Christmas shows and events

Next weekend, Dec. 6 & 7 I will again be participating in the annual Bargetto Winery in the Cellars event. Dan May puts together a wonderful group of artists to show our wares in the wine cellars in Soquel, Ca. The Bargetto's have wine tasting, caroling, and a special wine club members evening as part of the festivities. It's cold in the wine cellar so we have to dress warm, coats, hats, Uggs. This is a sample of what my booth has looked like in the past.

This is me and another artist friend April from last year's show as you see we are dressed for warmth! (I also have hand warmers in my pockets!)




I'm showing scarves, wraps, and silk flower pins at the Santa Cruz Mountains Art Center's Gift of Art. That shows runs through Christmas Eve day.

After the Bargetto show I am leaving town to visit my favorite island of Kauai and see all my friends there as I relax and take walks on the beach everyday!

"wayward blooms" don't care where they grow!

I just have to show you some of the new flower pins that I dyed fabric for and my dear friend Jennifer sewed. It's our unique collaboration that we are calling "wayward blooms" because of the torn fabric strips and the fact these are not "prefect" (ha, I noticed I made a typo here but it seems appropriate to leave it) .... they are not meant to be as in nature flowers aren't really perfect. Perhaps they start out as a perfect bud but in the blooming process they all become imperfect at some time and that makes them each unique from one another.

It amazes me that I dye ribbons and fabric pieces - silks, velvets, organzas,- send them to Jennifer who sews her magic into them and I get these back in the mail. It's like a wonderful surprise package. Jennifer and I have been collaborating for some time now and are beginning some new ventures that I'll keep you posted about.

I've put these flower pins for sale on Etsy so please have a look at them each individually and let me know what you think!

"Wayward Blooms" & Hat Workshop

Friends wearing hats and looking fabulous in them at Art Unraveled 2008!


Sunday & Monday my dear friend Jennifer and I gave a mini hat making class( mini as in few people because my studio is small). Fabrics were dyed to make flower pins to adorn the hat, then we made the flowers using torn strips of fabrics for leaves and dupioni bias ribbon and other silk pieces for the main flower. The finishing touch is using vintage buttons. Below are three flowers pins I made.

I didn't get my hat finished since I was too busy helping run the workshop, know how that goes right? But I will work on it tomorrow and should get it sewn and I'll post final pictures then. Jennifer was very thorough on showing exactly how to sew the hat and add the brim wire!

This is such a fun class and it's amazing that it really is pretty easy if you have any sewing skills at all, mostly hand sewing. A whole embellished hat! What I learn though is that when people start dyeing fabrics and ribbons, they don't want to quit! And I say but we have to go onto to the next part, "but but but just one more piece to dye? they say."

We've proposed to teach this class at Art Unraveled in Phoenix so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we get selected because it's an awesome class!






I've added some more dyed ribbons at my Etsy shop.

"Off With Her Head!" ..............

I had several replies about my headless angel and explored some solutions. Thinking of historical beheadings, of course Marie Antoinette came to mind. Marie Antoinette is perhaps best remembered for her legendary excesses and for her death: she was executed by guillotine at the height of the French Revolution in 1793 for the crime of treason. She has become one of the most famous Queens in history.

Then there was Mary Queen of Scots who was also the queen consort of France from 10 July 1559 to 5 December 1560. After a long period of custody in England, she was tried and beheaded for treason following her alleged involvement in three plots to assassinate Elizabeth I of England and place herself on the English throne.

And finally I fondly remember the story of Alice in Wonderland:

The Cheshire Cat is a fictional cat appearing in Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Alice first encounters it at the Duchess's house in her kitchen, and then later outside on the branches of a tree, where it appears and disappears at will, engaging Alice in amusing but sometimes vexing conversation. The cat sometimes raises philosophical points that annoy or baffle Alice. It does, however, appear to cheer her up when it turns up suddenly at the Queen of Hearts' croquet field, and when sentenced to death baffles everyone by making its body disappear, but its head remain visible, sparking a massive argument between the executioner and the King and Queen of Hearts about whether something that does not have a body can indeed be beheaded.

At one point Alice is threatened of being beheaded by the Queen of Hearts

Alice and the Cards“Let the jury consider their verdict,” the King said, for about the twentieth time that day.
“No, no!” said the Queen. “Sentence first–verdict afterwards.”
“Stuff and nonsense!” said Alice loudly. “The idea of having the sentence first!”
“Hold your tongue!” said the Queen, turning purple.
“I won’t!” said Alice.
“Off with her head!” the Queen sounded at the top of her voice. Nobody moved.
“Who cares for you?” said Alice (she had grown to her full size by this time). “You’re nothing but a pack of cards!”
At this the whole pack rose up into the air, and came flying down upon her.


I took Joannes's idea of the angel holding out her hand for a head and I cculminated these stories and decided that Moo's head should be placed on the angel's hand.



(Not to worry, it's only Photoshop!)

Headless Angel

Several years ago my long time friend Janet gave me a terra cotta angel blowing a
kiss. It has sat on the edge of the shelf above my computer among other art items I have of "winged things". Well this cute Moo kitty decided to romp along my shelf.



I was in the other room and heard a sound of something breaking. I discovered that my little angel had fallen and was broken, but only the head, shattered into bits!



I replaced the angel in her spot but there's something just not right about a headless angel so I may have to let her go.

It's About Time ........

A time to be gone and a time to come home. I always think of the Grateful Dead line "such a long, long time to be gone and a short time to be there". It always seems that way to me. I traveled to St. Louis and always enjoy seeing the friends I've made there at the Weavers' Guild show. Jane Glidden does an amazing job of putting this show together every year and always seems so calm! I know she doesn't do it without a lot of help from behind the scenes. Marti has the task of inputting each and every item to be sold into the computer to print out bar coded tags. You have to realize how many items are for sale here! Whew, what a job! And then there are all the worker bees who haul the props in and out and set up the displays. It truly is an amazing event!

My friend Janet is always so gracious to put me up and all the stuff I lug along with me! I have my own room at her house now. LOL! But alas she is planning to move away from St. Louis and I fear I'll be having to stay in a motel room which won't be near the fun and I doubt we'd be able to have our "pajama parties" be the same.

After the three day show I traveled 150 miles south to visit my parents and my sister who drove from Ohio to be there. I love this old photo of me and Jan in our matching dresses that our mother sewed for us.



The trees were at the peak of color and the weather couldn't have been better. Mid to high seventies, sunny, and perfect for taking walks. I took so many pictures the day my mom, sister Jan, and I went to Markham Springs on Black River. We walked on all the trails and spent most of the day there. I have culled out more than half the pictures I took and still have too many to post but I'll try to pare them down. Or I need to figure out how to put up a slide show!

I'll leave you with a few pictures until I have time to get the slide show up.