New CD in the works

In 2006 my husband Michael and I had a CD produced of songs we wrote and sang. The band was Asylum's Way and you can still hear clips and purchase it at CD Baby. Michael has been working on a new CD of songs he wrote (except one of mine) and I am not participating on this one. I did however do the art design and layout for the cd. I had worked on it a bit before going to an Artful Journey but when I got home the deadline for me had been moved up so I diligently applied myself to get it finished. I had wanted to work in my studio but this took precedence so it will be next week before I get to create some more of the scarves with writing on them I learned in Lesley Riley's 3 day class. I'm am psyched to do this!!

This is a image of the cover of Michael's new CD which should be out April 1st. The photo is of the family farm in Wisconsin where are are planning to attend the 100 year anniversary in July.

From Big Sur to an Artful Journey to the Redwood Forest

It's been just over a week but I feel as if it's been months and at the same time hardly here at all. Last Tuesday a dear friend from North Carolina arrived and on Wed. we took off on the coast highway to Big Sur. After days of rainy, stormy weather the day cleared and we couldn't have asked for a bluer sky.



The winding road we took to the beach led us by a gentle stream and these amazing willow trees.


You've seen me post pictures of the garnet sand before but I am still drawn to the amazing pink and purple colors of it as we walk along.







There were many beach treasures along our path. Maybe you don't notice the shapes and colors of rocks, or the seaweed's beauty, or the tideline's bounty but I do.







We journeyed down the road to lunch at Nepenthe where the crows sat in trees like sentinels as we gazed at the expanse of the Pacific Ocean. It is a magical, calming place to visit.



On Thursday we scrambled to collect our supplies and clothing and items needed to begin the four day Artful Journey retreat at the Presentation Center off Bear Creek Rd. Nina was to teach and I would be a student. After we arrived I walked the grounds and took photos and payed attention to the bare trees as the class I was to take with Lesley Riley would have a tree theme to apply technique to fabric.

The trees from my room looking through the screen were stately in their bareness against the gray sky that would spit rain off and on the following couple of days.








I learned a lot in Lesley's class and was most surprised that I could write on fabric, a faux type of writing that looks scripted and very arty to apply to silk scarves. I met so many wonderful new friends (the Lori's spelled in various ways) and with the small intimate setting everyone walked around serenely with smiles on their faces. If you get a chance to attend one of these Artful Journey retreats I highly recommend it. I know registration is open for one to take place in July.



After the retreat I took Nina and Lesley to Henry Cowell State Park to walk the redwoods, then sushi for lunch and a trip to Anthropologie before we parted ways, Nina to leave early in the morning back to North Carolina and Lesley to part soon back to Virginia. I miss them already and will look forward to the next journey.

More on Color

When I look in my closet with eyes slightly squinted to see what colors dominate I see it's mostly gray, black, brown, taupe, olive. Then there are the colors that pop out - red and orange. I tend to play it safe with color I wear. But I do like orange and shades of red that are deep or on the earthy side such as brick, russet, and deep crimson. I usually dye fabrics colors I like but I'm trying to bust out of my comfort zone and be more colorful. I do create to sell and some people who would buy from me want more color.

When I began making the doily scarves a friend requested one in mustard. This reverts back to my previous post of naming colors. Mustard could be literally the color of the condiment mustard but I knew she meant spicy mustard or ochre so I "browned" the mustard up and it was perfect.

In the past when I've done commission work and someone said they wanted a certain color I would have them give me spools of thread of the color(s) they wanted. That way I could pretty well color match to what they wanted.

I went to Harts Fabrics last week and purchased some fabric totally out of my comfort zone. A wild and multi colored print that drew my attention. I liked a lot of pieces from this fabric line.



When I laid the fabric out on my cutting table I thought what a bright and fun table covering this would be but I'm bound and determined to turn it into a lightweight, duster jacket and embellish it with vintages fabrics, laces, and/or trims. My friend Joanne who was just here visiting termed the style of jackets she preferred as dusters and I like that term, I'm using it because it seems appropriate.

As soon as I finish creating a silk brocade top for myself and the vintage barkcloth jacket I'll start working on this piece.

Naming Colors

I'm intrigued with color and color combinations. I assume you would know that because of my profession of dyeing. Anthropologie has a new line of clothing that they've named "Tone on Tone" neutrals. Being a person that loves earth colors I was drawn to these neutrals: Toffee & Olive, Stone & Sand, Peach & Linen, Blush & Ivory, Smoke & Buff. It led me to contemplate color names and naming colors. Conjuring up colors without naming them red, green, blue. Boring and vague. If someone named a green coat "grass" would you envision green or would the color need to say green, "grass green"?

I'm sitting in Sweet Peas as I write this eating banana/Nutella buckwheat crepes (my reward after pilates). I wonder if I dyed some fabric and named the color "Nutella" would you know it is a chocolate brown? Of course I guess I could run into copyright/trademark issues if I were to use Nutella but it's the kind of name that would be more descriptive to me than "brown".

Are these color names more evocative to you or confusing? Do you "get" the color? I like naming things, I like that it's a luna moth colored scarf rather than pale greenish!

Color name possibilities that have made my list:

Reds: brick, russet, cardinal, chili, fire
Greens: celadon, olive, pine, luna moth, khaki drab
Blues: teal, robin's egg, indigo, ocean, gun metal, (Nina's blue)
Yellows: spicy mustard, yolk, sun, wheat
Browns: chestnut, cedar, Nutella, chocolate, raisin, coffee
Neutrals: sand, taupe, cream, linen, vanilla, sugar, smoke, charcoal, stone
Oranges: salmon, peach, melon, coral, persimmon

What color names would be on your list?

Bang Trim

I did it, I got my bangs cut short. A few days after the bang trim I was visiting some friends ( I won't mention who the culprit is Irene) and asked them to take a photo of me to post and when I looked at the images on the camera here was this one. Well ......... I've never had a picture taken with such a thing before.



Here's my before picture and if you haven't seen my facebook wall where I posted the picture of my "doppleganger", you know some one famous that people have told you that you look like, then here's that person's pic too.