Still Navel gazing

Still here, and with very little to show for a week's work. There is one finished piece.  I've posted a picture of this before it was trimmed, embellished and finished, but here it is in its final state.  It is finished at 16" by 24".

Once it was quilted and bound, I added some gold foil, but it didn't quite work out as I had wanted, still I think it adds that last little detail that makes this something that I would consider putting in a gallery exhibition.

I'm finding that routine household activities are taking up most of my energy, and  during any studio time I get, the artistic creativity just isn't showing up.  So my mind shifts to more basic activities such as donation quilts.  I also find my self spending as much time in my garden as I can, reading.  It's the end of September, and any warm day is a gift.  My quandary is the guilt I feel at not doing something productive.

Gotta' get over that!

Navel gazing again

 Time for another "who am I, what am I doing here, and where do I want to go" session.  In my last post I was a little jazzed about selecting items to take into the gallery in Selkirk.  The selected items were delivered and are now on display there.  Following each change-over of goods in the gift shop, artists are paid for items sold during the previous display.  I got the cheque yesterday.  The only items I sold were two that were bought by a friend who was in the gallery during the previous change-over, not a thing had sold during the three months it was all on display.  While I have not displayed art often during Gallery exhibitions over the past few years, nothing has sold from there either. 

Why am I doing this?  I'm devoting a fair bit of both mental and physical energy with no payback.  Time to re-exam the process.  Christmas is coming, and the two months before Christmas present many opportunities to sell, but for selected items.  I have a few such items finished, and ready to go.  However, I have offered the best of them to a totally different Gift shop. I am not fretting over this.  If they are not accepted, I have lost nothing but the time it took to fill in an on-line application.  If the commission I pay is 50% or less, I will have at least covered the cost of supplies. I will not make any further seasonal items.  Nor will I make any further specifically gift shop items.

This leads to the question of "What will I be doing?"  I'm not sure.  I have much less energy than I had even five years ago.  But--I have an instinctual need to create, and the time and supplies to do so.  Let's get started!

Time for a catch-up

 Many years ago, I created the pattern for a small zipper bag.  It has been most useful over the years.  It's proven an excellent way to test techniques,  but I often have no need to keep the samples.  It uses left over quilted fabric pieces, and can also be used with bits and pieces of older quilted pieces that I have decided to trash.  Instead of throwing them out, I cut them up  to make the basic bag.  For many years I worked craft shows and art shows, and found that these bags had  a ready audience, and served as "bread and butter" pieces that often paid enough to cover my booth rental.  I've probably made a couple of hundred over the years. More recently I've been selling them in the gift shop of a local art gallery.

Often, while sitting in my booth at shows, I take along some hand work, to use as a conversation piece with potential customers.  The very first bag I ever made would go along to hold my tools.  Frequently, some customers would ask for a bag exactly like this first one. As the fabric and design for each bag is one of a kind, I was never able to provide.  Besides, the very first one was special, and I wanted to keep it special for myself.  

This first bag started as a "ghost" print made during a printing session with friends, and started with some very pale yellow marks, on a white background.  During the recent printing marathon that I described in a recent post another pale yellow print on yellow was created.  I decided to see if I could actually re-create that first bag.

I didn't want it to be exactly like the first one, so only stamped two dragon flies on each side rather than the three.  I also knew that if I were to bead it, and sell it, I wouldn't have any profit, as I would have had to purchase at least two different types of beads.  So, no beads.  First I darkened areas of the fabric with Distress ink ( colour--Faded Burlap),  Then I spritzed it with Walnut ink.  Finally I stamped on the dragon Flies.  I think the result was worth the effort.  I made three of them, and one is now for sale at the Gift Shop.

I have made many of them over the years, using many, many different techniques.  I use them to hold the tools of the many techniques I practice.  Below you can see the original along with one made with Shibori  Fabric, one  of needle felted commercial felt, and one a hand dye.