the alchemy of slow

I just finished this one’s outfit. It was a stunningly slow process. Hand stitching each tiny panel, turning it right side out, stitching it onto her small stuffed chest. She waited placidly while I dressed her. I embodied patience, manifest new realms of patience within myself as I worked, a millimeter at a time, executing almost indiscernibly small movements with my needle, making hardly noticeable progress, dwelling at the apex of SLOW.

AI can make beautiful images, compose elegant pros, but can it go slow? Can it mull over many inconsequential things (gophers in top hats, paying taxes, eating popsicles…) while continuing the central work at a plod? What is the alchemy that emerges from this kind of two speed focus, the mind buzzing circles around the measured and deliberate march of the hands?

Feeling Mary Shelley

This week I finished several pairs of hands. I stitched and stuffed this one’s legs and sewed some decorative stripes down them. She blinked her eyes and whispered something in my ear just as I was attaching her final hoof. The moment they come alive never ceases to stun me, thrill me. How bits of clay and cloth transform from some intention I only held in my mind’s eye (a wavering and shadowy imagined thing), into a real and solid manifestation of an idea. I am always WOWed by this alchemy.

Antler Efforts

I resisted my urge to branch out into other shapes; the curving rippled horn of the Dahl Sheep, the dangerous dark spike of the Texas Longhorn, the elegant, spiraling regalia of the Impala. I wanted to try each of these. How would I bend the copper and stitch the fiber skin to render each miraculous horn shape? My curiosity will have to wait though. I am committed to deer for now, and where there is one deer there are always more.

stitching eyeballs by the fire…

The phrase “I’m all ears” comes to mind when I reflect on this last week of hand stitching. Each eye felt exciting and compelling. What small variation in eye color and pattern will I make this time?, I’d ask myself as my needle began the path of ringing an iris, defining a pupil. It is so wonderful and unpredictable somehow when I stumble into a creative task that I can’t get enough of.

Circling back

My deer people (see their heads in my previous post) will all need adornments. For instance one of them will look fetching in the collection of bright red silk circular patterns. She will be me, remembering my recent circle making complusion, that I may not yet be out of. This is certainly not my first compulsion. I was reminded of that tuesday when I discovered these groupings of odd stitched shapes in a basket on my work table. I made them without really knowing their application. How wonderful to discover my deer people’s costume needs have already been addressed!

A face off

This week I sculpted faces for another collection of sewn and ceramic figures. I think these will all be antlered, a herd of deer people. Imagine hiking in some remote summer wilderness and coming upon them, grazing in a high mountain valley. I wonder, would deer people graze on four legs with their mouths to the turf, or would they crouch to pluck a handful then straighten up and gaze around while feeding themselves, hand to mouth?

This weekend!