yikes

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somehow that title from yesterday- getting there- seems like it is laughing at me today. No more wide open spaces-

In the middle of the day yesterday it all seemed so sad. I was pulling down the old studio, packing things enough to be ready for the boys that were scheduled to move it downstairs. Now I am feeling overwhelmed with the challenge of making it workable again. It is probably a good thing that I am going away for a bit. Hopefully, when I get back, I will be able to approach the room with fresh eyes and ideas.

I am not sure if I will be back to post before I leave on Sunday, so it might be quiet around here for a week or more. Then again, who knows!

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!

moving forward- studio project

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The reason I have not been making any dolls, or to say that another way, how I have been dealing with my creative dry spell, is that I have been focusing on getting the soon-to-be-studio room done. I told myself that I would not install the air conditioner in my attic studio and that would keep me focused on the downstairs room- it’s working. I am really almost finished.

The walls are done. The trim is done. The closet door is done. I got a little sidetracked and painted the bookcase.

I am now working on the room door, which you can see on the table. I have taken out the 2 upper panels and will be replacing them with frosted glass. This part of the project has been a challenge.

I live in an old house- built 1890. I have this crazy feeling of responsibility not to damage it. And, btw, I hope that whoever put that first coat of paint over the varnish on all the trim in the house is now suffering in craft-purgatory. Back to my project though. It is scary to cut something that has been there for so long. And, I couldn’t find any information about the right way to do it. The old guy (Mr. Know-it-All) at the glass store told me- just don’t do it. Your door will fall apart. The carpenter guy friend said- no problem! Just hack it apart and deal! I’ve got really big clamps! Hmm. Neither way made sense to me. I thought it out and and explained my thinking to Ben. He thought my way would work. So, yesterday, I cut. Now I am so excited. I am ready to order the glass. Yippee! I am hoping to post some photos of how I did it in the next few days- since I couldn’t find any info out there and maybe someone else is curious.

So I will finish painting the door- so many steps with drying inbetween. Then there are little touch up places. And that patch on the ceiling.  And, I have to get rid of most of that stuff that is in the room- the futon, the file cabinet, etc. Then a massive clean-up. And lastly moving my stuff downstairs. It all takes longer then I think it will- but no surprise there!

All this has fitted in between my afternoon computer class- which I will post about tomorrow. It has been a very busy 2 weeks!

going along 2

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There have finally been some nice sunny days after many rainy ones and that means that Ben and I head out for a woodsy spot to look for mushrooms. We haven’t had much luck finding any, but it is always a good excuse for a stroll in the woods. Lately, our favorite spot is bordered by a cemetery and I’ve been studying the headstones.

I always notice the unusual names- Adeliza

Amaryllis- (remember in the Music Man?)

Asaetta-

I guess A names were popular for girls in the 1800’s.

There were a number of graves with oak leaf motif- something I haven’t noticed before.

The willows are more common-

The lichen on this one is beautiful. And on the bottom, the inscription says- Noble, Wise and Generous. I think we would all like to be remembered for that.

I love this one- great image and great name-

Ben had better luck finding mushrooms without me.

going along 1

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I’m way behind- here is the market report.

The market was last Saturday- it was one of those “paying your dues” kind of events.

Can you see where my tent is set up? Right next to the bus stop? Air quality, poor.

And it was windy. I’ve never experienced a windy market day. I think it might be worse then rain. I am going to have to do some booth redesign to address it.

I met some nice people and had some great conversations. Surprisingly, several people who were very enthusiastic about my work- so I assumed were interested in art and/or craft- had never heard of Etsy. My being surprised might say more about me then them.

I won’t be showing (in person) again until October, when I will be at the South End Open Market with Boston Handmade.

I still have room in my next tiny world class on 8/13. Email me, if you are interested. More info here.

classes- taking and teaching

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woo-hoo! I made a flag in my class today!

I’m going to put it in my booth at the show on Saturday!

I’ve had three classes so far. The first 2 days we tried out photoshop and today we worked in InDesign. The first 2 days were totally stressful. There are 3 middle-aged ladies in the class and then a whole bunch of teenagers. I know nothing about photoshop. Apparently a beginning class doesn’t actually start where I am. The teenagers already seem to know it all and never ask any questions. The 3 others (us) are the ones squeaking “help?”. I moved my seat today so that I was sitting next to someone else who is equally clueless- then I can grab the teacher every time she is near my neighbor. Today went better- I an working on a calendar.

I will be teaching another Tiny World class here in Arlington on Thursday, August 13. All the info is the same as here except the date. Email me at mimik@pobox.com if you’d like more info or would like to sign up.

owl baby 2

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here is the doll from last week that I am finally getting around to posting-

another baby and owl- this time a sleepy baby on a blue background.

a little bit of scale-

and some sun-

On the topic of creative slump- I have cycles I go through… one of the very positive things about having a blog is that I have a record of it. I can remember how things were going, even if I didn’t write it down at the time. The blog is a concrete reminder that I get past the slow times and get energized again. Right now I am distracted by many things- the studio project, the class I’m starting today, other stuff in my life that doesn’t make it into the blog- that boring and difficult real life stuff. There is some kind of brain exhaustion happening too- I need the break. It all adds up to no new dolls. I focused on the studio project over the weekend and got lots done. I feel like I am seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. When it is all done, I am going to have a party and you are all invited!

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.

garden baby

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This baby is the same color palette as this garden lady. I love, love, LOVE these colors together!

Okay, sorry about that. Back to the topic at hand.

Did you know that Firefox can make all the colors in your photos look terrible? I could not figure out what was wrong- my photos looked fine on Iphoto and totally washed out when I put them on my blog or flickr. When I whined loudly enough about it, my sweetie figured out the the problem- check it out.

night garden lady

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This doll is of the night garden-

Use your imagination though- no photographing with dark backgrounds… The dark colors are hard enough to show!

I think her upper torso tree, leaf applique looks like a shawl or stole.

Back view- because I am always curious about the back of everything-

2 ladies-

On the steps where the colors are often better-

Now I have finished the lady dolls that had been in limbo since last November- so forlorn. Onto the next thing!