The Studio in Winter

 " A vision without execution is hallucination."

Accredited to Thomas Edison or being an ancient Japanese proverb. It's a good thought either way.

So, at this time of year I am not only wrapping up the old year (inventory, taxes etc.) but planning what  this year will look like. With everything that is going on the vision is pretty cloudy to be honest. I am thinking about what art fairs I will do, classes I will teach, and what art I will make. The only thing set in stone at this point is a solo exhibit at Pottery Place Plus, of which I am a member. We can rent out the guest artist space for a body of work that differs from our normal work we show in the gallery. I am thinking smaller accessories that may drift into some jewelry items, but we will see. My method for deciding is to make piles of materials and see what ideas come of it. A great activity for cold, gray afternoons. I watch the goings-on at the bird feeder while I sort out the fabrics that remind me of the sunny days they were made. I have until October to be done with the work for the show; It seems far off, but will be here shortly. 

In the meantime, if I am going to be able to do fairs this spring and summer I do have to get work done, even though it is the dead of winter here and there isn't much fresh plant material to work with. I was asked for an interview with our local weekly paper, the Inlander, so that was another poke to get busy! They needed pictures to go with the article. I started with yellow onionskins on silk. This is a method with rusty nails as a co-effector that creates something that resembles an animal print. This was a way to have something colorful in the background of the photos as most of the prints with dried and pressed leaves give fainter color than when they were green leaves. They can be overdyed with other natural dyes, which is what will happen to the pieces I did as soon as we are just a tad warmer outside. Stomping around in the outdoor kitchen in 32 degrees Celsius is much better than the teens and twenties we are experiencing now.

 So, I am also spending sometime at the sewing machine making new ideas for what seems like a ton of eco printed fabric piling up around here. I guess in this case the execution mentioned above is coming before the vision and at some point it will all come together.

Bundles of yellow onion skins and rusted nails steaming in the outdoor kitchen, this can also be turned olive green with a post dip in an iron pot .

This one is on my Etsy shop. While I am taking a break from ceramics to create space both physically and mentally, I still have a lot of buttons and pendants to post, so keep checking!

Happy Equinox

 "We must get back into relation: vivid and nourishing relation to the cosmos and the universe... We must once more practice the ritual of dawn and noon and sunset, the ritual of kindling fire and pouring water, the ritual of the first breath and the last."

D.H. Lawrence

Virginia Creeper 

If the pandemic has done anything for me it has made me slow down and appreciate the seasons. Eco printing does that anyway, you work with what nature is giving you at the moment. In the past, fall has always been a sort of rush before the first frost puts a stop to things, but this year it has been a relief. Although some plants I would normally work with at this time of year were toasted by the alarming summer heat, there are still plenty of survivors. Some may not give the same result as they do when not stressed, but they are still hanging on, just like a lot of us. 

I will be participating in the Little Spokane River Artist Studio Tour this weekend at Clay Fox Pottery Studio, click HERE to get a map, I hope to see you there!

New Year, New Day

 "Living in the past is depression, living in the future is anxiety."

Unknown

We have hit the gray and sometimes bleak part of winter here, so I decided to spend the week making a little sunshine. In the summer I pick Tansy flowers from along the river and hang them to dry for just such an occasion.

I put the dried flower heads in a pot of water to soak overnight, then simmered them for about 45 minutes to make the dye. The scent is lovely, like yarrow, sharp and calming at the same time.

This is right at the beginning, such a beautiful soft color! I simmered them for about an hour and then let them sit until evening before removing them from the dye bath.

The fabric in the background silk crepe de chine, the one swooshing across the middle is silk dupioni. These were scrappy type pieces of fabric that I had treated with alum last summer (I have no idea what I intended to do with them then) and they did have a bit of iron contamination as there are some spots here and there. No worries, I will either find something to do with them, or maybe, give them a bath in the iron pot and turn them olive green at a later date. Right now they are hanging in my studio so I can enjoy the color, which is about the color of the winter sun here when we get to see it.

At the moment, I am doing my best to live in the moment. Having too many expectations for the coming year could make it seem worse than it actually is. Looking back on the debacle of 2020, I can see where I did that to myself at times. I was just reading an article about people who are starting up whole new businesses during the pandemic, and I know several personally that started up businesses during the Great Recession that are still in business. While I have no interest in reinventing the wheel at this point, I am looking deeply (as I was right before the pandemic started) into the business side of my art, while still practicing art, no matter what type it is. I bought myself a little Christmas present, Shelley Rhodes book Sketchbook Explorations, and although I have never really kept sketchbooks decided it would be an interesting idea to mess around with while waiting for the snow to melt and spring to return. Only two days into it and I have had a bunch of thoughts about the art, that may or may not lead to other business ideas. But without the art, there is no business, so the thing to do is keep making more art and when the time is right (whenever in the world that might end up being) the business ideas tend to synthesize themselves.

If you can't seem to get into the "Happy New Year" mood, that may actually be a good thing for now. It may be your soul protecting you from either overthinking the past or the future; and thus causing you pain of one sort or another. About the only thing you have control over is today, so the things to do today are those that make tomorrow a better place, no matter what happens. 

Cheers, take care of yourself and stay safe.

The Owl

"The owl," he was saying, "is one of the most curious creatures. A bird that stays awake when the rest of the world sleeps. They can see in the dark. I find that so interesting, to be mired in reality when the rest of the world is dreaming. What does he see and what does he know that the rest of the world is missing?"

MJ Rose, Seduction Series

At night, before bed, I go out and check on the world. To see if it's cloudy, if I can see the stars, whatever. A week or so ago a huge black shape swooped across the yard and landed in the pear tree. It was the neighborhood owl. Another bird, one that probably was roosting in the tree for the night, took off with a squawk into the dark. The next day I was working on a collage for an online group and just happened to come across an image of an owl and ended up making this one as well.

Since the original plan was to offer classes in April about how to prepare fabric for the coming summer the next post will be about working with rusty objects as a mordant. I just have one more procedure to do and take some more pictures. I hope you and all you know are well, or as well as can be expected under the circumstances. A friend posted on Facebook about using the time to ponder what parts of "normal" could we personally live without and should leave behind when this is all over. I think this is wise. After several really frustrating weeks, I suddenly realized that this situation is telling me something and that there are certain things I am not wrong about and it is futile to try to fit myself into situations that are just completely unnatural, and in some cases downright harmful, for me. The owl does what it needs to do in order to survive, and  so should all of us.

Remember to check out my Etsy site, new things go in almost everyday.

Report from the Backyard

"If we built houses the way we build software, the first woodpecker to come along would destroy civilization."

Clifford Stoll

Can you tell I have been spending way too much time filling out online forms, surveys, and not to mention online financial stuff? And let me tell you how much I enjoy listening to a lovely recorded message about whatever I am calling about can be found on the callee's website. That would be the one I am staring at, and have been staring at-and clicking endlessly on-for the last half hour. BTW, I have no idea who Mr. Stoll is, but he seems a very wise man.

The backyard keeps me grounded. Watching what plants are coming back to life, keeping track of the birds and their goings on remind me that there is a bigger world out there. They just deal with whatever they are dealing with and then there is the next moment and the next and the next. The Flicker is busy trying to find a mate. I have start calling him Ruddy the Riveter. The other day he started out on the furnace vent pipe on the barn, taping away. Today, even in the blustery wind we are having, he was at it again on the peak of the barn roof. All these are metal structures, he is not looking for a meal. He is looking for a partner. He is say "Look at me!" "Pick me-I am the best!" in his rat-a-tat sort of way. He needs to find the substrate that will make the loudest sound so the girl of his dreams will come along and claim him. Kind of like applying for grants, but I digress.

So, since getting a decent picture of this is impossible, I asked a dear friend to send me one of her paintings. Her name is Linnea Tobias and her work is wonderful. So bright and beautiful, and in a lot of cases thought provoking as well. You can see many of her lovely works on her Etsy site and when the Pottery Place Plus opens up again you can see them in person.

Flicker with Dahlia by Linnea Tobias

I have been putting eco printing on my Etsy shop, and adding new buttons every day, be sure to check back often-Thanks!

Decision Made! Well...Maybe, I Don't Know, Let's See What Happens

"This wasn't just plain terrible, this was fancy terrible. This was terrible with raisins in it."

Dorothy Parker

and/or

"What fresh hell is this?"

Also credited to Dorothy Parker

There is not much eco printing going on since it is still pretty cold and the plants are keeping their heads down, as are we all at this point. I have been spending so much stressful time on the computer, that by the time I get around to this blog I am worn out and haven't been keeping up with it. Here is an update of life in semi-isolation.

Adding things to my Etsy site, next week's task is to explore other selling options. If nothing else, by the time this is over I will have a much better online presence. With everyone at home, and finances uncertain, I don't expect tons of sales, but at least I will get a lot of things done I should have been doing all along. Thanks to all who have been buying, even small purchases help a lot.

These two images are of a series of works regarding the effect of textile production. The series is called "Unraveling: The Effect of Fabric on our Environment, our Culture, and our Health". Or some such thing. It is scheduled to show in September. I will be writing more about it over the spring and summer. The top image is for a piece called Worry Dolls, regarding child labor (yes, this is still, unfortunately, "a thing") and the bottom is about what happens to first world clothes when they are dumped on the third world. If you donated clothing labels, this is where the lion's share of them went. Still trying to decide on that screaming pink thing dead center in the middle-may have to de-emphasize that.

 Life around the house goes on as normal.

Lots of wandering around, both in the yard and over to the river and back. 

Mr. Man is getting ready for gardening season. His health is good, we are trying to keep it that way by staying home. I am learning all kinds of new digital web skills because of this! (imagine frowny face here)

Buddha excels at self isolation.

Anyway, needless to say, I don't know what will happen with the show season or my intended class schedule. With no crystal ball it is hard to tell. Galleries, like the Pottery Place Plus and Essential Art will eventually open again and classes can be put together at the last minute, while not ideal, it is possible. The art fairs are another matter. Are they being held, is it worth the expenditure during a year like this, are all questions with no answers at the moment. 

I want to thank my friends and local art community for all the help thus far, you guys are the best!

The Only Constant in Life is Change

"Man cannot discover new oceans  unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore."

Andre Gide

Low tide

High tide

Everyday Life

"How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives."

Annie Dillard, The Writing Life

"Artists are not exempt from that truism. Fix Breakfast, do the laundry, write a poem: That is the real life of an artist."

Ted Orland, The View From the Studio Door, referring to the Annie Dillard quote above.

An experiment on 100% wool craft felt, something I had never thought to use before. I will take the next piece and tighten it up, or make it "feltier" if that makes any sense, with a denser surface the prints most likely will be more distinct.

Laundry both studio and familial.

Mixed up a concoction to relieve my dry skin.

First salad from this season's garden!

A reread of one of my favorite books.

And last but not least, my studio door!

Signs of Spring

Well, I was hoping to take lovely pictures of tulips peeking through the snow, buds on the trees, etc. Trouble is, we have so many drifts left in the yard that even a couple of forty degree days hasn't made much impact. No tulips as far as the eye can see and I just don't have it in me to trudge through a foot or more of rock hard snow to take pictures of buds on trees. But, after looking around, there are some signs of spring, if you look hard enough.

Fabric prep. You would think I would spend the winter doing this, but you know what they say-if it weren't for the last minute a lot of things wouldn't get done.

Our neighbor looking over the plant starts in the hot box. Next weekend it will be time to turn on the actual greenhouse. Actually, it is past time, but better late than never!

Not the most interesting picture you have ever seen, but the fact that we can get this door up at all and the snow drift that was keeping it shut is almost gone is one of the most wonderful things I have seen lately.

So, now, hopefully, there will be more things to talk about on this blog! I turned my Etsy shop back on, lots of ceramic buttons, eco printed paper kits, some destash items, and a few scarves. To visit, hit the Etsy Mini link on the homepage of this blog.

What a Week

This week has been very disconcerting. When I feel this way I look to nature to remind me of the bigger picture. I have taken a very long walk each day. I see the river rising as it should at this time of the year, the leaves changing and falling, and, thanks to the incredible amount of rain, the mushrooms rising. My husband has brought home something new almost every day to identify. There was even an article in our local paper about the diversity of fruiting fungi this fall, some not seen for the last ten years.  

                                                                                                                                                        Watching the ducks paddling around in swirling water that I would be afraid to swim in due to its force, is comforting as well as inspiring. They are completely at home no matter the tempest around them. Or, maybe to my untrained eye, they know when to dodge the churning water coming from below that I can't see from where I stand. I wish I had the same knowledge about my own world. To know how to swim into the whitewater while avoiding the deadly whirlpools would be empowering.

While my sunroom would hardly be considered a nature area, it is soothing to see my Christmas cactus doing what they normally do at this time of year. The days shorten and they bloom. With all the gray days in October, they are a bit ahead of schedule.  They have adjusted to what is going on around them. 

                                                                                                                                                         Outside is another story. Our temperatures this fall have been abnormally warm. We did have a light frost in September, so the hollyhocks and other perennials died back. The annuals died off and it looked like fall was on the way to winter. Then we had copious amounts of rain and highs in the sixties with nighttime lows in the high forties for all of October and now for the first two weeks of November. Today it is a beautiful spring day. We started out with rain and now it is sunny and breezy. Trouble is, it is not spring. The snapdragons and even some petunias have reseeded and sent up seedlings, the perennials are coming back from the roots. They don't know it yet, but all will get a rude awakening later in the week when it is supposed to freeze at night. 

                                                                                                                                                                  I feel like the outdoor plants. I had been going along thinking I had at least a notion of what was going on, and now-I don't know what to think or where to turn. Society was not what I thought it was. I went to bed one night and woke up to a very harsh reality. It would be easier to live in some sheltered, hothouse world where there was plenty of time to make decisions and adjust. Truth is, life is not that way. I stay grounded by enveloping myself in a world that remains constant by continuously changing, the real world, the natural world. The plants will freeze, go dormant and be back in the spring and their lives will go on. While I can't go dormant entirely (wish that I could) I do need to rest, pull back and conserve my energy for whatever life delivers next.

Time Well Spent

I had a lovely time in Anacortes Washington, both at the show and at the campground. I got quite a bit of work done while there, using all the lovely plants that don't grow on the eastern side of the state. The campground is right on the water's edge with a lot of untouched forest. Thimbleberry, salmonberry, ferns, and bracken all grow among the old trees and make wonderful prints.

I also walked a lot and spent time thinking and not thinking. I came across this tree one afternoon and watched the passage of time in the tides.

Throwback Friday

Just doesn't have the same ring to it as Throwback Thursday does it? I am not sure what it is about cold gray weather that makes me want to dig around in my book shelves, but here we are. I was looking for something else (of course) and came across these. I have kept them forever as they really inspired me at the time, to the point where I can trace the switch from my retail career to my art career directly to them. I have done embroidery of one sort or another since childhood and at one point, about 30 years ago, I was designing cross stitch patterns for magazines. By today's standards these are what you would call quaint, but after paging through them again I still think they have merit.

Stitches, Patterns and Projects for Needlecraft by Wanda Bonando and Marinella Nava

Copyright 1981, Harper Colophon Books

I was surprised that the copyright for this was from the 80's as it seemed older than that. This book covers about every sort of embroidery there has ever been since the beginning of time. While the projects in it are really conservative, it was a jumping off point for me. I used to check it out over and over from the library and then one day came across a discarded copy at a library sale and just had to have it for my very own.

Mary Martin's Needlepoint by Mary Martin

Copyright 1969 William Morrow and Company

Yes, that would be the Mary Martin of Peter Pan fame. In fact, the picture on the back of the dust cover features her in her costume all stung up for flight. I not only really liked her designs, I got a kick out of how her needlework lived right along her theater and movie career. This was another library book, but then I found a copy at Aunties Books and had to have a copy of it for all of $1.95.

Sylvia Sidney Needlepoint Book

Copyright 1968 Van Nostrand Reinhold Company

Again, I really liked her artwork as well as the fact that she did all or most of her own drawings for the patterns, and showed you how to do it too if you were so inclined. While not particularly interested in needlepoint, I did use her methods to start doing my own cross stitch patterns. This one is also peppered with stories about her career in Hollywood. Again, it was a library book I checked out long ago, but I bet whoever traded in the Mary Martin book at Aunties also traded this one in too, so I had to get it for old time's sake-at a $1.99 who could resist?

The Yestermorrow Clothes Book

by Diana Funaro, copyright 1976, Chilton Book Company

You could say this book inspired my entire art and craft career. I got it while in high school just about the time I learned to drive and was off to the thrift stores in Kansas City! I loved taking vintage clothes (real vintage, from the 20's, 30's and 40's) and rebuilding them. This book had great ideas and great general directions for taking stuff apart. When I look at it today, there are plenty of things in it I would still wear, and in fact, I see on sites like Etsy everyday. She had timeless vision.

Needlework to Wear

by Erica Wilson, copyright 1982, Oxmoor House Inc.

Called the "Julia Child" of needlework, Erica may have been one of the first women to be a "craft powerhouse" long before the quilting girls got going. I remember doing her patterns as a child in the late 1960's and as a teenager in the 70's. Again, I came across this in a library and then found a used copy years later that I had to have just because. I think I found this one fascinating because she did fiber jewelry-and not macramé either! She used very traditional techniques to come up with really modern designs-for the early eighties. Now the clothes in particular look really dated, but at the time this book was ground breaking in that she was not sitting around doing stuff out of the past, she was making contemporary wearables using traditional techniques. 

Ok, my tea is cold and whatever I originally started to do still isn't started, so I had better get back at it.  

Fall at the River

Gray fall days are my favorite, the colors of the leaves seem to glow against the sky. It is good to get out and think about nothing for a bit.

Jar Dyes

I decided  to put up some "witch jars" today. I call them that as sometimes the results  are magical - sometimes kind of scary! Anyway, these will set on the sunny side of the greenhouse  until I need something  to  steam print then I will take them out and work with them. About the only experiment  in these are privet  berries, they got really dried out, not sure what will happen!

Spring Cleaning

With half a foot of snow and ice outside I guess calling it spring cleaning is a bit too optimistic. I decided to warm up my studio with color by painting three walls orange. It worked! In order to do this I had to do a bit of cleaning, sorting out and tossing. I came across a lot of good intentions that I decided to pass on to others but I also found ideas and projects that I need to get on with.

I also dusted out the cobwebs and quite a few of the critters that made them, at one point there was a very exciting hobo spider round up behind the laundry hamper. Thankfully, for the sake of my dignity,  there are no pictures of that.

It may be winter outside, but spring is in the studio!

A Good Day

I went to see the movie Wild today and I was impressed. It didn't quite give me the same sense of passion that the book did, but they did a good job with it. I came home and rinsed out several rusty nail scarves which all came out well-whew! Although I am not sure what I was worried about, the worst that would happen is that I would eco print them later. Then I took a small hike of my own over to the river. The wind was blowing and the sky was brilliant blue. The Spokane River was teal green as it is at this time of year. The wind is completely still now as the sun sets behind my favorite tree in our yard.

Nesting

Birds nest in the spring, I nest in the winter. The art fair circuit is done for the year, and it is time to rest and reflect. The days here are very short, it gets dark around four in the afternoon. Since there is nothing that has to be done outside there is time to nurture ideas that have been waiting their turn. It is also a good time to look back over what ideas I did make come into to reality and decide if they worked, or if they could be expanded. Several years ago I decided that I would also use this time to experiment with new materials and it has turned out to be a good decision. Even if I don't pursue any of them to a great degree, I always learn something or am inspired in some way. This winter's experiment is with ceramics. I have no interest in making my own coffee mugs or dinnerware at this point, but I have been searching the world over for earthy buttons, beads and pendants to work into my scarves and accessories. I am having some success (pictures coming soon I hope-ceramics can take as long as eco printing) and have had many insights into my fiber work; not to mention meeting an inspiring group of artists.

On this morning's walk I found this little nest resting in a branch over the Spokane River. It does remind me that I should also probably think about cleaning and reorganizing my own little nest. After a year of eco printing, my studio does resemble a pile of sticks!

Zen Books

I read Cheryl Stayed's Wild last year and then read it or parts of it over and over. I can see why they are making a movie out of it, the story is astounding. Hope they don't screw it up, the book is incredible. It gives new meaning to "walking the path".

The End of Summer is Near!

     For the last few days I have been up early. I have been surveying my weed sites and picking what I need. As you can see, the knapweed is toast at this point, as are some of the garden plants I use. With those plants I now wait for them to reseed themselves, sleep for the winter and start again next spring.

     Yesterday I went to my favorite place to collect driftwood, alas, it is blanketed in a luxurious coating of poison ivy! That will have to wait until next year, when again, the pile will be floating in a bend in the river. I did see a lovely little snake, we traveled together for quite awhile before he turned off into the grass.

     Today I saw some silvery minnows and when I got home I discovered a pair of quail decided to have a late season brood!  I hope they get a chance to grow up before it is too cold. They were out for a stroll across the lawn. While the temperature says otherwise, the change of season is near!

Fishing with my Father

I am working on a new eco print piece called " Fishing with my Father". He would go fishing at some farm pond or creek around where we lived and be glad to have me tag along. My parents had their issues, and by the time I came along it was just better if they stayed apart. He would come and get me and take me on these little expeditions. Even though I was more interested in stacking rocks, collecting leaves or swimming, he always seemed glad to have me along.