paula kovarik, designer

threats

Paula Kovarik — Fri, 25 May 2012 15:38:30 +0000

A four-day weekend to get some real work done. I am still toiling away on the spiral piece with the working title of Threats. The base is a circluar linen tablecloth, circa 1960 or so is my guess. If you look closely you may notice that EVERY grain is on the bias which means that EVERY stitch I add creates new billows. A threat indeed. I have learned to go with the billow, pushing, nudging, letting it be imperfect. Because, after all, we are all imperfect right?

threats, 2012, Paula Kovarik

compost heap gives back

Paula Kovarik — Sun, 20 May 2012 16:38:01 +0000

Didn't plant it. Didn't plan it. Wouldn't have thought to do it. The compost heap has given us a squash vine worthy of praise. Leaves the size of dinner plates, the vine travels in three directions and probably measures over 50 feet long. We actually need to name it since it has started to climb over the back fence to greet us. I'm looking forward to a plate full of baby yellow squash in about a week. And now that the worst of my gum surgery convalescence is over I might even be able to eat it.

Amazing bounty.

squash vine, 2012

beware that false sense of security that drugs give you

Paula Kovarik — Thu, 10 May 2012 16:13:38 +0000

This week has been a challenge. I was scheduled for laser gum surgery on Tuesday. I worked double time to be sure I had enough time for recuperation and healing after the surgery. On Tuesday, I prepped for the surgery by taking the prescribed mellowing agents. Trouble was, when Jim dropped me off for said torture the office said, NO NO NO!! It's NEXT Tuesday. Lucky for me those mellowing agents did not allow for the grand embarassment I was due. I don't even remember being there. Sure hope I wasn't drooling. I do notice a couple of new bruises on my body where I was bouncing off the walls.

Jim took me back home, tucked me in and let me sleep it off. I awoke to a new sense of entitlement, still walking a little like an Egyptian. Since I had the day off anyway I thought maybe I could get some work done on the spiral quilt. So creative, so happy, so sure of myself.

Today, I had to take out Mr. Tweezerman.

Sprial quilt, Paula Kovarik, 2012

a lovely cloudy day

Paula Kovarik — Mon, 07 May 2012 17:16:18 +0000

I can't believe I am saying this. We FINALLY got some rain today. It is Spring in Memphis. Rain is a given, Beale Street Music Festival ALWAYS gets rained out. Why the change? What's up with the bluff city? Time and time again we watch the radar maps showing us storms travelling across the nation. They aim for memphis, they center around memphis and then they avoid memphis.

This little section on the spiral quilt is inspired by those clouds that pass in the day. I might add some lassos to tie them down. They are perfect for those little billowy areas created by the bias grain of this linen.

Paula Kovarik, 2012, clouds

lazygirl tool

Paula Kovarik — Fri, 04 May 2012 20:00:43 +0000

So I needed to be able to draw a spiral on a big round tablecloth to begin the piece I am working on. Being quite lazy and unwilling to get out my geometry book I chose the easy way out. I tied a piece of cord around my spray starch can, attached that cord to a chalk marker and spiralled away. I experimented a little before I chose the starch can, tried a pencil (spiral too tight), a dye pot (spiral too loose) and ended up with the spray starch can (spiral just right). I taped the can to the middle of my piece, started the chalk marker cord stretched tight at the edge of the tablecloth and then just walked around the circle as the cord wound around the can. Voila! a Spiral!

Whew! That was a potential close encounter with my geometry book.

catalysts

Paula Kovarik — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 16:26:12 +0000

My friend Jeanne Simpson has proposed a challenge for 2012. The idea is to create a piece that is 20" x 12" each week for a year. Each week has a theme. This week her theme is fractals which reminded me of an idea I had for this wonderful piece of fabric that Pat Pauly gave me a while back. This beautiful dyed piece looks like a series of moons each with a cloudy smearing that appeals to my imperfections. Phases of the moon can have such power (witness ocean waves), especially the full moon. So I look at it as a catalyst for ideas. Here, then, is Catalysts, a fractally motivated composition.

mending kit

Paula Kovarik — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 15:07:50 +0000

The outside/inside the box exhibit, part of Fiber Philadelphia in March, gave away mending kits at the door. It seemed an interesting metaphor for all the pieces that had to do with human tragedy. So I took one home with me and used the thread and pieces within to create this linen napkin study. Its a gathering of thoughts, or a swirling of ideas. Just how I felt while visiting the galleries there.

heart centered

Paula Kovarik — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 19:55:57 +0000

finally started the piece that has been pestering me in my head for a number of months. It will be a challenge because I am working on a 5 foot linen table cloth that bows and bends with the wind. May need extra tethers to tame it. And in my haste I started it without my trusty bamboo iron on batting so the billows are billowy. More hand basting necessary. But I'm not too worried, the hand basting may stay in because of the concept.

Stay tuned.

in the mood

Paula Kovarik — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 12:44:22 +0000

Found these two broad-headed skinks in the compost area today. Wikipedia says that the males of this species get red heads during mating season.

Enough said.

Paula Kovarik, 2012

green

Paula Kovarik — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 13:19:19 +0000

This Spring has been so full, so resplendent with growth it brings joy to my eyes. I want to wrap myself up in it. When I visited Longwoood Gardens earlier this month I found this luscious hallway to the bathrooms in the conservatory. This is how I feel today, my skin sprouting green.

Paula Kovarik, 2012