Off to a great start!

2015 already promises to be a fun year for me!  I have found a new niche product with my hand dyed grocery totes - already sold 36 this month to a friend, and didn't even have time to take pix of the newest ones.  I have an order in for Kona cotton, replenished my grosgrain ribbon for handles, and hope to have a new batch ready soon.  Meanwhile, here is a picture of some that I sold to my friend:

Next on my list of things to share with you is my upcoming studio remodel, slated to be done in late February.  My hubby currently has a workroom next to my studio, and we have decided to move him to the existing seldom-used "Guest" room across the hall so that I can have the wall knocked out between my studio and his old work room, giving me double the studio space!  I'm over the moon about this, as it will give me more room for storage and a central core where I can set up work tables and hopefully have some small classes for dyeing, batik, printing, etc. Here are some shots of my current studio, with most of my materials removed to the garage:

North and east walls

East and south walls

South and west walls

West and north walls

The north wall will be torn out, and the carpet in both rooms removed and replaced by laminate flooring.  And the closet will be retrofitted with sliding mirrored doors for easier access.  I did not take pix yet of the other room as it is filled to capacity right now.  I plan to get shots when the clutter is gone, promise!

On another front, I am getting ready to start offering some of my scarves and wall art at the Artists' Coalition of Flagstaff's new gallery location in Tam's Boutique, 117 N Beaver St. in Flagstaff.  We will have a grand opening of the gallery part at First Friday Art Walk in February, so I'm hoping all my friends in Flagstaff will come out!   Here is one of the pieces I plan to show next month, a fiber collage I created in 2013:

It is currently suspended from a different piece of Juniper, but I don't have a picture of it, so this will have to do.

Finally, my first show of the year will be in April which seems like a long time away, but I know the time will fly by so I must get back to work to replenish my inventory!   Happy New Year to you all!

One more piece for the show

Yesterday, I put finishing touches on a piece I started about a month ago, and I'm going to try and find a way to display it at Flagstaff Open Studios Tour this weekend:

I call it "Meandering" because that's what it made me think of when I looked at the finished piece.  It is a fabric collage in the same style as "Study in Contrast" that you can see here.  With "Meandering", I decided to bind the edges and remove the fringe I originally started with.  I have suspended it on a piece of Juniper wood as I did with "Study in Contrast".  Having completed two pieces using this technique, I hope to explore more ways to use fiber collage to create wall hangings, perhaps incorporating found objects and/or non-fiber objects in the pieces, so stay tuned. 

On another note, we are due for some heavy Monsoon weather this weekend, and I'm hoping it does not discourage art lovers from attending.  We have 65 artists displaying their work at 34 locations throughout the Flagstaff area both days.  This is my fifth year participating in the tour, and I  am looking forward to seeing some familiar faces as well as new visitors!