It's all connected

My husband will sometimes  ask me if it makes sense that the focus of my blog is so unfocused. Shouldn't I write exclusively about my work rather than all of those detours about cooking or walking down Broadway or living with my family?

I realize though that all of the elements of my life sort of bleed into one another and all of that stew of my life goes into my work.

My youngest has been home for winter break and returns to college tomorrow. While he has been home I have mended several pairs of his pants. While mending I have been thinking a whole lot about how mending fuses layers of fabric and thread and restores broken fabric. It's a task that is related to weaving and to felting. Usually it is a task that is completely utilitarian. It is possible though to use the same techniques in a decorative way.

I had pieced this for the atara/neckband of Charlie's tallit.

This was attractive but I had some worries about the ability of the silk to take the wear of being an atara. it was backed in cotton but silk can break with too much abrasion.

I decided to try again. I fused strips of silk to fuse-able interfacing. Then I had the issue of what to do with all of the raw edges. Because this colored strip of fabric will have a layer of lettering I wanted a flat surface.

All of the mending I have been doing over the last several weeks came back to me.

Charlie loves color so i think he will like the multicolored thread I used to do the stitching. the silk is secure and the fusing will help it last longer.

I calligraphed the text for the atara onto broadcloth using watered down acrylic paint and then outlined the letters with a sharpie. I flipped the broadcloth over , retraced the letters on the reverse and basted them to the back to the colored silk.

Now I can embroider the letters.