Change in the Wind

Hello all, once again I find myself being lax with this blog and once again I apologize. I have been lost in thought lately as life is going to be changing a lot around here. I am not sure in which direction I am going to go with my work and it has caused a lot of indecision on my part. I really miss making huge intricate pieces of fiber art. I know they don't sell. I know they take countless hours and really they are priceless in my mind. That does not take away the desire to create them. They are my true art. They were never about the money and the few pieces I did sell felt like I was parting with my children. I am just not wired to make simpler works. Even when I tried to just make simple tarot bags they ended up being overly elaborate if only in the fact that I would satin stitch things by hand, taking hours to do something a machine could do. I like having my little shop on Etsy and selling some fabrics. It gives me a bit of pocket money and makes me feel productive but it is also not filling that hole inside me that wants to be filled with tiny stitches and sprays of beads flowing down a swirl of color. It simply cannot replace that. So where to go from here?

We are at a moment of possible big change here. A move is talked of. The start of a new business. The possible start of a dream. I think for now I must be patient with myself. I also think I need to pick up my needle again.

A little this and that...

I have been so bad about updating this blog lately. I made myself a page on Facebook and I post things that I do there and for some reason I keep forgetting to also post here. I will try to get better. Since my last post I finished the necklace and earrings I was making and made another pair, another necklace and also a pendant.


 I called a hold on anymore till I get a few new tools I need. Things to help my pieces be a bit more professional. My side cutters are not to my satisfaction as they were supposed to be flush cutters but don't seem to be holding up to their name. Also a plastic tipped hammer for hardening without flattening. Something I really need as I can be a bit overzealous with the hammer I have. Once I get all I need I will try making a few more pieces. I am finding that I really enjoy making jewelry and I am not going to stop. I really like being able to do different things. Never a dull moment here!

 I am now working at adapting my pattern for fairy shoe pin cushions into one for a fairy shoe for babies. It's a bit difficult as I don't have a baby around for trying them on so I made a shoe form from a pattern I found online and stuffed it to use as a model. So now that I have a 'baby foot' it helps a bit to make sure they are the correct size. This shoe is around the 6 month size. It will be in two layers. The outside one will have more  of the fairy boot shape and the inner liner which i made from polar fleece will be more of the normal shoe shape to keep the little ones foot from scrunching up into the toe and being uncomfortable. I am using a buckram type material to line the soles of both the inner and outer linings (though it isn't the same, the fabric store lady here had no idea what buckram was) So all in all they will be nice sturdy little cloth shoes. I also plan on buying a few tubes of fabric paint so i can put dots on the bottom so they aren't slippery. I looked into buying some non slip cloth but they were all in white fabrics and I want the bottom fabric to match the rest of the shoe.


 Here are a few pics of the prototype that I worked on to make the pattern. I have one in production right now and worked on the embroidery last night. I hope to have pics of it completed tomorrow. or the next day.
Hope you are all having a creative weekend!

Playing with wire

This week I got the wire out again. I have been wanting to play with it for awhile and now I remember why. I really do love the wire. I have so much fun when I play with it. I think I need to do this more. Between the silk painting and this I think I am finding some good substitutes for close up stitching. Much easier on the eyes which has been a big concern for me.

Time Warp

Not sure what I have been up to the last two weeks. All I know is I turned around and time had passed, I did this though:

I am going to start adding color to it tonight. I am a bit nervous but it will either turn out good or not. Learning new things are always a bit daunting at first but I am always glad I did them.

Still in holding

So I have finally completed that cleaning job in my studio. Floors and furniture scrubbed down, everything sorted and put away. I removed everything from my dye table and took boxes of items into the bathroom wash area to be scrubbed down. I have piles of bottles and little glass containers that I mix dye in. Eyedroppers and other pieces of equipment. After removing them all from the studio and also removing the tubs I use to soak the material in soda ash and placing them all in the bathroom I noticed that when entering the studio my allergy symptoms did not go berserk as they have all week when I have been cleaning (I have a small bathroom that connects to my studio that is used only for work)
This whole process took me almost a week as I was only able to work in the room for a short time before my eyes were itching so bad, my nose was tickling, I was sneezing and the headaches returned in the first few days. So I can safely say whatever is causing my allergies is in that bathroom. Now with the door closed. Now I still don't know what it is. Maybe whatever it is has nothing to do with my dyes and always came from the bathroom. I never closed the door before so it very well could be that. Next step is to actually go in that room, clean all the items in there and seal them up and see if that makes my allergies stop.
In the meantime I have a huge pile of items here in my living room that I found all about my studio that have never been listed in my shop. I spent part of this week measuring pieces and trying to find the photos to match to the item, etc. I am really quite taken aback at the amount of work I have here that was never listed. How did I fall so behind on all of this? I know that for a good two months or maybe even more I suffered from severe headaches and facial pain so bad from the allergies that I really wasn't working well but never realized just how sidetracked and forgetful I had become. It is hard to concentrate when your head hurts so bad you keep the shutters rolled down because the light is too bright.
Thankfully the medicine my doctor gave me, Aerius, seems to have greatly reduced the symptoms. The headaches are almost completely gone. Still itchy eyes and nose but the facial pain has also diminished to a tolerable level.
My two up and coming goals are to completely catalog the contents of this huge box of dyed goods and start listing them AND to go into that bathroom and finish the cleaning in there. I am determined to get this under control and hopefully after this is all said and done still be able to continue with my dyeing. If it is the dye itself causing the problem then I will have to build a dust free mixing box. I have seen them before and I think building one wont be that difficult. If it is the soda ash then I will simply have to start soaking my fabric in a sealed container and not allow any materials soaked in it to be exposed either (I have several pieces of cotton, t-shirts and such that were soaked in the soda ash mixture, allowed to dry and then not dyed. The soda ash dust can possible enter the air from them I suppose)
SO though I feel I am still in holding with this whole situation I do feel I am making progress.

On a happier note: I received my drawing supplies finally in the mail yesterday. I plan on doing some real drawing in the up and coming weeks. It's been a long time since I challenged myself to do more than just a sketch. Wonder if I still have it in me?