Hats & Blooms

I guess I lied about posting images of the hat I am making. I was unable to finish it when I discovered I didn't have any brim wire. So I am posting images of some fabulous hats Jennifer just finished. These will be for sale at Art Unraveled on vendor day. The flower pins attached to the hats are samples of the flowers that will be made in the hat making class at AU. Dyed china silk, organza, dupioni, and charmeuse silks using shibori and resist techniques as well as solid dyeing for leaf fabrics will be done in the first 3 hours part of the class. The next full day of class the flowers pins and hats will be constructed. I know that making a hat sounds like a monumental project but believe me this is easy and you only need to have minimal sewing skills! A length of ribbon is sewn in the hat to form a casing that elastic is threaded through to fit around the head and then the brim wire is sewn around the edge of the hat and that's it. The great thing about the hat is that is will be made to fit you!

The hats Jennifer is modeling in these pics are more advanced than the hats we'll be creating in class, there's more stitching on these.

High School Graduation

My youngest son Tony graduated from high school this last Friday. Of course we're proud of him and he is so happy to be through with it!



My parents had been visiting and during that visit my mother-in-law turned 92 so we had our annual birthday party at Seacliff Beach. It was a little cool at the beach and somewhat overcast but that is how our weather has been for weeks now???

It's June, where's the sun? it only peeks out long enough to tease us. I tend to get mild depression when too many gloomy days crop up. My cure is to exercise more but I have been a slug. Each day I say I will start an exercise program. Finally yesterday I walked my driveway, you laugh? My drive is over a 1/3 mile long and is very steep so the climb back up sometimes requires the imaginary rope to make it to the top. If you want to check it out on Google Earth let me know and I'll send you my address! So today I'll get back out there and it's a start.

I have to get my studio in some sort of order as my friend Jennifer is coming to stay with me for a few days and we're going to work on our slip dresses and organize everything for Art Unraveled. Here's our new hang tags.



I'll be back with my next post of a hat I'm working on that is like the hats we'll be teaching students to make at AU.

The Ties That Bind

I'm proud to announce that my sister, Jan Brown, was instrumental in creating a fabulous, almost life size, art doll using neck ties and charms that artists from all over the country produced. There is a blog where you can read all about the doll and how you can buy raffle tickets to win her!! All the money raised in this raffle is to be donated to the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund and will be tax deductible.

The doll has been to Stampington Press to be photographed for an article that will be in Art Doll magazine but I have yet to find out which issue, sometime this summer. I'll come back and post when I find out.

Go here to view more images of the doll. She really is a work of art and is a wonderful contribution to help raise money for a worthy cause.