Doll

Last Friday, my Boston Etsy street team- Boston Handmade, had a meet-up with Maria Thomas, the new CEO of Etsy.

Here is my photo of the event-

There are much better photos and a great recap here on the BH blog. It was so great to meet her- we all came away feeling that Etsy is heading in the right direction with a thoughtful and intellegent leader.

And there is more-

You know I love blogging. I’ve been doing it for 5 years now and it feeds something in me. There are lots of reasons to blog and lots of great things that come as a result… but I have to admit- presents in the mail can not be beat! What is better then getting an email saying “I found something I knew you would love” from someone you have never met in real life (see related story here!). This came in the mail for me last week-

Thanks Mary! You were right- I love it all!

There are various side benefits to scheduling a workshop/class at my house. It is like having your mother-in-law come to stay. The house gets cleaned up, projects get done. When I decided to do the workshop, I used it as an incentive to move forward on a stalled house project- the bedroom that will be my new studio some day. Yes, a room that actually has heat! Anyway, the room has been in limbo for … I’m too embarassed to tell you how many years. Various life events happened after I got started on it and then everytime I thought about getting back to work, I felt totally overwhelmed. Well, I have made great leaps forward.

It is not done, but it all seems doable at this point. Maybe I will be working in there by next winter. I am not going to go overboard with unrealistic expectations!

Cleaning up meant collecting things to go to the Salvation Army. You see, I have to restain myself from going- my rule is, I have to donate a bag if I want to go shopping. So, on Friday, as I was driving down to the meeting with Maria Thomas, I stopped by to drop off my bag and take a quick look.  ooo, all knits, 3 for $1. I spent $3 and came home with another load of cashmere, angora and wool. Yum!

things I meant to do…

2/13 was my 5 year blog birthday- amazing. I meant to do a blog facelift- didn’t happen. I meant to do a give-away- didn’t happen. Hopefully both WILL happen in the next few weeks.

And I meant to wish everybody a very happy Valentines Day.

I seem to be doing more socializing then usual and going to too many meetings. It is hard for me to get into my work when there is so much other stuff going on. I have a pile of dolls started and have gotten bogged down, trying to get one finished. Hopefully I’ll have something to show very soon.

Today I had a meet-up with Tracey and Melissa. We had lunch and then went on a little photo walk. Fun! This fence always makes me think of Melissa- rust, swirls- and I felt like I had to show it to her. Just one of those crazy blog meet-ups when you know all kinds of odd tidbits about a person. Anyway, we all had fun taking some photos.

2009 isn’t even one week old yet, but so far it’s a good one! On Sunday I invited Tracey over for a studio visit. She had commented on my blog a few times and I knew she lived near me. We got into an email conversation and I knew we had to get together. We did that wonderful blog friend thing where the conversation starts where so many other conversations would end. So much is a given when talking to another art/craft blogger- like how great the online community is and how clueless so many other people are about why we do it! We can move right on to other important stuff.

First, Tracey brought me this wonderful gift inspired by the interview in Craft magazine-

I’ve hung it up over my desk. Here is her description of the inspiration for the piece and also her report of the visit. I think it is too funny that she photographed all the doll bits that never got finished…

We talked photography (among other things)- she is doing some amazing work with ttv- through the viewfinder (tutorial if you are interested). It sounded intriguing and, of course, somewhere in this house I knew I had one of those cameras where you look down into the viewfinder. I’m pretty sure I bought it at a yardsale with a red leather camera bag that looked like a child’s doctor kit, in the early ’80s. Yep, there it was on the shelf in the living room. I tried looking through the viewfinder and it was so dirty I couldn’t really see anything.

I took out a few screws and cleaned it up as well as I could.

It is now significantly better and here are some photos I took from off the back porch-

Everything looks so spooky!

not so sure what to do about the grid in the viewfinder.

I think this uncropped one is my favorite-

Lots of fun but probably not going to pull me away from dollmaking.

Yesterday I had fun outing. A local fashion designer, Deborah Parker, invited me over to her studio to go through her scraps and see if there was anything I could use. Yes! I came home with 2 large bags full of wool, silk, linen, and some little pieces of cotton. Delicious! There are some very inspiring pieces in that pile- like, have you ever heard of wool corduroy? I hadn’t but now I have some to play with- it looks like perfect hair fabric to me.

Hurray- what a great way to start the year!

Bear with me- I find this kind of analysis very helpful.

I finished 72 dolls this year-

and some cookies.

There were 23 tattooed men in various modes of fashion-

18 girl dolls-

11 babies

15 ladies-

2 gifts that inspired 24 more tiny world pincushions-

And the other stuff- I went to NYC, London, Portland, OR, and Chicago. I met Diane, Melissa, Jan and Susan in person. The paperbag swag project got finished after a long delay caused by 4 out of the 6 participants having babies- a pretty good excuse I’d say. I grew tomatoes! I did 4 shows. I was mentioned on Design Sponge by guest bloggers in January (Thanks Kath!) and then again in December (Thanks Camilla!). That was a little freaky. And, one of my dolls is Mr. April in the Whip Up calendar. All in all, it was another great year for my artwork and for my own crafty blogging universe.

Thank you so much to everyone who stopped by and visited and left comments or not in 2008. Happy, healthy and creative 2009 to all!

I’ve been mulling over some blog/craft related issues. The thoughts are not chosing to leave on their own, so I will put them here. And so as not to bore anybody, first some photos.

I finished the 3 bags- gifts for various young women in my life.

I made patches from the fabric I printed for a swap last summer- almost exactly a year ago now.

So now for some blog thoughts. I was at a party a month or so ago. I was sitting with a small group of people, all of us involved in the on-line world in various ways. Two of the people at the table, one a man and one a woman, started making fun of the type of comments that people make on food blogs (and also craft blogs by association, although I’m pretty sure they have never spent any time in the online crafty world). I was hearing that the comments were somehow not legitimate (?) or stupid because no one is giving criticism. Too much nice. All very kindergarten. No real issues are discussed. hmm… I don’t know…  I’ve been turning this over in my mind ever since.

We, in crafty blog community, are in a unique corner of the internet universe. To prove this point, this sequence actually happened to me recently.

A man commented on one of my Flickr photos. This flashed through my brain- OMG, a MAN on the internet!

Does that say something about the corner that we inhabit? I don’t think many of the art/craft blogs I look at are putting their work out into the world seeking constructive criticism. Who asks for that from strangers? If I want a critique of my work, I ask someone I know well, whose view point I respect, who I believe has some understanding of where I am coming from and who I can watch as they interact with my work. So why do I put my work out there? To connect with other people who are interested in what I’m interested in. Imagine- look! look! embroidery! wool! cool!…. I can assure anyone who questions this- it is not so easy to find people who get excited about this stuff. So, of course all the comments are nice and oh so gushy- we are thrilled to find someone else who gets what we are into!

Okay, that’s the first rant off my chest. I’ll leave more for another day.

We left Ithaca and we drove to Chicago for another event. 675 miles- 12 plus hours in the car… what a day. But, once I was there, I had a chance to meet up with Jan of Be*mused who has just recently landed in town. What fun that was! We planned to meet at the Bean and so I had my husband come with me to take a photo- I knew we’d one.

He asked me how long I would be with Jan and I said- I’m not sure but I have a feeling we have a LOT in common. We went and saw a show at the Chicago Cultural Center of the work of Tony Fitzpatrick. Amazing work- so inspiring. I could see applications for quilting, embroidery, collage, so much. I had never seen his work before… it has stuck in my brain.

Then we went off to have lunch… Wow- did we talk! For almost 3 hours! And, I can honestly say we hardly scratched the surface. I know I will be back to Chicago. Now I can’t wait. Hopefully Jan will find the perfect new house soon. I am looking forward to a studio visit.

Well, nothing else on the trip really lived up to that visit. I kept thinking (and talking) about all we’d discussed for days afterwards. I think my husband might have been getting a bit tired of my enthusiasm?

Anyway- some other photos.

Today (5/7) is the last day to vote on the Softies Awards… although if you haven’t already, by the time you read this it will probably be too late.

I am back at work-

a group (choir? gaggle? giggle? luncheon?) of big ladies in pastels.

I have been reflecting on how the internet and blogging community has become such a good part of my life.  In one week I met Ariana of Staindrop (Sunday) who gave me a fantastic walking tour of Portland. Then Sister Diane of Craftypod (Monday) for talk, coffee and recommendations for great places to visit in Portland.  Tuesday was spent visiting those places.

On Friday, back home, I spent the morning with Abby of While She Naps.  We  discussed all the favorite topics- kids, marketing on line, our blogs, other favorite blogs, the state of Art and art and the world.  Wonderful!  But not only that- we went out for a walk and stopped in a fantastic coffee/tea shop-  Look at this!

We split one of these-

Thanks Abby!

Sunday was a party to celebrate a little more then one year since Boston Handmade began.  It is my Etsy marketing and friends group.

Wow!  What a week!  And so many people look at me like I am some kind of nut when I say I blog, sell online, post on Flickr…  they just don’t know what they’re missing.

Remember this fellow?

He is tickled pink (groan) to be a finalist in the 2nd Annual Softie Awards in the category of Pink or Plaid.  I hope you will take a minute and go vote for your favorites!

Here is my original post with lots more photos.  Thanks for your support!

I started out the New Year with a lucky win- from Yummy Goods! I received my prize- a VERY big package full of fabric- I can’t wait to start playing with it!

Melissa has a new line of fabric coming out- how amazing is that?! She lives on Cape Cod, which isn’t all that far for me so I am hoping that we’ll be able to meet up sometime soon.

You might have noticed that I added some new categories last month. One of them is “my art history“. I figured that it would give me a place to show how little has changed over the years!

When the studio building where I worked burned down in 1999, it took me a while to realize that one of the biggest loses would be my sketchbooks- years of them. I have been thinking about the recurring themes in my artwork. If I post examples of the artwork with those themes, it is a way of remembering what was in those sketchbooks. And as I try to make some kind of order in my studio these days, I keep finding examples.

I figured this needed to be posted today, since I finished up another tiki yesterday.

1972, I think. Carved out of a scrap end of a 2 x 4. In an early 70′s definition of feminism, my 2 friends and I signed up to take wood shop in my senior year in High School. We were the groundbreakers- the first girls through the door. This was a little project I did then.
Combine embroidery, a Spirograph, a 14 year old and some really ugly color combinations-

It is 3″ x 3″. I did this the same year as my sampler. I have no memory of how I transfered the image onto the fabric, but I see on the back that I wasn’t happy with my first try.

and some other stuff- Last Saturday, I broke down and got myself a subscription to Embroidery. I was so excited when I got an envelope in the mail today- 2 magazines- yippee! And another thing- I am having problems with my comments and email. I am not getting emails when someone comments so I have to go check things out regularly and when I email back, it might look a little odd. It all has to do with over-zealous spam filters or something… arg!