Today's sketchbook

i'm really enjoying these pan pastels.
they are very soft and blend beautifully with the little applicator.

Left side cropped

Right side cropped

i have always loved refined work with impecable craftsmanship.

now i am also drawn to cave paintings and scratch marks,

torn paper and things that are rough around the edges.

it's a curious thing.

not sure where this will all take me

but i am more then happy to follow along.

i met with my artist group yesterday.

we had wonderful conversations about divine inspiration,

and 

the fact that we often don't really know why we do what we do

until it is done in front of us.

and

how humans (all humans) are hard wired to create beautiful things.

i always hope to pass this wonderful fact onto my students.

that they come to understand that being an artsist 

doesn't mean you can draw something from

memory as it looks in real life.

you just have to create.

and then...

quite simply...

making things...

whether they be fine art, crafts, a fine meal, a building, a garden,

a drawing in the sand, or a collection of leaves on a rock

is empowering.

thanks for reading this.

all and any comments are greatly appreciated!

just nice to know you are out there.

I had a wonderful time on Thursday meeting Andrea Garr,

 an established Bead Crocheter and the owner of BEAD AND FIBER in Boston.

BEAD AND FIBER is a wonderful treasure situated in the heart of the Thyer Street Arts district located in the SoWa neighborhood of the South End. 

This reclaimed section of Boston features former factory and industrial buildings that are now home to unique shops, galleries, restaurants, artist studios and residencies. As a young art student in the 70's I remember there was great talk about one day transforming this section of Boston.

I am very excited to say that I will be teaching a number of classes 

there in late summer and into the fall months and beyond if there is enough interest.

Here is a quick schedule:

Saturday, July 27th - Batik with Soy Wax and Textile Paints

Saturday, August 24th (and 25th?) - Stamping

Saturday, September 26th (and 27th?) - To be announced

Saturday, October 26 (and 27th?) - To be announced

I'll be sending out a newsletter with all my classes in the next day or 2. If you would like to be on my mailing list leave me a comment with your email address or send me an email rezendescheryl@gmail.com.

So, if you are in the greater Boston area give Andrea a call 617 426-2323 or email her

about your interest in taking classes with me. And definitely make a trip into Boston

if you are in need of any beading materials.

Early exhaustion sets in tonight.

But as promised,

 I will leave you with a photo of the piece I am working on

that has the needlepoint incorporated into it.

It measures 30.5" by 16.5"

and obviously not finished.

Sorry about the pink design wall and shadows.

Nightie, nights.

I have been very, very busy making a project for the new Stitch-It-Today magazine.

The first issue is due out mid June.

                I am dyeing to show you the project but I have a sneaky feeling I'm not suppose to.

This project is for the October issue. 

A very long time to wait.

I am so pleased however to tell you that I will be writing the artist profiles for the magazine,

as well coming up with some of the projects.

 I am very excited to have written the first profile about 

Erin Endicott Sheldon and her Healing Sutra series.
This is one of her pieces.
Please visit her web site by clicking on her name. The series is incredibly moving.

So what I can share with you of my own tonight is this photograph.

A messy desk with far too many projects going on at one time.

The ball winder and spinner are there 

not because of a new knitting project but because of a new art quilt
that I am incorporating some needle point into.
I have wanted to do this for quite some time,
literally for years!
So I am happy I am working on it even though I don't think it is all the successful (yet).
We'll see how I feel about it tomorrow.

I'll be sure to take a few photos of it tomorrow and share them with you.
I'll post what's going on in my sketch book as well.

Right now it is 10 PM and my fellow couch potato is waiting for me upstairs.

 Bye for now.

PS
Would love to hear from you.
Have you ever let an idea percolate for years before giving it a go?

Etsy

Today is the start of making a conscience effort to begin posting something new on Etsy every day. 

Sooooo, here is one of my latest hand dyed silk scarves.

What I love most about it is the lush green background. lol

I like the scarf too.

I'm having a bit of trouble here getting the photos where I want them. So the arrangement is a bit wacky. But you get the picture. 

Have a great day. I'm off to see my Dad who is visiting from Colorado!

How do you all plan your etsy listings?

New hand painted and stamped fat quarter design.

 Here's my latest fat quarter design. 

There are 2 versions: one with the grid lines and one without.

I have a total of 7 available on my Etsy site.

I really love the subtleties of the color palette.

These would work really well cut into 4 smaller pieces as well.

See below for the stamps that I used.

These are the 4 stamps I used.
The small one is cut from a Dick Blick Soap Eraser.
The weird triangle and the odd square one on the left are cut from
SpeedballSpeedy-Cut Carving locks ,
and the tiled green one is an 8x10 Moldable Foam Sheet.
For paint I used Dye-na-flow, Seta Silk and Pro Fab transparent textile paints.

As always, if you have any questions don't hesitate to be in touch.
Have a great day! 

Stamped Textiles and Blog Giveaway!

I have a stamping workshop I am teaching at Harrisville Designs in Harrisville N.H. at the end of the month. In anticipation of this class I have decided to design some cotton fat quarters using only hand made stamps and spray painting for the background color. It has been a really fun challenge!  Here are the two I have made so far. 

Stamps used for the fat quarter above.

Stamps used for the fat quarter above.

If you are interested in buying them to use in your own projects please visit my Etsy shop. 

Oh, I almost forgot. Leave me a comment and your email address and enter your chance to win a copy of my new book "Fabric Surface Design!"

Quilt Show

I spent this past Sat. and Sun. at a quilt show in Amherst, MA. The show was sponsored by the 

Hands Across the Valley Quilt Guild.

It was my very first book signing appearance. I was a bit awkward at first but got the hang of it after a while. I was lucky to be sponsored by my good friends at A Notion to Quilt in Shelburne, MA. The absolutely best quilt shop this side of the Mississippi!

Okay, so maybe I am just a bit biased.

There were some really outstanding quilts on display. And as it turns out one of my very favorite quilts just happened to be hanging directly across from where I was sitting. 

The artist, Ann Feitelson gave me permission to post it here.

 A stunning and very large piece.

Basket Weave II: See Saw

One of the best benefits of the show was that not only did I meet some wonderful new people but I also got to see some fiber art friends that I just don't get to see very often, such as Gail Callahan, Nina Campanon, Rebecca Fricke, Margaret Stancer and many others.

Thank you all for a very inspiring weekend!

Next book signing will be this Friday April, 12 in Worchester, MA at 

The Original Sewing and Quilt Expo.

Once again you can find me in A Notion To Quilt's booth.

Progress

My son has told me that I tend to use my blog like a newsletter and then forget my newsletters altogether. He is, of couse right.

The past 3 years have been a whirlwind of constant activity. There was the opening of my studio, teaching, writing the book, making artwork for the book and more writing for the book. Some where in there I had to close the studio but kept teaching and started working for someone else fulltime.

Not to mention marketing the business, parenting a 15 year old, send the 19 year old off to college for the first time and parenting him in a completely new way! 

Oh and did I say I am married and make an attempt at

house cleaning, cooking and seeing my Mom and Dad. And friends...I have friends!

You get the picture. 

Sigh

Now I am working for a different someone else, but only part time.

The book has been out for just a couple of weeks and I have a potentially new somewhat regular writing gig that is still a secret. 

Shhh

Throughout all of this I have grown, grown and grown some more. 

Sometimes it has been an ouchie.

But mostly it has been great.

I am finally starting to catch up on the business of CherScapes.

ie. setting up my new home based studio,

putting up my new profile on TAFA (almost finished!),

reopening my Etsy Shop with the addition of posting/selling some of my textiles 

(up but not yet full, so stay tuned on that one),

seeking out new venues to teach at (to be announced in my newsletter),

almost ready to send out my newsletter (leave me your email address if you'd like to be on my list),

promoting my book,

and

making art!

PROGRESS!

I leave you tonight with a new image of my first "Little Miracle."

(See the previous post.)

Once it was posted, I saw how much work it still needed. 

Please note that I did NOT remove it. 

Because this is my blog - which is meant to be about process.

Progress!

Little Miracles

I recently worked at a company that gave away little Mexican charms called milagros, to every customer at the check out counter. It was explained to me that the charms represented "Little Miracles" or fortunes that would be bestowed on the owner of a particular charm. The charms ranged from a left foot to a wine bottle and the face of a woman. There were many others. 

Needless to say I thought the charms and the practice were...well...charming. Apparently people throughout the mid west and Mexico collect these small charms, hammering them to the outside of their home around their front door for good luck. I imagine that the sun catches and reflects off the hammered metal in different ways creating glimmer and light and perhaps the sense of a miracle happening.

As any surface design, fiber artist knows, we have a tendency to collect many small bits of fabric with painted and transfered images. Impossible to throw away but not exactly what I want my brain to really scrutinize in my artwork, I recently decided that I would allow myself to transform these little miracles into small art pieces, because the reality is that although I ultimately want to make and work on those large abstract works, I still do enjoy drawing and painting leaves, flowers and other recognizable images from nature. I have come to accept (at least I hope so!) and recognize that this activity should not be frowned upon, but rather embraced as an activity that helps me find balance - it is a kind of meditative process that can bring me closer to my ultimate objective then I had previously thought possible.

Here is my first piece from the series titled "Little Miracles." It measures 10" x 8" and is stretched over a canvas.