success, completion and fighting fear

From the Jewelry Studio:

it's finished!

this piece actually came together exactly the way I saw it in my head -- yeah!

it has been entered in its intended challenge, but even more important, it has a promised buyer

it doesn't get much better than that!

the rework on this piece is finished too

it originally had two small magnetic clasps, but it did not meet the "wear ability" test -- those clasps did not stay closed if you did anything but walk around holding your hand out for folks to admire the bracelet --- nope, that won't do!

so I took the back off, stitched on one of my new style toggle and loop clasps and put the back on again with a 3 bead edge instead of the 2 bead edge it had originally

much better!

so I have returned to trying to create a "chain" for this piece

attempts to create a flat beaded piece just won't work on this one since the piece itself is so dimensional, so I have decided to create 3 tubes of beads on each side and braid them together

something I've not tried before -- so what's new!?

so far, so good, but here I am again against a deadline -- I have 3 days to make this work to be able to get it into the challenge it is intended for

geesh!


A bit about moving in:

last weekend I had some help moving some furniture into my newly finished (by the contractors) studio

these two pieces of furniture have been repurposed from their former lives in other rooms of another house

this week we got them fastened to the wall behind them (tall, narrow pieces are at risk of being pulled forward -- not a good idea!), I scrubbed them with Murphy's Oil soap, cleaned all the glass and installed contact paper on the painted shelves (when I washed those the paint crocked off -- not a good thing!)

the very bottom shelf of each of these will be filled with art books, and I plan to fill the other shelves with my fabric -- it will be good to have that where I can see the color but it is safely behind glass to be kept clean


Taking a little break:

we invited our daughter, son in law and grandson to come and have dinner with us last night, and since my son in law was working yesterday, my daughter and Mr Cute came earlier in the day to spend some time

while Mr Cute was having quiet time, I gave my daughter a sewing lesson

she brought some flannel and made her very first pair of pj pants for Mr Cute

this is the face of a successful sewing lesson completed!!

and Mr Cute gave them the seal of approval by putting them on right away and spending the rest of the evening in them -- fun


Dealing with artistic fear:

I worked on this piece a little bit this week

I've done a lot of stitching on the bigger trees

True confession time:  while I am still committed to this piece, I am not happy with the way those trees look

it's time to "Be Brave" and risk ruining it

for the last two days I've been thinking that what I need to do is either a lot more fusing of more varieties of colored fabrics over parts of those trunks or to paint them

or there is option three which would entail many, many, MANY more hours of stitching

I'm leaning toward the fusing of more fabric -- mainly because I know I can do that in small steps -- and I'm really afraid of the paint thing because .... well, I just am (and I know that may be in the end how  I put the snow on them)

no wonder so much work has been done on beading this week -- I'm trying to deal with the "Fear Factor" on this piece!

like I said -- time to Be Brave!

rocking through the week

and a busy one it was!

the list is out for the Hoffman Challenge 2015

this piece will be traveling until about this time next year with the traveling trunks

I will get to see the entire exhibit at The Ranch in Loveland, August 15 thru 17 as the Rocky Mountain Quilt Festival is the only place all of the pieces appear together

on Monday I got to see this quilt (which I submitted to the Sacred Threads exhibit)

as it appears in this book -- the catalog of the entire exhibit

this was a great thrill for me as it is the first place one of my quilted pieces has appeared in a show that is that tough to get in to

I've been working on this piece of jewelry this week, and it is now ready for backing and fringe and a "chain"

the gradation of color on this worked really well

and since the next show for jewelry that I will apply for will be held in September, I'm thinking about fall themed pieces for that

this will be a beaded pin

and there was enough of the prepared backing in the center of the necklace that is almost finished to do the beading in for this piece -- cool -- no wasting!

the trees have all been fused down on this piece now, and I have started doing the color stitching --

the first step was to use black in the very center of every branch and trunk

I'm still doing the hand stitching of that part on those little bitty trees/bushes at the very top along the horizon, but the bigger trees were all done on the machine, and I've started doing the lighter color along the outside edges of each one

I decided that the light for this piece is beyond the horizon on the right hand side, so I'm shading and highlighting accordingly

and the biggest news of the week

the basement has been magically converted into the studio space!

my contractor was here on Friday to finish up the bathroom -- including hanging that antique mirror and the carpet guys were here Friday evening to put down the carpet

the final inspection was done on Friday too, so I can start moving things in --- WOO HOO!!

I'm so glad to be through this step and ready to start setting up shop

ArtWalk Longmont and other activities of the week

this was part of my set up for ArtWalk, which concluded yesterday

because it's July, I used a lot of my summer themed pieces for this show

the next ArtWalk is in September, and I will feature more fall things then

one of the fun things about ArtWalk is that it is held in the quirky old buildings in downtown

my pieces have been in the Inspire Salon and Spa, and I could not resist taking pictures of the finishes on the wall (check out the cool pieces of weathered and painted wood!) and the random pieces of tile work at the front entry

it's a fun environment

and while we're discussing environment -- here are the latest pictures of the progress in the studio

the painters have been here doing the walls, the flooring is down in the main room of the studio and the cabinet, sink and counter tops are set in the bathroom

on Friday my contractor told me I can plan to be able to start moving into this space the end of next week

Wooo Hoooo!

meantime, in the makeshift studio upstairs, work continues on the shed door projects

there are now 3 of the 12 that needed stitching that have been done -- only 9 more to go

and the kitchen counter got pressed into service for the layout on this piece

the plan was to have this piece on the left finished in time for the ArtWalk show this week -- and that just didn't come together

so I have put it aside for now and started on something new --- hope to get both of them finished shortly

and the fabric for the kitchen arrived this week --- it's pretty cool to be thinking about making things out of fabric I designed!

hoping to get lots done this week

of floors and doors and some art work

welcome to the studio

the work has progressed to the stage that there is a door at the bottom of the stairs (which also means the work noise is somewhat muffled while noisy things like compressors are running, which is a big relief!)

but that is not the only door that is in place

the rest of them have been all fitted up with hinges and trimmed so they fit perfectly

and the tile for the bathroom is all in too

the painting begins bright and early tomorrow morning -- Yippee!

meantime, work on art continues

on Tuesday I'll be setting up my pieces in a local beauty salon where they will be on display until Saturday evening's ArtWalk 

this necklace won't be done for Tuesday's set up, but it should be by Saturday

 I've returned to working on shed doors

the quilting on this one is now done and it needs to be trimmed and bound

the stitching on this one is still in process

I wasn't sure I would like this one -- it was the very last one I stitched and the last one I painted and so far it is the one with the most stitching -- I think it's going to be okay

this is moving along too

on Friday I went into my local quilt store to pick up a spool of thread to do the thread painting on the snow part of this piece -- ended up with 5 spools of thread and some fabric for the next part of this -- hmmm, thread is like potato chips, you can't get just one!

the other exciting thing that happened this week has to do with finally accomplishing something that I set out to do six years ago

when I joined SAQA I was specifically looking for a one on one mentor to help me take the work up that next step that would help me get my work into more shows  and possibly into a gallery

at the time, SAQA didn't have a one on one program in place, so I just continued to do "independent study" and ask a lot of questions of anyone that would listen

this month SAQA instituted a mentor program, and I signed up right away -- this morning I got the email that the program coordinator has matched me up with someone and I should hear from her soon -- very exciting!

look at that --- a new dedicated studio and a mentor all in one summer --- no more excuses!  time to get to work

progress on all fronts

this arrived in the mail on Thursday 

it is the sample swatch of the fabric I designed for my kitchen, and I have to say it is pretty cool to see my work transformed into cloth!

yesterday I ordered 4 yards of the fabric to use for the planned projects

and shortly I will make the fabric available for purchase through SpoonFlower -- pretty cool!

I have been working on this piece with a little more urgency this week -- I think I might actually be able to get it finished for the Art Walk show I'm doing on July 18th

the four bracelets I had planned for that show are already finished, so this one is a "bonus"!

and that is not the only thing I've been working on

this is the background layer progress made this week on the quilted piece

coming along

meantime, this photo that I took this week has become the focus of a design idea for another art quilt for a competition that has a deadline of October 1

hmmmm --- can I do this?  two big projects with deadlines within 30 days of each other?

time will tell

just because I'm working on those big projects doesn't mean I haven't been doing anything else

these two pictures are actually one hat -- totally reversible -- that I made for Mr Cute this week

he was pretty amazed by it when I gave it to him yesterday when they returned from their trip to see his other grandparents

while they were away, we had their two little dogs for "sleep over camp" at grandma's

and since I still have contractors in an out working on my studio, it made for some interesting days!

these pictures don't look like much but what they mean is that all of the drywall is up, taped and textured

tomorrow the work on finishing begins -- painting, flooring, plumbing, lighting -- and the goal here is to be all done by the end of July

whooo hoooo!

and there was a bit of outdoor work done this week too

the pots were a free find from a neighbor lady that wanted to get them out of her garage -- I'm thrilled to have them

each pot has some big rocks in the bottom then some pea gravel on top to hold the wood flowers

I need to get another bag of pea gravel to finish them up, but I love this on my back deck! 

it looks like I will need to repaint them before next summer, but for now I'm just going to enjoy