House for Sale

/

House for Sale  $45,000

1207 Eubank Street, Matador

www.1207eubank.com

 Exterior, pier-beam construction, to-code wood handicap ramp and porch. Storm Cellar, in-ground, cement, large, well ventilated. Metal roof on house and garage. Cement floor in garage/storage area; additional metal carport. 3 BR. Laundry Room with washer/dryer, laundry sink, toilet, shower, new hot-water tank, plumbing access, great water pressure, tile floor. Custom kitchen with Maytag refrigerator/freezer, dishwasher, large free-standing electrical self-cleaning oven/ceramic cooktop with designated wiring, new double sink with up-to-date attractive faucet with soap dispenser and spray, new garbage disposal, eat-in area, large window covered with white wood blinds, new wood-laminate floors; lots of new cabinet storage. Open living/dining room with hardwood floors. Central air/heat, ceiling fans throughout house. Large, privacy fenced back lawn perfect for your pet, wood deck, mature trees and shrubs, access for boat and/or RV storage; Front lawn with sprinkler system. Walking distance to school, grocery, variety, restaurants, bank, post office, city offices, county court house, medical clinic and Senior Citizens Center.  The house has been used for business and residence; could work as either/or since there are 2 front entrances.  Contact Larry 859-351-8099 or Laverne 859-576-4625

Colors of Spring

/
We're still building a fire in the wood stove but the colors of spring are upon us.  First the moss on the rocks turns a brighter yellow green.  Soon the dogwoods will be popping. This shibori dyed silk charmeuse and devore caftan jacket makes a perfect cover for chilly spring evenings.  After dyeing the silk, I ripped it in strips and serged them together alternating fabrics.  One size fits many.  You can find it on Etsy or email me for something specific.  There's nothing better than collaboration.

Please, be plalyful!

/
If there is one thing we don't have enough time for each year as we grow older it is play.  With six yards of shibori dyed gauze, it's easy.  No matter how you wear it or what you do with it an element of play is involved. I used to think I was the only one who understood this piece of Truly Wearable Art.  Then one day a rather mature, distinguished looking woman came into my booth.  I wasn't sure anything I had would speak to her.  Then she bought my long gauze piece.  She knew exactly what to do with it.  I was impressed and learned not to assume anything. Find this beautiful flowing silk on Etsy.  Want another color?  Let me know and I will get to work.

Be Dramatic in Something Gauzey

/
 
Several yards of silk gauze, shibori dyed, sheer and delicate in purples, reds and oranges.  Delicious!
Only one week until the Kentucky Craft Market in Lexington.  Booth 317.  I will have specially priced scarves for exhibiting artists that want to add a little drama to their "look!"


With candles burning and orange juice, fresh squeezed, beside me, I licked the juice from my fingers. She brought oranges with her the first time. That’s when I started looking for them. The harder I looked, the fuller I became, and the juicier they were.
I have begun to read voraciously to know just what to say at the right time. When I sleep at night, I think about what I read, and when I make love, I think about what I will tell her. I think about ideas. They’ll run over my lips and I’ll flick them out with my tongue. I think about stories that I’ll whisper, and when my breathing gets heavier, I’ll think about poems I’ll yell, and when he kisses me on the back, I’ll remember things I forgot, and the excitement will roll me over, and I’ll forget where I was. It never gets crowded in our bedroom. There is always room for all of us, and when things start getting confusing, I disappear for a while, float up to the ceiling, take a slow ride on the fan and re-enter when I’m fresh again, and we all think it is for the first time.
The poems that get digested get sent out in the mail, and when the rejections come, she listens, and he wipes away the tears, and I weave them into pillow cases, the kind that crinkle to the rhythm of love, and there are more poems popping from the toaster. Someone forgot to butter the bread. I can’t remember if her hair is long or short, dark or blond. Sometimes, it’s one or the other, but those aren’t the things that matter. It’s her voice that matters­­—the one I try to mimic, till I learn it by heart—the one I dream and it becomes hybrid.  The Garden Girls Letters and Memoir

Elements and Principles

/

These are the Elements of Art
Line
Shape
Color
Value
Space
Texture

Everything you create has these elements is some way.  Art happens when you arrange these elements following the principles of design.  You will decide where to put your emphasis.  That emphasis is what creates a collection. A body of work. A cohesive collection.  One that has unity.

Principles of Design and Organization used to create Unity
Harmony
Variety
Movement
Dominance
Economy
Balance
       Proportion


For me, my emphasis is often on color.  When I shibori dye fabric, I use a variety of color. And follow color theory to create harmony.  I like the fabric to be lightweight so that it has movement. When I make wall hangings or rugs I count on the placement of color to create movement.  In the fall the tones will dominate.  In the summer the bright colors will dominate.  Etc.  I like to be economical with my palette.  Not too many.  Since everything is in the palette I’m currently working on, however, it is all part of a collection, rugs, clothing, wall hangings.

My daughter, Danielle,  makes purses.  Her emphasis is on shape, line, texture.  Her colors may vary.

Some designers/artists like pattern.  Colors and lines could vary, but there is always pattern.

I’m not sure you always know in the beginning.  That is why you keep asking what if.  And follow your intuition.  One time I was ironing a piece and all of a sudden I wondered what if I use a particular group of colors.  Since I was being inspired by something I had just created, I made a  point to write my thought down and immediately dye something using that formula.  That’s how pieces feed off of each other.

The main thing is to print off the elements of art and principles of art and organization and post them somewhere.  I think they apply to everything we do in life.  

PS  Don't forget to ask for you "Friend's Discount" at the Kentucky Craft Market in Lexington.  I'll be in booth 317




Wrap, throw or yardage

/
While voices are often found in conversations with friends, my new stories are found in fiber.  The softness of alpaca and merino, the shimmer of silk.  Each palette a new story.  My son had a friend who was dyeing.  He asked me to create something soft for her to wrap around and keep her warm.  Something earthy he said.  I never knew her.  I think of her however, every time I use these colors.  I think of him and his sensitivity.

Available at the Kentucky Craft Market, $275

.25 Alpaca and merino felted on silk dyed shibori dye, pole wrapped. 

Save Everything

/

 No Waste

 


My art is in the color, texture and depth.  It's where I ask what if.  Thus everywhere there is color there is art. Everywhere there is texture there is depth.  No waste means using everything I create.  These Shibori dyed pieces were the edges cut off a larger piece of hand felted merino, alpaca and silk.  They are the perfect length for wearable art.  I serged one edge and added my label.  Great to wear several at a time, or hang from a bamboo pole as a mobile. 

Since I always place at least three colors, or shades of one color of dye on the cloth.  This there is movement and depth.  The real pleasure attained using the Shibori technique is when you open each steamed package and discover the results!  The rules for making art are the same rules I apply to writing.

  1. Make rules
  2. Choose a palette/voice and stick with it
  3. Ask “What if?”
  4. Don't second guess

The secret to beautiful texture and blend of color is to not use too much dye by learning to read the flow of the dye in the same way a kayaker reads the river before descending over a 40 foot water fall.  The only way to repeat what you discover is to measure and make notes. (Sorta.  You can never really repeat with shibori. )

 
--> “My dear,” she said, “perhaps it is time for you to gather your authority and begin your journey living the layered life of an artist.  --from The Garden Girls Letters and Journal

Snow On The Way

/

Anticipating Spring


While these purple flowers are from the end of last summer, 
their spring like color is fuel for inspiration.

  
-->
Should I be surprised colors are such a large part of my process?  As I look back at another body of work, my memoir, The Garden Girls Letters and Journal, I rediscover that even my writing was laced with color.

Lavender in purple braids is empty handed, of course; she’s the philosopher.

 I carry him downstairs, his head resting on my shoulder, and fall into my old purple velvet overstuffed chair. With the towel cradling him I reach behind the chair for a book from the bookshelf and pull out "The Great Me and The Little Me." 

The porch is blue, the pansies are blue purple and the fuchsia is red purple. I had visions that we would sit on this porch and converse. They would be slow casual conversations somewhat meaningless, perhaps, because we would be relaxing. 
We would not be driven towards some kind of completion

A Body of Work

/

What is a body of work?

A collection that has a beginning and an end.  You never really know it is beginning when it is beginning  You only know by looking back and saying, "Ah yes, this is when this body of work began."  And you never know it has ended until it ends.  You only know by looking back and saying, "Ah, yes, that collection ended."  The important thing is that you collect it as a body of work. Define it.  Date it.  I am approaching an ending.  It began in late October when my formulas changed to tones and shades.  This shibori dyed, copper vest of alpaca, merino and silk was hand felted on the FeltLOOM.   Thank you +lanette@feltloom.com  My current body of work will probably end after the Kentucky Craft Market on Mar 2-3 and I begin to ponder colors and designs for summer and the next Lexington Fashion Collaborative Future of Fashion event.  It's always a pleasure working with +Soreyda Benedit Begley and +Sarah Estes to produce this event.

Charmeuse and Velvet

/

Caftan and Coat

More experiments.  Will I ever get there?  The pole wrapped shibori dyed charmeuse in shades of purple and yellow (which became green when I added the black) started out as a 60" square which I then cut on the bias to create this caftan.  I read somewhere that working on the bias is like working with live fabric.  No kidding.  Every time I moved it the shape changed.  The velvet coat was made from three yards of shibori dyed yardage dyed in shades of yellow (which became copper, rust and olive when I added black.)  I love color theory!  The experiment here was whether or not to dye one long piece or three smaller pieces precut to fit the back and sides.  Just like writing.   Constant rewrites says mentor +Connie May Fowler  Can't wait for the Kentucky Craft Market, Mar 2-3 in Lexington at the Convention Center.

Pieces Painting

/
Can a painting be layers of fabric, painted, beaded, felted and dyed, hanging in pieces?

Building a fiber art business, or any business is always a challenge.  I got to express some of my own thoughts in a FeltLOOM interview. 

This morning I learned from Seth Godin that it's important to remember that our failures are not something to flee from but experiences that tell us we are alive.

Power of Rotation

/

Power of Rotation

What you can do with a painting 
that you can't do with a wearable 
is rotate it if it's not working.  
What you can do with a wearable 
that you can't do with a painting 
is turn it inside out and wear it.
 What I'm doing with my paintings is rotating techniques.
After shibori dyeing pole wrapped felted alpaca and merino onto silk with the FeltLOOM
I'm taking remnants to another level by responding to the shibori line with metalic acrylic.
From +Danielle Wittler I'm learning the power of Irregular Design.
Today I turn my felted fabric inside out to make a vest with the silk side showing. 
 


Leftovers

/


What to do with the shibori dyed merino, alpaca and silk  felted leftovers after you've made a 
garment and you have all those beautiful remnants?   

I have begun experimenting.  I felt some on rug backings and embellish with beads and paints.  I make individual scarves out of some.  After hanging several strips on a hanger I'm intrigued with making a mobile after being inspired by my friend, Kathleen Obrien.