It is always a good day in the studio when I get to open the dyepot and pet some new fabrics. This week I was exploring some shibori techniques I learned over the summer and I spent part of the day perusing the results. Looking closely at the details. Planning the next process. Is the fabric ready for a discharge bath or another layer of dye? Or does it only need a bit of paint and quilting to finish? Is the piece destined to remain whole, or be cut into several smaller works? Which side of the fabric do I like best? Do I want to see what the same technique does for a different type of fabric? So many questions to ponder.
It was with a jolt then that I realized that there was an angel in this fabric I have been pondering now for days. She (do angels have a gender?) is small, about three inches tall. She is standing in front of a rainbow. I am not making this up. Under two white doves, no less. I tell you, it does not get more kitschy than this: the top three trite images you can think of, sitting there on my stitch dyed silk. And I certainly did not plan one treacly iota of it….
In the midst of rust-dyeing one day, my friend Peggie found Don Quixote and his sidekick looking strangely reminiscent of this famous sketch by Pablo Picasso. That is really cool. But Pablo wasn’t haunting my dyepot…. It was the Angel of Sweetness and Light. I don’t know whether to put her on my design wall as the patron saint of my studio, hand quilt her into oblivion and sell her for double the price of my other little gems, or banish her into a boiling discharge bath….what would you do?
Don’t you love it when that happens!
It appears to me that someone greater then me is letting you know via this angel that He is thanking you personally for all the kindness you have shown in the past for some of His elderly. Take this gifthumbley and hang it on your wall as a reminder of your compassion for the above.