Truth–Carl Sagan

Carl Sagan quote–We wish to find the truth, no matter where it lies. But to find the truth we need imagination and skepticism both. We will not be afraid to speculate, but we will be careful to distinguish
speculation from fact.

Code is modified tap code in a domino format.

Tap Code

Domino Format

The upper portion in stitched is a lighter green than the bottom portion.

Domino Format

Since C and K are typically the same I decided to give K the code 63 (C is 13), comma 85, and period 88.

Unfortunately, when I photographed the piece with my phone, the dark green fiber is difficult to distinguish from the black domino cards.
Completed Piece

Completed Piece

Materials–Paper, Fiber, PVA, Binder Clips

Scale–11” x 35” x 1”


Work in Progress–Thoughts

2020 Goal

Complete all work in progress.

Completed stitching together Thoughts piece. Today I will be adding cream wool stitching around entire piece.

Thoughts

Read a couple of weaving books over the holidays and liked the idea of warp threads used to hang woven pieces.

Planning to twine jute twine vertically through the hardware cloth. Yes, I meant to use the word twine twice. Currently thinking attaching the jute warp threads to a thin metal rod. I like the visual of a couple of nail heads holding the lot on the wall.

Jute

Thoughts

Also will add a piece of jute-wrapped rope for the border. Should help to integrate the materials and nicely finish the piece.

This is the border on See a Penny.

Border See a Penny

Previous Posts on Thoughts Piece

Thoughts in Progress, Tuesday, May 14th, 2019

Thoughts in Progress, Thursday, May 16th, 2019

More wallpieces to complete.

Work in Progress

Also have a stash of small 3-D work in progress that needs to be realized.


Weaving on a Little Loom by Fiona Daly

Weaving Within Reach by Anne Weil


In the post I use the words twine and twice. The words look similar. Not just because they start and finish with the same letters, but because the figure-ground is nearly identical. I authored a CD, Appearances can be Deceiving that focuses on figure-ground relationships in a variety of customizable settings.
The CD is available for purchase through Learning Fundamentals.

Work in Progress–Thoughts, Words, Habits, Character

Thoughts become words. Words become actions. Actions become habits. Habits become character.

330 blocks–129 Dots, 97 Dashes, 104 Spacers

Thoughts Words

Debated whether to use blocks of 10 squares or 9 squares.

Thoughts Words

Dot, Dash, Spacer
Thoughts Words

Quarter inch hardware cloth, 9×9 squares, 2.25″ square blocks, with 1.75″ square of roofing felt, cream wool stitches.

Fifteen blocks per row 15 x 2.25 = 33.75″
Twenty-two rows 22 x 2.25 = 49.5″

The finished piece will be larger because the hardware cloth borders for each block will be bound with cream wool. Then the pieces will be bound together. A previous piece had 18 blocks that were 1.75″ squares. 18×1.75=31.5″ When stitched together and the addition of a couched border, the finished piece was 33.25″.

Blocks Made in Flash
A symbol for each block was made, then a symbol for each row.

Thoughts Words Blocks

Row 1 of 22
Thoughts Words Row 1

Layout Pattern
Thoughts Words Layout

The Use Count in the Flash Library is another way to verify correct layout.

Thoughts Words Use Count


Who Is Left to Connect Me to My Earlier Life?

The quote is from Firewall, part of the Wallander series written by Henning Mankell.

Tomorrow is the anniversary of my mother’s ischemic stroke. An event that changed everything.

Last year was a challenging year. My younger sister survived her third surgery for oral cancer, but while in recovery had an ischemic stroke. She did not survive.

Two months later my mother had an ischemic stroke. For a few weeks the prognosis was positive-negative, hopeful-no hope. Before summer I lost the two most important women in my life. The women who knew me when I was a child. We grew and changed together.

I am working on a memorial series. Typically I my series have 11 pieces. Several pieces are in progress but not quite completed. Partly the delay in completing work is the result of recovering from hand surgery. Still do not have my fine motor skill and manual dexterity in my dominant hand.

I using fiber to embroider on hardware cloth for my code blocks. Holding a needle for extended periods of time still causes hand and finger pain. Needed to figure out alternative ways for making things. Since I can loom knit, decided to give that a go. This will also be the first piece in a long time that does not have hardware cloth. It is a good thing to break a dependence on a material.

Who is Left…, will still have a metal component. The plan is to use safety pins to assemble the blocks. The safety pins will also add the possibility of green patina running down the piece.

Blocks
There are three colors of wool blocks: 41 tan for dashes, 51 dark brown for dots, and 52 cream for spacers. The 144 blocks will be laid out on a 9 x 16 grid.

Layout

Knit Pattern–Dash 41 Tan Wool Blocks

Cast On E-wrap
Knit E-wrap

R1 Skip, K5, Flat Knit
R2 Skip, K, S, K, S, K, Flat Knit
R3 Skip, K5, Flat Knit
R4 Skip, S, K, S, K, S, Flat Knit

Pattern rolls.

Knit Pattern–Dot 51 Dark Brown Wool Blocks

Cast On E-wrap
Knit E-wrap

R1 Skip, K, P, K, P, K, Flat Knit
R2 Skip, P, K, P, K, K, Flat Knit
R3 Skip, P, K, P, K, K, Flat Knit
R4 Skip, K, P, K, P, K, Flat Knit

Knit Pattern–Spacers 52 Cream Wool Blocks

Cast On E-wrap
Knit E-wrap
Only Knit Purl Stitches
R1 Skip, K, P, K, P, K, Flat Knit
R2 Skip, P, K, P, K, K, Flat Knit
R3 Skip, K, P, K, P, K, Flat Knit
R4 Skip, P, K, P, K, K, Flat Knit

Swatches

Knitted Swatches with Cotton Cord Separating Blocks After First Fulling

Blocks

Blocks for Code

Scraps

The scraps are random sizes, might be fun to stitch together to make letters in a different code piece.
Been thinking about learning to use my mother’s sewing machine.

Scraps

The blocks were fulled, not felted. Loops for pegs still visible.

Safety Pins
I ordered two types of bronze 3/4″ safety pins from amazon:

Household Mall 3/4-Inch Safety Pins, Bronze (1440 Pieces)

Firefly Bronze Metal Gourd Pin (1000 Pieces)

Received the Household Bronze pins. They are beautiful!

Safety Pins

Safety Pin Detail

Waiting to assemble the piece until I see the Bronze Gourd Pins.

10 April They Arrived…

Gourd Pin

Gourd Pin

The extra space in the curve of the pin might work better with the thickness of the wool blocks.

The safety pins would be lovely for use in the i-cord bowl series I am planning to make. The title is Collected Memories. Got the idea when going through my parents’ collections found in random drawers.

A few years ago I dinked around with the idea of i-cord bowls. Wasn’t the time to develop the work. Maybe I was waiting for bronze safety pins.

Brown Bowl with Safety Pins

Cream Bowl with Safety Pins

According to the email I received from amazon, I may not receive the gourd safety pins until April 12th. So, I patiently wait for the order to arrive.


Bitterest Tears Project in Progress

Sunday I spent the bulk of the day in the studio working on the Bitterest Tears piece. Saturday decided to add a border to the piece, notion of how blankets have a binding at top.

Bitterest Tears

Didn’t visually feel right, so I opted for 2 rows at the top and 3 on bottom.

Bitterest Tears

Bitterest Tears Final Layout

Bitterest Tears

The 2nd brown row at top has the word, loss in code.
The bottom 2nd and 3rd rows have the code for the words, and regret.

Bitterest Tears

Row 1 Stitch for Dots, Row 2 and 3 Dash and Spacer, Row 4 Decorative Row

Used the same dot, dash, spacer stitches for the code for entire piece. There is an addition of a row of a decorative star stitch that frames the body in cream.

Odd that I am on the flip side of regret after doing so many pieces in the past with no regret and forgive yourself in code.

No Regrets

No Regrets code is wrapped around the circle.

Forgive Yourself

Forgive Yourself code is knotted for use as prayer beads.

Regret and Grief
I suspect it has a bit to do with the loss of my sister and mother this year. Even when you intellectually know death will soon end a life, it is still a shock to the system. It changes everything. Every day I wish I could have had more time with the two most important women in my life. Grief is my constant companion. Perhaps I should give it a name.

My hope is that when I complete the penny memorial for my mother and the Bitterest Tears piece I will have worked through some of my grief.

Harriet Beecher Stowe Quote Used
The Harriet Beecher Stowe quote used for the body of the piece–the bitterest tears shed over graves are for words left unsaid and deeds left undone.

The quote is from Little Foxes: Or, the Insignificant Little Habits Which Mar Domestic Happiness. Been carrying the quote around for quite some time, so decided I should read the book.

Found the book as a free read on archive.org.

Perhaps the first pages explains the title–

…the little foxes, that spoil the vines: for our vines have tender grapes.

… those unsuspected, unwatched, insignificant little causes, that nibble away domestic happiness, and make home less than so noble an institution should be.

Project Description
There are 16 blocks horizontally and 21 blocks vertically. Each block is a 9×5 (2.25” x 1.25”) piece of ¼” hardware cloth. The piece of brown material stitched onto each block is roofing felt. I love roofing felt–its color, texture, and fragrance.

I used a rust promoter solution on the hardware cloth that may have weakened the metal. Some of the blocks became crazy red. Decided not to use those in this piece because I wanted to limit the palette to brown, cream, and grey.

Bitterest Tears Blocks

Planning to stitch the blocks together with the brown wool yarn used for the top and bottom borders. Then apply a salt solution to the entire piece. It should integrate, age, and perhaps even visually bring to mind the salt of tears.

Pretty sure the piece will need a frame/box. Not sure if the frame/box will be part of the piece or act as a frame for an artifact.

Anzen

Anzen is part of my Tools for Rent Series.

When I cast the bronze daggers I debated how best to display them. Some of my thoughts–weapons are often beautiful, weapons are designed to cause damage, the use of a weapon is violent. But if the daggers are bound into the interior of the box, potential violence could be controlled. I decided to bind each dagger into their own box.

The boxes were constructed of raw cedar fence. Cedar has a lovely fragrance. It also brings to mind the numerous times I opened my mother’s cedar-lined hope chest. I chose cedar because of the arbitrary value placed on a woman based on the contents of a wedding chest. Not unlike the arbitrary value placed on works of art.


Trump Could Learn A Lot From Eleanor Roosevelt and Descartes

In Eleanor Roosevelt’s Book of Common Sense Etiquette she writes about Descartes’ Discourse on Method.

“There are four simple steps by which we learn to think logically and thus communicate clearly.”

The first step–

Accept as true nothing which you do not clearly know to be so; avoid hasty judgment and prejudice.


Trump Could Learn A Lot From Eleanor Roosevelt

I am reading Eleanor Roosevelt’s Book of Common Sense Etiquette. This quote seems particularly relevant.

Perhaps even more discreditable is the practice of asserting as “facts” matters which have not been proved, or using as ”evidence” something that is the product of illogical thinking and the drawing of an invalid conclusion.

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