The Other Loom

In preparation for the studio tour I warped both of my four harness looms. This one has a cotton warp that I natural dyed in brazilwood, coreopsis and black hollyhock. The colours overlap giving it a cool painterly effect. I wove two scarves and had a little warp left over. This is some handspun natural dyed alpaca in a point twill on the tail end of the warp. What I will do with the little piece, I have no idea! However I need to cut the scarves off and knot the fringes tonight because the Lewisburg Arts Festival is tomorrow!

Susquehanna River Arts Studio Tour Weekend

Here I am warping one of my looms with a natural dyed rainbow rug yarn warp in preparation for the studio tour this coming weekend.

One of the local organizations that I belong to is Susquehanna River Arts. SRA was created by the Columbia-Montour Visitors Bureau to showcase the works of local artisis. The Susquehanna River Arts project highlights the cultural assets of our region and fosters an appreciation of both our communities and our heritage.

Saturday and Sunday April 21st and 22nd is the inaugural Open Studio Tour. There are twelve artists featured and all the studios are open from 10am-6pm both days. I am #12 on the map in the full colour brochure the visitors bureau created. You can visit their website for more information including lodging packages, go to: www.itourcolumbiamontour.com

I hope to see you in my studio!

Philadelphia Flower Show

Monday was my annual trek to the flower show. This year's theme was Hawaii so there were lots of orchids and some nifty lava flows. They expanded the show into the newly completed addition to the convention center and altered the traditional layout. The changes helped keep people moving better, not as congested as in the past. Thank you! I got a much needed dose of bright colours and tropical scents. The day was complete with a visit to the Flying Monkey in the Reading Terminal for a double chocolate brownie, yeah!

New Colourful Felt Design

This is only the first layer of wool and it took HOURS to blend and twirl and position all the colours. I have to lay out at least four more layers of wool, wet it out with hot soapy water and then begin to felt! I have a vision of what I want and hope this gets me there.

Bare Metal Gallery Opening Reception

The gallery is located at 79 Duke St. in Northumberland PA. The opening reception was Friday evening from 6-8. My dad took this picture off the owner Dave Snyder and me talking in front of my work. I shared the spotlight with Sam Dion, a renowned illustrator and fabulous painter. In the center of the wall are some of my newest pieces. They are 12"x12" acrylic and paper on canvas then coated with resin. The thick shiny coating adds so much depth to the colours.

Show Season draws to a close

I will be showing with my fellow Susquehanna Valley Spinners and Weavers Guild members in the Gutelius House in Mifflinburg starting tomorrow. Since it is a Christkindle celebration the snow in the forecast is more apprpriate than the soaking rain we have been experiencing! The flood in September certainly interrupted my schedule for several weeks but it got back on track in October... only to get surprised by a snowstorm that temporarily closed the "Holiday" craft show in Kutztown. November was a good month and I enjoyed working with my fellow crafters, seeing many returning customers/friends and meeting new ones. I will still be working diligently over the next few weeks to get all orders shipped before Christmas.

I know , I know...I said no dogs...but a very persuasive customer talked me into giving it a try. These two beagles belong to her daughter.

Solar Dyeing Silk

This incredible heat wave we are having is great for solar natural dyeing! The concept is much like making sun tea. Along with water and a piece of silk, the jar on the right contains black hollyhocks, the center is onion skins and the left is coreopsis flowers. The heat from the sun pulls the color from the plant material and deposits it on the silk. I pre-treated the silks with alum and rinsed them before adding to the jars. It is so hot that I think we will have results very quickly.

Ice Flower Dyed Scarf

From a photo it is impossible to appreciate the gorgeous teal and aqua shading created by the ice flower dye on silk. The dark areas are prints from the iris touching the silk. I think the copper pipe may have contributed some of the greener tones in combination with heat from the July sun. To achieve blues through a natural dye other than indigo is pretty special. I am so happy with the outcome! An added bonus is the dye smells like iris, one of my favorite scents.

Vegetable Wool Tiles

tomato tile, eggplant, pea, carrot, onion and radish Several visitors to Kutztown inquired about tiles other than the three I had with me. Here are several more. I will post additional veg, and fruit too, as I get them done.

For the uninitiated: These are approx 8" square, ready to hang, 100% hand felted wool for both the base tile and the image. They are $39 each.

Ice Flower Dyeing

I am back from the nine day long Kutztown Folk Festival and getting ready for
my next big event, the PA Guild Fine Craft Fair at the Chase Center in Wilmington DE.

During our short spring I saved all of my dark blue and purple iris along with some blue pansies. As the flowers started to wilt I popped them in a Ziploc bag and tucked them in the freezer. I removed a couple handfuls of frozen iris and placed them in an old stocking. I plunged it into a gallon jar of warm water and squeezed to release the gorgeous blue dye. Then I added two silk scarves, one is loose and the other is wrapped around a section of copper heat pipe from my house that had frozen and split this winter.

This concotion has to sit still for a day or two. I will post pictures of the dyed silks when they are ready!

Show Season in full swing

So far in June I've been out to Pittsburgh (for the first time) and to the pan handle of West Virginia. At Three Rivers I lucked out with no bad storms during the first weekend time slot. The volunteers at 3Rivers were the absolute best I've encountered anywhere, thank you! They made me look forward to doing the show again in spite of the distance and obstacles.
The weather for the Mountain Culture Fest in WV was really hot and then the inevitable T-storm. My show results were not too good.
Now the preparations for Kutztown's nine day folk festival are occupying my every waking hour.

...like a diamond in the rough

This is my newest felted piece, Diamond in the Rough. I made it for the North Mountain Art League's exhibit that has just opened at the Northumberland County Cultural Center in Shamokin PA. The reception for the show is Friday eve April 8 2011.

My wall hanging is approx 18"x24" of wet felted wool. The beaded felt flower and leaves are 3D so they stand out from the background. I stitched the natural dyed jute rope in place and added texture by stitching with cotton and wool yarns in between the felt "rocks". It doesn't often happen, but the result was what I has hoping for!

Spring is here?

I took these photos in the Shady Grove section of my yard early yesterday morning. It was around five inches of the wettest, heaviest snow that you can imagine.

I am so anxious to get started on the garden but no such luck yet. March snows don't usually last long but this morning it is still flurrying.

Yes, I have been gone for a very long time. I couldn't figure out how to deal with posting "bad" news. Things like losing two of my uncles, losing my mommy alpaca, the barn roof getting destroyed in a wind storm... Not every day on the farmette turns out the way I pictured it. So I decided to bite the bullet as they say and dump it all at once. Then on with the new season, new shows, new products and I am even sporting a new haircut!

Compost Dyed Quilt Fabrics

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Here are some of the cloths on the line at dusk. I used alot of millet, dahlia and goldenrod in the compost dye mix and am really happy with how they turned out. For me the most dificult part is the PATIENCE it takes to wait for the magic to happen. Fortunately it has been so hot that the process is going as fast as it ever will.
The small pic to the right is a closeup of one of the cloths. It looks like marble. It is going to be difficult to part with some of these but that IS the idea afterall. This coming weekend is my first time ever vending at a quilt show. I hope the attendees enjoy these fabrics as much as I do! The show is the 37th annual Sully Quilt and Fiber Arts Show and Sale on Sunday Sept 12th at the Sully Historic Site in Chantilly VA. To make for an interesting weekend I'll be doing a craft show in East Berlin PA on Saturday. I managed to talk my friend Kipp into doing the same thing. After this schedule it may be 'former friend' Kipp!

First Felt Kitty

I certainly have a house full of models to look at! I introduced a handful of felted wool cats at ArtSpace Gallery in Bloomsburg last week and they all found homes rather quickly. Yesterday was the Lewisburg Arts Festival and some more were adopted. It is a good feeling when a new product is readily accepted. As always, I wish I could work faster!

Felt Stargazer

Finally got a chance to finish my felted flower. This is my largest wool felt creation to date. The main portion was done with wet felting and the finishing work was needle felted.This homage to a Stargazer lily is 24" across and the center is about 17" high. I have been sort of obsessed with lilies ever since I went to the Philadelphia Flower Show last year. There were some magnificent displays and I am looking forward to going there next week, after I get back from Boston. Yes, I am heading north to Bean Town in FEB for my first big craft show of the new year. I've never done shows in that area, know nothing about Boston, so it should be an adventure!
Gotta start packing now.

Small Felt Flowers

These natural dyed felt flowers are about 5" high and 10" across. They are perfect for a votive candle or candies. I have been making them in the wool colours I just dyed, yellow, red, pink and I just made a blue one! I am planning to introduce them at the New England Home Show (booth # 364) in Boston this month. The show is held in the Seaport World Trade Center Feb 25th-28th.

Felt Flower Begins

I weighed the fiber for each petal and cut a mat board stencil for the shape. I layered the wool inside the petal cutout and lightly tacked it with a felting needle to hold the shape. This large pile of wool was moved to bubble wrap, covered with a net curtain and wetted out with warm soapy water. I should have known better, well I DID know better but chose to be foolishly optomistic. The wool that I dyed lovely shades of pink and the natural white are two very diferent types of wool. I did manage to get them both to felt, however they really didn't felt to each other all that well. The colour migrated quite a bit...I have quite a bit of finishing work to do...my own fault. Will I learn????

Colourful Wool Batts

In spite of the cooooold basement, I finally got to dye some more of the wool I'd cleaned . The yellow is a mix of dried marigolds and some goldenrod that I canned so it didn't smell bad this time. The indigo vat is acting funny, I think it is too cold. Today I chose to work up near the stove for a while. I started another large felt flower in pinks and white. Unfortunately the white fiber has an awful lot of hay and stuff in it even after washing. I hope I'm not making a mistake by using it.

Lakefront Property

It rained on Sunday, at night even harder and then kept pouring Monday morning. By 10:00 am this is what my back "yard" looked like. The creek, that is not normally visible, could not handle the runoff from the hill in front of the house. Once again the driveway got washed out, water in the basement and septic system flooded (not funtioning still)... Today is sunny and beautiful and I have to find a septic repair dude. More $$ that I don't have out the window for shit, literally.