a Monday report

Posted on July 2, 2007 by mimik

How cool is this?! This is a first for me, my artwork in a book-

I am talking about this book– Making Gourd Dolls & Spirit Figures, by Ginger Summit and Jim Widess. I just got my copy and am pleased as punch! I can’t quite figure out why they put someone elses doll (the one the upper left hand page) on a page with my name on it, but… hey, I am very glad to have the photos of my dolls together! The book has a great range of examples and instructions for making dolls from gourds- very interesting.

Other stuff-

Am I the last person to read this post on Yarn Harlot? It resonated with me.

I fell in love over the weekend. I’m going to have to get one of these for my garden- Lady in Red Hydrangea.

I saw on my stats that someone had searched for “m kirchner pottery”. That was how I used to sign my pots. I had this crazy idea, right out of college (actually someone told me!) that it would be better to make my signature gender ambiguous so I would be taken more seriously. That was 1976. I don’t think I fooled anyone. My imagery hasn’t changed much when I switched over to fiber arts.

I’ve killed my website, which never was much of a website anyway. Mostly it was just a front door to my photo galleries. Now if you go to Mimi Kirchner.com, you will be here at the blog. This is where the action’s at anyway. Hopefully this will be an incentive to do some clean up chores and rearrange the furniture around here. I hope this doesn’t mess anything up for anybody.

And, I am working on Amy‘s paperbag swag pages. The thing I’ve loved about this project is that it has given me a place to try out some techniques/ideas/materials that never seemed to fit in anywhere else. I have always admired Abby’s scrappy patchwork fabrics and have wanted to try making some.

Mine seems a little more uptight then hers, but it works for me. Next step- pages and some applique-

and then sketches for the next part-

I love my copy machine. I did the drawing and then copied it in several sizes to see how it works on the piece.

Lastly- flower of the day- Butterfly weed-

I am posting these now to get me through the winter.

another grandma

Posted on June 30, 2007 by mimik

this is the way these pieces happen-

I’d been thinking about ladies in curlers for a while. I even mentioned it at the end of this post. I pulled out my grandma/big lady design and got to work, cutting out the main body pieces, looking at photos tagged “housecoat” and “curlers” on Flickr. btw- Who ever knew there are curler fetishists?! The things I learn everyday!

I start doing floral applique on the body pieces and soon it seemed way too pretty to be a housecoat. That’s when I started the purple one. Sometimes a project goes it’s own way and there is no point trying to force it into towards where I thought I was going.

And another detour. I drew the face on paper, cut it out, made myself a little stencil and transfered the features… but somehow my happy smiling grandma turned into this-

She looks terrified! Somehow I was unable to see that until I was all done and ready to take photos. So, back upstairs for a face rework-

Much better! She actually looks happy now.

I am thinking of her as the post-curler grandma- look at her lovely hair-

The photo is washed out, but the embroidery floss I used is variegated light blue.

The front-

and the back-

and the bottom of her shoes-

and one last photo- she is sitting in the thyme and lavender- so perfect for a grandma.

Now- the flower of the day- an amazing poppy! Too bad they only last for one day-

One last thing- has everyone read Shula’s wise words/rant on the topic of crafting and craft bloggers? Wow, can she say it! I felt she was speaking right to me, although not about my recent personal experience. Just happened to come up at the same time.

nothing finished

Posted on June 23, 2007 by mimik

I haven’t been doing a lot of sewing. Lots of other things have been distracting me- all that life stuff… Now let’s see, what have I been doing?

I have a project for which I need a certain color of wool. I happen not to have enough of the particular color. Oh goody- an excuse to go thrift store shopping! I decided to use this as a reason to go check out a number of Boston area thrift shops that I haven’t been to before. Okay, that has been REALLY fun! I now have at least one new favorite- Urban Renewal.

On Father’s Day, we visited the rose garden on the Fenway. The roses were amazing. Now I’m thinking I need to plant more roses in my garden. This one is called Sally Holmes-

It is poppy blooming time in my garden-

I am actually thinking a lot about the garden these days. For about 5 years I had sort of lost interest and was in maintenance mode, but I am considering some major rework. I am thinking garden design thoughts.

Did you see this link over on Craftzine? I rushed over and got me some-

And now for some actual artwork- this is what I’ve been working on in my attic-

wip- hopefully I will have something to show soon. Happy weekend everybody.

It’s Saturday

Posted on June 9, 2007 by mimik

Here I am at my table on Thursday night in Jamaica Plain. Thanks so much to Betsy for taking a picture I am actually willing to post! Go to Angela‘s blog to see some of the great publicity we got and she added some description of the event.

And some blog goodness-

I going to do this swap over at Bitter Betty’s Blog. I’ve been wanting to try printing up some fabric and this will be the perfect incentive. You can sign up until Tuesday.
Some fantastic creations I’ve been admiring lately-

These creations at Malotashop. I found my way over here by following a trail from someone’s Flickr favorites. You just never know where you’ll end up on the internet.

Creative creatures at The Fabric of Meditation.

I got my nasturtiums and zinnias in the ground this morning, before it started to pour. I’m hoping the rain will give them a good start. My tiki is finished now, but the weather is too bad for taking pictures. Hopefully I will be able to show him tomorrow.

garden in early june

Posted on June 5, 2007 by mimik

I took these photos over the weekend-

The tree peony flowered through the hot weather. There were so many buds this year that the blooming lasted longer then usual. The ones still blooming last weekend were on the lower branches. Also, this is the first time I remember the tree peony bloom time overlapping with the herbaceous peony.

The regular peonies are all in bloom right now-

the buds are wonderful!

Baptisia, or false indigo-

Gas plant (dictamnus)-

and the shady greens-

And the roses are starting! The garden seems to have been happy with our crazy winter weather because it is thriving now!

doll gathering plan and misc.

Posted on May 26, 2007 by mimik

Okay, I’ve got it all worked out. I am going to have the first gathering on July 28 at my house in Arlington. The second one will be on August 4 in Northboro, MA. If you expressed an interest, hopefully you have received an email from me with all the details. If you haven’t gotten the email, or you think you are interested but didn’t say anything before, email me at mimik(at)pobox(dot)com, or leave a comment with your email. I’ll send you the details and you can let me know if you’d like to be there.

Here is the bag that Eleanor made when she was home- isn’t it fantastic?! Blue stripe corduroy, Indonesian batik, brown piping.

My other tree peony is blooming now. Unfortunately it opened just in time for some really hot weather, so it won’t be blooming very long.

We have lots of Jack-in-the-Pulpits growing around our yard. I love them.

Yesterday morning, Ben and I went to the Arnold Arboretum. Lots of lilacs were blooming, although I never managed to get any picture that gets across how amazing a hillside covered in lilac looks.

Lot of the trees are not yet in leaf. Strange when the temperature was above 90 degrees!

Happy Memorial Day Weekend to everyone who has a holiday!

gone missing/ miscellaneous happenings

Posted on May 23, 2007 by mimik

I know I haven’t been here much lately. It’s been busy! I am now the mother of a college graduate!!! Yeah me! well, and congrats to Eleanor, yah, yah, yah (hehe). The house is full with everybody home for just a few more days. Having everybody home makes for appointments, messes, commotion, and projects.
Eleanor is working on a bag based on this one. Among other things.
The grass has been mowed and I turned the compost- which is actually one of my favorite things to do… weird, eh? I’ve been trying to get some gardening done, but I haven’t put in nearly as much time as I need to. My very own tree peony is blooming now. It only last about a week max, doesn’t bloom every year, but is so beautiful when it does. This was from last week-

and the weekend-

Now it is all raggedy looking. It actually lasted longer then usual because of the cool wet weather. This week and through the weekend I hope to get some plant dividing done, my tender plants (dahlias, salvia, canna) into the garden, and summer seeds planted (nasturtium, flowering vines). Memorial Day is the traditional safe from frost date in this area. Last Friday, temperatures in the 40’s, this Friday is suppose to be around 90!

Another silly project- when I saw Meatcake making the rounds in the blog world, I knew we had to make one while Julian was home. Last nights’ dinner-

It was delicious! After turning the compost though, I was sort of too tired to really get into the decorating. Maybe next time.

doll club and expedition

Posted on April 6, 2007 by mimik

Doll club was yesterday and we tried needle felting. I’ve never done it except to try putting hair on a doll- not for me. But this was fun! We made bunnies-

mine is very soft and squishy- too much. If I do it again, I will try to start out with firmer wrapped wool roving.

Today we went to Logee’s for a mini-vacation expedition. It is worth the drive just to breathe the air.

weather, update, projects

Posted on January 17, 2007 by mimik

We are having winter today-

It was cold in my studio, but it was cold everywhere else too, so I worked anyway.

Here is the one week update on my blanket project-

technical information – I cast on 155 stitches with worsted weight wool. I am doing only garter stitch. I am using size 10.5 plastic circular needles, 29 inches long. It is about 50 inches wide and so far about 18″ long. It weighs 1/2 pound so far. My design- knit irregular rows (ie 3 or 5 rows of each color except when I run out of yarn), 2 shades of similar colors and a dark brown stripe between. The goal- use up what I already have.

I am working on Valentines with several thoughts in mind. I am thinking of doing the cafepress cards. And several galleries I know are having small works February Valentine’s themed shows- some for charity, some not. We’ll see where I end up going. These are similar to ones I’ve done before-

and here is an idea I’ve been playing with with the robots- sweetheart robots?

kitty 6

Posted on December 6, 2006 by mimik

I woke up to this the other morning- so pretty although obviously I’ve been too busy to clean up the garden…

If you look at my Flickr photos you will have seen the kitties I’ve been working on. Here are the first 3-

this is little kitty girl #6-

She is approximately 15 inches tall. When I decided to do the kitties, I tweaked the pattern so that they are all slightly different. I was planning to try to make a new and improved pattern, but in the end I thought they were all cute and had their own personality. Her body is made from wool and angora blend sweaters. Her sweater is made from a recycled fulled wool sweater with vintage ribbon (Thanks Pat H.!) and sweet little flower buttons-

I decided not to do the button holes and sewed on snaps under the buttons instead.

Thanks so much for all the kind words, encouragement and advise about my computer troubles. I’m so sorry about the whining- I was sort of embarrassed by all the nice comments… here I thought I was muttering and griping and complaining to myself in the corner and people were actually listening (reading)- that will teach me! I hope that I am back on track again. Onward!

Doll

the art and craft of Mimi Kirchner

Category Archives: nature