Returning to the regular routine after a wonderful artistic retreat or adventure is a minor letdown. But it has been mitigated by the fact that my work is with fiber.

Working part time in a yarn shop is not without its dangers though. One has to resist, literally, thousands of temptations in an 8 hour shift. The lure of color and texture can be quite overwhelming and resisting can cause serious physical discomfort; sweats, tension headaches, shakes, even dizziness. Let’s face it, the yarn store (or fabric store) clerk is a pusher, an enabler of the most sinister of addictions. Life is tough.

I digress.

I still have a broken Internet at home. My satellite has simply died and the big bucks to fix it are (to put it mildly) highway robbery. Since I’m not under contract to the offending satellite company anymore, my new system is being installed next week. This is much cheaper than repairing the existing one. There is more than one way to afford modern technology. I have to admit, if it had gone on much longer, I may have learned to like not having it. I’ve gotten much more knitting done the last couple of weeks without Internet at home and besides, Starbucks will miss us. This is exactly what happened with our satellite TV, we turned it off for lack of use and never missed it. Two years later, it’s still off.

I digress again.

So, what have I done since returning home? I’ve helped my boss at Heritage proof a pattern she is about to publish – aren’t they cute? (see top picture, click to big-ma-fy) These are Joan’s button cuff gloves. I think they are so nice I’m proofing the pattern again. She should have it ready for sale soon. You can e-mail her for more info if you are interested.

And those Tofutsie socks I was knitting that I had dyed the yarn for? I had them all done except the toes. Well…  they were a bit too tight. So here they are now, a totally new pattern and toe up (my favorite sock technique) this time. They also fit, I tired them on!
I died some yarns that I cannot show you as they are a project for later release and did some silk noil at the same time. I can’t resist throwing silk noil in the batch every time I dye something.

My Hanne Falkenberg sweater is progressing well too, its much farther along than the last photo but I haven’t stop knitting on it long enough to shoot it again, more photos on that later.

It’s time to finish my second extra-dry cappuccino and head home.

Deb H

The final day of Fabrications; the thrills, the chills…

The art is drying outside so we can get it packed up at day’s end (click to enlarge any photo). After 3 days of frenzied activity, I had 7 pieces either finished or near finished and a good start on an 8th. OK, so some of them are unmitigated crudola. It’s hard to layer a bazillion different techniques on one canvas and not over do it a bit  :oP”””

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I won’t even show you the ones that are going to get cut-up, but here are the ones that are only “bad”.
Green Man is done, if I put any more layers on this one, it will implode from it’s own weight.

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Planet is still in progress. I have hopes that it can be saved but I’m probably being a bit optimistic. If you never see an update on this one, you know I lost the battle.

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This one has some hope, it only has 3 layers and I’m thinking it doesn’t need much more.

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This was the cloth I used to wipe off my brushes and marking tools – what is wrong with the fact I like this better than most of my artistic attempts. Sad, that.

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This is my favorite. Simple, clean; only ink, gesso, and a touch of paint. This one definitely has a future, maybe to be mounted on a raw edge stripped quilt back ground?

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My conclusions? The class was fabulous. I was enthralled with some of the techniques. I did miss the feel of fabric that is not coated with gesso or gloss medium. But some of the ideas and the methodology we acquired will find its way into my future efforts. I also learned the value of less is more. I think I would have liked my pieces more if I had simply limited myself to 3 layers per canvas.

Ya, less is best.

Deb H

Fabrications; Day 2 (a little late)

With so much to keep us busy it was hard to post as often as I would have liked. We had classes all day, activities at night, wine to drink and fiber friends to socialize with. What’s a girl to do?

Did I mention it was beautiful here?

I returned home to my Internet service still being wholly uncooperative. This forces me to sit in a Starbucks and drink cappuccino while I access my e-mail and Blog – gee, poor me.

Opening night was a meet and greet and Lynn K had the quilt show With One Voice on display for our up-close and grateful perusal. Fabulous work! Oh, and there was wine.  Hey, we could walk to our rooms.  ;o)

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The next morning (Wednesday) was our first class – of which I posted last week. My class was Surface design and Collage with Fran Skiles.

Wednesday night we had a demo by the fabulous Carol-the-print-maker on printing with gel plates, very cool. I did not get pictures of either evening event as I was setting up my table of wares to sell hand dyed yarns, silk noil fabric and odd bits of supplies left over from my old business (fiber art supplies).

Desi Vaughn also had a table with her much drooled on hand painted and hand dyed cotton fabrics. Yes, I now have seven more to add to my collection.  :o)  Despite the negative press on our economy, sales were decent.

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Class on Day Two was a bevy of new (to me) techniques and more layers to our canvases. You will notice our tables are a bit more “cluttered” than they were on day one. Collage is not my thing so I struggled a bit, but persevered and learned a lot of great stuff.

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Case in point; the image transfer technique that involves Pellon’s Stitch ‘N Tear, Watercolor Crayons, and gloss medium… think “silk screening”. The photo is the Pellon “screen” on the left and the prints it made on Chinese paper on the right. You can get 3 to 6 prints from a colored screen. We did ones from rubbings (nothing in the hotel or out of it was safe from us) and from coloring on the Pellon.

We also tortured silk gauze with white and black gesso. I learned that if you do it on a plastic table cover that already has lots of dried paint on it, you get colored gesso!

It was not all serious hard work though. Cathy A, the head Guru of Fabrications wandered in to innocently see how we were all fairing.

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It cost her dearly as several students decided Cathy would make a good canvas. Von added the final sinister touches.

The evenings entertainment (again, we brought wine) had Kathy B showing us how to make mini doll pins. Mine’s a Vulcan, nice ears, eh?

Some of them had several other odd embellishments.
We won’t even discuss Von’s doll’s attributes. ;o0

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As usual, all pictures are click-to-big-able.

More later,
Deb H

The Internet is a joy, if you can get on it. It’s  a major irritation if your satellite is acting up! That is the only excuse I have for not posting lately. It’s a wimpy excuse, but it’s mine!

I’m currently out-of-town at Fabrications for 3 days of rapturous fiber art workshop. An additional perk is the free Wi-Fi in the lobby, hence this post. Besides, you have to love a Fiber Art Retreat that has a view like this out the classroom window.

I’m taking the class with Fran Skiles. It was a tough decision as Laura Cater-Woods is teaching here, as well a Jeanne Beck. I have taken two classes with Laura and was very tempted to take it again but I decided to jump of the comfort cliff. Fran’s work and techniques are very different from anything I have ever played with before. I’m so far outside of my box, I can’t even find it.

I’m having a total blast. I’m not the only one, here are two of my classmates – Pat S & Linda J. Aren’t they cute?

I have discovered a new tool (anything you use to make art it a tool).

Gesso.

Who knew?

We spent day 1 stitching on cotton duck cloth and then coating it with gesso. White gesso and – ta da, it comes in black too. The next great discovery was Clear Gloss Medium. I know, I know… you are thinking “they’ve been around since dirt was new, where have you been?”

I lead a sheltered life.

Here is one of Day One’s pieces (just started). Do I like it? I don’t know, it’s awfully busy. But it has a lot more layers to go.

The adventure continues…

Deb H