Mermaid Cruise

Went on a cruise January 12-19 with a group of women brought together by Rebecca Floeter a.k.a. "The Mermaid Queen" on Ebay. She has been selling clothes to what she calls 'mermaids' for years. In her words : "I am dedicated to the Mermaid Archetype who holds the pathos and mythos of the Goddess Aphrodite and the Magdalene Archetype. The Mermaid holds the power of transformation for love, death, life and inspiration. I believe we dress who we are from the inside out...so please join me in celebrating your mermaid diva-ness!". If you are in the plus sized category and enjoy funky and beautiful clothing look her up (Ebay name: beccaben).

Anyway, there were 74 women all of whom were interested in artwear clothing, Ebay and transforming their lives. Included in the cruise were classes on Ebay selling, Selling as an Artist, Feng Shui, Life Mapping and also a shaman by the name of Wendy Luckey (http://wendyluckey.com/cms/home) who offered both group and private readings. I participated in both of these and I can tell you that they were powerfully transforming! Oh yeah, and it worked with a couple of enlightened men, too! Probably one of the most interesting weeks of my life.

One of the highlights of the cruise (at least for me) was an artist trunk show. Along for the ride were Steel Pony (http://www.steelpony.com/), HVC Byrd, Amy Brill and about 6 other people who created their own artwear or jewelry. The ship gave us the uppermost bar for this venue - the one overlooking the ocean. Very surrealistic and gorgeous - I really love the ocean. When we came up we just staked out a spot and put our stuff out. Only lasted 2 hours - but it was a good 2 hours. First time I ever went on a vacation and came home with lighter suitcases!

Really got to know many of these women quite well and I feel lucky to have found this opportunity. Everyone went for a slightly different reason and many of us are keeping in contact. Rebecca is planning another cruise next April - this one goes to Belize! I have always wanted to go there. And there are Mayan ruins on this cruise. That is something I have always wanted to see, so I am planning on going on this one too!

Snow Dyeing

Can't believe how long it has been ! But, I am going to give this a try again if for no other reason than to document the experiments I have been doing lately.

Last weeks experiment is snow dyeing. I have been reading about it on my lists lately, and since I am not a natural snow lover, thought it might be nice to have some good use for the stuff. I also needed something for my Designworks group with the theme 'nature'.

So, I presoaked a yard of cotton fabric and let it dry. Then I left for a week. So, when I came back I soaked it in soda ash again and layed it out in the snow. I squirted dye all over using 3 colors, a mocha brown, butterscotch and a green. I piled some snow on top and squirted indigo on top. Looked pretty colorful sitting in the snow.

I left it for 2 hours in about 35 degree weather. It looked like most of the blue had absorbed into the cloth.

Then I brought it inside and nuked it for 4 minutes. I was hoping that would help the dye set, but in my heart I knew better. After washing, I lost much of the color. In the end it is an interesting piece, but I would rather not snow (we are in the middle of a big storm right now - all the weather people are SO giddy).

Pretty, but not interesting enough. I will be cutting this up to give everyone a piece. So I stamped and stenciled some leaves, dragonflies and some funny little prehistoric looking bird.

Hard to believe that all these pictures are the same fabric. In the end I still think I could have achieved simular results without standing in the snow, but it was interesting.