Friday, May 29, 2009

Silly Friday

“I once had a rose named after me and I was very flattered. But I was not pleased to read the description in the catalogue: no good in a bed, but fine up against a wall.” – Eleanor Roosevelt

I am having a Silly Friday. The dogs have kept me up almost every night this week and I am so tired that everything seems funny to me. Of course laughter is good medicine although people at work are looking at me strangely but who cares?

Saturday is going to be a big dye day. We are supposed to have a sunny weekend, first in about a month and I am going to take advantage of it. Will be dyeing lots of Harem cloth from http://www.dharmatrading.com I love that stuff and it takes dyes so well and holds up much better than cheesecloth but is still thin enough to drape nicely. If you ever have questions about dyeing or chemicals, check out the Dharma website. It has lots of great info and tutorials. Customer service on the phone is actually fun, these people have a great sense of humor.
Hope you all have a wonderful and productive weekend. CU on the other side!

Thursday, May 28, 2009

Things are sure quiet around here


So to stir a few folks awake, the warmth of the spring sun always makes me sleepy too, I am going to have a sale in my Etsy Shop. 10% off everything and free shipping too. http://raven333.etsy.com/

I have added a few more items, sold a few so the site looks abit different than last time you looked probably. I have so many ideas in my head now if I can just get it together to start doing more art. It's that sun thing, keeping me sleepy I guess.

I finally got my carder, all the way from Canada. It is a handmade one but it works and the price was right so I am going to start making my own custom batts from my dyed wool so spinners and felters, keep checking back on that.

Nothing new with the household, Phil is still job hunting. Jonathan graduated 5th grade. We have had a few electrical storms at night so the dogs aren't sleeping well which means I don't sleep well either. I love the storms but the dogs can't figure out the booms and sudden light flashes.

Thanks about it for this post,

more later...

Sunday, May 17, 2009

Harley Darley


Such a Lazy Day

It is a rainy Sunday. I should be working on another scarf that is 1/2 finished but all I want to do is sleep. I think that class last weekend sapped all of my artistic memory. Yesterday I went on a hunt to several different Michael's. I was looking for flying skull appliques and I bought out all they had. It was interesting to see that one store had them on sale and another store didn't. Of course there were some funky flower appliques that I had to have so I cleaned them out too. I love gathering, I am such a magpie for anything shiny. Last week, someone looked at my shop and did not like it. She said I needed more natural such as beige and linen colored items. That my store was too bright. Well, seems that I don't do much natural, it just isn't in me I guess. Maybe I will try to make a few natural scarves and see if they sell. This could be an interesting experiment.
Hope you all had a more productive weekend than mine. Maybe I will find more energy next week!

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

My Return from Kentucky classes


I have been gone for almost a week so it has been quiet in my blog. Now I am back home and ready to share the week with you. This was a doll sculpting class where we used air dry clay to sculpt heads and then to cover the dried heads with cotton cloth. There were several steps of sanding, drying, using modeling paste, acrylic medium and finally paint. Most of the people in the class came out with some beautiful doll heads and most got them painted in a very realistic way. I will never do eyes like I used to do again. Not sure that my hands aren't too shaky to do the fine detail on the faces. Anyway, I made a demon's head and then found a wooden telephone bird feeder that I converted into a stand for the head. I have much more to do with this piece but it is definitely me. I guess I just don't do pretty very well.
We were asked to bring aprons. I decided to make an apron but it came out so cool, I couldn't take a chance to ruin it so I only wore it alittle while. Am glad to be home sort of, Phil is still looking for a job but it was a good time for a much needed break.

Sunday, May 3, 2009

another day of cotton dyeing

I got off to a very slow start today. Am headed up to the studio to do some more dyeing. Am going to try the microwave way this time, can't get much worse. My carder came yesterday but it is still in the box so I will be trying to set that up while everything is changing colors hopefully. I got a nice little write-up and my seahorse doll in http://papierblue.blogspot.com/ She features several artists each day and was wonderful enough to include me. Sometimes it is little gifts like that from people you don't even know that keep you going....