a little antiquing

some of my favourites of the day out with mum..

although the only one of these i brought home was the good shepherd.

which was irresistable at $10

i also got a vintage hat with a large black bird on it.  

will have to show you that soon!

old friends at mum's

thank you, deanna!

finally found scrim not at the close-by Hancock's 

(that was one of the places i visited the other day and had no luck), 

but at the one across town, they had it, and half price!

so i bought enough to last me a good while.

unless i get scrim-happy.

also found some perle cotton, milliner's needles and cotton tape!

thank you for the tip, dear Deanna!

i scrim, you scrim

two fabric stores in a major city, with lots of lovelies, 

but no scrim, and no-one who's even heard of scrim!

they pointed me to tulle.

i compared it to cheesecloth, but last time i bought scrim
(at one of these very same fabric stores) 

i really think it was somewhat different from cheesecloth.  

i have a couple of different cheesecloths in the stash somewhere

 that i could dig out and play with.

but i think i'll order some scrim online and see..

what do you think, is it the same or different?

and why so hard to find?

on the road

grey girls

same ole late-afternoon squall.

our old hounds have terrible thunderstorm anxiety, so we drug them and curl up together..

sometimes i have a little something for relaxation myself.

seems a good time to be doing the august break over here...

i did it a few years ago and it was renewing.  

i'll be traveling and posting pics, 

and amusing myself with snapseed,  

and trying to keep up with Karen Ruane's embellishment class..

i love her work, but i'm soo enthralled by her voice!  i could (do) listen to her for hours.

if you miss me, go listen to Namaste Farms blog talk radio --

i'll be the co-host for august!!

a long time coming

three months worth of alvin's hare,

together with some shreds of lace and wrapped in silk

 came and went quickly in the shop today

thank you to my very patient customers and friends!!

some things just are

well, i'm up.  hello...

 i love rabbit foot ferns.

pictures come alive, you can dance right through your life!

hub was wondering why Narcy was hiding..

and he realised she has a secret, or two...

lots of Thoughts have been occurring as i've been laid up.  i've been mulling over my Why for a While now..  and there are lots of them, some seem more worthy than others.  this has been a great read.  and it makes sense, for sure, to put ideas before commodities.

but then i think, maybe i'm more inspired by art and less by business.

”To all viewers but yourself, what matters is the product: the finished artwork. To you, and you alone, what matters is the process: the process of shaping that artwork.” Art and Fear, page 5.


i am not someone who believes that all art should be in service of something larger.  i enjoy the occasional activist art or political novel, but mostly i think art - and craft - is an end in itself. i think one of the qualities of great art is that it is complex, there is no clear agenda, no easily decipherable overarching Message.

i'm not really sure how or if this applies to yarn.  maybe i'm just deferring the important questions.  i think i've burnt out a little trying to be a production crafter.  in a way it seemed more straightforward and honest to try to create something useful rather than something meaningful in some other way.  that's how how i felt for a while anyway.  but now i'm faced with these questions involved in making a successful business and they leave me sorta cold.  there must be a meeting ground between artspeak and business-speak.

but what i really want is to be an artist.  i want that extra indefinable that makes me want to create, and keep on creating.
maybe that's all the Why there is.
i am going to apply to art school.  i may not go, but i'm going to apply.

abed

who gets sick for two weeks in the summertime?  

i seem to, the last few years anyway!

at least i've been catching up on my beauty sleep, and dreaming

a few pics from the bed, some with hipstamatic's laser lemon gel flash..

at least there are a few bright spots and always-loyal companions.

summer storm

a big storm rolled in this afternoon - a daily occurrence lately - but this time we lost power for hours.  not much to do but sit on the porch and pick some wool.  hub was bit the other night by a copperhead and has a nasty swollen ankle.  he's hobbling around and it seems like the time for real danger has passed.  the little bugger only got one fang in, thank goodness.  we're so grateful it wasn't much worse.

i kissed it

this is a top-whorl Golding spindle

carved out of Irish bog wood

it's of Blarney castle

gifted to me by a very dear friend, Mother Seraphima..

what a treasure!!  

and it came at such a good time

because i had been feeling fluish and it completely distracted me from that.

you may know of my fondness for Victorian mourning jewelry and sometimes it was made out of this same type of fossilized bog oak.  so i am truly in love with this piece... i even kissed the Blarney stone on a long-ago honeymoon.  i'm not sure it gave me the gift of gab, but this gift is even better.

it's a-live!!

i think most of my readers already know this, but just in case, i have to share that my Craftsy.com spindling class is live!  i've been waiting for the right moment to blog about it, and this is a good one because i'm being interviewed tonight on Namaste Farms blog talk radio!  tune in at 9pm est and hear me gab and giggle with the extremely knowledgeable and funny Natalie Redding and Kimberly McAlindin.  you can also call in and ask us stuff about spindling, critters, whatever!

the Craftsy class has gotten off to an awesome start and i'm so grateful to the early students.  it seems like a lot of people really need some support in learning to spindle - those dern spindles like to drop!  but the Craftsy platform is sooo cool because the videos are hd-detailed and can be viewed over and over and any time, and then i'm able to answer questions and interact directly with the students and help them sort out the issues they are having with their spindles or their fiber.  i love waking up to students' questions, pics and the sharing that's going on... so if you're interested in getting started with a spindle, join us!  

blissful shade

a short respite from these dog days... a summer storm is coming.  the bronze fennel is going to seed. some wool outside mordanting, more being washed.  and some merino on the boobin.  trying hard to Keep Going but catching myself laying around and reading, dreaming about India's workshop in the Fall.

wishing you some relief soon!