I love basketry and while this image breaks a few rules I will be spending many happy hours talking about these pieces over the coming months.John Garrett is a new artist to me but I love his work.All those pieces of ephemera- just yummy.Lisa Telford’s Moon Warrior is a personal favorite.She reminds me why I invest the hours of research to be a docent to share inspirational pieces to create new stories of my own.
It’s been a while since I participated in a swap and currently I have three on the go.This is my package.Six inchies,One heart shaped trinket ,in this case a heart hanging,and a handmade postcard.
Inchies are old friends.I like making them out of papers that I create.Hand made paper/fabrics can take anything up to 3 days to make painting, stitching, cutting and assemblage so I like to use all of them up.
For along while I’ve been wanting to make a fabric postcard.Crazy quilts are also an area which has long fascinated me-so I combined the two.
This package now lives in Idaho.
http://ghostsaregreen.tumblr.com/
Olivia took a much better picture 🙂
I swap to lift my game and be inspired.Olivia’s inchie’s have got me playing in book forms again.
You can find more of her work here
http://ghostsaregreen.tumblr.com/
I spent last week volunteering and docenting a Ginny Ruffner inspired garden at the Pacific North West Garden show.The garden was created by the Arboretum Washington foundation.I got to work with Bob,Phil and Rhonda the designers over the week and indeed it really did take a village to pull it off.Ginny visited for the installation of the glass and I learned some new techniques.
It was very busy and fun.I learnt to wire glass,how a show garden is constructed.I helped Phil install part of the garden while ducking hanging glass pieces.I learnt a lot about bog gardens in Canada.
We have new shrubs,bulbs and trees for the yard,a large metal heart which is just below my studio window at the base of a cedar tree.Most treasure of all is the pond liner which will be installed in our garden ,maybe one day we will grow dragonflies here.
I’ve watched American football since the ’80’s when it was first screen on Channel 4.The passion Washingtonians have for their team is quite amazing.We  were downtown the night before the semis and you really could feel the excitement in the air.
The whole place was 12th man obsessed but I think this little yard was my fav expression.
We found Edison.A very cute little town excellent breakfast at the converted gas station.Everything else was closed as it was Superbowl Sunday and everyone had Seahawk’s fever ! I’m looking forward to returning when the stores are open.We need an owl jug !
I was chatting to a musician (and day time plumber) last week and we were talking about how things happen -what’s the first note,where did the first paint stroke start a piece.
We explored the how and why of what we think is obvious when we create.Our own intent and then how others interpret our results.He shared a great story of writing a song and being told by a fan what it was all about.He listened with intent to the fan’s story knowing that the interpretation was so far for his initial concept.
We talked about the being done.When I work in created cloth one of the best ways to find this moment is by using a frame.The papers I create are of various sizes, picking up an 6 x 4 ,7 x 5 or even an A4 frame seems to help contain the fabric and give the work a visual reference.My tactile landscape books even benefit from this approach being given space to allow the eye to rest.
One of my favorite things about living near Seattle is the access we have to the great outdoors.For us weekend fun is packing the car in January and going tent camping in search of owls.I remember once sharing jaffa cakes with Colin Prior knowing that this was a man that would hike for hours just to get the right light on a Scottish wilderness.Art Wolfe’s workshops start pre dawn in the Palouse. Andy Rouse travels the world in search  of penguins.So a little ice camping is good for the art.
We just pack the truck drive 90 minutes and get to see owls,bald eagles and beautiful flocks of noisy snow geese grazing on the flats.
I just document the photographer but we have found like minded folk to enjoy birding .
Steve’s images can be seen here:
Also Loren capture of me balancing over a plank (remember we were camping and I’m bundled up !)
So over the last fortnight I’ve been travelling, creating and shopping !
There are a few thing to catch up with but the first I’d like to share was a rather sad thrift shore find.
We were passing through La Conner in the hours before the Superbowl final and just had time to pop into one of my fav thrift stores.La Conner has a quilt museum and many fine seamstresses and it’s always worth checking out their fabric stash.
I found 4 gallon sized bags stuffed with high quality left overs.On closer examination one bags held 49 completed square and 24 uncut squares.Each completed square was perfect and hand pressed.I’m pretty sure a very talented person has passed and I’m the beneficiary of their quilting talents.
So today when I’ve finished blog updates and got bored of trying to clear the “ephemera” on my desk I’l have ago at piecing the quilt and seeing how far I can get.
I’ve been involved in swapping crafts with like minded folk for a long while.Currently I’m waiting to be partnered in a Valentine’s Swap.Today was a really productive studio day for me.Many people talk about process and enjoying creating through careful planning and resource management.Today has not been on of those days.It was a day when I picked up a piece of paper-cloth that had been on my desk waiting for the right moment.
