Some attention is needed here...

When I decided to visit my blog earlier this week I saw a visually attractive site, but sadly one that has been neglected for a very long time. My choice was either to close it down or to breathe new life into it. I have chosen the latter option.

I am now committed to building this blog into a more vibrant site and have taken specific steps to help me do just that. So I signed up for a 4-week BlogTriage class with Cynthia Morris and Alyson Stanfield. This class began today and already they have given me lots to think about and write about.

For starters, I want to state up front that I want this site to reflect and be a record of what is happening in my studio both for me and my readers. I have discovered that it is great to go back over previous postings and see a chronological and visual record of my studio progress these last couple of years. I only wish I had more on record. I want to share this with my readers - students, collectors, gallerists and other artists - both regional and across the web. We are all neighbours through the internet! I hope that with regular practice I will be better connected with this community many of whom also work alone in their studios. I welcome feedback, enquiries

This said, I don't want my blogging practice to be some medicine I need to take daily... yikes! Instead I hope that regular blogging will allow me to share the exitement and discoveries that I experience daily in the studio. I want the blogging part to be a natural output of my daily studio practice. Let's see how it goes.

A new header for the blog

My my, it has been a stretch....
Activities occur but don't get recorded -- that's how it goes sometimes with a blog like this one. Perhaps this new look will inspire more posts.

On the other hand, a lot of activities have been recorded on my other blog. We have just wrapped up this year's Art in the Islands Retreat for Fibre Artists and we are gearing up for next year's event, it should be even more fun!

Now that I am back in studio, I still have a couple of quilts to ship off, and one more class to teach in Haliburton Ontario later in June, then some quiet time to work over the summer months. Here are a couple of items currently on my table:

This past winter I treated myself to a felting machine. This piece was done with craft felt and dyed cheese cloth needle punched from the front AND the back - very different effects. This machine is an amazing piece of technology that can transform all sorts of fabric - usually the ones that would not make it into the studio, in fact the slinkier and sleezier the fabric (ie. slinky glittery knits, lames etc) the more interesting the transformation. On a painted canvas base the effects can be are magical. I am not done yet with this new tool...

These sewn strips are samples of dark brown hand dyes and black cottons and rayons discharged with bleach (coppery red) and thiox (grey, yellow and green).

These are more samples that I discharged and timed - 5 to 15 minutes.


And here is what is on my desk! My ever cheerful finger puppets.
Did I make them myself? No- no-noo - - Bought them in a shop.

Time to lower the temperature in my summer studio

and get back in the swing of blogging...

This is a snap I took of Louise Bourgeois' magnificent sculpture Maman . It sits (or I should say hovers...) in front of our National Gallery on Sussex Avenue in Ottawa. I took this shot through a window so a lot of definition is lost, but Maman carries a full sac of eggs that are fun to look up at when standing directly underneath.


Ok to be frank, its more like 40 degrees in my summer studio now and somehow, my worktable has been pushed aside and a kayak and other dock debris have been moved in. The spiders and other little creepy crawlies will be sooo happy to cosy up to all this new stuff over the winter months. My summer studio is now officially closed for 2007. My dyes & paints have been moved back up to more temperate quarters for the winter months.

And, yes I have taken a little blog-break these past few weeks.
This is a behaviour pattern that has popped up on occasion ever since I began blogging. I have finally decided to stop fighting it and instead to go with it. I recognize that these temporary blips do fly in the face of blogging tenets, but I seem to need the break from time to time.
After a short spell, I always return with renewed vigour and lots to show.
This blogging activity has been a process of discovery for me. I admire fellow bloggers who can keep the monologue (and in some cases even a dialogue with readers) going without blips or gaps. What an art that is...
Anyways, for what its worth , I'm back!