Reflections on Parenting

I came across a 20-year-old sketch book.  These were in it.

If only children had pause buttons, I would be a better parent.  

When there are toddlers in the house, tools take field trips.

Wear it Out

Great outfits can fit together like puzzle pieces . . . at first you think there’s no way certain pieces will fit together, but when they do — voila!  It looks terrific!

cork bag from Cork and Cotton
batik shirt from Susan Itkin Batik
bracelet from Tamaran Designs
summer version attitude hat by DreamWoven
pink chalcedony earrings by Elysium

Kirsten takes stranded baby seal home in her little boat

Playing Ball in Running Water

or using mindfulness to see the flow in controlling the controllable while letting the uncontrollable float by.  Is that about as clear as mud? 

I’ve been caught in a long-running struggle to find a balance between studio time and marketing time, in the hope of feeling less overwhelmed by computer commitments.  There are so many interesting marketing possibilities out there on the web, it can be quite a job for a monkey mind like mine to track them all.

I attended a seminar recently on using social media to market your small business, co-hosted by Indie Business Blog and the Carolina Mixed Media Art Guild.  I have to admit that I didn’t feel any less overwhelmed after the seminar, but I definitely came away with an awareness of the importance of defining my targets.   Lisa Stewart gave a great talk about what she has learned in the process of building her successful business, and how she uses social media to keep a buzz going about her elegant products.  One of her exquisitely simple cats is shown at left.   Donna Maria Coles Johnson, the organizer of the event, has written a wonderful post called How to Defrag Your Social Networking Activities.

A few months ago, I had a terrific consultation with Marion Barnett, an artist and artists’ coach (whose work I proudly own and is pictured above, and whom I met through social media).  Marion helped me understand the necessity of clarifying goals and defining what it is I want to do and make.  Being able to state a simple “What I want” is so out of my range of experience, I’m still stewing over it months later.  I’m really looking forward to the publication of Marion’s book, Finding your Creative Focus, which is with her editor at the moment.

I’m so grateful to have access to all these inspirational women and their work!

Another Festive Family Celebration

Wild Women

My friend Felicia used to make up business cards for courageous friends, thanking them for being one of the “Pushy Broads of America.”   Basically, to be a Pushy Broad all you had to do was speak for yourself, or think outside the parallelogram, as my friend Susanne would say.  

In honor of wild women everywhere, but especially in honor of women in the hand crafted movement,  I made this Etsy treasury.  (It will expire from Etsy on June 9th, but I wanted to share it anyway.)

 

I am particularly thrilled with the way Caroline the Karaoke Queen’s pose echoes that of the mannequin above her.

Beating the Heck out of Silk

When I first started working with Marcia-the-Mentor, I was astonished at how much she’d do to a piece of silk before she called it finished.  Now she’s got me doing it.

This started out as a pink scarf that I overdyed with purple.  I used soy wax and batiked leaf shapes over it, then dyed it a darker purple.

I hated it.

I gave it a warm bath in thiox and as the pink and purple were removed, the scarf became pale orange and beige. 

I cut some shapes out of clear contact paper and stuck these to a blank silk screen.  Using Procion MX dyes thickened with sodium alginate, I made a dye paste to use on the silkscreen and made three color passes over the entire scarf:  one yellow, one orange, one a very greyed-out purple.  I just listed this piece at my Etsy shop.

To the left is the screen I used.  I blocked off one side with paper and duct tape and used only half the screen at a time. 

I later used the larger shape on the left of the screen to use the same process on another silk scarf I wasn’t happy with, pictured below and listed at my shop on 1000Markets.

This one was done in cooler shades, using the same greyed-out purple dye as well as a yellow-bronze color, and just a touch of pink.

Both of these scarves feel wonderful; I think the hand of the silk softened with each process, although it’s still as strong as ever.   As always, they’re colorfast so you can handwash them in the silk with a little Woolite, or by machine on the gentle cycle.  Drip dry, then touch up with an iron. 

Using Silk Prints

I recently discovered the Etsy shop of The Whimsical Peacock, a supplier of fabrics and print panels who has had a lot of Etsy success with over 400 sales.  She’s mastered the process of printing full color pictures on silk habotai panels without changing the hand (or feel) of the silk.  I’ve purchased a few things from her and have used some of them on scarves. 

The compulsive art historian who lives within me needs to identify the artists, but hasn’t had luck with all of the prints, yet.  The beautiful face above is a detail from the Botticelli painting, Venus and the Three Graces, which hangs at the Louvre.   I fused this graceful image onto a scarf I made from complementary colors of buff and peach colored yardage.  It is for sale at The Joyful Jewel in Pittsboro, NC. 

The colorful silk charmeuse scarf at the left features Alphonse Mucha’s Study for the North Star.   Mucha was a very prolific Art Nouveau artist.  His distinctive women are frequently reproduced in ads, which is the purpose he originally painted them for.  This scarf is listed at my Etsy shop. 

You’ll have to visit the Black Hills of South Dakota to see the last two scarves in person, as they will be sent to the Dakota Nature and Art Gallery at the end of the month.  To the left is a toast-colored iridescent scarf featuring a print of Alphonse Mucha’s Moet Champagne label.  It’s also embellished with decorated with oil sticks and gutta.  The orientalized woman at right looks like a Thomas Dewing . . . or Hughes?  or Waterhouse?   Obviously, I haven’t identified her yet, but I think she looks quite at home set within the forest I painted behind her.    

Any budding art historians out there will be eager to use the Smithsonian’s wonderful research tool on American Art.  Joan of Art  tried to identify the last image for me but, alas, she didn’t have any luck either. 

Wear It Out Market

Just how fabulous would you feel going out your door wearing these beautiful hand-crafted pieces?  Adobe Sol Designs has many beautiful items in her shop, but these special-order copper earrings really called to me.   Dreamwoven makes wearable art with attitude, and this fabulous hat about says it all.  A chalcedony chunky bracelet by Izis echoes the hat’s shapes and colors to grand effect.  Tie it all together with the Tobacco Road Arashi Shibori Top by Dye Diana Dye and a little black skirt.  What on earth else does a woman need (except maybe a little square of chocolate)?   All from the Wear It Out Market collection at 1000 Markets.

Questionable Motifs in Art

I don’t know why, but I take perverse pleasure in painting unexpected things on beautiful silk.  A few years ago, I kept putting ants across the hems of sophisticated silk scarves.  This year it’s frogs and motorcycles.   This bright orange frog is on view at my 1000 Markets shop.

I’ve blogged about my motorcycles before, but just finished the last of them for the Dakota Art Gallery in Sturgis, South Dakota; you know, the place that has the huge motorcycle rally where John McCain offered up Cindy during last year’s presidential campaign?  (It’s one of the most memorable moments in campaign history.)

I was inspired by some medieval tapestries at the Cloisters in New York last winter to design this scarf with large color areas . . . but then the sixth grader in me insisted on decorating it with symmetrical frogs.  This one’s also going to the Dakota Gallery. 

 

The elegant  taupe charmeuse on the right is decorated with all sorts of creepy crawlies climbing over it.

I’m afraid I must’ve got too weird when I decided to put a snarling monkey on this pretty pink and blue lotus scarf.  It’s one of the few things that’s been around for years, unsold.

I hit the mark with a fellow sci-fi fan, though, on this landscape from the Martian Chronicles:  it sold the minute I listed it!