Sunday, November 22, 2009

Etsy for shopping


I've just listed some of my new doily scarves in my Etsy shop. I want to remind everyone about Etsy when considering purchasing gifts. Etsy is a site that sells only hand made artists items or vintage only items. You can visit my shop and then view my favorites to see other artists whose work I'm intrigued with and/or have purchased from.

http://www.etsy.com/shop/lasfibers



Monday, November 16, 2009

Nuno Felting @ Sharon's



When I was in Ashland, Mo. working with Sharon Kilfoyle in her newly remodeled barn studio we vowed to take pictures of the sequence of pieces we were making. Well .......... we got so caught up in creating that we weren't good at taking the photos. I have some of me laying out the first piece and one of the wool being place on top of the silk pieces but none of the finished pieces. Then I have some of the final piece I made but none of the developing stages. This was by far my favorite piece along with the one just before this which I have no photos of at all and I sold it at the Weavers' Guild show. HiHo.

I am not being productive at all these days because of my back injury. I am seeing lots of doctors and medical care givers to try and determine what my options are. It is becoming more and more painful. Most of these health care professionals have urged me to have surgery. A procedure called kyphoplasty. However, an osteopath I saw was concerned that it didn't appear to him that I would be a good candidate for this procedure. I'm getting an MRI on Friday and the results of that will help see what the real issues are. I'm bummed to say the least that this is happening to me and my mind is so full of ideas of garments I want to create in my studio but sitting at a sewing machine, bending over a cutting table, leaning over a dyepot, or anything of this nature is not good for me right now and it hurts. Wah! Sigh.








Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Home



Home is a place not only of strong affections, but of entire unreserve; it is life's undress rehearsal, its backroom, its dressing room.
~Harriet Beecher Stowe~



"There's no place like home" Dorothy says three times as she taps her ruby red slippers. Although I have no ruby red slippers and I was not on such an adventure as Dorothy I am just as glad to be home.

Blogs are curious things, especially when I am not good as promptly writing down my stories. I get far behind and see no way to catch up. This journey to Missouri was full but I didn't take my camera, or my computer, so I have no pictures and I had little way to communicate while I was gone.

I arrived in St. Louis on Oct. 29th to spend the night at my friend Janet's. Susan came over and we had a lovely dinner. On Friday morning I drove to Ashland which is near Columbia to stay with Sharon and work in her studio for five days. Friday evening we ventured to the Hartsburg Winery to hear a dear old friend, Bob Runyon, sing and play his guitar for us.

Sharon lives on a piece of property with lot of trees, birds, and peace. Her newly remodeled barn has been transformed into a wonderful studio. I got to work with her to better my nuno felting skills. This is a method where you take a sheer fabric, apply wool roving on top, wet and felt it then the fulling process creates a wonderful felted fabric. Of course it's a little more involved than I just described but hopefully you can get the picture since I have none to post. I know Sharon took some photos while I was working and when I get around to having her send them to me I hope to get back here and post them.

After Sharon's I drove back to St. Louis to participate in the Weaver's Guild of St. Louis annual show which seemed to be a success. On Saturday a group of seven women approached me and to my surprise it was people I had known in high school. They were having an old friend reunion in the city and I know they were off to have a good time after purchasing several of my wayward threads scarves. I hope to see some of them again when I exhibit at the Margaret Harwell museum in January!

Cowboy Jack also made it to St. Louis from Indiana to see me. Our friendship goes back twenty some odd years and I so appreciate that he travels to spend time with me each year.

I'm glad to be home though, it seems like I was gone forever and now I get to play catch up with mail, and appointments, and scheduling.