2 of 6 in progress #4

I love how this area come out. Very simple, strong and solid. All rights reserved Karin Birch 2012

2 of 6 in progress # 3

Working the edge. Just had a rare relaxing and productive weekend and I am loving all the craziness going on in the garden with this supper early warm spring weather. This piece is going to be billowy, wrinkly and puckery in areas and though that was not intentional, I am really looking forward to working with that aspect of it. All rights reserved Karin Birch 2012.

2 of 6 in progress #2

The stitching started with these pale blue line, which was the immediate intuitive impulse to start with and it was a full day later before I recognized the lines as trees, which is fitting as I am intending to emphasize the cathedral like quality of the right panel. Many years ago hiking up a mountain stream in Dolly Sods Wilderness I experienced and recognized the tree canopy flanking the stream, soaring up and filtering the light as the inspiration for imagining and building cathedrals. Lately it seams I have traded in exploring the wilderness for exploring the garden, I feel incredibly fortunate for both experiences. All rights reserved, Karin Birch 2012.

2 of 6 in progress # 1

Started working on this piece, 2 of 6, last night. Looking at the photo this morning, I’d like to reshoot, but it no longer exists as I jumped right in and got quiet a bit of direction defining stitching done last night. I had had a few ideas in my head about the direction of where this might go and how it might relate to 1 of 6 in the progression of the series, but as soon as I got it stretched and mounted I saw something very different with a very strong sense of mood (cloaked in subtly) and where the action/ subject was and spent zero time second quessing. Action stitching. Haha. I love fearlessly hurling into the unknown on canvas it makes me so happy.

"Home for the Holidays"

Starting a series of 6 pieces each beginning with a silk screened image on white linen as background. This is a huge shift in color sensibility as I've been working on natural linen for years, which has an absorbing toning down effect on color and adds a rich stabilizing contrast to brilliant sparkling beads. There will be some technical adjustments to working out the details of using a thinner linen, hopefully with some interesting surface results. Each of the six prints are different yet similar, leaving plenty of options for embroidery exploration.

Here I am peeping around a garden with my new to me red camera.



Pie on the fly, picked, baked and on the way to a party, rhubarb pie.

Some recent improvements

Ta da, the rock wall is finished. Jerry completed this side wall in about a week. All dry laid and beautifully puzzled together.


This was taken before I forgot to water on multiple hot days.


All the grass is gone from the front yard and a lot of food is growing amongst the shrubs and perennials.


The wine grapes are up on wires now and they even have their own yard art. Jerry made 6 bottles of wine from last years harvest, which didn't have such handsome surroundings.


The guest room/office has officially moved out of the living room, into it's own space.

Bicycle Rack Installation

Getting ready for the cement pour.




This is the first phase of Jerry's installation of these cool new bicycle racks near Beans in the Belfry in Brunswick MD. He had the railing made locally, made the retaining wall and set the racks. Next step is installing the gravel and slab.

March opening

Gardening has been taking all my time of late, which is good, so I am a little behind on this one. This is Jerry and I at the opening of my solo show last March. It was a phenomenal turn out for the opening and people were really buzzed about the work. Alas, no sales which is a first in 18 years of doing solo shows, hence all the gardening work.

Installation of oval mirror scavenged on bulk trash night.

Also found a working outdoor umbrella, which was very needed, a wool oriental rug amazingly as big as my dinning room and a great metal chair for my studio garden.

Many thanks to our wonderful friend Billy, who is letting us use space in her garden. This is more space than I’ve ever gotten to plant food in having always had tiny postage stamp lots crammed with French intensive raised beds. So far we’ve double dug two of the beds and tilled one, planting 2 kinds of potatoes, lots of garlic, corn, green beans, beets, carrots, winter squash and melons. At Jerry’s house we have wine grapes, strawberries, blueberries, rhubarb, shallots, lettuce, radish, peas, basil, peppers, beets, kale and tomatoes and at my studio are the raspberries, blackberries, asparagus and table grapes and lots of herbs at both places.

Yesterday we scooped out lots of wine berry on one of our most favorite walks that we’ll be back to pick when there ready. I am so excited to be growing so much food.

Untitled Night

This 8"x 14" embroidery is heading to Minneapolis for the SDA Conference silent auction fundraiser in June. Bidding starts at $700.

new start

Worked in two gardens this morning and did a walk around in a potential new garden. This afternoon started two new pieces, one destined for the SDA auction and one for the affordable market that I am inventing.

Clean Studio Day

How long?

People always want to know how long it takes me to make a piece. This little secton of beadwork is about an 8 hr day. I had a short lunch, no phone calls, though I did take a break to read the wonderful article about Sandra Brownlee in the current Surface Design. Other than that I was stitching. I am not really sure how I like it yet; I’ll tear it out if I have too , however I'd think it over carefully first.

Work In Progress

signs of improvement

The first two weeks of 2011 I have sold more art than in all of the last year and a half. Phew, maybe things are looking up.

Thanksgiving

The week after Thanksgiving, which I spent most of Thanksgiving week on the couch recovering from a bad hip injury, I had the wonderful experience of my daughter and parents coming to work with me. Being one who loves solitude and works very well alone it was a lovely surprise having my family being all industrious around me. My dad took over the pot holders cutting table while I worked on the sewing machine and my mom and Chloe worked together reupholstering Chloe’s dinning room set.

Christmas Day 2010

The morning started very late with freshly baked Anadama apple coffee cake, eggs scrambled with caramelized onions and bits of sausage, coffee and clementines. After a long walk around town we made mushroom croustades to have with wine. Mushrooms croustades is how, after all, I bribed Chloe to come for Christmas dinner in the first place. Then for dinner we made pot-roasted poussins agro dolce with mashed potatoes, and steamed kale and finished with pear clafouti (custard tart).

new padded pouches

UICA Interview: Beili Liu

Frayed Pouch

A padded pouch experiment that probably will not go into production.

Prototype

Working out the kinks of a new bag design. I love this color combination. The flap is a great vintage curtain fabric.

Making Invites for my Open Studio

I bailed on a gardening job this am and made invites for my upcoming Open Studio instead. Not a fiscally wise move but I really really needed a change up in the schedule.
I, myself, have found a grammar accident already, so I am sure my dear editor Jerry will have regrets that I forged on ahead. Sometimes I just forget that these things are so important to some people. Well maybe most people. I think they turned out beautifully all the same and the sewing was a last minute coup.

new office curtains

! love these "new' vintage curtains for my office which gets lots of hot southwestern sun.

Pot Holder production

This stack is about half the potholder I made this week to get a jump on the Christmas season. That out of the way, next week I start a new embroidery piece.

What's happening to the city trees?

At N. Delaware and Brunswick street in the Old Lutheran Cemetery we have a beautifully spectacular, old Sycamore tree, perhaps two hundred years old, that has been gloriously disregarding the neglect that has allowed it to fill with English Ivy, that leaves its dead branches for storms to prune, and its calls for help, by sending out suckers, ignored. This should be an honored and protected tree in our community.

Instead, sometime in the last week, this Sycamore sustained something far worse than neglect: it was actually butchered and maimed by our Public Works. It’s hard to say what prompted this; there was one dead branch removed and many healthy ones. The work showed absolutely no knowledge of proper tree pruning techniques, no aesthetic judgment and little understanding of proper maintance for public safety. Every single branch was cut in a way that cannot heal, leaving many open wounds susceptible to disease and decay which weakens existing branches, creates weak structure for new growth and can eventually kill the tree. Healthy branches were removed some 30 feet up, far above the height of safe passage for vehicles. The shape of the tree, viewed from B Street and N. Delaware has been badly damaged. Tree pruning is as much an Art as it is a Science. The ability to turn on a chainsaw does not an arborist make. This is a valuable and irreplaceable treasure and this level of workmanship had no business going near it. This is unacceptable.

Click image to enlarge.

As we spend valuable time and money, whether it comes from grants or not, planting hundreds of new trees, we also need to plan for how to responsibly and skillfully take care of them because it does matter to their heath, safety and beauty. If we cannot take care of what we already have and continue to destroy valuable existing trees and cultivars on purpose (think B Street Cemetery) or by neglect (think inkberry hollies in Rail Road Square) without understanding their value – in dollar terms, in quality of life terms, in environmental terms – one has to question why are we even bothering to plant at all?

I cannot help but think, how on earth can a town that is so willing to display its ignorance, its poverty of judgment and its short-sightedness, have any hope of attracting employers or investors? How a community looks is an expression of who lives here; and if we are willing to live with this level of skill, what does that say about us?

Also, this last week, all the small trees on the steep embankment along 2nd Ave. at D Street were cut down to the ground. What do you think is holding up the embankment? For free! The tree roots are. A little farther down the road you can see where this is going: it took a lot of $$$ to build the concrete retaining wall to hold up a similarly steep slope. Why was this done? Wasting time and energy on projects that will end up causing huge corrective expense down the line is not cost effective. Understanding erosion control is necessary in this town, not optional, and I don’t think the grant money was designed to plant trees so we could take them down elsewhere.

All the trees along the corner of 5th and H Street have also been brutally and irresponsibly hacked, for what purpose? They will not look better or be safer after this. Is this some kind of anger management therapy?


On the plus side, recently, a volunteer pruned the Cherry trees in Square Corner Park. The winter storm damage was pruned and the branches were limbed up so they could be walked and mowed under. The volunteer did a beautiful and skilled job of pruning and shaping these trees, all the cuts will heal over, adding to their health and adding beauty and value to the park. Please, go take a look at these trees and compare the results of work done at 5th and H and on the Sycamore at N. Delaware and Brunswick Street. I am not suggesting skilled work should be voluntary, although that is much preferable to what is currently happening. The City needs a process by which horticultural issues are assessed and identified on city property, determining which need skilled care; it’s too late after it’s been chainsawed. The City grass-mowing is farmed out; why not critical horticultural work being farmed out to skilled people? Or, a citizen’s advisory board, utilizing skilled individuals, some of whom already voluntarily take care of city property, becoming more formalized. We cannot afford to continue neglecting and abusing our community landscape in the name of saving money, because it’s not.