Gourd Crafts and Silk Painting

Good Evening!

You might ask yourself what gourds and silk painting have in common so let me tell you.  My mother recently gave me a book from her collection of arts and crafts resources called Gourd Crafts by Marilynn Host.

On pages 104-106 there is a series of photos of gourd bowls done in southwest designs.  Now, I lived in the southwest for nearly 17 years and still miss it. When I saw these designs it brought back a lot of my memories of my time there.  And as I sat admiring the book, I got an idea for a scarf and proceeded to paint the one below.  I used a gold gutta which you can just barely detect in this photo...in person it has a wonderful look!  And as you can see this is a contemporary - almost abstract - design with just a hint of southwest in it.



I also have a small silk bag that I painted in a bit more traditional southwest design.



Another design I would like to try is something like this gourd.

If you would like to research gourd crafts and carving for yourself  Google Books has this book and many others like it for sale.  http://books.google.com/ebooks

Marilynn Host's Book is ISBN 0-8069-4423-4

Enjoy!

Janet

Summer Memories as I Clean Up for Winter

Hello!

Today was a day made for working outside.  The sun was shining and though it was brisk (ice on the pails of water) I worked hard enough to take two layers of clothing off...which put me down to two left on!  I trimmed, pulled, bagged and relocated.  Generally just tried to get everything in ship shape for Mr. Winter.

There were still flowers on some stalks of poppy and a few marigold...quite a few Pansy and violets, but up they came regardless.  Still looking at the colors in the blossoms brought back memories of my garden in its glory this summer...

I painted this scarf during summer while daydreaming about all the bright colorful blossoms, butterflies and hummingbirds.  It is 100% silk with gutta and silk dye.  I do all my drawing free hand and then hand paint it in using small brushes.



If you should be interested in silk painting you can check with a local art store or online you can take a look at Dharma.  They are helpful and have everything you need to get started. 

http://www.dharmatrading.com/

Goodnight all,
Janet

I often work late into the night.  There is just something so peaceful about the quiet of the world once all the traffic dies down on the streets, the people have all gone indoors, and everything goes to sleep.  I feel so much peace and contentment...and still something more...and energy that allows me to produce so much more than I can ever get done during daylight hours.  It is because of this that I rarely am up to see the sunrise.  As a young child I was a morning person...even as a young adult I suppose, but definitely not now.

However, I  am familiar with the beauty of the world first waking up...the first rays across the frosted grass...the thin ice sheets over puddles...the reflection of the light on the lake water...and the warmth of the sun that finally begins to warm the world.  I created this handbag with Sunrise in mind...though in all honesty I guess it could reflect the beauty of the sun setting as well.  Either way...

Hope you enjoy it!
Janet

We Go For an Adventure Today

Hello,

So today was a very interesting day.  It started out so well...one of those days you can just feel are going to be good.  After all hubby and I had spent numerous hours these past weeks getting ready for it...so it just had to be a good day, right?!  I was well rested having finally gotten a full 8 hours of sleep and everything for the shop Blue Flag Handweaving Studio, in Sandpoint was tagged and ready to be loaded.  Whew!!

So after a leisurely breakfast and loading of merchandise and dog (yes, the puppy got to go for a ride today) we were off!  It is about 40 miles from home to Kristie's shop.  And about 5 miles from there this crazy truck driver tried to run us down...only he wasn't crazy he was trying to let us know we had a flat rear tire.  Wished I could thank him.  For some reason neither of us had been able to feel it - rather strange - never happened before.  Anyway an hour later and we had our spare tire - The Dreaded Donut Tire - on and we were back on the road to deliver all the cool felted stuff I had made.  And on the plus side all the time sitting and waiting allowed me to get some knitting done!

This is one of the small, fun-loving bags we took up there today.  I made the beads out of tyvek, paint and wire.  Almost too cute to part with!  Hope you enjoy seeing it.  And if you want to purchase it you can do so through Kristie at http://www.blueflagweaving.com/

Now we are back home and I am off to devour some of the yummy brownies I just baked...from scratch!  Yum...I'll try to save some for you :)
Janet