This piece is on its way to our local Wildlife Refuge Center to hang in their bookstore. They have been very kind in displaying my felt work and offering it for sale. I hope to start on some new pieces for them soon as some of the proceeds benefit the refuge.
Shadow Box Shrine made from an old dresser drawer. The inside was lined with a nautical chart of Kodiak Island and assorted photo transfers, beach metals, fishing net and other odds & ends. The coral is a drawing I transfered and mounted on foam core. The fish image is mounted on plexiglass.
Made from recycled sweaters, tights and felt. I started construction on this at ArtFiberFest 2007 in Keeley Barham's WOOLY BEASTS workshop. I think he'll be tagging along to ARTFEST 2009!
Now hanging in the Harbor Building for the month of November is an ATC Day of the Dead themed show. These are just a few of the many works presented by local artists.
I started this piece ages ago and finally got around to finishing it. I've been trying to complete all of my unfinished art projects before I start anything new in an effort to clear out my creative space and start fresh with some new ideas. This piece and others will be hanging at The Fly-By next month.
Here's a peek at the next section of Teesha's yarn that I'm spinning. I'm using fabric scraps for this one and a few add-in's to embellish. I've got lots of fun bits (beads, charms, etc) that I'll be plying in when the whole yarn is finished. I'd better make a note to self the order of each section I've spun, as I'm going to have to thread all those bits on my ply thread to correspond to each section!
I've been wanting to make a yarn for Teesha Moore for ages now. When I met her last year, I mentioned the project to her and she generously offered me some fabric collage sheets to use. Since then I've been thinking about the technical aspects of the project, gathering and assembling bits and waiting for my muse to visit. She finally came round the other night and I've started work at long last! Here is a peek at the first pile of fibers to be spun... There was more additions than what is shown here, but it should give you an idea. The whole yarn will be made up of entirely different sections- like pages in one of Teesha's journals, each section will be unique but will compliment the others. For this project I'm using every spinning trick I know, and have come up with a new addition that I hope will work out as planned. I'll post pic's of each section I'm about to spin and keep you posted on where I'm at in the project.
Got confirmation in the mail that I made it in to ArtFest 2009! I've got classes with Linda & Opie O'Brien on Thursday, Theo Ellsworth on Friday and Micheal DeMeng on Saturday. Can't wait!!!
Registration for ArtFest 2009 opened up this past week, and hopefully I'll get to attend this time around. I've sent in my registration, however this event fills up FAST and my paperwork is still in the postal system. I've got my fingers crossed! I attended last year's ArtFiberFest and completely thrived on the energy and atmosphere. ArtFest is like ArtFiberFest to the 5th degree drawing 500+ people, whereas AFF was a modest 150 or so. I'm holding my breath until the confirmation parcel arrives.
Cyber Fyber is an international Postcard & ATC swap hosted by Susan Lenz, that will be exhibited at Gallery 80808/Vista Studios in downtown Columbia, South Carolina January 8-20th 2009. The focus of the exhibition is to highlight the influences of internet access for todays fiber artists. To participate in the swap and/or sponsor this event please visit:
Here is another yarn spun from salvaged bits from various projects. This yarn contains wool, alpaca, angora, recycled silk, some unidentified sheer fabric and burned out velvet.
This yarn was spun from merino fiber carded up with felty bits I received in a swap with Wooldancer in Australia.
Natural silver romney wool carded with lots of fiber scrapage!
Here are two of the cartons I put together... I've got another finished and 3 more to make.
I've been slowly working on these. They are made of watercolor paper I had done some printing on during a journal making workshop. The second layer is made up of leftover bits of painted papers and end cuts from other mixed-media projects. I have one more layer of textile elements to add before they are finished.
Here is the contents of what I received in my Art in a Carton. This came from Germany. I tried to upload a pic of the carton, but for some reason blogger and my new mac book just are not working well together. It took me ages just to get this photo to upload. Blogging through flickr seems to work at light speed, however I can only blog one pic at a time unless I put together a mosaic.
I fell in love with the gorgeous colors and textures of the spinning batts produced by Loop. It was more or less an obsession at first sight, and even though I could card up similar batts of my own, I couldn't resist joining Loop's Spontaneous Spinning Club. I guess the allure is the anticipation of not knowing what's coming next, but knowing it will be something that inspires me. Each month a new and wondrous batt arrives in my mail box- an exquisite treat that has me running for my wheel as soon as I get home. I even forgot to take a photo of the batt for the last yarn I spun cause I couldn't wait to spin it!
Sometimes when you are driven to spin something, and all you have at hand are leftovers from other projects, you create something quite wonderful and unexpected. I love how this yarn shifts from coils, to standard ply to crazy plied. The colors and textures are continually shifting throughout the yarn.
Here are the yarns spun from my silver lining batts. You can see more details of these yarns on my flickr page.
Worked on dying and printing a piece of fabric this week that I've cut into smaller sections for working into mixed-media art quilts, ATC's, Postcards, etc. This is only one section. To see more visit my flickr page.
Check out Weaving Works next time you are in the Seattle area. They have an amazing selection of yarn and fiber. I had a very limited time when I was there and felt so overwhelmed. Make sure you have at least a couple of hours to kill, otherwise you are just torturing yourself.
Two words for this show: Fucking Brilliant! I managed to video the first song before I got busted by one of the bouncers, so once I figure out how to upload video from my flip camera I'll get it posted somewhere online. Snapped one pic of the show, but was worried about getting kicked out for a second offense so didn't risk any more photos than that. Got to meet them afterwards, as I was staying in the same building, and have to say they are both very warm, amicable human beings. I wish them all the best and hope they make it up to Alaska some day...
Tomorrow I'm heading for Seattle to catch The Swell Season perform at The Moore Theater. Irish singer/songwriter Glen Hansard of The Frames and pianist Marketa Irglova (who make up the band The Swell Season) starred in the movie Once together and also wrote the soundtrack. I caught this film last time I flew to Seattle for ArtFiberFest in October. I'm a huge Frames fan, so finding this movie on the inflight digi-player en-route to Seattle was AMAZING!
These are the prints I made in a block printing class I recently participated in... I've already sold one of the fish prints in our local Whale Fest art show this week. The star fish I plan to frame vertically in a series of prints matted together in one frame. I haven't decided if I'm going to put four prints together to make one long dramatic piece, or three and leave the fourth as a single print to sell. I have two more prints where the starfish are darker in the middle. Those I plan to mount horizontal as shown above in a single frame.
which created this wonderful, glittering pile of crimped fiber that I love, love, love.
Combined with merino/silk, wool, angelina and novelty yarn...
and wildly carded on the drum carder...
creates these decadently soft metallic batts that I'm dying to get spinning on. I've got some bits to add in during the spinning process and some complimentary threads for plying. 
This is the amazing package that I received in a seasonal swap from Australian spinner Wooldancer in early February. I sent her my "Spring Eternal" yarn (the one with the branches and bird nest) in exchange for this autumn inspired work of art. This was so worth the wait! 
