Life is what Happens...

"I wonder if I have been worrying so much that the worry muscles in my brain are now broken, permanently sharpened to a point of attention that is useless now, an ambulance siren for no one."

Jill Kolongowski from the article "Tart" in the March 2025 issue of the Sun magazine

The last few years have been challenging to say the least. Now, I realize that for several of them I had been going through a major, years long depressive espisode with its accompanying anxiety.  Sometime during the winter, my head finally poked out of the hole in the ground it had been in. Trouble is, I came up in the middle of a war zone. Between the crap the current administration is pulling that will directly affect my life and the lives of those I love and a lot of personal stuff, it is very tempting to crawl back in the hole. But, that isn't possible this time. Or, maybe like the above quote, the part of my brain that incessantly over thinks, is worn out and broken. Good.

My husband has had a stroke. He is doing pretty well all things considered. His vision being the biggest issue. He can see, but not well enough to drive or do the things he needs/wants to do. So, my life will change dramatically (already has) and so my art and the way I sell it will also. I ask for your patience as I figure this all out. It would help if the medical system in the US wasn't such a mess. Our first order of business is to get therapies for him to help with his sight. Due to a simple paperwork issue (by the hosptial and it took me a week just to figure out that it was an actual problem) this is taking much longer than it should, time being of the essence with his vision. Once that is scheduled the rest of life can be set up around that.

I see my life online expanding and am pondering what that will look like and the steps to get there. In the meantime, I could use your help. If you are in Spokane, please think of me and Pottery Place Plus when picking out gifts. We are at 203 N Washington in Downtown, next to Aunties books. If you are in Moscow Idaho, I have restocked Essential Art Gallery and Fine Gifts with my work and it should be available soon. My Etsy shop is filled with handmade buttons and pendants, as well as eco printed paper and fabric-with more to come. Oh, and a few scarves, if that is what you were after. Remember that you can click on the item and "send the seller a message" if what you see is close but no quite-I am happy to send pictures of things that are waiting their turn to be out in public, one way or the other.

I can still do classes and events here in town, I just can't be gone for days at this point so I have cancelled the Richland Art in the Park for this year. It makes me sad because I like that show a lot. If my class at the Spokane Art School on August 9th fills, it will go on. As far as scheduling other classes goes, until I get his therapy appointments in place I can't do much right now.

Thanks in advance for your support, it means the world to me.

I have been getting some paper done, along with a few other things as time permits. This is for the paper sets I sell on Etsy as well as my own work.

Summer is Here!

 Here are some links to events and classes (typing with one hand today, so this will be short) hope to see you soon!

Classes

Spokane Art School

Eco Printed Journal Class

June 28th

Eco Printed Paper Class

August 9th

Events

Terrain's Bazaar

June 21st, Downtown Spokane

Allied Arts Art in the Park

July 25th and 26th, Howard Amon Park, Richland WA

Sorry there are no descriptions here, but hit the links and you should be able to get your questions answered, thanks!

Spring is Almost Here

"The promise of spring's arrival is enough to get anyone through the bitter winter."

Jen Selinsky

I love to watch these form off the deck awning

I have been working away on a project for December, lots of sewing. One day I got distracted and made little piles of a lot of the cool stuff I have collected over the years.

Spring at last! The geese are flying over, the snow is melting, and spring shows will be coming soon. Frist up is 33 Artists Market at the the Woman's Club of Spokane. Come say hi.

 

The Studio in Winter

 " A vision without execution is hallucination."

Accredited to Thomas Edison or being an ancient Japanese proverb. It's a good thought either way.

So, at this time of year I am not only wrapping up the old year (inventory, taxes etc.) but planning what  this year will look like. With everything that is going on the vision is pretty cloudy to be honest. I am thinking about what art fairs I will do, classes I will teach, and what art I will make. The only thing set in stone at this point is a solo exhibit at Pottery Place Plus, of which I am a member. We can rent out the guest artist space for a body of work that differs from our normal work we show in the gallery. I am thinking smaller accessories that may drift into some jewelry items, but we will see. My method for deciding is to make piles of materials and see what ideas come of it. A great activity for cold, gray afternoons. I watch the goings-on at the bird feeder while I sort out the fabrics that remind me of the sunny days they were made. I have until October to be done with the work for the show; It seems far off, but will be here shortly. 

In the meantime, if I am going to be able to do fairs this spring and summer I do have to get work done, even though it is the dead of winter here and there isn't much fresh plant material to work with. I was asked for an interview with our local weekly paper, the Inlander, so that was another poke to get busy! They needed pictures to go with the article. I started with yellow onionskins on silk. This is a method with rusty nails as a co-effector that creates something that resembles an animal print. This was a way to have something colorful in the background of the photos as most of the prints with dried and pressed leaves give fainter color than when they were green leaves. They can be overdyed with other natural dyes, which is what will happen to the pieces I did as soon as we are just a tad warmer outside. Stomping around in the outdoor kitchen in 32 degrees Celsius is much better than the teens and twenties we are experiencing now.

 So, I am also spending sometime at the sewing machine making new ideas for what seems like a ton of eco printed fabric piling up around here. I guess in this case the execution mentioned above is coming before the vision and at some point it will all come together.

Bundles of yellow onion skins and rusted nails steaming in the outdoor kitchen, this can also be turned olive green with a post dip in an iron pot .

This one is on my Etsy shop. While I am taking a break from ceramics to create space both physically and mentally, I still have a lot of buttons and pendants to post, so keep checking!

Happy New Year!

This could be filed under "Better Late than Never". I meant to put scarves in my Etsy shop for the holiday season, but then, after avoiding it like the plague for 4 years, I managed to contract covid. Perfect timing. Now, on the one hand, compared to what has gone on in the past, it seemed like a giant non-event for my husband and I. Neither of us got terribly sick. Just very, very tired. Really exhausted as a matter of fact.

So, here we are! I put up four scarves, but remember you can always hit the "message the seller" button and ask to see pictures of others. It helps if you pick a picture that is close, click on that one, then message the seller and tell me what about that particular one is close to what you want and I can go through what I have and take it from there. Hit this link to take you to the main page of my shop.

Merry Christmas!

"I am trying to be unfamiliar with what I am doing."

John Cage 

I have worked with poinsettia before. It works well on paper, not so much on fabric.

These pieces are with copper as the mordant, which I had never used for poinsettia on paper before. The prints are more diffuse, but the color is still lovely.

The top papers are with an alum mordant and the bottom row is with rusted water.

Yellow

 "Yellow is the color of the east, childhood, and morning."

Jeffrey D Anderson

A lovely use for spotted knapweed. The card on the left is using an alum mordant (along with some other plants) and the one on the right is using copper as the mordant.

The leaves of arrowleaf balsamroot also make a lovely limey to citrus yellow, see below.

It never ceases to amaze me that most everything starts out green!

The magic begins!

Arrowleaf balsamroot and spotted knapweed on silk

If you would like to see the yellow scarves in person I will be at the Manito Art Festival this Saturday from 10-6. Come by booth 37 and see all the pretty things!

If you are interested in eco printing on paper, I am offering an accordian journal class at the Spokane Art School on June 29th. 

Hope to see you soon!