No, this is not me getting a bit kinky, it means more that I am discovering ways to incorporate leather into my textile creations, and thinking about its potential.

Forced to make some kind of statement to accompany my quilt “Ora Banda” into the Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum collection, I alluded to the great underlying building block of traditional american patchwork, the repeated block or unit. Although I made very few traditional quilts before experimenting in the non-traditional field, something continues to draw me to repetition and block formation. My earliest quilts were the “Ancient Expressions”, I-XIV, which included a lot of repeat patterning drawn from ancient and tribal carvings in and on various materials, rocks and cave walls, and some of the petroglyhic and petrographic renditions of figures of man, animals and essential basic symbols which occur in civilisations world-wide. And of course there are some here, in Uruguay. One of the great artists of this country, Jose Gurvich, sprinkles them with others from his own personal lexicon, throughout his drawings, ceramics and murals. I just love finding something that he has used that is similar to a mark made by a cave dweller in europe, or to one that I know has been marked on a wall in an Outback Australian ravine.

Last week we went down to the sunday markets, and I found some lovely pieces of leather on the leather man’s stall. Although he didn’t have any of the divine gunmetal metallic I have used in the previous work, I will get some more in time, I am sure. What was good value this time was a piece of beautiful fine black suede, and a large piece of good even quality black leather, about half a bull I’d say, for about equivalent of $2o-00. I bought it; he probably thinks at last I am going to stop fooling around with little bits and make myself a jacket or vest or something. There were various dyed hides, too, but none of the pretty dyed lapin that is a la mode just now. eg. DH took a lapin/rabbit handbag, dyed pink, to DD a couple of weeks ago, pink being her signature colour and all, it will go well with the black and cream she wears a lot. People have been wearing a lot of fur scarf/boa things this year, and I have even seeen serious new fox shoulder pieces. Some of these things, rabbit for examble, are farmed, and others are declared vermin and can be taken. Unfortunately despite animal protection laws here, there are lots of instances where these laws are flouted. No honest business would sell black market skins and items made from protected species, but it is amazing what you find and see at times out on the market stalls. As with contraband cds, it is fascinting how quickly and neatly such a stall can be converted into one that sells something entirely different, and innocent, like household pots or alarm clocks….

….tomorrow is sunday, and the large markets downtown will be operating. I have a bit of a ‘shopping/browsing’ list this time; flushed with success using leather bits in my latest piece (below), I can barely wait to get to the leather guy’s stall to get some goodies for the ideas swimming around in my head; DH agrees, lots of potential for something really different….

Today we were out and about, down in the tourist area, and although I had my camera, somehow I didn’t like to take a pic of some fabulous new floor rugs showing outside one of the shops there….they are just so new. They are made from horse hide, originally a bit dappled, but chemically treated so that some of the hair has come away leaving bald patches, the colours vary between natural horsey browns through to yellowy- and grey-greens or greeny-greys. The hide has been cut into approx 8″ squares and pieced, with a 2″ border around. The whole effect to me was quite beautiful, and not unlike a natural slate floor. One would look great in our entry area, but the sheepsy black brown and cream mariners compass design one ( as in April 28th post) we have there is only half worn ….. still, we have some Aus visitors coming in just over a month, so we will be down there again soon, and maybe by then I will feel able to take a pic. Maybe the leather man will have some snippets on his stall tomorrow……fingers X.

I recenly posted a UFO and then mentioned I had several ideas on how to tackle that theme again differently. Here’s one, combining the UFO’s design with other new work I have been doing recently. The piece I finished today , “Desert Tracks 3” is an entry to something I really want to get into, and the documents will be on their way in a few hours time. Of course, I have known of this deadline for many months, and have been ‘thinking’ about it, but only in the last week or so, at the last minute , once again I have sat up late at night, begun quilting early in the morning, hour after hour, and now need to send it by the most expensive method to meet the closing date for entries. Another artist friend and I were talking the other day about this and she maintains being hard up against a looming deadline brings out her most creative, inspired, work. I would like to think that, since I do this so often, I must be of the same type. So, Q: does the the quality of one’s work increase in indrect or direct proportion to the amount of time left to meet a deadline?

All very well in theory, this transparent piece , constructed in blocks, and bound with a beige silk organza binding, has never been shown. Why? Hanging difficulties – caused by my ignoring the advice I have given to heaps of other quilters that hanging arrangements must be considered in the initial planning. I ploughed ahead with what was satisfyingly challenging, and experimental, piecing and quilting, probably thinking a hanging solution would just bob up in time. It hasn’t.

It is so reversible that it is difficult to tell the front from the back, or irrelevant. An acrylic or glass rod through the top binding (and possibly the bottom) would overcome those aesthetic difficulties, but glass of course will break IDC , and acrylic sags with time, and even faster under lighting. To me, a brass rod with knobs sticking out each side doesn’t appeal.

I’m going to treat this subject again sometime soon, so any advice or comment you have would be welcome ……

postscript tuesday august 2nd
Several comments, by direct email and on this blog, are encouraging, so (1) next transparent piece I will design probably with an opaque border, which might look very interesting anyway, (2) maybe this piece is a useful sample, really, or a throwover for the al fresco luncheon table (3) next time I will consider the motifs from ‘Afterglow’, and finally, rethinking this all gave me (4) great stencilling idea….. (5 ) and a further idea, cut out the blocks, discard the sashing line things you can see, and ‘insert them’ into a new framework – I have some interesting gauze stuff, I just remembered, perfect for this… but that will have to wait, since just now I am using this same motif on a natural coloured fabric and have appliqued leather bits, with view to quilting using french knots, stemmed knots and large/long stitches. It’s large, and there’s a looming deadline, so I’m off now to do more on it, to the strains of the recorded book Blue Horizon by Wilbur Smith.