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Author: ruthlane

When I discovered felting in 2007, I finally found the creative outlet for which I had been searching. I love that the versatility of fiber allows me to “play” with a wide variety of materials including wool, silk, fabrics, yarns and threads. Creating one of a kind fiber art pieces to share with the world fulfills my creative passion.
Keeping Your Creative Juices Flowing with Artist Dates

Keeping Your Creative Juices Flowing with Artist Dates

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We’re going in to week four of the Daily Dose of Fiber challenge. How’s it going? Have you been having fun with your “5 minutes a day of creative time”? I am happy with my progress, I’ve almost got my homework completed for stitch class and I don’t go back until the end of February. I should have some extra time just to play soon. If you haven’t been able to work in some creative time, what have been your obstacles? Some times people feel that they can’t think of any ideas or get stuck. I usually have too many ideas and not enough time but that’s a different subject. Here are a few ideas to help get that creativity flowing.

If you haven’t read this book, The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron and you are feeling “stuck” or “blocked”, this is an excellent resource. I read this book years ago and I go back to it occasionally to try some of the exercises again. The most helpful things I got from this book are “Morning Pages” and “Artist’s Dates”. The morning pages exercise is to write three pages every morning in a journal that you will not show to anyone else ever. It is stream of consciousness writing where you just keep continuously writing until three pages are filled out. It gets the extraneous thoughts from the day before out of your brain and allows you to move on. I don’t do this anymore but it was really helpful at the time when I was dealing with work issues that were overtaking my creativity.

The “Artist’s Dates” are a tool for giving yourself time once a week to “play”. These are scheduled so that you take an hour or two and do something to refill the creative well. It might be just going for a walk with no other agenda than to see what there is to see, visiting a gallery or museum, going to a book store and looking at inspiring books, going to the playground and swinging on the swings or going to play with an artist friend and trying out a new technique. The date can be anything you want it to be.

Over at the “Sketchbook Challenge” blog this month, their theme is “Artist’s Dates”. Go check out the blog and see what all those wonderful artists over there are doing. They have a lot of suggestions for different types of activities to try. You might also want to check out their Flickr group because there’s tons of eye candy there and hundreds of people participating in the challenge. If you join in, they have great prizes each month too!

Another idea that I heard recently was from a podcast by Rice over at Notes from the Voodoo Cafe where she spoke with Tammy Garcia about bringing more creativity into your life. I really enjoy these podcasts, I usually listen to them while I’m stitching. Anyways, Tammy suggested that you go to the bookstore and pick out several different books from sections that you wouldn’t normally visit. Then take a look at the books while you’re in the store and just page through them and read parts as it interests you. Have your notebook handy to take notes of ideas that come up when you’re reading. This will give you ideas that you wouldn’t normally think of as you are reading from books in subject areas that are unfamiliar to you. For example, if you were reading a book about psychology, you might have an idea of how you could incorporate how your brain works and felting.

I hope you take the time and schedule an “Artist Date”. Do let us know how it goes, what you did and how it affected your creativity. Don’t forget to join us over on the forum for some great discussions and to see what everyone else is creating.

Learning to See More Creatively

Learning to See More Creatively

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I hope everyone is cruising along with the first quarter challenge of a Daily Dose of Fiber. Lyn, from Rosie Pink, has been doing the challenge and I really liked her comment recently on the forum about how the challenge was working for her. Lyn said that she got home from work and didn’t really feel like doing anything but because of the challenge, she decided to go into the studio for five minutes to get her “daily dose”. She was only planning on getting a few things set up but three hours later, she had completed felting the outer portion of the vessel that she is working on. That is usually what happens to me as well. I might not feel like doing any creative work after I get home from work, but if I just start, I end up enjoying what I’m doing and I get tasks done that I might have put off.

applique

The challenge is going in to the third week now. How have you been doing? Have you been able to get in five minutes of creative time per day? Don’t beat yourself up if you haven’t. You can start this challenge any time. You didn’t have to start on January 1. It is really more of a decision as to how you are going to prioritize your time and what is important for you. For me, it is important to use my time wisely and I have a hard time now, just sitting around without a stitch project or something to keep my hands busy.

OK – enough of that. What I really wanted to talk about today was some fun things to try that will help your “creative” eye to see more clearly. There are inspiring things everywhere you look whether it be in nature or walking down a city street, you can find inspiration anywhere. But you have to look. Most of us rush through life, not taking the time to examine what is around us. Take a few extra minutes and look at the textures, patterns, colors, lines etc. around you. One way to do this is each day is to look for something specific. For example, today you might look for anything orange. The next day it might be crisscrossing lines or lines in broken pavement. Or maybe you want to look for certain shapes such as circles, squares or triangles. Carry your camera with you and take photos of things that interest you. Or better yet, take a notebook and draw/sketch what you see.

I know, I know, “you can’t draw”. I used to say that too. But drawing is a learned skill. It’s like playing the piano, you aren’t born knowing how. You can learn and with practice you will improve your drawing skills. I highly recommend this book:

This book teaches you about looking at the edges and shapes of objects. Instead of seeing a “bottle”, you are looking at the different shapes that make the bottle.  You are learning to really see the bottle instead of just seeing a generic bottle. Learning to draw trains your creative eye to see more clearly. Whenever I take the time to draw something, I always remember more about that drawing than if I took a photo. Even if I look back at the drawing much later, the memory is much more clear. (And that’s saying something these days!) That’s because I took the time to really look and see what I was drawing. I can’t say that I spend enough time drawing but I do enjoy it now and I no longer say “I can’t draw”.

I found this fun idea on the Create Mixed Media blog. It’s an idea from Margaret Peot. The photo above is from Margaret’s post. She does some really fun inkblot sketchbooks. This idea though is a variation on her usual inkblots. What she suggests is to take photos of clouds, sidewalks, old walls, anything with fun texture or line. Then you print the photos out on to regular printer paper and draw into them whatever shapes that you see. You can see her full post here.

Those are just a few ideas to get you started seeing more creatively. Do you have any other suggestions for others to try? Things that you do to get your creative brain working? I’d love to hear what they are. Leave a comment or join in our forum discussions.

Making Space for Creativity – Daily Dose of Fiber Challenge

Making Space for Creativity – Daily Dose of Fiber Challenge

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How did the first week of 2013 work out creatively for you? Did you manage to spend at least 5 minutes a day doing something creative? Did you think about where your time goes and where you could fit in more time for fiber? What did you find held you back? Do you have a dedicated space to work? Many times, it is hard to find a spot that you can be creative but I think you can make space if you really put your mind to it.

aspen applique

When I first started doing fiber art, I didn’t have a dedicated space to work. It is hard to work on things when you always have to clean up when you need to leave the project. I started using one of our two guest bedrooms. For the longest time, the bed stayed in the room taking up tons of space. We don’t have that many guests and usually only one bedroom is needed at one time. Over the past 5 years, we only used two bedrooms at once 3 times for a couple of days. So I decided to move the bed out of the room. We store it in a finished portion of our garage and if we need the bed, we bring it back in and set it up. Because we only have to do it every couple of years, it isn’t bad. But I love the extra space it gives me. I can leave projects out that I’m working on without worries.

beaded edge

Do you have a dedicated space to work? Is there a room in your house that doesn’t really get used that much? I keep thinking I should convert our dining room into a dye/paint studio. We never use it and it ends up just being a dumping ground. I’m not sure my husband would go along with this idea so I haven’t brought it up. I already take over half the kitchen most of the time. Perhaps there is a space in your home that you could convert into a mini studio such as a closet or a corner of a room. There are many magazines out now that show various studios and storage solutions. You can also search online for ideas about how to fit a studio into a small space.

applique page

Even if you don’t have a space to use, you can always create a box or container that will hold your supplies. Keep them all together and use a TV table or temporary table to work. Then when you’re finished, you can put everything back in the container and have everything ready to go for your next creative opportunity. So don’t despair if you feel you don’t have space to work. I know that people living in small apartments find ways and space to work in so you can as well.

Have you been creative this past week? What are you plans for next week. I’d love to hear what you’ve been doing. Leave a comment here or join us in the forum to join the discussion. If you didn’t read about the challenge, here’s the post that will bring you up to speed. We’d love to have you join us! The photos are all projects I worked on this week.

A Daily Dose of Fiber Challenge

A Daily Dose of Fiber Challenge

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I have been thinking about what I would choose for the first quarter studio challenge for quite a while. I’ve waffled around with the idea, wasn’t sure I could do it and wondered if anyone else would even want to try. But what the heck… This idea is a bit different from our previous challenges but I hope you will all be inspired to give it a go. Since it is a new year and we’re all thinking about new beginnings and what our plans are for the year, I thought this challenge would be a little bit of a push to emphasize your creative side. I challenge you to do something creative every day and get your daily dose of “fiber”. I’m sure I just heard a loud groan from the audience but this doesn’t mean that you have to felt a seamless garment every day. All it means is that you make creativity a habit and do something every day, even if it’s only 5 minutes. I have actually been doing this for quite a while now. I work on something related to my fiber art every day even if it’s only for a few moments. I haven’t actually tried to document this in the past, but for the next three months, that’s what I’m going to do. I will be blogging daily on my personal blog about what creative thing I’ve done that day. Once a week, I’ll do an update here and give you some ideas of what you could do for the rest of the week if you need a bit of inspiration.

Fiber Tools and Goodies

I know that this challenge sounds a bit daunting but it actually isn’t that hard to do. I lead a busy life just like everyone else but there is a lot of time that gets wasted if you aren’t paying attention. Just a small amount of planning and preparation allows you to be ready to be creative at the drop of a hat. For example, I always have a small stitch project in a plastic bag ready to work on. The bag holds the base fabric marked with the design (if there is one), my needle case with scissors and the matching threads. I take it with me in my bag and if I have to wait or I have a spare moment, I stitch for a bit. You could do the same with small needle felting projects, beading, knitting or if you use a journal or a sketchbook, you could draw or write your fiber art to do list for the week.

project bag

I’m sure that it would be very easy to come up with many excuses why you couldn’t possibly do this challenge. ‘I don’t have time’, ‘I’m too busy’, ‘I have family responsibilities’, blah, blah, blah… Really? Do you want to be creative? Do you want to make more art? What is stopping you? Give yourself permission to do this and give it priority over things like watching TV, cruising the internet and seeing what’s new on Facebook, Pinterest or Twitter and even doing housework. Life will go on even if the house isn’t perfectly clean, ask me how I know! Let your family know that you need this time to yourself, set boundaries and then reinforce that this small amount of time that you are setting aside is for you. Then do it, be creative and make some art, even if it’s bad art. Just do it. Every. Day.

Some people say it takes 21 days to form a habit, other studies indicate it takes longer than that, perhaps greater than 60 days. But I think if we can do this for the first three months of 2013, we might have developed the habit of being creative every day and getting our daily dose of “fiber”. It really isn’t a chore, it’s what we like to do. You certainly don’t have to blog about what you do everyday. But I’d love to hear what creative activity you do each day so please leave comments here, post photos on our Flickr group and join us in the forum where I’ll start a topic about the challenge.

This first week of 2013 why don’t you take a few minutes and look at what you do during the day. How do you manage your time? What do you spend your time doing? Are there times during your day that seem to be wasted? Can you schedule a time that could be spent being creative? Grab a notebook and write down your thoughts about being creative and how you can make time for creativity. What are the impediments to spending more time playing with fiber (or whatever creative thing that you do)? Write about them. Take 5 minutes every day to do this and we’ll count that as your daily dose of fiber. Or if you want, just dive in and start the creative habit.

Now we all know that life happens and sometimes things don’t work out as planned. That’s OK. Don’t beat yourself up if you miss a day. Put a favorite art related book or magazine by your bed and read that for a few moments before you go to sleep. Then the next day, you can get back on track. Adding more creativity shouldn’t be a huge pressure and chore, it should be fun. Once you get started, you’ll be surprised how much you can get done. I get asked frequently how I manage to get so much artwork  done and the answer is “5 minutes here and 5 minutes there”, it all adds up.

So are you up for the challenge? Get your daily dose of fiber with me, it will be fun, I promise 🙂

Oh and by the way, Happy New Year from all of us here at The Felting and Fiber Studio. All the best for 2013!

Year End Roundup 2012

Year End Roundup 2012

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Time passes so quickly, doesn’t it? It’s hard to believe another year is almost over. It’s fun to review what I have been able to accomplish in the last year and see if I followed my intentions for the year. My word for 2012 was ‘Focus’ and you can read about how I chose that word and what my intentions were in this post. My main focus this year was to get as much I could from the stitch class I am taking from Gail Harker. Many times, I had other things that popped up that I might have considered participating in but I kept reminding myself of my focus for the year. I think choosing this word really helped me to learn more and practice my skills from this class. Our last session will be in February of 2013 and the exciting news is that we will be having an exhibition of our class work at my store, The Purple Pomegranate in Whitefish, MT the first Thursday in September of 2013. Hopefully, my classmates will be able to join me for opening night so we can have a reunion. I’m already a bit sad that the class is going to be over so soon.

slip stitch

Looking back at the rest of my intentions, I did manage to follow through with most of them. My book The Complete Photo Guide to Felting came out in August and I held several book signings, book giveaways and promotions. I was on an internet talk show which was fun and I did better than I had hoped I would. I am happy with the book and proud that I was able to accomplish having a book published.

I began teaching classes at my local yarn store. I taught several classes including how to felt a hat over a flat resist and a two-day course in making a nuno felted cocoon style jacket. I found that I really enjoy teaching but I wasn’t able to teach as many classes as I might have since I was focusing on my stitch class homework. I do have plans to begin teaching at the local community college next year and continue classes through the yarn store.

The mentoring program for Montana Arts Council MAP students went well. I mentored a quilt artist in critiquing her work and hand stitch. I also had several artist internships through my store where I shared my knowledge about the business of being an artist. It’s nice to be able to give back to the artistic community and help emerging artists begin their business life with a better foundation of business understanding.

I have continued to meet with my local group and explore further fiber art and surface design techniques. We also have recently begun researching art history and discussing it with the group each time we meet. We started with paleolithic art and are moving forward in time. I also organized a felting retreat locally and it was a big success. Plans are in the works for a second retreat. Another group has formed just recently to promote the awareness of the fiber arts and to increase exhibitions of fiber art. I am sure I will be telling you more about this group in the coming year.

The three intentions that I didn’t complete this year were learning more about Photoshop, making video tutorials and working on the yurt. I have had the intention about Photoshop on my list for several years and have never really done much about it. Perhaps I don’t really care that much? I don’t think I’ll put it on the list this coming year. I did get a video camera for the tutorials but never got further than that. I will work on this for 2013 and I hope to have video tutorials up on this blog soon. The yurt project is still in the works. I have been sourcing wool suppliers and 2013 will definitely be the year of the yurt at my house so stay tuned.

What have you accomplished in 2012? Do you have plans for 2013? I’d love to hear what you’ve been doing this year and where your path will be heading in 2013. Happy Holidays!

Around the Web

Around the Web

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I hope you are all staying sane in the madness around the holidays. Here are a few fun things I’ve found around the web this week. I hope you enjoy them. The list is a bit short as I’ve been busy with lots of holiday stuff at the store 🙂

fibres around the web

Giggle with the Goats

surface design around the web

Free Downloadable Labels from Alisa Burke

Felting around the web banner

Felted Calendar Covers by Jana

mixed media around the web

DIY Cat Toys by Design Sponge

Eyeglass Case to Sewing Kit by Tea Rose Home

 

stitching around the web

Betz White’s Appliqued Felt Christmas Scenes

Alternative Holiday Sales

Alternative Holiday Sales

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There are many retail shows based around the holiday season that artists can enter to sell their work. I have noticed some ideas lately for trying out different types of venues or making your own venue to sell during the holiday season. These ideas may take more work on your part but could provide good alternatives for more sales.

marketplace mondays

 

One idea is to gather a group of artists and rent a venue such as a grange hall or even a church basement to set up a small artist run show. Running a retail show takes a lot of preparation and you will need all of the artist participants to help run and promote the show. Start early on your planning and logistical details to avoid “rushing around with your head cut off” just before the show. Invite artists whose work is all compatible but those who are not selling the same products. Think about innovative ways to advertise without spending too much money. The cost for the show will be split up between the artists and those guidelines should be set up in advance so there are no surprises. Once you get this type of show up and running, it is much simpler to continue it at the same time each year.

Another way to sell your work is to have a “pop up gallery show”. This will work for an artist that has enough work to fill an entire gallery space. Since the slow down in the economy, there are numerous empty retail spaces available for lease or rent. Many have been on the market for a long time and landlords might be more likely to do a short-term rental for 4-6 weeks. This will take a lot of research to make sure that the location is appropriate. The old adage for retail “Location, location, location” is true. Look for an open spot in a shopping area that is busy with customers already. Talk to the neighboring store owners to find out about special events that are held around the holiday season. Take advantage of those type of events to promote your “pop up gallery”. Make sure to read the lease/rental agreement thoroughly and check that you are following all city regulations in regards to licensing, taxes and any specific business rules. You would also need to staff the gallery and depending on your intended selling hours, you might need to hire assistants.

If the “pop up gallery” idea seems a bit too scary, consider asking a restaurant about using their window or wall space to hang your work. These types of arrangements are usually done on a consignment basis and you should have a written agreement before hanging your work. You could also consider just putting a display of your work in an empty store window with your contact information so that customers could call you directly.

Other possibilities are joining with a group of artists to have a studio tour before the holidays, having a “private show” for invited customers only or doing a “trunk show” at a gallery or store. Again, advance planning is a must. I hope that some of these ideas will get you started thinking about alternative ways to sell your work. They don’t necessarily need to be around the holidays but taking advantage of the “buying season” will improve your overall sales.

I will be taking a short break from Marketplace Mondays until after the new year. I would love to hear if you have any specific questions about your art business so that I can address these issues in future posts. Please leave a comment with your requests and thanks for reading!

 

Felt Applique

Felt Applique

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Last week I went back to my class at the Gail Harker Creative Studies Center. For the first part of class, we worked on applique methods. We’re going to make little books out of our samples. All the samples are 4″x4″. I’ve completed the samples but haven’t bound the book yet. I thought you might like to see the pages before the book was bound together.

first four methods

4 methods

herringbone applique

layered

stacked

closed feather stitch

slip stitch

shadow

 

I took the photos at work so they aren’t the best but hopefully you get the idea. All of the pages have the same background color of felt even though they look like different colors of felt. The felt I used was hand dyed commercial felt but I think these applique techniques will work great with hand-made felt and all those extra felt scraps that Zed is always talking about 🙂

 

Print to Stitch Lichen

Print to Stitch Lichen

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I finally finished my last print to stitch piece from my class homework. This piece was all stitched by hand and I started it in class on September 8th. I finished it on November 22. I can’t say that I worked on it every day but I did spend 3-4 hours per week on it. I thought it was never going to be finished. But I made it just in time. I go back to class on November 28th.

This is the original photo. It is a rock with various kinds of lichen on it. The photo was cropped and printed on to fabric. And then I started stitching. I stitched and stitched and stitched…

Here is the finished piece. You should be able to click on the photo to get a better look at the stitching. Most of the stitches are detached chain stitch with the thread left loose. The white parts at the  bottom are painted and heated Tyvek.  The background stitching is seed stitch. All the orange stitching was done with a variety of shades of orange which were hand dyed. I am so happy it’s finished!

Artist Statement – Top Ten Ways to Write One

Artist Statement – Top Ten Ways to Write One

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In the last column, I discussed ways to start working on your artist’s statement and why you might need one. Did you get started? Do you have a list of phrases and words to use that describe your work? If so, you’re ready to start putting the statement together. Let’s get started.

  1. Keep it Simple – Make sure that everyone can understand what you’re saying. Use simple language, keep it short and concise. Forget all that artist speak and say it in your own words.
  2. Open with Flare – Come up with an original opening sentence. Most statements start with “My work is…” or “I’m inspired by…” Avoid those and come up with something fresh and from your own perspective.
  3. Speak as  Yourself – Write in the first person. What would you say to a customer or a gallery owner about your work? You wouldn’t say “Sue Smith makes felted scarves”. Make “I” statements.
  4. Include the Basics – Make sure to include how you make your work, what media and tools you use, what the work means to you, what inspires you and how that inspiration appears in your work.
  5. Keep it Short – This bears repeating. Your statement should be no longer than three paragraphs. More words doesn’t make it better. Once you’ve written a first draft, go back and cut out any unnecessary words.
  6. Let it Stew – After the first editing, leave it alone for at least 2-3 days. A week would be better. You will come back to it with a fresh eye. Edit the statement again after you’ve let it rest. Keep pruning!
  7. Share it – Let a close friend review your statement. A second opinion is always helpful. Tell them that they won’t hurt your feelings and that you want an honest opinion and suggestions for improvement.
  8. Rewrite It – Now that you have further suggestions, use those to rewrite and revamp your statement. Make sure the words match your work. If your work is playful, write the statement in the same vein.
  9. Save All the Work – Keep all your notes and all the versions of your statement. You will need to occasionally rewrite your statement and you can use these notes for rewrites.
  10. Put It Out into the World – You’re now ready to tell the world about your art. Print out copies to be ready to give to interested galleries, customers and to include in applications. Your artist statement will be your personal ambassador and will open new opportunities for you, so don’t be bashful.

If you write a statement, I’d love to see it. Ann started a post on the forum about artist statements, so feel free to add yours.