HomeWork

Credit is long overdue for the wonderful work by artist Geninne Zlatkis, creator of my spunky mascot, SpiderFelt.

I believe a post about this mobile first drew my attention to Geninne’s work. There is something so wonderful about the simplicity and liveliness in these colorful leaves.

Geninne is a professional illustrator who sells prints of her work in her etsy shop. This print is now framed, sitting on my bureau, waiting to be hung. Her work is detailed, quirky, imaginative, playful and luscious. If I don’t read any other blogs during the day, I always visit Geninne just to see what she has drawn today.

In an effort to promote the work of talented artists who fill the pages of Etsy, I plan to regularly highlight purchases I have made there. The etsy administrators will soon be launching a marketing campaign to encourage people to ‘buy handmade, buy local’; this will be my contribution to the cause.

While I’m sure there are several other bloggers who do the same, the idea was brought to my attention through the site Sock Prøn who chronicles her purchases on EtsyFriday; while it is easy to say “I could make such and such’, or ‘That looks so simple’, the reality is that you haven’t made it and someone else has: Seize the moment and buy it. Bring something lovely into your home and sprinkle some money around. As an aside, my husband is convinced that etsy is kept afloat by the mutual admiration society that exists between artists; if we are buying each other’s goods, are we actually making any money? Good question, but I know talent when I see it, and I also know my own limitations, so when I see something well made, it is worth stepping up.

We just returned from the most marvelous weekend of camping at Spencer Spit State Park on Lopez Island, a two hour drive and a 40 minute ferry ride from Seattle. Lopez is one of the San Juan Islands in the Straight of Juan de Fuca, between Washington State and Vancouver Island, BC.

Saturday morning we drove down to the Farmer’s Market in Lopez Village where we met farmers, musicians, artists, craftsmen (of both genders), bakers, recyclers and many young entrepreneurs selling cookies, lemonade, felt sheep and jewellry.

We ate pounds of snap peas, bunches of carrots, handfuls of strawberries, and seasoned dehydrated flax crackers. We rolled on the grass, ran in circles, sampled smoked salmon and chatted with artists. In NVC terms, our time at the farmer’s market met my need for community, fun and learning. I felt fulfilled and inspired by everyone I met.

First, there was Beckie and Dave Heinlein of Arbutus Farm; they were selling roving and yarn from their flock of Romneys. Dave told me all about breeding sheep with a double-recessive gene for coloration. Beckie and I talked at length about the wonders of needle felting. She needlefelts purses until they are in the rough shape she wants, and then wet felts them to finish the fulling process.

I love the way she weaves the roving to form Celtic knots as she is needle felting. Then there was her sock solution that left me dumbfounded. She uses needlefelting to repair holes in socks instead of darning them, or throwing them away. Why hadn’t I thought of that before? There are two pairs of socks sitting under my knitting chair just waiting for such a solution.

Needless to say, I brought home several balls of roving, and plan to buy more in the future. Because much of the undyed wool is a brindled blend of black and white, the dyed colors have beautiful variations. I can’t wait to work with it.

Marianna Haniger is an artist transitioning from video and film to sewing clothes from vintage fabrics. I spent at least an hour in her booth while Owen schmoozed the little boy selling cookies just across the way (he got three free cookies, and I bought a skirt).

The yellow and red skirt in the middle was already sold, but I had to take a picture because it was so beautiful. Marianna said the vintage silk scarf used on the bottom was printed “Made in occupied Japan”. She described the origins of several pieces, recounting where she found the fabric and the challenges she encountered trying to make the pieces fit her vision. It was inspiring to hear about her process and work.

We have two weddings to attend this summer; I have my eye on either the seafoam skirt (top-right) or the orange medley (middle-left). Ironically, I made sketches for a very similar skirt in my bedside dream book months ago, but I’m not sure I’ll have the chance to finish them before we leave for New Hampshire.

We bought a pair of knives from Wayne Hagel of Arrow-W Knives, handmade on Lopez Island. I should have taken a picture of the schematic Wayne posted next to his table; it showed the process he uses to create the knives from a piece of forged steel right down to attaching the custom handles. Each knife is unique; all works of art. In hindsight, I wish we had bought more because they would make such wonderful gifts.

As I was scrambling around, trying to buy one more basket of strawberries (the sweetest little berries I have ever tasted) before my family drove away (they threatened to leave me at the market several times), I realized I’d dropped my camera case. Retracing my steps brought me back to Beckie and Dave’s booth. Sure enough, someone had found my case and because of the needlefelting, presumed it belonged to them.

Forgotten in my excitement as I browsed was the woman who makes beautiful baby clothes out of recycled cashmere and merino sweaters. The pants, jumpers and sweater sets were well made and beautifully crafted. Sadly, there is no directory of merchants for the Farmer’s Market, so the only way to find these artists is to visit again. I wonder if I could write that off as a business expense?  

As I was writing this post, and trying to narrow down the pictures, I told my children I wanted to create a separate blog post just describing our adventures, our travels, and the wonderful campground (the quietest ever). My super-private son asked me, once again, not to. Since he is my son, I will respect his wishes, but I can still include a link to our flickr photos, can’t I? But if you see him, don’t tell him you’ve seen any pictures.

I will always credit Emily Archer of Milkweed Arts  for inspiring my love of felt, and taking it from a mere appreciation to a desire to create. Lance and I bought these two pieces from Emily at a Christmas craft fair in Peterborough, NH in 2003. They hung in our living room while we lived in New Hampshire, and now they hang on either side of my attic bedroom window. I never tire of looking at the leaves, made from leaf impressions on handpainted silk, held in place by tiny beads along the center veins.

Drawing further inspiration from Feltissimo, I made this card for Lance’s Aunt Sue, who lives in New Hampshire.

Leaves were cut out of prefelt and layered onto a piece of wetfelt. The end result was embellished with peridot chips. A piece of card stock was sewn to create the card.

There are more pieces in this series on Flickr.

A friend called me on Monday morning to wish me a belated Happy Mother’s Day. She, too, is a mother, so I was a little surprised to receive her call, and her apology for getting to me so late. She has established a tradition since becoming a mother three years ago, of honoring mothers who inspire her on Mother’s Day. What a wonderful idea. I was touched to be included in her circle, and immediately started thinking of the women who would be on my list.

In no particular order, these women are all part of the Attachment Parenting community in Seattle:

Erika Jennings - for pursuing a path to peace, for envisioning a different way to communicate with our children, using the big-hearted language of Compassionate Communication. Thank you for making this your life work and sharing it with me.*

Sara Cole - for leading and guiding our community, for your friendship and support, for being the bridge that enables our community to be.

Tera Schreiber - for the gift of wisdom and the ability to express it so well. Thank you for bringing all of the hard work of parenting into perspective, and encouraging us to discuss it.

Jen Witsoe - for vision and leadership; with your ambition and drive, we will create a better place for families to grow together.**

Kristin and Heidi - for reminding me how precious and joyful the small moments can be with a wee one. Your faithfulness has given me a reason to continue carving out time in the week for my nourishment.

Erika Carlson - for leading a life that treads lightly on the earth, and for working to better your relationships rather than turn away from strife and difficulty.

*Erika is a peer educator working with the “Peaceful Families, Peaceful World Project“; she moderates a bi-weekly practice group that meets on the first and third Sunday of the month at the Greenwood Neighborhood Service Center.

**Jen is spearheading the research around forming a new co-housing community, gathered around a love of family and diversity, living in affordable housing in an urban setting. A general information meeting for anyone interested in exploring this idea is being held at the Douglass-Truth Library on Sunday, June 3rd, between 3-5pm.

On their way home from Seattle, my parents stopped in LaConner, Washington for the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival. This part of the Skagit Valley was settled by several Dutch farmers who brought their knowledge of flowers and bulbs to the region. You can see more pictures of tulip fields in their Flickr album.

This picture captured my imagination when I saw it yesterday. The composition and colors are perfect. I went to bed dreaming of turning this picture into something.

A piece of felt is laid out. I created the background out of some Jacob roving, layered with some blue merino roving. After felting the background just long enough to hold it together, I added the details: bands of red and green for the tulip fields, some wisps of white in the sky, pieces of green prefelt cut out to look like poplars and maroon pencil roving for the trunk.

Lacking the colors I needed, I tried to capture the symmetry of the original photo.

Last week, a friend was sitting on the floor behind me during our sons’ aikido class.

“You have a hole in your sweater,” she commented.  “You better fix that.”

“Why?” her three year old daughter asked.

“So it doesn’t get bigger,” she answered.

 ”Oh. She got another one on her arm. Better fix that, ” Rosie offered in her most helpful voice.

“Thanks, Rosie. I will fix it right away,” I replied.

“Why?” she asked in the way that only a three year old can ask the same question again and again.

Despite a severe drought last summer when our house-sitter forgot to water the planters, and persistent frosty nights through December and January, the first signs of spring are poking out of my baskets.

Bronze fennel. Tiny fennel, so delicate, so sweet.

I drew this illustration after discovering Tricia Guild through Kristin Nicholas. I checked out all the Tricia Guild titles from our local library, including a very 80’s book on flower arranging. The spreads were a bit Victorian for my taste, but the illustrated reference of cut flowers in the appendix was fantastic. I was inspired to draw this flower, which reminded me of fennel gone to seed.

Noticing the illustration on my toothpaste put me over the edge.

I can’t wait to show Rosie.