tea towel love

It's been a busy week here, and there have been a few changes. I've been fortunate to find myself some gainful employment. While I love growing my business, I really, REALLY love a steady paycheck and benefits.

image: goodLife {eats}

I don't think much is going to change with 5 o'clock crows. I've done most of my production work on the weekends for a while now, and I'll keep dong the arts market and blogging a few times a week. I need to get myself in gear for the holidays, and I'm looking forward to making some changes in January. In the meantime, a steady source of income means I don't feel so frantic and scrambly, and also that I can afford to be a little more selective about everything from participating in markets to developing my product line. Focus is good!

 image: goodLife {eats}

I was thrilled to be featured a few times during my first week back to full-time work. Perhaps a little lightpost from the universe that everything is smooth sailing.

 image : goodLife {eats}

My Hex tea towel in the Peacock colorway was used to style these photos of Quick and Easy Sesame Noodles on GoodLife {eats}, Katie Goodman's delicious (and gorgeous!) food blog.

image: craftzine

Katie also used the Hex/Peacock tea towel to style this article about baking bacon on Craftzine.

My Flamingo/Trellis tea towel was featured in Lindsay's antitreasury on shrimp salad circus.

And last but not least, my Butter/Trellis tea towel was featured in a shades of butter yellow feature on Crafty Dream.

Thanks, ladies! You made my week!!!

... ... ...

my creative space

I've been moaning and groaning about my art block for a while now, so a friend challenged me to make a triptych, one panel for each complete decade of my life. I've had a few weeks to work on it, and it's supposed to be finished tomorrow (yikes- cross your fingers!). I keep trying to procrastinate by over-complicating things, but I'm doing my best to behave myself and stick to the deadline.

These appliques have evolved from the pattern drawings I posted about last week. I'd been thinking about pattern on pattern, and my experimental bleach discharge fabric seemed like the perfect choice.

After looking at these shapes for a while, I'm starting to see them as ladders, or spines, or maybe microscopic forms. Nothing is sewn or fused, but I'm pretty excited to see how these turn out. I have lots of ideas, and I wonder what will make it onto the fabric.

Don't forget to take a look at what's going on in other creative spaces today.

... ... ...

brad miller's bubble shadows

I love Brad Miller's Bubble Shadow prints from Anderson Ranch Editions.

 Bubble Shadow 8

10" x 12.5", Ultrachrome Pigment, 2006

 Bubble Shadow 13

10" x 12.5", Ultrachrome Pigment, 2006

  Bubble Shadow 19

10" x 12.5", Ultrachrome Pigment, 2006

... ... ...

  

jamie hayon for lladro

I really love Jamie Hayon's Fantasy Collection for Lladro. How perfect! Who couldn't use a bit of fantasy on a Monday afternoon.

Love Explosion B

The Lover III

I love the figurative work, but Light Blue Cactus is my current favorite. 

 Light Blue Cactus

What do you think?

... ... ...

i'm beside myself!

I was going to post my monthly goals today (late, as usual), but I can't let another day go by without mentioning the two wonderful things that happened this past Friday.

5 o'clock crows : tea towel

hand dyed batik on 100% linen : 16" x 24"

First, there was a great blurb (with a picture!) about 5 o'clock crows on Avenue Rouge, a site about Baton Rouge. The blurb will be up until this Friday, so if you want to read it, head on over to Avenue Rouge and scroll down to the Home & Garden section. yay!

5 o'clock crows : dinner napkins

hand dyed batik on linen/cotton blend : 19" x 19"

Later in the day, I found out that my napkins were included in Scoutie Girls's Zoomed Local feature on Baton Rouge.

How cool is that ?!?

... ... ...

alexander calder's circus

Have you ever seen Alexander Calder's Circus? I saw it in college, and I remember feeling like my head had opened up. Art suddenly became so much more than something serious that you looked at in books and on the walls of museums and became something to engage with and to enjoy.




What do you think?

... ... ...

my creative space

I've been playing with my pattern drawings since I posted the latest one last week. I love making multiples, so I decided to cut a few out of scraps of printmaking paper I had around the studio. I'm not exactly sure where I'm going from here, but I'm OK with taking things one thing at a time instead of feeling like I need to have everything figured out from the start. 

At the moment I'm thinking I might do some applique based on the pattern shapes. I want to incorporate the pink experimental discharged batik fabric that's in the photo in some way or another, but I'm not sure whether it will be as the base fabric or the applique fabric, or maybe both. I might even get crazy and play with some raw edges, who knows?

I really like the shadows from these cutouts too, which gives me a few other ideas.

ETA: oops, I can't believe I forgot to post the link to the other creative spaces yesterday. Sorry! 

... ... ...