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UFO's

11/9/2018

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No I did not have a recent alien encounter. I had a different experience. At a recent crafter’s retreat I took some time to work on what is referred to as an “ unfinished object”. A UFO if you will. Something that you have had put away that is started but never finished. Perhaps like mine it is from a long ago class where some technique was learned but the project itself was then put aside because of time constraints. Perhaps your color choices, material combinations or techniques have evolved way beyond this basic first try but you never dropped the project in the trash (can’t waste it) or gave it away (not right for me but someone else might like it). So why revisit it at all?

Because I find after some reflection there is merit to be uncovered in that first try. I can see now that the seams may not be perfectly straight and the sewing may not have been on point. The way the cloth is put together is simple. But the material prints and colors remain pleasing to me. That simple pattern is classic. I now have enough experience to sew better and fix, or at least tweak, those imperfect seams into a pleasing finished product. And it is a little window into what my heart was creating so many years ago.

​To be honest I will never be done with my UFO’s. Because I, myself, am my own constant unfinished project. To be perfected and tweaked. To be changed with experience but still retaining some of that fabric from the original bolt. Perhaps one day to be a pleasing finished product. The ultimate UFO.
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To See Things in a Different Light

6/19/2018

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After a summer vacation I am back at my kitchen table with a stack of old garments and a pot of dye. It is time to rip and cut, dunk and dye, shape and reimagine. It is a rainy day outside and I am ready to immerse myself in a day of preparing materials to dress a pile of primitive dolls who have been patiently waiting in a heap on a shelf. Ugly or beautiful these garments will be cut apart and repurposed into useful bits of cotton and linen.

Unlike vacation, where I followed a plan and a roadmap, today’s trip does not have a set route. I go where the deconstruction and boiling pots of dye take me. Garments bought months ago because of their fiber content, pattern or embellishments are cut apart. They become part of a stash that I can go to when I need to fulfill an idea. The ex-owners of these garments would be surprised at where the garments end up. Most are totally transformed into my bits and pieces.

But this transformation is exactly what makes each piece unique. To see things in a different light. In artistry, crafting or life. I am beginning to see that is the secret.
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If This Wool Could Talk

2/17/2018

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I use many materials in my work but I have a special love for wool. I have worked with it in many forms. From holding a newborn lamb to skirting a fleece I know where it begins. I have washed and carded, spun and knit. I have changed its nature by dying it. I search for and collect 100% wool garments to strip into lengths for my wool rugs. I dream of feeling it in my hands. Perhaps I am in love with it.

And every once in a while I find a length of it that really stops me in my work. So it was with a woolen jacket. Instead of being a solid color it was a multicolored muted print. The elbows and cuffs showed some signs of wear so the past owner must have liked it, too. As I stripped it into lengths, I started to wonder, who owned and wore it? Where had this jacket been? Why had it been parted from it’s wearer? Oh, if only this wool could talk.

When I use recycled wool in my rugs and projects it isn’t just because I’m frugal and because it gives me such a good variety of patterns and colors. Or the fact it keeps fabric out of landfill sites, although all of these reasons have merit. This old wool has a feel and character to it that comes through in the finished products. As you sink your feet into a pure wool rug or hold a doll with woolen clothing, I believe the wool will talk to you. Of sheep and color, of places and people. If only you are wise enough to hear it.
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A Crafter's Time

1/31/2018

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I have been spending the last few weeks planning the next year's activities. Being a crafter is not a simple business. Finding the correct venue for your products, matching your creations to the correct customers and ending up in the plus column at the end of the year is not easy. For all those people who respond to my new venture with the words “Well of course you do that, you have always made things...Must be easy to sell your stuff”, I would like to say: "Hold on a minute." So much about this journey is difficult. And the most difficult thing is the subject of my time.

I have heard customers walking by the booth discussing crafters. “They all love what they do so of course their prices have to be low. They don’t charge for their time”. Wait a minute. Seriously? Time is the most precious commodity in anyone’s life. Yes, I love what I do but I am trying to earn a living. Each piece in my display is literally a piece of me because it is a piece of time out of my life as well as a piece of my creativity. 

I have a request for all of you. This year when you walk through your local craft fair and view what people have made, take a moment to think differently. Concept, design, gathering materials, crafting, setting prices, marketing and selling. That’s what you are looking at. And those things all take more time than you think. The price tag includes all of the above plus that magical spark of the person who created it. Just smile at the artist and appreciate. And of course open your wallet.

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