artful blogging

Let us rise up and be thankful, for if we didn't learn a lot today, at least we learned a little, and if we didn't learn a little, at least we didn't get sick, and if we got sick, at least we didn't die; so, let us all be thankful. ~Buddha

I was very busy last week organizing my studio for a special guest, who came to see it on Saturday... I will blog about it all in a few days and share with you some photos of my studio, but for now I would like to share with you a peek of the article I wrote for artful blogging.

I am excited to be a part of this issue... my blog started as my way of keeping track of my creative journey, never in my wildest dreams would have imaged that I would be noticed for my blogging and wilder still that I would have blog viewers!

I must add that it was a strange thing for me to write about my blog... because my blog is about me and my art and I found that writing about my blog was me writing about me writing about me!

At times our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person.Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us.

~Albert Schweitzer

Cherish Thou Art

I have no knowledge of myself as I am, but merely as I appear to myself.
:::Immanuel Kant:::

Yes, amongst this chaos and clutter, I create... I truly work on top of the layers!

I worked on this project last week... I had fun creating and altering fabric and papers for this interactive little piece.

I cut a heart out of many layers of book text and stitched them all up to create a "book heart" then I used gel medium to help add more "weight" to the pages.

here is the back side of the piece... I do not always show the backs of all my projects but the backs are just as important to me as the front... its a little hidden treat for the viewer.

Unless you try to do something beyond what you have already mastered, you will never grow.
:::Ralph Waldo Emerson:::

you can see how the little interactive part flips over to revel the words "cherish" and "pleasure" then there is a little tag that reads "they reviled" and "thou art" along with a lovely turquoise leaf.

Success is dangerous. One begins to copy oneself, and
to copy oneself is more dangerous than to copy others.
It leads to sterility.
::: Pablo Picasso :::

this is the side view of the "heart book" see how I used the gel medium to help the pages stand up.

An artist should never be a prisoner of himself, prisoner of style, prisoner of reputation, prisoner of success, etc.
::: Henri Matisse:::

The most potent muse of all is our own inner child. ~Stephen Nachmanovitch

I can't criticize what I don't understand. If you want to call this art, you've got the benefit of all my doubts.

~Charles Rosin

As an artist along the way we develop a style, our eyes and soul gravitate towards a direction that is uniquely our own ... our artistic voice if you will...

it becomes easy for us to be "our self" and create in our comfortable style... but sometimes our surroundings can change the way we view our own creativity....
case at hand a huge box full of ranger products that have been patiently sitting in my studio.

I am a creature of habit and happily work with what I have at hand... but as I started to work on the art for my fabric book and begin to teach fabric classes.

( please take a look at the classes that I will be teaching at
art fiberfest in October, I hope you can join me!)

I have decided that for the most part it would be easier to be able to tell people about a product that they could use... instead of my... "I do a little of this then I add a little of that"

Here are a few peeks at a project that I just finished for "Mixed nuts" I can not share what I did in its entirety but here are some of the products that I used to create it:


Tim Holtz™ Adirondack® Color Wash™,
first off I am totally smitten with Tim Holtz! (shush! don't tell any one!)
but once I got my hands on these I forgot all about Tim and wanted to have each and every color wash spay ink in my hands! it sprays on fabric like a dream! a dream I tell you! I have not been this excited in a long time about color! I have many ideas that I can not wait to try out with these!
Adirondack® Archival Quality Pigment Pens
these are amazing pens for writing on fabric and I have them all but these are the best by far!

Perfect Pearls™ Pigment Kits
I wanted to hate these but I have discovered that this are just amazing on fabric! and I can tell that I will be doing a lot of different things with these!
Inkssentials™ Mini Misters™
the perfect mist of watter! PERFECT!
I do not know what I did with out these!

Creativity is good... doing what comes natural is easy... having the courage to grow into a NEW YOU is part of the journey!

The creation of something new is not accomplished by the intellect but by the play instinct acting from inner necessity. The creative mind plays with the objects it loves.

Carl Jung

quilt shows and online classes.

"My Love Story"
Is a mixed-media paper quilt that I made and will be part of
Make It University™
my quilt is one of 30 mixed media quilts chosen to be part of the "true colors" exhibit at the International Quilt Festival
these quilts will be traveling to Chicago, Long Beach, and Houston!

“The minute I heard my first love story I started looking for you, not knowing how blind that was. Lovers don't finally meet somewhere. They're in each other all along.”
~ Rumi

For the base I burnt and altered felt, tulle and organza.The back round is layers of acrylic paint and Hebrew book text on heavy card stock. Gel pens and my all time favorite sharpie poster paint pens were used to draw on the swirls, dots and branch work. The focal is a fractured half winged felt heart and the image of the woman is also fabric and is slightly stuffed.
All of the layers were sewn together and there is also some chain and bead work in the corners.

This May Quilting Arts Magazine is hosting a series of online educational classes from designers and quilters.

When I was in Ohio in January I had the great honor to film two online classes for the
QUILTING ARTS FESTIVAL (visit this link to sign up for upcoming information on this advent.)

Helen Gregory (managing editor of quilting arts/ cloth paper scissors)
looking at my door quilt as we lay out for the filming of my class segments in Ohio.

One of my classes will be on how I alter and burn fabrics, create transparencies and resin papers. The other class will be on fabric doors and will cover machine quilting, hand work, fabric altering along with how to create resin charms and chain work.

So if you enjoy my fabric art you can get a peek into my creative process by taking one or both of my online classes in May.

Happy creating!

ART & CRAFT

One can have no smaller or greater mastery than mastery of oneself.

~ Leonardo da Vinci

my days have been as busy as they are long,
my life has been so full with so many details it seams as if I can not get ahead.
I have not been as creative as I could be, so much of what I have been doing has been a byproduct of what I have already done. Trying to find a way to be productive with my art and trying to handle the business aspects is proving to be a balancing act for me. I do not look at things as problems but more as challenges and I have become very quite and still within myself as I try to work everything out. I suppose that I am just trying to soak it all in...

An artist must possess Nature. He must identify himself with her rhythm, by efforts that will prepare the mastery which will later enable him to express himself in his own language.
~Henri Matisse

But here is the proof that I have been creating... I made these rings for a steep out that I am working on for A upcoming Belle Amore Jewelry... I made a few rings yesterday because the way I make something is not necessarily how I would teach it. I had to pay attention to myself as I made these rings... there are steeps that I leave out because I have control of the wire and understand how it behaves.
a perfect example of this would be the use of painters tape (better then masking tape as it removes cleanly without adhesive transfer) to help your wires from miss behaving and the use of a sharpie to help you find center.... things that you would never see me actually do, but are extremely helpful and make things so much easier!

"DO AS I SAY, NOT AS I DO!"
comes to mind :)

I have had quite a few different conversations with Art minded people about the debate of ART or CRAFT.

For me there is two parts of creating there is the CRAFT: this is a skill that any one can acquire but you must work hard on your craft to master it. It is vital that people share and pass on there knowledge so that a CRAFT does not disappear. Some may find that they must look to more masterful craft people until they start to develop there own personal style some never move past the CRAFT and fewer still move on to the ART.

"it destroys the craft not to learn it"
~Irish proverb

Now for me the ART is completely separate from the CRAFT and one can study the masters and try to make it there own but to truly find your own true voice the ART must come from with in some who are truly the ART never need to master the CRAFT because the ART is all they need to propel them into creating.

Poor is the pupil who does not surpass his master.
~ Leonardo da Vinci


For me I am very much CRAFT AND ART, I would say for me jewelry started as Craft and I worked hard at developing my skills then I went on to create and build my own style.

Creativity takes courage.
~Henri Matisse

but with my fabric ART, I have a hard time referring to myself as a "quilter" or a "sewer" as I have zero training and its just a calling for me... I can not tell you way I do what I do with fabric its just happens, for me its about the ART.
I know that ever one sees this differently but for me this is how I think it to be true.

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.
~Aristotle


I have received the "You Make My Day Award" a few times over.
one from Jules
and one from Catherine (I keep her phone number is in my cell phone need i say more?)

you are supposed to Give the award to those whose blogs bring you happiness and inspiration. Blogs that you enjoy visiting daily because they enlighten you, inspire you, put a smile on your face or in your heart. Then let them know by posting a comment on their blog so they can pass it on.

The sad hard cold fact is that as much as I love to blog and look at blogs I have not have much time if any to just "Surf" but I have found that I use my flickr contacts, once you set all your favorite people you can in a blink look at 24 different peoples newest uploaded photos at one time! this has became my one true way of keeping up with the online art world at a fast rate so I still fell some what connected! here is my list of a few of my flickr faves, and as luck has it most people here also have blogs so if you like what you see take a look at there profile to get there blog link:



samantha lambs
still life images full of beauty and purity with creative imagination that almost breaks my heart!

andrea singarella,
food for my vintage soul!

Cramzy , a fellow fiber girl that has amazing color and texture in her work!

carambatack,
I want to crawl into and live in her Mixed media illustrations!

Beate Knappe,

get a peek into her life and her fiber art!

identityseven,
Jen truly inspires me, I have had the joy of doing a few projects with her!

Dannymansmith ,
this man can sew! but when you see his work you will end up scratching your head asking "how did he do that!?"

knitsteel,
a girl right after my own heart! a blacksmith that loves to play with fiber!

lorimarsha,
takes vintage and thrift store find and creats amazing art to wear!

missjjj,
Amazing style from home decor to mixed media and a true friend the kind I call her when I need a blast of reality or just someone that understands my crazy art life!

graygoosie,
If I could choose a next store neighbour this girl would be it! Fun, colorful, unique, creative and she takes great pictures!

Sara Lechner,
No one inspires me quite like Sara, Her art touches my soul and really makes me think outside of myself!


"I would say that the thrust of my life has been initially about getting free, and then realizing that my freedom is not independent of everybody else. Then I am arriving at that circle where one works on oneself as a gift to other people so that one doesn't create more suffering. I help people as a work on myself and I work on myself to help people."
~Ram Dass

Learning to grow

STAY CLOSE, MY HEART
Its 80 right now and my family is pool side and I still need to unpack all my art supply's from my trip

but I wanted to post about the rest of my trip.

So on my last day in Ohio, Kim and I had a fun lunch with Lou and a few of her friends, then we headed to a huge joanns, now we do have Joann's in Californian but they are only a quarter of the size and 1/3 of the stock so when ever I am in the Midwest I always have to go into these mega craft stores!

Kim had to droop me off a little early at the airport because there was a big storm on its way and she had a long drive home, now the second that I steeped into the air port I get a call from Deb telling me that she thinks that my flight has been canceled because of the storm, so I go up to the ticket counter and my flight has not been canceled but moved from 6:30pm to 11pm... so with a big sigh and my eyes rolling to the back of my head I cheeked in my bags... now once I get past sercirty I see that there is a rather large mall to the left with the gates to the right now mind you it 4pm and my flight is supposed to go out at 11pm I start to walk towards the shops, I was hungry and thirsty and had 7 hours to kill....

(view of a snow covered Chicago airport)

once I made it down by the shops something told me that I needed to turn around just to cheek on my flight to make sure.... so I turn around and walk over to the terminals and it was so strange because most of the flights has been canceled so there was no one around, once I got to my gate number there were two attendants they were talking about how all the flight were going to be canceled because of the storm I walked up to the counter and they asked where I was going I said Chicago .... and they said do you want to get on this plane its going to be the last one out and there were a few sets left...
so on I jumped! we did up on the run way for 3 hours and there was talk that we were not going to get clearance to take off but in the end we got the OK!
I arrived into Chicago around 11 hungry and tired so I talked Garry (Debs Husband) into taking me to white castle he was fearfully and warned me that I did not want to try it but I assured him that I did!
and I really liked my little dubble cheese burger!

we all awoke to a winter wonderland and the boys took me


for a walk down a little back road

to this pound that was mosley frozen over but on a small patch of watter there were geease.

it was so beautiful, but oh so cold!

On Saturday and Sunday I teched 2 jewelry work shops, here are a few girls working on altering there angle pendent, All my students were amazing and they did a fantastic job!

on my last day, Deb and I played with PMC! it was a great treat for me as all I wanted to do was make myself a chain link bracelet
here is my messy work station
and here are the two bracelets that I created right before they head for the kiln.


and here you have my completed projects:

MUSE
is a tinted PMC necklace with braided and knotted fibers and silver chain with tinted PMC earrings.

LEARNING TO GROW
STAY CLOSE, MY HEART

and here are textured PMC chain link bracelets, that are so wonderful and perfect that they will be on wrist all the time!

STAY CLOSE, MY HEART

Stay close, my heart, to the one who knows your ways;
Come into the shade of the tree that allays has fresh flowers.
Don't stroll idly through the bazaar of the perfume-markers:
Stay in the shop of the sugar-seller.
If you don't find true balance, anyone can deceive you;
Anyone can trick out of a thing of straw,
And make you take it for gold
Don't squat with a bowl before every boiling pot;
In each pot on the fire you find very different things.
Not all sugarcanes have sugar, not all abysses a peak;
Not all eyes possess vision, not every sea is full of pearls.
O nightingale, with your voice of dark honey! Go on lamenting!
Only your drunken ecstasy can pierce the rock's hard heart!
Surrender yourself, and if you cannot be welcomes by the Friend,
Know that you are rebelling inwardly like a thread
That doesn't want to go through the needle's eye!
The awakened heart is a lamp; protect it by the him of your robe!
Hurry and get out of this wind, for the weather is bad.
And when you've left this storm, you will come to a fountain;
You'll find a Friend there who will always nourish your soul.
And with your soul always green, you'll grow into a tall tree
Flowering always with sweet light-fruit, whose growth is interior.

Quilting Arts TV

“If we're growing, we're always going to be out of our comfort zone.”

John Maxwell quotes

I arrived home yesterday from a very stormy mid west,
I was quite nervous about filming for Quilting Arts TV, thankfully it all went well!
Here is a peek on how it all went:

It all started out at 8am in the make-up chair, I was a little afraid of all the layers that went on my face but I decided to just sit back and let the make up artist do what she wanted

after I received the glamor treatment
I had to set out all my supplies on this big baking tray

then I had to lay it all out on the set table, I was nervous but once I got on set, it became so much easier, because I could tell that ever one really enjoyed there job.


and I really enjoy what I do, so it all some how became easier.


Here I am with Kathie Stull (owner/producer) of the show talking her through the steeps of what I will do.



Pokey did a great job as the perfect host and made me feel at ease during my segment.
I had a wonderful time taping for Quilting Arts TV,
what an amazing and delightful cast and crew! They made the whole experience such a joy!
Quilting Arts TV airs on PBS, follow the link you can find out if they have the show where you live, my segment will not be airing until June when the next session airs.

“Growth means change and change involves risk,

stepping from the known to the unknown.”