I’ve been working on a new project for my installation at the Oregon County Fair. Each year we take our hippie selves out of the closet and go down to Veneta, Oregon to take part in the Fair. This will be the fourth year that we’ve created a “Living Room” called Yew Are Here. It’s a non-commercial open space where people can rest and regroup before hitting the next show, getting some food, or checking out the next craft booth. For me, it’s a chance to show my art in an environment I really love.

The Tower Lanterns I’ve been using as the centerpiece of the space have been getting a bit worn and frayed, especially after the big rainstorm of 2009. I either needed to spend some time rehabbing them or make something new of this year. So, of course, I decided to make something new! The old lanterns were pictoral and showed the Sun/Earth, the Moon/Mountains, and the Sea. I decided to keep these basic themes but work in a more graphic style using overall patterning, color and texture which is more closely related to the fine art work I do.

The patterns and colorways are as follows:

Largest/Sun: spiral patterns with colorway of yellow and orange with overdye of reds

Medium/Water: waves patterns with colorway of greens and light blue with overdye of darker blues

Smallest/Earth: vines and leaf pattern with colorway of greens with overdye of darker greens and brown

First things first, though. I made a bunch of test swatches (top) to test out layering colors and then determined which combos worked well. Of course, since I can’t seem to help myself I ended up using thirteen different base colors, thirteen different overdyes, and doing it on both silk and cotton. I didn’t do all the combinations (it was tempting but that would have been 338 samples) but I still did one hundred fourteen.

At the bottom are the silks with the first layer of dye and dyed cotton muslins for linings. They need linings because otherwise the lights shine right through the silk.Next step, wax.