And then there were eight . . .

And then there were eight . . .

OK, we all know how I go to thrift stores and find ethnic textiles or other funky textile items.  It is a hoot because you never know what you will find, so you can't have any agendas when you go looking.  You just look, recognize something that speaks to you as being an ethnic textile or some other fun textile thing, and then you say to yourself, hey, it is just a dollar, or perhaps it is even less, so of course you have to take it home.  I guess I am the Queen of Rescuing Ethnic or Funky Textile Items. For me, it is also the fun of trying to figure out history's mysteries.  I love looking at something, sometimes for hours, and thinking about it, trying to figure out just why the maker or makers did what they did or what they did to make the textile items.This crocheted doily with its dead swans lying around on the base, makes me wonder if the maker had a good idea but somehow got discouraged along the way and did not starch, or whatever else it is that folks do to make something stand up. I remember years ago when I had this idea to make a number of women figures that would be wrapped in red strips of cloth. I took my first figure to show this person who lived nearby and who thought she was the best fiber artist ever, and she cut the piece down to where I took it home and all the muslin forms I had cut out and stitched, waiting to be stuffed and wrapped, and put them in a box in a dark place, and I never got them out again. I am a different person now and more confident regardless of what others say, and I might just go back to those figures and get them made just to spite her and even get them published somewhere.[Photo]I think even if swans we make fall over dead, we should use use them anyway and tell everyone that yes, it is our artistic statement about swan doilies - kind of like all those quilts that were made to humorously "kill" Sunbonnet Sue.  I guess we will never know, but I do know I really enjoy seeing such humor.