Rag Dolls, Life, Pumpkins and soup!

 Good grief, this month has flown by!  I feel like I'm on fast forward, and in danger of flying off into space!

Recently, I got together with friends Cinde and Louise to have a polymer clay "play date".  Louise showed us how to create molds which will really help Cinde since she makes faces and other items for her beaded Tree Spirits and jewelry.  I was more interested in playing with making simple clay faces and heads for my tree spirits, so it truly was a play date for me.  Here are a few in progress:

Soon after, I made my first "Rag Doll" and used a face I made using the technique I used on the above faces - I really love how she came out, using sticks, strips of frayed fabric and the clay face:

I was happily churning out things in the studio but that came to a screeching halt a couple of weeks ago, when my husband had what I believe was a stroke!  After a quick assessment of his symptoms, I called for help and he was taken to the local ER where they gave him an anti-stroke infusion, then transferred him to ICU.  Thank goodness we got him in so quickly, because his symptoms were gone very soon, and I brought him home 3 days later.  He had another slight episode a week later and I took him back to the ER, but they released him in a few hours, so we're busy going to several follow-up visits, and having a few more tests done to see if he needs any further treatment.  He can't drive for now, so that adds a layer of activity to my days, and I'm getting him a medical alert device to keep him safe when I'm away from home, but I'm very relieved to see that he is feeling well... he's even allowing me to change his eating habits to get more veggies and whole grains in there to replace some of the (expletive) that he normally eats!  Sometimes it takes a jolt to get his attention, but I think this might have done the trick... fingers crossed!

So.... once things started to even out again, I found myself experimenting with a few new projects, including making fabric "scrappy balls" and pumpkins!  Here are a few:

It's too late in the season to make any of these for sale, but I'm having fun learning techniques, and may try to make something similar as Christmas ornaments.  

Lastly, no photos, but I've been cranking out a bunch soups - some for dinner, then leftovers for Bruce's lunches, and I'm making enough to freeze some for future lunches.  I'm working to add more veggies and whole grains to our diets, and we're both shaving off some pounds, so it's all good!  I love making soups and this is definitely the season, so it's a great time to try new ones and I'm getting lots of good use from our 34 year old crock pot too!  

Hope you're enjoying our most colorful season, and my very favorite!

 

Spirit of Autumn Solstice, stitch patterned tie-dye, mini weavings

 Yes, Autumn is here!  Cooler temperatures, soups on the stove, more blankets on the bed!  And some new things I've been working on in the studio.

Meet "Spirit of Autumn Solstice", my first standing Spirit Doll:

My friend Cinde gave me a wood pine round to see how it would work as a stand, and I'm delighted to say it worked just fine!  I cut a small length of narrow dowel and screwed it into the base after creating a recessed area for the dowel, then slid the dowel into the center of the doll's caftan behind the 'body' stick... perfect!  She is resting in the studio right now, waiting for my next trip to Sedona Artist Market to see if I can find room for her on my baker's rack.

Meanwhile, I've gotten back into stitch patterned tie-dye shirts.  I did one for a customer after Flagstaff Open Studios Tour, and loved it so much I decided that would be my main design for the fall and winter this year.  Here are a couple of examples:

These are really easy to do: spritz a shirt with water to dampen; use a fabric transfer pencil to draw curvy lines ( I usually alternate the wide and narrow curves to give it a fern-y look).  I use a large eye needle and dental tape to stitch a running stitch up the lines, then when they are all stitched, I pull the dental tape to gather the stitches snugly and tie - I purposely do even numbers of rows so I can tie 2 of the tapes together, then trim the excess tape, and repeat for the remaining rows.  Then I soda soak the garment, apply the dyes and batch.  Easy and I love how they come out!

Finally, I just finished 2 "Mini-weavings", using water color paper as my base, and diving into my sash of yarn scraps and twigs.

I intended to make this into a note card, but then I got the idea to see how it would look framed - as you can see, framed won!

I have some botanical prints that didn't come out good enough for cards, but decided the

one above (the blue paper) would work well as another background.  This one is framed 

without glass as it is a little 3D, and I wanted it to show up better.  

I think what I like about the Mini-weavings is they are a small project - one I could carry

with me to work on at Arts Connection when I'm working a shift, and they are finished

fairly quickly.  I'm sure there will be more of these coming, so stay tuned!

As a post script, I stopped at the local thrift shop today and found several frames I will use for

future mini-weavings, S C O R E!!!