thinking about turning points

I've had a lot of time this summer to sit still and think about things

and now that one of the on line artist groups that I have been a member of for a long time is "reinventing" itself and changing a lot of their "rules" to belong to the group -- including asking all of us to "reapply for membership"

this was not necessarily a decision I wanted to make right now, but I have been thinking that it may be time soon to make this choice anyway

and here's why --- this is the last piece of beaded jewelry I finished -- last October -- almost a year ago --

and even though I've been keeping up with reading the challenges, etc., from the bead group since then, I have simply not felt inspired to create anything for them

to a large extent, my tastes and style in this art medium seem to no longer be valid -- certainly the total lack of sales and very low number of views on my Etsy page for this medium indicate that --

part of that may also be that I have not been willing to make a piece like this one and practically give it away in terms of the price I charge for it -- my time is worth something, and I'd rather spend it in working on something that at least makes my soul happy!

like this piece, for example

I made it for my daughter in 2013, and I recently "recalled" it to do some updating

so now it has a lot clearer definition of the individual pumpkins and a lot better shadow

and I enjoyed doing that

there is the fact that all seven of these pieces are currently on display in shows or galleries right now which feels a lot more rewarding!

and there is the human factor

the community of fiber artists that I can actually be an active part of in this area is large and very rewarding

it may well be time to hold a giant sale in my Etsy store to clear things out (and maybe actually make a little money) and then to seriously consider revamping and re branding it --- or creating a freestanding website again --- or both

in the meantime, while I'm thinking about that, I'm still working on the big garden piece

the deck and the planter boxes are done, and I've started on the gate that goes at the far right edge of the decking

and I've started on the fusing of the ice cream freezer -- working on a piece of parchment paper over the line drawing lets me see what the pieces look like, and to move them around or change the colors until I'm happy with how it looks

meantime, I finished this reflection study, and I'm really happy with how it looks

this piece is about 13" x 13", and originally I was going to cut it down to 12"x12" and donate it for next year's SAQA auction

but I don't want to cut it

and I want it to have enough "presence" when hung that it looks like a piece of art, not just a big potholder

my solution to that is that I'm going to mount it on a canvas -- of course you can't get a 13"x13" canvas -- but I was able to get a 14"x14" one, so now I need to think about what color that 1" border all around it will be

my garden is starting to be more productive

I'm picking tomatoes and cucumbers and zucchinis about every other day now, and I should have green beans soon

YEAH!

the big deal here this week was the eclipse

we had heard that animals are impacted by this kind of solar phenomena

apparently Mr Benson didn't hear that

this was his "I'm watching the eclipse" pose --- sound asleep on the couch!

onward!

a week of finishing stuff

because I work on a lot of things all at once, it sometimes seems like nothing is happening

and then suddenly, a whole lot of things are all finished together

this necklace, that I had been fussing with for quite a while is finally finished

it was a piece that had a lot of backwards steps along the way, but I think the final result was worth all that rework!

these two pieces are also finished

so this week I will be taking the photos and filling in the entry forms for the show I want to enter them in

and even though I worried about making the deadline, I should be able to get this done by a week from tomorrow

the costume building is done too -- Mr Cute is ready to be a Super Hero for Halloween

work continues on the windmill

I'm almost to the bottom, which means it will soon be in the que for quilting

which means I'm spending time fiddling around in photo shop, pasting parts of photos together to create the next piece

this one has been fiddled with a lot, but I'm still not quite satisfied with it -- it's a work in process

the coming week promises to be a busy one -- on Thursday I will deliver my piece of art to the gallery in Denver where it will be hung for the Contemporary Fiber 2016 show -- still feels surreal

Onward!

a finished piece -- and a bit of going backward to go forward

this week this piece got finished -- hurray!

I still need to do some good photos so I can list it on my Etsy page -- sometime this week

this was where I thought this piece was going

three pieces to be hung together as a triptych, representing "Progress" -- old forest, farm, city

problem was, they didn't really read that way

the forest just didn't seem to fit with the other two

which left these two, as a diptych, still "Progress", but hard to tell that the farm was in the same space as the city

so I added the mountain range on the horizon behind the farm

now it works

so I need to finish up the quilting then I'll be ready to cut these two and bind them

and I have just about 2 weeks before the deadline to enter them in the show I made them for

I might make it

 

meantime, I'm making progress on this piece too

much to do, but moving right along

doing some very happy dancing

Early in the week I got some very exciting news!

I had entered this piece in a juried show that will be held in an Art Gallery in Denver the end of October.....

and it was accepted!!

I'm pretty excited about seeing me work in that setting!

this piece is coming along

the backing is on, the edging is done and I've started making the chain -- I decided to do this chain that is actual hexagonal links for this piece -- it's a bit "fiddly" and more time consuming than what I've done on some other pieces, but it has a better look for this piece

I hope to get this finished in the next couple of weeks

I have started quilting on this piece

the deadline for this piece (and the two others that go with it) is the end of October, so I need to move this one right along

progress is being made on this piece too

although this week I spent a good deal of time removing and replacing pieces in the sky, and even replaced one of the blades on the windmill

but I'm much happier with it now

meantime, the DH was very busy in the garage workshop

the frame that was originally on this painting had gotten damaged, so he created this new one for it

and now the painting has gone to my daughter's house to be properly hung

and after a long saga of not being able to get the materials and then having to have the table saw repaired, the headboard for our bed is complete!

he used beetle kill lumber that was tongue and grooved for use as paneling or flooring, but I really like the gray tones with the browns of the wood

beautiful!

I had hoped to have this project done, but I've done some moving backward and forward on this as well

the pants were just too small at the first "fitting", so I have remade those and now I can move forward

I got Mr Cute a new book recently, that is titled "Monster Needs A Costume" -- which seemed especially appropriate as a gift from me as I've been the chief costumer for Halloween for him

we had a good time reading it together over the weekend

Last Thursday I made a visit to a specialist to see if there was something that could be done to improve function and decrease the pain in my shoulder that has lingered on since I painted the deck back in September.   She gave me a cortisone shot in the shoulder and I've been resting it as well as doing icing and stretching.  I believe it's getting better --- now I just have to be careful not to overdo it and re-injure it!

the view from my window

over the past few weeks I've been watching the tree across the street slowly change color

it seems like each day it is slightly changed

and if it was not for the fact that I sit at my desk almost every day and work at the computer, it's likely that I would not be noticing this and would at some point look out and think "wow, that changed overnight!"

I sense that my art is undergoing a similar slow, steady progression toward ---- something

with the tree I know what the "end" result is -- all the leaves will eventually fall off and it will be bare for the winter

I hope my art isn't going to that result, but I'm good with it changing

this piece, for instance, has slowly developed and changed from the original idea

yesterday I decided I was done adding to the bead embroidery and will now finish it with a back and some fringe and a beaded chain that is a whole new design for my pieces

and I'm excited about where this is going

last week I managed to get all of the rest of this piece put together

now it's on to the quilting

 

the windmill is progressing nicely

I decided that the best way to create the frame structure was to create the "map" on tracing paper and actually stitch the fabric pieces together through the paper

when the whole unit is complete, I tear off the paper and stitch it down as one big piece to the background

I've never built pieces this way before, but it is working really well, so chances are very good that I'll use this technique again

it's the time of year for the making of Halloween costumes

Mr Cute wants to be Captain America this year

I'm working on it!

when ripping out is progress forward

 you may remember a couple of blog posts ago that I talked about this necklace that I had been working on

I had spent quite a few hours working on it, and I liked the general design, but the more I worked on it the more it began to "cup", until it became very clear that it would never lay flat

which meant it would never be a really "show quality" piece

so earlier this week I took it all apart

everything except the bezels around the stones was removed and I started over

which meant I could keep the parts of the design that I liked best and even improve on them -- like that basket weave look there around the center stone

I have a couple more rows of beading to do on each side and I'll be putting the round stones back on

liking the way this looks even better -- and YES, it will lay flat

and this piece got finished and listed in my Etsy store -- for the first time I can remember, my piece was the first one entered in one of these online challenges

I especially like the eyes on the cat!

progress on this piece has been slow

as I was saying in my last post, after I painted the back deck, I was in a lot of pain

almost 3 weeks later, I'm still hurting, and my doctor has not been able to figure out what the issue is

so I haven't done much work at the design wall

but earlier this week I got back to it -- I'm really pleased with the way it is going now -- the bottom left corner is complete, so I'm on the home stretch!

the quilting on this got delayed too, but I have now finished all of the field parts

next up the rest of the fence then the road

it's coming along!

when I posted the last time I had just begun stitching on this piece, and that blue edge there right beneath the blades is actually the horizon on this piece, which means everything below that will need to be something that is either the wood frame holding up the windmill or drying grasses

so before I headed out to the local fairgrounds for the big Colorado Quilt Council's annual show yesterday, I told the DH that we were on the lookout for "dry grass"

I came home with a nice variety of patterning and color to use on this --

Yippee -- the work can continue!

time to get to it