Life, Death, Beginnings, Endings, & Beginning Again

An old and very good friend of my family died this morning. Pat Shafer was a friend of my mother's. Her son played with me and my sister when we were kids and he went on to become a life long friend of my sisters. Pat had a great influence on me, particularly in the last 5 to 8 years. She was a very talented artist and very supportive of me when I was trying to find my way back towards a more creative life. She was one of the people who made me think that yes, I could be an artist. That it wasn't an outlandish idea and that maybe there was room in the art world for me. She lived in a lovely old house in a small town in Michigan. Although I visited her only a few times there in the last several years they are fond memories. We kept up mostly through email and internet communities such as Facebook and Artella. She encouraged my experimentation and I am very grateful to her for that. She taught a number of classes and workshops and if I go by my experience she made a greater impact than she probably knew. She will be sorely missed. I wish her well on her new journey.

This & That

I have been sick on and off for the last couple weeks. This past weekend I was feeling fairly miserable. Today I am feeling somewhat better (knock on wood). For the most part the only thing I have really gotten accomplished is some reorganizing of my studio space (a constant job that...lol). I did wash out a scrap piece of vintage fabric that I dyed a while ago an painted recently with thickened dye. This is what it looks like now.

I am now going to embroider on it (maybe do some beading...not sure yet).

On another note this is an example of the weird weather fluctuations we have had over the last week. We went from this:

To this:

And then back to this:

The Garlic Chives do not seem the least bit upset by the snow we had on Saturday (which disappeared by Sunday evening). I suppose I should not be surprised. They are tenacious little buggers and have taken over a third of the yard over the last few years (much like the lemon balm). A good percentage of the Garlic Chives go to seed each year but I don't mind because the flowers are pretty and tasty in a salad.

Vernal Equinox

Happy Spring!
All week the weather here in Chicago has been fantastic (of which, unfortunately, the weather report says is going to change at some point in the early morning hours today). In celebration of the Vernal Equinox I am posting some pictures that I took over the past week showing sections of my back yard and of the Lake Michigan & Montrose Harbor area. I hope you enjoy this taste of early spring!

Just a Quick Post

Hi!
I am a guest blogger over at the LillStreet Textile blog again. Today I talked about my felting process briefly (with pictures). So hop over there and take a look http://lillstreettextiles.blogspot.com/ . All of the staff/monitors from the LillStreet Textile Lab will be blogging each day this week about what they are doing and/or showing their studios. It should be really interesting. And, since I hate doing a post without pictures here is a peak at my studio which is in the basement.


And, for a bit of uplifting in the spirit department (at least for those of us in the Midwestern part of the United States)...it looks like...it might be that...Spring is here (or almost)lol!

What I have been doing the last couple weeks.

So, what have I been doing? Well, just before Valentines weekend I dyed some lace and vintage textiles found at one (or a couple) of the many local thrift stores. I was in a green mood so inspired by one of my fellow LillStreet monitors I mixed up an immersion bath of a sort of chartreuse color. I like how the color came out.



Then for Valentines weekend my husband and I got away for a romantic weekend in Saugatuck, Michigan. There is a lovely antique mall just outside of Saugatuck in Douglas, and of course I just had to stop by. I went a little bit nuts. It was a vintage-textile-and-textile-supply-palooza! They have these nice people who wander through the mall who's only goal is to help you or run your stuff up to the front to be put in a numbered cubby (this place is huge - it takes at least an hour to walk through it if you are hurrying). Needless to say you don't realize how much you have actually collected till you get up to the front...lol. Anyway this was my haul (not sure what I am going to do with it all yet, but I will think of something).



I bought tatted and crocheted lace, a tatting shuttle, lots of thread on wooden spools, two bags of edging and piping, a vintage heart pin cushion, thread on a wooden spindle, a vintage wood grainer, and a vintage mirror and brush set (I wanted the mirror to use at craft shows so people can look at themselves wearing my scarves or my mother's hats - the mirror we have is way too big).

I also have picked up my silkscreened-embroidered piece again and have been working on that (you can see some of the progress I have made on it below)



The last thing I think I will show you is a rough sketch that I am thinking of adapting for an embroidered piece.



I am thinking of embroidering it against a green cloth. It is really kind of an organic image and green make me think organic. Maybe I will use one of the ones above that I have already dyed. I will have to think more on that. Right now I am thinking that I am pretty tired. I woke up fairly early this morning for no reason. I didn't have to work until the afternoon I could have slept in, but nooooo, my brain wanted to wake up and be active. My body said "hey more sleep would be good", but my brain would have none of it and just had to have things its own way. The result being a nightowl who is tired early. So, I say unto you "Goodnight".

Texture Tuesday

It is snowing here in Chicago. It has been snowing since last night and it is still snowing. It has not been a heavy snow but is has been fairly steady. We will supposedly have between 8 and 12 inches when all is said and done tomorrow (and I believe it). This was what it looked like looking out my back door earlier this afternoon:



I decided to venture out in the snow and see what the rest of the backyard looked like. I was fascinated by some of the textures I found in the snow.
Like footprints...


and curves created by opening the gate...


and water droplets dropping into the snow from the eves...


and lastly you can almost see individual snowflakes on these red berries (such a wonderful contrast)...


All this wonderful texture to think on. I wonder what tomorrow morning will bring?

Inspiration Monday

I am looking for inspiration to get my buttocks moving. I have spent most of today surfing the net and only doing a little of the organizing I planned (and so far not even a lick of art making...maybe some art gestating...maybe). So I started organizing some photos and found this one. This is the poster child of industriousness. This will be my inspiration for the rest of the evening.



Oh and just for a little contrast in photos I guess we will be getting more of this tomorrow...snow...lots of snow (though not as much as the East Coast got). Maybe the weather is what has my motivation sluggish.

My Second On-going Embroidery Project

Hi,
I thought I would toss up a picture of my other ongoing embroidery project. This one started as a practice sampler on a scrap of muslin, but I liked it, a lot. So, I put it against a background fabric and started to add bits here and there.



I still need to embroider over the roots (which are drawn in with a sharpie...hey it was what I had on hand when I started this: sketchbook, sharpies, embroidery floss, a hoop, some muslin, and a needle was all I had in my kit that day). I plan to have the roots go off the muslin and on to the background fabric and maybe even dangle off the background fabric. I am thinking of putting grass up on the soil line in Turkey Work/Stitch. I also plan to bring the sky up into the background fabric maybe weaving in between the blanket stitch (it's a thought). At this point that is as far as I have thought ahead. I am sure other things will appear as I go. The nice thing about this piece is that it was meant to be nothing but a sample, something to practice on and pass the time. That kind of gives me permission to do whatever I want to it without worrying that it be perfect. I can be as crazy or as laid back as I want to be. Below is a couple of detail pictures.




On another note, I was a guest blogger over at LillStreet Textiles at http://lillstreettextiles.blogspot.com/ . Hop over and take a look.

What I have been doing lately

The last couple weeks I have not been in the mood to do any felting or printing (though I did print one apron for a display at Lill Street. I just don't have any pictures of it yet). When that happens I do embroidery. This is the piece I have been working on (when I had time) for the last week. I originally started this last spring as part of a silkscreen/embroidery class taught by Camille Canales at Lill Street Art Center. I silk screened the ovals and circles and then outlined them in split stitch. That was as far as I got in the class.



Then after looking at it I thought it needed something more. I had this image of vines running around the circles in my head and although I got a start on that last summer, I ended up putting the piece aside for a while. So now, I have dragged it back out and continued work on it. Along with the vines done in split stitch flower buds in various colors in satin stitch have appeared too.



Sooner or later I will finish this piece, though I imagine that there may be a few more twists added before it is done.

Pictures from classes that I took at Lill Street before the holidays

The above picture is of my kitty cat screen printed on a couple scarves and a flour sack dishtowel.



The above picture is a silkscreen of a still life drawing done in class that was made into a stencil that was then used to silkscreen the image in a repeat pattern on a piece of cotton muslin cloth. Can you guess what it is? If not...it is an iron.

I took two classes at Lill Street Art Center in the fall and just before the holidays. I took the Advanced Screenprinting Class and the Easy Repeats Class both taught by Rachel Walker. If you have a chance to take one of Rachel's classes do so, she is a great teacher!

2009 Wrap-Up

At the end of 2008 I attended as a vendor one craft fair (my first one). In 2009 I was a vendor at 3 Art & Craft Fairs and 1 other event. I am also still selling my scarves (in addition to my Nuno-Felt scarves I am also selling dyed and printed ones this year) at Painted Light Photos & Framing (and Mom is selling her hats there too). So I feel that I have made some progress as far as getting myself and my art out into the public eye.

I was in the Lill Street Member Sale (my first Art & Craft Sale on my own).



I was once again in the Streeterville Artisan Market with my mother (which is also the one we were at in 2008).



Mom and I also attended the Bucktown Bazaar as vendors.



Last of all my Aunt who owns Stern's Book Service (which is a psychology bookstore and service) asked my mother and I to include some of our work in with her books for a recovery conference put on by Hazelden in downtown Chicago. She figured that since it was so close to Christmas that some of the people would like to do some Christmas shopping while they did their book shopping. I was only there the first day of the conference (though our stuff was still their for the second day) but mom and I actually sold several items. I was very happy about this. It was a nice wrap up for the year. Unfortunately I did not take any pictures of the table at the conference. Although if I did, I think I would have skipped the pictures of the table and taken a picture of the salad bar the hotel put out for the conference goers. It had to be the fanciest salad bar I had ever seen (and so very, very tasty)!

Also, there was one last thing that put my work prominently out in the public eye and that was the Felt Hanging I did and showed on my front porch for UnitedFelt's First International Day of Felt back in early October. My pictures are not only on my blog and on the Lill Street Textile Department's blog but on the We United Felt website at
http://www.feltunited.com/
just scroll down to the bottom and click on "2009 exhibit online" which is in red and then choose the format that you want to see the pictures. I highly recommend taking a look at it as there were many, many excellent feltworks done for this event.

I also took various art classes at Lill Street Art Center(printing, embroidery, glass bead making) and attending one of the SDA's post-conference workshops in Kansas City. The post conference workshop was great not only because it dealt with felt but because I got a chance to study under and Internationally Renowned Felter, that being Jorie Johnson. I would recommend her classes to anyone.

I am still working on figuring out my resolutions as far as the direction I wish to take from here, so, that will have to be written up on another post. I hope everyone had a happy holiday and a great New Year!

Happy New year!

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