Getting Back in the Studio

...or at least the frame of mind to be back in the studio. Transitions are sometimes hard to navigate. I never seem to have trouble going from working to being home, cooking, throwing myself into family life. It is taking myself from home, and all its coziness, to go back to work. Even though I love the work. It is taking the step to the unknown. Maybe I should look into cultural rituals that mark transition. Like the African American tradition of jumping over the broomstick at the wedding. The Jewish wedding tradition of stepping on a glass wrapped in fabric. What's my ritual?

So to get back I am looking the last thing I finished (finished is relative here) before the holidays. I resolved the design from a previous post.
I did a lot of moving around, serious editing and minimal "quilting". I am starting to not even think of these as quilts so much as fabric assemblages. Now that I type that let's not go down the label path. ick. As my good friend Kathleen says, "It is what it is." How true.



I like it. I am fascinated with the bits and pieces falling about. Patterning and what happens between the elements.

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I had to stop on my way home this morning. Waiting for my turn while the chipper took care of the many fallen trees around here from previous ice storm. I looked out the window and couldn't resist the lines in the road, the cracking and patterning. Took out my camera and here it is. I will be playing with this later. We see what we are drawn to.

Happy New Year.

Not in the studio

I am blessed to have a beautiful place to work. My dear friend and artist, Sharon McCartney-see her studio and work in this Interweave Press publicationhttp://www.interweave.com/magazines/, graciously allows me to work in her classroom space. It has been a gift. One I am thankful for on a daily basis. But today I wasn't there. I had planned to be there but I was sidetracked - those tangents again - by books. First time in the library then at Barnes and Noble. Sitting with stacks of books and magazines, pouring through information, inspiration, getting answers to technical questions and more. I filled three pages in the sketchbook with websites to visit, notes, thoughts, pictures. I started out feeling guilty that I wasn't working, but soon realized this was just as, if not more productive, for the day. Now, to utilize the sketchbook. I will be posting pictures of sketchbook pages. It is one of the best tools I employ.

Fruit of the Tangent

These pieces are pure play. I wanted to add moss to a quilt. Creeping out from somewhere. I see moss when out for a walk. I wanted to convey that in this piece. Moving along, walking on the path. These are the first in a series of 5. I tend to then work on a numerous pieces at the same time.

I look forward to seeing where these take me.

Saying Yes to Tangents

Tangents can be a good thing. I have to embrace them because I have the attention span of a gnat. I have been very focused on a group of small quilts - see them on etsy, if you like:

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=6287566.

I love them, love making them and am working to perfect the design, expand the size offerings and market the heck the out of 'em. But over the holiday I saw something that intrigued me and I had to try it out. Natural materials with unnatural materials. What if I started to add grass and twigs to quilts? What would that be like? Turns out it is pretty nifty. Definitely poses some technical challenges, but overall quite satisfying. I will be posting pictures tomorrow. I said Yes, to the idea and swam with it. Thankfully.

Swimming

Let me start by talking about this blog's title. Swimming in the Sea. Titles flip me out. When I sat down to start my etsy page and the setup asked for my shop name and stated in big bold letters - this may never change!- I panicked. I had to stop. It took me three days to come to the conclusion-of what I already knew-my name is my brand. I had always gone by arcticmermaid. Unfortunately arctic is a word that get misspelled a lot. But for some reason this title-Swimming in the Sea-came so easily. Like swimming, like floating. It is what I strive to do in the studio. Swim through my thoughts, ideas, materials. Feel cold, warm, exhausted, exhilarated all at the same time. Swimming. My favorite thing to do. So why is my favorite season winter?