Witch gown fringes

It is real fun to make them. The strings are firmly twisted wool threads which, when laid double and set free, know by themselves how to become fringes. I hold them with my teeth while twisting them. A research on the question who created this piece will find rich samples of DNA. Then I cut one of my polymere necklaces open and use the beads. Anyone wanting beads?

Caught in lace and held in frame

A human shape behind lace is the latest progress of the witch gown.
As Susan noticed, the text ribbons are paths! It is clear to see.
I explained the details and meaning to my husband who doesn't mind at all to be caught in the traps of his witch.

The embroidery is developing a little unexpectedly. I intended to do an "Star of Bethlehem" allover pattern, but the piece has a different idea. I put it up in a quilting frame in order to keep it stretched. My embroidery hoops are too thin and small to hold needlepoint which is gaining volume and cannot be pressed between the hoops, the wool gets squeezed, and it shows.

Integration

This is where we live. Just a few 100 yards away from our flat there is a former racing ground which has been converted into a living area. We took a walk on Sunday afternoon, rather: evening. The Canada geese were just having lunch on the green. They are integrated into the park-like surrounding.





During the sunshine hours on our balcony, it had been warm enough to sit outside. Now, temperatures were going down, still reaching about 6° or 43 Fahrenheit in early morning. --


The printed scraps are being integrated into the witch gown. The photos are surrounded with spells and bits from Estonian sagas. One is a lullaby, another says: "If this man was mine, I wouldn't need to eat." The witch chose a young man who is attractive and desired by other women, too. But she holds him in her magic circle. In these spells I used no runes. I wanted the outer edge to be more decorative and less readable. The inscription "ribbons" that run around the pictures are meant to be read, but only those will decypher them who understand Estonian. I know that magic spells are still used today; I do not presume to use them in the sense of making the magic work. But there was a time when I used art as a magic practice to gain power over the desired person. I understood this 30 years ago and gave it up. But when I was young, I was entangled in magic thinking, and I wasn't aware that it is manipulative, moreover it made my own attachment a lot stronger than necessary. When I gave it up, it meant a remarkable loss of power, but seeing it from a Buddhist point of view, I understood that it takes respect and honesty to gain love, not manipulation. Continuously walking on this path, my life improved until I found someone who likes to be enchanted by witchcraft, but consciously and voluntarily. He is my husband now.

-- This posting attracted chinese spam by the yard. Sorry I had to restrict the comment function a bit more which I hate to do.

-- Now something completely different.

Outdoor studio

Under blue sky: The most pleasant place to work at. The kids are still in school, so the backyard is quiet.I cut another stamp and did some printing, looks very conventional:
Again, I made a lino cut from a traditional Estonian pattern and print it on slightly wet cloth. On dry cloth, the paint was not really taken up by the surface. On wet cloth, there is a slight bleeding of dye which actually looks quite interesting like aged or bleached dye. I let it dry now and will add some more painting and printing.










I also cut a foil stencil and use a stencil paint which contains oil. The stenciled shape is almost invisible. The white patterns have strongly resisted the paint which rolled off.







The intention is to fix them on the witch gown as if she had taken traditional clothes as a trophy from those she bewitched, just as she integrated the pictures of the young man in her gown which is all part of her sorcery.
I imagine her as a lady of the woods who lures a young man into unknown pleasures which make him addicted to her.

Well -- experiments don't necessarily work

Print, paint, print. I made the cloth wet and painted with dye. The wet paint runs nicely into the free space between dried print. When this is dry, I'll print or stencil some more light paint on the dark parts. I could stencil some white paint which contains oil and get some batik-like effect... Estonian weaving and knitting typically showed stripes running through the pattern.
I'm not sure if I am so much into printing, but lino-cutting is fun. I should try more. Then I will love printing, too. -- Some artists find coincidence very helpful, I'm still not sure if I prefer serendipity or control.

Now I fixed it to the witch gown and quilted it. Forgot to iron it. Okay, it's not a teen football star's sportswear that needs to be washed every few days.

Outsorcing

I don't know if "outsorcing" is Denglish, as we call bad German English over here; today I went to the copy shop and paid 36 $ (28 Euros) for 2 copies on cloth. It would not be so much cheaper to do it with my own ink printer -- if I had one.
Then I cut patches with single nudes.

The print had not worked perfectly; in some parts, the paint did not get fixed on the cloth. It may be linnen and not cotton, it was an old bed sheet.

Then I put the pieces onto the Witches Gown and will be fixing them between snake, homunculus, eyes and bird poles. More spells are due to follow.

The Devil Wears Prada

A film I had wanted to see for a long time -- we recorded it the other night from TV. Not all husbands would have stayed all the time; mine was fascinated. What struck me most was the business style in this magazine. The way the heroine had to adapt to the demands of her job seemed pretty tough to me. Is it really that bad?

Experiments with Foto Transfer
Today I made a few experiments, as I had planned. I tried the ideas you kindly shared in your comments.
I tried some cleaning liquid with orange oil, natural turpentine and petrol-based turpentine, but none of them worked, and not the wonder under idea either that I wrote about. The toner remained firmly fixed to the paper; I threw it all away.
Normally I don't fight with things. It works, or I look for another way to express my ideas. But in this case, I have a vision of my witch gown which has to include human forms in a very convincing way. The photos I want to be on this cloth like trophees are nudes. I want to surround them with more spells. It is all laid out in my head, but I can't go on. This is tantalizing!

You are right, Reyna, there is nothing like being taught by a personally present teacher! So sorry I cannot present any successful fruits of my studio.
Today I'm going to a quilt store trying to inquire about workshops or advice. But I have to have breakfast first, I just did not have the patience. Now that all of it went wrong I can have coffee in peace.

PS. Tried nail polish remover. No effect either.

Root printing and a new project. And: Stealing back "forbidden" signs

This is a rutabaga. I cut it into pieces with smooth edges. These letters are runes.









Why this? Right wing ambitions? Oh, no. I just feel that these traditional letters must be taken back into culture. The only way to free them from evil traditions is to start new ones, hopefully for the better.

I start printing an Estonian magic spell. This one was written down by the ethnologist Fr. Kreutzwald and published 1854. It is about subdueing anger and envy from others. Some of these spells were to make the dough rise well and help making butter; others were to protect the rural serfs from being beaten by their owner. -- These magic spells were not written in runes. They weren't written at all, because Estonians traded them by oral transmission. To use these letters is my own idea.

This is part of a new project. I used black thick textile paint which can be fixed by ironing, and plan to cut it in stripes and sew it onto the "Witches Gown". This is the name of my new project. As a base I want to use a piece of black cotton with kawry shells and a little embroidery which I made for myself as a thing to wear; then I did not really. This piece had other plans with me.

An unbelievably rich source on traditions is this Estonian online journal.