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Do what bring JOY!! Everyday…

by Filed Under: Inspiration & Education, Photography, Wellness & Mindset 4 Comments

Find the time each day to do what bring JOY!

This is the most fun post in the whole wellness series.  I find joy in so many simple things.

Some of the things that bring me joy are:

Birdwatching; a finch on sunflowers

do what bring JOY

Playing with and petting my cats

Best Friend Kitties

Going for a walk or dance!

walking: tree reflection
Creating my art~!Knitting with sumptuous yarn; here’s a ribbon and mohair chain necklace.

mohair ribbon knit chain

Gardening (in season but even my houseplants bring me joy); this is my salad table on our deck

Garden salad table

Preparing and eating good food; today I baked Orange Chocolate Oatmeal cookies (recipe coming on Friday!) and a Tuna Nicoise Sandwich for lunchTuna Nicoise Sandwich

Flower gazing (do you ever just gaze at the flowers?)

Lemon Geranium detail

…a few more things…

Feeling the sun on my body

Talking to a loved friend

Enjoying a glass of wine

Curling up with a good book

Taking photos

How do you bring Joy into your daily life?

Friday Field Trip::France

by Filed Under: Inspiration & Education 4 Comments

This is part one of a series where I’ll be sharing photo’s from my trip to Provence 2 years ago.  I have been very inspired by all things French lately and I never fully explored the imagery and inspiration that was all around us on this trip.

Produce at the French farmers markets I spent about 10 days in Provence with a girlfriend from college and her sister who was living there at the time.  It was fantastic to have her as our guide since she was fluent in French and knew her way around.  It made it so easy for us to sit back, relax and enjoy the sightseeing. Here is some of the beautiful produce at the weekly market in Orange, radishes, frisee lettuce, cheese (I love how they are wrapped!) and truffles!  We were lucky enough to be there during truffle season and we enjoyed a lovely homemade meal with truffles (I’ll share more on that evening another day).

French Photography shop and sign

Isn’t this sign charming?  It hung way above the street corner and I’m certain it attracted more than the fair share of photographers attention (both inside the shop and out).  Who needs and ADT sign with this impressive steel gate announcing “Attention Au Chien”.  I never saw a dog but with a sign engraved in your  gate you are certain to be more safe with or without a dog!

I wanted to share a bit more with you today but it seems I have come down with some bug and am going to put myself back to bed momentarily but I wanted to kick off French February with a couple images from Orange, which was home base for us for our many day trips around Provence.

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Favorite Fibers Friday Fieldtrip

by Filed Under: Art & Design, Handmade, Inspiration & Education 6 Comments

Happy Friday!  This has been a relaxing week and we’ve finally gotten some real snow.  As I sit here writing this there is snow on the ground and more falling.  Due to the snow this week I was unable to get out for my weekly field trip so today I’ll bring you some fibery goodness from around the web.  These are some of my all time favorite fiber artists (not an extensive list though).  I hope I’ve shared a few new artist and designers with you here, or some old favorites.  All photos are courtesy of the individual designers and artist websites and if you click the photo’s you will be directed to their sites.

                          Spirit Cloth Stitched and Quilted Textile

                    Red 2 White Felted Scarf

Alabama Chanin Pillow

                                     Betz White Scarves

Elyse Allen Knit Textiles

Favorite Fibers Friday Fieldtrip

                                          Anne Kyyro Quinn Textile Installations

                       Jeung-Hwa Park Shibori Knits

                             Tinctory Fiber Jewelry

I’m thrilled to have work by 4 of these fiber artists in my personal collection. Do you collect any fiber arts?

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Field Trip Friday::Oasis @ The Textile Museum

by Filed Under: Art, Art & Design, Inspiration & Education, Museums & Galleries, Textiles & Pattern 1 Comment

Colors of the Oasis: Central Asian Ikats (image copyright The Textile Museum)

I went to check this show out last week with a friend.  We had also intended to go to the Phillips Collection which was FREE to the public last weekend to celebrate their 90th, but alas the line was insanely long so that didn’t happen!  It was okay because I’d had this exhibit on my to-see list for way too long.  I admit that sometimes I take the Textile Museum for granted and don’t get as excited about some of the more traditional exhibits, boy was I wrong about this one!  I just thought it would be another nice Ikat exhibit (right~ you know I’m a textile designer when I say that) but it was so much better than I had anticipated!  Look at the COLORS, wow!  No wonder they called it Colors of the Oasis.

Colors of the Oasis: Central Asian Ikats (image copyright The Textile Museum)

This exhibit showcases 19th century Ikats from central Asia.  The collection (of over 200 Ikats but not all are on view was donated to the Textile Museum by collector  Murad Megalli.  This is the first time this collection has been on view for the public and many of the pieces were beautifully restored.

Colors of the Oasis: Central Asian Ikats (image copyright The Textile Museum)

They chose such a fantastic color for the walls to offset this collection.  I can’t say I’ve ever really noticed the walls at an art exhibit but this color really does the collection justice.  These warp ikat designs are characterized by vibrant colors (with a lot of primary’s used) and bold, rather large scale motif’s with quite a bit of contrast.

Colors of The Oasis: Central Asian Ikats (copyright The Textile Museum)

I would love to really be able to study the motifs and color combination’s used more closely, it was so inspiring.  It’s no wonder these magnificent textiles were a sign of prestige and status in the Oasis towns of Central Asia.  Colors of the Oasis: Central Asian Ikats (copyright The Textile Museum)The exhibit also featured a small display and video explaining the technique and process used to create warp Ikat designs.  These were contributed by students at MICA’s Fibers department.  The exhibit is also accompanied by an in depth exhibit catalog (that I would LOVE to have!).  I’ve been a member of The Textile Museum for the past 5 years and I’d greatly encourage you to donate or join if you are inclined to value the research and exhibitions in textiles that this world class museum provides.

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Victorian Inspired Textile Commission

by Filed Under: Art & Design, Handmade, Inspiration & Education, Organizing Projects 4 Comments


Victorian Inspired Textile Commission

I’m excited to share the latest completed textile commission I delivered to clients on Sunday.   This piece was commissioned to fit into a 2 story entrance area in a home that’s design is influenced by Victorian era elements.  I discussed the colors, size and overall feel that the client wanted.  The chandelier and fabric below are a couple of the main elements of design influence.  I wanted to use the peacock feather motif and the colors from the fabric.

I initially did these sketches to get ideas down and then choose materials.  Over the last 6 months or so I’ve worked at the piece at times knowing clearly what I wanted to do an at other times I let the piece sit while I figured out technical or  creative challenges I needed to solve.

A project like this is so rewarding because it challenges you to step into someone else design aesthetic while remaining true to your personal design style.  I knew that this client liked my weaving’s but without my loom set up currently, I was left to find another medium to work with. 

I choose to work elements of weaving into this piece by using the long hand dyed fringe as a major design component.  I also used a subtle toile fabric as the background and selectively  painted motifs that were inspired by a collection of hand colored etchings the client has.  I used layers of sheer fabric bringing in both color and metallic sheen.  Layers of texture are a common theme in my work and this piece ended up having 3 layers of fabric, 1 layer of fringe, feathers and embellishments including stitching and beading.  They were thrilled, I was thrilled and I was thrilled that they were thrilled!  My husband was thrilled to have our dining room table back available for use!

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