Category Archives: inspiration

etsy update and vintage fabrics

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I am going to be listing the three tattooed ladies on Etsy around 3pm (ET) this afternoon. Yesterday I cut out 6 more. I’m having fun with these ladies!

I didn’t want to post just that announcement- so boring and no pictures. So here are some photos of a few favorite vintage fabrics in my collection- I know, I probably should have ironed them…

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What is that cloth called with the texture of little squares? Waffle weave? This (above) is a remnant with a small amount of this very cute border and a lot more of the square dots.

Below is a silky fabric- maybe rayon? I’ve never tried testing it. It is an unfinished dress as far as I can tell. From someones wip pile.

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And this little piece is a real favorite- I keep it hanging in my studio. I can imagine a tablecloth, but much more fun would be a little girls’ puffy skirt.

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I hope to post more fabric photos, every once in a while. I’ve got some great ones! They have come to me from 3 places- my mom’s stash, my doll club, and from a friend who bought a house that had an attic full of a former seamstress’s collection. She had a sale where you could fill a bag for $10. So many treasures!

visit with Salley

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Salley Mavor came over for a visit today. She was in town to meet with her publisher. She is working on a book of nursery rhymes. She brought some of the pages to show me. They take your breath away with their details and craftsmanship. I took some photos-

this is a detail shot of the chair that the girl is sitting on-

do you see the embroidered detail on the shirt above? Amazing!

I love the bees in this one-

Stone wall of felt and beads. The gate has hooks and eyes for hardware-

And that rat! I love him!

This is what I’ve been working on-

I will post better photos onto the blog and list them on etsy once I get some decent photos.

fairy photo

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A treasure from my studio.

I don’t know what’s up with me these days. Well, actually I do, but…  hmph, anyway. What a summer. I have been having a hard time staying on task and finishing things. I’ve got a bunch of stuff started and several (many) dolls that are in the I’m-really-not-sure-where-this-is-going pile. I decide to do some studio shuffling with the idea of organizing or cleaning but mostly it is making things messier and makes me feel even more unsettled. So, in todays shuffling, I came across this photo. I found a large box of photos in a trash pile once. I found homes for most of them, but kept a few special ones including this one. I always wonder why someone scratched out the belt?

digression, chapter 2

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some more things I’ve been doing which have not yet lead to making finished dolls.

I spent half a day at CraftBoston. I saw some great work, but also a lot of high-end and expensive craft that looked like a lot of other expensive and high-end craft I’ve seen. And I saw people I knew that I hadn’t seen in 20 years, and people I’ve become friends with in the last year, and in the middle of it all, got a phone call from the daughter with some fantastic job/school news. It was a a great day!

Here are some links for the things I liked the most-

Sarmite Wearable Art– incredible coats

Valerie Bunnell– figurative art

Ananda Khalsa– jewellery

Insect Lab– bugs

Sheilagh Flynn– pottery

Wendy Ellertson– fantasy figures

I also spent a while talking to a very nice woman in a booth that was showing textile artists work from the Wales, UK. Amazing work, but I don’t seem to have a link- bummer– here.

inspiration at the V & A

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I spent most of one of my days in London at the Victoria and Albert Museum.  Since I didn’t have to be concerned about anyone else being bored, I could spend as much time as I wanted pulling out drawers and looking at textile samples- mostly embroidery and lace.  My arms were actually sore at the end of the day!  Taking photos is allowed (unlike most US museums), but the dim light combined with the glass cases, made it almost impossible to get a decent photo.  These photos will at least remind me of the treasures I saw.

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I have a page full of names of artists to research.  The day at the museum will give me a starting place to find more inspiration.  I love the internet!

another day out of the studio

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I spent another day out of my studio… when I have been away for a while, it can be hard to get back into the groove. Today, I drove down to Cape Cod and had lunch and a visit with Salley Mavor. I got to see the projects she is working on, such as this self-portrait-
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She is also working on a book of nursery rhymes- she has been working on it for 2 years and thinks it will be another 2 years before it is finished. She showed me pages and pages of her beautiful work. It is truly inspirational. I picked her brain about card making and selling and also about book publishing. All so interesting. And, Theresa, she has your magnet on her fridge!
desk photos- I love to see how people work!

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All the beads on the pipe cleaners have little faces painted on them-

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Bags of flower parts, sorted by color-

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fall and production

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Aren’t these beautiful? I picked them up when I was walking to mail some envelopes.
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Fall- busy crafting season. I am trying to crank up my production to have inventory for the very limited venues I will be showing in this fall. I have a stack of ladies cut out, ready to put together and embellish.  The first 2 ladies-

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rainy day news

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this is going to be one of those all over the place posts… bear with me.

It is a rainy day today- hurray! We haven’t had rain since my July workshop and everything in the garden has been shriveling up. That said, I hope it stops by the weekend because I will be showing at the South End Open Market on Sunday (9/16). It is the Open Studio weekend in the South End. I will be sharing tent space with Betsy of Stonehouse Studios.

I have had a classic me kind of morning.

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I went upstairs to get to work. My table and desk had gotten to the critical point where I had to do a little cleaning up. I dug down through the layers- tattoo men patterns and fabric on top, a few big man pattern pieces and floss colors, lots of swaddled baby wool and rejected cut out applique pieces. Okay, I got the table usable again. Back to work on my latest tattoo guy. I was busily embroidering away, trying out some new stitches on the hair. Having fun. I ran out of my color and went to find the skein- I couldn’t find it.  Arg! I HAD to have more. I went through my drawer. Everything out. It turns out to be a clean and sort morning. I pulled out the wood cigar box at the very back of the drawer. (This box has history. My mom used it to store rayon embroidery threads probably as old as the 1920’s. I still have those threads although I’ve never figured out anything to do with them.) The box has a big tangle of floss that probably dates back to the 60’s. Not anymore though- I untangled them and sorted them by color and added them to my other threads. And, I did find my dark brown floss- see, I knew I had it!
And here is the drawer now- probably doesn’t look so great to you, but it works for me-

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other things-

* An acknowledgment- I want to credit this cute little girl by Heidi for the push to make my tattoo guys. I have lots of ideas in my head and sketchbook that never get made. The dolls in limbo. There is always some little spark that causes one idea to jump to the front of the line. I’d been mulling over the toile/tattoo idea since June.

* I got an IPod for my birthday- I know, I was the last person to get one. I love it!!! I am still figuring out all the great things I can do with it. As of yesterday, I am a CraftyPod-aholic. After a few tries I successfully got the podcasts onto my Ipod- I was a bit Itunes store phobic- afraid I’d be sucked into some money pit vortex or something. Phew, over that! Anyway, I’ve listened to about 10 so far and have to remind myself that I don’t have to listen to all of them at once. They are so much fun though- as I listen I am thinking/saying “Yes, yes, yes! That’s just the way I do it” or “I think that too!”. I love hearing the voices of the people whose blogs I read. Now I will go on a Craftypod diet so I’ll be able to savor them longer.

This is my table now- tattoed men and tikis piled up.  Lots of projects started…

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getting inspired

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In the last few days, I’ve had several people ask what inspires me so I thought it might be a good idea to post about it, i.e. give it some actual thought. Years ago I took my son to a talk given by Philip Pullman. He was absolutely brilliant. One of the things he talked about was that people often ask where he gets his ideas. He said something along the line of- the ideas come to my desk and if I’m there, I get them. If I’m not, I don’t. I loved that explanation! So much of the art is just being at your desk and working. I googled “Philip Pullman inspiration” and I didn’t get that story but got this explanation. (the first paragraph) Not as funny but also excellent.

I am inspired by materials (these days beautiful fabrics), things that I touch (robots with the sewing notions for details), the seasons, the little stuff going on in my life everyday, some odd thing that I’ve read about (example- fat fairies), the photos of what everyone else is doing all over the craft blogging world and Flickr, a new technique that I’ve learned, my family, color. And if I am working on something, and if it doesn’t have a face, I probably won’t stay interested for too long! If I hit a dead end, I have 2 ways of recharging that usually work. I go back to my older work, look through it and try to come up with a new approach or simply do another one. I have found lots of inspiration for the postcards by going through old photos of my pottery. The other technique is to go through all my materials. That way I get 2 things accomplished- clear out some stuff and almost always find something that sparks an idea.