Almost Winter!

 I looked at the calendar this morning and realized we're 2 short weeks away from Winter!  This year has just flown by for me... so many projects, cranking out the dyes and bowls, selling my socks off!  And we still have a few weeks left of 2023... looking forward to maybe having a little "down time" to rest and recouperate!

Two things of note:  After almost 3 years, my friend Cinde and I have decided to pull out of Sedona Artist Market.  Cinde has done very well there this past year, me not so much.  But having to schedule one day each month to head down, restock and tidy our booths, has become a little more than we want to commit to.  We are leaving on good terms, and may at some time decide to return, but for now, it's a relief to know we don't have to make the trip down unless it's for a hike on our favorite trail, or because we just feel like it!

The other thing that has happened this year is that I've added a few new items to my inventory!  Late last year I started offering zip up hoodies, but didn't really know the best way to dye them, but this year I've become a little more adept at tying the "Geode" pattern, which for me is a diagonal stripe rather than the more irregular circular version many dyers create.  

And I just added Rayon/spandex open front cardigans to my inventory, as shown in the above photo on the right.  They dye up beautifully!  And the one in the photo got snatched up by one of my fellow artists the day I put it on display!  Got another one I'm getting ready to dye for Cinde as soon as I take delivery of one of the dye colors needed.  And of course, there are the aprons - what can I say?

I wasn't sure how these would dye, let alone if anyone would buy them, but they've turned out to be one of my best sellers for the year!

Oh, and one more item I added that I think I posted about last month:  my "Peeper Keepers".  Not great sales yet, but I get the feeling they will grow on people in time!

So with just a few weeks left of the year, (Holiday shopping time!  I'm going to be jamming

at Arts Connection!) I want to wish you all a very Happy Holiday and hope the coming year

will be your best yet! 

November already!

 Wow, time flies!  I totally missed posting in October, mainly 'cause I was busy beefing up my inventory for the two galleries!  I've had fabulous sales the past 5 months, and we're heading into Holiday shopping season already!  And just in time, I'm working on a couple of new items - here's a rope Christmas tree I just finished:

This started out with a styrofoam tree form.  I wrapped strips of Christmas fabric around rope, like I do for my rope bowls, then glued it to the form.  Once the glue dried, I wrapped the string of red beads around in the "ditch" between rows of rope.  The base of the tree is a large cork I glued to the bottom, and for the top, I glued a length of bamboo skewer to the wood snowflake, and inserted the point of the skewer into a hole I produced beforehand.  The other project is using a similar method to create a "candle" by gluing the wrapped rope around a foam cylinder, gluing to a base, and leaving a spot on top where I insert a battery operated tea light.  Here's the first one:

I hope to have more of these 2 items made soon.

Here are some "Peeper Keepers" I made, just the right size for storing your eye glasses when you're not wearing them!  Or maybe a good "catch all" to put by the front door for your keys, change, cell phone, etc.  They're about 7 3/4" by 4 1/2".  They were so fun to make, I just kept making them, lol!

Meanwhile, on the dye front, here are a few items I finished recently:

I'm trying to build up my long sleeve shirt collection for cold weather - this one was dyed with just one dye color - Pewter -  but since I'm still ice dyeing, the dyes split while the ice melts and dissolves the dye powder.  I really like this color and had to order more!

I also dyed a long sleeve, asymmetric top with some rich fall colors:

As soon as my ice cube stash is replenished, I will be trying out some new colors along with some of my tried and true favorites, so stay tuned!  More to come...

Kindle Covers

As a followup to my last post, I have 9 Kindle Covers in various stages of completion, mostly from purchased fabrics.  But I did make one from another of my ice cube dyed fabrics as well, seen in front in the photo below:

The white rectangle in the middle is a piece of foam board I cut in the dimensions of a Kindle Reader and it's about the same thickness.
Here's a shot of the back:

I decided to leave the short flap squared on this one rather than cut it at angles... didn't want to cut away any of the fabric!

I'm anxious to see if these sell at my next two shows... I really like how these go together, and hope to have them as a regular gift item in my inventory.  Great way to use up my stash, don't you think?