Praying to St. Anthony

Just checking in to let you know I’ve been so very busy. I natural dyed some more ribbons and some crochet pieces that are being used for samples of a class I will be teaching at Art Is You Petaluma in September. Here’s a sneak peek.


I’ve also been creating a few more garments for Belle Armoire and for future vendor shows. I’m almost done with a piece I’m so happy with but for the finishing touch I wanted to add some little pearl beads. I have some but the sheen is too pink and the little white ones are not what I want either. For years I carried around a glass vial of white pearl beads, granted these were not real pearls but still pretty, with a cork stopper. I still see them in my mind but I cannot place them. I’ve looked in all the places they should have been and I rediscovered the Big Sur jade buttons, the abalone pieces, the vintage earrings that could be unstrung, the small hand pendant carved from bone and attached to a brass filagree setting, the large freshwater Tahitian pearls I buy in Kauai, the tiny crochet buttons, just about every little thing except those pearls. I am giving up and will settle for what I have or wait until tomorrow when I go to town and visit the bead store. Sigh.

How does this happen? You save something and save it and save it just knowing that it will be the thing you need someday but after a while you decide to let it go or it gets lost. I’m not sure which of these things happened but as I said I’ve given up.

I did pray to St. Anthony the patron St. of lost things, you know how that goes right? ……. more often than not that really does work for me but not this time.

Beginnings

This is how I start to upcycle a garment. I've cut the skirt off the main top part, put it on the dress form, then I start pinning pieces to it and draping lace, collars, trims or whatever. I look at it from time to time. Here I've piled more fabrics and trims around the base. Yesterday I studied this as I was sewing other garments and today I'm ready to go into the studio and start making decisions of what I really want to use to redesign this top. Some of the natural or white pieces may get dyed. I am thinking of keeping everything in natural beige, ecru, linen colors. I will probably change the buttons but that comes last. First I have to get the body of the garment together then the embellishments. If you recreate garments how do you work?

Art Unraveled Registration

Registration for Art Unraveled is open and because it's the 10th year anniversary an "early bird" appreciation discount is being offered. If your registration is received prior to March 15th and workshop fees total $250 or more you will receive a 10% discount from the total of your workshop fees! I know several people who have already registered so if you're considering taking some classes you should register early to get the class you want and the discount! I would hope to see you in one of the two classes I'll be teaching and you must come by to see me on Saturday at the vendor faire!!

Studio Time

Fabric and vintage crochet has been dyed, piles have been sorted, sketches are made, and then I begin to recreate unloved and neglected shirts and garments into fun and fabulous new togs.

I've been absent from posting much on this blog because I have been very busy in the studio. I finally finished writing two brand new class proposals for Art Is You Petaluma that I'm very excited about!. One is a garment reconstruction class and the other is a project to use vintage crochet pieces, lace, trims, and remnants! I find coming up with a new class is harder than I expect. I get the ideas but recreating them into a class that works gets complicated so I went through a very long process of elimination of what would work, what wouldn't, how could this be done?? (ask my sister she had to put up with all my emails and phone calls while I tried to wrap my head around this!) But I did it and now have to wait until September for it to take place. It will be so fun! The class schedules and registration for Art Is You should be online in February so be on the lookout for it!

While finishing up the class proposals I received some very exciting news from Belle Armoire magazine. Actually Ricë Freeman-Zachery wrote me informing me she had been talking with the editor, Cynthia Levens, about featuring me in the summer 2012 issue. Then I received the invitation from Cynthia Levens asking if I would be the "Designer Collection" feature artist. I think I am still in a bit of shock that this is really happening. Many of the pieces they were interested in have sold so I'm busy creating some new pieces. I purchased the winter issue last week and it is fabulous! I encourage you to get your own copy and check out all the wonderful articles and images!

I'll not be posting any images of the pieces I'm working on so you can be surprised when the magazine comes out this summer! I know I will be and I can't tell you how thrilling this is.