Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Basket Making Workshop


On Saturday September 18, 2010 Martin House Garden Art in Barrie, Ontario is holding a basket making workshop. Leslie Songer-Terry, a well established basket maker from Gravenhurst, will be leading the Market Basket fun day. You will learn how to prepare the reed, weave and finish with exacting detail. Everyone will go home with a basket similar to the one in the picture. The cost is $85.00 which includes your materials and a light lunch. The workshop starts at 9:30am and finishes around 4:30pm. Call or email me to grab a spot. 705-722-6535 or tmartin@martinhouseart.com Group limited to 8.

Sunday, August 22, 2010

Working On Ideas



Crocheting is something I learned as a kid and it has given my a lot of joy for years. Here is a picture of a crocheted medallion. I have been scanning them and looking at them as an image on paper. I am taking a very tactile object and removing one of the most desirable properties. Just something to think about.

Friday, August 20, 2010

OK... Now I'M Going To Start !!!




What I mean is I have been procrastinating about starting work for the Christmas season. I have talked about everything, (going to the cottage etc.) except inspirations for new work. So I set myself up looking at some new fashion mags and I came away with a few notable things that came up again and again. The first being leopard print. I remember when my daughter was 7 all she wanted was leopard print. Leopard print what? So for Christmas she got a Posh Spice doll in a leopard print dress and a leopard print throw blanket. So here we are again celebrating that beautiful cats colouring. The second thing that kept showing up was fringe. It's more then just a biker chick or cowgirl's embellishment.

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Cottage Weekend



Derek and I got to do what thousands of people do every weekend during the summer. We sat in our car for four and a half hours while we made our way to the cottage. My sister's cottage that is. It was beautiful at the cottage. Very inspiring. The whole family is going to try to get there next year. How can people stand all that driving? We have been pretty lucky living and working where we do for 23 years. Look out the front door and there now is a subdivision where a barn and cattle use to be, but look out the back and all we see are fields, trees, ducks, rabbits and a heron rookery. Yes lucky us!

Friday, August 13, 2010

August 13th, Happy Birthday to Me


It's been a good day. A breakfast meeting with my favourite breakfast buddy followed by a wander through my local wool shop where of coarse I found some yarn that needed to come home with me. It is a variegated silk which I will crochet into the new necklace/scarf design. The day finished with dinner with friends and then time to crochet that new birthday yarn. I don't know anyone else who can so excited over a ball of yarn.

Thursday, August 12, 2010

Working On A New Piece


I have been crocheting all afternoon and evening, not including time off for making dinner, walking the crying baby and showing my son where the tall weeds are that he had to cut down. How could he not see them? When I have a new item I tend to bug everyone in the house with "what do you think of this". I will make a few changes and start over again "what do you think of this now". I have three girls here with very different tastes. With input from all three and a shrug from the guys I feel confident in the new piece.

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

It's Hot In My Studio


My studio is on the top floor of our house. It sounds like we have a big house and that it is very grand, me being on the top floor. In reality we live in a little bungalow and I am in the attic space. Years ago when we had to have our roof replaced because it leaked like a sieve our builder asked if we would like to take the walls up a little higher and create some extra space. We jumped at the idea seeing that we lived in 700 square feet. Did I mention we have 3 kids and a dog? Anyway...... you all know hot air rises and there is no air conditioning in this house. It's hot in my studio!

Monday, August 9, 2010

A Day on Georgian Bay





Derek and I participated in a show at the Iron City Fishing Club this past Friday. We met the caretaker and his helper at the Moon River marina where we loaded up the barge and headed over to the island. It was a beautiful boat ride, the sun was shining and we had help waiting for us at the dock. Harley, the senior student employee, was there to encourage her juniors to get busy and pitch in. The student employees have all grown up vacationing on the island. The cottages have been pasted down from parent to child since the late 1800's. Not much changes on the island except for upkeep and that is where we come in. The sale is a fundraiser with a percentage of the sales going to the club.

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Christmas ?


Today starts my journey towards the Christmas One of a Kind show. Derek and I will be taking our Martin House Art selection of birdhouses, feeders and garden must haves along with Derek's new painting and my jewellery. We are trying to get all of the designing and planning done in August. Derek has told me "no coming to me in November with a new idea". I always seem to do that to him. Two weeks before a show is when I come with what I think is going to be the big seller. Instead of spending that limited, valuable time just before the show on production I want to start from scratch and come up with a brand new _ _ _ _ _ . So this year will be different. I will focus, promise. My mind is spinning with all of the things I want to make for Ruby Diego Sculptural Adornments, so I will probably leave Derek to his own devises. Right now I am planning on casting sterling and bronze, fabricating metals, crocheting cotton, knitting wool, sewing bamboo and silk fabric, casting resin, setting gem stones.......... Maybe that should be it. But who knows what I will think of Mid November. Wish me luck in focusing on the project at hand. Please.