Petroglyphs

Monday, I finally went to look at some petroglyphs that are located northwest of Tucson. They are not the ones I went to see several years ago with my husband and a visitor from Austria. The two guys did not want to hike in the desert to see them. I was very disappointed. Years later, I finally got to see some petroglphs near my home.

This time I went with a girl friend, Kris.

I love the dancing figures!!!! And right above them is a spiral, which definitely speaks to me - it is part of my logo, which can be seen on my web-site and soon on my blog.

 Kris and I plan to go looking for some other petrogylphs in our area soon.

Oaxacan Motifs

Several years ago, my husband and I traveled to Oaxaca to see this rich cultural area of Mexico known for two major groups of indigenous people: the Zapotecs and the Mixtecs. Mitla is the town built by the Zaptotecs around 100 AD. One of its noted features are the geometric decorations that can be found on stone walls and door frames. I have always been intrigued by these decorations that were created by fitting together thousands of polished stones without mortar. I took many pictures of these decorations so that I use them to create interesting motifs for my art cloth. Last year, I started experimenting with one of these wall decorations.

Using a Canvas 11, a vector based program, I traced the major motif and then began experimenting with combing groups of them. The first motif I created was just a simple rotation of this element.

Then I tried combing several of these motifs to form a more interesting one.

Next I created a more intricate motif by repeating the basic one and also adding a truncated version of the original design element.

Basically this was created by flipping and rotating the various smaller pieces. Today, I returned to these designs and added one more.

These were printed and silk screens produced with my thermofax machine. I am really excited about using these on some scarves. Since tomorrow I have to get ready for an art sale this weekend, I may have to wait until Monday. I will just have to see how my day goes.

MORE Leggings!

This weekend, I dyed four more pair of leggings.

Then Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday I dyed rayon blouses. You will have to wait till next week to see them. I still have to iron them.

We are driving tomorrow to CA to attend a 50th wedding anniversary party for third cousins (I think that is what they are or second cousins once removed). I never really understood how that works. They are having a big party at a Mariott hotel. These are some of my favorite cousins. I am looking forward to celebrating this event with them. I was almost 10 when they got married. Now I am almost ????

Blog Update to Include Garment Shop

I am currently reading Blogger, Beyond the Basics, in order to add blog pages for workshop listings, dyeing process descriptions, dyed garments' shopping, and more. Please be patient with me.

The prices for all my garments are based upon the number of times they are dyed. The red poncho featured in the last post was dyed twice and it fall special price is $73.00. The regular prices for the rayon ponchos are prices as follows:

• Dyed once: $76.00
• Dyed twice: $97.00
• Dyed three times: $129.00

 Fall specials are:

• Dyed once: $57.00
• Dyed twice: $73.00
• Dyed three times: $97.00

Rayon Poncho Modeled

As promised I put on one of the ponchos and ask my husband to take my photo. Please remember I am not a professional model - far from it. It was a little breezy outside so the poncho just fluttered in the wind.