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Continuing with lizard

i think this is it. 

002

with some changes

004

this is directly on the Cloth.  no more fooling around.  the first, that thread for legs and tail is obviously too light.  so…the tail i couldn't change,  but the legs i touched with sepia Pigma Micron pen in the second pic.  and i gave a thread eye.  and also, a line down the back with the pen which i'm not sure what to do about…if i try to stitch a line there it would change things too much.  so, small dilemma about that. 

BUT ……..  this is good.  the right size and the right "visual weight".   i will do another but with different leg and tail threads that will be more distinct. 

also…didn't add a separate head this time, but shaped the rectangle of cloth enough to define it.  i will get better at that the more lizards i make, i think.  so if this really feels ok, after this initial burst of happiness,  i will be able to have as many lizards as i had originally envisioned…for sure in the stones, but also other places…on the tree, in the grasses and most of all…by her.  

OK.

 

 

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48 responses to “Continuing with lizard”

  1. Henrietta (aka ani or zani) Avatar
    Henrietta (aka ani or zani)

    grace, i like this fellow much better too but i must admit a fondness for horned toads so i hope one finds a place in your desert. i think this is more balance for where you wanted to locate it and it looks to be moving on the rock. maybe you could do a little weave with a dark thread on the tail stitches to “darken” it. cheers

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  2. grace Forrest Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest Maestas

    oh Good! i love that you said it looks to be moving…
    thank you……
    horned toads, some time. just not now. and yes…they
    are just the best. someone brought me a baby one once.
    it was hmmmm, about the size of a pea. tiny. they don’t
    live here, because it’s sandy. but they live just across
    the road where it’s much rockier. funny. just such a
    short distance and a completely different ecosystem.
    (i took that little one back to where it had been found)

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  3. jude Avatar
    jude

    well, the cloth lives.

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  4. Valerianna Avatar
    Valerianna

    Its so sculptural, I can feel its weight and I can almost see it breathing…

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  5. grace Forrest Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest Maestas

    do ya think????????

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  6. grace Forrest Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest Maestas

    and it actually is like this “in person”, or
    “in lizard”.
    or close anyway
    i just love them.
    where you are, there would be salamanders. i grew up
    with salamanders…very close Kin.

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  7. Susan C Avatar
    Susan C

    The sculptural quality of the body is just right. It really does look alive. I can’t wait to see them all.

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  8. grace Forrest Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest Maestas

    if i can do it, it will be a sight to see….

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  9. Peggy Avatar
    Peggy

    Grace, this is fantastic. It lives!

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  10. jan in nagasaki Avatar
    jan in nagasaki

    my husband goes away some weekends and he brings the kids home gifts…. one time, three beautiful glass blown lizards with delicate feet and tails….
    another time, musician frogs…
    ok

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  11. Michelle in NYC Avatar
    Michelle in NYC

    The detail is anchoring the cloth and making it fly at the same time. Your lizard has tactile qualities…very nice indeed.

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  12. Valerianna Avatar
    Valerianna

    Yes, I love both. I have the amazing red efts here, and the brown salamanders and the rather enormous and incredible yellow spotted. I’ve lived with lizards, too though. In Puerto Rico where my father had a factory and in Greece. In Greece there was a lovely one with a cerulean blue tail, quite dashing. One lived in a blanket on my terrace. Had to give up using the blanket, but, he/she was worth it!
    I think you found some deep medicine sewing lizards. I thought of you today in the studio cause I have a lizard vase that never showed up at all in the house – couldn’t find the right spot. But the moment I took it out to the studio, it was the star. Dream medicine…

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  13. Valerianna Avatar
    Valerianna

    Oh, and I think your mountain inspired a mountain in a painting today!

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  14. Doris Avatar
    Doris

    shush, don´t move, you will shoo it away 🙂 It is so so great 🙂

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  15. saskia Avatar
    saskia

    I am impressed, not that I thought you couldn’t do it!! it is just such a wonderful creature there on your cloth, meant to be there; I really like it.

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  16. ;uie Avatar
    ;uie

    Looked and left…
    came back and looked again and thought I saw the lizard move just a little; it’s little legs and spiny toes, inching up the rock. This is what I mean about emotional eyes seeing a cloth: others have said this is a living cloth, and it is. Seeing this, I understand your response to my comment on your previous post. This whole cloth, land/place/forever cloth, feels like a living diorama. The dimensions created here run deep, they are your dimensions but it is your gift of translation that allows all of us to feel and SEE so much here. What is especially a gift is that many of us who see this unfolding, don’t live in land like yours, yet we each feel a connection and take something into ourselves with each look.

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  17. Deb G Avatar
    Deb G

    Laughing…at first glance (probably over the top of my glasses) I thought, “Is that a mouse?” 🙂 So yes, it is alive!

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  18. treena Avatar
    treena

    Grace:
    They all ‘feel alive’ to me.
    They look so right on your cloth,
    and they are ALL charming.
    XOXOXO

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  19. Jacky Avatar
    Jacky

    Magical Grace… your little lizard looks 3D…that plump little body (and I love the drawn little spine. I agree, I think stitched it might change that whole look).
    The stitched legs and tails are wonderful, more detailed and textural. This cloth is becoming so magical with its dessert story.
    LOVE IT.
    Jacky xox

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  20. Jacky Avatar
    Jacky

    ooops…I meant desert story!!!!

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  21. ali Avatar
    ali

    your little creature is scurrying right up the rock–fantastic!

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  22. Robyn Ayaz Avatar
    Robyn Ayaz

    Well I did like the others but now I understand – this is a real breathing lizard and it does seem to move between the pictures you have taken. Can’t wait to see a panorama of lizards, a congregation of lizards, a slither of lizards? Hugs

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  23. sewing susan Avatar
    sewing susan

    I love the lizards in your wonderful stones! They put a smile on my face.

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  24. Eva Ucgatwork Avatar
    Eva Ucgatwork

    Dear Grace,
    See what I mean? Your lizard IS a lizard, living in the desert, moving around, breathing, oozing character…
    I simply love it!
    eva xoxox

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  25. nance Avatar
    nance

    that lizard looks close enough to a real one for my comfort!

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  26. nance Avatar
    nance

    marti…well said!

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  27. k Avatar
    k

    Oh Grace, you have definitely done it! The smell of my yard in Tucson (1980’s) washed i over me when I saw it.

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  28. grace Forrest Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest Maestas

    love that a lizard vase has found it’s way to the New
    Space…this is good.

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  29. grace Forrest Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest Maestas

    well….5 so far. we’ll see if more. they are so good
    at hiding.

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  30. grace Forrest Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest Maestas

    Peggy…thank you! with the lizards, its more of the
    Outside coming into the cloth

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  31. grace Forrest Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest Maestas

    Jan….HELLO!!!!
    aren’t their feet just the most amazing???? so fine
    and so much like hands in the way they use them….
    i think the musician frogs might have been really for you..
    and yes
    ok
    THANK YOU for coming by ~

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  32. grace Forrest Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest Maestas

    oh sigh, lizards. it felt really good to get them there.

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  33. grace Forrest Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest Maestas

    Shush!
    outside, they don’t mind if i talk to them. they look
    up at me, listening. it’s moving toward them that
    shoos.

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  34. grace Forrest Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest Maestas

    they created themselves well i think. just enough.

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  35. grace Forrest Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest Maestas

    then this is a real accomplishment. this is Good.
    to give the sense of it’s plain but oh so alive beauty.
    Thank you for saying that, Marti

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  36. grace Forrest Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest Maestas

    it does look mously….if i could have managed to make
    them a little thinner it would have been good, but
    trying just was taking away the energy of the stitching.
    so,

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  37. grace Forrest Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest Maestas

    treena….thank you. it feels really good.

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  38. grace Forrest Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest Maestas

    jacky…yes…i think i will just leave the pen line
    alone. it’s ok. that it’s pen.
    Thank you for loving it…………….
    xoxo to you

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  39. grace Forrest Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest Maestas

    i can’t wait till it warms up enough and they come out
    from under all their rock forts where they’ve been
    holed up for the winter. actually, when i begin watering
    with the hose, they often appear. hmmmm. did not make
    that connection before………….

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  40. grace Forrest Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest Maestas

    i think the Slither of Lizards (LOVE that) might be a
    separate cloth that’s coming……
    this, or maybe a couple more might be right.

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  41. grace Forrest Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest Maestas

    Susan….they ALWAYS make me happy when they appear
    outside….always stop, it seems, to give me enough time
    to notice and fully appreciate them….

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  42. grace Forrest Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest Maestas

    Eva….yup. oozing. like that word. oozing………..

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  43. grace Forrest Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest Maestas

    don’t you have any in Portland? When i lived outside of
    Eugene, there were many, very similar to these Whiptails,
    but no blue color….

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  44. grace Forrest Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest Maestas

    THIS IS GREAT….when something brings that sense of
    scent. i feel so great that it washed over you…
    oh, Thank you for telling me!!!!!

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  45. handstories Avatar
    handstories

    i first thought this post was titled “counting with lizards” & i wondered how many you will have!
    & look what you have done…this being is ready to zip around that rock and through the grasses, it is so alive!
    & loved the mountain ranges in the last post.

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  46. grace Forrest~Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest~Maestas

    maybe they’re the hills of the Chankly Bore??????!!!!!!!

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  47. k Avatar
    k

    Thank-you for bringing back memories so clearly. (It might take more than 25 years to get nostalgic for the swampy smell of my current yard in NE Ohio)
    The new lizards darting about your cloth today are equally life-like. You have us all saying eeeeeeeeeeee!

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  48. grace Forrest~Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest~Maestas

    well, swampy is nice too. think Pungent, Fecund, stuff
    like that. i have a friend, or did, long ago, who said
    she could not come to new mexico because of how it
    smelled.
    ?????
    all i could ever think of is dust? a kind of acrid
    tinge after a rain?
    yeah, eeee. it is just the absolute best expression
    for just about anything. facial expression helps,
    but i guess it comes through even without?
    seems to….
    NE OHIO, well, i grew up in Michigan.

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