A long-overdue update -- part 1

At least one of my faithful blog readers has noticed that it's been a long time since I posted anything, and wrote to ask me whether something dire was going on.  Thanks for asking, Karen, and no, nothing awful has happened on my end, except that for some reason I have gotten out of the blog habit and will have to perform some brain surgery on myself to get back in.  So I will do a couple of posts to bring you up to date on what's been going on since last fall.

First, an update on my daily art.  After 365 paintings in 2022, I came to the conclusion that I love to paint, but I have no ideas that I want to express in that medium.  I love the paint on the palette, the paint on the brush, the feel of the brush on the paper.  I love mixing colors and watching the accidental effects of wet-into-wet.  But throughout the year I struggled with what to paint.  I would get an idea, usually by copying from somebody else, and paint it more than once to see if it might strike a chord and stay with me.

In the past, when a student in my workshop or a blog reader would ask me whether they had my permission to use a technique I have used or taught, I would say of course you may (nobody owns an idea).  And if you like the technique, make it three times and by then it will change enough that it will belong to you, not to me.  I tried to apply this rule of thumb to my painting.

I've posted about the faces I painted based on black-and-white photos in the paper.  I did that 52 times, and maybe10 of them were pretty good.  But they were getting repetitive, and I didn't think that they in any way belonged to me.  

I thought maybe if I put some stitching into the paintings it would resonate, since stitching is so integral to the rest of my artistic life.  I made several with hand stitching, and a few with machine stitching, and again, I liked them, but there was no surge of desire to keep on making them and after ten tries I stopped trying.

I had a nice long run at the end of the year with 15 paintings following the tutorials of Vanidas Mangathil on Instagram (he's also on YouTube).  I loved painting the little people and I highly recommend his instruction if you're into painting little people.  But after two weeks I didn't see any signs of them moving into my art space.

By the end of the year, I had decided that I was done with painting.  In fact, I even cut up a bunch of pages from my painting sketchbooks to make my Christmas ornaments.

Christmas Eve

Even with pandemic canceling our usual big family Christmas dinner, it's a festive afternoon here.  Three pies just out of the oven, making the house smell of spice.  Two jars of cranberry-orange relish, ready to be delivered tomorrow for the socially-distanced-crowdsourced dinner.  (And what a nice coincidence that just when you need two travel containers, here are two empty glass jars ready to be washed out and reused.)

There was a sad moment this morning when we realized that the annual pumpkin has reached the end of the road.  

Not sure if it split open from freezing or because a critter nibbled on it, but it is definitely ready to depart.  I lobbied for it to stay out on the deck through tomorrow, since it will likely stay below freezing the whole time, but I was overruled.  Ken has not-so-fond memories of having to deal with pumpkins beyond their sell-by date that disintegrated into piles of mush, and was determined not to do it again this year.

So good-bye pumpkin, you've been a good friend since September, visible from my seat at the table, glowing in the sunshine in early morning and again when the sun wheels around in late afternoon, giving me joy every time I see it.  Rest in peace.

I've been getting photos of the 2020 ornaments on display in various homes.  Pinned to a quilt, hanging on a doorknob, embraced by a ceramic pig, even one hung on a tree!  

When I retired twenty years ago I brought home a bunch of old office supplies that I had carefully rescued from wastebins and the back shelves of storerooms.  Obsolete stationery, pens left over from long-ago promotional mailings, that sort of thing -- and a big shoebox of old slides.  I knew they would come in handy some day, and this year I used the slide mounts to frame my calligraphed names.  This proves that you should never throw anything out, because there will come a time....

Here's wishing you all a very merry Christmas, or whatever holiday you are celebrating this week.  See you all in the new year -- which WILL BE BETTER!  

Ornament time

As I have done for at least 40 years, I'm making ornaments this year.  In the beginning of this project, my work time was focused on coming up with a new idea each year, and in a good year, adding one or two people to the list -- new in-laws, new babies, new friends.  Lately it's a good year when I don't have to take someone off the list, and in this year of pandemic, it's especially heartening that I haven't lost anyone.

My daily art for the last two years has been calligraphy, so it's probably no surprise that I'm writing the names for the ornaments.  I usually just do initials, plus the year, but on the infrequent occasions when I've spelled out full names, I've never done so with a writing implement!  So, a first this year (hard to accomplish when the series has been going on for so long).

I visited my friend Marti last week and was delighted to find that she has hung all the ornaments I've given her over the years in a place of honor, pinned to a beautiful pale green quilt that she made.  This will be year #22 that she's been on the list, a long time and so many shared memories.

I left it too late this year, should have started my ornaments in October as it became apparent how unreliable postal service has become of late.  I got the two international envelopes in the mail a couple of weeks ago, but the US batch won't go till tomorrow morning.  Fingers are crossed for all of them to arrive on time.  Or if they can't get there for Christmas, at least before New Year so the "2020" won't be a lie. 

And the winner is...

Sharon Buck, who's going to get an ornament from me -- if she sends me her snail mail address. 

(I'm at artwithaneedle@gmail.com if anybody ever needs to find me.)

Last week on Art With a Needle

I spent four days at the retreat center, an outing that always comes at the most inconvenient time -- we have a perpetual reservation for the second week in December.  Yes, it might be more efficient to be at home working on Christmas ornaments or getting a start on holiday baking or just cleaning the studio, but a small group of us write it on the calendar a year ahead of time and we show up, even though it may mean missing another meeting or driving in from the retreat center for a meeting we need to attend. 

I didn't accomplish much art, but I did go through many, many piles of accumulated stuff and got the stuff read, sorted, acted upon or thought about, as the case may be.  A huge grocery bag full of discarded paper to go in the recycling bin.  I also did my good deed for the joint causes of friendship and literature by reading the draft of a mystery novel written by the husband of one of my art pals.  I'm a good editor, if I do say so myself, and I love mystery stories, so I was happy to spend time with this book and think about what I liked, what I felt was not fully explained, where I wanted more detail, and similar global issues.

I read a neat book about hand embroidery that one of my friends had brought along, and got a bunch of ideas that I'd like to experiment with.  The same friend showed me some little dolls she had gotten from Guatemala, dressed in bits of handwoven fabrics, which in turn inspired me to make a little doll as a daily miniature.

little dolls from Guatemala -- maybe one inch tall?

my favorite miniature -- the dress is a scrap from Vickie's quilt

Since returning home, I've been sewing on ornaments.  All the international ones are in the mail, but several in the US still have to be sent, plus the hand-delivered ones in town.  Left it too late this year, I guess.

Susan Sawatzky was so kind as to send me a link to a YouTube video on calligraphy, but when I went to the site I was told the video is unavailable.  Sob.  I'd love some new ideas on calligraphy.  This week, preoccupied with affairs of state, I have mostly been copying the Constitution.  Sounds boring, but we could all probably do with a refresher course in what that wonderful document says and thus how our government works.
 

Last week on Art With a Needle

Last week started in frustration (trying to get going on my annual ornaments), took a break for a big Thanksgiving feast, then ended in a LOT of sewing.

I worked on ornaments, now that I have finally pretty much figured out what to do, plus two small postage stamp quilts that I want to put into the holiday show at PYRO Gallery and must be finished by Monday or Tuesday.

Every December we have a group show at the gallery, in which every member of the co-op has work on display, and we try to include things toward the inexpensive end of the scale to be more appealing for gift purchases.  I am mostly showing old work, because my artmaking is focused on a solo show that will open in mid-June -- not all that far off.  But I thought I would make a couple of new postage stamp pieces because they have sold well in the past.  So here they are, sewed together, awaiting their hanging rods.

Readers left a bunch of comments about not being able to find things.  Anne wrote: "That's what always happens when I try to clean up.  I can't find stuff!"  Rose wrote: "I can so relate to spending hours hunting for something.  Too often for me, it is something I have just had.  And then there are the times I spend half an hour looking for something I have had and haven't moved since I had it last!"

Carol wrote: "What I hate is when I think I am not going to use a tool anymore and gift it to someone.  Then a blog friend piques my interest again and I have to decide if I want to buy another one."  Amen, Carol -- and I wish I remembered who has my embellisher machine (aka needle-felter), which I did not give away but loaned, maybe three years ago?  and it has never come home...

Finally, Boomer Rose wanted to see exactly what I'm making for the ornament because she might be able to make some before Christmas.  I don't want to post photos of the ornaments until Christmas Day, because many of the recipients are readers of the blog and I don't want to spoil the surprise.  But Rose, if you send me your email, I'll send you pictures and helpful hints.  Same goes for anybody else who might be inspired to make some little goodies for your tree.

And there's still time (until Monday) to leave a comment and maybe you can be the lucky reader to get an ornament all your own! 

Here's my favorite miniature of the week:

Ornaments -- more obstacles to overcome

Last week I finally came up with a plan for my annual Christmas ornaments, and delegated my daughter-in-law to buy some white wool felt for me.  Yes, I was planning to not only use felt, but felt the felt -- I had some bits and pieces of other colored wool felt left from previous projects and thought I would needle-felt them together onto the white background.

But first I had to find my needle-felting tool.  It had been in my work box for months, at the ready in case I wanted to felt up a miniature for my daily art project.  Toward the end of summer I decided to police up the studio, and I put the needle-felting tool away. 

Bad plan. 

Where is "away"?

I spent all day Tuesday trying to find the tool.  Meanwhile, I put away many, many, many other things that I found in the studio that didn't belong out on the worktables.  Lots of fabric and thread that needed to be folded up and stowed back in the drawers.  Lots of open boxes of whatever that could be closed up and put back on the shelves.  Lots of stuff that could be thrown away.  But no needle-felting tool.

This morning I went out to buy a new one.  At only the second store, I found one!  I read the back of the package to re-familiarize myself with how it works.  The barbed needles are encased in a protective floating plastic sheath so you don't stab yourself.  To use it, turn the sheath to the Unlock position and when you press down on the handle, the sheath will stop when it hits the surface of the felt, while the needles continue to penetrate and felt the wool. 

Except my sheath wouldn't stay in the Unlock position, with the red market dots aligned.  It popped back an eighth of an inch, just enough so the needles couldn't float free and penetrate the wool.  (This photo, of course, is upside down -- when you use the tool the needles point down into the felt and the handle is up in your hand.)

After some muttering and cussing I decided that I could just wire the sheath open.  It wouldn't pass the user safety test, but it should allow me to finish my project.

So finally I started to apply the needles to the felt.  But after at least a minute of energetic stabbing, I realized that the two pieces of wool weren't adhering to another at all.  Hmmm.  I tried some other bits of wool and they didn't work either. 

By now I had spent a full work day in the studio, plus a half day of shopping, and still didn't have a thing to show for it.  Time to go to Plan G, or whatever letter I had reached. 

So I sewed the two pieces of felt together instead of felting them.  In two more hours of studio time I got almost one quarter of my ornaments well underway.  Finally, a plan that is working.

For which I am thankful.

PS I guess you have all been busy grocery shopping and baking pies for the holiday, instead of reading blogs.  I am extending my offer to give away an ornament to a reader who leaves a comment until Monday.  And now that you know that the ornament is going to be made of felt but sewed together, I bet you really, really want one.

Merry Christmas!

Since my daily art project this year has been maps, what else should I use in the Christmas ornaments?

Early in the year I made several daily arts with letters cut from maps pasted onto map backgrounds, experimenting with varying degrees of value contrast.  I liked the effect and thought it would work on a smaller scale for ornaments.

I cut up various maps and mounted them on small squares of mat bord, then cut initials from maps of different colors.  My early attempts were too low-contrast, so I mounted the initials on solid color paper, just enough to give a sharp outline.

On the back, I wrote the year with a brush and india ink.

As often happens, I got all the ornaments that needed to be mailed done in time, but lollygagged over those to be delivered in town.  I just finished the ones for Ken and me yesterday afternoon.  I rationalize my procrastination by saying that there is no more peaceful activity on Christmas Eve than to be in the studio, finishing up a task I love.

We don't exchange a lot of presents at Christmas time, thus sparing us the "joys" of crowded stores and traffic jams.  Instead I treasure the quiet time of making ornaments every year for a lot of special people.

I wish for every one of my friends, family and internet pals a happy Christmas and a very good year ahead.

Carol and Leigh -- are you there?

Send me an email to  artwithaneedle@gmail.com  and I'll send you an ornament!

Ornaments -- still slogging away

I've been in the studio every day since Thanksgiving working on the ornaments.  Happy to report that after I spilled a glass of water all over my mat board, it dried without a trace.  I had a false start on the hanging apparatus -- made a handful with wire and then decided to use cord instead.

didn't like these hangers (sorry, no peeking)

cut them off

this is better

Now it's just a production line, cutting and pasting and punching and knotting. I have been amusing myself while working by watching the entire season of Dancing With the Stars, recorded through the fall but not touched until last week.  I have always felt confident that in the end one of the best dancers would win, despite the stubborn persistence of Bristol Palin or her awkward counterparts each season, whose fans vote them in the running long, long past their sell-by date.  But this year I am getting a bad feeling.

And for my own stubborn fans, if Carol and Leigh will send me your addresses, you'll be getting an ornament too!

Frustration over Christmas / thankful at Thanksgiving

Later this year than ever in the past, I have started grappling with the specifics of my Christmas ornaments.  I've had the general idea for the ornaments for several weeks, but in the flurry of activity of teaching, getting a solo show launched, and being sick for a week, I haven't actually sat down to work on them until Tuesday.  And it was a frustrating day.

First off, I couldn't buy mat board in any of the colors I had in mind, such as pale sage green, pale gray or pale yellow.  Settled for a gold, which is perfectly lovely, but not what I had in mind.  Couldn't decide which kind of glue to use -- YES! paste or glue stick.  Neither of them called out "Use me!!" Made a bunch of each one and waited to let them dry properly.

The last time I made ornaments using mat board I had a terrible time getting a hole punched through for the hanging cord.  I think I ended up using my industrial-strength hole punch and really leaning on it, which worked but gave me holes a lot bigger than I had wanted.  After that experience I purchased a set of heavy-duty paper punches which are supposed to drill neat little holes in three different sizes.  I forgot all about them, until miraculously a couple of days ago I came across them in a drawer while looking for something else.  Wow!  Serendipity!  Synchronicity!

So Tuesday I whipped out my new punches, found the right size, followed the directions and whapped them two or three times with hammer blows -- and the punch went through about half of the mat board.  Whapped some more with very little result.  Rooted around in a drawer and found a hole punch about the same size, which got me through the remaining layers, but "about the same size" also means "messy around the edges."  Futzed around with the punch for a while and got it a bit neater.

Wednesday was a slightly better day.  I figured out how to make the punch work better -- the very low-tech solution of positioning the board directly over the table leg so the table doesn't bend away from the blade when hit.  On the other hand, Wednesday was when I spilled a glass of water over my large uncut mat board.  Two steps forward, one step back.

I worked for a while on Wednesday while thinking about the issues yet to be resolved.  What size?  I had cut some two-inch squares and they seemed too small.  Then I cut some three-inch squares and they seemed too big.  Maybe two-and-a-half inches?  Maybe I need to incorporate paint into this process.  Beads?  Wire?  Linoleum printing?  If I didn't have to produce Thanksgiving dinner for nine people I could sit down and make a lot of progress today.

But let's be positive.  I am thankful that I have eight wonderful people to produce Thanksgiving dinner for.  I am thankful that I have 48 dear friends and family to make Christmas ornaments for.  I am thankful that my greatest worry this week has to do with paper punches instead of anything more serious.

As I do every year, I'd love to add one or two of my blog readers to the ornament list.  Leave a comment before Monday midnight and you might be the winner this year.  Trust me, by the time you get your ornament in the mail I will have figured out how to do it.

The excellent Christmas display

I know Christmas is over, but I wanted to show you the wonderful display that my dear friend and art pal Marti Plager had up for the holidays.  I've known Marti for 20 years or so and have been giving her and George Christmas ornaments almost that whole time.  This year Marti hung up a beautiful quilt of her own hand-dyed and -printed fabric, in a subtle green that made a perfect background for a whole lot of ornaments to be pinned up.

Many people have told me that they give some little place of honor to my ornaments, but I've never gotten such a great compliment as to have a whole wall full on display.  I am honored!

Ornaments 2017

I wanted to make small ornaments this year, and was happy when I found some little wooden cubes at the craft store, about 3/4 inch on the side, pre-stained in several different colors.  Best of all, there were 72 in the pack, and I have only about 50 people on my ornament list, so I could ruin some without having to make an emergency run to the store for more raw materials.

But what do you expect for 5 cents apiece -- some of the cubes were pretty rough on one or more sides, so I had to apply gesso and sand and then paint over the white gesso, so some ended up two-tone.  That took me a while, because of the drying time -- I'd get a bunch to the next stage but not be able to get back to work till the next day.

Finally the fun part: wire and beads to "wrap up" the little packages.

Christmas is coming

My longtime faithful readers know that every year I make personalized Christmas ornaments for my family and friends.  Often the task of actually making the ornaments is less onerous than the task for figuring out what to make, because after 40+ years of this project, when every year has to be different from the ones before, it gets harder and harder to come up with new ideas.  But this year I was fortunate to be browsing around in the craft store when I found some raw materials that suggested their own finished product.

This week I got down to business, found all the necessary tools and supplies -- and didn't even have to go to the store to buy anything new -- and started work.

So far, things are proceeding smoothly.  I did have a near-disaster over the weekend, when I reached for a tube of paint and was dismayed to find that it had spurted a leak at its base and there was a huge blob of yellow on the front of my shirt.  I raced to the sink and scrubbed and scrubbed with a vegetable brush, and I think got it all out (haven't run it through the wash yet).  But at least it didn't spring its leak in its previous position, on the carpet.

Many little beads have escaped onto the floor, but one of these days I'll send Isaac down with a flashlight and a little dish and let him retrieve as many as he can.

For several years I've also been making an ornament for one of my blog readers.  If you would like to be in the running this year, just leave a comment on the blog between now and Friday midnight.

Christmas ornaments

As usual, I made Christmas ornaments this year -- except that I probably should just call them "ornaments" because I decided that I needed to give some to a few Jewish friends.  Since there are no religious symbols on them, I hope they can be appreciated as Hanukkah gifts, or just plain end-of-year gifts.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, the main tool this year was the heat gun.  I had discovered many years ago in a workshop with Jeanne Beck that a heat gun does interesting things to synthetic fabrics, and I had also noted that when you heat up nylon cord, it will melt together and resemble blobs of glass.  So that was the concept.  But there were plenty of learning experiences along the way.

I needed the ornaments to include the recipients' initials and the year, which obviously couldn't be done with a heat gun, so I wrote the data onto small strips of ultrasuede.  I discovered that a Sharpie works a whole lot better than a Micron pen for writing on ultrasuede; the Sharpie dries instantly, while the Micron takes forever, risking smudges if you handle it carelessly even days later.

The main part of the ornament was going to be a roll of fabric to give body, then wrapped with nylon cord and beads and melted all together.  I didn't want fraying edges, so I pinned the bit of fabric into shape (the bottom edge was a selvage, so it was OK as is) and stitched the ultrasuede and the hanging cord firmly in place.

Then I rolled the fabric up and pinned it in place.

One of  my early learnings was that ultrasuede, being a synthetic material, will scorch and melt when hit with the heat.  And the cotton fabric, while fairly heat-resistant, will scorch with too much heat.  So I wrapped up the vulnerable parts in denim to protect them, and put the package into my holder.  (Wood also scorches with heat, as you can see.)

My  first plan was to wrap this bundle in the nylon cord, probably with some beads strung on, and then melt everything into a nice glasslike blob.  But I quickly learned that the cord wants to melt and separate long before there's enough heat to fuse the whole construction together.  So I had to string the beads on heavy cotton thread and wrap the bundle securely, then wrap the nylon on as a separate step.  Even though the cord might come apart, the beads will stay where they belong.

After I got the nylon cord melted, I loosely wrapped the bundles again with a metallic thread, which frizzled up beautifully with the heat to make little halos around the bundles.

I like these ornaments; they're way different than anything I've done before, and that's a challenge after you've been at it for decades.  Early recipients have told me they look mysterious and rich -- exactly the effect I was hoping for.

I hope you all had a good Christmas, or Hanukkah, or Kwanzaa, or whatever festivity you might care to celebrate at this year end.  It hasn't been the best of years, but let's find all the joy we can where we can.

Christmas approaches

Halloween is just behind us and already we're thinking of -- not Thanksgiving -- but Christmas.  Long-time readers know that making Christmas ornaments is a big deal with me; every year needs a new design and since the list is nearing 50, it takes a while to crank them out.  Sometimes at the beginning of November I don't even have a plan yet, but this year I'm happy to report that not only do I have a plan, but I have made about half of them and the first batch is already winging (or perhaps floating) its way to Europe.

I can't show you anything till Christmas, but I can tantalize you with the news that the major tool involved in this year's construction is a heat gun.

2007 -- major tool, computerized sewing machine

2004 -- major tool, polymer clay

2005 -- major tool, bead loom



















And as usual, I'm wanting to make an ornament for one of my blog followers.  Leave a comment between now and election day (yes, election day is finally getting here and our long national nightmare will be over, to misquote Gerald Ford) and I'll choose one of you to be thrilled and surprised.

Christmas ornaments 2015

Everybody who's getting an ornament this year should have already opened it, so I should be safe in showing you what they look like.  After a couple of years of textiles I had the urge to do a new material this time and chose wood.  The construction process was a learning experience, some of which I will share with you.

Lesson 1:  if you're trying out a new material that might possibly break, bend, melt, split or otherwise lose its structural integrity while you work on it, buy some extras.  A lot of extras.

Lesson 2:  if you need to make 50 ornaments and they have only 42 blank whatevers in the store, do not buy them and figure you will come back later to get more.

After a lot of cussing and fussing I decided to call this the year of wabi sabi ornaments, referencing the grand Japanese tradition of mending, using and treasuring objects that are beat up and hard worn.  The plan was to emboss people's names onto the ornaments by whapping in my steel letter punches.  That worked great except for the ones that split (see Lesson 1).  At first I threw away the ones that split.  Later I decided I had to mend them and use them anyway, since I was unable to buy more blanks (see Lesson 2).

But let's don't focus on the difficulties.  After the punched letters turned out to be not as legible as I had planned, I decided to cover them up with jewelry.  The part with the beads and the wire curlicues was a lot easier and a lot more fun than the part with the wood, so I ended up my project happy.

Merry Chistmas to everybodyl!

Photo suite 207 -- Christmas south of the border

Several of our travels have found us in Latin America at Christmas season.  The impulse to decorate seems to be universal, even if the weather is sultry.

Recife, Brasil

Ushuaia, Argentina

Nassau, Bahamas

Manaus, Brasil

San Juan, Puerto Rico