NSDCC Aestival Festival of Craft

I 'll be donating this lovely headless lady for the NSDCC Aestival Festival of Craft to be held at the St. Mary's Boat Club in Halifax, June 15th, 2012.

More Harper

"Do these red boots make my legs look too skinny"? I am having the best time making this rug!!! I am going to work on the water and the mountains today, then dye some pretty blue for the sky and will hopefully have it completed by next week.

 When this rug sells, I would like to donate part to an organization that has had its funding cut by the Conservatives.

Harper is coming along nicely.

I just have to work on the background and Harper will be done! Don't think I can wait till August to unveil this..too excited to share it.

Crying Fish is in the Show

I just got a call from the NSDCC, and "Crying Fish" was accepted to be in the Titanica Show. Happy News! The show will be at the Mary E. Black Gallery Aug 2-Sept. 9 in Halifax, NS.

Messy Studio

Whenever I start a new rug, I tidy the studio. Then I begin, and the studio gets messier and messier and messier. So people just need to take to a look in the room, to see where I am in a project!

Partial Sneak Preview

This is a the rug idea that came to me in the middle of the night. Can you kinda get where I am heading with it? Can ya??  Oh, this is going to be too much fun! I'll reveal more as it hooks up.

I got an idea !

I was up last night around 2:00am, couldn't sleep. I was trying to figure out how to solve everyones problems..and I had the coolest idea for a rug. I am soooooooooooo excited about it and I will post part of it when completed. I will have the complete unveiling at the NS Folk Art Festival in Lunenburg this summer. I am so excited to get started on it. The imagination is a very wonderful thing!

Voila!

Another Sneak Preview

I used black for the flower stems and that really seems to work with the olivey green background. Just three more flowers to complete and the background and voila! C'est fini!

Sneak Preview

I have been working full tilt on the commissioned piece and happy to say, things are going well! The green and golds I dyed last week are really making a nice background....if  I do say so myself. My goal is to have it completed on Friday and then I will share the whole piece with you.

Working on a Commissioned Piece

I often feel a little nervous making commissioned pieces..I worry that the image the buyer has in their mind, isn't quite what I have in mine, and they will be unhappy with it. So I tend to stay away from it all together. But, maybe I just need to be brave and do it and trust that I can deliver what the buyer wants...yup, I think that is the way to go!
 

Freshly Dyed Wool on the Line

I had fun in the kitchen this morning dying some wool for a "Flowers in Vase" rug. I don't use a recipe, much like how I cook. I just throw things in and hope for the best. Well, actually, it is a little more thought out than that. I have had some complete failures in the past but now I pretty much know what I am doing.

Another exciting thing about this photo, is you will notice the leaves are coming out on the trees!!!!!!! This is a thing to celebrate.

SOLD

Rugs Off to Jonathan Otter's Gallery

Three rugs, "Spotted Cow", "Girl in Chaos" and "Lady Sitting in Chair with Fish" are off to Jonathan Otter's gallery in Earltown NS. Jonathan Otter, the very talented and kind Furniture Maker. I am thrilled to have my work at his lovely gallery.

Rugs Ready for Sugar Moon Farm

The tags were just put on , prices marked and off they will go to Sugar Moon Farm, http://www.sugarmoon.ca/ Go for a hike, eat some yummy pancakes..with maple syrup of course and then buy a rug...nice day, right? Thanks Quita!

Artist's Statement For Rugs For Titanica

Just getting rugs ready to be sent off to be juried for the NSDCC show Titanica...keeping my fingers crossed that they will be accepted.

Crying Fish

 I went to a talk at the Colchester Historical Museum in Truro this winter titled “Nova Scotia and the Titanic”.  The speaker, Dan Conlin, mentioned that Halifax-based cable ships were sent off to look for survivors and collect the victims from the sinking of the Titanic. He described the scene that the rescuers witnessed and it was of seeing hundreds of victims in life jackets across the waters. All I could think of was bright yellow dots on the dark waters and it made me want to cry..and so surly the fish must have cried as well.


First Class Women and Children First

 In the Maritime Museum in Halifax, they have in their collection a little pair of leather shoes from the “Unknown Child”, a victim of the Titanic. It was later discovered that this boy was Sidney Leslie Goodwin, a 19 month old from England. The clothes from victims were suppose to be destroyed, but Clarence Northover, a police officer, didn’t have the heart to throw them out and kept them safe for years.

 I first stumbled upon the image of these shoes while doing research for a show. I guess what struck me right away was, this child needs his shoes back. So that is why, in the piece, balloons are attached to the shoes to bring them up to Sidney.

 This piece is titled “First Class Women and Children” as Sidney had the misfortune of being in third class, where only 31 % of the children survived...so it wasn’t Women and Children First at all.

Fish

Wow, I started and finished this little fishy in half a day! It is amazing what can happen when I stay off Facebook...hee hee.

This fish will be at the Lunenburg Folk Art Festival in August.

Maples in a Vase

This is another rug for Sugar Moon Farm that I just completed on this rainy morning in Truro...I liked the colours so much from "Flowers in a Vase" that I basically used the same colour scheme...I couldn't help myself.

I am going to get started on a fish now..with all rain, it put me in the mood.

Flowers in Vase

I always admired Van Gogh's "Sunflowers"..and I have done a number of "flowers in vase" rugs..but I am going to keep doing them until I am completely satisfied...this one is nice, or course, but not quite what I think I can do.

Tree for Sugar Moon Farm

Lady in The Yellow Dress

Just finished this lovely lady on this fine spring morning in Truro, NS.  The daffodils are blooming... perhaps that is what inspired this lady in yellow.