Thanks to a particularly nasty encounter with a flu  bug I’ve been under the weather and very limited in creative energy.  In fact, for a number of days, I existed on fluids and slept.  Now hubby is dealing with it. However, a bit of hand work did manage to get completed and here is the first of my up-cycled sweatshirts finished.  Complete with pockets, it is sure to become a favorite! As the instructions I worked from didn’t have...

As I’m feeling a little under the weather with a flu bug, I’m not feeling particularly creative today so I thought I would chat a bit about a project I’m just starting.  I’m always on the lookout for quick and easy projects that I can share with friends who are not as comfortable with a needle and thread as I am. While RVing, the wardrobe basics are jeans t-shirts and sweatshirts.  I’ve resisted wearing plain...

I’m always on the lookout to find new materials or techniques that I might use in mixed-media art.  While at the Calgary Creative Stitches & Crafting Alive Show I came across a booth with a representative offering courses in the use of Paverpol to create garden-safe sculptures.  My sister has created a couple of sculptures and they combine fibre empregnated with a material that hardens it to a waterproof structure.  I have never...

Years ago I took a workshop that introduced me to encaustic. While intrigued  I wasn’t particularly pleased with the pieces that I produced in the workshop and the teacher, who spent a lot of time talking about the creation of her encaustic medium, made it sound as though it was a very time intensive project.  I must have had some lingering interest though because a year ago I bought Encaustic Workshop by Patricia Baldwin Seggebruch....

Last fall I started to work on what I am calling my ‘Re’ series.  You may ask, what is my ‘Re’ series.  I’ve always been fascinated with trying to use things that might other wise be discarded and of course that opens the door to using processes that ‘Recycle, Reuse, Repurpose, Reclaim, Reprocess, Restore, Rescue, Relove, Recondition, Remodel, Regenerate’.  Of course if you are not a purist you could...

For a change of pace I’m going to share some of the photos that I looked at when starting this project.  The finished piece will be 18″x45″ so the shape of the piece will be a challenge in itself. This piece will be an entry into a FAN (Fibre Art Network) exhibition in 2013  entitled Abstracted.  This show requires artists to work with a partner, one artist develops a representative art piece and the other develops an...

‘H for Heart’ is part of a SAQA traveling exhibition in 2012-2014 – ‘Best of the West’ Inspiration For a long time now I have been thinking about committing to a monthly 12 x 12 piece of fibre art to journal my art and life – weekly or daily would be too much at this point! It’s a great way to try out new techniques without committing to a major piece. I have had a little prodding – the western Canada SAQA...

This afternoon we stopped in Quartzsite at one of my favorite bead shops for an introductory lesson in soldering settings for jewelry. Because it involved using ‘tools’ I was able to convince Don that he should join me. We had a great afternoon with John Zwickl. When I think back to my first impressions of this small desert community and now realize that it has become a regular stop as we travel through the area, I just shake my...

  In December 2010 we spent almost a month at the North Ranch Escapee Park between Congress and Wickenburg AZ. What a great bunch of people at that park!  Not long after our arrival I was invited to join a very active beading group that meets twice a week.  I was immediately put to work learning my first stitches and in a couple of days had completed my first bracelet.  By Christmas I had completed about a dozen, and after setting aside...

In January 2009 we headed out for a epic journey in our motor home and, knowing my inability to sit for long periods of time without something to do with my hands, I made a stop at the local yarn shop before our departure.  At that point in time I hadn’t had knitting needles in my hands for at least 20 years and I had never tackled ‘socks’ – lots of sweater, hats, afghans – but no socks!  That winter I completed my...