Meeeeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrry Christmas!

Ahh! Tequila for Christmas!

Happy Thanksgiving!

For the first Thanksgiving in 25 plus years I did not spend the day in the kitchen. My husband did! We will not be having our "real" Thanksgiving until Saturday, so I got to spend my day as I saw fit. So I spent it in the laundry room. Dyeing wool! I can't wait to start making fingerless mitts and flowers out of my new colors-it is like getting a new box of crayons! I hope to have those finished for the Yuletide Show at the MAC December 9th-11th. Anyway, as you can see late in the afternoon the bird came out of the freezer to see what was going on. While waiting for stuff to come out of the dye pot I did manage to get some holiday scarves finished-I will be working the Pottery Place tomorrow mid day and will be bringing those with me. Start Small Business Saturday a day early and come in and see us-it will be a lot more pleasant than the mall I promise!

Hiking

I got new boots and have been putting them to use. Today was no exception. After I dropped off stuff for my display at The Stocking Tree in Siverlake Mall, Coeur d'Alene, ID I decided it was just too beautiful to go in and work. I live fairly close to the Spokane River and I walk over there. At this time of year the colors are so different and the water so dark and still.

Rose colored glasses maybe???

Oh no, it is just October, Breast Cancer Awareness Month, the month where the whole world is hosed down in pink and everyone is out looking for lumps. Do me a some favors.First remember that while one in 8 women are diagnosed this also means that seven out of eight never develop it. If you did/do develop it please remember that it is probably a combination of genetics with all the wonderful chemicals in our food, water and air that caused this, so when somebody tells you to calm down as "stress causes cancer" you have my permission to relieve your stress by beating the crap out of them as they deserve it. YOU DID NOT DO THIS TO YOURSELF!
And last of all, remember you are not NECESSARILY looking for lumps. Dimples, divots, ditches, strains, or differences between the two sides could all mean something bad. Or they could be nothing at all. Basically, anything that is different than the last time you felt yourself up should be questioned. You have never done a self exam? Better get started.

What Happened to September?

Or, from the looks of this blog, most of July and August as well?? Lots of travel and then racing home to make more stuff and then going back out again seems to be the answer. Mostly fun and successful like the Anacortes show, some very wet like Sequim ("No, those are not bunions on my feet they are just barnacles!") I also taught sun printing to a group of Japanese students from Mukogawa University that were here in Spokane and had a blast; their choices of colors were so different than mine and were so wonderful! I went to a friend's paper making soiree and ended up doing a botanical transfer method on silk. I want to play around more with that, but the weather is changing so it may have to wait until spring. Why can't I ever find anything that is not dependent on good weather? Maybe this is a sign I should just hibernate all winter.
Tonight I have been delving into a filing cabinet drawer. I do actually have some new pursuits but I am having a bit of trouble getting started. I decided to attack the drawer as I knew there were things in there that had inspired me in the past. WHOA! This was like an archeological dig! Finding all this stuff was just as powerful as looking at an old photo album. Seeing the magazine pictures of quilts that had inspired me, some enough to actually make them, along with toys for my kids (where did they get to? The toys, not the kids, I know where the kids are-more or less), holiday decorations and stuff for the house. One thing that touched me was the pattern for a wreath I had actually made for my mother, I know it had to be shortly after I got married so that was 25 years ago or so. I know there was some frustration and cussing going on as I remember my new step daughter asking me what "that word" meant and my husband looking at the ceiling. The other mind blowing find was a cut out from a magazine called "New Ingenue" that was out briefly in the 70's. Although it was a fashion magazine it was not like "Seventeen" at all and they always had section about making stuff out of thrift store finds (hummm.......that upcycle thing isn't new after all!). When I look at this pile of ephemera it amazes me how much of a part of my current life many of these things still are. The other thing that cracked me up was on the back of a 15 year old quilt picture-it was a magazine article explaining to quilters how to "explore the web". It made it sound like you needed safari hat and a flash light-who knew?
Well it is time to get ready to go out on the road again, this time to Issaquah Washington for Salmon Days. As you can see Gladys would prefer I stay home.

Come see me this Saturday!

I will be at Northland Rosarium for A Day in the Garden, I will be showing my sun-printed silk scarves and ruanas as well as some other flower related items. The weather looks good for a change and it should be a fun event!

Off to Eugene!

I am going to be in Art in the Vineyard sponsored by Maude Kerns Art Center in Alton Baker Park. I am still trying to figure out the mobile blog thing-so far I am baffled-this is not surprising to those that know me. The show is Saturday, Sunday and Monday and the weather looks fabulous, if you are in the area, come by for a glass of wine, some music and some art!

Sun Printing-I hope

There is actually a little sun in the forecast for tomorrow, so I am trying to get ready. I use a lot of templates and stencils and decided this year to get back to using at least some real leaves and such. To work well they need to be flat-but not dried out, so picking the day before use is ideal. Trouble is, if I get up and there is no sun-dry and crispy is what they will become!

Ta-da!

This may not seem exciting to everyone-but I am thrilled! Georgia O'Keeffe is one of favorite artists and her various paintings of jack in the pulpits are my favorites. She has done some that are almost photographic to some that are really abstracted. Thus, I have been trying to get the little devils to grow in my yard forever-and finally-success!

April Showers bring May Flowers

Because I can't get out in the yard to work with the real thing!

Mom's Day

It was no rest for the weary today-jeez! Just because they are grown and out of the house doesn't mean I don't get to sit down on Mom's day. Anyway, I  painted fans today and I thought the old dog house looked really cool, I had forgotten the tulips were there.                                                                                      

Next week I will be having a trunk show at the Pottery Place. Saturday the 14th from 11-4 I will have an expanded selection of my work and there will be snacks! Come down to the shop and take a look!

Moscow Renaissance Fair

Moscow Idaho, that is. For the first time in years it was sunny both days! No Woodstock-like mud pits this year! Here are some shots of customers wearing there purchases from previous years;

The dragon's head, middle and end!

Spring in Lewiston, ID

I was going to post pictures of my booth with actual people in it-but after looking at the pictures I decided that those 40 MPH gusts during set up did no good. So here are some pictures of stuff in the booth:
This is a turquoise and green story that includes sun print silk, fuzzy scarves, ruffled scarves and a collage necklace.

Several flowers:

Fans, lipstick cases and ties from my collage work:

Happy Spring

I am off to Seattle for Best of the Northwest!

So...how was the show?

Well, the show was fine, more money than last year's show is always a good thing. The week or so since has been quite the roller coaster. Starting out with a bunch of unexpected car repairs to discovering I was accepted into two shows that I didn't think would happen to watching with horror at all that is going on in Japan. Simply stunning. Meanwhile, one of my kids is starting the sometimes infuriating process of buying a house and the other one is in the more infuriating situation of trying to hang on to hers-all of this leading to about a million phone calls for advice, information and support of one sort or another.
I have also been struggling with the craft vs. art thing. Craft was what was obviously selling at the show, and as this is the time of year when there is more money going out than coming in I spent the week replenishing what was sold and adding to the supply since if I had more at the last show I would have sold more. On the other hand, with everything getting so busy I feel the loss of spiritual connection one has when one is creating solely for the purpose of creating instead of commerce.
Since there are examples of my new things in my Etsy shop at right I won't include a picture here.

Show set up

With the van fully loaded-there is barely room for me!

Time to unload-where are those elves when you need them?

It is a start...

Ta-da!

Show Prep

I will be at Custer's Spring Arts and Crafts Fair at the Spokane County Fairgrounds this weekend. This is the first one since last November and I would love to say I had it all down to a science. At first, I had all these wonderful pictures of everything all laid out just needing to be popped into a box. Yeah right.

This is after the sorting process-what goes to the show, what stays here for Etsy pictures and what goes to The Pottery Place.
This is a new jacket I did, the feature fabric came from a trip to Southern California to visit my sister, the rest required tea dyeing to get everything on the same wavelength.

Winter isn't gone yet!

Last night's blizzard was amazing to watch. I was working the artists' co-op and watching it come down sideways. This morning everything was beautiful and clean looking-all that tired late winter blah is covered up.

 This little guy is having breakfast at our impromptu bird feeder-which turned out great because most of the mess stays in the hanging basket and below is my studio door.

Once again, I have managed to make something that "goes with" absolutely nothing else in my booth! I have had these little moon man buttons sitting around forever and decided to see if I could turn them into some kind of hair ornament, alas they are ceramic and I fear much to heavy to stay in anybody's hair for very long so they became lapel pins instead.

Winter views

I went to my friend's house last week for a brief rest. Mostly, we sat around and sewed. I am getting ready for art fair season to start so I was making flowers, pins or hair ornaments. It is one of those things that seems rather shallow at first glance, but I have a blast letting one idea lead to another.

 I went for a walk and took some photos, she has a caboose on her property so a picture of the rusty side was mandatory as was a drop of water and the bench. The bench sums up the way I feel about her place, which is a place to go for rest and renewal.

Time for a Real Introduction!

I have been so busy playing around with the gadgets, the rest of this looks empty! Since I generally feel that the internet is one of the biggest time sucking black holes ever invented it surprises me just as much as anybody that I decided to do this. For the last 13 years or so I have been making clothing and selling it at fairs and other venues. I also make mixed media art-books, mobiles, paintings, etc. Recently, I have been experimenting with encaustic and have found a new love. I show this work now and again when the opportunity arises. The clothing tends to get its day in the sun (and rain, snow, hail, hurricane force winds-you name it)at art fairs around the region as well as stores, galleries and the co-op I belong to Pottery Place Plus. The poor mixed media tends to hang out in the loft. I find it strange that once you do one thing, you are pegged for life. People even find it unusual that I make more than one type of clothing. Working in series is great; right now I have a thing going on with scarves that has inspired more ideas for garments than I will ever get done in this lifetime or the next. I also have just started a mixed media series based on the big spoons and forks from the sixties-again more ideas than I can get done. I just can't figure out where the rule got written that an artist is more creative if all they do is the same thing over and over and over. So, I decided that maybe a blog would be a better way for people to get to know me and what all my work is about.
    Besides-if I don't find some place to blow off steam about some of things that have been going on lately I am going to turn into my father-the other day I started yelling at the newspaper! Yes-the actual piece of paper!

This tree is by the Spokane River near my home. It is one of my favorites as it keeps hanging on year after year as the ground around it slowly washes away. There are many rocks stuck in its roots.

I have a new blog! Welcome!

Welcome to my new blog!