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.

Teaching Events 2012

As the year is coming to an end I was reading my horoscope this morning (Capricorn) and this is what it said:

Quickie
Creative writing doesn't just apply to short stories. Add flair to texts and emails.

Overview
You need to reach out and connect with someone new today -- your social life is more important than ever. It's a good time to dip into your pool of friends of friends, as they are looking your way.

Really I asked? Then it donned on me, oh I guess it's time to write a blog post so here I am.

The first exciting news I have is to announce is that I will be teaching again at Art Unraveled. I do not plan to have any health issues deter me this year (crossing fingers really tightly)! If you recall last year I had to cancel because of my eye issue. That is thankfully behind me now, finally!

In some of my past posts you'll remember how enamored I became with the eco dye printing technique that India Flint wrote about in her book Eco Colour which started a worldwide frenzy. I have devised a 9 hour class where we will use this technique on silk scarves and a second 3 hour class where we will dye silk ribbons and fabric strips using coffee, tea, and onion skins. Art Unraveled registration is now open so go have a look at the wonderful roster of classes being offered. This is one of my favorite retreats and I am so happy to be part of it again and would love to see many of my friends attend.

Dye Print Samples:






In April I am having some dear friends come visit me to take a private garment construction class in my studio. I am so excited about this but also a little nervous because I'm not sure how I'll combine being focused on teaching when these are close friends and I'll also want to be showing them around and socializing. I'm sure I'll figure it all out but it will be interesting.

Come September I'll be teaching once again at Art Is You Petaluma. This will be only the second year for this event and I think the word of mouth is getting around about what an opportunity this is! Lots of very talented instructors, in the wine country of California (think Sept. crush parties), and you could be there. I'm working very hard on some prototypes for an upcycled garment construction class. This will be completely new but I have a fantastic plan and I can not wait to get these prototypes finished and photographed and complete the write up! Art is You plans to go online with classes and registration in Feb. 2012. You can go to the site now though and see who will be teaching and start making your list of classes so you'll be ready when the registration opens!

After teaching at Art is You I am contemplating traveling to Art & Soul in Portland to vend. However, I will not be teaching. It is so difficult to project so far ahead and plan ones life. Next year already seems so full for me. In March I'll be taking that trip with my husband to New Zealand, the one we canceled because of my eye. April is when my friends come for the workshop, July my hubby and I plan to go to New York, Aug. is Art Unraveled, Sept. is Art is You, so then do I want to commit to going to Portland in Oct.? Do I want to plan to do the St. Louis Weavers' Guild annual show which is also Oct.? I have tentatively agreed to do a workshop in Missouri the first part of Nov. so please someone come organize my schedule for me and tell me what will be best okay? I'm taking volunteers, the lines are open. As my horoscope said ...."It's a good time to dip into your pool of friends"....

The Business Side of Things

As an artist, a designer, a maker of things it is the part where I flourish. The studio can be such a creative place where the world is shut away from me and I'm focused on designing and creating. But because what I make are things I want to sell and share with those who appreciate them there is the business side. It has taken several days to do a photo shoot, load the photos on the computer, size and format them, choose which ones to use and then decide I need some more close ups and have to shoot more photos and repeat the process.

On Saturday I was fortunate to have my photographer friend Wendy shoot (photos of course) two lovely young models. My sons girlfriend Jillian and her friend Sara showed up at the Trunk Show and the photo shoot was done. It makes such a difference to have garments shown on a person and I am grateful for these friends who rallied to be there for me.

After getting the photos ready comes the part of writing up what the piece is, taking the measurements, describing the color, etc. I finally got some of that done today and was able to post several new items in my Etsy shop. I hope you'll visit and see my new listings.

New Art by Amy Firestone Rosen

I posted this on FB so if you read it there sorry for the repeat but want to share this with everyone. I don't often buy wall art as I live in an Adobe house with lots of windows and very little space to hang any pictures. So it's a big deal that I bought this large piece of art. Of course I didn't hang it in my house but it proudly hangs in my studio. I know this snapshot isn't the best but because of the lighting in my studio I couldn't get a better one in a short amount of time. Just shows how anxious I am to share this artists work!

When I was at the St. Louis Artists' Guild with the Weavers' Guild show there was a framed print on the wall from one of the STL members. Since I upcycle vintage slips it really caught my attention. You can see the print if you click on Amy's name, it's the first one on the left in gallery 3. This is a life size print as the artist, Amy Firestone Rosen, uses vintage corsets, slips, and other garments to run through a large printing press. She inks the actual garment and runs it right through. The framed piece on the wall was not something to easily ship because of it's size but Amy was in house so she showed me her work space and all the prints she had in store and I got to choose one I could bring home on a plane. I had it framed and it's hanging in my studio. I love her work!