Fibers Through Time ~April,2010~ Phoenix, AZ

First a quick apology to my readers for such a long stretch between blogs. Last year I was given the opportunity to participate in an artist's co-op at our local mall. Needless to say I jumped at the chance! Turned out my scarves started selling as quickly as I could make them! But, I have caught up now and vow to blog on a regular basis.

Thanks for sticking with me!

On April 15-18 I was privileged to participate as an instructor at the Arizona Federation of Weavers and Spinners Guilds conference in Phoenix. I was teaching a 2 1/5 day "Taste of Shibori" workshop to 10 participants. They had 4 workshops that required water, so we shared a tent outside. It turned out to be a nice set up that worked well. I was very impressed with the entire conference - they were well organized and I was very comfortable teaching there.


I had 10 students in all and because we were outside everyone had their own 8' table to work on. Really made it easier to work! The way I like to structure this workshop is to give everyone an overview of the techniques, make some samples, and then let them free to explore whichever methods attracted their attention. I always find it fascinating! Here are some of the examples of what they came up with:

Lovely eye candy isn't it?

They really stuck in there even though it was a bit unseasonably warm. Every day there were some who came early and/or stayed late.

One of the things I love about shibori techniques is that no matter how long you practice, there are always new avenues to explore and surprises to discover!

It was a lovely conference - the vendor area was packed with new goodies. And yes, I gave in and brought back a few things to play with. As I try them I will tell you about it. One thing they had was a raffle. Many fiber goodies were donated to the cause and tickets were sold. They even had a Macomber loom as one of the raffle goodies. Trouble was, no matter how hard I tried I just couldn't figure out how to get it in my suitcase. So, I didn't use one of my tickets for the loom but there was plenty of other fun things to try for. I didn't win anything, but my roommate (Susan Wilson) won a pile of old monographs and samples! There was a dinner on Friday at a local Cajun restaurant for the instructors and a grand banquet on Saturday. One of the traditions they have is to gift the instructors with handwoven scarves. It was a lovely undulating twill using the colors of the Phoenix sunset as their inspiration. I want to thank everyone who participated in the weaving for my lovely scarf. I will treasure it.

WE HAVE OUR FIRST WINNER!

OK - drumroll , please!

The winner of this silk scarf is:

SUE B ! She won it by leaving a comment on my blog. Stay tuned, because I expect to run another giveaway quite soon since it was so much fun!

Sue - please send me an email with your snail address. Artweardesign@Comcast.net Thanks

More on the Cruise...and other stuff

Things have been moving at warp speed around here lately. Happens every year - most of my shows are at the end of the year, including the Michigan Renaissance Festival which opened last weekend. But don't worry - there are still 6 more weekends to partake! I will probably write a post about what you can expect next week. That will still leave 5 weeks which is the time most people come anyway.

This year I am also gearing up to participate in an artist's co-operative at the Twelve Oaks Mall in Novi. The expected opening is October 1. More on that as it gets closer.

Last weekend my daughter was offered a job in Maryland. Naturally she wanted to check out the area first. Since it was last minute she couldn't get any of her friends to go. Not wanting her to undertake the 9 1/2 hr each way drive (with no stops!) alone, I volunteered to go with her. My husband took over my duties at the Renn Faire and we left at 4 AM - got to the place where the job was and due to circumstances beyond any one's control they had to rescind the offer. Now what? We had all these plans to explore - not really needed anymore - so I figured since we were in Maryland we should go out for a crab dinner. Found a place (not really tough there) and got to take out some of our aggression out on the crabs with the wooden mallet the restaurant gave us. After dinner we came home - arrived at 3:30 AM! Long way to go for crab. But I did learn 2 things : yes, I CAN be cooped up with my daughter for 24 hrs and not kill each other and occasionally I can do silly things like I did in my 20's!

But for the CRUISE NEWS! Anyone on the fence....PRINCESS IS HAVING A SALE!!!!!! YIPPEE!!!! And it applies to anyone who already booked! There will be round table discussions, how to sell on eBay, Digital photography, and fashion do's & don'ts classes, artist trunk show and special fashion show, not to mention all the great Caribbean ports we will be stopping at in the middle of February (it's already getting cold here) ! You may come knowing no one, but you will leave with many new friends! Like I have said before, this will be my third one and I can not wait! Any questions??? Feel free to contact me or go to the website for more info.

Last years crew - having a good time at the open bar cocktail party!

Artist Cruise- Come Along!

The last 2 years I have gone on a Princess cruise organized to feature wearable artists and patrons. Next years cruise happens in February and will go to St. Maarten, St Thomas, Grand Turks & Caicos and Princess Cay. There will be lots of great people to meet, classes to take and will feature great wearable art to buy! It is being organized by Helen Weichman aka Groundhog Blues on Ebay. She just put a website together telling you all you need to know......Princess is now offering down payments as low as $100 (normally $250) and the balance can be paid at any time before November 20. So, if you THINK you might be interested now is the time! I will be talking more and more about the cruise, but I wanted everyone to have the chance to take advantage of the low down payment. I think part of the fun I have on the cruise is dreaming about how wonderful it will be the whole time before. Imagine daily (FREE) room service, nightly gourmet dinners, nightly production live shows, entertainment of all sorts, movies under the stars, or just laying about the pool .... over here drink service....I will have another mai tai - I am not driving! So, my vacation starts way before I board ship!

Check it out : http://www.cruise.kztek.com/ and we can spend the next5 months or so dreaming together!

These pictures were our ship this year, the Ruby Princess which is the sister ship to the 2010 ship - the Emerald Princess. As luck would have it my parents are going on a cruise aboard the Emerald Princess in October, so I will report their findings!

Wordless Wednesday (at least I got the day right!)

Monday Quote

OK, I know it's not Monday. My only defense is that at this time of the year things start piling up each one screaming "ME FIRST!" I finally got all my orders out from Ann Arbor, the Renaissance Festival starts on August 22, I have an artist garage sale on August 28 and I am seriously considering an artists co-operative at a local mall. Whew. I will write in depth on all those, but here is a quote that serves me a lesson from time to time. It is one I wish I had known earlier in life, but now is better than never:

"How people treat you is their karma;
how you react is yours"

Wayne Dyer

Wordless Wednesday

I found this quote on another web site. It belongs to Jane Dunnewold and if you are a fiber art lover it is well worth a look. This the first thing on her opening page and it really speaks to me:

You are not here merely to make a living.
You are here in order to enable the world
to live more amply, with greater vision,
with a finer spirit of hope and achievement.
You are here to enrich the world,
and you impoverish yourself
if you forget the errand.

-Woodrow Wilson

One Amazing Woman - a customer portrait

Busy week trying to restock the basics after the Ann Arbor show. Good problem to have.

Earlier this week one of my customers sent me a link to her blog where she is wearing the float she bought from me at the show. I love it when customers do that! (hint, hint)

But, Sue, really has honored me. You see, she has been through the chemo tunnel. and this is her first picture taken with no wig! I think she looks adorable. When I create a piece I always hope that it will bring joy to the wearer and make her feel wonderful. I am honored she chose my work for her 'coming out' party! When I went on to read a bit more about her life I found out that she is an amazing woman. Mother of 3, Grandmother of 1 she worked many years as a medicinal chemist. When she 'retired' she didn't just sit at home - no, this woman enrolled in an Italian immersion program and lived in an Italian monastery for 5 weeks in a hill town - Population: 310 . She has also traveled to France, Spain and England.

I am sure her blog has uplifted and inspired many.

Here is the link to her blog if you would like to read more: http://www.suzannekesten2.blogspot.com/ and the post that my work is in is titled "Waiting for guests".

Wordless Wednesday

Ann Arbor Art Fair

Well, another Ann Arbor Art Fair is over! And this one was wonderful! The weather could not have been any better- sunny and coolish every day with only one brief shower! That makes it SO much nicer for everyone!

And the best news - almost everyone I talked to had a good, solid show - no dancing in the aisles, but the show was as good or better than most thought it would be! And I am hearing more or less the same reports from friends doing shows around the country. Being an artist is truly in the economic trenches - it doesn't get much simpler than making something and having someone else buy it. So, I truly believe it when the media is reporting that we have bottomed out on the economy and are climbing back out - things are on the upswing!

I wish my camera hadn't died just before the show, but luckily nothing too out of the ordinary happened. Hopefully, I will be able to fix it in the next few weeks and have some pictures showing what I am working on! I am doing another loom shibori piece and working on some complex dye cloths. In the meantime I need to get another warp on the loom and start weaving.

WIN THIS SCARF!!!!!!

OK, I am jumping on the bandwagon in the blogging world and offering a giveaway! You could easily win this hand dyed scarf - I talked about how I made it in an earlier post- http://artweardesign.blogspot.com/2009/06/new-twist-on-shibori.html


So, what do you have to do? Not much, really. Leave a comment to this post counts as an entry. Subscribe to my blog and you can get another entry (if you are already a subscriber you have already entered once!). On August 30 I will have a random customer at a show pull a name and that person will be the winner. Stop by on August 31 to see if it is you!

Summer Art Fair in Ann Arbor

I want to apologize to everyone following my blog - I haven't been keeping it up very well lately. Partly due to life getting in the way, partly due to work getting in the way and partly due to my camera just flat out stopping. Arrrgghhhh! I really wanted to take some pictures of what I have been working on lately, but that will have to wait until next week.

This week I will be at the Ann Arbor Summer Art Fair! It is 4 days long and runs Wednesday- Saturday. Over 1,000 artists will be there in 4 different fairs so, if you are an art lover it is well worth coming. Several people make it a mini vacation so they can cover as much as possible.
www.theguild.org/art_fair_summer.html

I have some new goodies that I think will just fly out of the booth, so be sure to shop early! My booth is on Main Street #D157. Stop by and say 'hi' if you are at the show!

Wordless Wednesday

Tuesday Tip - Production Weaving

When I am making a coat or jacket type garment I will need to cut some sort of opening up the front of the handwoven cloth. I used to take a piece of contrasting yarn and mark where I wanted to cut. Now I add a warp thread of contrasting yarn where I will eventually cut. Since it doesn't have to be the entire piece, I will add the contrast yarn as if it is a broken warp. After washing and processing, I will measure the contrasting yarn and either add or subtract some to suit. Then I will cut and stabalize as usual. This little trick adds very little time at the loom, but saves in the processing time.

Monday Quote - Is this an Artist's Credo?

I love deadlines.

I especially like the wooshing sound they make

as they go flying by.

Douglas Adams

Wordless Wednesday

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.