Cd Art Update, April 27th

Here's the progress photo, as promised. All I've gotten done so far is to finalize the CD cover design. Dude, it was one of the hardest things I've ever done to get all the lettering looking good and to get those vines and flowers drawn right. I stayed up until 6 in the morning the last couple of nights and I've been working on it every waking minute. I did it with trace paper, graph paper, and a compass...

We also visited the needlepoint store, got a lesson, and picked out our fabric and thread colors. That part was fun, and I'm hoping the stitching will be too!

Our canvas will be 29 count linen...

Here's a computerized rendering of the final design. Top and bottom areas will be filled with a decorative stich. But first, I have to tackle the final design for the back cover as well... Doh. More updates to come---I'm shooting for once a week until the CD is ready! Peace,

A Stitchy Situation

Kickin' it at UA Birmingham

Hey everybody! What a luxury it is to be able to sit on my couch and write to you all so easily. Back in the days of the pony express, sending out this message would have taken 3 years and killed two ponies. Now we have the internet, and all that gets killed is my will for any physical activity.

Less than a week left to vote for "Hurry Home" in the John Lennon thing, so if you've been meaning to but haven't, now's the time! Click here to vote! I hope to have happy news for you on May 1st when the results are posted---if I do, it will be because of your support and I thank you. I've also been selected as a Kerrville New Folk Finalist, so if we have any "Kerrverts" out there, I will see you in a month or so...

And now I have a sad story to tell. The story of a beautiful relationship based on dreams and promises, that somehow was corrupted into something painful and sick. I'm sorry to tell you that after all of the ups and downs, after all the time spent together and life energy invested, Jodi and I have finally decided to part ways...with the lady designing the CD art.

Yes! I know! It IS a tragedy, and it's OK to grieve. I may not have mentioned it to you before, but this lady is a "stitch artist" who was going to hand embroider the art for the CD's front and back covers. You can check out her work here---she's got some really cool stuff. The problems started when I didn't like her concept sketches, and got worse when she refused to stitch the song titles on the back cover. In the end, we decided it would be best to have a local person stitch MY design so we could have it done just the way we wanted.

Rough Cover Sketch

Rough Back Cover Sketch

At which point we were told by all the local people that "no one does commercial hand embroidery anymore" and that this particular design couldn't be computer-stitched either. Doh!! SO........................

Yeehaw.

If you want something done right, you've got to do it yourself. Jodi and I have been wanting an art project that we could work on together and hang on the wall, and voila, here one is. In the past couple of days we have consulted with local embroiderers, gathered materials, learned some basic and intermediate stitches, and started practicing. We're pretty much home for the next five weeks, and we're hoping that will be enough time for us to learn what we need to learn and complete the 8 by 18 inch finished work.

I'm going to be posting a bi-weekly photo of the work so you can see it as it comes along---wish us luck!! Here's a photo of the practice cloth to get us started...

(We only have blue thread at the moment.)

And, as one last bonus for those of you who read all the way to the end, click here for a short video clip of the kind of parties I like to go to here in Nashville.... Love you guys! Peace,