Take your time!

Everyone is invited to the art opening for the Autumn Art Exhibit at the Jaffrey Civic Center
next Friday at 5pm. I have two textile collages about nature!

Yes, I am still represented at the Walpole Artisan Cooperative in Walpole, NH. Silk shibori scarves, sketch pads and fat quarters for quilters. Loribeth has some great Christmas decorations for sale, too. Check it out.

Recycled clothing!

What does one do when you own more than 100 t shirts and most have never been worn? Recycle them. In the thrift shops they sell them for rags.

I cut them up and did some artistic dyeing. Each pant front is the back of a shirt and each pants back is the back of a shirt! Whip out that serger and in 20 minutes, the pants are done.

I also use these for mono printing transparent fabric. Two for the price of one. These green pants were the fabric which took the excess of the mono print and then I threw them in a dye bath.

My twin granddaughters are the recipient of these pants! The little tucks near the hem are for the growth extensions!

Finishing the Katazome class

Here are some more images from the Katazome class with Akemi Cohn. I have two pieces all finished but can't wash the rice paste out of the fabric for three months. Check back then!

Katazome - first day

Today we cooked some rice paste and used a paper stencil to stencil the fabric. I did a piece of heavy silk, supposedly Vera Wang but who really knows. After the rice paste was applied, the fabric is stretch and hung out to dry. That is what you are seeing here. Akemi showed me photos of her home, the traditional Japanese screens and a shroud she made for her mom's burial. It brought back memories of my love affair of Japan.

Akemi Cohn is a very nice and thorough teacher. She is organized well and really knows her stuff.

I have a learning curve with natural dyes. Where oh where are those chemistry classes from high school? Long time ago, for sure. Now I am on to a new adventure.

Katazome with Akemi Cohn

Anyone desire a little art getaway. Pippa Drew has these wonderful workshops in the Upper Valley of NH-VT. Just a couple of hours from home for me. How lovely is this place?

A beautiful lake nearby. Lovely views of mountains - nice farm market nearby.

The weather is just lovely. Cool nights warm days. Maybe fall is coming?

Floorcloth SALE - closing out of the old stuff

Yep - it is time to move on. This is your opportunity to buy a cool floorcloth for your hardwood, tile or lineoleum floor. These are designed to go on any hard surfaced floor.

Bargain prices. They are all on ETSY. http://www.etsy.com/listing/50256950/faux-candy-tile-handpainted-canvas

Check them out. There are 14 of them for sale.

My process is that I cut my own canvas, prepare the canvas for the floorcloth, handpaint each piece individually without any patterns. Upon completion, I use a special floor covering varnish which lasts 10-12 years with just a wet wipe - nothing harsh.The floorcloth is stain-resistant, durable and great for any room - especially a hard surfaced floor.I am selling my floorcloths at close out prices because I am closing them out. No special orders, please. Final sales. I have more than twenty years of painted floorcloth experience in the arts. I know how well these are made and how long they will last.

More information about me as an artist is at www.lipmandesigns.com.

Have fun shopping!

Garbage Journals!

Ever hear about a garbarge journal! This is it! Art Studio garbage is what the journal has.

Each page is a piece of art. No real theme - Just 8 pages and 8 paper pages for journaling!

This is the front cover. Created by Beth Lipman, my daughter, in college in the early 1990's. The others are my creations - dyed fabrics, an old Needlepoint, paper cloth collages, etc. The cocoa pod is from that delicious chocolate, Burdicks' in Walpole, NH.

This is the perfect thing to create when Life gives you lemonade and any thing you do is Dark. This allowed me to feel better during a difficult time in my life. And I have used some lemons!

Hop on over to Etsy http://www.etsy.com/your/listings?show_panel=true to check it out.

Text on the Surface

I have been a guinea pig for a pilot project Susie Monday is doing. She accepted the SAQA (www.Saqa.com) challenge for a visioning project.

Poor dear, her computer crashed, she had other emergencies but the 20 or so of us are trying to carry on. Here is a collage using paper cloth

and words - one of our test projects. It was a coincidence that my paper cloth was already done. The S letters on the left were part of Lesson 1, using letters to create a composition. I used a transfer method to create those letter in this collage.

I like the paper cloth idea and will definitely do more of it.

After the big S, which I just painted with puff paint, dries, I hope to mat it and sell it on Etsy. http://www.etsy.com/your/listings?show_panel=true

Introduction to Katazome

Karen Miller (http://nautilus-fiberarts.blogspot.com/) is traveling across the country this summer.

She and her husband will travel by car/truck and a motor home stopping in various places to teach "the Art of Katazome", the art of Japanese Stencil Dyeing. Fiber Art at its best!

We are fortunate to have Karen coming to Keene, NH to do a workshop here on July 17 and 18, 2010. A two day workshop in our backyard. And Karen isn't charging us for her travel time! Therefore, the cost to us has been reduced to only $300.00 per person for the two days.

Email me if you are interested. Put your phone number in the email so I can call you.

Sunday in MA

It was predicted to be a rainy day, yesterday. But only a drop fell on us.

I met my brother in Cambridge to spend a few hours together. It was a wonderful afternoon. Too bad we live so far apart.

We started the MIT press bookstore. http://web.mit.edu/bookstore/www/ It took us an hour to browse through all the indie press titles. That bookstore is a wonderful resource. The art selection is not the ordinary. One book, about Crochet, was crochet shown and created using math configurations. Thus, MIT's interest!

I bought Inspiring Writing in Art and Design: Taking a line for a while by Pat Francis. This fit right in with my current classwork by Susie Monday: Text on the Surface. http://www.susiemonday.com/ I am one of her test pilots and the class is motivating me to create more art.

Back to yesterday: Following the hour of browsing through all the terrific books. We lunched at Legal Sea Foods in Kendall Square. www.legalseafoods.com Umm, the Asian Vegetables with Scallops were delicious.

Two very full people decided to walk. And we did. Around MIT and across the Harvard Bridge to Boston. Along the Charles River : things were so beautiful and in bloom. Then across the crumbling Longfellow Bridge to Kendall Square. - 1 1/2 hours! It seems everyone was jogging or sailing or walking.

Rick, my brother went on to fly to Germany to work in Europe for the week. I drove home and two hours later it rained! What luck.

(This is a bridge in Back Bay Boston.)

HELP! Seeking advice for the UFO

Several years ago I took a fair isle class from what was then the Webs’ Master Knitting program. They had personnel issues and the program changed. To make this short, I did not continue with the program. I had started this fair isle sweater during the Master Knitting Class and the new program leader washed her hands of helping the previous customers. Thus, I am left in a lurch with a sweater I am trying to complete.

Here is my dilemma. I created the body of the fair isle sweater using Knitting the Old Way by Priscilla Roberts-Gibson. I never bound off the shoulders and instead went to my LYS, which has since closed, to try to learn how to finish this sweater. She had me steek the front and put the front bands on. Before I got that done, she closed her shop. (Sounds like a bad luck story here!)

Now, the sleeves are knitted. I want to finish the sweater and I can figure out the neck band but I have all the stitches on the needle – neck and shoulders, etc.

Shall I bind off doing a three needle bind off for the shoulders now or knit some more? And shape the shoulders? Or shall I count off the neckline stitches and create it, after which I can do the bind off for the shoulders.

Any suggestions are welcome!

March 26 reception

Its' almost here. I am wall to wall with work. Here are two of my most recent collages which are being framed so I can feature them for a month.

Not the best photos but it works in person.

Be sure to visit me at the Walpole Artisan Cooperative Friday evening 5 -7 pm.

Gallery Artist Opening

Save the date! Friday, March 26 will be the opening reception for three featured artists at the Walpole Artisan Cooperative. I am one of the artists and am doing new work. Pictures will follow.
Joe Beer and the Ideal Board are the other two. The opening begins at 5pm. Please join us!
See you there.

Glass gallery opening

Beth's show at Heller Gallery opened on the 4th March with a huge crowd. Here is Beth setting up the show with her work which is being set up. Check out the final look at www.hellergallery.com.

Hiking Mt. Wantastisquet

Last week I took a break from doing my ebay sales to take a hike mup Mt. Wantastisquet. Not far up the trail, I found this A frame house. Is it for people or deer?

Who knows. It does offer some snow protection.

Then I kept hearing a hammering noise. Not many people were out and I couldn't understand who would be hammering. About 100 yards futher into the trail, I saw a beautiful woodpecker with the longest beak, ever! Despite my attempts, I could not capture him in a photographer. He was really putting a hole in the top of this tree! That beak created the hammering noise.

Today, it is sooooo cold outside that working on ebay sales is just the thing to do.

Yesterday I finished the birthday cards for the 1 year old twins who are in Tacoma, Washington with their folks until Thursday. Beth, their mom, is working at the Museum of Glass Art Studio for an artist residency. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2INvZWb9a-4

Not a good picture. It is fabric collage with the big 1 in the center.

The Holidays are over!

After a nice calm Christmas, we went to WI to see our daughter and exchange a few gifts.

Knowing my affection for all things heritage, I received this box of notecards. The Museum of the City of New York hosts my cousin, Sam Gottscho's photography. He worked the the New York Times as a photographer.

The photography is stunning ; it makes my heart sing. http://www.mcny.org/shop/18/167/9249/new-york-note-cards.html

Our flight went well. Air Tran was a goood airline and because they aren't a biggie, for once, the TSA was kind to me. WI is very cold. Glad to be home, even if it is snowing now.