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Holy cow, the holidays are upon us!
Time feels like it’s flying by at breakneck speed, I can barely keep up with everything these days, but I still try to fit in “crafting” time. Luckily, I get to do this while working in the makerspace, this is what we’ve been up to this month. Knitting 101 I’m so thrilled to teach a…
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Teaching at International Quilt Festival
I’m a bit late getting this blogpost written, but my life has become a lot busier now that I’m working in the makerspace 4 days a week. I’m also furiously prepping for my upcoming trip to New Zealand, organizing a teaching trip to Australia next July, getting things ready for a full exhibit of my…
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It’s pumpkin time!
Fall is in the air! The weathers turning, it’s cool outside and we actually got some sprinkles of rain today in drought stricken Northern California. I love autumn, it’s my favorite time of year and I love having the symbols of fall, like pumpkins and gourds, decorating my house. Several years ago, I began making felted…
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Boho Bluebird revisited
Back in 2010, I taught several workshops at the very first Create retreat in Chicago organized by Pokey Bolton, and while there I had the opportunity to take a class with Alisa Burke on painting on canvas. I had two goals when I took Alisa’s class, one was to have fun and spend a day…
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Painting the hive
My recent bee hive painting began with a piece of canvas that I had painted in a range of warm colors using fluid acrylic paint. Then I used a stencil to paint a pattern of hexagons over it in warm yellows, oranges and ochres mixed with some white, also using fluid acrylic. Then the canvas…
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Painting and A Spot of Tea in Sonoma County
I had a lovely diversion teaching two workshops in Santa Rosa last weekend, oblivious to the horrors unfolding in other parts of our country until I returned home. On Thursday, I drove to beautiful Santa Rosa, a small city in Sonoma county about 2 hours from Sacramento, that I lived in for 3 years in…
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Working through changes in the gig economy
Over the last couple years, I’ve experienced a shift in the types of teaching gigs that I get booked for. I don’t know if this is due to a changing economy that’s hitting 40% of our population pretty hard, the lifecycle of aging quilt guilds (and from the modern quilt exodus), and I’ve also been…
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My shop is now open!
Over the last several months I’ve been slowly building out a storefront to sell my books, thermofax screens and a variety of items I sell in my workshops. You can find the link to my shop in the upper right corner on the main page of my website here or you can click on the…
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My weekend with Tea and Llamas
Last weekend I flew to Colorado to give a lecture and teach a workshop. My trip did not get off to a good start because my flight was delayed 6 times since the night before LAX had a 3 hour power outage which screwed up the schedule for any plane flying threw LAX, which is…
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Oh how I love painting with acrylic paint markers
I don’t know if you’re anything like me, but I never met a craft or art medium that I didn’t like, whether it’s pottery, knitting, painting, sewing or weaving. I always enjoy the process, although I do like doing some things more than others, and then I really love to explore the process of a…
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Do you have a favorite place to boost your creativity?
I love retreats, whether it’s with a small group of friends or at a big venue with lots of different classes. I think what I like about them the most is having that extended period of time focussed on exploration, and learning new things with a group of enthusiastic kindred spirits. And even though I…
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Two weeks on the east coast immersed in the arts
I had a lovely trip to the east coast, which began on Monday in Trumbull, CT with the CT Piecemakers, where I gave a lecture and taught Blessings in the Wind: mixed-media prayer flags. In this workshop we use acrylic inks to paint fabric in a variety of ways. Next we use stamps, and thermofax…
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Looking through rose colored glasses
I’ve spent the last 25+ years painting fabric with textile paint, Tsukineko inks and acrylic inks. I’ve learned how to successfully paint smooth gradations of color, avoid bleeding, and paint fine details on an unprimed or gessoed substrate (cotton fabric). Gesso is the white painted surface on canvas that keeps paint from absorbing into the…
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New Zealand 2020!
Kia ora! No place speaks to my heart so clearly, and fills me with as much inspiration as New Zealand, and with the help of Kerry Glen of Tulis Textiles, I’m planning a teaching there for February 2020. New Zealand’s pristine rocky beaches and rolling green hills remind me of Sonoma county, Northern California where…
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The best way to start the year…
is by jump starting your creativity with an art retreat. I love teaching at retreats, especially Craft Napa, because everyone is immersed in some kind of project while learning and making and getting inspired by the other workshops their friends and other attendees are doing. It’s like a big ol’ creative love fest. Paint and…
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Getting my painting groove back
As my travels have slowed, it felt so good to finally get into the studio this week, but getting back into the groove of painting wasn’t easy. I find that when I’ve had a big break from painting my first attempts feel awkward and ugly, I feel frustrated, wondering why I’m even doing it. That…
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It’s beginning to feel a lot like Christmas
It feels especially poignant to write this post given the recent attack at the Christmas market in Strasbourg, France earlier this week. I remember that beautiful location in front of the grand cathedral so well from our previous trip last spring. I hate to admit this very thing crossed our minds when we were at…
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The Gigahertz Awards
On Thursday, Phil and I took a bus to Karlsruhe where we would spend the next several days of or trip. The reason me and Phil went back to Germany was so he, along with his fellow Hub band mates, could receive the prestigious Gigahertz Lifetime Achievement Award for their work in experimental electronic music at…