Lakes Region Arts and Crafts Show

Lake Winnepasaukee, which I still can't spell, is mesmerizing.  So enjoyed being by this lake for a long weekend.  Felt like another world when I wasn't doing the craft fair thing which was intense and in tents!

When I was led to believe that Meredith would be a good place for me to show my work, I booked a cabin in a local camp grounds.  If I was to do a show with my helper Bruce, I wanted us to have a bit of a vacation too.

The cabin was a log cabin in the woods, better than I had hoped and the woods were not cleared of their dry burning branches either.  We so enjoyed our space here.

But to set up the booth was a chore!  We got up at dawn, arrived at show by a bit after 6 and had to be ready to greet customers by 9.  The pressure was on, but always a wonder to see all the work find its place within the 10x10 structure and realize that I have been working to create this bounty.

I could leave one side wall down to feel the nature, but the winds blew too much with the back wall down.  The winds do love to toss about the silk.  Kept us busy just keeping house.

My neighbor insisted on a photo with me in it.  Check out the winds a blowing.

The new devore velvet scarf loved joining the jacket and camisole.  This was much admired but came home with me....to my surprise.

The new chiffon caper made friends with the silvery slip dress and then was discovered by my camera eye.

Some fantastic sculpture by Joe was just across the way.  He was disappointed Sunday at noon when he admitted to me that he had sold nothing and would rather be at the beach.  It was indeed a very hot day!  Then his luck turned and he sold 2 large pieces to people who had looked the day before but he had not even talked to them.  He was to deliver and position the large sculpture after the show closed.

Here are my charm bags on hand woven chenille.  I think of them holding whatever your charms are.  I do have a memorable story to close with.  On Sat I sold a hat of chenille to a young girl who loved the hat, but was shocked that she was considering buying a hat costing $50.  I told her that she was going to love wearing this hat so many times, it would be well worth the cost. and she would have many compliments.  She wrote the check and went off to work.  The next day after the show when the booth was packed in the car and we were waiting to pull out of Hannafords with our picnic, the car beside us honked and the girl in the orange chenille hat called out.  " I bought this from you yesterday and I love it so much!  I am getting so many compliments!"  YES!  Affirmation!

The Unravel of the Magic Carpet

The Unravel of the Magic Carpet
Originally uploaded by colormuse
I finally made it to the studio and could work on this painting...such fun to be painting again ( embedded fabrics come alive, 18x24 approx), but so short lived because this week after the guests left I really had to get ready for the Lake Region Arts Festival in Meredith, NH. It's only 2 days, with a very early morning set up. Bruce and I will go over on Friday hopefully with all we need to create a 10x10 booth with sides, and work to fill it. I am busy making that work, weaving, sewing, ironing. I do well under pressure and can make things happen. Today i sewed a couple of items I had hoped to get to several months ago and it took the approach of this craft show to get them created. So why am I spending time with this blog....just not quite ready to lay myself down yet I guess.  Besides I must mend the magic carpet which keeps unraveling.

Be well, folks, find inspiration, enjoy the last few days of August.

Finding Myself Again

The family have graced us with their presence and now we are returning to our life as usual again.  The house is a bit tidier still.  My studio that I transformed for our guests into an apartment, the studio apartment, is slowly returning to studio.  The blow up mattress stands on its end still holding air, the rug is rolled, the dyes are coming back out, silks lay scattered waiting their turn on the dye table, transformation.  I painted with Shannon at her request.  Got out a few dyes and 2 36" squares which we pinned to the back deck table.  We painted in the heat of the day, but the shade crept over us.  We painted side by side, using dyes I mixed at her selection looking for reds, warm and burning bright.  She was coming from Africa where colors are brighter.  Here in New England folks are afraid to wear true colors and stand out from the natural plain.  I, too, am looking for the subtle in my dress, but I did find a new top, stretchy black with brown dots, 1" in diameter, a pattern, and a design by Andrea Miksic of Salaam, that I picked up at Rachael's yard sale yesterday.  I got a black necklace there and a deep dusty purple straw hat which suits my idea of costuming.  I am saving the hat but the shirt and necklace were worn to last night's concert in the Adamant Community Center and today for "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? by Albee at the intimate black box theater at Quarryworks.  Nothing like having a new item of clothing to wear out and feel extanded.  The performance of Who's Afraid...was terrific.  Great acting made it feel so real, that my heart ached for these struggling folks, but much laughter too.  Great lines, incredible timing.  Very special.  It was a rainy afternoon, 2 intermissions, still light, still raining.  Have any of you seen it lately?

Listen to me go on....still in the play perhaps and so happy to be painting again, talking some photos, posting them and making up some words to express some of the captured energy.  This is my dye table with 3 scarf blanks, pinned, drying in the sun.  The raw silk under the scarves is picking up excess dye and transferring some of the color to the next layer of silks to be made.  It is a process of freedom and flow and letting go.

Here's the same back deck with paint table covered with a blue tarp and Will, Courtney, and Bruce hanging out with Fenway and Becket.  My, such large dogs!  Strong and determined to hold the center of attention.  Might change with the birth of baby late October.

Now I need to get ready for the Craft Show in Meredith, NH for next weekend.  Anyone live nearby who might want to stop by and visit....feel the silk, not just see the color through the computer screen?  Would love to meet some of you readers.

Family pictures

Ezra and Shannon came out of Africa for a visit bringing over a year of collected clothing and provisions with them.  It was great to have the time together as a family unit.  Jonah joined us when his schedule allowed.  They flew off today for CA, then a wedding of friends in WA.  Next Monday Shannon leaves for Korea where there is a conference where she will present.  Ezra will travel to Nicaragua where he has a week's work in forestry.  These kids do keep busy.

Ma and the boys

Those brothers have a genuine fondness for each other....the the backyard wilderness.

Our other boy, Echo...he's quite an echo of the 2 cats who proceeded him.

It is the time of morning glories and tall mullein.

Tomatoes of rare beauty

Late afternoon sun falling on a new painting just begun...and now that family time has ended I am hoping to get back to work on this more this week.

Country visit--Vermont Summer

It has been a wild week with a visit from Ezra and Shannon.  My role as Mother has returned and I do give a lot of myself to it.  It's been great having them, don't get me wrong.  Ezra was here for a few days last Sept just after Bruce bought the land in Lowell.  I remember his visit there with us.  Shannon had not been here since 2 winters ago when the land was different to view.  VT summers are a favorite and they both have been taking it in big.  Our visit to Lowell was too short, but we fit it in.  We even offered up the yurt to them and they had a great experience in the yurt on the edge of the forest.

The center dome and ceiling rafters are such a mandala.  Watching the sky change through the eye hole is a whole experience on its own.

Their footprints left at the door....

I am surprised to not be attached to my camera these days with the visitors....I will be sorry not to have photos later.  Tomorrow Jonah will be over and we will do the final brunch.  I must get the camera recording.  Some of the other family want to see...so I wandered in the yard for a bit today after silk painting, and making the call for loom maintenence parts and played with the camera.  Ezra and Shannon are off having the last Vermont summer experience, hiking, swimming, dinner with old friends and I am on my own again reclaiming some of what I like about my life when I live more quietly.  I even got a short visit in to the studio using Jonah's car while he works.  Yeah!  I did paint.....Bruce is doing his Yurt workshop at Yestermorrow...the second one.  I am rambling, my time is up.  I need to pick up Jonah, get that fish cooked and then be on hand to welcome in the family and be ready to listen to the tales of the day.

Family

Almost a mandala too, like the center of the yurt ceiling ...comparisons....pinks!
Enjoy the wonders and the wonderings.

Wind Shift

Wind Shift
Originally uploaded by colormuse

Today the wind kept blowing and shifting, but the weather cooled and I could tackle the wilderness of the yard. I even fixed the weed wacker when it stopped functioning. Yeah! My son is coming on Monday evening, traveling from Cameroon, Africa with his girlfriend Shannon. I have a real deadline to make this home more receptive to these guests. They'll be in Vermont for a few days and then off to CA before Ezra heads to Nicaragua for work. He does get around.

I haven't painted since the art fair. I've been 3 times to the studio, but it has been to shift work, in, then to make it seeable and the 3rd time, friends came to view. Fun to invite folks in to see the place and the paintings. I'll have to do that again.

Quick post, blogged from flickr. This painting found its resolution in the days just before the show. Shows up well in this image form. 12x12.
Hope you all find pleasures in this coming weekend.

Intense, in tents craft show experience

Building a 10x10 space in an art festival or craft show takes some creative thinking and more time than one might imagine.  I've been thinking about it for weeks; luckily I came across a great fold up table and a folding screen without really searching, but I did have my feelers out.   When we arrived at Topnotch Field in Stowe on Thursday afternoon we found the wind blowing and that we had forgotten the sides to our Caravan canopy.  Hard to hang silks with a gale force coming through.  Bruce elected to go back and get them.  I fought the winds, made some progress but remembered again the trials of this work.

My new silk, 44x72, Windows and Doors looked good at the back of the booth and seemed to compliment other pieces.

This silk scarf glowed from the center; its colors so in union with the large painting, Seismic Segment.  Putting up the work in a 10x10 room lets the maker have a different and more complete view on what the maker has been making.  Some rewards are not the sales hoped for.

Some of the rewards are the neighbors, meeting and seeing for 4 days other artists, hearing their stories and celebrating their successes.  Peter Fried was opposite me.  What a talented and wonderfully cheerful man.

 These 2 neighbors talked plants and transformation and shared some much needed laughter.  Beth Netelkos

The weather was sunny.  We could open our tents to the open air.  Jon Turner typed up a poem every day while his partner Kathy hung out with dogs and friends.  Jon's presentation of his Combat Paper Project was inspiring.  Poems and prints on hand made paper composed from the military uniforms of his father and uncles.  I just went to www.greendoorstudio.com to find out more about this project and I see it has traveled widely for the past 2 years being much more vast in scope than I had thought.  Amazing people come together and share.  It was intense in the tents.