SAQA event

This weekend I had the pleasure of meeting an extremely talented group of women when the SAQA regional meeting was held in Rocky Mount, NC. Although not the best pic, here they are in order from left to right: Annette Rogers, Linda Black, Lois Griffith, Mary Miller, Pat Hansen, Judy Busby, Patti Powers, Judith Glover, Sandi Goldman, Mary Jane Harper, and Lorri Chambers. I have found as many of their links as possible so you can be as impressed as I am. ***If I missed anyone, please let me know***. Judy Glover did a wonderful job of being the town hostess by organizing dinner friday night at Outback and then a trip to the Ann Harwell exhibit at the Dunn Center. Viewing an exhibit of that magnitude with fellow artists is quite a treat. But wait there's more:) Saturday we met for show and tell and to learn a new technique. I cannot fully explain how great it was to meet these women, see their work, ask questions about various techniques, and just share share share. I spend a lot of time alone and had forgotten how invigorating meeting with like-minded people can be.
In the afternoon, Judy had organized a lunch for us at the Imperial Center, a not to miss destination if you are ever in the Rocky Mount, NC area. It is an old tobacco warehouse that has been turned into gallery spaces. The above pic shows some of the lovely brickwork leading into a fountain room. The pic below shows a gorgeous old loom that is one of their display pieces. I don't ever want to loom but I am fascinated by them.

We also saw a phenomenal exhibit by Keiji Shinohara who is a block printer. I will be writing a separate post about him.
Thank you to all of these women for being so sharing with their knowledge and making the trip to meet.

Thank you to Judy Glover for being such an amazing hostess, not only to the group, but to me as well.

Last but not least, Thank you to Lorri Chambers for sharing your technique with us...the possibilities are endless.

Keep learning. You never know when something new will solve a design dilemma.

Paper Cloth-How Fun!

A friend of mine, Kathy Sands, talked about making paper cloth one day on her blog. I was very intrigued and went to her site to find her tutorial. Pulling out some of the papers I had been collecting for 'just the right thing', I began following the directions not sure of where it would take me.

This is a simple and fun process. The hardest part of all of it was having the patience to wait for it to dry. Not sure if I used too much glue but overnight was not enough time. Thankfully I had chosen right before I was leaving on a trip to attempt this so I left it wet and came home to it being dry....you know that whole "a watched pot doesn't boil" thing. It was so fun to see the colors from other papers peek through on this little shrimp. Who knows what I will do to him next:)

This piece was actually done first and in purples and blues since I decided that if I didn't really like it, I could make something for my mother in her favorite colors. Once I did some stamping and writing inspirational phrases on it, I really liked it. I have been collecting ideas for what to do with my wonderful new hand made paper...or is it cloth?

I have also started looking at all the paper I have in a new way. Now if I could only find the time. The great thing about this type of project is that it is relatively inexpensive, quick, and easy. It is the perfect project to jumpstart your creativity if you are in a lull and if you don't like it, you aren't out much. The paper designs add so much depth and you can just write on it to add to it.

Take a look at the tutorial and try your hand at surface design for dummies:)

How to start Blossoming

Working for yourself with yourself all day everyday creates some challenges when it is time to talk to other people about what you do. As artists and business professionals, one of the best ways to grow your business is to learn to speak about what, why, and how you do what you love to do in an intelligent and coherent way.

Now don't take me as an expert since I am still learning, but practice makes perfect and I live by the motto 'fake it 'til you make it'. This week I had an opportunity to be radio interviewed. Radio is so much scarier than print...now I will hear every 'um', 'and so', and 'like' that I hate knowing I say. Preparation is key!

A week or two before the interview, I asked Jaynine what she would like to know about my business. She very promptly sent me a list of 8 or so questions that I reviewed and stewed over. This was vital to the success of the interview for me since I was able to respond in writing to the questions and then edit them (more than once) before writing a script for myself...now ask me if I stuck to it:)

I am ok with the knowledge that I didn't stick exactly to the script and that I rambled a bit here and there because for the most part I accomplished what I wanted: Talk about my art, my business, let people get to know me a bit, and get my name out there more in a mostly intelligent manner. And as I said before, practice makes perfect so the more I talk the easier it will be for the words to roll off my tongue when the next question comes at me. I am still learning so the experience was great and I feel that I am slowly blossoming every day with every new opportunity.

If you don't have the immediate opportunity to be interviewed, Interview Yourself! Write out the questions you have been asked or that you would like to know about someone else and refer them back to yourself. Answer them with some thought and then practice answering them in a composed manner. You will be amazed how much easier it gets as you practice. You will be even more amazed when someone asks you a question and the answer just jumps out of your mouth without any thought and a conversation is started. You will sound like the complete professional we all know you are when you are at home all alone working hard:)

If you have 30 minutes to have a listen, my interview was done with Coach Jaynine the DreamCatcher via talk shoe.

New Takes on Old Favorites

This is a detail of my Claddagh pattern that was co-designed with my mother, Ellen. I have loved this design from the beginning and yet the colors always seemed too light to me. Except for the red and the green, two of my favorite colors, I tend to like colors a bit darker. As my quilt design skills have grown, I have learned about myself, likes and dislikes, color schemes that make my heart sing.

I eventually made a second colorway for ME. This version makes the hands stand out better. I also used a 12 wt thread for the wording vs. having it blend into the background like the original. The only thing missing is the beadwork which gives it a different feel. Even without the beads, it is my favorite of the two and may need to be on the pattern cover for the next printing.

In the last couple of years with the growth of the variegated thread selections, I have learned that I truly enjoy redwork....I just don't always want to work in RED:) Sulky 12wt varieagated threads are just wonderful for this type of work. I am now going back through my patterns and seeing which ones I can turn into redwork.

This being one of my favorites, it became the guinea pig. So much fun and I can't wait to add the borders for this. I only used 2 different colors since the green was so wonderfully colored.

It is important for me to keep pushing myself in terms of ideas, techniques, and value. I want people who purchase from me to see the value in what they have spent their money on. There are more ideas than I have time for and not all of them make it to the pattern at the time of print so I hope my dear customers will come back often to see what is new.

Here is the original Claddagh with matching pillow (another way to use a pattern). For more about the history of the Claddagh you can read my post from March 2009.
I hope ideas are bouncing around in your head of a design that would look great in a new colorway or technique.

My Sunshine Award

Imagine my surprise one day when I was awarded the Sunshine Award by a fellow artist. Thank you, Delilah.

The Sunshine Award is an award given to blogs that have positive and creative blogging. The Rules for receiving the award are:

1. Post the Logo in a blog or on the sidebar.

2. Pass the award on to 12 bloggers that you follow.

3. Link the nominees with in your post.

4. Let the nominees know they have received the award by leaving a comment on their blog.

5. Share the love and link to the person who gave you the award.

Now I get to pass this Sunshine on to 12 Creative Bloggers and bring sunshine into their day.

I have selected the following blogs and hope you enjoy them as much as I do:

Katherine Sands

Susan Brubaker Knapp

Sarah Ann Smith

Lyric Kinard

Celine Perkins

Jane Davila

Lisa Call

Joanie Gagnon San Chirico

Nancy G Cook

Wen Redmond

Pepper Cory

Pati Fried

Susan Sorrell

Leah Day

Ok, I cheated and added 2 extras but it is so so hard to just pick 12... my creative friends are like Lays potato chips :) and I still had to leave some behind.

Thank you to all of you and the others I couldn't list for sharing so freely with your knowledge and humor.

Texture Tuesday

While at the Mancuso Mid-Atlantic show this year, I attended a workshop with Esterita Austin. I chose her all day class on working with sheers called Sheers to You! which is fun since the quilt show's theme this year was Cheers! :)
In the first photo you can see the wine glass that I created only using sheer fabrics. I wasn't sure what to expect and the class might take some getting used to if you are a very structured person. I can go either way and really enjoyed that I took a 'technique' based class versus a 'project' based class. If you enjoy playing, then this is the class for you. Esterita was very generous with her supplies and once the basic instructions were given, we spent the day just playing. There was a pattern to follow if that appealed to you or you could just go your own direction. I used the basic outline for the glass and then in the afternoon became much braver.

These two photos show what I created in the afternoon with a mixture of paint and sheers. The rose turned out lovely and I already have a design planned using my rose along with the 2 wine goblets. I am very excited to get started...does anyone have an extra 3-5 hours they can donate to me? HA:)

One look at Esterita's website will show you how very imaginative and talented she is. If you ever have an opportunity to attend one of her classes, do so.

Thank you, Esterita for opening my mind to a new direction.

The added bonus to this class was that I was able to take it with my mother and a friend from my Artrageous group....Hello Katherine. It was so much more fun sharing the experience along with seeing all the creativity in the class. Everyone's work looked so different and that is one of the best reasons to take a class...it really opens your mind to all the possibilities of color and composition.

Marvel Monday

Last fall we had so much rain in our backyard that Egrets started hanging out. It was fun to watch but hard to capture since they were very skittish and flew as soon as the sliding door started to move.

I had to be "vewy qwiet hunting my Egwets"