In Central Kentucky there is a beautiful Shaker village. It has dozens of authentically restored historic buildings, over 3000 rolling and wooded acres and oodles of gorgeousness. There’s a restuarant, a craft store and tons of interesting things to see and do.
This past weekend I got to stay there with a great group of fiber artists! There was food, fun and fiber galore! I brought along my needle felting and made a whole series of soft sculpture animals. Others spun and wet felted and knitted.
If you’ve ever thought about giving yourself some creative space, let me recommend Shaker Village – Pleasant Hill in Harrodsburg, Kentucky. See for yourself if it’s right for you, join us by having a peak at the little video I made of our time there.
I also brought along my pencils and found some time to scratch out a couple of images too.
I just finished hand sewing this tunic and I was so excited with how it turned out I thought I would share the results!
Using my new drum carder to make various art batts in all the colors of the rainbow, I was able to create a very colorful base upon which I later went back in and needle felted the unicorn, tree, birds and everything else!
Then I hand felted some wacky little balls and sewed those onto the hemline after I had attached the fron and back of the tunic together.
It’s pretty free form and totally unique! I’m pretty happy with how it turned out and can’t wait to get started on another!
Some of my cartoons are finally available for sale as custom printed perfectly color-wonderful cottons and silks! Wow is this company out of North Carolina ever amazing. Spoonflower.com lets designers upload designs for fabric that are then made available (after the designer approves a swatch or a length of actually printed fabric).
I just received my first ever shipment from them and the colors are unbelievably saturated and gorgeous. My first project is going to be a flippy skirt to wear at art shows. I’m getting help with the sewing. Don’t want to mess this up! I’ll be offering custom design services using my art with your animals in the near future. I’ll post the offer soon!
Click on a swatch to go to its page on Spoonflower! Alfie & io in Pink! Alfie & io on White
Fabric Subject, Iota McHippus examines the merchandise
As many of you know – I am big on compassion towards animals. I mean, ok, people too – but animals are sometimes – often – way more forgotten. So it should come as no surprise that I try to do good things when I can for people who help animals.
In this case it’s the Catskills Animal Sanctuary in New York. They have created an imaginative fundraiser that combines art and animals. Uh oh, totally up my alley! They call it their “Foolsgold Art Benefit”.
What we’re supposed to do is select an item we’re willing to send over and let them decide if they want to include it in their fundraiser. It has to be pretty small – so I was limited in my choices. Anyway, here’s the 3 that fit the bill. Which one should I offer to send them? Just comment below OR on my Facebook wall.
Welcome Back to the World of Outdoor Shows, Marti!
Sunday morning and ready to go!
The week leading up to the Kentucky Fiber Fest had been dreary and rainy but the weekend opened up with gorgeous blue skies! Setting up my brand new tent for the first time at a show was a breeze and I could see the the company of fellow exhibitors was inspirational and filled with smiling beautiful and talented people, not to mention their enticing array of offerings.
New Friends
Otto Strauch of StrauchFiber.com Fiber Equipment with a drum carder I long to purchase.
I got to meet and chat with Otto Strauch of Strauch Fiber Equipment (strauchfiber.com) who is as personable as can be and has a deeply dedicated following of happy customers who speak incredibly highly of the integrity of the machines he makes.
Unicorn Fiber made on a drum carder
His hand built drum carders help organize assorted fibers into perfectly workable ‘batts’ (that spinners and we felters then use to create yarn or other fiber pieces with). I hope to get one so I can make my own “unicorn fiber’ batts.
I bumped into Marlene Williams who was there selling her sheep fibers as well as spinning and talking and chewing gum all at the same time! She keeps a fun blog at woolridgefarm.com.
Marlene Williams of Woolridge Farm in Waco, KY
She and I have a mutual friend in Lindy Huber of Seldom Scene Farm who got me started with the felting in the first place. Lindy was there selling her luxe fibers, yarns and pieces made from much some of the fine alpaca and sheep fibers she and her family raise in Versailles, Kentucky.
$12 in Total Sales?
I met spinners, weavers, knitters and all manner of fiber afficienadoes who were there to explore materials and developments in fiberarts. The feedback on my new felt-painting work from knowledgeable and seasoned fiber pros was positively uplifting! Ok, so my own sales were abysmal; the simple truth is I probably am going to need to focus on sticking with up fine-art shows with this work and go about the business of educating art appreciators to my new application of this very ancient art form. But what a fun way to motivate me to create a body of work and build a booth full of it for my next steps with it!
Hello, Mary? We found your lamb!
Bleating + Spitting
So, despite disappointing sales I had super fun with my booth neighbors and all the other vendors I got to meet that I’ll be connecting up with on the network just for fiber arts (www.ravelry.com). Besides how much fun is a show where there is a parade of cutie pies being lead by Future Farmers of America members past my own space. What a hoot! I’ve attended shows in the past where I was surrounded by much bleating and spitting – but this time the bleaters and spitters weren’t bellyaching they were lambs and llamas!
Speaking of Belly Aching…
My poor brand new - it's first show ever tent frame in a sad unsalvageable heap after the Big Bad Wolf blew it down
Sooner or later everyone who sets up a 10 x 10 festival tent outside is going to run into ‘some weather’. We did at this show too. On Saturday night a big storm blew in and tried to Big Bad Wolf everyone’s tents after we had gone home for the evening, but all survived. Then during the final stages of disassembly on Sunday another storm blew in and blew my house made of sticks and fiber down into a mangled heap. That was a new experience for me. Luckily the art was packed up and I wasn’t stupid enough to try to hang on to the thing so art and artist were fine. I will say this – there may have been some colorful grumbling as I salvaged what I could from this miniature disaster. But I think I came by it honestly – after all it is fitting to swear like a sailor when one is dealing with wind-blown objects in a driving sou-easter.
Postscript to disaster:
I posted a sad little movie I shot with my iphone on my Facebook wall and my friends have been cheering me up. My absolute 2 favorite reactions were from Marco and Jo Bunny. Marco suggested next show I have a pre-disaster sale.Jo Bunny posted this insane version of “Whip it Good” that even has a unicorn in it! Both made me laugh out loud! Oh, and my hubby left me a little disaster relief check in the kitchen to replace the frame which I already did. So you see? I am one lucky artist.
Being open to creating illustrations and commissioned work for people means sometimes the partnership doesn’t pan out the way you might hope. But as the saying goes “for every door that closes, another opens up” the professional artist soon learns to embrace what others might call rejection and use the experience as a guide for next steps and newer choices.
Take the publisher who recently decided my work doesn’t fit into their idea of what they want for a series of children’s books featuring horses. Boohoo for me, right? Not so much. For one thing it got me thinking afresh about such projects and for another it allowed me to understand that my voice isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. The optimist in me chooses to believe that’s because my voice is distinct – a very good quality for an artist to enjoy.
So will any of these ideas find their way into a series of books I publish myself? I don’t know – but I was pleased with where I was headed – so it just may happen!
Care must be given to properly steward one's own Purpose.
As a creative person with a pretty active mind with a ton of interests and passions I sometimes find myself stretched to the very limit. I get offers for collaborations I have to pass which often presents a difficult internal personal struggle. There’s just not enough time in the day to get all done what I want to and it’s at times kind of easy to get sidetracked. This morning I woke up with this sentence:
“Sometimes it is healthier to pursue one’s small pure passions than chase after others’ questionable Big Plans.”
It’s a thought to remember when I find I have to decline pursuing one scheme or another attractive though it could pan out to be.
In the summer of 2009 I was a bit stalled in my career as a visual artist. I hadn’t painted with the wanton abandon I used to and it was starting to bother me. So I made the logical conclusion that if I was stalled I should be in a barn! SO I set up my work table in the aisle of the old tobacco barn that houses my horses on hot summer days. With a two week commitment to staying there and being busy I found breakthrough success and got my painting groove back!
Sometimes before I conjure something up, I sketch it out. Actually I do that a bunch – but in sort of an oblique way…what with the dream world making all the time, lol. This time it was fairly literal. I had in mind to make a hat and a dress/tunic combo. So [...]
It’s been a busy couple of weeks since the last Big Idea post. This time I’ve saved up 30 new images to add. It’s fun to see how the sketches reflect what I’m up to….from imagining hobbies for my my mini horse to sort of documenting a weekend away at [...]
Love What You Choose The key to creating a life well lived is to love what you choose. The secret to doing that is to realize just how much of what you experience is actually array of choices you make. Some of this is obvious, but not all. The things [...]
In a recent post I mentioned that my new favorite book is “The Arrival” by the incredibly gifted Shaun Tan. Without words he tells the compelling tale of an immigrant who experiences a sort of culture shock in a new land. Among the characteristics of the new place he’s come to is [...]
I read a whole lot. I’m also occasionally drawn to graphic novels (sorry about the pun). Not the pulpy stuff – but the gorgeously drawn, the full-bodied conceptual, the very most awesomest! I have had favorite novels and stories in the past – all selected for different reasons – but “The Arrival” [...]
In Central Kentucky there is a beautiful Shaker village. It has dozens of authentically restored historic buildings, over 3000 rolling and wooded acres and oodles of gorgeousness. There’s a restuarant, a craft store and tons of interesting things to see and do. This past weekend I got to stay there [...]
Can I even call it “deep winter” when our January temps continue to linger in the realm of spring? I can’t complain about having cabin fever because I’ve managed to get outside a lot over the past several weeks. You’ll see I’ve gotten a bit involved in imagineering a concept [...]
I just finished hand sewing this tunic and I was so excited with how it turned out I thought I would share the results! Using my new drum carder to make various art batts in all the colors of the rainbow, I was able to create a very colorful base [...]
I splurged and popped for a Fancy Kitty drum carder. For one thing, I couldn’t resist the name. For another, drum carders help turn gorgeous hand dyed fiber and silky odds and ends into what they call art batts. Art batts are some kind of most excellent gorgeous in my opinion! [...]
Please, Give ’til it Hurts Routinely I get requests from incredibly deserving, right-up-my-alley organizations for a piece of my art for a fundraising auction they’re holding. Almost without fail I love the organization, their mission and the person contacting me. Half the time we’re acquainted personally, friends, even. They know me, know [...]
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