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Craft fair this Sat & Sun
If you find yourself in the Washington, DC area this weekend, make time to stop by my booth at the Greenbelt Festival of Lights Art & Craft Fair. Come early before all of the best stuff is gone. Hope to see you there.
Saturday, Dec 5, 10am - 5pm
Sunday, Dec 6, 10am - 4pm
New show booth in the making
This post could also be titled, "What I did over my Thanksgiving break." My craft show booth has evolved over the years, but has always been variations on a basic pipe-and-drape design--essentially a curtain backdrop. I'm about to do my 5th show (admittedly my 5th in 5 years, but still...) so I decided to up my game a bit. I've looked at several options for purchasing a booth, but (a) they aren't cheep and (b) they can be bulky. My solution needs to fit in a 4-door car with the rear seat folded down. That means it needs to break down to a small package.
My solution was a 7' tall folding screen with options to add or remove panels to accommodate different spaces. The pictures above show various stages of production as well as the fully disassembled state. I designed it to have an intentionally raw wood, knocked together look. So far I'm pleased with the result. This morning it'll get the last coat of shellac to protect the wood, then I just need to make the fabric panels that will be stretched in the frame.
I'll post photos of the finished creation in action next weekend when it's all set up at the Festival of Lights.
Check out the new items in my online store
Black Friday? Really? Isn't there still a pile of Thanksgiving dishes in the sink?
Whether you're a conservative shopper or an an all out shopping maniac, it is indeed the time of year when we all begin to contemplate gifts for friends and loved ones, and perhaps for ourselves. It's also an incredibly busy time of year for everyone involved in creating, marketing, and selling. I know I've certainly been busy.
Click on over to my online store and see some of the newest creations. Buying from local merchants and small businesses is a great way to support the community. These folks--people just like me--are wonderful source for original, one-of-a-kind gifts.
And, if you find yourself in the Washington, DC area next weekend (Dec 5-6), stop by my booth at the Greenbelt Festival of Lights craft fair to see more of my work.
Visit my booth at the Greenbelt Festival of Lights craft show Dec 5-6
Stop by my booth at the Greenbelt Festival of Lights craft fair next weekend, Dec 5 (10am - 5pm) & Dec 6 (10am - 4 pm) at the Greenbelt Community Center located at 15 Crescent Rd in Greenbelt, MD (map).
It's exciting to be participating in this wonderful gathering of talented artists and craftspeople for my 5th year in a row. I'm looking forward to reconnecting with longtime supporters, meeting new folks, and showing my most recent wearable creations.
An acceptance in the middle of a sea of rejections
I'm happy to report that "Focal Point" has been accepted into the Art Cloth Network show "Anything Goes". Elin Noble was the juror. She's a delightful, talented artist and teacher. It's an honor to have had her review my work. The first venue for the show hasn't yet been determined, so that's something else to look forward to.
"Focal Point"
The joy of silk charmeuse
For a moment let's set aside the simple fact that it's just so much fun to say the word "charmeuse," especially when it comes out shar-MOOOZ. More important though is the fact that this stuff is absolutely wonderful to paint on. The brush with thickened dye just glides across the smooth, shiny side of the cloth, and the dye penetrates very well, giving good strike on both sides.
My cloth is created by printing, dyeing, and a decent amount of hand painting. This isn't the fussy sort of "silk painting" as you can see from the photos below. Both of these length are destined to become scarves.
First layer of gestural marks and shapes on two 2-yard lengths of silk charmeuse
Beginning to add color
Background fill
Adventures in itajime shibori
Adventures in what?
From the same folks that gave the world sushi and origami comes the equally OCD collection of dye patterning techniques collectively known as shibori (she-BOO-ree). All of these methods involve creating a physical resist between cloth and a dye bath by folding, clamping, wrapping, stitching, and binding. I've been using arashi (ah-RAH-she)--pole wrapping--for several years and getting some satisfying results.
An example of the type of patterning produced by arashi shibori
I've also been experimenting with itajime (it-ah-JEE-may), another form of shibori that involves clamping folded cloth between wood or plexiglass forms to create a resist. With all of these techniques you get out what you put in. In the case of itajime, carefully folding and pressing the fabric is a time-consuming process, but ultimately produces better (or at least or regular geometric) results than loosely folded fabric.
Itajime scarves drying on the line
And, for your further entertainment, here's a video that compresses the somewhat fussy process of folding and pressing a 2 yard piece of cloth into a small triangular stack. In this video and the image above I'm working with cotton lawn.
Tuesday morning clothesline
I was in the studio at 6 AM this morning (before work) washing out the dye from Sunday and Monday. Last night, all of Sunday's wax and print work got a nice over-dye. I left 12 yards of cloth drying on the line today while I'm at work so they'll be ready for me when I get home. Tonight I get to press out all of the wax (ironing between mountains of newspaper) and launder out the residue. This is about my least favorite task, but it's the only way forward it I want to apply more color. It's that Karate Kid thing--wax on; wax off.
The clothesline as I left for work.
Let the season of making begin
I'm busy in the studio all year, but over the past 5 years or so I've fallen into an annual pattern of activity. January through April is usually a time for research and developing new ideas--and the time for a much needed winter vacation. May is usually the time that I'll fit in a workshop if I can. June through September I'm often working on art with an eye toward summer and fall exhibition deadlines. But, it's in October through December that the activity level really ratchets up. I sell wearable art (mostly scarves) online all year long, but I also do one 2-day craft show at the beginning of December. Producing enough work for 2 days of selling and working a full time job takes months of part-time effort.
And as I write this, I've got several yards of printed fabric downstairs in the studio batching--oh, yeah, and dye-stained hands. I absolutely love this frenzy of dyeing, printing, and sewing, but I'll be exhausted by Christmas. That's just the way it is.
Here are some photos of just some of the weekend's activities. Many thanks to Dan, my in-house photographer.
Adding soy wax resist to silk crepe de chine using an Indonesian tjap. The wax will block whatever color I add next.
Inking a large sheet of plexiglass with thickened dye for monotype printing.
Creating pattern on the monotype plate.
Printing the waxed cloth on inked plate.
Pulling the print.
The next steps will be letting the dye cure then putting the whole thing in an immersion dye bath. After that I'm not sure--probably removing the wax followed by...whatever it needs.
Elements of Design: Day 10 (the end)
While the sun has yet to set on Columbus, it has indeed set on my 2-week design adventure. I got to the Barn early-ish this morning and finished yesterday's composition--gluing down loose pieces and making a few tweaks here and there. David gave a short slide talk about his own recent work, and we did one last crit. Then, after lunch, slowly but surely, folks began to leave. Slow leave-taking, especially after having spent so much time together, is like slowly tearing off a bandage. It might be better if a bell rang, we all said our goodbyes, and then ran--one big "Ouch," rather than so many little painful partings.
I was among the last to leave because my flight isn't until tomorrow. I did one more small composition in the afternoon as I reflected on yesterday's film about Ellsworth Kelly, seen below in by portfolio. I felt that I just needed to park this idea for future consideration.
I'm going to need to take some time to reflect on my takeaways from these 10 days. I definitely learned. I hope that I can make (and keep) a commitment to doing more thumbnails and studies. I also need to give serious consideration to paper and paint in addition to cloth, if for no other reason than it seems to access a different part of me--a different voice.
And so, I'll close with a few thoughtful photos.
Sometimes messy workspace can be productive. (it got even messier than this)
Sometimes (often) beauty exists right beneath your feet. We just need to take the time to notice.
Sometimes the shadow of a thing is even more interesting than the thing itself.
