Flapper Silk

I had a fabulous gig on Saturday night. The Go-Go dance group the 2-3s asked me to come dance with them for the Moonlight and Magnolia's benefit for the American Cancer Society at Zen in downtown Greenville.

flapper resist lines

Of course,  I was thrilled to get to dance with these women for a variety of reasons. The first being that they are all beautiful, super cool girls who I'm lucky to count as some of my first friends in a new city...the second being that my mother is a breast cancer survivor and since I am not yet monetarily capable of supporting charities that I believe in, I am always thrilled to find other ways to donate my time and talents for a good cause...and the third being the fact that I got to go dancing, and I've never found a dance floor that I didn't like!

The event was a wonderful time, and I hope that it marked the first of many events that I get to participate in with the 2-3s. Also, I became inspired by the women I was with and my love of dance to begin work on a new series of silk paintings.

I'm a silk painting fool

Though I have played with dance and the female form in quite a few of my silk paintings, I have kept the figures mostly unadorned and very general. This series is going to celebrate dance by representing specific dance styles through costuming.

The first piece I decided to work on is a direct result of Saturday night. One of the girls wore a beautiful white fringe flapper style dress. The movement of the fringe while she danced was absolutely mesmerizing, so I decided to begin this series with "The Flapper"

I did a preliminary sketch for this one - from memory and my imagination. I decided to keep the face and body general but to really increase the detail on the ornamentation: her dress and hair piece.

Flapper with background started

I chose washes of black and water for the dress and feathers to give the impression of movement, and I went pink and purple on her body with pink, purple, gray, and blue bubbles behind her.

I used a variety of green, blue-green, and yellow washes and mixed them liberally with water both on and off of the silk in order to achieve a patchy sort of grass looking base. I mixed cyan, dark blue, and black to achieve a bold background for the sky, and I faded that into a gray-blue top section.

I'm thrilled with this piece. I also finished a set of modified shibori style scarves today, and I'm impatiently waiting for them all to dry so that I can take the finished flapper off of the stretcher and start on my next dancer. More soon!

fin

I Was Featured

In this lovely blue and green treasury on etsy

I get all a-twitter when my pieces are chosen for etsy treasuries, as I have a soft spot for the treasury in the first place (beautiful hand made things all in one place - who wouldn't love to look at that!)

The seller who made this treasury is a rather awesome crochet and knitter (no, I don't know her personally, but check out her shop. I was especially excited about the snake puppet scarf, because how cool is this?

It's a scarf that's a snake...and a puppet! Literally, it's a conversation piece! Teehee - I punned.

I was also featured in a treasury of "Hidden Treasures"

By this seller who creates cards and the coolest finger puppets - I guess I'm having a puppet kind of day. My favorite was this set...

Because, who doesn't love pirates. Arrrgh!

Recently Sold Items

Dragonfly Hand Painted Silk Pillow

I hate taking pictures of the items I make. I love having the pictures once they are done, but I'm not a very good photographer and the act itself of trying to get decent photos is frustrating to me. That being said, I've sold quite a few items that I never photographed, and I really wish I had pictures of them. So, I am going to try very hard to get photos of everything that I make. The following pictures are all pieces that I've sold that I did get photos of. Though no two pieces that I make are ever exactly the same, I am glad to be able to post examples of what I make.

Hand Painted Butterfly Silk Pillow

Hematite, Mookatite, Turquoise and Copper Pendant

Amethyst, Picture Jasper, and Copper Pendant

Hand Painted Hickory Medalion Pendant - Tree

Hand Painted Hickory Medalion Pendant -Lotus

Hand Painted Hickory Medalion Pendant -Om

Carnelian and Moss Agate Tear Drop Pendant

Hand Painted Hickory Medalion Pendant -Branch

Hand Painted Hickory Medalion Pendant - Tree

Summer's Wish Hand Painted Silk Scarf

Autumn Leaves Hand Painted Silk Scarf

Yellow Roses Hand Painted Silk Scarf

Wherein I Make Use of Little Space and Create Happy Accidents

Silk Pillow Drying on a Kitty Litter Platform

 As a working artist living in an apartment the size of my childhood bedroom with another person, I have rediscovered that age old adage "make use of that which is available." The hardest thing to come across here is space...and in silk painting, you need a lot of space. Space to store dyes, space to paint, space for items to dry, space to spread out newsprint in order to steam your silks, space for steaming, for washing, for ironing....my point should be quite obvious.

Usually, I paint silks on my coffee table. It is large enough for me to work on all but the largest pieces that I paint (one of the main reasons I haven't been making very many veils or large wall hangings in the past few years.)

Silk Pillow Drying On My Wine Rack

But, once again, life lessons imparted to me at a young age by my father come to play a part in my professional development. My father has a place for everything, even a special nail in his shop on which he places used twist ties and one next to it on which he places rubber bands. If you were to walk into my father's shop and tell him that you had a broken whossawhatsit and that you needed a small piece of plastic pipe, he would take you to the plastic pipe department and find the perfect piece. If he couldn't find the perfect piece, he'd cut you one or in dire circumstances, somehow create the perfect piece of pipe using glue, a dowel rod, and some plastic that he had lying around.

Extra Limbs Made Her Far More Normal

I'm not as good as my father about knowing where everything is, but I have a "cloth department" and an "adhesives" area where you can find multiple types of glue, tape, and even my stapler. The talent that I have inherited and developed is the ability to make use of whatever I have available whenever I need something that I do not have....in this instance, since lack of space is one of my biggest problems, I have found a variety of ways to create the space I need.

When I paint, in order to let one piece dry and work on the next, I create drying racks with old kitty litter containers. Once pieces are dry enough to remove from the rack but not completely dry, they are then placed "somewhere" to dry - in this instance, draped across my wine rack.

Finished

I use this inherited talent in other ways...happy accidents. Sometimes I don't sketch a piece out before I put the resist lines on the fabric and I just free hand it. In this case, I began with her head, the far left arm, and her hair, I then filled in the body and added an arm. She looked strange, out of proportion, and I decided that what she really needed was an extra set of arms and legs.
Because that's how you fix someone who is disproportionate - you add extra limbs...why not?

Ok, so I admit that it was a strange solution and the final piece did turn out slightly odd, but I love it. Maybe she's a goddess, or maybe she's moving...as in the best art, the viewer gets to decide exactly what/why is happening in this piece. I'm just happy that it happened.

Bellydancers in Greenville, SC and Henna for Friday

In preparation for Friday's show at Karma in Greenville, SC, members of Discordia Arts, Brandy and Emily and I all decided to get henna done. I chose to do the henna 4 days prior to the show since henna gets darker during the 48 hours after application and usually doesn't begin to fade until 7 to 10 days. This way, I can ensure that the designs will be at their darkest for our performance on Friday.

I worked on Emily's piece first, drawing inspiration from her earrings to create a free hand symmetrical back piece for her.

The piece on Emily's back reminded me of a peacock's tail feathers and Brandy loves peacocks, so those two factors lead to the peacock back piece that I did for Brandy. She played the harmonium throughout the entire application but managed to stay still, and the piece turned out beautiful.


My piece took a slightly different slant. Since I can not do henna on my own back, I chose to do a floral design on my left hand and up my left arm almost to the elbow. As aftercare, we left the henna paste on as long as possible and then scraped the paste off. I even slept in mine, with a sock over my hand, and I'm looking forward to watching it darken over the next few days.

To see the final product, come check us out on Friday. Doors open at 8: music and dancing begins at 10pm.

Plans for Friday, April 15

I have been battling the allergy demons for the past few weeks. My weapons of chamomile tea, honey, orange juice, garlic, and vapor rub weren't enough, so I added dayquil and zyrtec to the arsenal and am now emerging victorious...just in time for final rehearsals for Friday's show at Karma in Greenville.

The lovely and talented Brandy White of Bellymuse has asked me to dance with Discordia while she plays harmonium. Their music is hauntingly beautiful. Dark and emotionally charged lyrics merge with fantastic guitar work to create an absolutely one of a kind sound. I have had a wonderful time practicing with Discordia and am excited to debut four dances this weekend.

I'm planning a prop filled set with a sword dance, veil dance, and fire palm piece, and one solo prop free dance. Also, Brandy and I along with the talented Emily will be debuting ATS to a live piece by Valentine Wolfe. Big skirts and improvisational troupe style dancing. It's going to be a wonderful show!

Karma is located at 520 Rutherford Rd, Greenville, SC. Doors open at 8pm. 10$ cover.

My First Art Show

Materials for making fixtures

One thing that artists and everyone else all can agree on....framing is freaking expensive. I understand why it's expensive. There are a lot of materials involved, and mounting matting and framing artwork is not particularly easy so like anything that involves a special skill, the price goes up.

Close up of fixture edge

Like many artists, I don't have a large amount of excess capital lying around for framing. So, I decided to make my own fixtures for my silk hangings.

I purchased pine molding and cut it to size. Then I cut strips of black felt cloth and used craft glue to fix the felt to the inside of one side of the pine molding. I then sandwiched two pieces of pine molding together and clamped them.

I discover the joys of repeated step ladder trips

 Luckily, my father is the sort of person who likes to purchase practical gifts in bulk and then stick them in everyone's stockings at Christmas. Two years back I got a whole bunch of small clamps. I had no clue what I would do with them, but I put them in a coffee cup on my craft table where they sat unused until now.

Chris and Me

After clamping the two pieces together, I drilled holes in the ends of each piece and placed the silk paintings on the felted side of the fixtures. I used small pieces of acid free artists tape to keep the silks in place and pressed the unfelted piece down over the top of the silk.  I then clamped the edges together and used mono-filament fishing line to tie the fixtures.

The finished fixtures are perfect. To hang the pieces in the gallery, I used clear thumbtacks and more fishing line. The silks appear to be floating on the wall, and they look beautiful! 

I had a wonderful day yesterday hanging my very first art show. It means the world to me that Christy Fricks, the owner of Floorspace, and my good friend,  believes in me enough to ask me to be the first artist to exhibit work in her space.

Silk paintings at Floorspace

Hanging silk

How on earth do you hang a silk painting without damaging the silk? Up until NOW, I have painted silk and sold silk, and left it up to the buyer as to how they would like to display the silk.

Some of my paintings have been mounted on acid free backing, matted, and framed. Other pieces have been wrapped around dowels and hung free on the wall, still others are worn as is or pressed between pieces of glass on tables. Now, though, my very first solo art show is approaching, and I have no clue how I'm going to hang 16 silk paintings!

I am super excited though!

Here's what I think is going to happen. I think that I'm going to buy a massive amount of pine molding from the hardware store, glue felt to the back side of each piece, sandwich the tops of the silks between two pieces, tie the ends together, and hope. The difficulty is that I want the silks to be free hanging and I don't want to damage the silks by glueing, taping, sewing, or otherwise permanently altering them in any way. I also want to be able to remove the silks from the fixtures.

The show starts Tuesday. Any suggestions are welcome, and I'll let you know how it turns out!

Hurt so good

I think I've mentioned my lazy winter. I don't know why I slowed down Soooo much this winter, but I did. No classes to teach, very limited funds to take workshops and attend conventions, and only a few performances lined up made for a slow dance season. Also, I'm living in a teensy carpeted apartment. I can practice my isolations while I chop onions and brush my teeth, but there's limited space to actually dance.



Combine all of this with the fact that I am already a seasonal gal (ie, I wake up with the sun and my body goes into hibernation mode when the average temperature drops below 60 degrees F), and this past winter was a slow time for me.

Well, March hit...and it came in like a lion for me. I went from next to nothing to two dance classes and one workout class to teach, plan for, choreograph for, and practice for each week. Then there's rehearsal with my new performance group, a weekly private lesson, and at least 3 hours of work with another dancer each week -plus performances to practice and plan for and buskin. I feel so alive and I'm loving it.


Here's what I've discovered about myself. I'm happier, healthier, and hungrier when I am dancing daily. Yet, when I eat I don't crave pasta and bread, I crave spinach and black bean salads and fresh avocados, nuts and bananas. When I want to drink something, I crave water...and amazingly enough, cranberry juice. For years I have hated cranberry juice. I tried it again last month and LOVE it - it has now become a mission each time I go to the store to find cranberry juice that is actually cranberry juice and not apple juice, corn syrup, and cranberry flavors.

My favorite part of this new regime is not the reappearance of my oblique muscles (though I am extremely happy about that), but actually the slight muscle ache that I feel when I sit still - as I am doing right now. Plenty of exercise and great stretch sessions mean that very rarely am I in serious pain, but I do feel a constant ache. Today it's glutes and core, which makes sense because I did a good bit of sword work on Monday and a floorwork demonstration in the advanced class last night.

Love the burn....and if you'd like to join me, here's a great little workout that I add into my routine:

1) Start off with a nice high step walk with arm circles (arms straight out to the sides, circle while you step and reverse the circles) to get warmed up
2) Suhaila squats - legs apart, knees soft and angled towards second toe, bend at the waist with a flat back and pulse up and down. Perform 12 to 16 squats with the arms out to the side, then the arms to the front, then the arms to the back. Make sure that you are keeping your back flat while you do this. Repeat the sequence at least 3 times.
3) Hang and let the legs stretch out
4) Crunches - at least 3 sets of 18 crunches with at least a thirty second break between sets
5) Lean backs - (knee pads or a folded yoga mat under knees for safety) Knees more than hip width apart and a lifted chest, engage the abdominal muscles and lean back, keeping your back straight. Do as many of these as you are comfortable with, rest, and do some more. I try to add a few each week. Don't worry about how far back you can go, focus instead on engaging the core muscles and making the motion smooth while keeping a straight posture.
6) Reverse crunches - lay flat on the back, lift the legs up, and slowly lower them to the floor. Don't allow the feet to actually touch the floor before you bring the legs back up. Keep this motion smooth and slow. I like to do three sets of 20 with a 30 second break between.
7) Stretch


This should be an easy 20 to 30 minute leg and core routine that you can add to your workout three times a week for an extra muscle boost. I vary this by mixing in other exercises as well as a variety of cardio workouts, yoga, or pilates.

Now I need to go workout. :)

More cowbell please

Or truth be told, less cowbell, more dance.

I have danced every day for the past two weeks (except last Saturday where instead I did a six mile hike in the mountains with friends), and I've never felt better in my life. My obliques are coming out of hibernation, and I'm beginning to feel back in the groove after a difficult year last year and a very slow winter.

Plans for belly dance classes in the upstate are afoot, and work on my performance ideas, including a live music and dance group, is progressing nicely.

Which brings me to - NEED Musician!

Currently we are one turkish fusion belly dance and fire dancer and one drummer focusing on live drum and dance improvisation with an emphasis on middle eastern rhythms. We plan to branch out eventually, but that is some time in the future. We need a Greenville, SC local musician interested in playing improvisational live music for busking and performance who can commit to at least 1 2hour practice session and 1 2hour outside performance a week. Experience with middle eastern rhythms is a plus, but not necessary - any portable acoustic instrument or rhythm instrument will be considered.

Contact jaidra_art@yahoo.com if interested.