Time has flown the coop!

 Wow, I can't believe it's been over a month since my last post... time does fly, that's the truth!  I just looked back at my last posts, and see that I can update you on at least 2 WIP's I mentioned earlier:

Here is "Bright Maiden", finished and hung at Sedona Artists' Market:

I added a tulle overdress, beads and yarn streamers plus a Hamsa charm, and called her done.

Another WIP shown in that same post was a piece of bark I had cleaned and sealed, then I mounted a polymer clay face on it.  Then it languished, waiting for me to decide what more to do, until yesterday.  I pulled out a bag of feathers, auditioned some and glued a few down... that took care of that!

On the non-creative front, my hubby Bruce had to have emergency hernia surgery after Thanksgiving, and once he got through that, there were still follow-up doctor visits from his mini-strokes to keep us busy.  They discovered he has afib, so changed his blood thinners to handle that.  But all the doctor visits, etc., took us away from our regular visits to the gym to exercise.  After 2 months of inactivity, I started getting on the treadmill at home to try and get back into a routine.  Last week, I was working to increase my speed, and also wanted to give my arms a workout so I was pumping on the "walking stick" feature... that night, I laid on the floor to watch TV and got a super strong, sharp pain in my right shoulder!  I should mention that my right shoulder has given me problems in the  past, but it had been feeling just fine for quite awhile, so I must have forgotten to be careful.  At any rate, I got xrays done Tuesday, and I start physical therapy today to see what can be done to get me back to "normal"!  Guess I'm not as young as I used to be, lol!

But I'm not letting it slow me down too much - I recently finished making another crochet rope bowl:

I used several yarns, including some interesting yarn I picked up at a thrift store, then added a piece of bark that I glued feathers to, along with a small copper colored bead.  Yep, bark and feathers - my new obsession!

And I'm busy dyeing some cotton jersey shells to bring to Sedona Artist Market next month:

I'm sure I've forgotten to mention other things I've been doing this past month, but I guess this will have to do for now.   I'm looking forward to our next trip to Sedona, and sometime in the future, my friend Joyce and I will be taking a day trip to the valley to enjoy the warmer temps, shop and browse - an annual trip we make when it starts to warm up down there!

Hope you are all having a good January - stay warm!

A day in the life of a bowl maker...

 Well, more like several days, but what the heck!  

So I've been making bowls for a number of years now... I've even lost track of how long, but it's at least 8 years or more I think.  I fell in love with the process right away, and have (hopefully) improved my skillset over the years so that I can turn out a pretty decent bowl or vessel these days.  I wish I had photos of some of my first bowls, but I think they got lost in the transfer to new computers over the years.  But here's one of my more recent ones, just in time for Valentine's Day:

So following this bowl, I decided to make my next one and video the process.  I'm trying to get more comfortable with video so I can record and share the process as I make a bowl, but I also hope to do more with the camera over the coming year(s) to expand my outreach to the crafting community.

I could go on and on about the various roadblocks I encountered trying to use a "knock off" camera my hubby bought online, but you would be sound asleep before you got halfway through!  Suffice it to say, we have ordered another camera and hope to get back to learning video next week.  Meanwhile, here are some pix of the finished bowl I was making while trying to video the process:

The finished front with beads covering some nasty stitching

Medallion and button covering the nasty stitching from adding the beads on front

Fabric circle covering the center where the exposed coil was showing through

I lost a little sleep trying to think of creative ways to "save" this disaster, and I'm pleased that it looks as good as it does now, 'cause it was nasty before I found ways to cover things up!  The last thing I did, which I don't have pix of is to carefully zigzag around the center dot to be sure it doesn't come off!  I glued one dot, but the glue bled through so that looked ugly.  I fused another on on top and used my tiny iron to heat the fusible webbing, but still didn't think it was on good enough.  

I took this shot before adding the medallion and center dot... and actually before I added the second bead on the front!  I think I need a nap...

Full time bowl maker!

It's been awhile since I posted!  And other than a brief break from bowls to make a batch of Halloween masks for my friend Joyce, I've been pretty much in full-time bowl making since September, cranking out about 1 a day.  Most have gone to my friend Jana, the lovely lady I collaborate with on gift baskets, but also some that have gone to Arts Connection Gallery to have a full selection for holiday shoppers.  Here are some that I have made:

Poinsettia Christmas Bowl

Bowl with Wood Bead handles

Christmas bowl with medallion

Bowl with fused flower

Bowl with knot

We recently had our first snowstorm of the fall season, with very cold temps, but I didn't get any photos... too busy in the studio!  But it's definitely soup weather and layering is the dress mode of the day.  And our Son and Daughter in law were in town for a few days, so we had a nice visit while they were here.  

 

What's next?  Nothing new to report now, although I am hoping to find some time soon to veer off the bowl making tangent and maybe get time to clean house, and also plan on alternate creative activities to "refresh my palate" so to speak.  Every winter, I like to take a break from production and try new  things, and I'm leaning toward doing some surface design work, a little hand stitching, maybe get back into botanical printing and batik if I have the time.  So stay tuned, and maybe I'll have some new things to share soon!  

One last note - as you may know, my mainstay for over 20 years has been tie-dye.  Yesterday, I heard that one of my wall pieces, "Psychedelic" had sold!

Someone has added a bright spot to their lives, and it makes me happy to know it has a new home! 

Shifting gears a little... but not too much!

 As I mentioned in my last post, I've been making some coiled fabric bowls recently, and that carried forward to this post.  I have made some commission pieces, but also have started making some to bring to Arts Connection, and hopefully I will also have some to post on one of my e-commerce pages soon.  Here's one I finished today... if you have been following my blog for awhile, you will recall that I have a "thing" for Autumn Leaves, so each year for several years now, I make several for the season:

And I also love to make covered journals, which are a great gift item:

Some of these are used with scraps of fabric I've accumulated; one has a botanical print that I created last year, then stitched around some of the leaf imprints.  The last one is of a beautiful batik leaf print, combined with a strip of sprigged blue fabric I've had in my stash for at least 20 years!  I love making these, and hope it will keep journal writing alive for at least some budding writers!

On the weather front, we got a temporary reprieve from the unseasonably hot temperatures at least for a couple of days and nights!  A cold front came down from Canada and made me decide to make a big pot of 15 bean soup one night... enough for another dinner, and a couple of lunches!  

Having said all that, I will leave you with a giggle:

Stay safe, but don't forget to laugh!

Some new items I've been working on

 After "retiring" from production mask making earlier this month, I have finally found some time to work on other things which has been a lovely refresher for me.  I'm not into long-term projects, especially those that are repetitive... give me 7 or 8 ideas to chew on simultaneously, and I'm a happy camper!  So here's what I've been working on:

This is a commission bowl for a friend to give as a gift - she loved the autumn leaves on my regular autumn bowls, but wanted it in more of the Desert Sunset colors... gives it a totally different look!  So when I finished hers, I decided to make one to put in the gallery to see if anyone else liked the combination.

Someone on a facebook group I belong to posted a photo of bowls made by Crafty Patti (has a youtube video on how to make them)  and I fell in love with them!  They have no fabric covering the rope, and the painted wood beads (available on amazon.com) are a perfect focal point.  This one is sized to fit a flower pot that has a base of about 4", and I hope to find some artificial succulents I can put in the flower pot to make this a complete piece.  Fast, easy and IMHO, elegant!

This scarf has been a WIP for at least a couple of years!  It was a great project to pick up and crochet a few rows if I was sitting, chatting with friends or watching TV.  I love the soft, muted colors of the yarn... very unlike my normal "ALL COLOR, ALL THE TIME" mode, but I guess my palette has matured just a smidge.

Other than that, I have been doing the paperwork to reset the gallery for our next period, which starts tomorrow.  Sadly, we are losing a couple of artists who are not comfortable being in the gallery to work shifts do to Covid-19, but I'm hoping they will join us again when the virus has been conquered.  But we have some returning artists and a brand new artist coming in, so that will give our visitors new things to enjoy, an perhaps buy!  Once we get everyone set up I will take pictures to share... it's always a treat to see how the gallery looks when we are up and running, and we are able to add Wednesday to our days open this period... 5 days out of 7, that's progress!

Oh, and one more thing... Artists Coalition of Flagstaff has an e-commerce page that I am selling from since about June, and I have been blessed with several sales from the page so far... thanks to all who have browsed, and those who bought as well!  Here's the link if you haven't had a chance to check it out... we have several artists selling there, so it's worth a visit!

https://www.flagstaff-arts.org/the-arts-connection-online-gallery.html