Thursday, November 21, 2013

Louisville, Lord of the Rings, and Buttons

 
The buttons are a result of using the entire tree. I have gotten to the point where if I am, or someone else is, pruning a tree, I will look at the end of the branch. If it looks interesting, I take it home. And again, with the faces. When the tree spirits are happy, the Dryads smile.
Your sewing thread becomes the pupil of the eye. -Lindsay E. Frost

While I was at a show this past weekend, wondering around before the crowd, I was drawn to some beautifully hand crafted buttons. The Artist was not at her booth, she must have been wondering around too. I grabbed a card and began daydreaming about her buttons.

I believe we understand each other in a visual language often times better and deeper than other forms of communication, and finding this Artist's buttons is an example of that, and my other belief Louisville is a city that acts as a small town. I had the opportunity to talk to the artist after the show and purchase buttons for my work.

hand woven hemp with acorn/lichen button from Lindsay Frost
I told her upfront what I wanted to do, and showed her one of my hemp bracelets. I also told her I wanted to email her later and get a statement from her for my blog. Deciding I better find out more about this artist before I email her, I visited her website http://www.uniqueandunusualwoodcarvings.com

In her "about" section she says she returned to Louisville to appease her parents, (I returned to appease my ex-husband). She then goes on to talk about her logo and how it relates to using the whole tree. This is my philosophy on many things, for example, when cooking a squash for dinner, I will also save and roast the seeds to go on salads later. In fact I save the seeds from my garden for replanting, and use the dead plants for compost.  Even when weaving I save the scraps of my raffia to weave even smaller pieces, or how I use the card board boxes our food comes in to card my work.

Frost then goes on to pose the question, "Am I a ‘tree hugger’? Most definitely. I love the Ents in the Lord of the Rings. Especially when they picked up their roots and started walking. Just think what trees have been witness to.....so much history and the tales they could tell. They most likely know the real story." I had to share this part of artist's website with my husband because he often makes fun of either my tree hugging or Lord of the Rings trivia knowledge (read the trilogy twice, saw the movies over 20 times each). And yes I'm an Ent lover too.
hand spun wool from the Smoky Mountain Spinnery with hand crafted button from Lindsay Frost.

After reading over Lindsay Frost's website and taking a few pictures of how I had combined her buttons with my weaving, I sent her an email asking to give me a specific statement about her buttons. I told her the images I sent were all pieces going to Crafts Gallery that day. She responded by telling me her work was already there, and she, like me, loves the owners David McGuire and Karen Welch.

Blue cotton coiled with hand crafted wood button from Lindsay Frost.

You can find Lindsay E. Frost's work, my work, and the pieces I created with both our effort at Crafts Gallery: a contemporary and traditional art gallery created by Karen Welch and David McGuire in the summer of 2013. Craft(s) features fine artisan craft by local and national artists. Craft(s) Gallery is housed in the historic Guthrie Coke building at 572 South Fourth Street at the corner of Fourth and Chestnut Streets in downtown Louisville, Kentucky. In the emerging neighborhood of SOFO, South Fourth Street, Craft(s) is positioned between the renowned Brown Hotel and the iconic Seelbach Hilton Hotel. Another historic neighbor of note is The Palace Theater.

Hours
Monday–Saturday: 10am–6pm
Closed Sunday
502.584.7636 (SOFO)

Tuesday, November 5, 2013

Why I love Hand Spun Wool!


I Love Hand Spun Wool! I love hand spun wool for its imperfections, for it's texture, because it comes from nature and a natural process; and most of all I love hand spun wool for it's stories. For example, The wool pictured below came from a young guy I met last weekend at a show in New Albany, IN.
 
He was 21-years-old, attending a local college, getting ready to transfer to an art school, to study fiber art. He had found an old spinning wheel at a yard sale, in desperate need of repair. He decided he could buy it, fix it, and learn to spin; which he did all based on YouTube videos. (This seems to be the way the next generation is learning, according to several young adults I've met lately.) He had several different types of hand spun wool, including those he had practiced using natural dyes. I ultimately chose this chocolate brown.
 
This ball of hand spun wool has a different story.
 

I had never been to Gatlinburg, but wanted to go because I had heard so much about it. After hanging around Pigeon Forge, hiking Cades Cove in the Smoky Mountains, we made a day trip to Gatlinburg. Fortunately we started on a side street in town, not realizing there was a whole commercial strip of shops. We first encountered The Salt and Pepper Shaker Museum. If you haven't been, it is definitely worth the trip and $2 admission. It was leaving the Museum that I spotted the Smoky Mountain Spinnery.  After wondering around the shop gazing at their beautiful selection, I asked the woman running the shop to show me specifically the locally spun wool. So that is where this ball of wool came from, which half of has already been turned into "sweater weather" accessories.
I love working with these kinds of materials, because I'm reminded as I work of the fun vacation we had with our five children, the joy of finding the Smoky Mountain Spinnery, and wondering around the shop talking fiber.

And on that note, my favorite place to talk fiber is The Clay Pearl in Nashville, IN. -Not that they spin their own wool, though they have plenty of hand crafted yarns, they love to talk fiber all day, are super helpful, and have many great stories to share of the yarn they carry. Just had to give them a plug here.

Tuesday, September 17, 2013

The Scarves relate to my Sculptural Woven Work

The scarves relating to my sculptural woven vessels and installations...
are now available at Craft(s) Gallery in Louisville, KY.

To create the scarves, I start with striping down yards of cotton muslin. Then dye them with coffee and fiber acrylic wash and dry them in the sun. I then rewash the strips to make sure the dye is set and there will be no shrinkage.

I give the strips a light pressing with the iron.
I make sure I have plenty of thread color choices.
Then I stitch the strips together, one at a time.
And in the end, the whole process creates a scarf with a unique raw quality. Super Fun to wear! Great Fashion Statement -wear art!
All scarves are slightly different in length, color choice of thread, and color choice of dyed strips combination. Sorry I'm not taking custom orders on these unless it is in bulk. Contact Crafts Gallery if your interested:
Craft(s) Gallery 572 South Fourth Street
Louisville, Kentucky  40202
502.584.7636 (SOFO)
http://craftslouisville.com/cms/

Thursday, August 15, 2013

Sketchbook Project 2013

Printmaker, Courtney Coriell, told me about this project. You order and create a sketchbook which is included in the Brooklyn Art Library -a small storefront in Brooklyn entirely made up of these sketchbooks from around the world. My sketchbook and Coriell's sketchbook will be on the Right/Write When You Get There tour of the mid-west this year. Visit The Sketchbook Project website for more info or participation.



Tuesday, August 13, 2013

Monday, August 12, 2013

Late Spring 2013 Enchanted Forest Installation with Students

 



During my regular after school art classes, I talked to my 1st-11th grade students about doing an art installation together in our downstairs gallery. Because I am a fiber artist by trade, I asked the installation focus on fiber work. I taught them how to do twine method basketry and we looked at Appalachian basketry design for our form. I then gave them the option to make small people/animals out of Sculpey clay to include inside the baskets. Our theme was Enchanted Forest. Later I taught the modified twine method I use in my own work, and invited them to create vessels. The following images is the installation in the front two gallery windows at the studio.




Sunday, April 14, 2013

How Teaching has renewed my interest in Functional Basketry



Student Weaving

I've been teaching basketry and fiber art as an Artist-in-Residence for six years; 
Blackacre Conservatory, 2007

and for most of those years I had been focused on sculptural work and installation art. Although my interest has remained constant in creating exceptionally well crafted pieces -with great attention to detail. I've had a conversion of sorts.
Student Work, Spot 5 Art Studio, 2010



I want to say it started with the amazing work my students have produced. -And I've been pretty infatuated with the materials, especially when they come in a big box full.



But I really think it came from working directly with the students, problem solving to create pieces they were interested in.
 
Most of my residencies are based in Public Schools, which involve requests for historical and/or cultural connections to our work; and most of the historical/cultural references to basketry are as functional art. Although I often introduce the concept of using basketry methods to create art object sculptures -with no functionality intended- the students often want them to have some sort of functional use. By the beginning of this year, I was becoming frustrated. I wanted to be one of the students in my class creating my own interesting, artistically designed, functional piece.
 
But one piece was not enough for me. I've started working on a whole series of funtional pieces. First it started small:
Just a few mini baskets. Then I started thinking bigger:
And then in functional multiples (nesting bowls):
Not quite sure what's next.
 

Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Animal Embroidery Schaffner Elementary

In January I was brought into Schaffner Traditional Elementary, on a VSA Arts KY inclusion grant, by art teacher and all around creative person Carolyn Brayden. I was to work with four 3rd grade classes on Peruvian inspired embroidery. Previous to my coming to the school, Brayden had introduced Peruvian embroidery and the history to her students. She then guided them toward selecting an animal to do a colorful embroidery on burlap.

In my first visit I showed some of my work and discussed life as a professional working artist. This was part of Braden's plan, so the students could make connections between what they are learning now and how those skills can be used as a professional. We then practiced threading a needle, how to knot the yarn, and how to do a running stitch. In the following visits students drew their animals on burlap, outlined them with a running stitch, and later filled them in with either a seed stitch or satin stitch. The following images are some of the beautiful work the 3rd grade students did. I would love to do this project with my children at home and turn it into a wall hanging.