Today I've added four warm shades of Blue Faced Leicester wool to Wind Rose. Before you know it, we'll be seeing these colors outside of our windows. I've dyed a nice Chestnut, Golden Ochre, Pumpkin, and Chartreuse. Perhaps the Chartreuse is the least autumnal of these, but if you're lucky, you may just see this shade of green as the leaves change.
Today I'll be shifting back to cool tones and dyeing blues, purples and maybe a nice spruce. I tend to go where the dyeing spirits take me.
Here they are! Gypsy Wine and Fuchsia Blue Faced Leicester.
I'll be dyeing even more colors of BFL today. If you have requests, I'll give them top priority. Otherwise, I'll just be working my way around the color wheel trying to offer as much variety as I can.
I'm doing my best to get this week off to a great start! Today I decided to list some of the yarn I spun during the Tour de Fleece. Remember this one? My Pink Flowers Beaded Yarn is now available at Wind Rose Fiber Studio!
In addition to my beaded yarn, I have also listed my Jacob Swirl, Green Stripes and Candied Alpaca. It was so nice to be a part of this summer's Tour de Fleece and to be inspired by my fellow spinners. I'm also getting back to my dye work. It's rare that my inventory gets down to zero, but that's exactly where my Blue Faced Leicester stock is at the moment. This just won't do, so I'm going to be replenishing my BFL in all the colors of the rainbow. Right now I have a rich Gypsy Wine and a beautiful, bright Fuchsia drying outside. Starting tomorrow, the shop will begin to fill back up with this soft and lovely wool!
I really don't need an excuse to play with beads, but it doesn't hurt that they look great with fiber. I love mixing wool, metal & glass!
I know I've posted a similar bracelet in the past, but today I was perfecting my design. The bead droplets are actually a new addition to this wool wrapped bracelet. I tried making them with beads before and it didn't quite work. When I switched to these teardrop shaped beads, it came together. I like them because they add even more color possibilities even though I chose to go more monotone today.
These bracelets look so cute on, but they are such a challenge to photograph. (My hat's off to people who work with jewelry full time.) They wear like bangles without all the clinking around and the fiber beads are very eye catching. People tend to look twice and you can see them trying to identify the soft forms.
I ended up giving away all of the first bracelets I made in this style; sisters, niece, mom, you know how it is. I've been wanting to make some more and yesterday I think I received my inspiration. My son takes art classes at this very cool music and arts center and they are putting on a craft show this fall. I haven't done the vendor thing for over three years, but now I'm thinking about it.
I guess one of the things you can count on with school is that it's only a matter of time before one of your kids catches a bug. I was feeling fairly invincible this summer as every member of my family came down with something except me. I guess my immune system finally caved when my son came down with a cold last week.
How frustrating to be taken out by the common cold. Even now, after three days of laying around, I'm so tired.
Anyway, I just wanted to explain the lack of blog posts this week. I'm giving this sickness one more day and then I'm moving on whether the cold likes it or not!
In the meantime, since I'm vertical, I'm going to continue work on building my pages.
Clip Art
Oaxacan wood carving and painting is an art form I have come to love since moving to the southwest. Here, I have had the opportunity to meet a few of the artists and admire their work. It gives me a lot of pleasure to share it with you and to celebrate this incredible expression of culture and folklore.
This enchanting chameleon is the art that my oldest son selected at the Santa Fe International Folk Art Market. My husband and I gave both of our boys an amount that they were allowed to spend. We want them to value art and to be supporters of the arts as adults. We also think that you start to look at art with a more critical and appreciative eye when you are a consumer.
My son knew he wanted a sculpture of some kind. We started to walk through the market until we found the Oaxacan wood carvings. He loved them right away and knew it was just what he was looking for. There were carvings both large and small. Though he had a fairly nice budget of $100, he found that this was only enough to buy a smaller sculpture. This gave us the opportunity to discuss why these sculptures are so valuable.
I encouraged my son to take a closer look at the painting on the figures. Just think about how many strokes of a very fine brush it would take to form these patterns. Look at how perfectly arranged the shapes are. The painter must have a very steady and skilled hand. How long did it take to paint this chameleon?
As we pondered these details, we heard another shopper ask how long it took to paint one of the largest pieces. Our jaws both dropped as we heard the artist tell her that the piece in question took nine months to complete. Wow!
As it turns out, our chameleon took around three to four weeks. When you consider the time to carve and sand the wood, and all of the different layers of color that make up the design, it makes sense. It also makes the price tag sound more than reasonable. It was a good lesson in art appreciation.
This style of wood carving is called alebrijes. It has only been on the art scene for around 30 years. Alebrijes are mythical creatures that combine human and animal features. They are imaginative and colorful and they relate to ancient Mexican religious beliefs.
Jacobo Angeles Ojeda, the artist behind this handsome fellow, is from the San Martin Tilcajete village in Oaxaca. He learned the craft from his father and has now been working together with his wife, Maria Mendoza Mendez, for 25 years.
Jacobo cuts a piece of copal wood with a machete and begins to form a shape. He uses progressively smaller tools until the final touches are made with a pocket knife. The natural twists and bends in the wood inspire the creatures they will become. Maria provides the magic of the paint. she uses traditional vegetable and mineral pigments to create her colors and designs.
The work of Jacobo and his wife Maria is some of the most intricate that I have seen. Their attention to detail makes their creatures really come to life. It's easy to look into the eyes of this chameleon and imagine a personality to match!
I always feel bad when I'm away from my blog for a day, but from time to time I get caught up in other activities. This weekend I've been devoting myself to costume preparation.
There is an annual party that my family and I attend. This party is given a new theme each year. This year the theme is Greek.
I can't do the toga thing. I'd be lying if I said I've never been to a toga party, but I just don't feel like running around in a sheet. Besides, it's not very original.
I decided to be my own version of Gaia, basically the Greek Mother Earth. This started a debate in my house over whether or not Gaia is truly Greek or technically a Titan. That's what I get for marrying a man who played Dungeons & Dragons as a kid. Greek or Titan, the name Gaia comes from Ancient Greek and means land or earth. So there!
Anyway, the eye catching piece of my costume will be this flowered headdress that I made yesterday. I also plan to have the flowers spill onto my clothes as though where I go, nature goes with me. My sons have embraced the idea of being Greek gods, so at least I won't be the only one doing my own thing.
I have one more thing to share today. After my post about making a tree, I started to think that an inverted wire tree would make cool looking earrings. I goofed around a little, and here are my results.
The earrings have five ornaments that are related in color so they don't really compete for attention. They have more a feeling of happy coexistence as they perch on their respective branches. That's how I see them, as intertwined branches.
They dangle from a link that's attached to the earwire. This gives them more freedom of movement. While the limbs are structural and hold their shape, they can still sway and twist in the breeze. So what do you think? Good design or weird design? I'm trying to decide if I should make a few for the shop.
Oh, by the way, I realize I've gone off on one of my beading binges. I assure you, there's plenty of fiber in the future. I'm kind of letting monsoon season run its course and then I'll be back to my dyeing. I plan on adding a lot more painted roving to my inventory at Wind Rose this fall. I have some very nice wool and silk blends that I think will be beautiful. Never fear, fiber girl is still here!
Believe it or not, I still have more to share from my visit to the Folk Art Market. I spotted this weaving from a distance and allowed its magnetic pull to draw me in. As someone who admires weaving, there are two cultures that I particularly respect, the Navajo and the weavers of Peru. This neck pouch is distinctly Peruvian.
I wish I had more of a story to go along with my woven pouch. The truth is, that this pouch and a few others, along with woven straps or belts, were sort of a side note at a booth that featured a wood carver from Peru. There was a small photograph of the man who wove the pouches. Perhaps he and the wood carver are part of the same community.
The women who were volunteering at the booth were very enthusiastic. They wore several woven straps around their necks as jewelry and one of the ladies had one tied around her hat. They seemed pleased when I identified the origin of the work right away. I picked out a strap to go with my pouch as we shared our mutual admiration for the weaving.
Returning to the pouch, this particular style is often worn with more of a spiritual intent. Items in the pouch may be there because they contain a comforting or healing quality to the wearer.
I'm wearing it right now to draw inspiration for this post. When you feel it around your neck, it evokes a sense of serenity. You feel as though you posses something special and personal. It's like wearing a locket and you are the only one who knows what's inside. You can choose to share it, or keep it private. It belongs to you and becomes an extension of yourself.
Have you ever done a craft project with your kids, and when you're done, you feel as excited and proud as they do? You just want to hold it up to your mom and say, "Look what I made!"
Well, that's me right now and hopefully my mom will see this post and say, "That's nice dear."
My son and I have been studying crafts that other cultures brought with them when they immigrated to this country. Today we were talking about the Celtic Irish. Our common saying "knock on wood" comes from them. They believed that spirits lived in trees and you could knock on them for good luck. "I haven't caught the flu this year, knock on wood!"
And so we made this spritely tree and decorated it with glass flowers and leaves. You would have laughed watching us. We'd each add another flower and then exclaim, "Oh look at our tree!" We were both so pleased with ourselves. We also both think it would be cool to make a giant one. This one stands at about twelve inches.
Wouldn't this be an awesome earring tree? If I ever start doing craft shows again, I'm going to make two or three of these to show off my jewelry. If you want to make one, our source book is Crafts Across America by Cindy A. Littlefield.
It's almost too hazy, hot and humid to do anything right now. Monsoon season is in full swing and even with the air conditioning running full blast, the moisture in the air seems to be finding its way into my house. This weather makes me lethargic.
Even so, I managed to put a new Top Whorl Drop Spindle Kit together. I've had the roving ready and waiting for some time. I like to share my new kits here on my blog because each one comes with one-of-a-kind, hand pulled roving.
This one has pretty summer colors. As you can see, there's turquoise and then a lighter shade that I call Sea Spray. These two blues are accompanied by sparkling Firestar. As with all of my kits, they come with everything you need to get started including complete directions.
Now, back to my lethargy.
