 

Today there is a high tide. 

It is cause by the moon.  The moon tonight is the biggest full Moon of 2010.

Astronomers call it a "perigee Moon," 

some 14% wider and 30% brighter than lesser full Moons of the year.

 

The drainage pipe there is to let the water that is in the street drain back into the canal.  

This could cause serious flooding if there were for example a lot of rain or 

a wind surge.

 

I told you before Christmas that I was going to be adding a section I called Fossils.

I will be writing more about this in the future.

It is interesting how I started this before January and how much it looks like the cracks of an earthquake.

But it also resembles the cracks in the desert from a parched earth.

  

Today I want to finish up a hand carved lino book mark.   

I will be printing it today as well.

 

Vision Calendar

My word for 2010 is IMPROVEMENTS.

After looking at Erika's Vision Calendar

I noticed the prayer flags in the window. 

I wanted a Vision Calendar that would some how be able to be worked in fabric.

I decided to make mine look like a this because our intentions for the year seem just a prayer.

I wanted a word that would convey something forward but also a word that would not be so big that I might feel overwhelmed by it's greatness and my smallness.

IMPROVEMENTS came to me in a couple different ways, and since it is twelve letters I thought it was perfect. 

Each flag has the month of the year on it.  I am thinking of doing these in a 'snail cloth' way that will reflect what I have improved over that month.

This is my table where I am working on carving linoleum stamps.

I am hoping to improve in making more lino cuts this year!!

The Tree

The tree is one of my favorite symbols.

When I was a child I memorized this verse.

Psalm 1

 ¹Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.

 ²But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.

 ³And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.

Ancient Cloth's Tea Cozy

 

 

 

 

 Ancient Cloth got her tea cozy in the mail yesterday.  I was in a hurry to get to the post office so I didn't have time to write her a "proper letter" explaining all the symbols.  I got that in the mail Tuesday.  I told her to look at the symbols and see what they say to you.  You might come up with things that I didn't think of. 

So that is what I want you to do as well.  While you wait for me to write the meaning that I intended, what are some more layers of meaning in the symbols that you see?

BACK OF TEA COZY

Inner Healing of the Wounded Child

Before I sewed up the black and white fabric I cut this hand out of the red fabric that I got from Ann Johnson.
I have a problem with throwing anything away...even when it didn't work.  When I put it on the black and white fabric it looked more like a war protest image.
So I decided to  use the hand as a visual representation of something that I read in my journal.
I didn't write down where I got this and if you know I will be happy to give credit.

"GETTING RID OF BAGGAGE

When we have IT in our mind, break IT down literally into smaller pieces.  With your mind, however it works for you personally.  Take the rock or BOULDER that IT is as a symbol of IT and then make IT smaller in size.  Continue to do this until IT is small enough that IT no longer over powers you or feels bigger than you are.  Continue to do this until you can literally blow IT into the universe for her to now take care of with a breath, and watch IT dissipate into thin air and nothingness.  IT feels really good when we do this.  It allows us to take something that we once gave huge merit to and no longer see it in the same way.  It totally changes our perception.  This helps us to realize and recognize that we were the ones that was allowing IT to remain in a controlling nature to us.  What is your relationship to IT?  We were also the one that took IT down and CHOSE TO CHANGE IT'S  NATURE.  We have now taken back our control by  taking responsibility for what we gave IT."

I actually did this exercise at a charged moment.  I managed to reduce what I was reacting to...then I got a handle of how I wanted to respond.  It was quite empowering.

I got the term "wounded child" from Dr. Margaret Paul, who

wrote the book Healing Your Aloneness.

The Gold Blog Award !

A few days ago Erika at Every Days a Present gave me a Gold Blog Award. When you visit my page and you press on that star you will go to Erika's blog, which has been an inspiration for me.

I have been rather busy but have been wanting to accept it properly and to also pass out my own Gold Blog Award.  Here is a list of blogs that have been especially inspiring to me in my journey.

Writing Up a Storm, because Kari has helped me to see writing as fun and enjoyable...and usually it feels stifling and tense.  When I read Kari's blog I see it is just a relationship with words between friends.  Being visually oriented I have had trouble with words.  But Kari is multi gifted and she uses images to help us that are so challenged.  I love her prose and pictures.

I have also enjoyed the prose of  Iviva Olenick at Were I so Besotted.  She reminds me of romantic love and the roller coaster ride that it can be.  I also like the fact that she has embroidered these bits of prose on linen and made them immortal.

Lately I have been inspired by Textile Art Quilts by Lynn.  What has really got me fired up is her gutsy attitude when it comes to making art.  She says she just started making art two years ago and has had quilt shows and has made connections in the art and textile world that are helping and supporting her growth.  I think she is a great example of what I want more of.

Ancient Cloth has been a real friend to me.  Her friendship has been cultivated like the slow cloths that she sews.  She has showed me how to take things as they come not to be so in a hurry.  To trust more and to believe that all will work out if we exercise patience and love.  She is a giver.  She has taught me how to do the Slow Cloth technique.  I love the way her cloth as a feel of grace and a human hand of kindness.


Arlee at Albedo Design Journal makes me laugh.  She has such an incredible sense of humor and she knows just how to find my tickle bone.  I can "see" what she saying...and I think that is a gift.  I also love the same colors that she does.  Vibrant, rich, exotic fabrics all inspire me.  She is an experimenter, and an alchemist of color, a daring soul.  Here is some more eye candy of Arlee's.

I don't crochet...much.  But I really like the way Louise Bird at Science Crochet and Other Hypothesis thinks.  I like reading "long thoughts" that have been worked out in solitude.  I can tell that Louise has had a lot of long thoughts.  I enjoy reading her perspective.  She is a woman that is interested in science and math, and these were my favorite subjects in school.  Would love to have a 'cuppa' with her in her crows nest.

Black and White

When I see this now I can't help but thinking about the earthquake.  But I actually made this last week and finished it Thursday, way before the earthquake.

  I was really excited to use the black and white fabric.  I wanted to make something you might see at the MOMA.  But when I got through with the black and white piecing I thought the world was spinning around and around.  I thought I will never get these lines and dots to hold still.

I am not sure that I have now either.

But going with the idea of modern art and a tea cozy I decided to create the cup and saucer theme.

After I got through with it I wasn't really happy with her expression.  She just looks confused.

I think fitting that there is a question mark on the side of her head.  But there is also a yellow spiral which seems to me to show that she is going to use her imagination.
She is going to get out of the

RIGIDITY OF BLACK AND WHITE THINKING.

I understand this kind of thinking.  When I get looped into the duality of two different opposing forces I find myself in the SLOUGH OF DESPOND.   I want the way I want things to be to match the way things are.  I want the lines to be parallel...everything going in the same direction ...the way I want them to go.

when I get in this mode of thinking I stop treating people as humans.  I start resorting to the more efficient method of treating them like machines.

I have to stop my self from REACTING and start CHOOSING MY RESPONSE.

Otherwise I will wear this dull expression and shut down emotionally.  I am not able to connect to others and no one is on my side.  I feel isolated, alone and miserable.  This is the side of anger turned in.

To me doing this in a SLOW CLOTH METHOD IS A MEDITATION.

I am a rather deep thinker and doing these kinds of cloth are the kinds of conversations that I would like to have with a human...but it is so hard to get on that level because we lack time.  But I desire, crave and delight when something has come up from the well that is really SPIRITUAL in nature, to me anyway.

I really feel it is a gift to me, to show me THE WAY.