Oregon Bound....

There is still room in Portland for both of my classes. Come and check out Bead Expo and take a class, these techniques are really fun and you can apply them to many different things. If you can't take in a class come on over to The Bead Expo and stop off at booths #1, #2, and #3 where you'll find Stephanie Sersich, Michele Goldstein, and myself! Of course all I want to do is make alien pods!

I won't be back until March 31.

With or Without Flash...

I started this love affair with the simple egg form SO long ago. I was thirteen when I began practicing Pysanky. This old Ukranian craft where dye and wax are used together on eggs (typically left full and intact to dry out over time) to create the distinct line and graphic quality that is commonly called batik. Through these exercises I learned so much about myself. Practice is a necessary evil, perseverance has its rewards, patience is imperative.

It was through this craft that I saw how therapeutic total focus on a creative activity was for me, it has enriched my life in countless ways. It was the geometry involved, the division of space, the treatment of each individual egg and it's proportion, the tools, hot wax and ever present candle that needed to burn that remain fixed in my mind and are fondly remembered. Happy Easter, may each of your eggs open to offer untold surprises!

Our friends, some time they have to go.....

Our village is processing the death of one of its finest members. Bob took life on life's terms and celebrated all moments.....laughing in the face of adversity. The first time my husband met him, he said, "Bob, I'm having trouble with snakes", Bob said,"Are they in your favorite chair? Are they on your dining room table?" What he was getting at was their necessary job, especially their ability to keep the rodent population to a dull roar.

He had so many friends as was witnessed at a gathering last evening, the funeral is later today. A fly tier and a teacher, a fisherman and good friend to the earth,living in harmony with the nature of all things. Thank you Bob for setting such an exemplary example of how to live a whole life!

This Ongoing Saga........

So...we took the purple couches outside, let them air, sun and wind for two days....and the smell is still unpleasantly strong. A QUEER thing happened. Yesterday I went for a shiatsu treatment, I swear that Shunji opened up a pocket of stored 'purple couch toxins' I smelled it throughout my treatment, that can't be good.

The family and I spent two days living off the stool and floor of the living room in hopes that mother nature would clear things up. Today we conceded and brought the beige couch back into the house and the two purple ones back out to the studio. This has been way too close to a full time job!!!! I have sequins to package up and jewelry to make...Portland bound.

Oh My!!!

So, the couch came in and now it is out. Out in hopes of airing some toxic odor away.....any suggestions. We have treated the cushions with Fabreze, baking soda and charcoal, to no avail. I just thought that my husband was being a crank when he picked it up. I figured with a month in the felting side of the studio, waiting for us to prepare a new home for it, it would have had time to breathe. Not so. It has an odor that I just cannot identify, chemical with a hint of organic. Any one, any ideas?

This is such a disappointment, I really thought that we were well on our way to a new 'way of life'.

Royal Purple......

So it took 3 of us...from 8 to 4 to make this happen...the happening being a way to fit this very large and very purple sofa into our living room! We persevered and the outcome was so worth it. The girls pushed through it with high determination. We took the front door off the house in order to accommodate getting this inside. I didn't know how this rather contemporary monstrosity would physically fit but my bigger question had to do with style, as close as we can figure the house dates from 1760. I think that it looks 'just right' and the best part is that the whole family can sit in the living room at the same time....and have some friends visit as well. 9 people could fit if they had to!!!

It's been a long time coming, I love that it shakes things up a bit.

And the kitty looks so much prettier in contrast to the purple vs. the beige couch we took out to the studio!

Sublimation....

sublimation:
The process of changing from a solid to a gas without passing through an intermediate liquid phase. Carbon dioxide, at a pressure of one atmosphere, sublimates at about -78 degrees Celsius. Ice and snow on the Earth's surface also sublimate at temperatures below the freezing point of water.

A scary profile of what???in the sublimated snow. Early morning frozen chicken tracks with the knowledge that by days end they will be soft again, ahhhhh....soon spring.

Brilliance.....

Yesterday I mentioned collaboration. This beautiful scarf is the brainchild of my brilliant friend and frequent collaborator Karen Flowers, as modeled by my youngest daughter Lily.

Everything that Karen touches has a sure handed finish that is cleanly and thoroughly thought out and executed.

And Lily....well she just got word that she was accepted to an exceptional school, next on our list...to figure out how to pay for it!

Making shapes.....

Mad Felt Woman at the helm today!
Here are some shapes that I constructed in order to have some bases to embellish so that I may start to sell them. It seems so silly to say, "Oh, I am glad that you like them but they are class samples and not for sale" Duh.

The "Yellow Fruit" is part of a series, the Black Rocket is a collaboration in progress between Kate Mckinnon and myself. How much richer we become in collaboration with others.

The Great Lakes Beadworkers Guild.......

The Guild in the Detroit area knows how to treat a newcomer. Big thanks go to all of you for your warm welcome! I had a really nice time.

There is a disturbing trend emerging, however. The pictures posted here are of two pieces taken from my table at shows lately. They were samples of either kits or classes or elaborations of parts that I sell. Did I piss you off that they weren't for sale? Did they just invoke lust that you just could not resist? You have to consider the Karmic implications of your behavior. I am offering a reward for the return of these objects, you need to know that they are one of a kind and in order for you to enjoy them you will need to do so in the darkness of your closet!

My next series of tasks are in preparation for going out to Portland, OR the end of the month for Bead Expo.I am excited about the classes that I will be teaching and the friends that I will be seeing!

The Bulb Show at Smith College....

This trip to the greenhouses was just what I needed. The day was accompanied by 55 degree weather and hope for springs awakening!

I will be traveling to Detroit this weekend to exhibit at The Great Lakes Bead Workers Guild, come on by!

You can felt any/everything!

Wool is an amazing fiber. These houses are yet another example of what felt can be used for.

Fine Fodder.....

I once set up a display for T.C. Rochford and Sons at the Chelsea Flower Show in London.....back in the days of studying horticulture. This show, otherwise known as 'The Queens' Show" was an incredible array of the happiest plant specimens in the world. I remember traveling into London in the back of a lorry/tractor trailer truck that housed many plants but was predominately taken up by one HUGE tree that was the centerpiece for our whole display. It was like santa's workshop. I spent the week there and at weeks end we sold off all of the plants and took the train home! Most fondly I remember what seemed to be an acre of daffodils, in a naturalistic planting with varieties I had never seen before...or since.

These passion flowers surely house parts that I could spend days/months/years even, exploring ways to render them in different materials.

The show in Dedham was fun, I visited with old and new friends. Thanks for coming out, everybody. I thought that yesterday might have been a lost cause due to weather forecasts but we were saved from the predicted volume of snow, just enough slush to make it sloppy.