Textile Art & Fine Craft
There are many woodworkers on my family tree. I have an appreciation for the medium and for the work. It is my delight to have a local woodworker as a friend and business buddy. Ron Light creates wood furniture and accessories here in the Northern Shenandoah Valley. About once a quarter we meet up in … Continue reading Chiseling The Craft of Business
Occasionally my work returns to me for an adjustment or repair. The chasubles made for the chapel at The Village at Orchard Ridge were lined in slippery fabric, so that they hang away from the pastor's alb. The Chaplin reported that they slipped backward during worship, becoming uncomfortable. We devised a solution of cotton … Continue reading A Chasuble Returns to the Studio
Textile mural, 14' wide and 7.5' long. Constructed in 17 separate panels. Photo courtesy of Nancy DeForest. She snapped it with her phone as a great kindness to me. I had not yet seen all the panels hanging together because it is too large for my small studio. Here is what I wrote to the people of … Continue reading Trinity: a Mural for St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church
CreativeSprint prompts me to open a drawer and make something with the contents. Bold circles, a little black mat, and a few minutes of pleasure start my creative day.
Creativity: CreativeSprint's prompt on day 8 instructs me to flip to a random page in a book at hand and make something inspired by the first sentence you read. Irony: the sentence is "Marry well," which I did less than 6 months ago. The IRS? As I cut out the rings for N and … Continue reading Creativity, Irony, and the IRS
Today's email read: use your non-dominant hand. I decided to see how well I could cut a fused fabric spiral with my shears design for either hand. But in the scrap bin, I found a piece with a hand cut out of it. I not too skillfully trimmed the fabric. Placing it on the background … Continue reading Sinister Assignment
The task: create a bridge. I wanted to connect the brown spaces on either side of the woven stripes. A bit of paint and a trusty tool gets the job done.
Beth Nyland, my sister, chastised me when I hesitated to post some of my recent work. She said I needed to work on the discipline of sharing. Noah Scalin's Creative Sprint appeared as an opportunity to follow Beth's advice and to have some fun creating and sharing. Today the task was to make something that will … Continue reading Sister says “Share!”
I completed the play with circle shapes on a silk scarf. After the Color Magnet prints were dry, I dyed the white scarf with blues and purples. The photograph above shows the finished product. This is the starting point from several weeks ago. When I travel in spirals I get to revisit starting points from … Continue reading Traveling in Spirals: Completed Circles
It's time to have some fun in the studio. I gathered supplies: a jar of Color Magnet by Jacquard, a solid white silk scarf, a foam brush, and a few simple stamps. I carefully brushed the fluid onto the stamps and pressed the design onto the scarf. Now I am waiting. I like repeating the same shape onto … Continue reading Traveling in Spirals: Repeated Shapes