New work

Judith Klein, of Pins with a Past, traded me this lovely piece for one of my bags. It is made from the flotsam of city life: a crushed bottle cap, a socket, a bit of crushed metal. I love it.


So, after my little rant yesterday morning, I helped to clean the Lowell studio and that was restorative. We are such a group -- creative, cooperative, mature. A new member interviewed. A beloved member said she would reconsider dropping out. A third announced that she's moving to the work/live lofts being developed in an adjacent mill. The sun shone, inside and out. O, and since the RED SOX won, my lovely husband was home early in the afternoon, a rare pleasure now that his commute is so long. Dinner was a breeze; the biscuits came out well. Making good biscuits has been a goal of my life. I'm glad to say I have put my hockey-puck days behind me. All of which is to say I took a day OFF and feel better for it.

I am off to make more Affordable, Portable Art:


And probably some more little notebook holders:


Plus three inquiries came in about buying purses. A little ego boost to get the engines turning again.

Transitions

Found an artist new to me on-line today, Janet Bolton. Her work interests me, in its intersection of textile arts and illustration. Also I like her images: not sweet, very dream-like.

Last night's internet wanderings took me back to Lisa Call and her thoughts on planning and success. This year for the first time I bridle at the "requirement" to make stuff to sell. My expectations of my work have changed. Satisfaction that once came from piecing useful stuff now comes from printing yardage and making work that lasts. The textile postcards satisfy: they are about composition, on a tiny scale. They function as exercise; then, with matting and a package, they become commercial. But purses, jeeze, I just feel myself slipping into the abyss that is Walmart, India, China, not to mention the young things on Etsy selling their work for $20 a pop.

I must chart a new direction and, of course, that is scary. Over and over, I reach a goal, only to find I am on another plateau, and it is time to take my bearings and set out again.

Today, though, is Cleaning Day at the big studio. Repair work to the roof has left debris over everything. Yuck! Time to grab the broom and mop and go.

Production

My studio looks like a rat's nest. I actually tripped on my sewing machine's cord the other day and pulled it off the table. Yikes. Luckily no damage. The display rack holds completed work: fourteen purses so far. I revisited the two embellished army bags that remain:
The purses are assemblages of high-end upholstery fabrics, with the occasional scrap of hand-printed fabric.
On a detour, I futzed with some tiny journals, because the fabric I'd made just begged to be featured:
Here's an example of what's inside and on the back. Just a few signatures, more a whimsy than practical, but maybe there's an idea there somewhere.