Category Archives: other projects

getting there

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the continuing saga of the studio…

On Monday afternoon I declared the fixing up part of the project finished.

On Tuesday morning we started rearranging furniture. I live in the kind of environment where gridlock was a serious worry. By the end of the day though, some serious obstacles had been moved out of the room and the main pieces of studio furniture were in.

This is the room on Tuesday morning-

Futon sofa on the right. Blanket box under the left-hand window. File cabinet. That is what needed to go out.

Doors closed and doors opened. Nice closet. I didn’t repaint the closet, but I washed the walls and ceiling. Can you see how fantastic the door looks with the frosted glass? Still lots of tools and supplies in the room.

And, here is the room this morning (Wednesday).

From the hall-

Flat file and two desks in place- sort of. I bought the flat file back in March. I am planning to organize all my various threads in it. The large desk is now down from the (old) studio. The small desk was one that my son used for years.

I found the perfect storage rack on Craigslist. It is deep- 24″- metal and, it has wheels!

The file cabinet is still in the room- well at least the shell of it. The drawers are now in the attic. I will work around it until it can be carried up by someone other then me or Ben.

And here is what the door looks like from the hall, when it is closed-

I am going to hire a few hours of heavy lifting tomorrow and hopefully get most of the bins, books, babies, bolts of cloth, bobbins, buttons, bobbles… and all the other letters of the alphabet, downstairs. Then the reorganization. Hopefully, I will get back to serious work in the first week of August. My middle son is coming home from the west coast tomorrow and will be working as my intern until he goes back to school in Minnesota in a month or so. Oh, and in the midst of all this, I am going to Orlando, Florida next week to help my sister-in-law at CHA…

Okay, deep breaths!

July update

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geesh, it’s July already. How did that happen?

Scheduled for this month-

7/6- 7/17 I will be spending every afternoon taking a class in Adobe Suite– stay tuned for vast improvements or total meltdown in my web presence.

7/11- Boston Handmade Marketplace in Union Square, Somerville. Click through for all the info.

7/26- 7/31- I will be in Orlando, Florida at the CHA show, helping my sister-in-law. I have no idea what this will be like. I may not have a minute to spare, or then again, maybe I will. Suggestions for interesting places and possible meet-ups would be great.

I seem to have misplaced my creative juice, muse, mojo, juju, whatever you want to call it. I have one doll finished that I haven’t photographed yet- I will sometime when it stops raining.

I’ve been working on the room-

It moves forward. My daughter is coming home for a visit at the end of July and that needs to be my deadline- hmm, I seem to  make these deadlines all the time- otherwise, I am not sure where she will sleep. I have covered up any possible sleeping surfaces with stuff out of this room.

I have also been doing some dyeing and over-dyeing, hoping to get inspired again.

It has been fun. And positive in several ways- mostly it fills the need to create and so keeps me from the funk that I fall into when I do not. It keeps me from going to the thrift shop and buying more woolies- which is not so bad except that since I am going to be moving my studio, I shouldn’t be bringing more stuff into it right now. And, I am taking fabrics that I won’t use-ie yuck colors or previous dyeing mistakes or just boring- and turning them into something terrific. And, that red on the left- I used some old dye that I picked up somewhere… did someone give it to me or was it from an estate sale? The box cost 15 cents and the illustration style makes me think 40’s at the latest. Maybe later I will post pictures. Anyway, such fun using up the old stuff.

tiny worlds

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Now that the market is past, it is time for catch-up in all parts of my life! There were a few things that I finished up at the end of last week that never made it to the blog.

I made 3 more Tiny Worlds-

This one looks like a cabin in the woods to me. I tried to give it a foresty look.

Very fancy cups can be a challenge to work with. This one looked like it needed a snow scene to mellow it out.

I sold one of these at the Market, but will put the other 2 plus the one I made for the pattern, onto Etsy later today.

summer show schedule

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I will be showing my work at the following places in the next few months-

Sunday, June 14- Boston Handmade will do a group appearance at the South End Open Market.

Saturday, July 11 (raindate Sunday, 7/12)- Boston Handmade Somerville Marketplace in Union Square.

Saturday, July 25- Boston Handmade at the Concord (NH) Arts Market

Sunday, Oct. 18- Boston Handmade at the South End Open Market.

other goings on

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I had breakfast with Lilla this morning. It is such fun to spend an hour or two with someone who speaks the same language- you know, art and the internet and all. No explaining. We blabbed about our families, then moved on to show-and-tell. First me-

Then Lilla- she had all kinds of goodies from the artists she represents-

A wonderful way to start the day!

I’ve got plans for my long weekend. No, I will not be relaxing in a beach chair. I will be planting my tomatoes, making containers this way again. I might experiment with some wool sweaters- the cotton started to disintegrate very quickly although that didn’t actually cause any problems. I will be planting the following varieties- one plant of each- noted for my records.

-Carbon

-Bush Goliath

-La Roma

-Nepal

-Taxi

-Washington Cherry

And, I am hoping to make some major progress on my studio/former bedroom project. As of today, all the walls and baseboards are primed. The windows are close to being ready to prime… as you’ve probably noticed, I get overly obsessed with details and it makes getting a project like this finished practically impossible.

Lastly, in the best of all possible worlds, I will make myself some summer clothes. A skirt, shirt, jumper? We’ll see. I’ve got the fabric… that is the easy part!

the monday list

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I listed the last four girls in my Etsy shop. I had to retake some of the photos. We are in for a few stormy days so I set up in my studio to be… which I have gotten off course on. Got to get back on that.

One reason (excuse) for not moving the studio project ahead-

I took over the empty space for this project-

I said yes back in January (?) when Susan from Artstream asked me if I’d like to participate in a print show. I spent a good amount of time questioning that decision in the last few weeks. It was a challenge that I wanted to accept and succeed with- to change medium and keep the same feeling/style to my work. I think I will be able to really judge these in a year or so- right now is too soon. They will be going off to New Hampshire as soon as I’ve matted them up.

handmade portrait

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Are you wondering why I haven’t posted any finished dolls around here lately? Well, I got sidetracked. Last week I got an Etsy convo from Tara Young who does videos for Etsy. She does a wonderful series called Handmade Portraits and she asked me if I would be interested in being filmed for one. I thought about it for about 20 minutes- what would I wear, how could I lose 40 pounds in the next few days, is my studio clean enough, should I get a haircut… so many ridiculous worries- and then I said Yes, Of Course I’d be interested! I did a major cleanup in my studio and found enough floor space for her equipment. She arrived midday yesterday and we filmed all afternoon. She was back this morning and spent the day with me. Phew- exhausting!

Thanks (husband) Ben for taking some great photos!

We had a great time together and I think we both got a peak into the work world of the other. I don’t know when the film will be up, but I will definitely be posting about it.