Feeding The Lake

Friday, October 28, 2011

September to October 4

I'm calling this arrangement "September", and I'll return to individual photos for October. Too many things have been going on, and that's what I am choosing to let go of. But I spent Tuesday arranging a new grid of t-pins on my studio wall so that I'm ready to hang October as soon as I get each piece through the process. I have most of the felt made for the entire month, but since I am trying to walnut dye everything this month some are waiting to go into the same dye pot and many are waiting to be stretched onto frames. So far I'm very excited at the variety of browns I'm able to get from the same (free!) seed. I haven't been as excited about the smell and the mold that starts to grow after soaking the walnuts in water for weeks. Oh the things I never expected would come from being a fiber artist!

Below are my first few days of October, all walnut dyed after the felting stage.

10.1.11

10.2.11

10.3.11

10.4.11

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

August 19-29, plus show at the Rall Gallery

I am almost caught up with August! I actually have enough days of felt made through tomorrow, but I'm way behind on the wood frames, and am in search, yet again, for a free source of wood. It's amazing how much wood one can go through when using 23" every day. Days 19 through 29 are pictured below.

One of my reasons for getting behind on my Calendar was installing my fiber forest in the Rall Gallery at Doane College in Crete, NE. I really love that the gallery is inside the college library, because I think of my trees as cylindrical journals inside the library of the forest. The show is up through the 28th, so if you missed seeing it last fall, I hope you can make it since fiber art never looks as good in photos as it does in person. That is especially true of these photos, since I hastily took them after hour 13 of installing. I decided that if I continue to do this in the future, I need to work on my installation endurance by running up and down a ladder for hours on end while looking up.

Installation postcard

Branching I, installed at Rall Gallery.

Thought Shapes, installed at Rall Gallery.

Day Logs, installed at Rall Gallery.

August 19, 2011

August 20, 2011

August 21, 2011

August 22, 2011

August 23, 2011

August 24, 2011

August 25, 2011

August 26, 2011

August 27, 2011

August 28, 2011

August 29, 2011

Saturday, August 27, 2011

Making Progress

I finally finished my chairs! Several weeks ago I was sitting with a box full of upholstery samples from my interior designer friend Lynette and these uncomfortable folding chairs my parents had before I was born, and I stumbled across this blog post. So I started working that day, and exactly one month later, I decided to finish them because of a breakthrough that I have to keep having over and over again. I let myself do no actual work today. I did run to the post office and Hobby Lobby, but came home to watch t.v. in bed and hang out with my husband and make these chairs that will sit in my home and contribute nothing to my income. Which is momentous, because I often feel guilty when I could be more productive than I am. I don't always know how to answer the question "what do you do?" because I think it really means "how do you make money?" and I don't actually make money. But I'd like to make money through Feeding The Lake and through my artwork, and to justify that goal I feel like I have to be working nonstop. In the past couple weeks though, I've been remembering that most people only work 8 hours a day, and they have the weekends to themselves, so what makes me think I need to work so much more than that? I've been trying to think of deadlines not as stressful, but as evidence that I have reason to be making the things I want to make. If this is what I want for my life, to be an artist, then I have to embrace constant deadlines. If I don't want to live stressed out, then I can't be stressed by deadlines. I'm sure I'll have to relearn this lesson many more times in the future, but I'm thankful that it sank it today. It's been a great Saturday.

Thursday, August 25, 2011

August 15-18

These samples have a sheet of journaled, handmade gampi paper behind them so that the writing can be seen through the sheer organza areas. I wish the writing were more visible, but I suppose the point of making samples is to find out when things should be darker.

These samples also incorporate alpaca fleece from a light brown Huacaya alpaca named Hattie.

August 15, 2011

August 16, 2011

August 17, 2011

August 18, 2011

Monday, August 15, 2011

August 10-14

Working on a monochromatic month:

August 10, 2011

August 11, 2011

August 12, 2011

August 13, 2011

August 14, 2011

August 9

Oops! Thought I posted this one in July. Guess I have an extra:

August 9, 2011

Lesson from my printed organza is that the as the wool shrinks it crinkles the silk into little carrots pointing in the direction the wool was laid out. Not sure what I can do with that, but it's pretty interesting!