Secret Life Revealed

The Secret Life of Nutmeg (Full View 36" x 37")

The Secret Life of Nutmeg is now complete and available for sale through Acorn Gallery in Idyllwild, California.  I love this charming gallery nestled in a quaint little town similar to my own home of McCall, Idaho.  Take a look at their website and see what's going on there!

Nutmeg is a really special piece for me.  I have spent years collecting the little shaved disks from my grinder and studying the squiggly lines and dots.  I imagined a different life going on within those little spheres - rather like in "Horton hears a Who".  I visualized a bright day with a midnight garden of wheeling galaxies and bright flowers magically happening just below the surface reality of daylight.  While I've had a thumbnail sketch of this piece for quite some time, I could not quite visualize how I was going to make it happen.  My skill level was not up to the sketch.  Through self study, conversations with art buddies, and cruising the internet, I learned a few things that made this piece finally happen.

Nutmeg Detail

Surface of Nutmeg

Each nutmeg head was hand painted with gold, bronze,and copper fabric paint. I tried some really fun pens in those colors, but could not control the line well enough to achieve the look I wanted.  I then fused a layer of white silk organza over the surface to create luminosity.  The final dimension is composed of  hand-stitched copper disks in assorted sizes topped with iridescent bronze beads.  Also visible in this detail shot are the star fields created by heat-setting iridescent metallic foil on to navy Bali batik fabric.  I created depth by fusing circles of sparkly black netting over the star fields and stitching them down with metallic thread in a satin stitch.   Too much information?  It's always hard for me to decide.  I guess you decide by either reading this post or not - or part of it!

From what I've read, one should post at least weekly to keep things fresh and updated.  Perhaps if I did that, I could keep my posts shorter while maintaining detail.  During our brief alpine summers, it is difficult for me to maintain the discipline of more computer time.  For any artist it is a difficult balance of spending the needed time to promote your work online, or actually BE in your studio creating your work! Both are necessary and whole volumes have been written on this topic.

I leave you with two photographs I took last weekend in the back country east of here.  Scott, Ethyl and I traveled roughly 160 miles over dirt roads to visit the old mining town of Stibnite and it's sister village of Yellow Pine.  Stibnite was a thriving gold and silver town at one time and is being brought back to life right now by the mining company of Midas Gold Corporation.  Visit their site for interesting photos and information.  The streams are currently running clear and sparkling near there - but still have toxic levels of "bad stuff" in them, which I found out after I'd been wading in them.  Same for soil and dust contaminants.  What changes will happen when the mines are operational again?

Stibnite Site and Dredge Pond

Mine Shaft on Sugar Creek with Stream

Stepping off to the side to take the "Mine Shaft" photo, my foot sank in a red, gooey ooze.  Moving back, my other foot sank to the ankle in loose dirt.  Made me realize there could be shafts in places I couldn't see....

Secret Beginnings

This is the beginning stage of "Secret Life of Nutmeg" as it looks laid flat on my work table.  The pieced fan shape is laid on top of the background fabric I've been preparing for a few days now.  The background base fabric is a navy blue Bali batik with star fields I created by sprinkling the surface with Bo-Nash adhesive powder following up with a heat application of a foiling product.  Voile'!!  The star field of my dreams.  I've been wondering how I was going to create the effect I could see in my head when I spotted something about this wondrous product in Jane Dunnewold's recent book, "Art Cloth" - a book I highly recommend to any fiber artist for its inspirational effects/techniques and clear instructions on how to achieve them. 

Progress is taking longer than I'd like - it's finally summer here which means it is time to repair the damage from the previous winter and get a grip on the yard and gardens which grow at a rapid rate of speed with any encouragement and long daylight hours.  Because of all the wet spring weather, I had a bumper crop of rhubarb this year.  It was so lush that I actually cut, sliced, and froze 7 zip-locks full that I know we'll appreciate during "the long dark", which is the phrase an Alaskan friend of mine uses for "winter".

Lovely Rhubarb

Warm Red Fir

To the right, is another reason for "slow art".  Around here, we say we are either living winter, or getting ready for winter.  That includes cutting firewood, which my wonderful and strong husband is shown doing here.  You can see at the top of this photo where the tree snapped off in a wind storm and thereby made itself available to us for harvest.  So far, we have hauled home around 3 cords from this one tree and there is quite a bit more.  This may be my first One Tree Winter - amazing and we are grateful.

Tyndall Creek/Vulcan Hot Springs

You say you want to hear more excuses for slow art?  Well, in addition to working around the homestead, it is important to take advantage of living in such a beautiful area.  I've made it a priority this year to hike with a group of girlfriends weekly.  I have lived here many years but there are many, many hikes I have not taken because of family commitments and employment.  With the kids grown and having been unemployed for a couple of years, I finally have the time to go hiking and I have to admit it has been a grand treat.  I feel guilty about my hikes sometimes, but then remind myself that summers here are short AND, I am taking an on-line Pharmacy Technician course to re-instate my license and hopefully find gainful employment upon completion.  It's likely I will not find a job here in McCall, but will need to look in Boise and come home on weekends.  It is not uncommon in my area for one spouse to work "away".  We'll just have to see how all that works out.

It was a beautiful 4th of July here.  My first year here was 1979 and it snowed at the BBQ I was invited to.  My Midwestern roots were properly shocked and I knew the folks back home would not believe it.  This year, we were fortunate enough to have a ring-side seat on a deck overlooking all the downtown fun.  I leave you with a couple of images from that beautiful summer night.

Fireworks!

Waiting for the Show to Begin