Chad Alice Hagen

The Passing of Days

2012-01-13T08:19:00.000-08:00


Let's Roll...

I'm ready to admit that 2012 is here to stay and the days are no different than, say 2010. But my body wants to stay curled up in that fetal position, a giant mound hidden by at least 3 feather comforters, safe and warm and totally mindless in my bed.

It doesn't help my general disposition that I got an ipad for the holiday (gift from myself...) and discovered Netflix in the next 10 minutes. I can justify the hours of watching all those BBC programs because, um, ah...well, there is no justification, really. I just wanted to wallow.

And then, probably because of the tiny background images of England seen between spies shooting each other on on MI5, I start thinking of being elsewhere. Anywhere elsewhere. I start to notice each morning when I get up around 10 am and fix the coffee, that the day is noticeably brighter. I stumble to the mailbox to find L.L. Bean catalogs and start drooling over a new red toiletry bag. I wonder about hiking boots and if I really need sunglasses in the lower Alps. I discover the calender app on the iPad and start sketching out my year. I develop an addiction to walking 10 miles every week and find that the best self encouragement is checking out the clothing worn by the runners who pass me several times on my daily 3 mile waddle. I firmly believe that if I dress like a runner, I will be a runner. (or a weiner)

At that point, 2012 really starts for me. Each small decision engenders another. I have decided to forgo my annual spring trip to Holland and visiting my good pal Joke and instead sign up for classes - an advanced book binding class, a week of papermaking, a week with Michel Garcia on natural dyes.
The calendar is filling up, my teaching schedule has form. I have the dates of the workshop schedules held here at my studio figured out. And that is the point of this blog post really, but I just finished my really, really good coffee and I become hopelessly entangled in words and images.

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Below are the dates for workshops at my private studio inWest Asheville for 2012. Other dates may become available. Please check my Blog (under workshops) for anyadditions.

Workshops for the 2012 season will be two days instead of one.

The extended time will give everyone more time to think, ponder andwork on the processes. We may havedinner together between the two days to give us more time to talk. And we'll be able to have extended timein the studio that evening and the next morning.

Since many students come from out of town and have to get a hotelfor a night, coming for a two day class makes more sense. I'll be able tooffer bookmaking and other topics that take longer than one rushed day.

The cost for the two day workshops is $250. This covers everything you will use inthe class. (wool, paper, dyes andchemicals, handouts and use of tools, etc.). Additional wool, books and other supplies are available forpurchase for home use.

If you wish to register for a workshop please email me to see ifthere is space. Classes are small,four students. If there room, you will need to send a $50 deposit to hold yourplace.

The deposit is nonrefundable. If you are unable to come to thatparticular class but notify me at least three weeks before the class date, yourdeposit will be applied to a future class. If you cancel 5 days beforethe class and I am unable to find a replacement for your spot, the deposit isforfeited. If you do not show up for the class, the deposit is forfeited.

Workshops will run from 9am - 6pm (or so) on Saturday and 9am to 4or 5 pm on Sunday). Other dates during the week may be available if groupswould like to have a private workshop. If you can only do a one day class, there may be ways we can organizethat. Please email for moreinformation.

Bring your lunch. There is a lot of standing involved for mostclasses. There are stairs to use to get to the bathroom and lunch sittingareas. I have two cats that mayvisit you but they generally go back to sleep.

Possible Workshoptopics:

ResistDyeing on Felt - two day blow out

TheMokume Bark Scarf and The Airey Fairey Hand Felted Scarf

ResistDyeing (day one) and Bookmaking -Quick Wrap Journal

Bookmaking- The Coptic Miniature Book

Resistdyeing and Felted Brooches

February 18-19th, 2012 Saturday and Sunday

ResistDyeing (day one) and Bookmaking -Quick Wrap Journal

It'sthe fabulous Resist Dye Workshop! We will be felting and dyeing merino needlepunch felt batts creating dozens of beautiful samples. Learn how to set up a safe dye kitchenand even have the chance to be the Dye Master. Discover the resist design opportunities in everyday objectsas we dye and re-dye the felt.

And then we'll use that glorious felt to create fabulouslong stitch bound blank books for travel journals, daily thoughts, sketchbooksor, well, anything.

March 17-18th, 2012

The MokumeBark Scarf and The Airey Fairey Hand Felted Scarf

This two scarfclass will start by students dyeing their own merino roving and needlepunchbatts with Dry Dye Powder dyeing. Then we will learnto felt the batt and stitch it with a traditional Japanese resist stitchingmethod called Mokume to create a bark-like design and texture and re-dye the scarf in a resist dyebath. The next day we will learnto lay out the dyed merino roving and wet felt the beautifulAirey Fairy scarf.

April 7-8th, 2012

ResistDyeing on Felt - two day blow out

Spending a dayresist dyeing dozens of felt samples with incredible colors and patterns is aday spent it heaven! Now imagineTWO days! Enough said.

June 23-24, 2012

TBA

Studio Workshop - West Asheville

July 28-29, 2012

TBA

Studio Workshop - West Asheville

September 22-23, 2012

TBA

Studio Workshop - West Asheville

November 24-25, 2012

TBA

Studio Workshop - West Asheville

The old bear sees a light at the end of her tunnel.

2011-12-21T09:40:00.000-08:00


Light reflecting off dirty wine glasses from holiday party

It's that time of year again when my bear instincts demand that I stay in my bed until the light returns (or Spring and/or paramedics intervene). Because my hypochondriac brain gets nervous when I become a hibernator, unwilling to do anything more than write lists of what I would do if I had more energy or a new body or if I hadn't eaten that last gift bag of rum balls, I start to worry about what will befall me if I continue this downward slide in homeless bag lady syndrome. It only takes a quick glance into my past journals to realize that this state of mind/body slugdom happens every single year, probably on the same date. It is a curious state of my memory that I forget my wrestling match with bears, angels and daylight every year at this time in favor of sitting in front of the tv, cat on leg, popping rum balls and complaining on this "new" state of affairs.

Leon refuses to let me get off the comfy chair and at least change the channel to PBS.

Today is the Winter Solstice, the time of light returning. It's time to get out the Manifesto Book - my book of changes (subtitled "If I Ruled the World") and the almost filled journal, gather a big pile of sticks from the garden and have a jolly good fire. No, I'm not going to burn the books but just mark the beginning of my new year.

The Winter Solstice is the perfect time to reflect what I was able to do this past year although at this point in rum ball testing I will need to check the journal closely for those points of light. It is also that grand ole time of resolutions of which I must say, I don't even need to rewrite anymore, but pick any page of resolutions for the last decade or two. (lose-the-weight-walk-more-eat-more-veggies-get-a-dog-do-quicken-grow-my-own-veggies-clean-paper-files). So Boring!

This year I'll try something that does not involve changing eating or exercise habits.

1. I will choose PBS as this year's donation. (giving great gobs of money to the Apple Store is no longer considered a charitible contribution)

2. I'll start working regularly in the new dye kitchen, plucking the moldy pomegrante skins from their bowl and boiling them up into yellow dyestuff.

3. I will remain very happy to have gotten rid of my dryer and hanging my clothes up to dry.

4. As for my professional life (the one that pays the mortgage and buys cat food) I am making changes cutting back on the number of away workshops. I need more time for my own creative endevours, learning new book forms, natural dyeing, paper making, writing and a few secrets. I have already booked quite a few workshops for 2012, but will start the cut backs in 2013. (sounds like our congress...)

5. I will be holding more workshops here at my studio, maybe even once a month. These workshops will be two day classes as the expanded time will allow for longer study on the topic presented. We can do the resist dyeing one day and make a book the next for example. We'll go out for dinner on the evening between and be able to spend more time talking to each other and exploring ideas. The class number will be reduced to only four students to allow more room and attention for everyone.

6. Most of my resist classes will be held here at my studio as hauling 5,000 pounds of heavy metal, dyes, chemicals and handouts is breaking my back. Mercy!

7. I think I will only have two teaching venues where I will present my findings in natural dyeing and resist - and they are, of course, places I love visiting - The San Juan Islands and Holland. Well, given the chance I wouldn't mind England, Ireland, Iceland and oh...Italy in 2013! Hmmm, and this is where I get in trouble with all my pronouncements and resolutions and manifestoes!! Ding dang it!!

I would think that this place would be a lovely teaching venue!!

8. I will listen and watch my cats more, as they seem to have much more sense than I have.


Leon is reminding me to stop writing manifestos and look for the light.

Big olde Bear is rumbling and waddling from her cave, following those teeny bits of light - thoughts, ideas, plans, lists and new calendars on her ipad that make up the path to the tilting of the planet and the return of the light. It doesn't hurt that I am doing a major wash of all the bed linen and without the dryer, those sheets will take about 3 days to dry!!

I hope that all of you have a productive, enlightening and above all, creative time during your returning of light.

A brief visit to where I want to be...

2011-11-18T07:56:00.000-08:00

Today starts our 14th annual Voorhees Family Art Show here in Asheville, center of the Universe, and I will hang four new pieces - the first (below) really was done in 2010 but never published before. The other three are created from my first experiments with natural dyes - madder root, lac, walnuts and osage orange. Working with natural dyes is where I want to be for my personal work. This was just a brief visit. Below are the rest of the new work - complete with liner notes!

Page 26 - Welsh Holly Leaves Fall to Earth

Page 26 - Welsh Holly Leaves Fall to Earth (2010)
When my best friends and I went to England and Wales in 2009 for a Memorial tour for my adopted mother Millie Voorhees, we visited the Welsh National Museum - St. Fagan’s. This is an outdoor museum with every type of dwelling from the stone-age on. Holly bushes surrounded the parking lot so I “borrowed” a few leaves. I had to snip off the points as they drew blood. They were pasted in my drawing journal until I started this piece. The “falling to earth” imagery comes from a poem by Mendy Knott where she writes of leaves leaping off the trees in Fall because they are so glad to be reunited with the earth. She read this at Millie’s memorial service. The tour, Millie, the leaves and their fall to earth all came together for this artwork.

6.5” w X 9”h framed to 13.75” x 16.5H
merino wool, sabreset dyes, glass beads, Welsh Holly leaves, linen and cotton thread. Hand felted, resist dyed, stitched and beaded construction.

Walnut Page - Peeling Black Walnuts Under October Skies.

Walnut Page: Peeling Black Walnuts Under October Skies. Squirrels Watch. (2011)
When my friend Helen brought over 45 bushels of festering black walnuts I knew that it was time to indulge my long time desire to explore natural dyeing. I have worked with synthetic acid dyes for almost 35 years but was a bit nervous learning a whole new world of plants and chemistry. We sat on the back porch on a wonderful breezy, sunny day in October, surrounded by squirrels scolding us from trees and peeled the dye-rich hulls from the nut. They were rotting and some were full of bugs but the smell was divine and I was completely captured by the ancient history of the black walnut dye. I clamped pieces of hand felted merino wool and fed them to the walnut dye pot. An hour later I reaped my rewards. Thank you Helen.

8"w X 10.5”h framed to 14"W x 17"H
Australian merino wool, resist dyed in hand gathered walnut dye, glass beads, buttonhole thread, weeping cherry twigs. Hand felted, resist dyed, stitched and beaded construction.

Page 28 - Seeds Sense the Change (chance) of Seasons.

Page 28 - Seeds Sense the Change (Chance) of Seasons. (2011)
One of my favorite resist tools is a handful of circular steel paper clips from Holland. They don't work very well as paper clips but I love the beautiful circles they create on wool felt. I tried them for the first time on a piece of felt that was first dyed yellow from Osage orange heartwood and then dipped into a dyepot of purplish Lac. The pumpkin seeds, left over from another project of five years ago, jumped into those beautiful yellow circles and instantly had halos. Lots of tiny "seed" stitches around the halos created active and jumpy pumpkin seeds eager to make the transition from stationary storage to life. (It's almost like how I feel when learning to make my transition from synthetic to natural dyes!)

7.5” w X 7”h framed to 14”W x 17"H
Australian merino wool, resist dyed in Madder root, Lac and Osage Orange natural dyes, glass beads, gold painted pumpkin seeds, button hole thread. Hand felted, resist dyed, stitched and beaded construction.

Page 29 - Madder Root, Osage Heartwood.

Page 29 - Madder Root, Osage Heartwood. (2011)
Sometimes the pieces of resist dyed felt talk to me before they are arranged a certain way. Sometime I stumble blindly, stitching this piece to that and then doing it over again and again. For this artwork, rather helplessly named Madder Root, Osage Heartwood, the Madder dyed side pieces demanded to enclose the lovely circle patterns created with Lac dye over Osage orange. And then naturally, the circles became the Osage heartwood and the madder developed glorious wings with matching hearts of spiral metal sequins. I hope they're all happy now!

8.25” w X 7”h framed to 14”W x 17"H
Australian merino wool, resist dyed in madder root, osage orange and lac natural dyes, glass and metal beads and sequins, button hole thread. Hand felted, resist dyed, stitched and beaded construction.

Thanks for lookin'.

It's my birthday!

2011-11-10T06:53:00.000-08:00

This is the view I'd love to spend every day looking at - the view straight up from my daybed on the screen porch - looking up at the yellow leaf maple in the clear blue skies! But even a fairy princess or old crabby step mother as myself has to scrub out the cat box every once and again. Today is my birthday and while I normally postpone this celebration to the doldrum days of February, I am planning a lovely day with cats, dyes and friends.

Madder, walnut and osage dyed merino felt

I attended a lecture by Catherine Ellis on Tuesday and could barely sit still in my seat. Just to hear those enchanted words...indigo...madder...dyes of antiquity... makes my heart race. And another thing she mentioned - how she started working with natural dyes about 10 years ago when she retired from teaching and found it wonderful to know that one can still become so excited about learning even at a "later" age. My feelings exactly!


Felt in the osage orange dyepot

This week I have been sampling the yellows from Osage Orange and reds from Lac, Madder and Brasilwood. After several weeks with the "Festering Walnut" it was a shock to the eyes to see the color bloom on the felts in the dyepots. I am not a very good "sampler" as one should be when starting new dye ventures. I see the rich browns of the walnut and put in whole Mokume tied scarves! But I feel so many changes coming upon me that I am now 'sampling' - doing smaller dyepots and trying out the colorways on smaller felts. But all those tiny felts are going in with resist tools a-bristling!

One of my new challenges with the natural dyes was to see if I could use my knowledge with resist dyeing to create those seductive patterns on the surface. I am finding that each one of the natural dyes I try out - be it an extract or made by me from the root/hulls/dyestuff itself, each dye has a personality. Each one has such different ways it colors the wool. Walnut manages to sneak under even the tightest of knots. My former resist tool favorite - hair pins from Sally Beauty Shops - cause interesting iron stains on madder and brazilwood if the alkali is higher in the dyepot but no reactions with the gentle Lac. I swear these dyes are alive. Well, really they are, coming to me as gifts from Helen's Walnut trees, or squished and extract by human hands in France. I don't think I could be happier with these new friends.


resist dyed with lac, madder and osage

On my birthday I will be beading and stitching my second group of yellow/red resist pieces that came out of the dyepot yesterday This is a fabulous present of both time and dyeing. Oh, I do have to have these done for the Voorhees Family Art Show coming up next Saturday and Sunday, but with them I shall spend all my days.


Walnut Pages:One. "Peeling Walnuts under October Sun". Walnut dyed, hand felted merino felt, cherry tree sticks, beaded, stitched (and sideways)

but first a little time with my best pal, leon

A Morning of Dreams

2011-11-02T08:58:00.000-07:00

Morning from deck at Coupeville, WA

Well, it is still morning in my part of the world and I am still in my pjs and bathrobe. Today I am dividing useable parts of the day between this computer and the dye kitchen in the basement (studio B). All of the year's teaching has been finished with manifestos to be written and changes to be wrought. Two more sales shows remain - The Famous 14th Voorhees Family Art Show to be held on November 18-20th here in Asheville, and maybe a small second show at my studio in December. So I am happy and anxious to continue working with my natural dyes.

I have a dozen bushels of peeled walnut hulls festering away on the back porch. I have never read in my pile of dye books about peeling the walnuts after they start to rot, but the resulting liquid after a few days of steeping is fabulous. The slimey black goo and the fly maggots are a visual deterrant so I left the last couple of bushels for the squirrels to peel and a wonderful job they did of it too! All I had to do was sweep up the peelings each morning.

Here are my friends Helen and Steve helping with the peeling. Helen got all the walnuts from her backyard tree and swears by the color they produce. I think the sitting in the October sun on my back porch smelling those walnut hulls is why I am so smitten with them.

This is one of probably 30 pots of walnut hulls a brewing. Some containers were getting moldy so I took off the lids. The water just evaporates so I top up every once in a while. True to my own squirrelish behavior, I feel that I need a LOT of hulls to last me through the winter dye days. Sure wish I knew everything about walnut dyeing!

my first felted wool scarf walnut dye experiment

A few weeks ago I followed through on my written thoughts and got rid of my clothes dryer. I needed the space for a "real" stove in the dye kitchen. My favorite Habitat for Humanity had a wonderful and very cheap electric range that needed to be with me.

Now that I don't have a clothes dryer I am finding that I pay attention to the weather - what days are good for hanging clothes outside, how humidity extends the drying time, and the beauty of clothing waving in the breeze. I bought a fabulous indoor wooden drying rack from the good folks over in Missouri - BestDryingRack.com and now have more fun than one could imagine hanging my clothes on the rotating rack.

I also am experimenting with Madder, a wonderful, ancient dyestuff which should give me some wonderful yellows through reds. Helen gifted me with about 6 oz of the roots, themselves rather ancient purchase from Earth Guild several years ago.

I have done a few dyebaths with pieces of my felt hoping to recreate the resist dyeing surfaces that I have been doing using Lanaset dyes. But there is something so different with the natural madder and walnut. Their smell is rich and earthy and as far as I know, not bad for the body. The time it takes to mordant the felts, rinse and then put them in the dye liquor and carefully watch the temperature so it doesn't go over 160 degrees is time nicely spent. The after-mordants of citric acid and ammonia that change the pH to give either pinks or yellows is truly pure magic. I like spending that time with the pots as these feel as if they are alive. Years ago when I taught a semester of indigo dyeing at the University of Minnesota - St. Paul, those pots were alive and needed careful tending. We had a partnership, those pots and I. And here again I have partners in my Studio B dye kitchen as well as squirrel partners on the dye porch.

Putting a previously felted and dyed in light madder (with ammonia after mordant) scarf, stitched and tied in Mokume resist pattern into a darker Madder bath.

The finished washed and dried scarf. A whole pile of ummmms for that one. Today I get to go back to the kitchen and think and play and learn some more.

I will be listing 2012 workshops on the next page of this blog. Check under the title for the button. I am starting to reduce the number of away-workshops for 2012 and 2013. There are a few places I will continue to teach as I love the areas and people connected to the venues - Lopez Island, Sievers School up in Washington Island, WI, and several other places. And I will start to hold more classes here in my studio.

What's da Madder?

2011-10-19T05:54:00.000-07:00

Howdy to All...and my deepest apologies for being probably the worst blogger in the history of blogging. And I can't even say that I'm going to write anything here - as I am deep in (again) prep work for the Southeastern Animal and Fiber Fair (SAFF) coming up, like, well, tomorrow. (GASP!)

But I have been thinking of writing, like all those would be famous and talented writers out there who plan, arrange and write all in their heads, fully intending to use paper or in this case, this keyboard to put those great thoughts and plans down in solid form - someday.

After SAFF, I shall be the best blogger ever (now there's a goal) and fill you all in on the travels and troubles of a working day. I am VERY excited about my new direction in dyeing - natural dyes - and the new brain cells that are growing to help learn all that chemistry. Still being a book binder, still teaching thither and yon, still complaining about just about everything, and still making major changes to an already complicated and fearsome life.

As you may note in the photo above, those with eagle eyes, that is me way in the back (pleaseee!!!!) selling off about 5000 books so I could convert my so called

"living room" into a studio. Many folks came by and asked what I was going to be selling next week, somehow mistaking me for a full time flea market vendor. (Jane says, "How could you blame them, looking the way you do!") Well, it was hot and the neighboring career vendor lent me a straw hat. And was it my fault my apron said "Bite Me"?

But this is where I should be - early morning coffee, homemade raspberry jam on Cousin Marion's toast and my daily list of impossible to finish tasks - on the screen porch which is mercifully somewhat free from Stink Bugs these days.

More later!

A Workshop in Heaven - The Pacific NorthWest Art School

2011-03-16T11:59:00.000-07:00

Fort Casey Beach, and look, there's me standing in front of our workshop building!

This just in - the wrong price was posted in the PNWAS catalog!

Now this fabulous workshop is much cheaper!

I can't believe I am hunched over here in North Carolina, on March 16th, and I am dreaming of sitting on this fab-u-lous stone and pebble strewn beach - a Pacific Ocean beach - on Whitby Island next August 29 to September 1st. Aren't you jealous!! Ah Ha!! You don't have to be because you can join me here with the warm waves tickling our feet as we stitch awesome felted books all day long.

This Workshop in Heaven is The Pacific NorthWest Art School's little annex at Fort Casey on Whitby Island right near Seattle. I'll be teaching the ever changing and fabulous Resist Dyeing Class - the one with 17,4869 different resist tools and dyebaths galore. And not only will you resist dye your little heart as well as the hand felted wool, we will be learning several fabulous projects which will showcase your beautiful resist samples.

Here are some of our resist tools.

Add the dye master and dye pots

some of the fabulous resist felts that come out of the dye pots!

And here are some of the projects - wonderful, colorful and extremely useful resist-felt wrapped journals, leather lined with thrift store skirt findings.


Long Stitch bound resist felt wrapped journals and sketchbooks

How can you beat that purple leather lining!!

You can make use of your precious button collection for closures on these books. I'll be demonstrating about a dozen different types, including my favorite which makes use of found sticks and (ahem) driftwood from magical places.


Fort Casey Bench again

Can you imagine the wood closures we can make from the driftwood on this beach right in front of our classroom? I love finding interesting objects from wherever I am and then using them in the books and brooches I make there. Opps, did I mention Brooches? YES. I will teach you all how to make these fabulous pins from, what else? - our resist dyed felt pieces. Add beads and stitching and learn how to make a backing from book board and silk or linen (all available from local thrift stores) and I will furnish some fabulous pin backs that feature a bail - a loop- so you can wear the brooch as a pin or necklace!!

So are you interested? I really am. I've been teaching for years at the Pacific NorthWest Art School - formally known fondly as just Coupeville - and have totally fallen in love with the San Juan Islands and Whitby Island. This workshop will be held on August 29 to September 1st and will be jam packed with learning and breathing the sea air. You'll learn how to full fine merino needle punch batts, set up a safe dye kitchen, some simple chemistry of the dyes we use for the resist dyepots, how to use the resist tools to make amazing marks on the felt, how to overdye again and again, and then the books, the beautiful books and the brooches, and as I am writing this I am thinking of even more...how about an optional early morning hour long sketch class of the beach - and then binding that sketch into your book!!

Yikes, I am hyper-ventilating. I hope you join me. Oh, how to join the class? Contact the folks at PNWAS: email: info@pacificnorthwestartschool.org or call them: 360-678-3396. The workshop is limited to 10 or 12. So hurry. email me with any questions; chad@chadalicehagen.com

Not Dead, just Sleeping...

2011-03-10T13:02:00.000-08:00


things I have been doing

I have been thinking, all these long winter months. Thinking of which comfy chair should I take a nap, thinking of how many duvets and wooly blankets I would like to pile on top of my bed, thinking of warmth and wondering if the spring and summers I remember were really just a nice dream or remembrances of a movie I once saw. I don't do winter well at all. I do hibernation very well.


first drawing of my on-line class with Jane Lafazio

I did sign up for an on-line drawing in public class to get me out of the house and into the world of chilly social living. I bought paper and pens, and of course, had to figure out just the right containers for pencils that would fit into the just right art bag. I love preparing for things. It took days to get it all perfect. I started with the above drawing of keys - our first assignment - the day before it was due. It took me four hours but I figured that was fine since I was entering a new phase of my artistic career.

I did do lesson #2 along with Jane and Susie Voorhees who were also taking the class. Since it was in a cafe and we had coffee I was happy. Lesson #3 was done about a week after it was due. Lessons #4, #5, and #6 I have saved on my computer. I just moved all my drawing tools, bags, paper, special brushes, bags and my three drawings out of the sunroom and back into the upstairs studio so that I can start on my taxes. That's fine since I am entering a new phase of aggravation.

lovely upcycled leather mini books

I am still making books, or thinking about making books. It's true. I have moved some of the cat hair off my upstairs studio desk and found some new containers for things like pins, pens, pencils... Did I mention that I love to prepare for things?

Teaching has been done in the midst of snow and chilly blasts - guilds in Boulder and in Potomac and a Winter Retreat right here in Asheville which was a bit blemished by the fact that the airlines lost my bags full of teaching stuff and the recent snowfall kept my ("no, it isn't a four wheel drive! Why would I get that?") SUV at the bottom of my driveway. I was able to teach my last class on Sunday and found some fabulous buttons from a vendor which I used on several books. (instead of putting them in the special cabinet full of drawers that I got to organized my buttons and closures).

I really have excuses for not keeping up with a blog - the computer and all it's brain suck stuff - Facebook, email, blogs of others, blogs of mine, paying bills, finding cheap stuff, looking at uTube, learning Twitter, finding some cool shoes, and the latest techno-shock to my remaining brain cell - my new iphone with the attendant Apps for everything except doing the dishes.

no app for cooking either

But the sun has been out. I saw it and took a picture with my iPhone. I have been sleeping once again on the porch now that the danger from any stink bugs is gone. I am finding a few in the home but they are mostly dead due to my deadly brain waves directed at them last fall. (I think that I am sounding a bit like Charlie Sheen!!) I am very happy that flowers are coming up, crocuses are blooming and I can stretch and yawn like the big northern hemisphere hiberating bear that I am. All those patient people awaiting photos and class descriptions and any other requests of the last 3 months will be rewarded as soon as I can get some more cool plastic containers to organize the paperwork and get a new fountain pen with a tiny nib that I found on line and make a leather bound book in which to list all my lists and I learn the iphone "notes" app.

The holiday "Happy Hands at Home"tree

2010-12-13T14:34:00.000-08:00

toothpick nose felt snowman

I am posting images of my holiday tree for good ole' Jane LaFazio since we have had a very funny conversation about toilet paper roll ornaments! For the last few years I have been busy collecting handmade holiday ornaments from the local goodwill stores. I especially love the "Happy Hands at Home" variety, probably made by kids with their grandmothers (or at least that is what I like to believe). Who else would be gluing pasta angels or finding uses for toothpicks, popsicle sticks, fuzz and all those other easy to find materials laying around the house? I have about a zillion ornaments now and here are my favorites.

Top of the tree Dolly Parton cotton balls and pipe cleaner on clothespin STAR!

Toilet paper sitting santa

I have a whole series of punched canning jar lids

Here is a related series - the punched tart pan ornament

For gardeners the painted flower pot and wax santa

For lovers of plastic whirly-gigs, a minature for the tree

I personally love the painted tongue depressor santas

And there are LOTS of yarn over plastic rings santas

Even the beach offers opportunity - a skate egg case santa

And being from the south now how could I pass up the orcra santa

This is a multi-media, pill container and styrofoam balls with gold rickrack
thingy with plastic preserved holly.

A santa lightbulb (filled with plaster) and that weird wax again

If you look carefully, there are two clothespin reindeer hiding in the tree.

This year's prize find has been the angel framed by toothpicks

Here's the pasta angel

The closest I can describe this is a watermelon faced clothespin angel of sorts

I have a large series of these bird feeders

Another gift from the sea - the decorated sand dollar

Another southern beauty - the cotton boll angel

A single felt ski, sad but preserved

Walnuts apparently are fair game because I have a dozen of them painted up like strawberries with green felt leaves

Another 2010 addition - a hand painted winter scene on wood.
Reverse side "From Donald 1983"

Don't forget that santa can be painted on wooden spoons -
just don't stir the holiday fudge with it.

These socks were knit on size 000 needles and given away as table favors at a guild meeting where I taught a few years ago. I went around and collected as many as I could while people had their backs turned.

I do have a soft spot for "memorial" ornaments with dates
- and made from popsicle stitcks

This is an interactive rudoph the red nose reindeer

Here he is smiling at you!

And of course there are thousands of the "quilted in holiday fabric and stuffed" bells, wreaths, etc.

Hot glue gun days - the wooden tree with misglued buttons and trim

And I am a sucker for anything felt related

Ah, Mr. Whiskers even got his own ornament in 1996

This stuffed and half-hearted reused sweater star probably has a good story

Crocheted drum with Q-tip drum sticks

A real glass ornament dressed up with cotton balls,
ribbon and one googly eye

Gotta love this tired elf(?) crocheted and crowned with a plastic thimble

And amazingly I have a whole set of these painted cooky dough roll outs.

Old music sheets folded into fans with glitter

I left off all of the felt ornaments this year as not only was the tree
getting crowded
but I thought that I woud make a wreath with all of these.

More of the toothpick nosed, snappy eyed snowmen with their walking twigs and fancy buttons

And I have three of these trees each made from rolled up green pipe cleaners
which are then glued to cardboard and magnets for the refrigerator holiday spirit

And finally, as I was getting tired of snapping photos, this great holiday
addition to my wire spring wooden clothspin note holder collection!!


Here's some of his buddies ( I have about 68 ducks - send more if you find them)

And that's my holiday tree collection. I love each and every one of these sweet little home-made decorations. (but I tell ya, for $5000, I'll ship the whole shebang to ya before xmas!!)

Inventories

2010-12-09T14:39:00.000-08:00

Honey Crisp apples before and after the dryer

Boy, I am certainly having trouble figuring out the photos for this blog entry. A headache of major proportions. All I want to do is line them all up in rows. Too much to ask of Blogger apparently. And while I'm whinning, I'd like to have spell-check on Blogger also. I'm much too tired to bend over and get the dictionary.

But it's been that kind of day. I went to find a file in my newly moved file cabinet but couldn't get the top drawer closed nor the bottom one open - not even with several rapid (and frustrated) whacks with a big hammer. But I noticed that I could see the bottom drawer files way in the back when the top drawer was opened all the way and of course I decided to yank all the bottom files out through that narrow opening and laugh at the gods making my day so hard. And ha-ha, I did get the files dragged out, but hopefully the blood dripped on them from my stupid arm that got caught in the cabinet won't hurt them much. Not as much as it hurt me.


Photos on the Sea Islands

It's that time of year when I take inventory of everything - finances (hence the bloody battle with the file cabinet), books: handmade, listed with amazon, private collection and boxes of unknowns, crap in the basement, colors and amounts of thread, just about everything in this house and in my head and written on lists - it all gets inventoried. I love the idea of A New Year and A Fresh Start.

I am a sucker for articles on improving one's creativity and time management. I keep hoping that they will help with the inventories. I was convinced by one blogger that all could be vastly improved if I used the Goggle calendar to schedule my life. Apparently a pop-up appears on the computer desktop when something is due alerting the user to send off the proposal, pay the bill or enter the show. Since I spent close to four or five hours trying to figure out that damn calender before I started trying to erase everything, not only did I not improve my productivity but now every Wednesday at 4pm I get a pop-up message alerting me to clean the catbox.


My ideal choices.

I have found that the best way to get organized and more importantly - start to produce artwork - is to completely clean out several rooms in my house. Then of course, any inventory is a lot easier. Since the last blog post I have finished painting the last two walls of the kitchen and tossed out about 237 items to the holiday present pile, or to "the too good for goodwill but not enough for Johnnie's auction house pile" or to the actual goodwill pile and/or garbage can. I love the calm that comes with having less stuff around.

In a conversation with my friend Jane, we figured out that we all spend the first 50 years of life collecting necessary 'stuff'. Stuff for that camping trip to Everest, canning 70 quarts of tomatoes for winter or building (and stocking) a fall-out shelter in the back yard. Then in the second 50 years of our lives we realize that 90% of those plans and boxes of stuff will never happen so we can start to pluck them out from the things we really want to do and haul 'em away.

How I want my house to look.

And that is really true. I hate camping so why do I keep the tent, sleeping bag, ground pad, camping dishes and pots, oil lights, fish poles etc, etc, etc? The power here has never gone out for more than 3 hours in the 15 years I've been here and I have absolutely no interest for staying alive if all the countries bomb each other or the half-witted tea party takes over the country. Out it goes to goodwill where some cute 20-somethings will grab it, think they are the luckiest people on earth to be so prepared. Wait until they turn 50, but by then my purged stuff will be appearing on Antiques Roadshow.

Today's inventory is of the books still available for sale and need to be listed on Etsy and Flickr. Writing this blog came first in the alphabet (yes, I organized my daily to do list alphabetically. Doesn't everyone?) so I will post a few of my newest books here... if I can get the little pictures to go where I want them to go. (oh, and the inventory of Control Issues came before writing this blog...in case you were wondering).

Coptic bound Book #40 ($125) SOLD

Book #60 ($40) SOLD


Book #58 ($40) SOLD


Book #54 ($40)

Book #59 ($40)SOLD

Book #57 (sold)

Book #55 ($40) SOLD

Book #51 ($40) SOLD

Sunset on the InterCoastal Waterway. Calm, no clutter.

Where Have I Been?

2010-09-22T11:36:00.000-07:00

Book Master @ Creative felt Gathering

And once again I have been wandering, up plane stairs and aisles, across craft school campuses, down fast food resturants. Out teaching, I'm been. And having a mighty fine time of it too! Since the last Blog (which I'm sorry to say was late July), I've driven up to Pittsburgh with my durable cousin Marien to teach Felted Scarves at the Society for Contemporary Craft, then to the "interesting" town of Gatlinburg, TN, teaching at Arrowmont, leaving for home on Friday night, repacking Saturday and hitting the airport on Sunday for a week in Manchester, MI for the Creative Felt Gathering. That experience was pretty dern wonderful.

Hats Galore at the CFG in Michigan


Two Fabulous Felters!

Ellis from Holland was there teaching ( just visited her in the Spring - remember her alien eggs? And the whole felt camp was organized by glass fuser and felter Jone Rakowski.

And then there were a few days home when I slept and did my usual Fall-after-teaching-activity, repainting a room in my teeny house. This time it was the kitchen and I only have two walls really finished. The rest will be covered in the lush, rich orchre paint sometime in October. I am feeling that I rather paint than cook these days.

all ceramics & paintings down

A off color photo of painted wall

everything back in place


Friend Ikea-Rat helping out on the sidelines

I've been busy in the studio too. Since most of my summer workshops have been of the Resist Dye and Bookmaking variety, I get a fair number of books, awww, maybe one book done during each class. I love the new stick and leather loop closure for the Quick Wrap Journals.

Photos taken this morning before bug attack

And here's a cute little coptic book made up at Siever's School of Fiber Arts on Washington Island, WI when I taught there mid September. The resist tool for the doggie is one of those cookie press shapes.

Jane and I are putting up our booth again at the John C. Campbell Folk School Fall Festival - Oct. 2 & 3. I'll have all these books and as many other books and brooches I can get finished in 7 days! Jane will have her new Fall calendars and lots of new fabulous cards. Although I just want to sleep in the cooler fall days on the screen porch, I must make more books. And oddly enough, I am either being cursed by the gods for my laziness or being helped along to finish my books in Studio A by the new inhabitants on the porch...

Yesterday I discovered that my beloved screen porch was being infested, taken over really, by Soldier Bugs - which are stink bugs that don't stink (small mercies, I suppose). I noticed that super-bug-hunting kitty Scooter was staring at large dark things on the wall and when I looked closer - uuurrrggg!!! A big creepy bug that flew! I started squishing away with multiple sheets of paper napkins, but I was outnumbered and terrorized. I had to sleep inside for the first time since March.

This morning I gathered my guts to see what new armies were mobilized during the night and found the porch curtains were providing a safe haven. I had at that point, determined that I would have to burn the porch off the house and start all over when my wonderful garage/wood workshop renter Jeremy drove in. "Oh Jeremy", I quavered. "Would you like to squish some bugs for me?" "Why sure, littl' lady." He replied and so we brought out the heavy guns - a big plastic bowl with lid and dish soap and proceeded to get all 50 or so critters dead in the suds. Actually, I stood in the doorway and cringed. What a Pal. I gave him Book 39 as a reward and he promised to return tomorrow. I promise to work hard and faithfully on my books and brooches from now on. Come visit us in Brasstown at the JCC Festival! Everything, including my soul, is for sale!!

Three creepy bugs in plastic prison so I could go online and ID them.

Land of Heat, Storms and Humidity

2010-07-21T10:52:00.000-07:00

A wonderful view from my guest porch in San Antonio where I taught the Famous Airey Fairy Scarf and Felted Jewelry Forms to a fabulous group from the Fiber Artists of San Antonio, July 9-12. The land is flat and flatter, even though it is described as West Texas hill country. I thought it would be cooler there than in my native Asheville (27,000 days in the 90's with 200% humidity) as the temps seemed (on line at least) to be a few degrees lower. Arrgghh! It is a totally different heat/humidity. It could be in the 70's in the morning as I stepped out unto the porch with my coffee in hand but when that sun hit me and started boiling the coffee in my cup I knew I had met my match and retreated into the air conditioned cottage.
How on earth did those cowboys (and girls) ride their horses around and gather cattle and shoot bad guys and stuff? Roy Rodgers never seemed to sweat!

This might be part of the answer. A big West Texas breakfast! Chicken fried steak, gravy, biscuits, eggs and potatoes. Here's the wonderful husband of one of my hosts, Sandy, and he ate the whole thing! I was soooo impressed.

I had a day off and so went to the city center of San Antonio which is built around the river. My idea was to wander about in cool river breezes and find spots for drinking a cool glass of Pinot Blanc and sketch.

I loved the umbrellas and riverside tables (the river is just four feet deep so children can be hauled out without leaving one's table). I saw the river boats and just had to take the watery tour of the area (and there was a very good senior discount!)

"Look up!" The guide called out. And we all looked up. Despite the head aerobics it was dreadfully hot. And here we all were, no hats, no shade, no sunglasses, no cold beer and staring hard at local tall hotels and places where movies were filmed. It was a fun historical tour but I think it would have been better had they tied inflatable tubes behind the boat and dragged us all around the place. Or maybe a hike in the water.

I really did my artistic best to sit in a riverside cafe and sketch, but I was sooo hot with rivelets of sweat running down my back. I tried to draw but drops of perspiration from my fevered brow kept dripping on the paper making everything runny and fuzzy (not unlike my brain which needed more than lukewarm wine to navigate the canal walkway). To add insult to sunstroke, the cafe napkins were made from a substance that would not absorb any sort of watery liquid (sweat, wine, tears...). I paid my bill and quickly moved on to the Hilton where I was assured of AC, free WIFI and Lone Star beer. No sketches but I watched the soccer final as the Lone Holland Supporter. Love that beer!

Due to the storms that covered all of Georgia, North and South Carolina (according to the airlines) it took me 12 hours to get home, a journey that should have taken two and a half. After stumbling into my slightly cooler than body temperature bed at 2 AM and being covered with grateful (hot and furry) cats, I was home again. And the weather had not changed, Autumn was not here.

And despite the urge to just take naps and sip iced sweet tea for the rest of my life I had to get back to work on books and the next upcoming class in Pittsburgh. Leon also did his best to claim my bed on the screen porch! How well these cats know me.

The books called me, and since this blog is supposed to be about art, I should maybe write about what I am doing instead of me, me, me... This is the start of Book 28, a felt and leather wrapped journal. Here I am measuring and poking holes for the edge stitching. (Don't you love that great Mexican oilcloth tablecloth I got in San Antonio? And the fabulous seque from San Antonio to books?)

Me and my fat legs stitching a wonderful coptic endband stitch around the book cover. I like this stitch as it is thick enough, using waxed linen, to cover the join of leather and felt. Note fan working overtime.

And here is the almost finished book cover. It takes about 4-5 hours to stitch around the entire edge. I just LOVE the colors of the book cover and the oil cloth. Totally unplanned but the universe is generous today! Now I must finish this book, then copy the handouts for the Pittsburgh workshop (see sidebar) for which cousin Marien and I will drive to Pittsburgh tomorrow (no more airports for a while) - finish packing the car - answer emails and check my facebook account - eat lunch - check fb again - buy enough gin and diet tonic for the Pittsburgh time - check emails - iron clothes.....

No Rest For the Wicked

2010-07-07T08:30:00.000-07:00

Today, July 7th, I am packing to leave once again before the crack of dawn - off to another adventure in the life of the traveling, drive by workshop instructor. This time I am heading to San Antonio to teach the Airey Fairy Scarf (much needed in air conditioned Texas!) and a whole day of hand-felted jewelry forms - snakes and beads which can be embellished to one's contented heart's limit once dry.

But before any packing could be done, I had to repaint the floor of Studio B (B for Basement). I do this every two years instead of washing the floor. It just feels so good to have that pristine space. However then I have to run after students with a towel lest they drip some foul water on my new floor. I sweep every day. And then I start to pack.

Summer is my busiest teaching time and the busiest in the dye kitchen as just about anything that was white has to be turned into fabulous color.

I've also been busy up in Studio A (the office/tv room/bead storage/room with ceiling fan) beading and stitching all those half finished projects from the last workshops, and trying out some new ideas for upcoming classes.

Coptic small book started in Holland...

A yummy leather and felt wrapped journal...

and more of the quick wrapped felt journals.

I have finally started to sell my books, now that I am feeling like the little ole lady in a shoe with all these "children" about. Next project is to set up a shop on Big Cartel and list the books and brooches and artworks and even pieces of resist dyed felt. I just really want to be a shop keeper, truth be known, so I can endlessly arrange the 'product' on shelves and tables. I dream of having an old fashioned - mostly seen on tv shows like the ancient Gunsmoke, which formed my childhood ideas of how the world worked - type of storefront. That's my idea of a grand life. Sitting in the back room drinking coffee around the pot bellied stove and listening for the tinkle of the front door when another friendly customer comes in, ready to fill her basket with beautiful things and bring juicy gossip from the outside. ahhh.

But no one buys my sweet kitty Leon! His job will be to sit on the polished wooden counter and be loved.

I Wanna Move to Lopez Island

2010-07-07T07:59:00.000-07:00

Ok, I admit it could be the 12,056 days of 90 degree heat in Asheville, but I am in love with Lopez Island in the San Juans, off Seattle. It could be the temperature, the fabulous people, the Orcas which leap and frolic around the place or maybe I just need to be elsewhere for a while. I'm thinking that I will start with two weeks a year, and then move to a month...

Jane and I traveled to Lopez in June as I was teaching a Resist Dyeing and Book Making Workshop that my good friend Jan set up. Lovely, talented students. And even a wonderful evening sitting in Jan's new studio, drinking wine and stitching. How could life be any better!!

One of the best parts about heading off to Lopez is the ferry system. I really like the idea that you can't really get off the island unless you want to swim in frozen water guaranteed to freeze your lungs as soon as they fill with icky sea water, or wait for the ferry - much more civilized. And this what you see floating up and parking at the Lopez ferry dock. (If one indeed does 'float' and 'park' a ferry.)

One night as a treat, Jan grilled fresh, wild, marinated sockeye salmon on the beach as I chopped the firewood - a skill from my hippie-living on the land and having a wood stove-month. Years ago.

I'm thinking that I look really cool in those sunglasses. Jane just looks thrilled to be eating fabulous food that someone else has cooked! And since food, next to whale watching and rock collecting, was one of our obsessions, we took pictures of exceptional meals.

But alas, we had to leave when all was done. Jane did get to see a pod of Orcas off Iceberg Point and called during class to breathlessly tell me. And we did do a ferry walk-on to visit Friday Harbor and check out the Whale Museum. But that day came when we loaded everything up from the Honey House where we were guests and headed back to the ferry dock. Here's Jane watching it all slip away.

But even once back on the mainland, the islands followed us.

We had opted for the red eye back to North Carolina, which meant a loooonnnnngggg wait at Seatac . Luckily Jane had passes for the Delta Lounge where we ate tons of food and drank a free gin and tonic every half hour and played with free WiFi.

We have already planned our Lopez trip for 2011 to be combined with teaching at the Pacific Northwest Art School, formally known as Coupeville. I hope I see my buddy - Orca - when we step onto that next ferry.

Flying Through Time

2010-07-07T07:05:00.000-07:00

I keep thinking that I have written a new blog entry. I write in my mind at airports, while trying to sleep on planes, waiting for the coffee to come out of the new miracle coffee machine. Then I look at my real blog and wonder where all those great ideas and sparkling turns of phrase have gone. I think my new motto is "If I can imagine it, it is already done."

Lots has been happening at ye olde homestead. Above is my new drop leaf table from Old North State's moving sale. Now I can have dinner parties. Maybe. If someone comes and cooks. I just love how the morning light comes through the bamboo blinds and settles gentle...on the cat hair, as this is Scooter's favorite place to lay on her back and hope for a scratch from passing humans. I love to arrange the rooms in this cottage of mine to look welcoming, like Martha Stewart would have 'done' them. Lovely book filled living rooms where no one sits. Gracious and cosy dining nooks where no one eats. A kitchen full of hand thrown ceramics that gather dust. Meanwhile I spend all my time eating and making books in front of either the tv screen or this computer. Where do others find the time to cook and entertain, and most importantly, dust?

Since the last blog we have gone to New York City, the Big Apple, Hell in a Handbag.

Jane, Susie, Marion and I had a road trip north that wandered through Hampton, VA for a day so I could teach at the Art & Soul Conference which was pretty dern wonderful. The bright spot in my road trip. I taught a one day Bark Scarf Workshop where the 20 !!! students fulled my hand dyed

merino needle felts into scarf lengths, stitched and pulled stitches and we dyed them all in beautiful deep colors. Ahh.

But the next day we drove relentlessly towards THE CITY. I just am not a friend of NYC especially after I had been worn out by that day of intense teaching. Things got darker in my head as we went through the tunnel. We would be robbed, murdered, my car would be stolen, smashed, we would all end up on America's Most Wanted as victims of some henious crime, which I knew about as I faithfully watch CSI-NY several times a week.

We found the street on which our second choice hotel was located - in the East Village. The hotel was called Sanctuary of something or the other, so I figured we'd be safe there. Their web site showed framed pictures of Blue Krishnas in all the rooms. Of course I had not figured on our room would open right on the street right next door to the New York City Branch Headquarters of Hell's Angels!! In case you may think I exaggerate a bit...I had to take a picture, along with the rest of the tourists (who were allowed only two photos each by the thug who guarded the sitting bench in front)

It was a bit reassuring to have them next door, like terrifying uncles who just got out of prison but are still on probation. You watch them. They watch you.

There were a few other scary places - like the Natural History Museum which I have loved forever since I discovered Roy Chapman Andrews in my monthly selection of All About Books in the 1950's

Since the main purpose of our road trip was to see Little Susie, daughter of Big Susie graduate from Cooper Union, we attended the ceremony but then left the Susies so to find a decent bar and take pictures of each other. Here is Marion taking pictures of the huge pints of some other beer other than Guinness. After several pints of this lovely brew and mountains of sweet potato fries, New York City seemed to look a bit better.

And that was the month of May!

Small Wonders

2010-05-14T09:26:00.000-07:00

Everyone I know has had their life filled to capacity this month. Maybe it was the late spring, and now we and nature are rushing to get everything done before the hot lazy days of summer.
photo of yers truely coming from the Amserfoort junk store

I have just returned from my annual trip to Holland, returned from rain into rain - and hot muggy weather. In my car yesterday, I realized how grateful I was that I could be a fat, capitalist pig sitting in my Air Conditioned vehicle. At first I felt the usual guilt thinking such a thing, but then I remembered those days in the distant past when I would drive around with my windows rolled up in hot, sticky weather so others would think I HAD air conditioning. Of course it never occured to me that when they saw my twenty year old, rust bucket Plymouth Demon, they knew (if they thought about it at all) that I was an idiot.

So Holland - I might as well get to the most important things - FOOD. Here's Joke's home made Pannenkoken with bacon, ginger and pineapple. and then drizzled with syrup. And Apple Tart at an outside cafe after a visit with Joke's parents.

Gobbling down Kibbling(fried fish) in the flower market.

And gobbling down a giant, warm siroopwafel in the rainy market.

I went over to Holland to visit and teach my new book and felt class. We held the three day workshop in Joke's living room with the dye kitchen in the garden. Worked wonderfully, especially the light that came through the window wall that turned busy students into Vermeers.

The books, both the Quick Wrapped felt journals and the beaded and stitched coptic bound books were beautiful and hopefully have inspired a talented group of felters to try new ideas with their resist dyed felt.

There were the other Dutch haunts that I simply couldn't miss anytime I have the chance to visit: The national flea market that happens on the Queen's birthday, (Bought a fabulous hammer that was too heavy to bring home) and the fabulous antique store in Utrecht which has one aisle down the middle big enough for one person to walk sideways to the back.

Oh, did I mention the Saturday market had more than food.

We drove to Joke's parent's along beautiful Dutch roads, and to Ellis' house in Zeeland with long rows of trees in the distance.

Ellis, a fascinating and talented felter, lives in a marvelous ancient house with the kitchen of my dreams. She made us fried eggs which magically glowed on the aga stove, and bread which looked like it came from the 16th century but tasted fabulous.

Ellis works with LARGE felts, so raw and exciting.

I had wanted to write this blog about books and felting and workshops, but the photographs just jumped in and and are saying much more than I could. I guess this is about small, wonderful things that are all around us all the time, but sometimes it takes going elsewhere to sharpen the eye and instill a sense of wonder about far away places, people and times.

A weaver's workbench from the basket museum

Wooden shoes no longer used

Fig tree at Ellis'

Another view of Ellis' supernatural fried eggs

Small wonders - Dutch beer and my i-touch in the rain.

On the Road Again

2010-04-21T18:14:00.000-07:00

Well, it's that time - time to load the two 50 pound suitcases and the 35 pound carry-on and the 20 pound purse and the coat with pockets bulging with last minute teaching necessities, load it all into the car and make that 20 minute drive to the airport. And it feels a lot like the above photo of Scooter trying to fit into a tiny boxtop. It's teaching season. One of my favorite seasons next to spring and sitting on the porch seasons.

I've been preparing new book making classes for almost 3 months now. New handouts, new projects, tearing stacks of text blocks, putting together sets of tools for the students. Worrying. Wondering if I really know what I am doing. Wondering if I am too old for this. Wondering what I would do it I couldn't take my show on the road and teach?

I'm heading to Ann Arbor tomorrow morning to teach folks from the Ann Arbor Fiber Guild. My good friend and fabulous cook, Anna Flora, will meet me at the Detroit airport hopefully with a decent gin&tonic. The old Detroit airport, before it's face lift, always reminded me of being back at grad school at nearby Cranbrook. I just love the current airport with it's alien sound tunnel and fabulous fountain. It's clean!! No broken seats or torn wallpaper. (one notices many things while awaiting the 4th cancellation of one's flight).

One of the book projects we'll be doing in Ann Arbor will be this mighty useful wrapped journal. It's quick, easy ( I hope ) and no one else will have anything like it. I did a sample class at my studio two weeks ago with Marien, Susie, and Jane. They made some very wonderful books (considering that I gave them the dregs of my resist felt pieces which which to make those books). They are so kind to me!

There is a strange thing I notice that happens just before I leave on a journey and just before I return. My mind just moves on to the next place. Body sitting here in front of computer writing this blog so it can cross it off the list and brain is at the airport, fiddling with the itouch. I just hope I can hold it together for a few more hours as I do need to henna the hair, iron the clothes, stuff the final bag and find the tickets. But my brain is on the road already.

And when I am ready to return, my mind again beats my body back to the screen porch. Just like Marien here awaiting her turn for last Sunday's porch haircuts.

Oh my. It's already so late and the henna needs two hours to soak in, and the cable company has had an accident somewhere and so there is no tv. And there are still loads of un-scratched off tasks to do before 9 am tomorrow morning - 12 hours away. I guess I'll just have to finish up these delightful strawberry daiquiris and try to iron. And try to think of tomorrow morning with coffee on the porch and hair the color of the sunrise, ready to hit the road.

Opps - almost forgot. I just scheduled a three day Studio Retreat here in my studio in June. Three days of resist dyeing and making books and stitching and beading on the - where else - the porch! See side bar for more information.

On Motivation

2010-04-01T09:41:00.000-07:00

It's the first day of April and the weather person promises record breaking temperatures - like in the 70's! It's a day like this I've been waiting for since last October. We have had a few warm sunny days, but they lasted just a few hours before temps dropped and grey skies spit a few flakes to freeze my soul.

But those bits of sun here and there woke up the dormant sleeping porch lover in me, and I have been busy - not on blogging - but on redecorating the screen/sun/sleeping porch, getting books and teaching papers done and discovering the life appreciating jolt in the heart that comes when disasters strike.

The Passport - the first heart and soul tremor.

I love Holland and England and well, travel in general. On April 26th I will be flying off to visit my very cool friend Joke in Holland. The trip has been planned for months as I scrapped together frequent flier miles, figured out dates from arcane airline web pages and working on the felt book class I will be giving during my time in Amserfoort. Imagine my shock when I was told that because my passport expires in June, I could not use it for travel. Seems that one's passport needs at least six months of unexpired life left or one cannot enter most foreign countries. I would be captured in Schiphol Airport and shuffled back to the USA in some cargo plane full of other rejected items!

Hyperventilating and thanks to the passpost guy in our local post office, I had that passport form, pictures, a huge personal check and all my hopes in an expedited expensive next-day-delivered envelope on it's way to some government office within hours and a WEEK later had a new passport. Most be a slow season somewhere.

Another disaster occurred when my ancient, wonderful $5 Good Will espresso machine blew up almost a week ago. It was horrifing and sad. It's name was Charlie and we made coffee every single day for almost 7 years. After that much time together it was almost beyond my abilities to figure out what to do - which was to spend several days on the computer checking consumer reports and web sites for the best espresso machine within my price range. One just can't count on Good Will when the chips are down. The result is in the photo - Marco DeLonghi - my Amazon espresso object of worship. I still have to hold the instructions in one hand while checking water temps with the other. Who knew coffee could be so tempermental. But, oooo, the taste!

And finally, everyone's great disaster-heart-stopper this time of the year, le taxes. I have laid out the papers on every table in the house hoping that seeing them at every turn would guilt me to work. Didn't work. But instead the porch has been almost completely transformed...walls and floors repainted, a fabulous green bench was found at the auction house, new curtains hung, a day bed moved in instead of uncomfortable futon, goodwill pillows were gathered, a few ferns to hang...

And now I am almost back to the artistic life - Sitting in the sun on the porch has done wonders for getting books stitched and teaching plans firmed up. Yes, I get my wifi out there and if I can find a small bar for the G&Ts and enough power for Marco's life affirming coffee, I'm not moving until Jane comes to take me to the airport (clutching that precious passport in my hand).

It Could be Worse

2010-03-15T16:58:00.000-07:00

It certainly is hard to stay away from this computer. When I make my coffee in the morning (a highlight of the day) I also feed the cats, turn on their water fountain and then sit down here in this sometimes sunny room and check email - answer some, delete some but there is always something that needs further checking and answering: the teaching gigs, exhibits, and questions about just about everything.

Then I check the 20-30 blogs I watch to see if anyone has anything interesting published- and once there, I mostly likely head off down some rabbit hole of interest - I particularly like several blogs about weird museums around the world and odd things. Then I'm off to my Face Book page to see if anyone has responded on my profile page, and then to 'home' page to check out the most recent info of who is friends with who, etc. You know the scene by now. Finally I check my new blog to see if I have another follower and how many people have visited.

Then back to the email, have any more come in???? and if they have, I write responses. So I am sitting here, still in my bathrobe at 11:40am, two more swallows of cold coffee and I am wondering where my to do list is and why I am still sitting here.

Sometimes I feel like I am spending my life just trying to get things done - the taxes, the vet, bills, groceries, finding enough teaching, making artwork and figuring out how to sell it, cleaning the house, feeding me and the cats... the circle goes on and on, until a day comes like one did last week - finally in the 60's and I am laying on the futon on the unfinished for Spring screened porch and wondering about living in the moment, like the story about the dog who just runs out of the house without a care in the world, no extra bone in his mouth for later dinners, no map to see where he is going, no list of to-dos, no raincoat or watch. But he is perfectly happy and probably enjoying life more than I am.

I have a folder of mostly old European kitchens that I like to look at and wonder about a life that consists of drinking coffee by the casement window in the morning, heading out with my wheeled cart to the market for the day's food, stopping and talking to friends doing the same, and then returning and preparing that same food, warm bread, fresh cheeses and veggies, making dinner for family and friends who wander in about dinner time and share a few bottles of wine.
Photo of Bay Leaf on Rust Dyed Felt project

Big Sigh. I am finding in my old age that wine doesn't agree with me so much and the gin and tonic has become the staple in my evenings. And I also find that from 5pm to midnight is my ideal work time, stitching felt, tearing paper, planning new books. And forget the whole part of the year when it is cold and grey - winter. I might as well send out hibernation notices to friends as I am unbearable (odd phrase as I am being very bear-like). But days finally come when the temps go up, the sun is shining and the air becomes so soft, a very distinctive feel that says, "yes, I've come back to the world of the living". Maybe I ate too many pomegranates this winter?

Must get dressed and cleaned and fed for outside activities now. I wave to the mailman in his truck, who, when I greet him at the door for my packages and apologize for being in my bathrobe, says "I've seen worse.

Photo of newest Bark Scarf

Photo: Cover of FeltBook #12 waiting for the text block.

Moving Right Along

2010-03-09T15:05:00.000-08:00

This was the view outside my kitchen window one week ago during the last snow. This is normally a beautiful native dogwood which in spring, looks just like this but with flowers!

I've been working on new FeltBooks, three more this week and am very thrilled to announce- Hot Off The Press - that I will be teaching the resist dye class and bookbinding in Amerisfoort, Holland May 1-3, 2010 AND on Lopez Island in the San Juan Islands off Seattle on June 17-18 (resist dye workshop), 18th - slide show and 19-20 (the book making). I am also teach the dyeing and books at several other workshops this year. I try to list them all in the Workshop Section of my web page sooner or later, so if you are interested write me or check out my web page for classes near you.

Okay, I do have to figure out how to move these photos around. That's tomorrow's learning curve. Last Saturday in Studio B (the basement dye studio) I ran a "The Dyemaster Works For You" workshop in which I do all the dyepots and the student(s) madly felt blanks; wrap, clamp and tie the felts for resisting and then open them back up after their time in the dyepot. We ran 15 dyebaths and got some great pieces. I'll take photos later and post them because I also got to do quite a bit of work along with the dyepots. Here's a photo of the "neatly" piled up resist tool table. It makes my heart beat faster just to look at it.

And the best news of all is that spring has arrived in my back yard. I have never been so happy to feel that soft air which is so unique to springtime in the south. I live on my screen porch all spring, summer and fall and have been desperate to be able to sit on the futon and not have to wear 15 layers of sweaters! Here is a shot of the porch in early March. Soon the floor boards will be painted, the rugs will come out, tables, chairs, books, flowers and gin & tonics will grace the space.

Wow. It really takes a while to get write a blog post. It's time to work already!

A Quick History

2010-03-04T09:48:00.000-08:00

Today is the date of our creativity/business group meeting. Last month I had promised that I would get this blog up and running, so today is the day. I didn't get a gold metal for procrastination at the winter olympics for nothing, you know. But I have been busy on other fronts.

As some of you know (and I am assuming a lot from my reader out there) I am and always have been a feltmaker. A traditional, wet felting, lay it out, felt and dye it feltmaker. And I have been doing this for over 35 years. I have made some changes over the years - types of wool, dye processes and end products. Currently I am using fine merino needle punch batts from Australia to speed up the felting process as my true love is the resist dyeing that comes next. The resulting multi-colored resist dyed felt surface has been the canvas for my art.

I would stitch, cut, restitch, bead, attach small collected objects, stitch again and finally frame the finished felt. In the beginning the resulting felts were huge, sometimes over 8 feet in one direction or the other. They started to get smaller as I realized that many people who wanted to collect my work would almost have to put an addition on their house to fit the artfelt. As I worked smaller, I realized I could work on a number of different ideas at the same time, different felts. Ideas manifested themselves - good and not so good - faster.

What has happened over the last 35 or so years is that I have gone through many changes in the felt object - Large framed artworks, unframed giant felt walls, the wearables-slippers, hats, mittens, scarves, smaller artworks about collections, even smaller framed collections - and now I am at a very wonderful place with small 7" x 9" beaded, stitched and framed "pages", tiny beaded and felted brooches and dear to my heart - the feltbooks.

INSERT NOTE HERE: I have wanted to be a bookbinder for forever. I love books. I read constantly, I have worked in libraries and bookstores, I collect Southern 1st editions, I sell books on Amazon, and I have written three books about feltmaking. I love the deliberate steps to making a book. I love the history that lives in an old book. And even though I seem to spend most of my day on this computer, I have no fear that books will disappear in a virtual world. Our hands need to do more than tap keyboards. We need to feel the heft of the book, the texture of the paper. Our eyes need the designs of covers, photographs, the printed page. And it is very hard to haul a computer up the back yard tree in order to get away from everybody and just read. (Yeah, I know about the Ipad, Kindles and all their ilk, but I am ignoring them to make my point.)

And even through I have been going down both paths of felting and book binding, I was still rather delighted with the January 2010 collision at their intersection when I finally just sat down at the desk in Studio A and made book after book after book - all with stitched and beaded felted covers and pure Lunar Laid text paper. They are making me very happy.

The Grand Beginning

2010-02-18T07:55:00.000-08:00

Hello to all,
This is my first blog posting and for that matter, my first Blog. Please bear with me as I learn the ins and outs, the why and no way, the language of edits and the limits of posting photos.

My reason for creating a blog is to share with whoever is interested my studio workings, new ideas and projects, teaching and workshop thoughts and reviews, new artwork in my shop, desperate pleas for knowledge and all that makes up the day by day work of a full time, self employed artist.

And now back to all those options that make up my learning curve.