Playing with Fiber Arts!

It's a good thing it's raining most every day, because there's a LOT going on Inside!

Playing with small, layered wall hangings with a class at home on Sunday...my kitchen counter doubles as work table for Sandy, Jodi, Beatriz, and Anita.







Everyone was Very Creative and Productive, and want to get together and play more often. Sandy was motivated to complete her studio space and invite everyone over.



Here's Sandy's piece, and one of mine that inspired the technique, using buckram as a stiffener and building layers of fabric, paper, and emotionally-significant pictures and writing. I hope everyone will send pictures of the finished pieces to post. That's Sandy as a child top right and Beatriz is doing a memorial to her sister. We were reminded of how much women used to bond and share information at sewing bees of old.










If it looks like just TOO MUCH FUN to miss, come to my small wall hanging class at the new Quilted Strait in the spring. Watch this space for dates.








And Another Thing: I've been working on dolls for Kathy Charlton and Heart Month. Here are a couple of samples...never a dull moment!

ART-IS-YOU and other Inspiration

This is going to have to be a quickie post, my Dears. It's raining and raining here in the Northwest, but WARM (50's) Winter is different every day here, and I DID run outside during the few minutes we saw the sun.

New projects keep presenting themselves, now a book on mixed media projects for gifts being written by Jane Davies, from VT, my beloved home state.


Me on the left and going back 4 generations.






For all those of you who've been on the edge of your seat about what I chose for Art-Is classes...
Drum Roll, Please...1) Making Dolls with Found Objects (2) Angels and Icons: tiny dolls as talismans and jewelry and (3) Star of my own show: Exploring self portraiture in cloth and paper

Here are some paper dolls and self portraits for your edification...once I start digging in my archives, wonderful things emerge. Each idea begets 10 more...Help!



Grandma at 5, her head on a stop sign...heavy. Bead arms, wire and bead legs.






Self-portrait paper doll from the Nineties...I'm still going in too many different directions!




A new self-portrait in cloth of me in High School, when I first selling my dolls. "Art Winns" I know, I spelled it wrong, but that fit the space and emphasized my ongoing passion.


Another new one, not quite done. I'm adding antique sequins and a copper head dress. Love that obsessive/compulsive stitching in the evening with a movie! This is the time of year to stay inside and sew.







A portrait bust that stands alone. Tsukineko markers, used gel medium to apply the copy of a photo of me. this will be a fun project in CT in October. I'll also be presenting the self portrait experience at a new retreat center/spa in Friday Harbor, WA...Art and Pampering...Could it get any better????



More soon, I promise, but must finish making Indian Food for my Book Group meeting here in Yikes! an hour!!! Lamb Curry, coconut curry, chutney, cucumber raita, and rice pudding. The book is Louise Erdrich's PAINTED DRUM.