Friday, December 30, 2005

Cool Christmas Gift


My Christmas box from my brother in Raleigh arrived this week - late but forgivable considering what he got me. The picture doesn't begin to capture the sumptuousness and rich colors of the fabric in these silk ties - they are beautiful!

When I visited him in September, I told him about using tie silk in several quilts and that I'd even ended up buying ties at an antique store and Goodwill. "Gee", he said, "I probably still have some nice ties from when I worked in an office. I'll look and send them your way." It was like a lightbulb going off in his brain, connecting the fact that some of the nicest silks end up in ties and that I could use them in my art.

The note with the ties, however, said that apparently he'd gotten rid of the ties in his last move, so he scoured the thrift stores to come up with these for me. Now THAT's a brother who will be forgiven much!

As I stood fondling the ties and repeating, "Oh my God, oh my God," I realized how easy I am. The way I was going on about these ties, you'd think he'd sent me expensive jewelry, bought me a car, was sending me on a trip to the Caribean. No, just give me a few used ties, and I'm happy! And I had to share.

The one in the middle, by the way, is a Jerry Garcia design. I work a lot with birch tree images and I couldn't believe that here were tree trunks on tie silk. Way to go brother!

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