Tuesday, October 31, 2006

Very cool cards from Juju Vail


I recieved the most wonderful cards designed by Juju Vail in the mail this week! http://jujulovespolkadots.typepad.com Check her blog for dolls, beaded jewelry and other cool stuff. I had an extra Fiberarts magazine to send her and she sent me these great cards...they will be hard to part with....

Monday, October 30, 2006

Happy Halloween Everyone!

Fiber ATC's


Got my Fiber ATC's completed and sent off today to Tracie Lyn Huskamp for our Fiber Exchange...the theme was "Anything goes"...so I did birds...

Woodland creatures finished!


I got my little creatures sewn and stuffed!

Saturday, October 28, 2006

New Fiberarts Magazine....and look who's here...


As I was doing a quick look at my new Fiberarts Mag. (Nov.-Dec.) who should show up in a wonderful article but my friend and neighbor, Angela Moll! A very well written article with two great photos of her latest work. And here is a nice quote from Angela ( a very intelligent, fiesty and inspiring fiber artist)...
"A domestic textile and diary are metaphors for the interior life, perched between isolation and intimacy...related to all of that is the idea of a construction of a self and the expression of that self. Just as little by little a quilt is constructed, little by little a self grows in the practice of daily journaling." Angela used to live right next door...we would have tea and talk art and check out each others art projects...so fun to have a fellow artist next door! Now she and her husband live across the mountain top but we get to see each other at our monthly ATC meetings....

Friday, October 27, 2006



Secret Diary 20: Getting Enough 2006 dyes on cotton, screen printed, machine pieced and quilted.

Owls and squirrel...

just finished hooking these woodland creatures and now I need to stitch on a backing fabric (either wool or flannel) and stuff them. These will be for Syd's show in Nov.
Our home is surrounded by oaks, pines, and bay laurel trees and the squirrels are always scurrying around in the treetops. At night I can hear 2 owls hooting to each other from the top of their perches on the telephone poles . We also have a half finished tree house in a big oak tree that my boys seem to have lost interest in...I may just claim it for a secret art room. It even has a little window where you can catch a glimpse of the Pacific Ocean and the islands beyond.

Next week in Easy Weaving...


On next Tuesday we will be making little handwoven purses on the carboard looms in the photo on the right. These are fun to make...you weave around and around on both sides of the loom making a sort of tube. It is a great way to play with lots of different yarns and fibers and recycled fabrics...I'll try and get a better photo of the bags...One of the weaving students even owns her own Yarn Store in Ojai...how wonderful is that!!!

Warping time at the Studio


Here we have Wo and Hilda helping the students wind their warp for the "Easy Weaving" class. Don't you love the pirate hat!

Fibre studio classes

another piece of painted and stamped fabric ready to be cut up into strips and woven...

Thursday, October 26, 2006

This week at the Fibre Arts Design Studio

A student warping her loom at the Easy Weaving Class on Tues. Last week the ladies prepared painted fabric to weave into the warp.

Tuesday, October 24, 2006

Ojai Film Festival Poster

I love this poster with the wonderful art by Ojai artist Wendy MaHary. It depicts the festival's theme, "Enriching the human spirit through film."

some funny little hearts...

that I've been working on for Syd's "Queen of Arts" show...the tiny ones will be pins, might add some tin or fabric wings to the back. The velvet hearts with buttons will be ornaments to hang.

Monday, October 23, 2006

The drive to Ojai...


passes through old oak forests and along the edge of this beautiful lake. Very few other cars until you get close to town.
Today at the Fibre Arts Design Studio we had a very fun and busy Recycled Fibre class making cool jackets out of once loved sweatshirts transforming them into funky altered wearable art. Still working on mine and will post a photo when I get more done. Wo came up with great ideas and provided felted sweater remnants from Crispina Ffrench...so twice recycled parts to play with. Everyone created great pieces that will be fun to wear and share once it cools off a bit!

Saturday, October 21, 2006

The Fibre Arts Design Studio celebrates Ojai Day...

I was inspired to make a felt sign for the back of the booth. The girls at the Studio came up with the hanging ribbons attached to felted beads.

The Ojai folks set up the booth starting at 6am.
Many new students signed up for classes and the marbled paper book marks were a big hit. Brand new Fibre Arts Design Studio tee shirts were available for sale and to embellish at the booth. Wo's son did the design work and they came out great. I had to work at our Hardware store for most of the day, so I didn't get to Ojai until 3pm but the cozy little town was still lively with music playing, arts and crafts for sale, a very delectable food section, Chumash crafts, dancing in the street and a huge mandala colorfully drawn by adults and children on the main intersection of town. My father lived in Ojai for many years and it still feels a bit like home to me, so it's always a fun place for me to visit. After cruising through the many fine craft booths I found my way to the food street...I was starving after work and decided to give the home made tamales a try. I choose the goat cheese, sun dried tomato, and basil tamale with mild salsa....I have to say it was the best tamale I have ever had! What a fun day....and we got a lot of interest in the Fibre Arts Studio.....


Ojai Day...2006

Marbled paper book mark samples that we made for Ojai Day. The kids got to try marbling at the Studio's booth all day.
here we have the giant mandala made with chalk on the main intersection downtown.

Wednesday, October 18, 2006

The boys...

My latest gnomes amid the herbs and with a mosaic covered bowling ball that I did a while back...It is rather a tricky thing to hook faces....

Fibre arts Monday


We had a class by Candace in silk painting...I did some birds with gutta outlines in copper and black.

Sunday, October 15, 2006

Happy October!

Pumpkin gets a little friend.....
These wonderful antique folk art pincushion dolls were given to me by my artist friend, Penny for Christmas one year. I just love them so much and the pincushion part looks kind of like a pumpkin! Thank you, Penny!
And just to clarify things...the recycled bowls and trivets are samples for the class I am attending on Monday...I did not make them myself....but I hope to be able to ! And I will post my attempts if they turn out OK...so stay tuned...and thanks for your visits!

Friday, October 13, 2006

Recycled Paper and fiber class samples for next Monday




A circular bowl of recycled papers...

a trivet made of connected little squares...

ready to be embellished...




Here we have the fiberous back side of the paper.Then Justin's blue piece and our piece that we made together and finally my piece that is begging to be played with.

More soy paper making photos..


Justin adding some silver glitter to his piece and the finished papers hanging to dry.

Thursday, October 12, 2006

making soy silk fiber paper...

at the Fibre Arts Design Studio with Wo, Hilda,Lisa and Sharon. My son , Justin and I attended a wonderful class on Wed. making paper with soy silk and bamboo fibers! This is the beginning of the process.

Wednesday, October 11, 2006

The crows get their feet...

and the amazing thing is that they can stand on their own. I was afraid that they would need their tails to balance themselves, but somehow their wire and cloth wrapped feet are holding them up! I tired paper mache on wire, but it wasn't working that well so I dipped the little black wool strips that I use for hooking into the glue water mixture and that did it! I did a little touch up with acrylic paint, let them dry for a day and sewed them into place. My favorite Steiff gnome, Pucki, is in the background watching the crows go by.

Hooked Toadstools with little doors that open...


I finally finished these toadstools which may go off to a shop soon, so I took a quick photo with one of our garden gnomes. Inside the little door I glued a small Gnome by the magical artist Ida Bohatta from Austria. I love her children's books. This picture is probably from "The Gnome's Almanac"...which I had when I was growing up.

Tuesday, October 10, 2006

A good day to Dye....among other things...





Our first day of classes at the Fibre Arts Design Studio in Ojai went well. The founder, Wo Schiffman, gave us great information on fibers and presented a felting demonstration using recycled sweaters. She also gave a demonstration on braiding fabrics to make rugs or hot pads using recycled materials and how to sew them together. Hilda, the classroom assistant gave us a fashion show of her cool outfits made from some new and some recycled clothing...re-using tee shirts and turning them into skirts....sweatshirts into jackets...lots of fun things...and while watching the fashion show I got the ladies started rug hooking on their hot pads. We ran out of time so everyone took their projects home to work on them. Next week the recycle fiber class will be on paper and cardboard ...great samples of bowls, boxes, and trivets and furniture!Then we go back to fiber and I will teach again...
Photos of the Studio, Wo Schiffman, fiber artist,weaver and organizer extrodinaire, large workroom and smaller "dry" workroom.
If interested in taking or teaching classes call: 805 640-8228 Address: 960 E. Ojai Ave. Ojai, CA 93023

After our Recycled Fiber class we had an hour to prepare for the "Dye Happy" class from 3 to 5pm. A new group of students showed up and we got to work dyeing...Japanese style!

at the Studio



Displays of some of my hooked work and other projects using recycled fibers....The afternoon class was Dye Happy and we did marbling on paper, silk and cotton using several different methods. Photo of Wo and a student putting dyes into the tray prior to marbling on cloth.

Monday, October 09, 2006

hooked hot pad

I am teaching a class today at the Fibre Arts Design Studio in Ojai,CA !! The class is on Recycled Fiber and I will be teaching the students how to hook a small hot pad with wool strips. We also have braiding with fabric and altered clothing using no sewing complete with a fashion show while we are working on our pieces.
On Wed. my son and I will attend a Silk and Pulp papermaking workshop...many great classes and I am so excited to be a part of this new venture.
I also will be teaching a doll and puppet making workshop and hope to get a banner made for their event in the park Oct. 21.....

Tuesday, October 03, 2006

A fiber bead by ALMA

This is a close up of one of Alma's very cool beaded beads...made with hand painted and stitched fabric, stuffed and beaded and hand sewn together...
it is resting on a piece of fabric I painted earlier this week....

Surprise!

What a fun surprise! I just received a wonderful package today filled with hand painted fabric, hand made beads, block printed faces and a cool card all from the very talented East coast fiber artist, Alma Stoller almastoller.blogspot.com/. I can't wait to start playing with all these colorful presents. She has some great tutorials on her blog and just this week I was inspired to do some fabric painting on both cotton and silk. Thank you, Alma!

Monday, October 02, 2006

Pumpkin mini wall hangings

a couple of little wall hangings I made from recycled wool sweaters and embellished with some fun novelty yarns and embroidery thread.
I think these could work for a kids art class.