on the wane and back again

Lest you think I have not been working and thinking, thinking and working- let me set you straight. Orders shipping out, dyeing, preparing for November shows and some pretty awesome reading among other things going on here. Finished reading “Outliers“while I was in TX and was rewarded with confirmations of many things I previously subscribed to (the 10,000 hour theory) but am far less eloquent than Malcom Gladwell is at verbalizing or writing about. He has some very interesting ideas and stories to tell that illustrate why certain people come to be very successful. He explains that we tend to focus on the individual themselves, rather than the circumstances of time, place, and opportunity surrounding the individual. An easy, fun and great read.
Secondly, I received my copy of Hans Abbing’s book “Why Are Artists Poor? The Exceptional Economy of the Arts”. I nearly snatched it out of the FedEx delivery guy’s hands. Well, metaphorically speaking, I was an eager beaver and know ahead he will be preaching to the choir on this one, but once again looking for some very eloquent, researched and well organized thinking on the subject. He is an artist AND an ecomomist- go figure! A rare bird indeed! This book is taking me a bit more time as it is somewhat more academic but he has some really provocative and brilliant thoughts on the economy of art and myths that we seem to insist on furthering-and not to our own best interest.
And in my stumbling ’round the internet on the subject, I came across this guy whom I found very interesting and you might too. Should you have any gifting needs for chess enthusiasts in your life he has some pretty cleverly funny chess t-shirts in addition to his painting which I found I liked very much. His blog is excellent in my opinion. Watch his video on the location of his studio.

A link to all his YouTube channel is located here- be prepared to spend a little time.
Then on to another topic- copyrights- and this story which Neki at moveable feast alerted us to on FB. In addition to a small donation, I offered to send one of my large shibori scarves to anyone of my FB contacts or blog readers who purchased one of his firepits before Nov. 7th (apparently the deadline for his next court date).
And now I share with you a most amazing exhibit of a painter whom was formerly and completely unknown to me- Charles Burchfield.

Today was a planned “day off” for me and my guy so we headed to the Hammer Museum in LA to take a look at the much ballyhooed Crumb exhibit- an illustrated version of the complete book of Genesis. This exhibit is getting a lot of press here and after seeing a special on Crumb himself a few years back I was interested in checking it out. Upon entering the gallery, there was a free tour getting underway (which we declined to join) but the docents voice was so annoying and being unable to tune it out we decided to step out and return after the tour was over. And am I ever thankful for that annoying docent tour! We wandered over to the next gallery where we discovered the Charles Burchfield exhibit. It was amazing! The first gallery showed a collection of his early works 1917-1920 I believe, and included the above painting. A watercolorist, he apparently painted a large volume of work during this, his early period (my personal favorite). His use of black was wonderful, and a great graphic contrast in all the pieces in this group. To learn more about his three distinct periods you can go here. The story is fascinating. One of the things I really loved about this show was that there were so many notes about each piece in the artist’s own words. I really felt as if I got to know him through this exhibit. Perhaps more so than any other artist’s show I have ever seen. This one will stick with me for a long, long time. There also are examples of some of his commercial work as a wallpaper designer and greeting card illustrator- as well as some of his personal thoughts on effects of that on his personal work.
Phew! After a brief break, it was off to the Crumb exhibit again which itself was an exhaustive effort. The sheer volume of illustrations is enough to knock you over not to mention viewing the subject matter in comic book illustration form. I could only take so much.
I want to thank the LA Times for their over the top promotion of the Crumb show which led me to find a new painter, Charles Burchfield, to add to my list of favorites!
So, tomorrow it is back to shibori, silk, dyeing and experimenting. Preparing for my SF shows and more. I have a class that needs filling at the SF Bead & Design show- you can go here to check that out and register online.

Houston Quilt Festival

Wow! What a week- although it’s been more than two since I last posted here.

I won’t belabor the issue but will say the show was a great success on various levels.
Some of the highlights included:

My shibori techniques workshop was a pleasure- overfilled actually and although the main complaint seemed to be that the room was too cold – I was too busy and didn’t even notice it! The other complaint I heard from a couple of gals was that it was hard to follow some of the demos I was doing while they were stitching up their makinui, makiage, and orinui samples. I wanted them to get in as much as possible in their 3 hours and so was demo-ing up front and walking around with samples as I dyed them to get more ideas in front of them for the next stage of the workshop. 3 hours is an awfully short time to cover shibori but my idea is to expose the participants to a variety of possibilities and let them take it from there. In general though everyone was very pleased and many of them came down to visit me in the booth to tell me how much they enjoyed the class and how accessible I had made shibori dying. Perfect!
I will work on making it even better next time.

Despite getting stuck on the 59 North coming in to the show on Thursday (a 20 minute drive turned into an hour and 10 minutes due to a major accident) I arrived for my lecture a mere 10 minutes before it was to start. Yikes! And the wrong equipment had been delivered for the slideshow- the attendant quickly rectified that ( Quilts Inc Ed staff is fantastic!) and I spread my samples out and started talking. Phew! I felt a bit scattered but was told it didn’t show- you know me, I can talk quite a while about shibori… but what I really wanted to get across was the idea that we have so much to learn from traditional crafts people that can be translated into our contemporary works and that although it takes a bit of effort to make these connections with international artisans it is so much easier now with the internet and all that we have access to these days. Of course I shared many stories of the trip to Japan and the artisans we met – the hour was almost up before we got to the slideshow. I have more I would like to do with this topic and am letting it brew and steep in my mind….

Many thanks to Katrina for covering my booth that morning while I made my way down after the lecture and also while I dashed off to do a “meet the teachers ” presentation on the show floor for 30 minutes that same morning.
(thanks Katrina!!)

Another highlight was that I got to meet my FB friend Elaine Lipson! Now how fun is that? She is a writer and book editor for Interweave Press and the instigator of Slow Cloth- having come out of the natural foods industry and writing on the slow foods movement there. You might know her as the writer behind her blog, Red Thread Studio. We had a great dinner at one of my regular Houston stops The Black Labrador and were able to include Katrina Walker (who teaches sewing with silk) and my friend Jennifer from Atlanta who is known for globe trotting in search of fabulous textiles and trims. Quite an inspired evening!

We also had a little “mini-reunion” of our Japan tour group. There were 7 of us attending the show and what fun to see their faces again! Shouting out here to June, Maggie, Brenda , Mary Alice (and crew), Helen, & Katrina- let’s do it again sometime!!

I know this is turning into a rather long post but here I sit Saturday morning with HEAPS of work ahead of me (thank goodness!) and the possibility of getting back to do another post over the next week rather dim. So this may be it for a while and before these thoughts fade into the past I best get them out now.

Crazy quilters are getting into the action with my ribbons and Barbara from Roses on the Water made some lovely things with the shibori ribbon she picked up at the show. Crazy Quilters Online Magazine will also feature an article on my ribbon and shibori work in the next issue (online only) that comes out tomorrow or Monday I’m told. Thanks Julie!
One of my favorite crazy quilt teachers, Julie Craig, is also carrying the ribbon in her shop- Attic Heirlooms. She doesn’t have a website but is located in Wichita KS at:

2129 S Lark CT
Wichita, KS 67209-1252(Wichita, KS Metro Area)
Phone: (316) 265-4646

I also made a little “splurge” purchase at Carola Pfau’s textile booth which was all too conveniently located a mere 3 booths away down the aisle. She has some delicious hand spun and hand woven linen (eastern european and pre WW2). It’s about 22″ wide and I bought a 2 yard piece to do an indigo wall panel- hope I don’t mess it up! It should suck up that indigo like crazy!
I also bought a nice little haori that had an intriguing shibori pattern in indigo on it. All creamy silk jacquard with a touch of indigo makiage motifs capped off from the ground fabric. The makiage motifs even have some kanoko designs in the centers. I love makiage and its possibilities!

I included the label image which is from the Daimaru Kyoto “depato” . It has a rich history and actually started off as a kimono textile and dry goods shop in 1717. The Japanese have a long history of retailing and they are famous for their department stores.
According to one online source:
“Daimaru is one of the most eminent department stores in Japan. Osaka has two branches of this department store; one is in; Shinsaibashi and another one is in Namba.The history of Daimaru traces back to O-Mojiya, a dry goods story in Kyoto which was established by Shimomura Hikoemon Masahiro in 1717.The name ‘Daimaru’ was first used to name to store in Nagoya called Daimaruya and it was inaugurated in 1728. Daimaru was the greatest retailer in Japan for many years in the 1960s.”
I have no idea of the age of this piece but it must be fairly recent (mid 1940’s-1970’s).
I could keep going but must get to work now- the musicians are all out touring and I have the place to myself for the week!!

Upcoming events are posted on my Facebook fan page too- join up if you like! Click on the “events” tab at the top.

Forgot to mention- the quilt exhibits were great too- you can see some of them here. For video tours of the show- go here!

slideshows

WordPress was acting punky last night when I wanted to post up a couple of new slideshows so I put them up on Flickr instead. I don’t have time to repost here so you’ll just have to trip over there for the ride.

Also, here is a few pics of the indigo ribbon and how it came out-

So much to do- procrastinating now…

indigo moonlight

Making up a few new samples for the Houston show (booth 728!-come see me!)-

Yesterday on facebook I asked for some color selections and two people spoke right up. One was Louise Green from Louise Green Millinery and the other was Jude from Spirit Cloth.

Louise suggested chestnut brown to go with my olive, burgundy for the black, and gunmetal with the ecru. The brown could have been darker as could have the gunmetal (it’s more of a pewter) but they both are very nice. The black and burgundy is great but I think my favorite was the simple discharged olive with no over dye. Will get photos tomorrow but in the meantime, I did photograph Jude’s suggestion of indigo over the gold. I revived the vat one last time before I leave and here is a little slideshow of the process. I did 6 dips with a good rinsing between each after letting the indigo oxidize completely. You will see a photo of the unoxidized (looks greenish) pole and then one of it when it was done oxidizing (bluer).
Just got done steaming it so it won’t be unwrapped until tomorrow. It’s 10 pm here and I just finished cleaning up out in the outdoor studio under clear skies and moonlight.
This is sure be a special color when it comes off the pole tomorrow!
done

Bead shops and packing for Houston

Tig has been helping me with the packing for Houston and finally the first 4 boxes are done! It’s most of it which includes all the set up stuff, flooring, most of the inventory,and the materials and kits I need for my workshop. Phew! Even Tig was glad this part is done. She even found a box just her size and wanted to go along with to show off her pretty shibori tiger stripes.

I was taking a photo of Studio Beads new order when tig decided she needed a new head shot for her portfolio (you know, Hollywood is only about 30 minutes from here on a good day).

all shipped out

Many of the bead shops are now ordering ribbon for all kinds of lovely projects and jewelry-it’s fun for me to see all the creative uses for the ribbon when it’s put in the hands of so many talented people. I am in awe!

50 yards assorted cuts

The bead shops prefer to order assorted one yard cuts as they are able to get a broad assortment of colors which works very well with beaders. I choose the selections and so far they just keep coming back for more. If you know of a bead shop you think would like to order the ribbon, please either let me know- or just pass this post and my links along- and thanks!

every inch an adventure

inching along...

You might say that could be me in the photo above, inching along in my preparation for Houston show. I am making progress but at the same time so much to do! I have dyed up so much lovely ribbon but darn if people don’t just keep ordering the stuff! I’m gonna be setting a cutoff date soon on when I will stop shipping. Probably by Monday the 5th- be advised! Won’t ship again until after the 20th of October.

As I was working these past few days I started thinking (uh-oh..) about my product and what exactly it is I am selling. Yes, of course I am selling silk shibori ribbon (speaking only about the ribbon now) but what is the ribbon really? One silky yard of lovely color, pleated, undulating cool silk made with the spit of a worm. It represents perhaps the promise of something beautifully crafted by hand, some free time to create, a gift, a challenge, a little piece of something to inspire. It’s a little piece of me too, in a way. A piece of my story, my persistence,
my desire to make and to create. My desire to spread that and infect more people to take a little adventure into creativity. I’ve become an adventure capitalist! So come on among- join the adventure. Come on by and see me in Houston at the International Quilt Festival (Oct.13-18) in booth 728 where every inch is an adventure!

My shibori workshop has been sold out for some time (as have many of the Silk Experience workshops-look for a surge in sewing with silk!) but I have an open lecture on Thursday morning -come on by! (New shibori workshop scheduled in LA at the Japanese American National Museum March 27, 2010-contact JAMN for info-limited to 25.)
Back to it- getting ready to ship my booth stuff…

silk shibori ribbon scrap bag sale

done

OK. Once more we have some scrap bags- been bagging up things for the Houston show and decided to put a few up for sale for those of you who can’t be there. Each bag is color sorted and has 3-4 yards worth of assorted silk shibori ribbon cuts (ribbon only no yardage/or cutter scarf cuts) – a great deal at $20 each. Perfect for flower work, crazy quilting or just embellishing. Available on my etsy site- call out your color #’s in the “comment to seller” section as before.
This worked pretty well last time- I will keep updating the #’s sold. I can’t list each one separately or I’d have to charge more and who needs that?
Enjoy!
SOLD SO FAR: #08,01,

silk shibori scrap bag sale $15 each

done

UPDATE:
*NOTE- All are gone! Perhaps more to come when I get a moment to sort some more…
THANK YOU!
visit the etsy site

bags shown here are 12 x 12 and include an assortment of silks and ribbon- all hand dyed of course. just odds and ends, bits and pieces, fun stuff. several bags have complete scarves in them- can be worn or used as cutters!

on profit motive

Really, if you think about it, everything we do has a profit motive behind it. Really.
I’ve been taking an economics course of sorts online and it has been sinking into every step I take, in and out of the studio. Take the above for example, for some time now every time i needed to make up some more stock dye solution, I was frustrated with the fact that the color names were only printed on the face of the jars in small type. I was continually sorting through them to find the right one. So FINALLY, as a matter of convenience-or so I thought- I decided to relabel the tops in order to quickly find the correct container. My motivation? To save time and my sanity mainly. But saving time in the studio is saving money as well. Inadvertently, I discovered by not having things clearly labeled, I had ordered dye that I thought I was out of on my last order. More potential to improve profits. Every time I am motivated to action I find myself questioning my “profit” motive. Whether it is a profit of financial gain or otherwise we are all motivated to action based on what we will gain from that action. I am taking this into account more and practicing the noticing of profit/return on my actions and their corresponding motivations.

Meanwhile, in other places fall and even winter (CO-news pics of snowstorms!) are being experienced, here today we will have 100 degree weather most of the week they say- silk drying weather for sure-as soon as the morning marine layer here along the coast burns off.
Yesterday, while playing with shadows and thinking of Wendy, I made something I think one of her kids will enjoy- and shipped it off in a box full of large colorful scrap silks-a box filled with possibilities and imagination!
Motivation? Profit? I was actually sorting through some of my cast aside silks with quilters in mind while having fun painting and sculpting in silk-when I thought -”hey-this is so much fun i think i’ll send some to wendy for the kids to play with!”. The rest of them i’m going to sort up and put on my etsy site for cheap and buy more silk with the proceeds.
Be on the lookout-

second nature to me now…

As an artist (using that term since it seems to be what others perceive as a convenient term to describe what i do) I am searching like many people are to find answers on how to best create a sustainable and practical lifestyle doing what I do (which is making things by hand and selling them- very non-artsy by many artists’ definition). Toward that end I take in many things and most recently two things come to mind- one, the current show at the American Museum for Ceramic Art now showing the first comprehensive review of Harrison McIntosh’s nearly 60 year career as a ceramic artist and two, recent writings by Charles Hugh Smith (Survival+) on understanding our puzzling economic times and how one might perceive it if one dares. (thanks to one of my pocket square customers who is a professional economist & FB friend) Often I am accused of over-thinking but nonetheless sometimes the juxtaposition of certain things that cross my path, while seemingly unrelated, just scream out for me to make certain connections.

Harrison McIntoshes are not created every day. Only when stars fall into certain alignment and a person is wise (or dumb) enough to follow along the path steadfastly do artists of this nature arise and endure. I think the one thing I find myself admiring most about this man and his work is his desire and ability to stick to a narrow focus, cultivating his studio methods and techniques to near perfection day by day for nearly 60 years! Much like Ichiku Kubota, he surrounded himself with beauty and design and allowed it to inform his work. Unlike Kubota, he focused on simple and classic design rather than the ornate and highly decorative. These days our desire for instant success and recognition often gets in the way of allowing for artists to create and develop slowly- as is necessary to achieve such a body of work presented here in this retrospective showing of Harrison McIntosh’s work. Much like he did on his potters wheel on a daily basis, Harrison reminded me that becoming centered is key and that a main component to a successful pot is in the treatment and execution of it’s footing. A good lesson for any artist to make note of. Beautifully displayed in a gallery with lots of natural light, I just wanted to move into a corner of the room and take up residence with his work for a while just to really breath it in. Seriously, if you are in So Cal or plan to be, consider a visit just to bask in the simple beauty of this exhibit. It’s on through January, I believe. Plenty of time to make time. I plan to go back on Oct. 10 for a book signing- my guy Phil bought me the catalog which is excellent. Thank you Phil!

Now on to number two. Definitely less fun but very thought provoking as well. Charles Hugh Smith runs a blog/website called Of Two Minds and is a very compelling writer of both fiction, weblogs and essays covering topics such as “Marketing in Crisis”
In the end, I discover he’s also a closet musician! His writing on the economy (Survival+) is very brave considering I think it is what we all really know and think yet feel helpless to change. He has a knack for clarity and lays out a plan that points in a refreshing direction (truthfulness)- it’s the difficulty in actually getting there that gives pause and makes me wonder if we actually have the guts to do it. As he points out, we most likely will not have a choice. We aren’t really making our own choices anyway-that is unless you are in the 1% that either owns or controls the 2/3 productive assets of the nation.

So, now you may be wondering how and why I come to connect these two things not only to each other but to my own work as well. As a maker, I strive to work with my materials, repeating a process over and over until it becomes second nature to me. Until I reach a point with it that no longer requires me to think, freeing me to allow for the work to flow and guide me instead of the other way around. That is what I aspire to. It gives me a sense of well being for some reason. I suppose that is why I have always been drawn to a process and a production method as it is in this type of repetition that I find mastery. At the same time, producing objects for sale means considering my role in our consumer driven culture and economy. I find myself teaching more and encouraging others to experience the same sense of well being through creating and exploring art and craft as opposed to finding it through mindless consumerism that really only serves to oppress us into debt-serfdom. This doesn’t mean that I will abandon making and selling- as I too am just one of the masses with bills to pay.
Silk shibori ribbon anyone?

done