Away for far too long

I have no excuse for not posting since May, other than I've been busy in the studio, the gallery, etc. What do I have to show for all that time away?  Lots of sales and lots of dyeing and bowl making!  Here is a picture I took yesterday:

I'm on display in the center window of the gallery - One of my "Easy Breezy" rayon dresses, with an array of silk and rayon scarves, and a sprinkling of my hand-sewn "Shabby Chic" scarves.  This dress is the last one until my next order comes in tomorrow, then I'll be dyeing up a storm to try and sell some more before the end of July.  August 1 we take town the gallery and get it set up for the "Prelude" exhibit starting Aug. 5.  That exhibit will show pieces from all the artists (me included) who will be participating in this year's Open Studios tour the last weekend of August, so I'll be busy getting ready for that, then back in the gallery for the regular event in September.
Before I close, I do want to show off a couple of things I have been working on this summer:

This is a coiled fabric coaster set, complete with lidded container, shown here on a piece of the fabric used to make the set.  

This is one of my permanent marker and alcohol silk scarves... these have sold very well, and I hope to complete several more for Open Studios.

I hope you are having a great summer, full of wonderful creative activities!

Birth of a new obsession

Inspired by posts I saw on Deb Lacativa's blog, I finally spent a little time playing with sharpies and alcohol. I didn't have too many colors to work with, so today I stopped at the local CVS drug store, and found a pack of Bic permanent markers with 12 colors... woo-hoo! Here are my first experiments:

On this first one, I tried (starting from the lower left and going clockwise) Sharpies, some other felt tip pens (forgot the brand), the Bic pens, Sharpie neons, and some Sharpie highlighters. First I drew the designs, then I painted alcohol over them.

On this one, I used the Bic pens and started out misting the alcohol over it... it didn't bleed very much, so I went over the design with alcohol and a paint brush.

This is Bic pens and painted on alcohol.

So far, I'm just doodling... no pretermined design or layout in mind. The first set of experiments was done on cotton muslin, undyed. The next two were on a cloth that had some (very little) dye. I also want to try this on a t-shirt to see how it holds up... may have to sacrifice one of my undyed shirts for experimenting on! I can see where this might take over my life... something about the intensity of color and organic designs just sucks me in! Thanks again, Deb!