Nature...

... see it while you can.

... and here I am with the mixed media quilt. This was good because I learned something with this piece. I'm never using fabric paint again. It really made the edges start to curl and totally destroyed one of my favorite paint brushes. Who knew. After the show I want to fix it... get rid of the nasty fabric paint bits and quilt the sky area. The venue was so nice and met many nice and interesting people. All in all a good show.

And here's a brand new canvas for the next collage. Haven't put brush to canvas since Our Lady of the Desert. I'm thinking... egrets. I'm on a bird kick.

I've gotten about 2 in. of the hand dyed orange woven into the Mirrix piece. Love the way the orange came out actually. It's sort of mottled. I'm hoping that when it's done there will be more of a distinction between the lighter orange and the red-orange under it.

Found this on my desk at work this morning. A thank you mouse from one of the kids.

Happy St. Paddy's

Well, here it is, this weeks kid's craft. Lenny the toilet paper roll Leprachaun. Their name, not mine. I would have called him Beelzibub's kid brother Lenny. This is some real nightmare fuel here folks, but in a sorta funny way, don't-cha think? So it being creepy and all; of course I chose it for our project. Kid's need to be exposed to fear... everything in life can't be hearts and flowers, ya know.

It's pretty self explanatory really. Color in the template, cut and glue to a toilet paper roll. Here is the link if you are interested. I realize this is not one of my more creative projects, but it's been a bad week. Here are the kid's renditions of Lenny:

This one looked a little more Russian than Irish

Turns out the kids loved making these guys. They had a blast. Because their arms are bent in  such a way, they were making them do the Robot

In the Studio...

I finished this little band on the inkle. I love my inkle loom. You can sit on the couch with your feet propped up, sit it in your lap and watch Downton Abbey and weave. Like it so much better than card weaving.

And for Women's History Month.... enjoy :)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYQhRCs9IHM

Happy Valentine's

Messy Art - Well, today being Valentine's Day, we made,... you guessed it, Valentines. This is simple ... I just folded 12x18 construction paper in various pinks and reds into fours. Then you cut along the open side of the folded paper in the shape of a half heart, unfold, and you get two hearts.

We decorated with tissue, sequence, magazine pics, anything you want really.

 

This is my model for them. Found the old lady in a magazine. I told the kids that was a picture of my grandma. They believed me, ha ha!

Here are some from the kids:

I ordered a shorter temple for the tap on the big loom. I'm probably not going to weave wide pieces anymore so I figured why not. The temple I've got is 24" at it's shortest. I may sell that one, don't know yet.

I had help with the threading which is the part that hurts my back to do. Jerry was very good at threading! I told him he would make a good weaver.

I supervised and passed him warp ends...

And of course the top supervisor was there to make sure we didn't have too much fun.

It was really nice to have help. Threading can be a lonely business. We listened to Bruce Springsteen, Darkness on the Edge of Town while we worked.


Looked out the kitchen window this morning and saw that one of my little tree orchids had bloomed. I love when this happens. It's so spontaneous and unexpected. A treat for sure.

In the studio

I'm a bit behind with posting. Been sort of busy and have been trying to play catch up since our staycation. Even when I didn't go anywhere, I fell behind. Pathetic, really.

On the Kessy... I am working on this tapestry/runner for a dear friend of mine in N.C. who is going through a very rough time right now. But she will come through it with flying colors, I know. This piece will be 12x48" and will be ready to hang. I'm keeping in the Fibonacci spirit of things with the pattern and plain dimensions. The pattern will be done in a straight 2/2 twill, 12 pick color sequence. I didn't know how I wanted to do the design as far as color was concerned, but I think choice A on the left is more interesting. The piece is sleyed and dh will help me with the threading tonight.

On the inkle... I've started this little band as a test piece. I love the way the navy and yellow look together and was surprised when I did. The pattern calls for doubling up on yellow in two of the pattern threads, but I wanted to see what it would look like with light green and yellow instead of two yellow. No big deal really. You can't even tell there's any green in there. So instead of double yellow, I may try double purple just to give it a zing on the next one.

Someone is angry at me because I'm not getting up and getting him snacks. Look deeply into the glass... you'll see him. Oh brother.

Weaving demo

The weaving demo for the art guild went well. I think for a group of fine artists (and not craftsmen), they asked some good questions and enjoyed trying the spinning wheel. One woman in the group was a knitter so she understood a lot of the lingo. Another man in the group was a basket weaver. After the demo the guild gave me a check and the weaver gave me this awesome little palm frond basket... I felt like it was Christmas all over again!

I have to say, I thank God everyday that I'm weaving again. I was so afraid I was done for. And I still have pain and probably always will, but nothing as debilitating as before. So that being said, let me introduce you to my newest little friend, Mr. Inkle

I'm finding that inkle weaving is a lot less time consuming to set up than card weaving. Love that. I'm looking through The Weaver's Inkle Pattern Directory by Anne Dixon. She has a nifty little thing printed in the front of the book; The Craftsman's Creed:
All of the fine traditions and the skill
are mine to use to raise
my craft renown
and mine to teach again with
reverent will.
Thus do I love to serve,
with fingers that
are masters of the tool.

Thought that was pretty boss.

paper stuff

We had a printmaking class last week. I had bought styrofoam sheets for this program but you can use the styrofoam trays that fruit and veggies come in. You draw your picture out in pen and then go over it pressing hard.

Then you paint on the styrofoam sheet and lay the paper over the sheet and press. Ta da!

Love the rocket ship!

Here's the little Mirrix. I've started a piece for the demo I'm doing on Thur. This little loom weaves like a dream! I have the 22" Zach model. I highly recommend this loom. Also my inkle loom should be coming today.

Here's a little tip I'd like to share. While warping the Mirrix, you can use a small roach clip with a heavy bead or weight of some sort to hold the warp in tension if, you know, nature calls or something. In other words, you don't have to get 'er done all at once. You can tell what era I'm from, right. Roach clips. They are awesome little tools.

New Year ... I hope

I feel like I should have some New Year resolutions. There are a few of them playing around the back of my head, but I really wonder if I'm just the proverbial dog who can't learn new tricks. I know from past experience, that if I make these resolutions, I'm just setting myself up for failure, and in the words of Sweet Brown, "...ain't nobody got time for that!"

But, the one thing I really do need to do this year is get more organized in the studio. I realized that this morning when I could not find the spring reeds for the Mirrix loom. I did find a few other things that had been lost while looking for the reeds but this is ridiculous. Everytime I go to look for something I have to hunt for it. That's not good. So if I can do that one thing, organization, I'll be happy.

Ok, I've got $150 in Christmas money. Part of that will go to St. Jude's. The rest goes to either a new cell phone or an inkle loom. Yeah, another loom. I'm mental. But check this one out!
 Isn't it cool...doesn't it look complicated? Do I really need another loom? Well, the answer to that is obviously no. But I'm not a phone person really. Mine acts up but I think I can live with it and I have a backup phone if it dies. Ok, I talked myself into the loom.

Here is the sloooooow progress on my painting. This is a mixed media collage. Not finished yet but almost. Still need to add a few details.

Here's a New Year laugh: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gesm2CiVbuo&list=HL1357157685