Still Here

   It's been such a long time since I posted.  Almost a year.   

  Wanted to share a bit of what I've been up to.

 

        I am diving into a few calls for fiber art & my local Holiday Show.

 

 

I have lots of smaller vessels of all sorts, on display for sale at

Crooked Tree Art Center.

I will be at the kick off party tomorrow, Friday Nov. 10th. Hope you can stop by. 

There will be wine!

Sneak peek of my offerings.

Other things I've been up to in the studio & beyond:  

A little book binding repair. My 1975 copy of The Joy of Cooking.

 

 She was in rough shape.
Broke out the book binding skills.

Made a new cover.

 

Created a stencil of the original title font. 

Used book cloth & marbled paper from my stash.

 

 Did some foraging of ramps on North Fox Island this spring. Pickled ramps & ramp pesto from the leaves. YUM!!! 

 

 I can't go camp on North Fox without a hand stitching project. 

 

There is a blueberry U pick farm just up the road. We make sure we have 20-30 lbs. in the freezer to get us through the year. Plus we discovered a mulberry tree in the park we walk in almost daily. Beautiful.

 

We have been to some wonderful places over the past year. My go to place to post what I've been up to is Instagram. Follow me there & you can see more day to day goings on.

Old Mission Library Art Fair July 21st

These nicely weathered little soldiers were hanging on a line 

by the 2 Hearted River. Couldn't resist getting the blur of the sky & tree burn 

behind them. Posted it on my Instagram

I have a thing for clothespins. 

 

This stencil has been put to good use.
Since I use different colors for the elements I had cut paper pieces to mask each.
Then it dawned on me to spread them out on one stencil.
Sometimes it takes me awhile to figure stuff out! Well, really most of the time.

 

Makes using multiple colors much easier.

I've wanted to add more leaf designs to my collection. Finally got to this one.
The rough outline and beginning of the design.

Blocking the areas to cut out so I have an idea what it will look like.
It's easy to make mistakes and cut out the wrong area if this isn't done.

It hasn't been used on fabric yet, but I like the look. 

I will be in the Old Mission Peninsula Library Artist Fair on Saturday July 21st.  I've been spending lots of time in the studio to have loads of fun vessels to offer.

Below is the official notice from the library:

The Local Artists Fair being held at Old Mission Peninsula School is just the thing to start on your Christmas shopping & to get away from the major hub of tourists. There will be artists offering: wearable art, paintings, multiple kinds of jewelry, natural skincare products, pottery, recycled materials, fish; original women's clothing, hand printed home goods, pressed flower stationary and bookmarks, quilts, baby gifts, and much more,

A second opportunity is the Friends Book Sale, also, at OMP School. The books are organized to make browsing a joy, not a chore. Something for every age and interests at great prices!  

Both opportunities are open from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm. There is truly something for everyone. There will be 2 food trucks: Norma’s Tamale’s & McChesney’s Gourmet Burgers. A coffee stand will be open all day and Buchan’s ice cream will be served beginning at 11:00 am. We will have local musicians playing for everyone enjoyment.

Sounds like fun to me! Hope to see you there.

Contain Yourself

I am delighted to be one of the 22 vendors at the Merry Makers Marketplace at the Crooked Tree Arts Center in Traverse City on November 17th & 18th.  I will also be one of three artists doing a talk next Tuesday for "Coffee @ 10" as part of the promotion for the event. 

I have been in creation mode to get many fabric boxes done in preparation. 

I  refer to them as Functional Self Art, with the prompt to "Contain Yourself" 

on my tags & cards for the fair. 

 

  

 The process has multiple phases. From the first layer of paint on the canvas, then three or more layers of texture & stencils, covering the sturdy Pelon with a fabric for the liner, to the pieces being sewn to create the final structure. I truly enjoy the entire endeavor as well as coming up with my own patterns for each size & shape of container. 

Stay tuned for how this goes. It's my market research for the containers I've been obsessed with.