Business Development & Marketing Products

I've been on the computer and iPad this week working on business development, marketing my workshops and up dating social media.  Here are some samples.

Plus I finished up my scarves and putting them up for sale at Blue Pelican Gallery.

Dyeing and painting on silk

It has rained the last three weeks here at the OBX.  We just dodged hurricane Joaquin.  Still a lot of wind, rain and flooding.  Thank goodness my street didn't flood and all is well.  I spent my time playing in a lot of yarn boxes and dyeing silk.  I love the majiccraft of taking plain white silk and mixing dye and watching how the colors evolve.  You never know what will come out.  There are no predictions.  You just go with the flow.  Then the process of discharging the color with bleach and stamps adds another layer of unpredictability.  I love this process though.

Then I started thinking of my other silk art I had painted over the years and am pondering a new venture in silk art.  Taking it to another level not just creating and sharing with friends but really finding and exploring my artistic voice in silk.  Knitting, weaving and spinning has caused carpal tunnel syndrome at times.  I love fiber color and texture so much I'm going to explore silk more.

September Spinning

September has been a very creative month.  I started out the month making quilt tops from my hand crafted fabric and making felted beads and turning them into jewelry.  All along knitted cross body bags and a sweater.  I finished off the month spinning yarn  on my spinning wheel and creating art yarn on my hand spindle.  Then dyeing and stamping silk scarves while waiting on hurricane Joaquin to disappear from the radar.  I guess I've been channeling the creative and Upleveling spinning energy of the Universe this month.

Surface Design

I love hand dyeing silk.  I use the plastic bag, microwave technique.  I squirt on color and squish the colors together to form a pattern.  I let go of the outcome and trust whatever is revealed later.  If I don't like the color I can put it back in a bag and change it or intensify the colors.  Later I add texture by block printing with black or discharge paste (bleach).  Still if I don't like it I can add more and more printing.  This technique is called surface design.  ( tie dye, shibori, ombré, block printing, stenciling, fabric painting)

Colors of the rainbow

Last week a day before the Blue Moon we had a short rain storm early in the morning.  It felt different, I could feel the magnetic energy surrounding me.  I didn't know what it was.  It just felt different.  Later on in the day my neighbor and other Facebook pages posted this great rainbow over our neighborhood.  I told myself that is probably what I had been feeling.  Two days later I decided to finally start working on a project I have put off for years.  Dyeing , stamping and painting silk prayer shawls.  Yesterday, Sunday when I began the weather was humid yet gorgeous.  The sun was shining so strong.  It was a great day to dye fabric and let it dry in the summer breeze.  I had a lot of fun and loved how the colors came out.  I didn't plan on it but they had a tie dye effect.  Today I finished the rest.  It was raining all day and was damp and breezy so different from yesterday.  The fabric came out differently.  Drying in the sun made the colors pop more.  I still have more processes to go to finish these shawls but, step one is complete.  It wasn't until a few minutes ago that I realized that I had been inspired by the rainbow over our neighborhood on Thursday.  I love to dye silk and I love the colors of the rainbow!  These scarves feel magical.

5 Day Artist Challenge

I was nominated by Delia Marsellos-Traister who is a Fantastic Fine Metal Jewelry Artist in the Los Angeles area to participate in a 5 day Facebook Artist Challenge.  I took it as an opportunity to present my past work on line and to nominate some wonderful artist friends of mine.  I'm currently moving in a different direction fine tuning my skills in other mediums.  I enjoyed revisiting the past and seeing the continuity in my artistic journey.  Vibrant color, texture and whimsy was the constant theme through the use of a variety of artistic mediums. Here is a brief example of my work.

Day 5 - I presented my 'Soulful' collection.  I express my soul and creative spirit through vibrant colors, textures and all kinds of materials. 

Day 4 -  I presented another phase of my artistic journey, Hand weaving.

Day 3 - I presented another phase of my artistic journey, Ceramics. I found my voice in hand building clay after many poor attempts at the wheel. Once I went to hand building I was singing. So here are examples of my storytellers and baskets of course.

Day 2 - I presented pictures of my next phase of creativity, my knitting.  I began knitting again as an adult while going through some heavy duty life issues.  Knitting brought me comfort and joy and helped me find a new way to express my artistic voice.

Day 1 - I began my work as an artist when I found my voice in basketry.  Here are three examples of my work.

Art for Art's Sake!

I am feeling over stimulated and over whelmed with creative ideas.  I have this over whelming urge to create, create, create.  But, I'm over stimulated with Social media images and craft supplies shopping.  I'm still struggling to create an income from doing what I love, so when I make something it always has a 'can I sell it?' Energy attached to it.  It's very frustrating and limiting.  I love making and creating just as an expression of my thoughts, feelings and visions.  I just want to make art for art's sake.  So today I'm playing and coloring with images I have created.  They can be used to express a lot of different crafting techniques:   needlepoint, crochet, collage, silk painting, rug hooking, drawing, painting, etc.  The only thing that's getting in my way is ME!  Does this happen to you?  'For Art's Sake'!

This week in the studio

It's been a rainy couple of days so, I decided to paint.  I'm definitely not a fine artist.  I just love color, texture and making fabric.  So, I decided to practice drawing and painting on silk scarves.  Am I going to wear them, probably NOT!  Are there a lot of flaws, of course!  But, that's not the point.  The point is having fun and exploring different techniques.  I just love how the colors turn out and meld together to form a unique piece of art.

1st Camp Crafty Diva Workshop

I had a great first day at Camp Crafty Diva!  The Sun Realty space is nice and bright, great to give one-on-one attention to the campers.  Sue brought her nieces in for an 'Auntie & Me' crafting time.  Sofie wove a wild & woolly dream catcher, Maddie painted a silk dream catcher and Sue learned to crochet.  Come join me over at Sun Realty in Avon, Nc for more Camp Crafty Diva adventures.

Playing in the Studio

I'm still emotionally, physically and spiritually hung over from Arthur.  The energetic eye of the storm landed right on top of me and I'm trying to shake it off.  What's the best thing for me to do?  Of, course go to the studio and play.  I'm not a fine artist I love texture, color, whimsy and the mess.  When I'm creating and listening to music it makes my heart and soul sing.  Just what the Doctor ordered.  Painting, playing, singing.

Mini Camp Crafty Diva

We have started July off in full creative swing.  Tie dye and silk painting with the neighbors.  My head camp counselor Samantha enjoyed teaching and playing with the paints, dyes and kids.  Creativity is blowing our way... The calm before the storm.

Doodling and Painting

It's been a challenging few days here. When the unpleasant past bleeds into your hopeful future what is a girl supposed to do. Stop, breathe, pray, express gratitude, collect yourself and create. So that's what I'm doing. Working on some new creations.