Monday Quote - Best reason to buy American Artisan Products!!!

The human spirit needs beauty as much as the body needs food and oxygen.

Wordless Wednesday

Tuesday Tip - Doing Art Shows

I am always striving to improve my business....my work, my marketing and my show presentation. One thing that helps me with the latter is to take a picture of my layout at every show. It is one thing to look at the booth during the show, but seeing it on the computer later I observe things I didn't see at the show. I can figure out what works and what doesn't. I can ask myself, for instance, if the bright colors in the front seemed to draw more people into the booth. These don't have to be jury quality, just for me quality- so a point and shoot digital camera is just fine.

Monday Quote - New Eyes

The real voyage of discovery

consists not in seeking new landscapes

but in having new eyes

Marcel Proust

A Good Day to Dye

Once a year my fiber group, Designworks, gets together at a members house and has a 'dye day'. I make up a soda ash soak and mix all the dyes. They bring whatever they want to dye (natural fibers only) and all the extra's they need (table, plastic, containers, brushes, bags to carry wet work home- that kind of thing).

And then it's play time!!!!

It's a great day of creative people trying different techniques all at the same time. Unlike a class where I am trying to educate the participants, in this case I stand back and let them create. I am there mostly to field questions and facilitate their ideas. For their part, they get all the fun of experimental dyeing without really needing to know the chemical knitty gritty. I find (as with most teaching situations) that I learn from them - fresh ideas for my work.

Everyone brings a potluck dish for lunch and it's back to work.

So - if you are looking for a different way to spend a creative day get some friends together for a dye day!

Wordless Wednesday

Tuesday Tip - Creating a New Design- Part 2

Last week I told you my tip for making quick muslin samples. Well, there is another side to my sample making. Instead of using muslin fabric, I will frequently use fashion fabric (sometimes scrounged at sales) close to (or sometimes the actual) fabric I am thinking of using for the final project. This is a piece of fashion for ME! It also works because I will take that article of clothing and wear it alot- built in product testing!

Monday Quote - Imagine & Dream

If you can imagine it, you can achieve it.
If you can dream it, you can become it.

William Arthur Ward

A New Twist on Shibori

One thing I love about shibori techniques is that they tend to keep evolving. Wrapping cloth around a pole to create designs is a relatively new technique. It was developed in the late 1800's in Japan, and brought to the United States 100 years later by Yoshiko Wada. In Japan a de-barked tree trunk was used, the US adaptation called for plastic plumbing pipe. Many people do not realize there are several ways to wrap the cloth. Many different fiber artist's imagination was fired up with this technique and they are still exploring the possibilities. Judith Content, returning home after a workshop only found an empty wine bottle to work with and found it worked beautifully. Sue Bleiweiss made a video about her technique and posted it on You Tube. This is a much quicker way to get the fabric on the tube and get down to the fun bit - the coloring of the cloth. Sue uses paints for her pieces, but I decided to try it with MX Procion dyes. Here are pictures of the two scarves I made. I think they look great and I plan to make a few more this summer, playing with the technique as I go along. The effect is more subtle than traditional arashi shibori, but is an avenue worth exploring.

Sue Bleiweiss Silk Shibori Demo
Sue Bleiweiss demonstrates her favorite method for painting silk. Note: I know that the volume is a bit low on this video and I hope to correct that by using a portable mike when I shoot the next video.

Cool video!

Art Fair this Weekend!

This weekend I will be joining 124 of my artist friends at a show in the Cleveland, Ohio area! This is a great

shopping center and the show is produced by people who really know what they are doing. The weather promises to be perfect, so think about stopping by to this FREE event! In addition to wearable art (my booth is #108 - in front of J Crew), there will be booths filled with fantastic jewelry, pottery, photographs, glass and so much more! Here is your chance to truly buy American- all the items were created by the people in the booth!



For more information :

www.theguild.org/art_fair_crocker_park.html

Wordless Wednesday

Tuesday Tip - Creating a New Design- Part 1

In the clothing business, making a sample of a new design is called a 'muslin'. The name comes from the usual fabric that is used - muslin. After cutting out the pieces, you sew them together and then try it on. The best part of using this cheaper fabric is that you can make any tailoring change marks right on the fabric. And when it is done to your satisfaction, you can easily take it apart and create your pattern.

I, too, use muslin to try out new designs for the first time. However, instead of sewing the fabric seams I overlap them the depth of the seam and use masking tape as my sew line. Quick, quick, quick. And I can take it apart without the nasty seam ripper!

Monday Quote - Creativity

Creativity is more than just being different. Anybody can plan weird. Making the simple, awesomely simple, that's creativity.

~ Mingus

Wordless Wednesday

Tuesday Tip - Dyeing

Whenever I am doing a Procion MX dye run I always keep some form of cloth nearby to wipe up spills. Sometimes it is yardage, but lately I have been using different articles of clothing. The random mop up's create some beautiful and unusual combinations. If the piece needs some more dyeing, I often let it air dry until the next session. If it is done, I pour some soda ash solution on top and process as normal.

Recently, I bought some (absolutely wonderfully soft!) bamboo socks from Dharma Trading. I used these in my last dye sessions and they really turned out nice!

Monday Quote-Let's Have Fun!

One of the very first things I figured out about life...is that it's better to be a hopeful person than a cynical, grumpy one, because you have to live in the same world either way, and if you're hopeful, you have more fun.

Barbara Kingsolver