Handmade Knitting Needles & Hand Dyed Yarns

Here we go, I'm finally getting to this years students, they are doing tremendous work and I really want to show them off.  Let me start with my 2nd year Intermediate 3-D students.  We began the year with Knit Picks Bare Wool of the Andes Bulky, and the kids got one skein each to dye with food colors.  These are some of their yarns above.  They also learned to use an umbrella swift and ball winder.

At the same time they began to build their own knitting needles with polymer knobs.  I gave them doweling to saw into lengths.   They sharpened them on the pencil sharpener and sanded them silky smooth.  They then got to choose a color for their needles.  We used several things for color; watered down acrylic paints, india ink, watercolors, wood stains, and shoe wax  (in several color ways).  After they stained their wood they buffed it to a sheen with a clear quality wood wax.  Thank you dear husband for the use of yours  :)

The needles above were by senior Ashley Chowdhury.

We had many interesting, fun knob shapes.  These here were pretty crazy and created by senior Tiffany Lee.  Fantastic attention to detail Tiff  LOL

Senior Sheila San Agustin striped her needles which I thought was very cool.  In fact, I really liked her geometric design, it reminded me of the knitwear designs by fiber artist Kathryn Alexander here.  

And below we have senior Lauren De Belen who came up with these lovely cherry blossoms on her knobs.

Junior Josh Berger did these super cool sculptural knobs, and below senior Angela Wan made adorable knobs with a Disney theme.

And everyone's favorites where the beauties above by senior Emily Yang who isn't even in the class.  She drops by every 7th period to give me help with my 7th graders since she knows I don't have a T.A.  She expressed an interest in learning to knit and making her own needles, so I worked with her during lunch and off she went creating these gorgeous knobs.  I especially like how she coated them with clear nail polish.

Too Cute to Dye For! - Student Work

These adorable tights were done by senior Alison Lee in my Beginning 3-D class for extra credit during our Tye-Dye Unit.  So cute Alison, I love them.

Wish I could have captured the tiny blue snowflakes better.  I'm a bit out of focus, sorry  :)

Artistic License Art Festival in Costa Mesa

On the last Friday and Saturday of every October for the past 35 years I have been attending this terrific crafts show, and it's usually the only day during the school year that I allow myself to be absent.   I always find so many new ideas, and I come away with many new art pieces to showcase in my home and studio and to share with my art students. 

My dear friend and mentor at Capistrano Fiber Arts, Lori Lawson, was there with her gorgeous fibers and eco-dyed works.  Her booth was especially wonderful this year with so many sensory pieces to inspire and touch.

One of Lori's best friends, textile artist Michelle Hoffee, was also there to show off her current work.  Her art business, Living and Dyeing, features so many creative eco-dyed works on vintage clothing, handmade purses, wall hanging art quilts, and so much more, it's always a delight for the eye, as is Michelle herself.  She wears her eco-dyed clothing with very cool accesories.  And she's so full of energy ans so willing to share her dyeing processes.

I might have spent a few dollars this year, right Julia Faith Chanco LOL.  Love you! 

Really Abstract Wood Sculptures - Student Work

Last school year I showed off this really extraordinary sculpture by junior Tiffany Lee.  It was hanging on the Open House wall, and I had asked Tiffany to turn on the batteries she installed in it, so it lite up like a Xmas tree.  All of us where in shock and awe by this incredible piece.  But later on I realized that one couldn't  really tell what it looked like when it was lit, so I asked Tiffany to bring it back at the beginning of this school year and I photoed it again (below)

The project was to begin with a piece of wood from the scrap bin, and saw, sand and drill it and turn it into an abstract wood person, animal, sea creature, something along that line.  The kids had to collage the wood with papers and then stain over that with watered down acrylics.  Tiffany went for an octopus and pulled it off with a veggy steamer, twinkle lites, and I believe about 6 or 7 battery packs that you have to find the switches for to turn it on.  A challenge, but oh, so worth it!  Thanks Tiffany for bringing it back in. 

Oops!

After displaying these beautiful hand dyed and spun yarns at school for my students, I stupidly put them in the dryer, yes, dryer (what was I thinking??) to get the clay dust off the surface of the yarn balls.  I thought I had them wound really tight and secure, and i only left them in for a few minutes, but it was definitely a few minutes too long cuz this is what greeted me when I opened the dryer door.  Eeks!

So after 2 hours of patiently untangling them I was able to rescue them.  So sorry my lovelies, I promise to never do this to you again.

And then there was the day that I accidently forgot that I was steaming some hand dyed yarns in the back of my classroom, and I started to smell smoke.  Then I remembered but it was way too late.  All's I had left in the steamer were burnt offerings.  Phew, what a mess that was to clean up!

Dee Mallon - Professional Fiber Artist

Inspired by the "Blue Moon" on August 31st, and her extensive rabbit population explosion, fiber art Dee Mallon created this whimsical quilt.  She has used some of her indigo dyed fabric and hand quilted this wonderful piece.  I fell in love with it at first sight and asked her if it was for sale.

A week later it arrived in the mail and now it hangs in my home.  I really admire how quickly Dee can put a work of art together.

Here is the back side and her label.  Thank you Dee for agreeing to part with this sweet , playful piece.  It makes me smile every time I walk by it, and reminds me of when I was a child and my mom would hang our clothes out on the line to dry.  Such heartfelt memories.    

Puppy Update

Our Princess Sophie got to do an overnight-er this summer with her boyfriend Bogie when my ex took care of her for a few days while Jim and I flew down to Florida to visit my in-laws   

So Inars treated both pups to his giant bathtub and gave them a good scrubbing with Danielle's help. 

But mostly Soph likes to hang with her cousins, Miesha and Puck, who are frequent visitors to our home, where they know the treats and car rides are plentiful.  Miesha likes to strut around with her chew bone while the other two demolish theirs in mere seconds.

But now that Sophie is two years and a budding teenager, mostly she just likes to chill with her favorite play toys.

Partically Felted Pincushion - My Work

I wanted to send my girl off to college with a handmade pincushion filled with safety pins, threaded needles, buttons and straight pins.  So I went thru my unfinished projects and found this funny little half felted piece of wool.  Originally I had tried to recycle some cut off pieces of wool sweaters into a felted ball.  But as you can see, it didn't felt up the way I had planned, so I stuck it in a drawer for later inspiration.  It came when I was searching for something to make Dan's pin cushion out of.

I sewed on a button and seed bead for eyes, and a bugle bead for a mouth, and filled the cushion with all the goodies I thought see might need in a pinch.

Kind of a cutie I think.   I really like how he turned out, with personality plus, and hopefully it will come in handy when she needs to do a bit of mending.

Road Trip to Julian

This summer Jim and I were bored so we decided it was time to take a little drive out to Julian in San Diego County.  Julian is known for it's apples, and apple growers.  In fact October and November are perfect times to take a drive out there to pick some.  Well, we went in the heart of the summer and there where no apples to be found, duh, but I had heard it was a cool old town.  And man oh man was it hot there!  

On the way we stopped in old town Ramona which has a lot of great antique shops that we went thru.

And as we got closer to Julian these great little side of the road places started to crop up.  My favorite was this antique store above.  And right next to it was this charming cottage mosaic art studio below.  I could only look in the window though because she was closed.

Then finally after a two and a half hour drive we arrived at our destination, downtown Julian.  I have to be honest, it was a pretty big disappointment.  I had always heard it was an artist's community, but there were no galleries in sight.  It was mostly little store fronts with very commercial apple related merchandise, as well as apple related restaurants   We did get a good piece of apple pie though before we left.  Would I recommend this long drive from Orange or L.A. county?  Only if you want to see the most gorgeous hill country and well kept farms and ranches.  For me, with the price of gas today, it was kind of a bust.  

So as far as I'm concerned, Julian gets a big thumbs down.

Professional Shibori

Early in the school year one of my seniors, Phoebe Liu, brought in some incredible shibori work from Japan. She allowed me to display it for a couple of days and to photo it as well.

This is the smaller piece up close...

but my favorite was the larger one.  I especially liked how the artist couched down the white cording with a single piece of blue thread to make it look like a twisted rope.  So lovely.

Next week my Intermediate students will get a chance to try out some shibori techniques that I learned from pro fiber artist Glennis Dolce last school year.

The Great Shake Out

A couple of weeks ago all the schools in the state of California participated in The Great Shake Out to practice for the "Big One" that's coming.  I was in my classroom during "The Whittier Narrows" quake and let me tell you it was a loo-loo.  Clay pieces were falling off shelves, glass was breaking in my kiln room, and I actually fell down trying to get to the door jam.  So we will be prepared!

Above are seniors Fernie Jacinto and Rita Labib sitting pretty under one of my larger tables.

Not so comfortable are my students who sit at the smaller desks, below.  That was a much tighter squeeze.  But you can tell they are all enjoying this exercise by the smiles on their faces.  After the all clear bell we marched the kids outside to stand a good distance from the buildings, and pretended to asses the damage.  

Another successful Shake Out.

Getting the Princess Ready for College

After two hours of shopping for bedding and storage solutions at Target, Danielle finally made her choices   She has chosen a shabby chic/modern look with soft florals atop black linens.

Mummmm...interesting, I think I like it.  

To make it even more feminine we go to Joann's and she picks out eyelet to trim around all the top edges of the sheets and pillow cases.  I show her how to do it on the sewing machine and off she goes.

Here is her pillow sham above all soft and quilty, but Dani also wanted a lap blanket for atop her bed to protect her very white shabby chic comforter.  Of course we couldn't find one she liked, so I volunteered to make one, if she helped me a bit.

So we taped the back fabric, batting and top layer onto my studio floor and spent another couple of hours pin basting the layers together.  Then I let her chose the quilting design which was similar to what was one her other bedding and I masked the design down so I could use the edges to draw all my lines in blue chalk.

Many hours and days later, wella, the finished lap quilt complete with eyelet trim below, before the blue chalk was washed out.

A close up.

A special inscription for my girl  :)

And her very tiny dorm room.  She's a pretty messy room mate, but at least we can see the bedding all together.

Very shabby, very chic Dan!  Love you baby.

Clean up your room!  LOL