strange days

It's Sunday and Jim had to work today leaving me to my own devices for the first time in ages. I almost forgot what those days were like but when you start the day with a hearty belt of Robitussin the rest of the day will get weird.

I spent two hours vacuuming & marveling at the cool tracks the old Hoover made in the carpets before I figured out that I was too stoned for housework. So I switched over to art and kept to the practical side of the street.

There was a great score at Goodwill yesterday - I had a need for retail therapy and almost always come away with great finds from there. It pays to live near the affluent.

The gray fellow inviting me to a dance was a large 100% wool J.Crew sweater that accidentally got felted. Now what?

This is a cotton & ramie sweater that I pitched whole into the dyepot. I love dyeing over embroideries. This one will be hacked up and repurposed in dozens of ways.

There is also a leaf green dashiki that was big enough to drive a MiniCooper into. I just haven't had the energy to iron that acreage today or photograph it.

Probably the best find (for 2$) was a pair of Queen sized flat cotton sateen bed sheets. You can never be sure that "100%" cotton does not include a healthy dose of whatever will impede the dye but I cut off a strip for a test and after a nominal soak in the soda ash and just a few hours in the dye, these impromptu shiboris came out just great.

Shipping Frenzy

Nope. I reject frenzy. Struck "frenzy" and "guilt" from my vocabulary a long time ago.  But I will have to get stepping. Totally tickled that both of these pieces will be heading out to Arizona to Art Quilts XIV: Significant Stitching and  four other pieces headed to the Skinny Envelope exhibit in Florida.








Instead of muttering about my lack of studio time I've decided to follow this cloth cartoon path and dig up an old sketchbook full of ideas that fit the slow and portable mode of stitching - stuff I can work on at stop lights -no texting while driving for me! I have sketches ready that went along with this post about a childhood prayer that most of us were taught, like it or not.





Here is one of the pieces that went to a new home this past weekend. I hope she enjoys it as much as we did.

Norcoss Art Fest 2009 - day 2

...was even better than day 1.  This from a post I just sent to Mary McBride, my regional SAQA rep for the GA/FL blog:

Good News! - Given the right venue and weather, the public is coming out to the shows and buying Art! I had a booth at The Historic Norcross Art Festival (Norcross Georgia) on sat & sun and it
was a very successful weekend. I won't put a toe into the debate between the imagined controversy between the Art and Crafts camp - this was a juried show and there was no controversy this weekend just great camaraderie between the vendors, amazing support by the organizers of the show lead by Frances Schube who could teach a master class on the proper organization and running of this kind of venue. Imagine volunteers there to help you set up and break down you booth. Volunteers wheeling around wagons of cold free bottles water. A hospitality center conveniently located for the artists with clean rest rooms, free breakfast on the first day and  fruit snacks the rest of the show. Heaven!

I brought everything that was wasn't nailed down in my studio (this venue is only 15 minutes from my home) and I sold pieces that had become a part of my life.  I had everything from fiber art postcards to my gallery pieces that lined the walls of my pop-up tent. I brought a few utility pieces and had great fun explaining that the smaller unframed pieces (the majority of my show) were not potholders or place mat but if you wanted a $25.00 pot holder, I was happy for you! Better than 50% of the crowd already knew unframed art when they saw it and were captivated by some of my older pieces in ways that made me look again at my own work with fresh eyes.

The booth was paid for by noon of the first day largely due to the amazing response to the affordably price fiber art postcards, hand dyed rayon scarves and the dyed, crocheted cusspots which I put out where the kids could fondle them first and lay off the rest of the stuff. People were drawn into my space by the sheer explosion of color I laid out for them. I let people know that A. I was a local and this was the only show I do each year and B. Everything that I brought with me would be available for sale at http://randomactsofdyeness.blogspot.com/ in the coming weeks. I have my work cut out for me making good on that promise.

All and all it was a very successful and satisfying weekend and I encourage everyone to take a shot at selling in person to a public who seems weary of being wary about buying anything. Retail therapy seems to be the order of the day for the American Economy but folks are looking for a new shopping horizon. Could it be your booth or website? Only if you get out there and wave your brave flag.

Norcoss Art Fest 2009

I can't say enough about what a great show this has been so far. The organizers and volunteers have made the comfort and safety of the artists a top priority. I keep telling everyone that this is the ONLY show I do but Frances will be  doing a new show in nearby Roswell in spring and I'd be a fool not to participate.

One of my customers (who knew that the fabric postcards were art before they were postcards) bought a frame from another vender and came back to show me how great it looked.  Thanks so much!
aI was flanked on both sides by glass artists so my booth was easily identified as family friendly - absolutely everyone who ducked in felt everything within reach, those who didn't wanted to and I encouraged them. I loved watching peoples faces as their gazes went from the postcards (my biggest sellers) to the crocheted cusspots (kids loved these) to the scarves, small art pieces and then to the pieces lining the walls. I saw a lot of looks of amazement. Seems like what I brought to this show was unique to most of the visitors experience.     
I got to talk a lot about techniques. There is no tyedying or batik going on here.. This piece and Cellular Seizure drew people to them almost hypnotized.

Time to get ready for day 2!                                

October..

...is my birth month and my favorite. The entire month can span all  the seasons. I can recall swimming on my birthday and trudging through six inches of snow on Halloween, of course that was in New York.








The trouble with going through one's stash for things to sell is constantly running into exquisite little chunks of fabric that you want to hoard for


yourself, or worse, sit right down and start  working with when so many other things are pressing, or need pressing.

I am really looking forward to packing my river grass basket with scraps and needles and thread and sitting in the October sunshine for two days just stitching and considering the full Moon.

  I may pretend I'm just tent sitting for the artist who just stepped away for a minute.

an (over) reaction...

...to fatigue and frustration, but I'm going to like working with it. It's half a vintage queen-sized percale sheet in a (Heavy!) weight that is no longer available.

I love dyeing but hate doing it under time constraints and for vending purposes. The scarves came out okay, fashion forward I suppose. Only time and the venue will tell. Still would have preferred the silk velvet to the rayon but that was a screw-up that there was no time to undo.

I've been ironing since dawn. Now it's time to start piling up the UFOs that I'm taking along. It's looking like I may have more UFOs that FOs. Oh, damn, well. Here's to a fun day working the street with the rest of the Art Whores!

dress rehearsal (in my mind)

I have two whole days to go from
chaos to commerce. yawn.

good grief!

Guess I don't have to worry about dinner tonight.

Ennui lurks

Even before my studio dye day with Elizabeth, Terri and Cleo, I've been rolling around in the clutches of  a nasty case of  Arteest's Ennui.

Yeah, I had to look it up to be sure but it's  "a general lack of interest, boredom or depression. It may also refer to oppressive boredom - a state of being rather than a passing mood. "

I was hoping that an art day out would put me back on the rails but good, instructive company over fibers, dye and lunch didn't help. My fabric results rather reflected my attitude - lackluster and washed out except for this vintage table runner doctored here with inks & alcohol. The rest await another dye try.

In the house I grew up in about the only sin that got immediate retribution was being fool enough to act as if or actually say that you were bored. My parents worked too hard raising four kids to brook any of that nonsense. Heinous chores were instantly handed out.

Just when I am contemplating why I am fooling with fabric and making prune faces over the fact that the zing has gone out of making art, the nods and opportunities come tripping over themselves and my doorstep.

Elements deadline must to be met on Sunday!  Front runner must go.

I need to re-up my SAQA membership right quick so I can study up on Commissions. There's one beckoning.  And one other small jewel from the dyeday:

gratitude

Before anything else today (except coffee) a gracious "Thank You" for a thoughtful and perceptive review from across the Big Pond. John Hopper at The Textile Blog tripped over my work in cyberspace, liked what he saw, and offers a different perspective on my art than I am accustomed to receiving. He's right that Fiber art can be a no-person's land to work in sometimes.

One hardly knows how to act except, after the smile and the pause, to get back to work.

If it were not for Elaine at Red Thread Studio and Morna of Bittersweet,
I might never have read this article, so more thanks to both of them for having a wider  worldview than I do.

I spent the evening making a beach on the Caribbean in response  to the miserable weather that has been hanging around Atlanta for more than a week with no relief in sight. If anyone in the media mentions the word drought I promise to boycott their advertisers. I nearly sewed my fingers together as the Braves closing pitching nearly blew a win over the Phillies. Thanks for the fibrillations, fellas.