SOWA Open Market 2010 Boston

The SOWA Open Market is a great place to find all kinds of great products and meet the artists who make those products.  There are jewelry vendors to clothing vendors, furniture to pottery.  Lots of people of all ages from all over the globe.  It's a great family place to go and you can bring your pet too!  There are food vendors selling breads, fruits and vegetables and flowers as well as sandwiches, beverages and snacks. Take a look at the pictures above (I did not take these) for an idea of what the SOWA  is all about.  It runs throughout the summer and into the fall.  I am not sure what the last date is but I will post it if I find out.

Rusty Ol' Cotton

Rusted Cotton Fabric left on a clean piece of steel for a short period of time.

This piece was placed on the steel after the one above so the rust is a bit more saturated .

The rust has spread and the fabric has captured the image of this migration.  The contrast of the white mingled in gives interest to the piece as the well as the darker areas, there is a sense of depth.

This particular piece of fabric was left on for over a week and as you can see the rusting continues even though the piece was dry.  Rust would eventually distress the fabric even more creating holes and even turning the fabric into nothing but rust dust with little evidence of what was once there.

This is a closeup of the previous picture.

These small pieces of old cotton have been rusted.  These small pieces of old cotton have been rusted.  They were made as an experiment to see what would happen to fabric left to deteriorate on a piece of steel which was brushed to a clean surface.  Each piece was left in place undisturbed for a day or so.  The steel was not cleaned between each application of fabric.  Here are the results of my casual experiment.

 

Just a couple of dolls

Race Car Doll - showing detail of race car banner

back side Race Car Doll

Race Car Doll face and hair

Race Car Doll front view

Detail of crocheted miniature basket

Detail of painted on face, necklace (turquoise stone) and wool jacket

Front view of Gypsy Doll.  Free form croceht skirt, painted legs with texture.

Here are two more dolls that I made.   They are not your typical play dolls.  Made from cotton mostly and any other materials that I had on hand to use.  The Racing Car Doll has little cast racing cars on her sash that were made by Ralph Scudieri.  Many of the materials used in the "dressing" of these two dolls were things that would have otherwise have been tossed into the trash.  Instead I have re- purposed those items.  The skirt on the Gypsy Doll with the red hat was crocheted by me with embroidery floss as was the little basket she carries in her hand.  The basket has a blue lapis egg in it!  The dolls were painted with ordinary latex interior house paint.  Can you tell what some of the items used are or what they are from?

Guardian Angel Ida

This little doll was entered in the Quilting Arts Magazine call for "Guardian Angels" a few years ago.  Her name is Ida.


  The story behind of Ida goes like this:  I was going over to my mother in law's house one very snowy evening.  Enough snow had fallen on the ground making it difficult to drive on the streets. It was slow going, I was being very careful though.  Going down a steep hill I could feel that my brakes were working yet I was still sliding down hill as the wheel were not turning  I  could see to my left that there was a car coming down the road and that I would be intersecting it.  It had four young boys in their late teens inside.  They saw me coming. Fortunately the driver had enough sense to realize that I was not able to stop my vehicle and swerved out of harms way just as I was able to do the same.  They ended up in a snow bank as did I on opposite sides of the road.  I quickly ran out to make sure that everyone was safe.  I was very nervous but quickly my fears were dispelled as the four young kids got out of their car laughing and carrying on and grateful that no one was hurt.  I would have hated to have been the cause of grief for someone's parents.  It was a close call.  Smart thinking on their part and a little guardian angel on my shoulder kept everyone out of harms way.

  My mother in law passed away on Christmas Day that year, two days before her birthday.  It was that same week that this near miss happened.  I was very grateful she was watching over all of us.  She still watches over us.  I hope those four boys are happy and safe young men in life today.  I hope they remember the day that their lives could have been much different had things turned out badly.

   So when Quilting Arts Magazine presented this call to entry I wanted to make a doll but could not come up with an idea. . . until that day when we all walked away laughing about this almost accident. 

   Ida is made of 100% cotton body.  The legs are painted with regular household acrylic paint, with dots of white.  Hair is feathery yarn, you know the kind that was in everyone's scarves a few years ago.  Her top is habatoi silk with an arashi pattern that I dyed.  Skirt is just a nylon gauze ribbon with a beaded trim for the waistband. The wings were sewn on my sewing machine using a wash out stabilizer and I just kept sewing until I got it right!  There are two sets of wings, a primary set (larger) and a secondary set (smaller).  Her face and arms are painted in flesh tone, with a green eyed angelic face painted on.

Recent Dyeing Activity

No, I did not fall off the planet, but I have been at the studio dyeing.  I thought I would post one of my projects while in the beginning stages.  So here is an image or two of what I have been up to.

This is a cotton/bamboo blend that has been wrapped and placed in a pretty saturated dye bath of orange.  I love orange as it reminds me (along with a whole bunch of others) of autumn when the leaves begin to change.  I am fortunate enough to live in the north where I can witness this change every year.  I am always in awe of this change like I am seeing it for the first time every time.  Great inspiration.

Anyhow I will be unwrapping this fabric and re-wrapping it so that I can over dye it.  I am hoping to achieve a fall like appearance to the color scheme.  It would appear that I am on the right track from the looks of it at this point. 

Enough blathering, I will post soon again.  Smiles

Thought that I would share a picture or two of "The Gardener's Hand" with you.  This piece was an experiment of sorts.  It is accented lightly with beadwork and  a multiple of wax resist methods was used to achieve the designs.  You can see this and a few other quilts and things by clicking on the Fiberarts/Mixed media logo to the right.

Featured in Treasury

I am thrilled that I have been featured in "Grand Canyon" treasury on etsy.  Here is the link:
http://www.etsy.com/treasury/4c50a8c1bb2d6d915f2e676b/grand-canyon?index=4 
 Please come a visit, it is a beautiful array of oranges like one might see at the Grand Canyon.  My thanks to Orito, Jewelry from our Earth for including me in this treasury.  Here is a link to Orito:   
http://www.etsy.com/shop/oritostore

  This is my Colors of Summer silk scarf that is featured along with the other gems in the treasury.

First Vendor Event!

  Well last weekend it could not have been any more humid had it rained!  It was also just warm enough to make it really uncomfortable, but in spite of the humidity and hot sun bearing down on all of us we had a great time.  Our neighbor Cheri aka Betty was quite a character, we really enjoyed her company and optimism.  Dotty also is a new found friend.  We plan to meet sometime in the next week or so.
  Sales for me were better than I had expected as it was a 4 H event where activities are the main focus.  Those who dropped in to see what I was selling seemed to like what they saw and a few people even made a purchase or two.  
  The 4 H Country Fair was filled with activities.  Horse riding competitions - what beautiful animals horses are;  oxen pulling (great BIG animals, WOW), iron man competition where they were flipping 500lb tires!  The younger crowd were showing some of their livestock: cows, chickens and what not - hoping for that blue ribbon prize.  Pie eating and  skillet throwing contests.  Birds of Prey organization was there as well singing groups for young and old alike.  There were even alpacas there from a nearby farm where there is a herd of 85 of these lovely big eyed sweet looking mammals.  Alpacas have a beautiful soft downy texture wool.   Glen Ridge Alpaca Farm in Portsmouth, RI is the home of  these docile animals. They are on Facebook for more information.   It really was a fun time in spite of the sweltering weather. 
  I was glad I was there.  Glen Park in Portsmouth, RI is a nice, well kept park and the city should be proud of it as well as Glen Ridge Alpaca Farm.