Raven and Sparrow

Running after runners

Now that I've got the viney checker square cloth dyed and under embroidery, I'm returning to the runners I started at the same time. Both of them turned out too light, so I am considering what to do. At the moment I think I'll just go over the top of the green one with the same colors....just do it again. The yellow one is harder. I don't know what I'll do. Right now they are back in mordant, getting ready for whatever happens.

Meanwhile, I've been struck with the impulse to make a Halloween runner. It needs to be done quickly if I plan to use it this year. You can see how long the spring pieces are taking. Its almost like I'm taking direction, doing what can be done right away. The spider webs I cut out of freezer paper and ironed on to a blank. Then I screened some loose shapes using little Gocco silk screens I made years ago. This will be it for them, they are falling apart now. I've been using four dyes with a lot of tannin: oak galls, myrobalan, pomegranate and chestnut. I plan to brush iron over the top, which will turn the tannins dark. Hopefully they will be different shades of dark. If that doesn't work, I'll have to think of something else. I'll let you know.

Past time tablesetting

Recently my mom came by this old cookbook from the Royal Baking Powder Company, published in 1927, and passed it on to me. It has a couple sections on tablesetting, showing correct tables for informal breakfasts, formal luncheons, informal suppers, etc.etc.etc....These old "how to" directories quaintly remind me of a time when I was looking for the kind of guidance they offer. Dinner was always an important event at our house when I was growing up, but entertaining was rare, other than making room around the table for whatever kid friends were lingering when the food was served. We set the table with our nicest dishes for holidays, but our daily tables were utilitarian at best. Setting a "correct" table belonged to some higher sphere of existence, where people knew and lived by rules of behavior that I didn't know. To me, being ignorant seemed not just potentially embarrassing but downright dangerous, so I read everything I could get my hands on, including rules for setting the table. What surprises me slightly as I look at this old book with its generalized and outmoded (mostly) rules is that I knew even then that they were empty. I wanted to to be told what was right, but in being told found that "right" was unsatisfying. I couldn't have articulated this at the time, but the guides for correctness didn't reassure me and they didn't touch what I really wanted, which was a sense of beauty. 

Spur of the moment. Again.

Another quick table one day last week....I found out about it after it was too dark to go outside for a bouquet, so I started by choosing a tablecloth. This one I made many years ago, waxing out the pattern and then dyeing with fiber reactive dye. After the wax was removed I painted in the resultant white shapes with fabric paints. I've never been really proud of the painting job I did, but the cloth still looks okay. I found a whitish pottery vase and stuck ivy in it (ivy is an excellent fall back material) and then added rusty votive candles, green plates and white napkins with those peachy ribbons around them. At the last minute I added a little spangle of orange beads across the top of the ivy. I kept taking them off and putting them back on, trying to decide if they added anything or not. In the end I decided they did.

   

How fancy?

In my heart, I think a table should be.....easy. It should feel unforced and unfussy, welcoming guests with beauty, care and appropriate context, but not intimidating them with over-elaboration or self-conscious display. Of course, every table and occasion makes its own demands and the difference between say...a wedding reception and friends dropping by is huge. Still, in most circumstances easy is what I'm hoping for.

When our boys were little and our friends also had young children, gathering at someone's home for dinner was how we saw each other. We'd feed the kids something simple and settle them with games or a movie while the adults adjourned to the dining room for their meal. Everyone would re-group for dessert (and sometimes highly rambunctious games of hide and seek), coffee and good nights. It was fun, and frequent enough that I began to want to distinguish each gathering and table in some way, without making a big deal about it. I thought if I could make or collect a wardrobe of simple tablecloths that looked good with a few variations in dishes I could provide each occasion with an appropriate setting that didn't break the bank or drive me crazy. It turned out to be a cliff over which I am still falling. I've never succeeded in designing or gathering the exactly right components that make setting any table the snap I originally envisioned, but I still cling to the ideals of simple, appropriate and welcoming tables as my goal.

Embroidery Experimentation

This week I have been trying out different stitches and placements for the embroidery on my cloth. I always think I know what I want to do, but I'm continually surprised by the process. Often my plans don't work at all, or are too much or too little. The cloths take over and dictate what they need. On this one I started with the stems. In the store I chose perl cotton because I liked its crispness and the color was just right. When I put it on, it was quite heavy. Too heavy maybe, but when I tried other options they looked muddy and dull. I thought the leaves would be more interesting with some ribs, but as soon as I put them in I knew they were wrong. I chose a long time ago to keep the design clear, using plain simple shapes, Embroidering within the leaves subverts that. The blue thread practically leaped off the rack into my hand, but I'm still not sure how to incorporate it. I do know that blue will be confined to the green backgrounds and the leaves on white will be plainly outlined and that's it. Should the blue go around the green squares? (Gulp...that's a lot of thread.) Should I make a "shadow" under the leaves with blanket stitch? I thought not when I did it, but I would like to get away from just outlining shapes with stem stitch, so maybe.....The trials continue.

In making these judgments I am aware that the tablecloths are seen from two perspectives; they must work graphically with the table as a whole, and must be detailed enough to be interesting from up close. They have their own integrity as objects in and of themselves, but in the end they are part of a bigger picture. I admit that the tablesetting as a whole is the prime motivator for me. It is what boots me into action. Sometimes as I am obsessing about tiny stitches that will disappear at three paces I wonder why on earth I care. All the time and effort designing, dyeing, washing and embroidering isn't for the activities themselves, or for the cloth. It is in service to the table and the levels of meaning it represents in our lives.

Embroidering the next step

The viney checkers tablecloth has been repainted, steamed and washed with greens intact, so its on to the next step....embroidery. Today I spent my lunch hour at the fabric store choosing thread colors, which I thoroughly enjoyed. The beginning of an embroidery project is always experimental, so I just got a little floss with which to try some possibilities. I did choose off-white perl cotton (#5) for the vine stems because I liked the texture, but right now I'm envisioning a very light touch on the leaves, probably single strand. I don't know where I'll use the blue but it wanted to be there, so we'll see.

My mother taught me to embroider a long time ago. I find the repetition very soothing, although the tablecloths are large so I am always glad to see the end. I use embroidery less for itself than to define the patterns and colors of my cloths. It adds dimension in more ways than one, but I don't want it to take over the dyed design. It's a rare cloth that isn't sharpened and improved with embroidery. I probably won't show this one again until it is done.