Usually, the holidays are a change of pace time for me — a departure from the routine. This year, I have had to keep working in the studio straight through, taking little breaks for merry making. And so, starting a new year does not seem so momentous this time around. I have not had time to assess the past year and think about 2009. Last night while waiting for the concert to begin, I jotted down some goals/resolutions, aspirations.

1. Eat and cook slower. We are a family of chow hounds. We love food, and we all eat too fast. Perhaps, it was being the oldest of 5 kids!! I also want to do more cooking from scratch as I did when I had a family to feed on a limited budget.
2. Create an urban garden that will provide through the summer and fall.
3. Increase my daily steps to a minimum of 12,000 and work towards 15,000.
4. Keep it simple at home. Continue to rid my space and my life of things that I no longer use or need.
5. Work out a strategy for entering shows so that I am not doing so much at the last minute.
6. Apply to be a SAQA PAM. (Studio Art Quilt Association Professional Artist Member)
7. Enter at least 2 SAQA shows
8. Read for fun.
9. Have more dates with Mr C
10. Continue to create my own textiles through surface design techniques.
11. Become a better artist through study, practice and critiques.
12. Spend quality time with M & M (Oh, that will be so hard)

Two things are on the horizon: I am taking another online class, this time with Laura Cater Woods, titled: Idea to Image. It starts next week. I really got so much from my class with Liz Berg. I think online classes are a great way to learn design and techniques. Judy Coates Perez is teaching an online Color Theory Class. I would love to take that, too. My friend, Judy, is taking a monoprinting class from Susan Sorrell. I think the online classes are a very attractive way to learn without spending a bundle and lugging supplies to another location.

I am also going to start working through “Finding Your Own Visual Language”, by Jane Dunnewold, Claire Benn and Leslie Morgan. I might not get to that until late in the month or February.

I also want to start a series based on abstracting trees.

Well, that should keep me busy.

Want to see what I did yesterday?

I decided to do another scarf for Virginia’s invitational reverse auction. I had some liquid procion dyes left from a class I took eons ago. I didn’t even know if they were still viable. I mixed up some chemical water and did squirt bottles of true red, turquoise, yellow and black. I tied a charmeuse scarf around a large pvc pice, scrunched it and squirted it with the dyes. I wanted to make sure that I got strong color so I decided to steam it. I have never steamed anything at home. I have had these things waiting:

I wrapped the silk scarf in newsprint:

Here is is steaming away:

I steamed it for 30 minutes. I was absolutely amazed that there was very little dye to wash out.

You know how I love a little glitter and glam. I wanted to just have a spattering of gold foil over the scarf, but how to do that? Ah, Bo Nash bonding powder. I sprinkled it on in small areas and then foiled. It looks very elegant.

Here is a detail:

So, if you have made it this far (ahem), which scarf should go into the auction?

I must get to bed. M & M are here and will be up early for hot cocoa and waffles.

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 1st, 2009 at 11:40 pm and is filed under art auctions, Dyeing, foiling, goals, My creations, workshop. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.