cliodhna’s wave

Fishes swim in the pool of our minds. Wolf watches the pool and listens to the fish. The Bird takes the messages form Wolf and carries them to the sky.

I have just spent the last hour wandering through Kathy Yorks Art Quilts and being inspired and wowed. Her quilts are beautiful!

This one is incredible, the buildings are all 3d blocks. She describes how she makes them and how she puts lollipop sticks in them to reinforce them structurally.

I adore this one. Called ‘Falling through the cracks’. The bird fishing for the falling beads and the textures of the different colour buttons in the squares up on top. I love the subtlety of the colours.

This one is from Kaizer Krafts blog. I found it when I did a search for ‘goldfish quilts’ before I started my own one. ‘Wow’ is all I can say. She has other pics from the Tokyo International Quilt festival.

This is beautiful.. It is from the National Quilt Museum. The link is to their facebook page.

It makes me wonder when I see art that truly drops my jaw open. A part of me wants to compare and think ‘I could NEVER do that!’ but of course I could, it would just be differant thats all. I am inspired about the whole quilt thing. That is what good art does, it inspires you to create. Dream beyond your old borders.

I am slowly defining myself as a textile artist. Before I did textiles but I wanted to paint and when I went into galleries with my embroideries they would generally shake their heads and say ‘no crafts’. Now, I am starting to find all these quilt shows, textile fairs, arts and crafts festivals and other opportunities that I would love to do. I think getting into an international quilt festival would be a good goal to have!

x clio

The Dragonfly is the gatekeeper to the land of illusion. He holds truth and reality and illusion and if you want to break through an illusion and find the truth behind it then dragonfly knows the path.

I could do with some of that! it is hard finding the truth sometimes, or more exactly, it is hard to find the real truth hidden under layers of illusion. Sometimes illusion disguises itself as the truth. I am angry at someone cause they won’t help me, I think the truth is that I am feeling disrespected and ignored but really the issue is that I am feeling judgemental and guilty because my business/art/money isn’t going as planned and because I invest my self esteem into these things I berate myself when they don’t work. This means that I can’t deal in a calm manner with the original problem because really my mind is a war zone and I am a war with myself.

I hate being inside my head sometimes, I want an off switch, and toggle that goes to ‘happy’ and I don’t have to do any work to get there… and even using the word ‘work’ in this context. I am obviously equating being happy with work, its not easy, its work… you are not working, better get busy!

So, finding my way to the other side of illusion is a slow process for me, gently picking away at the things in me that hide the truth of me from myself. Finding my way to just being happy and then everything else gains perspective and falls into beautifully balanced place.

I remember working in a store on Georges st and standing at the doorway on a slow afternoon when it was sunny and bright and fresh outside, and two dragonflies came circling and dancing through the air down the street. Iridescent blue and green they sparkled in the air as they flew and I watched them until they danced onwards and dissapeared.

x clio

A girl stretches upwards to reach for the moon; through the red earth and the stones and the hardness of pushing through she stretches and feels for the silver coolness of the moons light pulling her into the night.

The night is cool and dark and welcoming. It is not scary in this night, it is full of life, full of the life that comes out in the darkness and out of the heat of the daytime sun. Animals watch her coming forth, they are witnessing and waiting and encouraging with their breath and giving her energy to complete the journey.

I was reading the other day about a dog who was helping a war veteran with his panic attacks and I have always thought that dogs were such unconditional love beings. We are lucky to have them in our lives. This is Pala who is a sweet loving snuggle monster. Her fur is soft (and sheds everywhere!) and she likes most of all to be curled up in a lap or an the bed beside me. I spoil her.

We are surrounded by animals giving us love and encouragement, even the small creepy ones or the ones that bite.. they are just trying to tell us something, its not our fault if we don’t understand them.

ok, for starters this is the first tutorial I have posted on this wee blog of mine so any suggestions as to improve the following are welcomed with open arms

I make greeting cards and I decided for my first tutorial to post about them. They are simple and easy to make and the finished product is wonderful. I have received warm reports from these. I think its the hearts that do it but i do fishes also and angels for christmas and trees.. your imagination is the limit!

You will need

a sewing machine that has a drop feed dog function, sometimes its called the darning function, you have to drop the teeth under the needle so they are no longer pushing the fabric forward. Go check, see if your machine can do this, you will be surprised at how many of even the cheaper machines can do it. I worked on a 100 dollar brother for two years before it died, now I have a super cadillac smooth pfaff and I love it. You might also need a darning foot or a free motion machine embroidery foot, each machine is different.

Scissors, fabric for the hearts, fabric for under the hearts on the paper, threads, beads (optional), hand sewing needle and card paper. The card paper I order online with the crease down the middle already from Joes Supplies but if you live beside a paper shop like Daintree in Dublin see what they have. Deckled edges make for an extra nice card. Embroidery Hoop.

The fabric for the hearts (I am using orange felt here in the photo) you stretch on the hoop and make sure its taught. The trick with machine embroidery free style is practise. Move the needle fast and the fabric slowly and draw with the thread. Practise circles and spirals and writing your name and you will soon see how simple it is. I draw hearts on the fabric following a cardboard template I drew and cut out before, this just makes sure all the hearts are the same size, draw them freehand if you wish. I use fabric chalk to draw the outline and then I sew round the outline twice and then fill with spirals and patterns. I usually go over the lines I make twice, it gives a stronger line. The patterns are up to you, invent, be free and your patterns that you do naturally will emerge. Also I do six hearts at a time so as not to waste the fabric.

Cut the hearts out when you are finished. Cut a square of your other fabric just a little bigger than the heart. Place the heart on top of this fabric on the left side of the card (so its in the right place when you fold the card, make sure its upright!)

and then with more spiral patterns sew the heart directly onto the card through the underneath bit of fabric. You can make it as simple as you like, just make sure you sew the edges of the heart down. If its a fraying fabric I use lots of long stitches back and forth to catch the edge.

The heart finished sewing. I still have to tie off the threads at the back, pulling the front one through and tying it with the back one. Prevents it unraveling.

The inside of the card so far.

Now for the beads, these are optional but they add a sparkle that I love. Pick a colour that stands out a little from the backround colour, silver or gold beads are always beautiful. I have used a pinkish bead here that sets off the green gauze I have used and still looks good on the red heart. Sew these on by hand where ever you like, i generally put one over a spiral end and then tie off at the back.

The inside of the card at the end

The finished card, ready for its envelobe and, if I am selling it, its sticker saying my name and plastic protective sleeve.

I have these and other embroideries for sale at my etsy store ‘GreenBirdDreaming’ if you would like to visit!

Cats don’t know how to fly but then birds don’t have two wide eyes and four feet of claws.

Bird says ‘I can can fly and I have feathers that are as light as the wind and that carry me where ever I want to go. I see the tops of trees and the caterpillars seeking the heat from above the leaves, I see the snow on top ofmountains and the start of streams that gush freezing water down the rocky slopes. The wind is friend and the rain is worm bringer. My eyes are black beads that shine and flit constantly, my body is small and my heart beats fast, when you hold me (if I let you) you can barely feel me except for a vibration and heat in the cup of your palms.

Cat says ‘I bask in the heat of the sun and my fur is warm and soft to the touch. Bury your fingers in my stomach and rest your ear on my chest to hear the thunder that is my voice. The wind shakes the branches and distracts the birds so I can change in an instant from sleepy warmth to huntress and mistress of all I see. Sudden death in a flurry of feathers and I jump and trap. I dream of grassy oceans and dark forests and stalking, ever stalking the light that shines from the sky, the quick rustle in the undergrowth and the presence of another heart that beats.’

While in a sushi restaurant recently I was staring (as I usually do) at the fish in the big fish tank near the entrance. It contained four large goldfish and I thought for possibly the umpteenth time of how pretty and amazingly and satisfyingly balanced the pattern of their scales were. How gold and shiny and marvelously put together they were as they glided back and forth.

‘A quilt’ thought I, ‘a quilt of goldfish scales that shimmers and shines’ and I set out on the long journey towards quiltdom today. I have made a quilt before, it was complicated and took way longer than I thought it would so I am marignally more prepared now than I was the first time of the nature of my commitment to this quilt.

I made the pattern and sewed the patches and i am doing it the old fashioned way of sewing the patches onto a paper backing and I will stitch them together by hand. It holds their shape better and makes curves easier to sew than on a machine.

Onwards onto the path of quilt!

Ok, to officially open my new store at Etsy I am having a promotion and having a draw for an embroidery. I am giving away one of these three items you see here (the winner chooses). PLease visit the store at GreenBirdDreaming or click on any of the pictures. The pictures will bring you to the product page of that item and to get to the main store there is a little word ’shop’  beside the avatar under the words ‘GreenBirdDreaming’

so back to the promotion, please visit my store and have a noodle and then in your comment please tell me one thing you like about it and one thing you think could be improved. Maybe the pictures don’t strike you, maybe the product descriptions need outlining. Whatever!

For those unfamiliar with Etsy it is a worldwide online store for handmade crafts, supplies for handmade crafts and vintage items. there is everything here, from soaps to jewellery, from strange pictures of cats to king size beds. Its the best online shopping anywhere!

So my threadless submission didn’t get very far. I think I am not hip enough for threadless or else I am not involved enough to get comments. Oh well, not really worried. Would be nice to get a design printed though and get 2000 dollars!

So I took the design I did and made it into an embroidery. I stiched the people up seperately and stuffed them and then stiched them down onto the backround fabric so they stand out. To make the people I patchworked strips of fabric together first and then embroidered the people on top of that and then made them into the dolls ready to get stuffed.

Words in the corner, sky dancing, growing, singing, dancing…

It is good to get back on the sewing machine again. I have one more project on the go and another one sitting in my head ready to leave.

Its funny about what other people think is cool or not cool or marketability. Just read this post today from Florence Forrest. Sometimes I do work which I don’t really value until years later when I look at it and see that it is actually a good piece of art work that I just didn’t think was good enough at the time. Or I understand more about the image and why I did it. I think rather than ‘not being marketable’ I think we are just not ready to expose them. They sit until we recognise their value and recognise the value of who we were at that time. She does the coolest toys too, check them out.

I think sometimes I can get lost in needing to be professional and advance my ‘career’ and forget that the best art comes from the heart in the moment and if we loose that then we have lost our connection to ourselves. Marketability comes when it is ready. Of course actually getting out there and showing the world what you do helps also! Its a balance.

and of course to leave you with,  the usual picture of a beautiful sky!

I love mermaids. I didn’t know this until recently when I looked at the work I had done for my last exhibition and realised there were loads of mermaids. I have dreamed of being a mermaid. I am not sure why the fascination. They are from the sea, from the subconcious, from dreams, from magical possibility. They are emotion and from our deep-selves. My name comes from under the sea. There was a race of Tuatha de Danann living in the kingdom under the sea.

I think i just love the idea of them. I love the sea but it scares me too. Deep water, seaweed. Anyone else get a panic in their stomach while swimming over seaweed? Maybe its because they are at home under the sea, in a strange murkyness, belonging to the moon.

When the sirens sing you don’t feel seasick. Mermaids are the souls of sailors who loved the sea.

Maybe they come from the need for sailors to put a beautiful face on the sea. The sea was changeable and dangerous and uncharted and mermaids were its soul and reflected how the sailors felt about the sea. Dreams about women on the long lonely voyages out of sight and contact with land for days on end. No cell phones or fancy navigational aids on those days.

When you catch a mermaid you had better hold on tight, she is as slippery as a fish and will vanish from your grasp if you don’t keep her in your sight.

Mermaid, who does my dream self love?

I haven’t gotten over it yet. I have mermaids on my wall from mexico. They are still sitting in boxes in my new house in chihuahua so when I get there I will take some photos of them. I want to do some more. I have ideas! I even made a mermaid puppet I was really proud of, she turned out wonderful, until the house cat got a hold of her and chewed her head off.

Maybe she is my sea soul, my feminine side of my soul, my dream part. I will ask for a dream from her and see what she has to say to me. I would ask her to help me release my fear of deep water, to see the beauty and power of the sea and the hidden treasures waiting for me.

What would you ask her? x clio