I didn’t think of taking photos until I was halfway done, but here is a photo at the halfway point:

second leaf, halfway through

You’ll need to click in for the large version to see everything.

Step 1: Baste the layers of fabric together.  There are three layers: a brick-red silk organza over a deep orange peau de soie, with a  backing of bright orange dupioni organza.  The top two layers give the leaf wonderful depth of color, as the semi-transparent red organza shifts over the dark orange fabric underneath.  The dupioni organza, which has thicker threads running at sporadic intervals in both warp and weft, is there to stiffen the leaf and give it some extra crispness, without adding bulk.  It will also give an interesting visual contrast when the leaf is shaped into a slight curl.

I basted the layers together with matching rayon thread. (Traditionally it should be white silk, but orange rayon was what I had on hand).I basted it in a grid about 1″ square, three rows horizontally and three vertically.

Step 2: Transfer the design.  I used a stiletto tracing wheel and white dressmakers carbon paper to transfer the pattern.  The markings gradually come off as the piece is handled – if you look at the larger photo, you can see that the markings are quite faint even at this point – and most of them will be covered up with stitching in any case.

Step 3: Embroider the big veins.  I used stem stitch for this, hand stitching with two strands of rayon machine embroidery thread.  Using a doubled thread gives me a nice thick line with which to define the major veins.

Step 4: Embroider the smaller veins.  I used a single strand of rayon machine embroidery thread, doubling up the stitches near the major veins to add weight to the lines.  Towards the outsides and tips of the leaves I used only one strand, to give a sense that the lines were tapering to nothing.

I embroidered the veins first because doing so joins the three layers firmly together across most of the leaf, making the later hand-work easier.

Now we’re up to the point in the photo.

Step 5: Carefully cut out the leaf along the traced lines.  Do NOT mess with it, or it will unravel.

Step 6: Using the point of a pin, apply Fray Check in a very very thin application to the edge of all three layers.  Let dry.

Step 7: Hand overcast the edges of the leaf in a matching color rayon machine embroidery thread.

Whew!!  No wonder it took me two hours to do each leaf.

Here is a photo of the most recently completed leaf.  The photo totally doesn’t do it justice, though – it doesn’t capture the iridescence, depth of color, or the glow of the embroidery thread.

close-up of second leaf

And here is what it looks like in situ:

leaves on the coat!

You’ll note that the purple leaf now looks out of place, and the burgundy veins clash badly with the other two leaves.  That’s OK; I’m planning to redo that leaf, probably with deep orange or tan veins to match the other two leaves.

Fortunately there are only three leaves left to do, and I have four days left!  If I can get two done per day, I’ll finish the leaves on Thursday, leaving me Friday and all day Saturday to work on the lining hem and the sleeve lining/hem.  I think I might just get it done in time!

Regarding Proposition 8, the appeals court has constructed the ruling so narrowly that the Supreme Court is unlikely to make any broad, sweeping conclusions about gay marriage even if it takes the case.  California’s situation is unique to the state: in California, gay couples may enter into domestic partnerships which have exactly the same rights and responsibilities of marriage for heterosexual couples.  This doesn’t construct a right to gay marriage in itself – the appeals court explicitly did not rule on whether gay people have a right to marriage.  However, given that Prop 8 was put into place after gays and lesbians had a legal right to marry in California, and its stated goal (the voter pamphlet title was “Eliminates Rights of Same-Sex Couples to Marry”) was to prohibit gays and lesbians from marrying, it came under scrutiny under the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.  The court concluded that Prop 8 did nothing to change the legal landscape of marriage/domestic partnerships in California, and its sole purpose was to eliminate the title of “marriage” for same-sex couples.  It then concluded that the proposition served no purpose other than to “lessen the status and human dignity of gays and lesbians”, and struck it down.

The point here is that the ruling is very specific to California’s legal situation, and because of that, and the Supreme Court’s general preference for ruling as narrowly as possible, I think it’s quite likely that the Supreme Court will either decline to hear the case or else rule narrowly on the legal bits, not issue a broad sweeping decision about gay marriage in general.  So I am cautiously optimistic that the ruling will stand, and Californian same-sex couples, at least, will have the right to marry.

And I believe in dancing in the streets.  Celebrate everything!  Life is short, and if we wait to the very end to celebrate, we’ll live a grim life indeed.  So, even though we aren’t guaranteed victory in the end, I’m going to dance today.  :-)

Because I’m a much more accomplished weaver than garment designer, I’m pretty certain that I want to study fashion design next.  Sharon suggested taking a course in sketching fashion illustrations (so I can work out a design on paper before going to actual fabric), and I’m going to try to find a community college or online class to help me figure that out.  I already know something about flat pattern drafting, but per Sharon, a lot of things are best worked out, not in paper patterns, but by draping the garment, working out the problems directly in fabric.  I have no experience in draping, so that seems like the most likely next topic of study.  Sharon has offered to come down to my studio and teach me the basics of draping; after that, she says, the best thing to do is to “play around”.  The tentative plan is to do that once we’ve moved and settled into the new house, whenever that is – I’ll have more studio space then, and won’t be distracted by the pending move.

I have three other goals for the next few months.  The first is pretty obvious: buy a house and move into it!  I expect that to take up a 2-month chunk sometime between February and June.  The second is to get the first draft of the book done; I will work on that after Autumn Splendor is complete.  (I’ve decided not to enter the Handwoven Garment Contest this year; there’s simply too much other stuff going on.)  And the third is to finish weaving off the Infinite Warp.  I started with 37 yards of 60/2 silk warp; I think I’ve woven off at least 20 of those yards, but I still have at least ten or fifteen yards to go.  I think I will simply weave yardage, eight yard lengths, in a relatively simple pattern.  I’ll  figure out what to do with the yardage later; mostly, I want to free up the loom.  This warp has been on for over five months; it’s time to open up new possibilities!

Mike and I went to tour six houses yesterday, starting our first-time homebuyer tour.  And, surprisingly, we immediately found one we both like!  It’s about ten blocks from where we’re living now, so we already know the neighborhood, and while it needs a little fixing up, the price is so low that we can pony up repair money out of our down payment fund.  We’re going back to take a more serious look at it this afternoon, and if it passes muster, we’ll start drafting an offer immediately.

Amenities of this particular house include:

• converted 1-car garage, perfect for a weaving studio!
• large COVERED patio, great for dye work!
• big sunny backyard, great for gardening
• large storage shed (for the stuff we would otherwise store in the garage)

It’s about a thousand square feet, with three bedrooms.  A “starter house” according to the real estate folks, but we don’t think we’ll need anything bigger – I mean, space to eat, sleep, and weave/sew/dye – what else does anyone need in life?  And it’s priced VERY attractively.

It does have some downsides: the floor in the living room/dining room/kitchen needs to be redone, the electrical wiring needs additional circuits, the laundry hookups need to be restored (used to hook up an illegal bathroom), and a bunch of other, less critical stuff.  But nothing that can’t be fixed, and within our budget.

There is, of course, no guarantee that we’ll actually get the house (there may be multiple offers), but it’s exciting to have a prospect so quickly.

Meanwhile, on Autumn Splendor, I have thread-traced all six body panels (front, side panel, and back, left and right side) and am starting work on the facings.  These are a little trickier since they are underlined with organza – currently reading up on how to handle marking/cutting with a sew-in underlining.  After that I will assemble the body, and then match/mark/cut the sleeve pieces.  Once THAT is done, it will be time to assemble the body.

But I am so excited about the possible house deal that it’s hard to focus on anything else!

It’s impossible for me to summarize the talk (go watch it – it’s well worth nineteen minutes of your time), but it made me think about the Muse as I see her.

Let me start by saying that I was raised by a pair of atheistic research scientists.  I went to college at a pre-eminent, highly focused science and engineering school, and I studied mathematics because I considered it more rigorous than the other sciences.  Intellectualism and disbelief is in my blood.

And yet I have a strong personal relationship with the Muse, whom I believe is a representation of the Divine.  Or rather, She is a way of connecting to the Divine.  I don’t believe in theologies of the “do this, do  that” sort, for a variety of reasons.  (Not least of which is the sneaking suspicion that, really, God has better things to do.)  I don’t believe in a Divine that answers prayers or interferes with people living in the world.  I’ve not seen any convincing (to me) evidence for this, so I don’t believe in theologies.

What I do believe is that there is a Divine, something which we can’t touch directly but which we connect to intuitively and emotionally.  Love and beauty are facets of the Divine.  Asking whether it is self-aware, for me, elicits the Zen “mu” (roughly translated, “wrong question”, a question that contains flawed assumptions and cannot be answered as posed).  I don’t believe the Divine thinks the way that we think; if it is aware, it is an intuitive awareness, not a language-based, left-brain awareness.  More to the point, I don’t think the question is relevant: if you have ever longed for beauty, or loved something intensely, you have touched the Divine.  Theology is what we build around ourselves for human reasons, but the emotional, intuitive relationship is with the Divine.  I can’t prove it, but I instinctively know it to be true.

So who is this Muse of mine?  She is the divinity, the spirit that helps me connect with the Divine.  Maybe she is the connection to the Divine.  She might be a construct of my head, she might be a real spirit – the distinction has never seemed relevant to me.  It’s like trying to name and classify snowflakes – you can try, but why would you?  You can’t classify joy.

Anyway, she’s my Muse, and while she (like all people) can be trying at times, I wouldn’t want to live without her.  Sometimes she gets me up at 3am to draft patterns, because she thinks the middle of the night is a perfect time to be creating; other times, she takes four days off in the middle of a project, leaving me grinding mechanically away.  Most days, though, she shows up, and we sit down and work together.  We’ve been working together for most of my life, and we get along very well.  I wouldn’t say she’s the primary laborer in this partnership (in case you hadn’t noticed, I do all of the typing!), but I couldn’t work without her, either.

Here’s another snippet, on choosing projects:

It’s important to distinguish between performance projects and learning projects.  Performance projects focus on the end result: producing a perfect piece.  Learning projects focus on what you learned, not the final result.  In truth most projects fall somewhere in between, but it’s important to recognize the tradeoff: making a technically perfect piece usually requires working within your existing skills, which means you won’t learn as much as if you went off into the weeds exploring a learning project.

What projects I choose depends on three things: my skill level, what I want to explore, and what I want to produce.  Typically, most of my early projects are learning projects, selected for what will develop skills and knowledge fastest.  They come out of a book or a magazine, possibly as part of a beginners’ study course.  Later, as I master the basic skills, I’ll take elementary projects and change them radically, or else challenge myself technically, tackling projects incorporating advanced techniques.  I typically save performance projects for later, after I’ve honed my skills.

In other news, I’ve been working on paring down projects.  I had the following on my plate:

• Autumn Splendor, due Feb 15
• the book!
• buying our first house (starting with a meeting with the realtor on Jan 9)
• an online class on visual design, beginning Jan 6
• an online class on surface design, beginning Jan 20

Normally I have two or three projects going on at any one point, but five is ridiculous! especially since the first three are so intense, and my day job is in a state of crisis.  So – much as I hate to do it – I have dropped the surface design class.  I think the class on visual design will be much less time-intensive, so I’ve left it on the books, but may drop out of that one as well. That leaves three Major Projects, which is still too many, but I think I can make it work.

Off to write some more!