What Is YOUR Inner Landscape?
A) Ocean
B) Desert
C) Mountains
D) Swamp
E) City
F) Firey Pit of Molten Lava
G) Dingy Bar
H) Other


i am ready. i have mentally prepared myself for this next gigantastico project: the ocean inspired scarf for my new spiritual guide (SG) mindy. this project is wrought with challenges for me.

A) i am not an ocean person. my inner landscape is more mountain. i appreciate the idea of the ocean. but when i get near it it attacks my ears and i get a crippling headache. this always really confounds and annoys my husband when we try and have a nice stroll on the beach. he is taking deep sea-air breaths and i'm learching around with my head wrapped fully around with a scarf, holding my ears with a look of agony on my face. and when i look around at the beach all i see is death. the beach to me is like the ocean's dumping ground for all of the carcasses of the sea. i know this sounds dramatic....but truthfully....i have always felt that we are really shaped by our environments. and i just resonate with big solid grounded landscapes. and the ocean is so changing and mysterious. and every anxiety dream iv'e ever had involved deep dark water. maybe this is why my SG has asked for this theme? maybe she doesn't really want an ocean scarf. maybe she is making me face some deep seeded fear? oh man. this could be bad.....

B) Blues. we've covered this. i am a retard with blues. not a retard. i just don't gravitate to them. i have an inner yellow. mindy just told me yellow makes her want to barf. so challenge number two- getting over my own preferences. learn to appreciate cool blue!! i can do it. i'll really try.

So since this is a scarf for a spiritual guide.....actually, she is more of a spiritual warrior....i decided it should have some inherent meaning to it. i did several sketches for her. one was a series of pleasant deep-sea ideas, gentle shapes...yarns that conjure up bubbles and other things you would imagine in the calmer depths. she didn't relate at all to that. she went for idea #2: dramatic, powerful breaking waves! she may have an inner ocean...but apparently it is the part of the ocean that you never turn your back on. loud, powerful, crashing energetic waves. this is mindy.

so i am all ready to start. tomorrow we meet to discuss colors. she is collecting samples of blues she likes. then i will dye the fiber this weekend and get ready to spin the yarn.


The design: left to right: will start out with regular pattern and be pretty tame...like the regular tides of the outer ocean. moving right will be like moving to shore...little breaks in the waves start until you reach the end where it will be a swirling foaming mass of yarn and fiber! the foam/breaking waves will be the last of that great reeled silk that i have with it's dramatic loops.




the material: hand-dying silk for most of the "water" (left). reeled silk for crashing waves (right).



in the waves i will have some very delicate yarn spun with the white beads and tangle them up with the reeled silk to add "bubbles" to the foam. the pearls will be in the yarn that makes up the depths of the ocean. there are some clear bits of ocean glass that i'll work in closer to shore. i also threw in some little skulls....what is an ocean without a few lost souls? in fact...what is a spiritual guide without a few lost souls? finally- i have a silver locket. mindy requested a mermaid. and i thought about maybe felting one...but i want this scarf to be elegant and wearable....and felted creatures can be...i don't know- too funky. so i'm going to draw/paint a portrait of a mermaid in there. i'm picturing the practice of wearing a locket with a tiny painted portrait of your loved one inside. on this, i'll paint the face on one side and the tail on the other!



bought every type of blue the shop had: