Update on work in the studio.

I will be framing this, HOMAGE TO HUNDERTWASSER and putting it in the Senior Center Show.
It's a fused fiber piece, started out with the title Around the Block but the more I worked on it I realized that Hundertwasser was influencing my style again. :)

At the last meeting of the 3150 Studio Artists we buckled down and got to work on some exercises.
Not the losing weight kind, although we, Chris, the two Linda's and myself got very involved in what we were doing. The first exercise was to use square and rectangle shapes on a 12 1/2 inch piece of black fabric. We had fused solid colors and lots of felt to work with.
You can't really see it on this piece but the sky blue fabric is really one piece with a black felt piece with square cut out laid on top of it. Then the other colors were added. There is quite a bit of machine stitching added around some of the squares.

The second exercise was to use fused fabric to create an improvised block based on VERTICAL LINES. I have to admit this was my least favorite exercise. I ended up adding sparklie ribbon in blue and silver just to make myself happy.

The third exercise and the one that three our of four people jumped to, skipping the Vertical Line exercise, I shall NOT be naming names. humph Anyway, the third exercise involved improvised collage creating with color and print fused fabric shapes.  All three exercises were done on a piece of black cotton 121/2" square. You were to add the improve shapes allowing some of the black to be visible.  I'm afraid I got rather caught up in mine and soon, humming to myself the theme from Planet of the Apes. I think that's what it was I began to call this, THE MILKY WAY FROM ZETTI CORKEY'S EYES.
The three and a half hours flew by while we cut and pressed like little kids. It was pure play with some interesting examples completed. You get four people together and give them simple directions and you get 12 different finished projects.
I'll post pictures of their finished work from our next meeting on the 2nd.

These 12 will be hung on some gorgeous bright colored felt that Linda and I picked out the other day.
They will be the start of our collection for the 2013 Senior Center Show.

:)Bea, who hopes you had a creative day.

The studio is overrun with MONSTERS!!!!!

These are a hoot. I am so proud of the Artists of 3150 Studio Artists for stepping up to the plate and delivering these amazing monsters, for Children's Hospital. There are still a few more to come in but for now the studio is buzzing with these little guys milling around. Thank heavens they aren't animated I can just imagine what trouble they would get into.

They just make me giggle every time I look at them.  I loaded them up in the car and took them to Joann Fabric store so the ladies at the cutting tables could see what we were doing with all that fleece I bought.  Then I loaded the gang back in the car, (it's like herding cats) and we stopped over at Stitcher's Crossing so the ladies there could get a peek. They, the Monsters were on their best behavior and now are back up in the studio waiting to be showcased at the gallery showing at the Senior Center.

Then they are off to their new homes.

Yesterday, it was so sunny, bright and just a beautiful day we thought we go out and see the new barn/office that the folks that bought our country house place have just built. They have cleared lots of bushes, scrub trees and it looks just wonderful out there. For those of you that have been out there this is to the left of the A-frame and sitting slightly back up on the hillside. There really wasn't anything there before but bushes and part of a grass cut path around next to the woods.

 I am so happy to have people that bought the land love it as much as we did but they are actually KEEPING IT UP.  His office is part of the barn space and he has a gorgeous view looking out over the valley.

:)Bea

Inside nose freezing hair cold

I admit it, we, white, North Americans, seem to lack a decent vocabulary for things that happen up here in the north. We have only one true word for snow, SNOW.  We have a number of descriptive adjectives for cold but this is a family rated blog.

It's cold here today. BITTER, BITTER cold. I think I heard the wind chill factor was -25 degrees.

Now, that could have just been the weather people telling tall tales at 6:00 in the morning but I ran over to the studio to pump up the heat for today and I believe those weather people. IT'S COLD OUT THERE.

Linda and I met for coffee yesterday and started to pull together some ideas for projects and experimentation  for the 3150 Studio Artists, when we meet. We are trying to build on the things that we have tried this past year and enjoyed doing.  A lot of working with mixed media and fiber.

The group is in transition again, with one member going off to the wilds of Tenn. another off to Minn. for four months. Some members have health issues and some have just found it hard to work studio time into their schedule so we thought hard about it and decided to open the group up to another person.

I can fit 8 people up in the studio. If we are working on large messy projects they have to wait until warmer weather when we can meet outside on the barn patio or set up down below, inside the barn.

But, I think it's important to have the energy of 8 people playing and having fun up there, in the studio.

I love the exchange of ideas, the laughter, the pondering on how to make lemonade out of a mistake and so forth.

Today, we are meeting just to cut some strips of fabric for the Down The Rabbit Hole Mystery #2. We're on clue four now and the ladies have been going deep into their stash for ugly fabric, why did I buy this fabric, etc. and cutting or ripping it into different sizes strips. Then they have been sewing fabric strips of the same color VALUE together again. Totally, random sewing. This strips won't stay in this arrangement forever.  The goal is to use up some of the stash of fabrics that might not see the light of day, pull them together in unusual ways, take cutter in hand and have at it at blocks and strips, something that some of the people have not had the interest or courage to do before.

I'm off to the gym. I park at the far end of the lot and walk in. It's going to be a cold walk. I know I get points for this somewhere. There must be an angel up there that checks off EFFORT, right?

HEY, this might be a good day to snow dye, you think?  Something to thing about while I'm at the gym.

:)Bea

We have only one word for it, SNOW.

Another snowy day.  This time large, thick snowflakes with a lot of blowing around. Mary started back to school this morning with an 8:30 am Math class, all the way across town, a good 45 minutes or more with traffic. Of course, with the snowfall, getting the driveway plowed there wasn't enough time to take Riley to daycare. Zeus stepped up and said he would drop her off.  That just made Miss Riley's day. GRANDPA taking her to school.
Riley and I made breakfast and I had time to brush her hair and get it in a ponytail before she had to leave.  She was miss chatterbox in the car with Grandpa when they pulled out of the garage.

That leaves Mr. Murphy and I to get some things done today. I will have to put on my big girl boots and tromp over to the studio. I shall carry flares in my pocket in case I get lost in a white out.

Kidding aside, I really do love days like this when I don't have to go out and run errands. I love spending time in the studio. Some days I'm not all the productive but the ideas are bubbling around in my head. I have no real agenda, just play. 

I need to make myself a note about planting more tall grasses around the boulders, next to the dry stream bed. The couple that I did get in this fall, are big enough, to look beautiful against the snow.

The snow is now coming down so thick that I can't see the farm house in the field behind us. The snow is blowing sideways.  I think I need to have another cup of tea before I venture out in this, for the studio. Maybe I should look for those snowshoes..........

:)Bea

All I said was..................

I simply said I needed a path from the back door to the studio.
Those of you that have followed this blog for some time know that when I have issues to work out in dream time that involved being frustrated and irritated with people, I tend to find myself dreaming about being , in a orange vest, out directly idiots around a ROUND A BOUT.

So what does Zeus do for me? Creates the mother of all round-a-bouts in my back yard.

I'm going to view it as a MEDITATION PATH and Murphy thinks it's a great exercise run.

If I can keep  my cool I can find my way from home to the studio.

Some pictures from our visit to the Rainforest gardens yesterday, with Riley.

Well, sadly my beloved Packers did not play their best yesterday and so their season is OVER.

sob

I did get two fleece throws done while I watched the game. By done I mean that I had cut the fringe and then spent the commercial times, knotting it.  I think I have about six more to do, when I'm done I'll post a picture before I take them over to the Children's Hospital for delivery. Just something nice and bright, soft and warm for the older kids in the wards.

I have the patterns cut and the faces embroidered for two more little monsters.

I also worked on my Muse soft doll for the Senior Center display.  I'll post pictures tomorrow.

I have to go to the gym then run some householder errands then I shall brave the congestion of the round-a-bout in my back yard. I would drive over but the A-1 gets a little crowded midday.

:)Bea  Who thinks you all should be doing something creative today.

And, from Wisconsin, AAAAAAAAAARON and LAURA

Zeus and I had charge of Riley all day yesterday. We started the day off to the French bakery.  It's been awhile since we had been there and Riley had to give the owner, a big hug before she placed her order.
Before we left a lovely lady, that we often said hello to when we came in, stopped by our table to introduce herself. It's turns out that Elizabeth also shares a love of photography and she promised to bring her pictures of dolphins for us to see.
Next stop the Olbrich Gardens and indoor tropical rainforest. Lots of families there, lots of moist air, my sinuses loved it and some gorgeous plants and flowers to see. On the way out Zeus bought Riley a little green rubber tree frog.
The tree frog joined us for lunch at Perkins. Midday at a Perkins on the main beltline brings some interesting travelers and folks in for lunch. 
Then home for a nap, for all of us.

Congratulations to Laura Kaeppeler, MISS WISCONSIN, our new Miss America. Does anybody really still watch this show?  Except for a lot of dirty old men that need to see the bathing suits strutting? Come on folks, this is so outdated.  I'm sure Laura is a lovely girl that knows all the tricks and cons for winning any contest. She can sing opera she does have that in her favor. She can reach out to other's like her, children of someone in jail because her father is in jail for mail fraud. I'm sure her winning just warms the hearts of all those other children out there. Headlines, on my computer, said her winning walk in her white bikini stole the show.

Maybe instead of just voting for officials we should just put all of them in skimpy, tight little bathing suits and let them walk the runway. Either that or have them suit up and play the defensive line on the Packers lineup.  We'll see who lasts the longest. 

Speaking of the Packers, GO PACK!

:)Bea

If you see a pink and brown turtle on it's back.............

Snow has stopped, driveway is plowed, thank you Zeus.  A good day to work in the studio. 
I was working on a few different project yesterday and one of them took me down to the storage room. I found a pile of fleece material, that I had bought to make blankets for the teens at the Children's Hospital. Sigh..........I can not believe that I just stacked them up down there and didn't get to them.
I hauled them all out to the car to take over to the studio, with me.  I'll cut the edges and then bring them back home.  I can tie the fringe while I watch the Packers play, on Sunday.

I want to try to get two more little sleeping bunny monsters done so I have a half dozen of them and then I can move on to another little monster.

Riley is so excited about the snow.  She took her snowpants, boots, extra scarf and mittens to daycare yesterday.  What a job that teacher has getting all those little ones into their outdoor clothing, marching them outside, uprighting them when they fall down and look like turtles on their shells. Not to mention herding them all back inside and getting them out of all those wet clothes.

Tomorrow, Mary and a friend are driving to Chicago to go to a show and dinner. It's a belated birthday gift. Zeus and I will be taking care of Riley.  That should be interesting.  This morning she came upstairs and woke me up, climbed into bed with Pinky and Gray Bear and started a discussion about whether pjs were clothing or not. I can't say I understand 2 1/2 year old logic at the best of times but certainly not before my morning coffee.

Off to do something creative, I hope your day is joyful!  :)Bea