Blog Entries – Page 139

Is it fall yet?

I need this summer to be over. I am tired…

I have so much to blog about, and absolutely no time to sit down and write. And that’s frustrating me. I spent the weekend volunteering for two days at Millbrook Village, an old 1850’s farming village on the Delaware river, demonstrating weaving and spinning, dressed in period costume, with my daughter. We had a great time, and I’ve got pictures to share, but that will have to wait until tomorrow.

For now, I would like to finish up with the Felter’s Fling, I took some shots of some of the work from the other classes, before I left last Tuesday to come home. The conference continued for another four days, ending this morning. Since I was only teaching the first three days, I opted to leave after my class. I would have loved to have stayed to play, and see what the students made, but I needed to be home.

Karoliina Arvilommi and Roderick Welch, from Finland, taught a class in Scandinavian Feltmaking/Color, Design and Form. The rugs were beautiful, so well made, and the imagery fresh and interesting.

Liz Clay, from the UK, taught a class in Elemental Rhythms/ Felt and Photograph. I loved the work that came from this class, especially two of the pieces that Sharon Costello did. The top photo was made from a photograph (on the right) juxtaposed with a piece of felt that was manipulated, stitched, and embellished to recreate the same feel as the photograph. I posted a shot of Sharon working on the piece on my blog from a couple of days ago. The photo below, of the fungus, is also by Sharon Costello, the large fungus in the front is in dimensional felt, and the smaller one behind, is a photograph. Everything the class did, was interesting and sensitive. And lucky me, Liz Clay was dropped off at my house tonight, and is staying with me for a couple of days while she plays in NYC. I’ll take her to the airport Wednesday night before I head off to my guild meeting.

Myfanwy Stirling from Australia, taught a workshop called Feature Texture, Felt Vests or Smocks. While learning to add surface texture to the felt fabric, students created interesting vests that fitted the body and celebrated the wearer.

Jeanette Sendler, also from the UK, taught a class making Collars, Cuffs, and Mantles, some of the work was displayed on the folding screen, so I could get a group shot. Beautiful surfaces.

Jean Hicks, from Seattle, WA taught a class called Millinery Questions for Feltmakers. She is wearing one of the hats in the top photo, and some of the other hats made during the class were lined up across the table. There were such amazing shapes, and styles. All were wearable!

I had a great time at the Fling. Sharon Costello, who organizes this event every two years, does a wonderful job, and I’m really loving the felting community. And I’m looking forward to having Liz Clay in my studio/home for a few days.

Tomorrow I’ll blog about my Demonstration days at Millbrook Village.

I’m Home!

Actually, I’ve been home for a couple of days, but I got in really late Tuesday night, and I hit the ground running Wednesday morning, with very little sleep. Could it have been the caffeine I consumed to keep me awake for the four hour drive Tuesday night? Duh…

Anyway, I spent Wednesday morning with my 16 year old daughter at the local county college, where she was taking advantage of a HS challenge program and signing up for a class in Japanese. Her five text books cost $125. She was very excited to think of herself as a college student. Of course she still has two more years of HS… But it is a great opportunity and she will get college credit for the course.

I spent the rest of Wednesday unpacking, doing the laundry, actually working in the yard for an hour, which felt wonderful. I haven’t spent any time, either working on or enjoying my lovely gardens this summer, and playing in the dirt after such a grueling six weeks of conferences was healing. My husband, bless him, has done an amazing job keeping up the gardens which I assure you is NOT a one person job. There is a ton of weeding that needs to be done, to be sure, but he has kept the worst of the weeds at bay, and installed a ton of downlights around the ponds, which glow like fairy pools in the late evening. I’m looking forward to the fall, which is usually glorious in NJ.

Last night, my husband and I bought tickets, right before I left, for Noises Off, at the NJ Shakespeare Theatre which is housed in a gorgeous building at Drew University in Madison, NJ. We bought the tickets based on the Newspaper review, which was stellar, and we laughed through the entire performance. I adore British farces, lots of door slamming, flawless timing, as only a Shakespeare Company can do, and we enjoyed the show so much, we bought additional tickets for Twelfth Night, and The Grapes of Wrath, which close out the 2009 season. In addition, we just received the season tickets for the Papermill Playhouse. So much live theatre to see!

So today, I looked at my poor neglected house, and decided that I needed to spend the day, really cleaning it, which meant all sorts of detours, including cleaning out the snake cage. Don’t ask. I worked straight through the day, and only managed to clean one floor. That’s what happens when you leave for a few weeks, the house gets dirty without you. I’ll continue it tomorrow, but tomorrow, being the end of the month, is paperwork day. I have a huge stack, all the accounts and bills have to be addressed, and that will be my priority tomorrow.

Since Project Runway starts in half an hour, I thought I’d post the photos of the jackets from my class at the Felter’s Fling. They were amazing. I had five students, and they were working like crazy right up to the end, there are still a lot of pins in the jackets, along with tailor’s tacks, and errant threads. But everyone was really thrilled, they learned so much, and I heard from more than one student that, “they enjoyed this so much they might even start sewing!”

Felter’s Fling

OK, I know I’ve been a bit lax in my postings. Overload wouldn’t even begin to cover it. But I’m having a great time up here in MA, at a craft center called Snow Farm where Sharon Costello, felter extraordinaire, has organized the fourth Felter’s Fling, which is a gathering of international felter’s, who spend a week doing, well, felting. The instructors come from all over the world, and so do the felters. I feel positively local coming from NJ. Though I’ve only dabbled in felt, I am here as an instructor teaching the felters how to make jackets from their felt.

The first night I arrived at the “Fling”, I judged the Felted Hat contest, where all the conference attendees wore their newest headpieces and millinery creations, and the instructors all got together as judges. What an amazing parade of creativity. We all came up with our favorites, and awarded prizes to the most “amphibious”, the most “green” (made from scraps), the most “likely to crawl away”, the awards were as fun as the hats!

I have to say, I adore working with felters. Not that I want to become a full time felter, I am a weaver at heart, but there is such a different approach to creativity in the felting community than in the weaving community, it is fun to be here, immersed in wool, for a change of scenery after four weaving conferences in a row.

The biggest difference is the spontaneity of process, with some soap and hot water, and some wool, the most amazing things can be formed, shaped, and invented. Yes, it takes some skill to be really good at this, but the process couldn’t be simpler. And there is no huge investment in equipment, and no HUGE learning curve, no threading the loom, no mathematical calculations, (except in how much wool you need), just seeing where the wool takes you. The felt itself, when cut, doesn’t ravel, doesn’t have a grainline, and has this gorgeous organic edge that can be used in all sorts of decorative ways in a garment, instead of seam finishes, hems, and edges. So the standard jacket pattern I use for teaching handweavers to sew, becomes something entirely different when used by felters.

I shot a few photos of some of the jackets in progress, it is fun to watch the students change course mid stream, run out and felt another piece if they need it, cut up and piece and overlap and embellish as the spirit moved them, and see these wonderful jackets just take form and develop into personal stories and statements.

Some of the students continued to work on their felt panels, embellishing and piecing, well into the second day. Can’t do that with handwoven yardage, it is what it is.

The range of fabrics was amazing, from gorgeous flat wools, to textured collages of bits of everything that could possibly be held down by the wool. The layout was thoughtful, and well planned, and placement of the natural edge of the felt was used in wonderful ways.

We even had some interlopers come in from other classes to use the needle felting machine I brought, or the free motion stitching capabilities of the sewing machines I brought. I own a Janome xPressions embellisher machine, and of course I brought my Janome professional 6600.

I’ll try to get some photos of all the nearly finished jackets tomorrow afternoon after the class ends, before I head home.

Taking care of business…

With only a couple of days turn around before I head out again, I am really trying hard to just focus on only the critical stuff. It is easy to get sidetracked, I’m famous for that, but I have a precious few days to catch up with the truly important things, and the rest will have to wait.

I’m leaving again on Saturday, to drive to Amherst MA for the Felter’s Fling, a conference of felters, and fortunately I’m only teaching the first half of the conference. Meanwhile, 14 loads of laundry, and $300. worth of groceries, and new brakes on my car, and 5 sets of contracts, one article for the American Sewing Guild chapter newsletter, and airline tickets for yet another teaching venue in the fall, I’ve gotten to the most urgent of things on the top of the pile, and I think I can exhale and go to sleep tonight.

I went to South Carolina last week with my husband, leaving my 19 year old son in charge of the house. I had a lot of family and friends who were taking bets on the carnage I’d find when I returned home, and I am so thankful that my son, even though he did have a couple parties, which I knew about, and he did have a couple of his friends move in, which I also knew about, left my house picked up and reasonably clean and presentable, though there wasn’t much in the way of food left in the refrigerator or cabinets. So I’ve restocked the fridge, and wiped out a couple of toilets that were really needing it, and since I’m not planning any house guests this week, that will have to be good enough. The yard needs some tender loving care, the weeds are messy, and the perennials need trimming, annuals are spindly and dry, but I can’t deal with that now.

I noticed that the widget on the side bar for upcoming events has nothing in it. I need to refill the widget? There are a lot of wonderful teaching opportunities coming up, and 2010 is starting to look a little overwhelming, but I just have to focus on the next 24 hours. I’m trying to hold onto the zen feeling I got while on vacation… (Isn’t it amazing how quickly that feeling can dissipate?)

I did however, watch the marathon debut of Project Runway season 6 tonight, and the all star two hour lead in, with past Project Runway favorites. Sorry, I thought Korto’s look was so much more polished, and I would have voted her the winner. But they didn’t ask me… And I like the new stable of designers for season 6, they are an interesting bunch, and I’m anxious to read the post show reports from one of my favorite blogs, Tom and Lorenzo, since they always show much better close up photos of the designer’s looks than you can see zipping down the runway. And I really value their opinions.

Stay tuned…

Life is like a game of miniature golf…

I spent most of my summers vacationing at the Jersey shore. If you’ve spent any time at the Jersey shore, you know how to play miniature golf. My dad taught me well. From the very first time I held the club, I learned to be patient with those I was playing with, especially my little sister, who could only sweep the ball around. I learned to be careful and thoughtful with every putt I made. I learned to study the course before I took a stroke, and I learned to get the ball in the hole with as few stokes as possible.

The last night of our recent South Carolina vacation, four of us went out and played two rounds of miniature golf. There were two options in this shaded tropical course, hard and harder. Or, “professional” and “champion”. Silly words. It is just a game of miniature golf. Spurred on by just having watched Tiger Woods lose the Masters Tournament by only a couple of points, there was a lot of talk about “par, bogies, and birdies”. Some of the holes on this little miniature golf course were so difficult that they had a par of 5. I ignored all that. It isn’t that I’m not competitive, I really don’t know what a bogie or birdie is, I’ve never even played on a real golf course. I just wanted to get the ball into the hole with as few putts as possible. I also didn’t care what anyone else scored, except when they made a really good putt, I was a most enthusiastic cheerleader.

Some of the holes were challenging. Some were so challenging I couldn’t see the little flag in the cup from where I was beginning to putt. On those holes, I just got the ball started, in the general direction I thought I wanted to go, and hoped for the best. Many a day starts like that, more often than not, I don’t have a clear idea of where I’m going, I just hit the ball and hope for the best. Once I’m into the course, I begin to see where I want to direct the ball. One stroke at a time I make my way toward the goal.

Some of the holes are just fun. Watching the little colored balls all roll into the water or sand traps, well, there are days like that as well. Traffic on the highway, delays, missed opportunities; all have to be taken with a sense of humor and an extra penalty stroke. And more often than not, you aren’t the only one in the trap. Misery loves company…

There were holes where I nailed every putt, coming in under par, and taking the lead. I’d love to feel that on those days I’m totally in control and on top of my game. There were even a couple of holes in one. I’d love to think it was my years of training and skill. But alas, those are just really lucky putts, and I need to stay humble and grateful. Would that every day be a ‘hole in one’.

Then there were the holes where every putt I made missed its mark. That the ball wouldn’t cooperate, that the wind blew too hard, that there was debris on the course, that someone distracted me. Truth is, I alone was responsible for the missed putts as well as the holes in one. And life will be full of both, the missed putts and the perfect ones. It is the grace by which I accept the bad with the good that really counts. Everyone has frustrating days, where they just can’t get the ball where it needs to go. I can choose how I react, I can throw the club in frustration, I can be angry with the universe, or I can laugh, and shake my head, and put a 6 on my score card when everyone else scores a 2. (Truth is, my reactions are usually somewhere in the middle…)

In the end, I lost the first game, on the “professional” course. I came in last, by only a few strokes, but the score wasn’t the goal, at least for me. I loved the game. I loved that fact that each hole represented a new challenge, and a new start. Just like a new day. And turns out, I won the second game, on the “champion” course. Not only did I win, I came in four under par, because of my back to back holes in one, which netted a free game and my name on the chalk board back in the room where you return your clubs. I smiled and we took a picture. My five minutes of fame. But it was all luck, and all fun, and my little purple ball (chosen because my daughter loves purple) was returned and we all went out for drinks.