Off to the Garden Island Retreat

My bags are packed, stuffed to the gills! I had gotten used to getting on a plane to Kauai with only a back pack since I have clothes and everything necessary already in the condo. Now I have two check on bags and two carry on. YIKES! I still need to buy a few items on Monday before I begin teaching on Tuesday that I just could not fit in the bags. I like the ease of one carry on a lot better!

The retreat will be a blast and I’m looking forward to meeting all the gals coming from different states (and the divas!).

I’ll be back after the 10th but may have access to a computer to post a few notes and pics while I’m away.

Aloha and Mahalo!

Dye Samples for Kauai Retreat and A&S Portland

These are dyed fabric examples of what I will be teaching at the art retreat in Kauai next week and also at Art & Soul in Portland, Or. in Oct. of this year. I have a link to the Art & Soul Retreat site where registration begins on April 3!















I have added a flower pin that my friend Jennifer made out of shibori dyed silk ribbons I sent her (see previous post) against the dyed fabrics. These pins could be incorporated into a fabric collage.

Surprise in the Mail

I received a white box , well taped in the mail today from my dear friend Jennifer. I had sent her some of my shibori dyed silk ribbons and a bag of old little buttons and she made these beautiful flower pins! They are so sweet! I'm not sure the photos I took do them justice but it's the best I could come up with at the moment..

Silk Organza Sample

I had to see what the sample would look like with a picture behind it. Here's a scan of it. I cropped the fabric so you could see what it would look like as a pocket with a postcard image inserted. I like this a lot and think we can create some interesting pockets for our books!

Dye Sample Fabrics

These are silk fabric pieces that are samples for the Kauai retreat. I've used five or six colors only as my pallet. Everyone will get to choose what colors of dye they want and you could have each piece be completely different colors if that is what you choose to do. I want to show some scans of the organza piece with some photos under it but will have to do that in my next post.




shibori dyed organza



solid color dyed jacquard noil



shibori dyed jacquard noil



shibori dyed Indian dupioni



Twist dyed Chinese dupioni



Shibori dyed Habotai



Flag fold Habotai

Mother's Day fabric books

I made these books last year and have been working on new ones this weekend but I don't have them put together yet so I haven't scanned them. Wanted to give you an idea of what I'm up to these days so here it is.

Life may not be the party we hoped for, but while we are here we might as well dance!

These are some more images of work I did in other muses books.

Altered Book Art ~ The Muses of Greek Mythology

I have been involved in an altered book art round robin with nine other woman who live around the country and even overseas. I was asked and accepted to participate by the curator of this project, Ona/Polyhymnia. We each chose one of the Muses of Greek mythology to represent, then each person started a book with their muse. The way it works is to create a "spread" (two pages next to each other) or more pages in each others book portraying the muse you are representing. I am Terpsichore (rhymes with hickory) the Muse of Dance or sometimes known as "the whirler" (that term may fit me better?). This is my cover page and spread I just finished for Kirry's book. Kirry lives in Australia and is a fabulous artist who was published in the Spring 2006 issue of Quilting Arts! We have an assigned mailing date as a deadline then we send that book on and receive the next one until we've put artwork in each book. The group is getting down to the finish of all the books. Two more to go and then we get our books back with all the muses art work embellishing the pages of each of our books.

I created my pages using Lutradur that I painted, "soldered" and attached images I printed on fabric from my ink jet printer.

"You don't have to have a dancer's body to dance, only a body that dances"

~Lynda Raino~

March ~ Lion or Lamb?

I guess March came in like a Lion in the Santa Cruz Mountains. We had snow and sleet and hail. Of course in a day or two it was gone and the sun showed itself again and warmed things up a bit. It's still chilly at night but the daffodils are blooming prolifically!