Happy New year!

I wish everybody a happy, healthy, and prosperous New Year!

Craft Fairs

Hi!

Just adding a little self promotion. I promise a full post with pictures after the weekend. I am in two Art & Craft Fairs this holiday season. If you are out and about this weekend in downtown Chicago come by the Streeterville Artisan Market and say hello. It is located at Northwestern University Lurie Research Center at 303 E. Superior Street in the Lobby. My mom and I are in booth 15. If you are in the Bucktown area on the 28th and 29th of November then come see us at the Bucktown Bazaar at 2200 N. Oakley, Chicago IL. We don't have our booth placement for that one yet but I will blog about it when we do. Have a great weekend everybody!

Semi-New Felt Bag

I meant to put this picture up a while ago. This is a felt bag that I made at the end of August. I had a lot of fun making it. The tassel at the bottom is a mixture of felt yarn and recycled sari-silk ribbon. It is presently hanging at the shop where I sell my scarves.

United Felt: International Day of Felt

Today was the First Annual International Day of Felt. The theme was Yellow through Red a slice of the color wheel. Felters across the world made art made of felt in red, orange, and yellow, and displayed them for the world to see. I made a hanging of felt in those colors and hung it from my porch. It was an interesting experience. I had not previously made anything quite so large before (it is approximately 2.5 feet by 5 feet). I mostly stuck to scarves, shawls, bags, and the occasional sculptural piece in the past. I am usually very hands on with my felt making. I do a lot of patting, rubbing, kneading, scrubbing, and tossing. With such a big piece I had to get into more rolling. Anyway, if you are interested in seeing more information on this day you can go to the United Felt Website at http://www.feltunited.com/ . Below are a couple pictures of my work hanging from my porch. Happy International Day of Felt!

SDA Conference Part 2 - Pictures!

So here are some pictures of the the three things that I finished from the SDA Conference (finally).

Lill Street Student & Member Sale

This past weekend I was in the Lill Street Art Center's Member & Student Art & Craft Sale. I didn't sell lots; about a couple hundred dollars worth. But that is enough to buy some more wool and silk scarves in preparation for my next Craft fair coming up in November. Yes, once again I will be in The Streeterville Art fair. I am looking forward to it. There are a couple other fairs I am looking into also. Today I picked up my leftover stock. I will have to post some pictures tomorrow.

Belated SDA Post Workshop Report - Part One

I really enjoyed the Surface Design Association Post Conference Workshop taught by Jorie Johnson. Next time I want to go to the conference as well. Mom and I arrive in Kansas City on the last day of the conference. We couldn't join in any of the conference events since we did not pay for the conference but we got to go to the vendor room. I of course found more wool to bring home. It was great to actually touch and see the wool before committing to buy. Although for the most part I have been really lucky with my online shopping and usually find the quality of my purchases to be above reproach. If you are into felting I highly recommend taking a class with Jorie Johnson. I found her to be a very good teacher. She has a couple of really good books out too (just toss her name up at Amazon.com for a look-see). I don't have a lot of time to get in depth today, but, so much time had passed I didn't want to let more time pass before posting. I have included a picture of my class in a round table discussion. Till later.

Getting Ready for My SDA Post-Confernece Workshop w/ Jorie Johnson in Kansas City MO

Above is a picture of my workspace at Lill St. Art Center. I work there as a monitor once a week during their open lab time in the Textile Dept. Above is the table I usually snag for myself. I have been making pre-felt for the last couple weeks for my workshop at the Surface Design Association's post-conference felting workshop with Jorie Johnson. It is being held at the Kansas City Art Institute in Kansas City MO. Rebecca who is the director for the Textile Dept. at Lill St. is also going to be there at the same time but she will be there as a teacher (she is teaching the class titled "Fast Line, Slow Line"). I am really excited about this workshop. Not to sound too fan-girlish but I have all Jorie Johnson's books (the ones I could easily get in the U.S. at least). My mom will also be attending the Jorie Johnson workshop with me. We will be driving down with a ton of wool (yes sir, yes sir, three bags full...no joke, lol). I will be bringing my NEW digital point & shoot camera so I can get tons of photos. I probably won't have internet access but if I do I will be sure to blog as I can, otherwise I will blog about it afterward (it is a five day workshop). I hope all of you had a great holiday. Here in Chicago it has been cool and wet. It is my understanding that Kansas City has been hot and humid. I will have to remember to pack accordingly. Till later, ciao.

May Day

Since it is now just past midnight it is officially May 1 or May Day. It is also my wedding anniversary. It's hard to believe that I have been married for sixteen years. It doesn't seem that long. Hubby and I are going away for the weekend to celebrate.

On the art front, I printed two scarves today with thickened dye. Soon as they are done batching and are washed I will put up a couple pictures. The circle embroidery project is coming along (but slowly). Maybe I will post some in progress pictures of that on Monday. In the meantime here are a couple pictures for your inspiration. They were taken in a park near Chinatown in Chicago last spring.

Not much exciting going on at the moment artwise

Been working slowly on that embroidered and silk screened circle project. I still need to take a photo of it. Maybe when I get my camera back tomorrow or on Friday I will get around to it (loaned it to a friend for a bit who needed it to photograph her work). Also, at some point this week or next, I need to work on making some pre-felts for a felting class I am taking with Jorie Johnson come June at the SDA conference post-conference workshops. I am really looking forward to her class. I expect to learn a lot. I have her book. I wonder if it would be too fan-girlish if I asked her to autograph it? I also need to order some more Finn wool (from Misty Mountain Farm and maybe some dyed Finn wool from New England Felting Supply). Some Blue Faced Leicester from Marr Haven would be good too (and maybe some variegated Merino from them too). For Merino Wild Turkey Felt is a good supplier also. I think I have just listed most of my suppliers (I have also gotten carding combs for my mother from Pacific Wool and Fiber). As far as silk goes I order from either Thai Silks or Dharma. Although when I want silk immediately I go to Vogue Fabrics in Evanston. Dharma is also a good supplier for dyes and such. I have also heard good things about Pro-Chemical but have not ordered from them as of yet. Anyway, I am off to bed, so I am going to put an end to my ramblings. Oh, and one more picture for inspiration. Goodnight.

Embroidery, Life, etc.

I have been working on embroidery lately. I have a piece that I silk-screened with four groupings of circles. I split stitch around all the screened in circles and plan to fill in the empty space around the circles with something viney (if that is a word). So, I have been practicing feather stitch. So far I don't think my efforts are too bad, but they still need a little more practice. Some of my stitches were either a tad loose or a tad too tight. I was also thinking of putting in a flower, but, I need to look into how I would stitch that. So below is a scan of my efforts with feather stitch.



When the project is finished I will post a picture of the embellished silk-screened piece. On a different note, I wish everybody a happy holiday (or at least a great weekend)!

Been A While

It has been a while since I posted. It has just been so very busy. There was a lot of work at the beginning of the year because everyone wanted to get their stuff together for taxes. I was also taking a class titled 'Embellished Screen Printing' taught by a lady named Camille Canales at the LillStreet Art Center. You can check out her website here: http://camillecanales.com/home.html . She does really cool embroidery and bead work on fabric. Anyway, the class involved screen printing and then embellishing your screen printed item with embroidery and beading. It was a really enjoyable class. If you live in Chicago I highly recommend checking out the LillStreet Art Center. If you live in the northern suburbs of Chicago I highly recommend the Evanston Art Center. Although for fiber classes LillStreet offers more. I have taken a number of classes at both art centers and both have some really good instructors.
I need to get around to taking pictures of the pieces I produced in Camille's class. I also have been working on a huge felted and stuffed form that I need to take pictures of. I have really been lazy lately about taking pictures of my work. So, I think I will put up a couple of pictures just for inspiration (from a trip I took to Wetumpka AL and New Orleans LA a few years ago). Maybe it will inspire my lazy self to go take some pictures. For your viewing enjoyment:







I hope this provided inspiration.