Long timecoming

Life, health issues, and Christmas certainly slowed things down in the studio.  The "fish" piece mentioned in the last post is still driving me crazy.  After several attempts to colour the fabric using inks and dyes, I had to go back to the " tried and true" of low water immersion dyeing. I finally ( Yay!!) got a piece that I think will work as the background, quite dark, blue, turquoise and green.  The fish themselves will have to be painted and embellished separately, and then attached to the quilted background.  Not something I've done before.

The "down" time involved in experimenting with dyes and inks ended up being quite worthwhile, as I was able to follow-up on the Craftsy class, take another similar class, do a fair bit of internet research, and get in  lots,and lots more, practice.  Not only will this be useful when I create the "fish" piece, but it is resulting in a whole new skill set, in a much more traditional area of quilt making.  The confidence I've found has helped me organize and create a new class to teach within this skill area.  I have now been hired to teach this, not once, but twice, the first class being in two days.  I can't describe the pleasure I've found in playing with these new techniques, especially when there is definitely a strong aspect of creative design work involved.

At the same time, I have started to explore more traditional paint and paper work again.  This time there is water colour involved, as well as acrylic, which has resulted in the opportunity to buy yet more paint.  I am able to access some very good workshops, for minimal cost, but the supplies remain costly.  So another problem looms. The income from my art has dried right up.  The purchases of two major pieces have fallen through, and as there have been no craft sales this fall ( health issues again), no income from that usually reliable source.  Not sure where that concern will go, but for now, a bit of belt tightening.