Abundance

If I had nothing else to be thankful for - I can always go to the word 'abundance'.  We all have stashes -- but mine seem to grow every fall. That's when the fiber shows appear and all manner of 'goodies' are on display.  Now who am I to deny a person a sale, especially when one can get 28 yards of fair trade silk chiffon strips for $4.  One of my dear friends and I split this find - and still I'll never, ever use all of my share.  In the meantime it hangs above my desk so that I can look at it.  Sometimes that's enough of an excuse to add to my stash - the 'look at factor'.

And then there are the craft shops that have those bins in the back where they sell 'stuff' for $1.  Okay - pretty hard to walk past that.  Who in the world needs a huge bundle of pom-poms?  Certainly not me -- but the colors were fun, the puffy balls fun to touch and well...

Never a knitter nor a crocheter will I be (due to the fact that I lack the dexterity of a walrus) but does that mean I don't have yarn in my stash?  Of course not -- there it is this 'puddle' of softness, sitting in a wire basket along with other acquisitions.  

What can I say?  These things make me happy. Its easy to justify it all as 'pieces of art' in a raw form - many of them destined to never go further than their studio setting. They are doing their job of exciting me each and everyday with the beauty of fiber. 

"Not what we have but what we enjoy, constitutes our abundance." - Epicurus 

Getting Organized

What is it about the upcoming New Year that makes me want to get organized?  I guess its like opening a never read book and seeing that pristine first page before you. What will the story be, what journey will I take?

And so, I have totally reorganized my fiber rods.  I'm sorry I didn't take a 'before' picture.  Some things are best not shown.  But here is the 'after' and I'm so pleased with it.  I have organized each rod to hold a certain type of fiber.  Some of them are ribbons, some are chenille, some are quite glittery and fluttery.  At least now I know what I have.

Next came my fabric stash.  I know that compared to most of my friends my fabric collection seems quite small - but most of what I do involves very little fabric.  However, I can never say no to an interesting piece.  So my wire baskets now hold the various types of fabric.  A couple of my favorites are the wool felt pieces that I've collected and the flannel that sits there, unused, but much loved.  

I'm not quite finished as you can see here.  My 'bits and bobs' metal basket is filled to the brim with things both known and unknown.  This will be an adventure -- not only to go through everything but to then figure out a good way to sort it all out.  Sounds like I have a few more hours to go before I can say 'job well done'.  

Happy New Year!

"Organizing is what you do before you do something, so that when you do it, it is not all mixed up." - A. A. Milne

Fiber is good for you!!!

Whoever said that fiber is good for you must be right!  Everytime I look around my studio at the various stashes of ribbons, floss, yarns and fibers it makes me feel good!  Sometimes I reach out and touch those beautiful hanging ribbons and fibers just for the fun of it.

Sometimes I stare at a particular strand, looking at the color blends, being inspired to translate those patterns into something of my own. 

Sometimes I dump out all these rolled up balls of yarn and fiber and revel in the fact that they are here -- ready for use -- ready for looking -- ready for dreaming.

I am the "Fiber Queen" - long may my fiber collection reign!! Anyone need a special color of some ribbon or yarn, let me know because I probably have it! *smile*

"Happiness lies in the joy of achievement and the thrill of creative effort". - Franklin D. Roosevelt

Sharing the Skeins

Recently a friend and I decided to ‘go together’ on some yarn. Both of us use fibers in our work – but we also make items that are small enough that we would never need a whole skein of yarn. So how to get some new and exciting yarn to use without buying yards and yards of it? We picked out two skeins at two different stores. The first yarn was called ‘seaweed’ and was a beautiful variegated skein in colors from brown to green. This is painted yarn, which I don’t think I’ve ever encountered before. Here’s the kicker – this skein had 600 yards of yarn (what did I say about not buying yards and yards?). That’s a LOT of yarn to divvy up between the two of us. Fortunately, when we looked closely we realized that we could cut it and then separate it out. You can see from the top of this picture that it was quite twisted at times. We would pull apart the strands and then come to a section that was totally twisted and had to be sorted strand by strand. The good part of all of this is we got to keep handling this lovely yarn.

The next skein was much smaller – but much more diverse in color. As you can see from this picture – there were lots and lots of color sections in this skein. So we each took sections, marked off the color section, cut it and then cut that section in half. Some portions were quite short, others were much longer. There were the two of us measuring these strands along a yardstick and trying to carefully sort them out and wind them up. What we ended up with is a riot of color and I know that both of us will find many uses for these colorful fibers.

There’s something so lovely about ‘touching’ ribbons and fibers – I can hardly keep my hands off of fluffy yarns, colorful fibers and floating ribbons. This adventure in sharing not only gave me great additions to my ‘stash’ but it pleased me to be able to sort through these natural fibers which had been woven, dyed, painted just for us!

"I like light, color, luminosity. I like things full of color and vibrant". - Oscar de la Renta

"Send in the Clowns"

For some reason I always have ‘trouble’ at the end of a project. I’m not sure what happens to me – but all the doubts (is it good enough – will it work – should have’s and could have’s) come barreling at me. I’m sure some of it relates to the fact that so often I’m doing something I’ve never done before so I’m not even sure if it will work when I start out. Another possibility is that, after spending so many hours working on a piece I begin to wonder if what I’m doing will actually become what I had imagined it to be way back when I started.

My current art doll, “Send in the Clowns” is no different – as I got closer and closer to the finish line several barriers cropped up. Having a mind-picture and creating a new-to-me design can sometimes become a challenge. Creating a hat was one of the last things to do – which I had thought I could do all by hand, as I had done with the rest of the doll. That didn’t work at all – and my sewing machine was dusted off and put to work (albeit short work since this hat is really small). And the first one I made was too big – now big is probably not the correct word to use as we’re talking fraction, smidgen, trifle – but it did mean that it was back to the drawing board and another hat was made.

Next problem to encounter – I had designed this doll with her head cocked to the side – it seemed to fit her mood. So of course the hat was cocked to the side too. My whole plan as a setting for the doll was to hang her inside an open box - but with a cocked head, if I strung the hanging loop from the top of the hat she would be hanging cockeyed. If I strung the loop so that she hung straight – the loop would be out of the side of the hat. Oh my, what to do?

That question still isn’t quite solved – but here she is – all put together but still waiting for a display. From now on, when I have a design problem – or those last minute jitters I’ll just say “Send in the Clowns”.

“Isn’t it rich

Are we a pair?

Me here at last on the ground.

You in mid-air.

Send in the clowns.

Isn’t it bliss

Don’t you approve?

One who keeps tearing around,

One who can’t move.

Where are the clowns?

Send in the clowns.

Just when I’d stopped opening doors,

Finally knowing the one that I wanted was yours,

Making my entrance again with my usual flair

Sure of my lines,

No one is there.

Don’t you love farce

My fault I fear.

I thought that you’d want what I want.

Sorry, my dear.

But where are the clowns?

Quick send in the clowns.

Don’t bother they’re here.

Isn’t it rich?

Isn’t it queer?

Losing my timing this late

In my career?

And where are the clowns?

There ought to be clowns.

Well, maybe next year."

Steven Sondheim

Fiber, Fiber, Fiber

As we all know - fiber is good for our bodies.  But I am vowing to begin this year with a new mantra: fiber is good for my beading!  I would like each piece that I work to be as textural as possible.  Beads upon beads.  Bits and pieces of found objects upon the bead surface.  Adorning the surface with ribbons and fiber.  My book art years were filled with these chanced upon additions to each page.  As I learned to bead (an ongoing process I might add) focusing on just getting the beads on the backing in some semblance of 'good' beading was enough for me.  But no longer am I feeling constrained by the beading itself.  I am ready to branch out -- to add whatever comes to hand.  I have bunches of ribbons and fiber and trim, left over from my book art days - so why not incorporate it into my beading? Embellishing my work this coming year will happily involve delving into my fiber stash and pulling out those colorful streams of ribbon and threads and yarn and...  The options are uncountable and I know that this form of fiber use will be every bit as important and valuable to my 'health' as the food kind. 

"My fingers emit sparks of fire with expectation of my future labours." - Blake