This is how the calendar is filling up-
September- I will be in Chicago from 9/9 to 9/14. I will be participating in the Renegade Craft Fair.
October 30- I will be doing a Tiny World pincushion class at my house in Arlington, MA.
December-Luv-able and Hug-able at the Gallery Hanahou.
Dec. 11 and 12, I will be in the South End for the SOWA Holiday Market.
I will add anything else that comes up, but this is what it looks like right now.
Yesterday was the last day that Sage, my intern, worked with me. Since June, we got loads of work done, went on field trips, I made her take home bags full of supplies that I didn’t want, we listened to podcasts and discussed, and generally yakkity-yakked the summer away. Have a great senior year Sage!
And about the owls. Could I have made a MORE ambiguous survey? Obviously I should have lined them up in the number order for the photo. Also, I should have mentioned which owls were #1 and #2. I mean I did on Flickr but not on my blog. Thank you husband Ben for pointing out that little problem. Anyway, I will be sending one off today (not tellin’) and will let you know when there is more info about the show. I appreciate all your input!
Here they are- all 4.
Owl #3-
and owl #4-
and here is the story. You know I am going to be in Chicago for the Renegade Market in September, right? I was thrilled to be invited to take part in a show/contest to do my interpretation of the Renegade owl logo. The show will be going on in their Spotlight Gallery from 9/4 through 10/3 which overlaps the Market. There will be an opening, voting involved and a prize. Now for the hard part. I’ve got to pick one of these cuties to send! Ahhhh- decisions! I am definitely open to opinions…
oh, and btw, someone asked about a pattern. I think this would be a really fun pattern. I will get to work on it when I am back from Chicago, so hopefully we’d be looking at mid-October.
Oops! I forgot to post about this earlier! My doll club has organized this stash clean-out. If you are anywhere near central Massachusetts, this looks to be great fun! Here is a link to the location. I will be attending as a shopper not a seller. See you there!
Brooklyn was amazing!
I’ve collected some links to other Renegade reports- the ones that mention me… yeah, because that is why I found them!
The baby stuff at coos and ahhs, a great post including a link to the fantastic marching band, here at 13th Street Studio, and my wonderful booth neighbors- Skylark Studio, Melanie Linder Design, and chez sucre chez who has also posted an excellent report. Thanks for making it such a fun neighborhood!
I saw BoBo Babushka, but missed so many fantastic people who were also exhibiting. Mostly I stayed very busy in my booth the whole 2 days. My husband ran to the local market for water and iced coffee to keep us hydrated. It was very hot both days and some crazy exciting weather on Sunday, but we survived and had a wonderful time.
I met so many nice people who came to my booth- blog readers (THANK YOU!!!), so many people from Etsy, old friends, friends of friends,and new friends. The lovely Floresita of Feeling Stitchy came by. I was so very happy to meet her. I’ve admired the fantastic job she does, keeping us fed on interesting/unusual/contempory embroidery. Richard Saja introduced himself to me, saying- We have been mentioned in the same articles. Wow- he is way more Art then me- His work is awesome.
A few funny things I remember-
toddler points at tattoo man doll and says- look! Somebody made Daddy!
Lady say- these are too expensive. I say- they are not too expensive. You just don’t want to pay that much.
Man says to me as he is walking out of the booth- Excellent business model! ( I think my mouth probably dropped in surprise)
And, there was a FREE photo booth.
Now, time to get back to the studio!
So much going on!
We’ve been to Minnesota and are back. Another child graduated from college. I think we are getting pretty good at this!
Let me see- so much to report. An article/interview about me was published in my local weekly paper and is online here. The article happened because of the firemen with dolls photo that my husband forwarded to the local paper.
I had a wonderful blogger meet-up in Minneapolis and I am sending a HUGE thank you to Kristin! Firstly, although I brought my camera, I forgot to take any photos- typical. She did not forget and did this lovely post. She hosted 4 of us for a delicious lunch and we talked craft and internet and blogging and kids and thrifting and … yes, on and on. There was Erika, Susan (and her post on the day) and Susan’s daughter Hannah who has a blog but I didn’t catch the name. Then, after the party broke up, Kristin showed me her school and drove me around to meet back up with my family. Terrific!
Then, lots of graduation festivities. I’m not really sure how much Julian wants to be outed so I’ll just show a piece of him-
Hurray! Or, as he would say, Huzzah.
Sunday was spent doing some Minneapolis things- a farmers market, the Walker, the sculpture park, the downtown library, an Eleanor conducted tour of the Guthrie and a lot of just walking around.
I am exhausted now but tomorrow it is back to work- only 2 1/2 weeks until Renegade!
Hurray! I found out that I will be going to Renegade Brooklyn. See you there in June!
Yesterday was my doll club meeting- topic, making doll hats. Lots of ideas, styles, examples.
Two people showed up with dolls made from my patterns- so neat!
Lois made Purl girl-
And Pat made 2 fish-
Obviously I should have spent a minute taking one good photo, but I did not. So, here are 2 bad photos and maybe you’ll get the idea.
The next crafty meet-up is this Wednesday, March 10 in Davis Sq. in Somerville (MA). 10 am. Other meet-up reports.
Ben and I drove up to Portland to pick up Peter for Spring break, see his new dorm room, have a great lunch, walk around on a beautiful day. There are some wonderful signs around the town.
I’ve got a lot of things on my mind and am in a bit of a funk. We are having beautiful weather though and that means I can spend some time in the garden doing the clean up that I never had time for last fall. Spending time in the sun at the end of winter is therapeutic.
I am trying to schedule another class for the end of April. Tiny World or Fresh Fish? At my house or a roomier venue? Any thoughts?
We had an afternoon of buttons at doll club yesterday. I learned so much! One thing I learned was about old celluloid button and how they deteriorate and damage other buttons in their vicinity. I saw examples of what a deteriorating button looks like. I came home and went through all my buttons again. I have now separated out the bad buttons and will decide if I can bring myself to just throw them away. An afternoon of button talk couldn’t have come at a better time for me- since I’d just organized all of mine.
Thanks for all the advise about having my quilt done- I stopped at a local quilt shop yesterday and got the names of several people to call. I’m excited about it!
I actually spent a little time on a doll today. I want to finish my December, before changing to Christmas present mode, dolls. There are a few cut out and even 3 that are stuffed and ready to finish. It would be so easy to leave them and get started on something new but then they haunt me. I know I will feel better if I finish them up.
*Update* photos of those BAD buttons–
the celluloids-
I hope this is clear enough. I will also post them to flickr, where you can look at them very big. Do you see all the little cracks? They get bigger and bigger and then the buttons crumble.
the metals-
Funny thing is, I was looking for this kind of green corrosion when I was making this robot.
I understand that both of these types of deterioration are “contagious” and affected buttons should be removed from the rest of your collection.
I am coming to love January. Consciously. In the same way that many people loved September when they were kids. It is the beginning of new things, a time to contemplate the hopes for the year ahead, think about the year past. For me it is also a time to clean up the mess in my studio from the (minimum) 6 weeks of madness that always seems to precede Christmas.
I am sorting through piles, putting things in their places or finding a new place for them. This involves collecting all the pattern pieces that seem to be scattered everywhere and getting them back into their folder and file drawer. Sorting through fabric that is everywhere into- too small to keep, the right size for applique decorations, big enough to cut a doll part out of. Also the very important”what-was-I-thinking, I’ve-got-to-get rid-of-this” pile and the”how-could-I-have-forgotten-this-treasure” pile. Putting the various threads back into their drawers- embroidery floss, sewing machine threads, embroidery wools. It so inspiring to go through and touch all my materials.
I have been working on the buttons. When I moved my studio, I knew I had a button problem. They were everywhere and what happened was there were the buttons I used and the buttons I’d forgotten about. I have buttons from my mom, from friends, from Yard Sales, from all the clothes I disassemble. Way too many. It has been fun and relaxing to sort through them all. My goal is to end up with one drawer. Everything together. I now have a big bag of buttons that need a new home. As I sort through the buttons, I keep asking myself, would I ever use this? On Anything? The good ones engender visions of dolls with coats and sweaters, earrings, shoes, hats. And there are the good ones that IÂ love just for their color, design or how they feel in my hand. You see why I am having so much fun?
I am also refolding all the cotton fabrics that somehow spilled out of their bins during December. It makes me wish I had twice as many hours in my day to work with all these beautiful colors, patterns, and memories.
btw- I was never one of those kids that loved September. There might have been a day or two at the beginning of each school year when I hoped that some magic would make the year a good one. It never happened and I grew up and discovered that life isn’t school- Thank God! Label that as confessions of a creative, ADD, artistic, school failure.