a shawl pin

Well, after much griping, encouragement, requests, and what have you, I have finally completed a shawl pin. I definitely hemmed and hawed a bit about it myself too because I have never been one to really wear shawls or pins for that matter but I am so pleased with the final result of this one that was made for my dear friend Jill that I will be making more of them. It was made to fit with my line, Cosmic Poppies. I currently only have earrings in this line but I soon will have some pendants and more shawl pins. Of course, I will be posting some pix when I get them all finished. :D

 

The first photo shows it in use on one of my friend Kathy's beautiful handwoven scarves. Kathy is an amazing weaver, spinner, and all around artist. You can find out more about her from her website here.

The second photo captures a bit more of the warmth of the copper but still is not an ideal photo. The next one I make I will definitely be photographing at home and not as it is about to leave my hands. :D 

Well, whaddya think?

Next time: A pendant

phew!

Well it was a fruitful Friday evening to Saturday morning. I have been meaning to rephotograph my geode piece for some time now to submit it to the 500 Felted Objects book from Lark Books for some time now but, after trying unsuccessfully for about an hour I decided to go with the photos my professor took back in college for me. I did however get some slightly better photos of my pomegranate piece Rich in Antioxidants, to submit.

After struggling with my printer and filling out all the paperwork I finally finished getting everything together which was a good thing because it needed to be post marked by today. I had to mail a few other things this morning too, (like two checks with applications for fiber shows I'll be doing in the fall,) so Adele and I rushed off to the post office this morning just in the nick of time. Now I've just got my fingers crossed that my images and pieces were good enough to be published.

 I dusted off the carder and had a rip roaring time with it for the first time in a while and made some batts for the shop as well as a monster of a batt for myself. :D

I actually have used my carder lately, it has just felt like more of a chore than the fun it normally is but I was feeling inspired and experimental so things went great! I just listed these in the shop:

 I also have listed another candy bracelet in a new colorway in the shop. I'm calling it "Glee."

In other news, I started teaching my second metals class on Thursday. It is another cold connection class and we are focusing on boxes and lockets. If it was possible, I think I was more nervous this time around than I was during the last class. Some of that was alleviated when I realized that two of the 4 people in my class were in my last class (phew! and a big compliment that tells me I must be doing something right,) and the fact that the other two women are really kind and excited to be there. I am really excited to see what comes out of this class. There are some really creative women and all of them are very motivated. We are covering more advanced techniques including hinges and scoring and folding. I am so thrilled to be able to teach these techniques because when I learned them at Penland a few years ago they really opened a lot of new possibilities for me so it will be really rewarding to pass them along. 

Now I just have to:

• get lesson plans done for next week
• finish my mom's birthday present (which was last month btw)
• finish the present for my friend Jill
• get a submission ready for Lark Books 30 Minute Rings

and a host of other things.... 

I had an incredible dream last night where I walked into the basement and suddenly there was this door that I had never noticed before. I opened it and it let to the most beautiful space in a walkout basement. There were so many windows and tons of light coming it and it was completely empty with concrete floors ready for me to make it into a studio. It was so perfect and lovely and all I had to do was move everything from the portion of the basement I have my studio in currently over there. Needless to say, I was a bit disappointed when I woke up. It's nice to dream though... :D and now, back to work! 

AARGH!

The cat is eating the dog's food (because the dog can't seem to keep it in his mouth,) there is a massive amount of snow falling in the great mitten state (my car nearly slid completely off road twice today while I was going a mere 15 mph, ) and I have a sick kiddo on my hands. I scrubbed and scrubbed the floor in her room to no avail... it still smells like sick.  Except now it smells like sick, citrus bac-out cleaner (when I was still trying to be enviromentally friendly and usually this stuff works like a charm,) and bleach (when I said to hell with the Earth, I need to get this smell out!!!)

Did I mention I cleared the driveway too? Still another 4-6 inches on it's way and we have gotten at least that much.

Recently, a friend was talking about taking her snow day, I would like to take mine NOW, and by now I mean the rest of the week. I want to stay at home and card, and spin, and work at my bench.

Just so that this post isn't a complete rant ...

I finished a really wonderful book today. It is called Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen. I had seen it at the bookstore several times and was quite drawn to it. Unfortunately, I just can't quite bring myself to pay bookstore prices so I decided to wait till it was available at the library. It is set in the 1930's traveling circus and is "told" by a man named Jacob. It was a lovely book skipping between his time working with the circus and what led him there, to what would be his present time as an elderly man in an assisted living home. Excellent read for sure. :D 

featured in a treasury :D

Diana of fiberfancy featured some of my yarn in this lovely little treasury! She creates such gorgeous fibers! I'm especially partial to her hand dyed locks. :D

programmable soda, a yarn ode to tori for linette

so my friend linette loves tori amos. She knows all kinds of obscure fun and silly facts about her, like who knew that she was good friends with a someone who writes graphic novels (you know, adult comic books,) and that there is speculation that a character is based on her? Another little known fact, (at least in my opinion,) that maynard of tool, a perfect circle, pucifer, etc. has sang lullabies to her over the phone. Don't get me wrong, I love me some tori but I didn't know all those little tidbits. I mean, who knows, it may just be celebrity gossip stuff but I tend to believe the obscure stuff.

Anyhow, Linette started knitting recently and when she came for a visit for a much needed creative day she noticed some fiber I had laid out to make some batts with. It just so happens that when the idea sparked for these batts, I already knew I was going to be naming them programmable soda, one of my personal favorite tori ditties. Well, as you may have guessed it was love at first sight for linette so, rather than listing them, I spun em' up for her to have some handspun goodness for her new knitting ventures. I think I may card up some more because they were such a fun combo. :D

I spun a rather chunky, slightly thick and thin single with an autowrap of purple tatting thread. The colors just scream old fashioned soda fountain. :D

i think something's wrong... and a new yarn!

Well, I was all gung ho and productive today. I finished my latest yarn (more on that in minute,) went thrift store shopping (got lots of killer art yarn ingredients all for $1 or less,) did some photographing, AND actually had 3 listings all ready to go for my etsy store. Unfortunately, when I went to upload my photographs, it wouldn't work!!! err... It keeps claiming that my photos are not the proper format (they are,) and won't upload them. I tried on firefox and safari both thinking maybe it was my browser AND made sure that nothing wrong with the uploading powers of my computer or any settings in either of my browsers (no!) I was able to upload some images onto flckr with NO problems so I have deduced that etsy is havin' some issues... so much for listing some new stuff.

BUT, exciting news! I finished a yarn that I started last night during a craft group with my aunt. It turned out sooooo great! It's got vintage buttons, lace, bits of sheet, individual black eyed susans from a lovely little trim, some beautiful multi colored tatted bits, and best of all SOME OF MY POM POMS! I really pushed the limit of the size of my orifice on my bulky flyer but i got these babies through there. I am so proud of this yarn. I was going to make a little purse out of it with some solid colored yarn to stretch the yardage, BUT I decided it would be much better as a chunky cowl.

Here it is!

YAY!!! :D