April, 2022
One of my favorite things in my studio is this gallery wall. I don’t really frame very much, like I said in the last post, but this lets me clip works in process or recently finished (or not so recenty finished) pieces. It’s adjustable up and down and side to side, and was pretty easy to install. The idea was that I’l look at the works in process and get some fresh eyes from across the room, kind of like a design wall for quilters. Truth be told a lot of the pieces hanging there have been there for quite a while, and I’m hoping they will remind me I can make things I actually like if I just bust out all the mixed media supplies I have tucked away and play a little more often.
If this looks interesting to you, it’s the Clear Tape system from www.Gallerysystem.com (not an affiliate, just a fan)
January, 2022
Well, there weren’t any acual journeys this January, not of the road trip variety anyway, but there were lots of artistic journeys.
This picture is from a weekly assignment with the ongoing Paper Pals Collage Club with Lucie Duclos and the Winslow Art Center, a great way to practice composition every week and meet with like-minded people once a month. They have so many other great course to choose from, I’m really impressed. Earlier in the month I made a quick video flipping through my sketchbook of weekly 2021 assignments. This is a link to watch it on Vimeo
Then, there were workshops with Valerie Goodwin (Haiku Maps) and Erin Fletcher (The Shrigley bookbinding structure), as well as my Handmade Book Club and Coloricombo 2022 challenges, and a bunch of other little projects that moved forward as well.
I feel like I put in a lot of miles without leaving home at all.
November, 2021
November has been our digital nomad month for several years now, one of the perks of both of us being self employed, which we remind ourselves of often. We have to, because many days we remind ourselves that being self employed is the same thing as waking up unemployed every day if you don’t put the right spin on it.
Our retreat of choice is the Panhandle of Florida, specifically a 30 mile stretch between Panama City and Destin that is blissfully devoid of many highrises. It’s a quiet time, at least until Thanksgiving weekend, but the perfect place to replace our urban walks with beautiful beach walks, and lots of time to work or play on the comfortable balcony.
I’ve written this month about the curated collection of project I brought along – here’s summary of the progress made:
- Quilted table runners all bound and threads clipped – they could still use some extra quilting
- Changed my mind about the pattern I wanted to knit – cotton yarn can be tricky – but I found a new one and am about 70% finished, well maybe 50%
- Two malas made except for the final attachment – found out my tassels didn’t have the top loop I prefer, but I’ve ordered up replacements, so that will be a quick fix. Two more fully designed but not yet in process
- Some water color and collage play, even some sketching, but no where near the daily practice I still hope for
- Paper pieced curvy blocks all finished – next step will be pressing and blocking, then figuring out the setting
All in all, not bad.
Also made a trip to the local quilt store – trying to support the local arts economy – and found out they are closing their bricks and mortar in 3 days! Not sure if it’s the economy, or just a desire by the owners for a more manageable day to day life. As a lifestyle entrepreneur myself, I know that exit strategies aren’t always clean.
I’ll miss this place, and have fingers crossed it will be available to us again next year, and we will be available to take advantage of it. Grateful though, for my Chicago home to get back to that still gives me light and a view of water all the way to the horizon.
November, 2021
Two great views, and another great way to keep on creating even when I’m away from home. I am beyond blessed to be able to spend November in this beautiful place, and this year the weather couldn’t have been more perfect. The atmosphere is certainly a bit less fraught than it was this time last year, though to be honest, “isolating” in an oceanfront condo isn’t much of a hardship.
As the last post showed, I packed quite a variety of playthings to bring with me, but I had another plan in mind as well. A couple of month ago I enrolled in the Process and Possibilities e-course by Cordula Kagemann (@cordula.kagemann). She is a collage/mixed media artist from Germany that I have been following for a while. Her work is layered but feels calm, elegant and almost spare. It was quite a treat to sit on the beautiful patio by the beach and watch these well-crafted lessons. You might be able to see from the title card that her surroundings couldn’t be more different – the rural German countryside, which serves as her inspiration. The large oak trees frequently appear as image transfers in her work.
The course is a relatively new offering from Fiber Arts Take Two (@fiberartstaketwo), one of many platforms to emerge and join with more established on-line portals over the past couple of years. I do love an in-person workshop, but I’m so grateful for this upside to the whole pandemic downside – teachers and inspiration I would otherwise never be able to learn from.
November, 2021
I’m lucky to be part of several great online art groups, one of those pandemic silver linings, and this project is my attempt to kill three birds with one stone, so to speak. The book structure is the October 2021 project from @handmadebookclub with Ali Manning of @vintagepagedesigns. It’s called a Stiff Leaf structure, and I like it because it gives you the option of permanently or temporarily mounting pieces on individual pages, then assembling them into signatures with hinges of paper, tyvek, or in my case with adhesive linen bookbinding tape. The contents are my pages from September 2021’s #coloricombo color palette challenge with @estemacleod and @lorisiebert.studio – it gave me a way to store the pieces from that challenge in one decorative place. If I had to do it again, I would probably have used photo corners so I could remove the pieces from the pages at some point if I wanted to. The fun lettering on the frontspiece was from a monthly exercise with the #paperpalscollageclub with @lucieduclos.
Oh, and the paper for the covers is marbled by Jemma Lewis. Look for her videos on Instagram @jemmalewismarbling – they are so soothing, you can listen to great music and watch her lift paper from the magical marbling baths.
