Woot Woot!

Yesterday I sold my mermaid bag. This is my first BIG sale. When I first saw it with my bleary eyes early in the morning, I had to shake my head to try to clear the fog. I thought I was imagining it! I took it out of its storage place this morning and lovingly packaged it up to start it on its journey out across the sea. It is hard to send such work so far away to a strange home but I imagine the whimsy and fun I am sending and hope that is what it brings to its new owner.


I thought it such a coincidence that I would sell such a piece right after I decided I would work hard to beef up my cymberrain shop. Now I have even more incentive and it's been such fun unpacking all my pieces. I looked over each one last night, remembering the visions I have for each piece. Many of these are slow cloths, long term projects that I will pack away again for now...to better spend time with in my new home. For now I will work on finishing up all my small projects.


I have already finished these cute little fairy shoes and will be listing them right away. Tonight I must hook back up the sewing machine. I have velvet bags to sew....

More dye experiments

I told you I would try to post these pics today and I made it!


These two velvets are made just a little differently. As I stated yesterday, I am afraid to use resists as it might damage the nap on this luscious fabric. I know that once you press a fold in this velvet it is permanent so Im not sure what would happen with a lot of tying and clamping, I do intend to find out though...with some small pieces.


These were done with no ties and no clamps but I think the results still turned out great! I have more planned along this vein!


But for now I am back to bed...seems last weeks stomach flu was not done with me. Grr.

Back to Normal

My honey is home again and we spent two glorious days just being together. He came home with many prospects and we discussed them at length. We keep going back to the place in Oberhausbergen. Oberhausbergen is a small village adjacent to Strasbourg. The apartment is big. A large livingroom, seperate kitchen and two bedrooms. The one bedroom is a little odd shaped with an area that juts off at an angle on one side. A space big enough for a large bed and a nightstand but even better...a space large enough for my dye table and shelves. It would be perfect as it would still be in my studio but off to the side in it's own little space. The apartment also has a bathtub which is a big desire on my part and two balconys. It is in walking distance of the pharmacy, lab, post office, town hall and a tabac. It is also a very quaint little village with fields all around it. There are other fine apartments in town but this one seems to have our names on it. D contacted them today to let them know we are interested. The only problem we see at all is the fact that it has very old radiator heaters which the landlord had said he would considering replacing. If he decides not to we may go with our second choice...it is 100 euros cheaper but on the third floor, smaller and not as close to the post office and such. All in all I feel quite satisfied with his findings and know whichever we chose that it will be fine. He says the city is wonderful. The people were very friendly and polite and the place seems very interesting. I cant wait to see it!


In other news, I have started filling my cymberfloss shop with all the goodies I have been so hard at work making. I have added several velvet pieces and a lot of new floss. I still have many more items to add. This week I will be concentrating on adding items to the cymberrain shop. It has been poorly neglected and I have many things 'almost' finished that I intend on finishing this week.


I want everything finished and placed before the move. I would like to arrive in my new home with both shops stocked and no worries in that area. Maybe if I get enough done here when I arrrive there I can finally concentrate on my main love...just sitting and stitching something for the love of stitching.


I did get more work done on the paisley belt this week. The beading is almost complete and after that I just need to finish the middle of the two center paisleys. I do like this piece a lot and was happy I didnt lose steam on the second half. I usually hate repeat patterns but this time I enjoyed it. Especially doing the circles on the one paisleys. Arlee's Hoodoo Sky floss is such a wonderful colorway and I felt it set these off wonderfully!

Today I will take pictures of my two latest velvet experiments. I felt like they both came out great. I am so afraid to manipulate it too much as I dont want to put permanant creases into the velvet. These two pieces came out with no creases whatsoever. I have wanted to do some work with tied and sewn resists but I think if i do it will be on a very small scale to see how it affects the nap. I dont care how pleasing the pattern, if the surface of the fabric is defaced it takes some of the beauty away I believe. I will post pics of these last two tomorrow if I get a chance!
In the meantime, you all have a joyous creative week!

Alone

I have been here for three days alone. I never realized how quiet or big this place could seem. It never bothered me when I knew D would be walking through the door each evening. It doesn't help that the iron deficiency has reared its ugly head again. We thought it was better and I quit taking the supplements. Well I am back to sleepless nights, fatigue and restless leg syndrome. Doc called about the blood results yesterday to let us know my iron was low. I had beat her to that one, started taking my pills again two days before. She also said there seems to be a problem with my thyroid. At least from what I understand it's easily fixable. So finally all my tests are done and I will be in to see her soon for a diagnosis. My range of motion and yoga have already greatly improved the pain in my shoulders and neck but I am curious to what she found. Hopefully when all is said and done I will be a much healthier and more comfortable person!

The first two days D was gone were spent in a fog for me. With no sleep and the terrible fatigue I had no energy for anything. Last night I slept though and today I feel a bit better. I have had much time to think and have ideas running around in my head again. I already showed you one piece from my last experiments with the floss. Here is the whole group of them finished. Some are not as regular spaced as I was definitely feeling my way around with this one. But they are all lovely in their own rights.


Today I have some silk velvet soaking in the soda ash...I have a new idea *grin* I will be back soon to show you the results...good or bad!

BTW~ D has looked at several wonderful apartments in Strasbourg but I think his heart is set on the one out on the edge of the city. It has a more country/small village feel to it and its quite big. He says its older but I dont mind that. I always found older homes more charming. So fingers crossed! He has three more places to visit and after that a decision to make. I am helping as much as I can without being there but I am not worried. He did a great job with this place on his own.

Hope all of you are having a peaceful and creative week <3

Moving Pains

I had planned on spending the day yesterday listing all these lovely new cloths and threads on my etsy shop. I am surrounded by a rainbow of luscious colors even as I speak! Well as with many good intentions...mine fell by the way side. I started out by trying to organize all of them near me so I could go through them in an ordered fashion. This is impossible in the set up I have now. Before I knew it I found myself packing, dumping boxes and organizing. I now have a nice stack of boxes started down the hallway of things not immediately needed and so the beginnings of my packing have started. My studio is much emptier now which I love! I hope the new place has even more storage available so I can work in a space that is clearer like this. D has already promised that we will get more shelves and tables as I need. No more stacking precarious towers of things on the little space I do have! I did manage to post a few things afterwards but not many. I think I will keep to this manner though. Listing a few things each day so it doesnt become a drudgery. It really is my least favorite part of the process.
I am already itching to dye more. I have several ideas and almost tore into the rest of my velvet today. I may yet!

D leaves Monday morning for a week in Strasbourg. He has several appointments lined up to look at apartments. I have my fingers crossed....

New Experiments

Sorry I have been so very quiet. I was lost in the winter landscape for awhile and decided to snap out of it with color. Lots of color. I have been on a dyeing frenzy like never before. Not only have I done up 12 gorgeous new pieces of velvet, I have also done 25 new flosses! In my down time I have been stitching on myPaisley Belt project and it is almost finished. I will try to get some pics of it taken soon.


One of the things I have been working on is some dye resists on floss. I wanted to do something a littl diifferent with some of my floss. These are my first attempts and I'm quite happy with them. These are made so that the color is in short even segments. I made the change of color various lengths and think I like the one that is around 3" the best. I started out with black and then added the color after. I realize these arent for everyone but I can see them making a very nice satin stitch or chain stitch border and beautiful for wrapped hair braids or friendship bracelets. I have made up six color variations to start out with these and plan on making several more. If you have an idea of something you would like to see me try feel free to jot it down in the comments area. I love trying out new ideas!

I have also ordered some very skinny(2mm) silk embroiidery ribbon to try some dyeing out on and I am considerinng ordering some heavier habotai silk to also do some dyeing with. Are either of these interesting to any of you? I am having so much fun with the dyeing I have decided to expand out with more materials. Someone had asked me if I had considered dyeing linens for cross stitch work but truthfully I know nothing about what types of linen are used for this or really anything about it. There are several linens available at some of my suppliers but they dont seem the right type.

Hope you are all having a colorful week too!

Joybringer

I just wanted to make a quick post to tell you about this wonderful woman I met. She recently bought a piece of velvet from me and upon receiving it wrote me a letter telling me about how she was going to use it. It was quite a surprise! I have many customers tell me stories about what they are making with my velvets and floss but this one was a little different...

I encourage you to go read this short story about the wonderful work she is doing with children!
http://www.handeyemagazine.com/content/textile-therapy

Color abounds!

I have been a busy, busy bee! A huge package came to the door the other day and what could it be? A nice big pile of gorgeous white velvet! SO exciting!

I cleaned off the dye table, sorted my dyes and prepared to do some more dyeing.

Right now as I sit here I have six lovely pieces of velvet and 9 floss colorways washing away in the machine. I cant wait to pull them out and see what magic has occured this time.

I love dyeing so much. I love how you can sorta predict what is going to happen...but you always get surprises. Some of them FANTASTIC surprises. Dye interacts completely different from paint and its such a wonderful surprise sometimes. Did you ever do that experiment when you were younger where you make a line on a papertowel with a black magic marker and then dip the end in water, watching the rainbow appear as the water wicks up to the top? That is much like the magic of dyeing!

So these last few days...and the next few also have been consumed with lots of color playing. I have to admit though...it's the perfect solution to the winter doldrums....how can you be anything but excited when your sitting next to this?


I also finished wrapping and photographing that last batch of floss and velvet. I have three new pieces of velvet listed on the shop and plan on listing some floss today or tomorrow. I haven't really had time to even slow down and think...but that's ok, I'm having fun!

Hope you all are having a fun and creative week also!

Contemplation

Excuse my silence lately. I seem to have lost my voice. The winter stretches on and the silence is deafening. I have been lost inside myself alot. Many thoughts running around in here.

I have been sitting among this

and this

as I stitch on this...

It is good to sit and stitch and contemplate. I have many changes coming in the near future. I am setting my thoughts in order and preparing myself to once again feather a new nest.