Eeeek!

The old, ancient, rusty, barely holding it together, program that I use for my website is broken. Fortunately the website is OK, I just can't update the site and haven't figured out what, oh what shall I ever do yet. Wasn't planning to take the time to build a new site yet. I had intended to learn dreamweaver next year as I really don't have time before then.

My new Mac baby wonderful best friend of a laptop has i-Web which I could learn in about two seconds but am not sure if it is robust enough for my website. Probably. If the old NetObjects - forever ago version could do it I suppose this wouldn't be a problem. Anyone have several hundred extra hours they could loan me this month? I'm hearing my book deadline rushing towards me like a freight train!

The Runway

Thought I'd share what fun we had in Virginia during my wearable art lecture. I haven't had models for the works before and believe me, what a difference. Clothes are meant to be worn and to move. 

It was a thrill to see each lovely lady come out with a great big smile, swishing and swirling. 

"Spice It Up" looked so wonderful on Annette Kennedy that it decided to take a vacation at her place for a while. She is a featured artist at a local gallery's opening reception so "Spice" decided to get out and party instead of sitting lonely in my closet. It's come back soon.

(gotta run... I had three other pictures loaded but for some quirky reason they are sideways. I'll fix em later.)

Surface Design Sampler Platter

Thought I'd share the fun we had a couple of weeks ago. All that dyed fabric had to go somewhere! Some of it got chopped up into kits for a very fun, very frenetic, very crazy class called Surface Design Sampler Platter. It's a class with a little bit of this, a little bit of that. Stamp carving, stencil cutting, screen printing, foiling, beading. Mostly we have a really lovely time playing like five year olds and getting our fingers all messy.

Here is Elizabeth Gibson after some serious stenciling.

Maren Lindberg came up with something absolutely beautiful.

Ellen Goodloe kept having these wonderful little fits of ecstasy during the beading process. I think I want to hire her to just come to each of my classes and be that happy!

Joan Clemmons was concentrating like crazy during class then all of the sudden the last half hour - kaboom! She went a little crazy and started printing and foiling everything she could get her hands on. Even the background fabric that usually goes on the inside of the sketchbook.

Kim Beatley worked after class and was kind enough to bring her completed sketchbook cover the next morning.  Absolutely gorgeous!

Altogether a very fun class. I leave exhausted but inspired every time. This is why I teach. I love to see people's face light up when they find something they love!

Mission Accomplished

Well, mostly. I wish I had taken more process shots during the dye days but stripping off the gloves, washing off the shoes, grabbing the camera, etc. was just too much work. I "only" got through 100 out of the 150 yards I have available to dye. I did come up with lovely pieces to include in the kits for my students at the Virginia Quilt Celebration. More on that later!

I had several successes with some fun shibori scarves! My favorite got away from me before I was able to get a picture of it. I think that it's new owner will absolutely love wearing it! I had thrown in a bunch of socks to dye and they all left with new owners too. Fun to see students running around in purple and lime green socks all weekend.

I hope to get some more dyeing done before my June adventures in Charlotte and at the Blue Ridge Quilt Festival.   Now to work! I've got a lot of writing to do by the end of the month.

Anticipation

The weather is supposed to warm up today, I have a sitter. The dye concentrate is mixed. I pulled my shibori pole out of the back corner of the garage and cleaned off a couple years worth of cobwebs. 

I've got scarves, socks, a couple of clothing blanks, and 150yds of PFD!

Great Design

I love it when I come across something that is not only great to look at but ingeniously engineered. At first there was nothing too exciting about my most recent studio addition from IKEA other than it's color. Oh, and the fact that if a sneaky little four year old managed to get into my paints and spill them inside the drawer I could wash it out. Can't do that with wooden drawers full of thread. Ask me how I know.

 

As I assembled the cabinet I fell in love with its' elegant design. I love putting things together! A very creative soul figured out a way to put a full sized Taboret....

.... into this skinny little 3" box. Anyone else out there concerned about the way we ship most everything we buy back and forth around the world? Fossil fuels, pollution, human rights, all that. Think of how many skinny little boxes will fit into the same space as one fully assembled cabinet. Maybe sometime I'll riff on my hopes for the future of clean energy sources. Another day.

Back to the cabinet. This clever designer made it simple enough for any novice to assemble with nothing more than a screwdriver. This is a drawer. Really. Fold on the dotted line, slide this piece in here,  fold the little hook there, and viola! You have a drawer! Elegant design in a simple object.

The gorgeous vase by the way, was a gift from my mom. Every time my parents come to visit they take a little trip to Seagrove, NC - home of too many talented potters to count. 

Gathering Inspiration

Inspiration for art is everywhere you look. I'm at the beach with my family and it's rainy, cold, and windy. We knew this going in but the idea of an indoor pool and some other fun things to do made the short trip worthwhile. We spent part of the day at a lovely aquarium and I could have spent hours and hours mesmerized by the schools of fish swimming in circles in the giant tanks. Or the jellyfish undulating against a bright blue background. Instead I had to help keep track of the little ones. I only lost them once or twice.

So how does one capture that soothing, round and round, feeling in art? I don't think I could do with a literal representation of fish or jellies. It was the motion that hypnotized me. When I get home I'll upload a bunch of pics to Flickr for you.


Oh, and last night we watched Finding Nemo, projected huge on my bedroom wall with the new toy. It was amazing. My favorite part was a scene in the end credits where your entire field of vision is filled with waving anemone fronds. All of the kids were laying on the bed with their arms and feet in the air making shadows and waving back and forth along with the anemone. I couldn't run down and get my video camera fast enough to get a shot.

If you looked up from your computer what inspiration for art would you find right in front of you? What else inspired you today?