I miss you I love you and Yarn!

The Pie Diaries: Month 4

2009-12-27T17:55:00.010-05:00

December: Cognac Cinnamon Blueberry Pie

As per the request of my family, December's pie continued the apparent tradition of alcoholic pies. (The choice was between the blueberry and a Creme De Menthe pie suggested by my friend Brece, which is sure to be January's pie!) The blueberries were hand picked and frozen by my mother and, working with what we had in the house, I decided to use Cointreau instead of proper cognac which I haven't drunk since having a particular experience one Tuesday evening in London. (Roskos, I'm looking at you. And I totally won that game of Rummy even though I think we lost most of the cards that night.)

(Twinkly liquor.)

As for this month's gluten-free pie crust solution, I used the often fabled, never before seen, store bought gluten free crust.

(Gasp! It's like catching a UNICORN!)

Here's the recipe:

1 unbaked 9-inch pie crust
5 cups blueberries, frozen or fresh
1 1/2 cups sugar
4 tbsp flour
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp salt
1-2 tbsp cognac (Cointreau is nice as well)

Preheat oven to 350*. In a roomy bowl, mix together the blueberries, sufar, flour, cannamon, salt and cognac. Stir until thoroughly combined. Pour in the pie crust, top with the ipper crust and bake at 350* for 45-60 minutes or until the crust is brown and the filling is bubbling over.

Note: Cool overnight for the best setting up, but this pie is juicy. Uding the tiny berries it might set up nicely; with the larger berries it stays pretty saucy, in which case, you might as well cut it after 2 hours when it is still a bit warm and enjoy the delicious juiciness with ice cream!

Prep. time: 40 min
Baking Time: 45-60 min

There was much skepticism in the making of this pie. Firstly, we all had our doubts as to whether or not all five cups of blueberries would even fit into the shell. Next, 1 1/2 cups of sugar seemed an awful lot. Since there was no indication that I should thaw the blueberries, I added the sugar (and the rest of the ingredients) directly into the frozen berries. Well, the sugar was very resistant to being mixed up evenly... I let the mixture sit on top of the heated oven, hoping the rising heat would help everything blend, but eventually I just gave it one last stir and dumped them into the pastry shell. Lo and behold! They all fit. A miracle! Less of a miracle was what happened when I tried to use a second gluten-free pastry shell as a top crust.

(Pie-tastrophy!)

The thing about gluten is that it actually functions like it sounds: as a glue... holding together flour and the other elements of pastries. Sooo... when you take the gluten out, even if you replace it with something similar, the resulting product tends to be a bit, uhm... crumbly? As demonstrated by the above photo. There was NO sculpting the ugly out of that pie. Every time I tried to reconfigure it, the crust simply broke off. I opted to stop trying and stuck it quickly in the oven as-was.

(Galaxy pie!)

It baked down to something at least a little bit prettier. (Thanks, mostly, to my mother's ingenious sprinkling of distracting cinnamon. Kudos, mom!) But, I have to admit that this pie did not live up to my expectations. The frozen crust wasn't all that tasty. As is common with gluten-free products that are primarily made with rice flour, the texture was kind of sandy... gritty, even. I wasn't sure whether it was the overwhelming texture of the crust or if the sugar never really had set in but the even the texture of the fruit filling was a little rough. Delicious, undeniably, but the texture was ultimately distracting. Also, you couldn't really taste the Cointreau at all. Bummer. Ahh well... not every pie can be a perfect success. Better luck next year!

**Anyone have any flavor suggestions, favorite recipes or events to which you would like to request the presence of a pie? Let me know! 2010 is gonna be the year of creative cooking. That... and, y'know, other stuff.

Reflections on Renegade '09

2009-12-17T00:04:00.017-05:00

A few weekends ago I was lucky enough to share a booth at the Renegade Craft Fair in Chicago! The weekend was stupendously cold and surprisingly full of motorcycles (not AT the fair... just between us and the fair...) but totally awesome!

(Us and other vendors setting up in just one of the rooms.)

We could tell almost at once that, for many of the vendors, this is was they did for a living. Their booths were beautifully cohesive- with background curtains and large logos. Our booth.. in contrast... looked more like all three of our studios all exploded enthusiasm:

(Too much stuff? Never!)

It was funny, actually, 'cause it ended up being kind of hard to see us sitting behind that mountain of brightly colored objects. So we had to position ourselves so that we could see customers and then JUMP OUT! at them and try to convince them to buy things.

(photo stolen from the Renegade Flkr of the event!)

(Sexy view from our table. Note the sun pouring in and BLINDING us.)

The fair was held at the Pulaski Field House... somewhere near Wicker Park. The space was great! There were five HUGE rooms, spread out over two floors, full of vendors. It was actually kind of overwhelming. So much of the stuff was really expensive (which didn't stop me from coming home with some choice purchases.) But it was really awesome to see so many people hand-making and selling their wares for the holidays... and even more awesome to see people shopping for them!

(The craft fair in full swing!)

We estimated that over a thousand people walked by our table! (Of that thousand.. somewhere around 200 picked up this one orange wallet I made without buying it. Lame! But hilarious.) Every room was packed! It was awesome.

And, of course, hanging out with friends made the weekend all the more better!

(The gluten-free cupcakes didn't hurt, either.)

As a first craft fair experience, I'm glad I got to participate in one as monumental, and as established, as Renegade. There has been a lot of conversation over the past few years about the nature of the so-called Handmade Nation and it's place in the DIY movement. One of the main goals of these movements is to connect individual artists to buyers while at the same time endowing everyone with the permission that is often deemed necessary for making. It is about the power of the individual and the momentum that is made possible through community. And I was really looking forward to experiencing some of that at Renegade. But I have to admit that I'm not sure I really did.

Perhaps it is the pervasive nature of professional branding (in the style of corporatization) or perhaps it is the competitive nature of sales events but I noticed that, especially on the first day, there seemed to be an unspoken agreement between the vendors to not interact. (Except for the six year old daughter of a vendor in our room who adopted us immediately. She sparkled, we sparkled... it seemed like a good match.) It really wasn't until a few hours before packing up our wares that we even started to interact with the vendors in our immediate vicinity. Ok ok, I guess I can't place all the blame for this separation outside myself; I had as much agency to strike up conversations with other artists as they did with me... but there was this sense that, as professionals, there was a strict customer/vendor relationship that was to be adhered to. And there was no getting around the intense sales mentality. I found myself slipping easily back into the sell-sell-sell mindset as I talked to customers, which is something I have intentionally abandoned since working retail. I very much prefer to use my making as a tool for building connections: sewing needed objects for friends and if possible, trading them for it instead of asking for money. Now, I know Mr. Obama would call me a "rabble rousing anti-capitalist" for such behavior... and most of my friends would point out that I actually love making money and selling stuff but... I don't know. It's just something I think about kind of a lot.

So... in conclusion... although I had a total blast at the craft fair, I don't think I'll be doing another one in the near future. (Unless Lucy and Nellie ask me to 'cause I just can't say no to those ladies.) Instead, I'd rather be part of the conversation: what is the role of the handmade object? What is the role of the hand-making? What does this say and how can we use this momentum to bring people together? Mmm... sounds like a good craft night convo to me.

*** Oh! And on a related note! I have a ton of leftover merch that will be for sale on my etsy after the holidays! I wanted to get them up there in time for Christmas but seeing as I leave for MA tomorrow that doesn't look too possible. But come January I promise riches of make-up bags, belt bags, wallets, and post-cards galore!

Renegade Craft Fair, Chicago: This Weekend!

2009-12-01T23:59:00.008-05:00

Hey there friends and family- It's that time of year again: the Walmart and Macy's have opened their doors to the thousands of screaming (do they scream?) Black Friday shoppers, "Cyber Monday" sales have been perused, and economists are already calculating the profits. But this holiday season, wouldn't you rather support individual artists by purchasing their handmade goods? Of course you would!! Which is why you should all take the time out of your busy weekends to come to the Renegade Craft Fair in Chicago! Now, I know that some of you will claim that you live "too far" to come all the way to Illinois to buy my pretty things... but that's no excuse. (Well, actually, it's a pretty fair excuse but I'm feeling unforgiving.) So, those of you who are able to make it will have to make up for all of you who can't by buying even more. :0)

"Over 150 of today’s finest indie-craft and contemporary design talents will be setting up shop at the Renegade Craft Fair Holiday Sale on December 5 + 6 from 11am – 7pm at the Pulaski Park Fieldhouse!

Those looking to shop handmade and support small business this holiday season will surely find something for everyone – from jewelry and clothing, to ceramics and stationary, with everything from bath products, housewares, posters, comics and plush objects in between – at this large-scale, free-to-attend art, craft and design extravaganza!!"

See? All of your shopping needs met in one location!

I will be bringing a bevy of beautiful bags in all shapes and sizes: grocery bags, make-up bags, pencil cases, fanny pack (yes, just one), mini zips, hip/belt bags, i-pod cases... you name it, i've sewn a bag you can put it into. And each one made out of super cute printed fabric and durable, hard-wearing cordura. (Or recycled canvas, in the case of the grocery bags.)

(belt bags with birdies, cute little french animals and robots!)

I'll also be selling pre-ribboned sets of my handkit postcards! (Spoiler: there are still a couple of sets up on Etsy in case some of you non-chicagoans want some...)

I'll be sharing a table with the totally amazing fiber artist extraordinaire, Nellie Kurz, and illustrius author and comic artist, Lucy Knisely! Rock stars! And, to top off all of that excitement, I'm happy to announce a collaboration between Lucy and myself: a series of limited edition bags made by your's truly out of printed fabric designed by Lucy!

(When our powers combine...)

So good, right? I bet you have something tiny that you're just dyin' to put into that baby bag...

So come on down to the Pulaski Park Fieldhouse and see us on Saturday or Sunday! Lucy will be doing little watercolor sketches and Nellie and I will do our best to be equally as entertaining, we promise!

The Pie Diaries: Month 3

2009-11-26T12:06:00.014-05:00

October: The Rinehart Family's World Famous Kahlua Pumpkin Pie

Counter-intuitive to the nature of Kahlua pumpkin pie, believe me when I tell you that the members of my family are not big drinkers. Which is why we were all the more confused when, one year, my mother expressed such delight at a Thanksgiving Kahlua recipe book that fell out of the Sunday paper. "Look!" she said, "Kahlua Glazed Turkey! Kahlua Glazed Winter Squash! We could have an entire Kahlua-themed Thanksgiving!" Crickets chirped. The family blinked at her in confusion. Although we managed to talk her down from converting the entire meal, we were adventurous enough to try the Kahlua Pumpkin Pie. (Probably because I was in high school and the allure of alcoholic beverages was still so tantalizing.) The pie a was complete success and has since been an integral part of our Thanksgiving holiday experience! Thus, it seemed an obvious choice for the third installment of The Pie Diaries.

Kahlua Pumpkin Pie

Makes 1 (9") pie
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 40 min

1 (9") pre-baked pie shell
1 cup undiluted evaporated milk
1/2 cup light brown sugar (packed, lump free)
1/4 cup Kahlua
1/4 cup light corn syrup
1-1/2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs, beaten
1-1/2 cups canned pumpkin
Kahlua cream topping (recipe follows)

Beat milk, sugar, Kahlua, corn syrup, spice and salt together until blended. Stir in eggs and pumpkin until mixture is smooth. Bake pastry shell in hot oven, 450*F, 7 or 8 min, until it begins to brown lightly. Stir filling. Pull the oven rack part way out and slowly pour pumpkin mixture into prepared pie shell. Reduce heat to 325*F, and continue baking until filling is barely set in center, about 40min. Cool pie on wire rack fro 20 min. Serve with kahlua cream topping.

Kahlua cream topping: Beat 1 cup whipping cream with 1 tablespoon each powdered sugar and Kahlua, just until stiff. Turn into serving bowl and drizzle. 1 table Kahlua on top.

Full disclosure: this pie is in no way vegan or gluten free. Had I a little more energy, I would go the extra mile and make a crust but, what with it being vacation and all... I let my mother buy a frozen crust. (*Gasp! I know, I know... but I'm tired!) I have, however, made it vegan in the past. There's a pretty easy evaporated milk conversion using powdered soy milk, and the egg-replacer works fine. The biggest loss when going vegan in the whipped topping- but if you spend the extra $$ to get soy wipped cream you can still drizzle the Kahlua over the top for much the same effect. Also, (*Gasp again!) I'm totally using canned pumpkin. (OH, the shame!!) Apparently my mother didn't bake enough pumpkin to last until Thanksgiving. But seriously! What is a good American Thanksgiving without store-bought crusts, pumpkin from a can and alcohol!? Sounds like a Patriotic Pie to me!

(Plaid on plaid apron experience... A must for the holidays.)

(Pie noir?)

The Kahlua taste in the pie is super super subtle- it's just a little extra sweet- so my favorite part is the whipped cream.... I mean, how can real whipped cream get even better?? By adding alcohol. Clearly.

(My mom and dad- in the foreground- with members of the Wick-Sailor Clan.)

My parents live in a co-housing community in Florence, Mass; right outside of Northhampton. Thanksgivings here can get huge; especially when all 33 families join together. (Sooo much foooood.) This year is a little quieter with only 2 families in attendance. The pie will be my contribution to the feast.

(Feast of pies! Pumpkin, pan-apple, and blueberry!)

Mmmmmm... soo worth all the gluteny goodness! Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!

My Deep and Undying Affection for Postcards...

2009-11-17T14:51:00.014-05:00

I. Love. Postcards.

I love them. I love sending them, I love receiving them... and there are many, many reasons for my deep affection.

I started sending postcards regularly the first winter I lived in Philadelphia. It started, jokingly, as a way to keep from sending drunk text messages. Instead of getting an incoherent text in the middle of the night, wouldn't a totally illegible postcard be better?! The diagrams alone made them worthwhile... Slowly, I established a pretty good group of postcard pen pals. My summer travels afford me the opportunity to grow those ranks and to start a solid collection of my own...

(One card away from 50! Thanks to everyone who sent me cards!)

So amazing! And all the while, being the good little artist that I am, I was thinking about why I was so enamored with postcards... what about them was so enchanting? I think there's something so... lovingly ambiguous about them. They exist in this hilarious space between public and private- written for one person but open to the world. (Especially postal workers. I keep meaning to ask a postal worker if they read people's postcards...) They are also sort of outdated. We live in a technological era; one of email and text messages and facebook comments.

I was at Haystack when I knit my first postcard. And then I became obsessed.

(Artist Statement:) "The era of love letters has passed. We used to deliberate over affectionate and expressive letters, page after page filled with handwritten expressions of our emotion. But the days of receiving an actual letter, carried to our homes in the hands of a local postal worker are almost completely gone. Today we send text messages- embarrassingly misspelled words in abbreviated sentences- and we think they can successfully communicate complicated emotions.

This series of hand-knit postcards explores the nostalgic nature of mail and the contradiction of the material object with the ambiguous texts they display. The phrases, although easily recognizable as something you might see on a postcard, indicate a slight longing or desperation in a writer who might be veiling their feelings through pithy rhetoric. In the same way that post cards and letters are something of the past, hand knit objects imply a similar sense of tactile nostalgia and emotional devotion. The fact that the post cards were each knit by hand, laboriously stitched to read these words, exposes the writer’s/knitter’s intensity all the while being contradicted by the brevity of the words and the truncated sentiments. "

The objects are hilariously fun.. but, although I haven't tested one out, I have my doubts that the USPS would deliver them... But to deny them the chance to be sent through the mail would be terrible, right? And so...

I had them made into paper postcards.

(oooh, sexy rounded corners!)

Sets of all 6 postcards will for sale at the rapidly upcoming Renegade Craft Show in Chicago! (And then on my etsy account.) Very Exciting.

I'm making more and more stuff for the fair everyday, so all of y'all who live in Chicago, you best be putting that date on your calendars so you can stop by and give me your moneys. I'll trade you amazing things like recycled canvas dropcloth grocery bags and other stuff! And I'm sharing a table with two astounding artists: Lucy Knisley and Nelly Kurz! Come by and say hi!

(I totally stole this AMAZING comic from Lucy's livejournal, so now you all have to go read her super awesome comics! Also, you have no idea how excited I was to be cartoon-ized!!)

The Pie Diaries: Month 2

2009-10-29T11:14:00.012-04:00

Community Apple!

(A Culinary Collaboration)

After eating all 12 of last month's Mini Peach Pies by myself I came to the conclusion that an entire months-worth of pie is simple too much to be eaten by one person. So this month, I decided to open the pie community!

The first stage of October's Apple Pie Experience was the procuring of the apples!

(Amy's nose, myself, Elliot, Dexter, Allison, Sarah.)

Every fall a bunch of my friends go apple and pumpkin picking! It's a great time... a chance to get out of the city and commune with nature. (Uhm.. a sort of super cultivated pseudo-nature, anyway.)

(Me: "how many of those small, screaming children do you think we'll have to beat up to get a seat on that hay-ride?" Dexter: "I dunno, but I bet we can take 'em.")

(Me: "What do you mean these pumpkins didn't actually grow here and that they were driven up and scattered in the pumpkin patch?!? Ali: "Who cares?! Pumpkins!")

So... in theory, apple trees are a great place to get apples. But unfortunately, due to an overly rainy fall, the annual trip embarked a little late in the season and all of the apple trees were completely bare! We spent a good 15-20 min wandering the orchard in hopes of stray, abandoned fruit, but to no avail. Fortunately, there was enough decent fruit on the ground (and at the farm stand) to guarantee pie.

I got a little carried away and ended up with quite the harvest. 1 Pumpkin for baking, 1 pumpkin to carve, an acorn squash, a mini pumpkin for decorative purposes, a butternut squash (yum), and assorted pie apples.

And on to pie! I used a basic filling recipe- 10 C. apples, cinnamon, nutmeg- and to soften the apples and get all the good stuff all mixed up, the recipe suggested heating the apple mixture in a pan until everything was almost mushy. It worked like a charm and made my house smell DELICIOUS. For this month's gluten-free crust experiment, I decided to use this recipe. (Thanks, Carrie Ann, for finally giving me some xantham gum!) It worked pretty well, except that the recipe didn't make quite enough crust to fill the pan AND cover the pie... but I made do ok.

(Yum... but I couldn't eat it quite yet...)

With so much conversation about pie going around since the inception of my year long pie-commitment, my friends Mary and Justin suggested we do a collaboration: I'll make pie and they'll use the ice-cream maker they got as a wedding present to make a complimenting ice cream. (A delicious, delicious collaboration... Anyone wanna get married? I'll do it just for the ice cream maker...) Since this month's pie is apple, they provided the most delicious vanilla-cinnamon ice cream and it was AMAZING.

The pie was pretty darn tasty, although I think if this I use this recipe again I'll add another small apple... more filling would have been nice. And the crust was pretty darn tasty, too! Nice and flaky.. not like the usual gluten-free cardboard consistancy. I do suggest, though, that if you're going to use this recipe add a dash of white sugar and salt for a little extra flavor. Mmmmm...

(Lisa, Mary, Justin, Pie, Ice cream. Mmmm, friendship rules.)

Yay! 2 Months down, 10 months to go.

Fall Projects and Announcements!

2009-10-25T21:15:00.013-04:00

So... in all that free time I've had lately- what with the full time job, a psuedo-social life, and working on my grad school applications- I've somehow also managed to keep up with my crafting! ("Somehow" meaning that this is how I've been procrastinating from doing all that other stuff.) Here's what I've recently finished working on:

Chunky Braided Scarf!

After the craziness that was the knitting at Haystack, I was sincerely looking forward to starting fall with an easy, fairly thoughtless knitting project. So, I grabbed the handspun I had bought at the Maryland Sheep and Wool fest and hit ravelry in search of a super-simple scarf pattern.

The yarn, made by Folktale Fibers in Maryland, was this great combination of cotton and soysilk in brilliant purples and muddy browns. I knew that I probably wouldn't have enough for the entire scarf but, deciding to maintain the integrity of the handspun, I opted to make it a half and half scarf. Also, because the fibers in the original yarn were vegan (not that I am, but, y'know) I decided to hold true to that while choosing my contrastisting finishing yarn. So, the light purple and brown that make up the second half of the scarf are both Blue Sky 100% cotton!

Although the pattern looks complicated to those who aren't used to knitting cables, knitting the scarf was really quite simple. On the first row of cables (3) the cable is knit in front of the work, causing the cables to pull in one direction. The next row (2 cables) is knit in back of the work, causing the cables to pull in the other direction. (Actually, each of the purple and brown stripes are one repeat of the pattern!) When repeated, and knit without a purl border, the work looks like a giant braid. Like challa bread! Remind me to knit up some challa some time.

All cozy and ready for fall! (Any day, now, fall... feel free to get cold any day.)

Spool Swap Quilt!

Since April, I have been participating in a quilt square swap at my local fabric store, Spool! Every month, members of the swap made and exchanged 12 9-blocks measuring 6". Seeing as I already have more than my body weight in tiny Viv Pickle scrap fabric, I decided that I wouldn't buy any new fabric for my squares! So, I only used recycled and salvaged materials. (It meant that some of my squares didn't even really match themselves, which I think made some of the more uptight quilters a little twitchy but, it was an important statement for me to feel like I was making.) We started with an inspiration fabric with the hopes of keeping the fabric selections at least a little cohesive but...

I guess it might not have been such a great choice to pick one of the Kaffe Fasset paperweight collection as inspiration! So many colors! Actually, I loved all the amazing colors and patterns that I was getting every month... and I had a blast laying them out in different arrangements; searching for the perfect chaotic composition. It had seemed obvious to me to put all the colored squares together, medallion style, and work with a border to make up the extra space, but I went through a period of quilt-anxiety after seeing Spools swap quilt. Instead of grey fabric, Laura chose a cream color and bordered each individual square by 2" on all sides. The forthcoming quilt is sooo different from mine! Much cleaner and more proper looking. But... once I was finished I got over my anxiety and really started to love it! (Hopefully we'll get a chance to see how some of the other swap-members decided to design their quilts.)

It's on my bed and Ripley loves sleeping on it as much as I love sleeping under it! Everyone should be so lucky as to have a hand made quilt on their bed. Love love love.

And, because Allison Smith's mom says that you should always sign your quilt somewhere, mine got a signature and date.

Renegade Craft Fair, Chicago 2009!

Ok, so this isn't as much a finished craft as it is a crafting announcement! It is now official: I will be sharing a table at this year's Renegade Craft Fair in Chicago with the illustriate comic artist Lucy Knisely and maker-of-beautiful things, Nellie Kurz! The fair will be held on December 5th and 6th, from 11am- 6pm, in Chicago's Pulaski Park Fieldhouse. I will be selling more of the usual: wallets, belt bags, ipod cases (with belt-loops!), computer cases, and small zippy bags out of a fantastic collection of fabrics. How fantastic, you ask? Well.. here's some of the coool stuff i've collected so far!

Yeah,that's right. That last photo included birds, mermaids, gears, robots, ray-guns AND concession stand snacks! You know you're going to want this year's stuff. Just saying.

I'll also be selling a hilariously ecclectic collection of shrinky-dink buttons and a top secret postcard collection soon to be released.... curious? Yeah, I know you are. I'll send out more information about the craft fair as it gets closer!

Amazing! and busy. Whew! Allright, now I gotta go get some more stuff done. Thanks for reading!

Haystack '09: Part 2

2009-10-04T10:58:00.025-04:00

Haystack has a way of collecting the most interesting teachers, working with the most challenging media. The classes never fail to push the boundaries of their own fields and, in the process, infinitely expand the minds of their students. This summer's 6th session Knitting class fit snugly into that tradition:

Knitting: Wool Equals Bronze/ Time Does Not Equal Money, with artist Janet Morton:

"This workshop will explore hand knitting as a valid and vital sculptural/installation medium and as an alternate means of measuring time. Through a series of slide talks, discussions, and exercises, participants will be encouraged to playfully and critically examine their relationships to the natural world, everyday objects, and equations that link time to “value”. Experimentation with materials, scale, technique, and ideas will be encouraged. Participants will develop personal projects, and will be invited to work collectively on an onsite project."

Members of the class, immediately bound by the desire to eschew the expectations that we would be producing socks and sweaters, dove into assignments that forever altered the way we approach about our craft.

First let me say that working with Janet Morton was an absolute DREAM. As an artist, Janet is incredibly prolific and intelligent... but on a more basic level, she is totally approachable, always ready with a story about "the last time she was in India..." or "that one time I was living in the Canadian Bush planting trees..." I had done a fair amount of research into her work before leaving for the class, but having her there, ready to answer questions and talk about her art/process was hugely enlightening. Each piece I had already fallen in love with ended up being even more epic and smart than I had imagined. And she was fun! Accompanied by her two rambunctious children and her outgoing and comical husband, the whole family brought a feeling of familial whimsy to the studio that was somehow perfectly fitting for a class that was challenging the traditionality that knitting implies.

We started the first day of class with a Never Before Played Surrealist Knitting Game! Here's how to play: The group starts with a large selection of yarns and needles and each participant gets a bag big enough to hide a small project. 1. Cast On! Any wool, any stitch, any number of stitches. After working for 30 min, place your project in the bag and put the bag into the center of the table. Swap bags! 2. Change at least one thing. color, wool, type of stitch, inc or dec, needle size, etc. After another 30 min, swap bags again! 3. Repeat step 2. 4. The fourth collaborator has a whole hour to complete the project and cast off from the needles.

This experiment was a great way to immediately establish that knitting does not always have to be functional, and that even abstracted, bizarre objects can carry as much meaning and importance as a traditional garment. (Maybe even more.) We also learned that knitting takes a long time and a half hour isn't long at all. It was great fun!

Assignment 1: Knit an Object- It's one thing to knit a 3d sock or sweater, but it's another thing entirely to knit... an object... an everyday item that never in the world of normal life be associated with knitting. Each student in the class chose an item to replicate with the option to change it's scale.

My own Sublime Stitching Scissors.

Patty Barnatt's Electrical Cord!

Jennie Caulfield's Tree Bark with Lichen. Amazing replica...

Valerie Shapiro's Nut and Bolt.

Leslie Sudock's Collapsible Cups

Everyone made amazing objects; they're not all here, but some others included wire cutters, a hairbrush, a metal hook with chain, and a couple beautiful seashells. We found that this was an opportunity to knit in a more painterly fashion: less planning, more reacting to color, shape, and size.

Assignment 2: Knit a Word- As an artist who deals a lot with text, I found this assignment especially exciting. So much meaning and association come with the choice of even a single word...

Mine are the giant "personally, " and the tiny "miss you (heart)" postcard at the bottom.

Jeanne Vaccaro's "Cruising Utopia". I believe the "utopia" is handspun.

Assignment 3: Knit a Circle out of Wire- This assignment provided one of the biggest technical challenges of the session. It turns out that knitting a circle is kind of hard. Tubes and hats, fine, but to start with only 3 stitches and then to figure out the right ratio of increases to make a flat plane is downright mathematical. Factor in the use of a totally non-plyable material like copper wire and it verges on downright impossible.

In fact... some people gave up on the flat plane entirely. But what a beautiful outcome!

Assignment 4: Knit a Plastic Enclosure for a Natural Object- Janet provided the class with recycled clear plastic milk bags. (Apparently, Canadians buy their milk in bags. Silly Canadians.) The idea for the assignment was to force the student to deal with the juxtaposition between the human made plastic and the natural world. I had hoped to be able to do a site-specific installation of a knit plastic camping tent for a baby spruce tree, but my TA duties kept me from having the time.

Assignment 5: Giant Knitting Needles

In order to create her giant-sized pieces, Janet has developed these equally giant-sized circular needles! We started with 3/4" wooden dowels and plumbers tube and a few hours of sawing and whittling later, we each had a set with which to work on... drumroll, please...

Assignment 6: Group Project! - We started with a few general ideas: we wanted to create an outdoor, architectural space and the theme of "home and away." Janet had ordered a ton of yarns in the palette of Haystack: natural tones of browns, greens, grays and blues. Trees, moss, clapboard cabins, the sky and the sea. Even without a concrete plan we knew that we were going to need a ton of yardage... so we knit away on our giant needles while we brainstormed.

Let it never be underestimated how difficult a group project can be. To be honest, I think it only gets harder the older we get. Everyone came to the table with different thoughts and worries... some conceptually based and some about logistics. It seemed like we were never going get things figured out: how on earth would we be able to build such a huge structure in just a week? What should it look like? Should there be text? So many things to worry about. But I think our biggest break came when Janet discovered the Deer Isle Dump.

(Brece, Mary Ellen and Janet. All wearing gloves.)

No, really. I said Dump. Janet realized that perhaps the easiest and most appropriate material for the base structure for our piece was Fisherman's Rope... and there was plenty of that to be found at the dump! Unfortunately, the dump smelled absolutely terrible... and so did our new rope collection!

We let the rain and summer sun do most of the cleaning for us. Which actually worked really well...
We took stock of what we had collected by measuring each piece of rope...

Tagging them... and then, because we were all the same kind of nerdy...

Organizing them by color! How very satisfying... With that done, we were ready to start on the architecture.

After getting permission from Haystack's director, Stu, we decided to utilize an unused hexagonal platform as our installation site. The platform had originally been intended as an ampitheater of sorts but, by the time we got there, it was mostly being used as a cell phone station. We thought this might be a better use of the space.

Deb, ultimate fan of knots, looked up the perfect sailors knot to use. It was like macrame-ing a giant lobster pot.

We made sure to keep an entrance (exit?) so that viewers could experience it from the inside as well as the outside. (Also so that we could escape.) And then it was time to combine the knotted structure with the knitted pieces.

(Janet working on attatching my giant-sized version of the Nelly Feather and Fan scarf! Cheers, Nell!)

Utilizing every piece of knitting and stitching them onto the structure with mossy yarn until...

We had created a fully interactive, fully enclosed space. Participants could walk all the way around the fuzzy structure or enter through the door. We all felt it was necessary for the piece to be open and interactive, so we placed a log-seat on the inside and provided giant knitting needles and yarn.

We decided to call the piece I Am From which was the title of a writing excercize we used during the brainstorm and design process. I Am From meant something different to everyone of us that worked on it, but it also represented teamwork. In the face of all the odds- differing opinions, technical logistics and the ever present battle against time- we managed to create something monumental. We surmounted all the obstacles that come with working in a group and created something that we could all revel in. It came from all places: home and away. It was lovely.

Haystack '09: Part 1

2009-10-01T19:00:00.021-04:00

(*Note: Ok, in the interest of keeping blog entries down to a reasonably digestible size, I've decided to cover Haystack in two entries; dedicating an entire entry to the class itself. So... consider this part 1!)

On top of all the other incredible experiences I got to have this summer, the season culminated with a session at Haystack Mountain School of Craft which was, as repetitive as it's starting to sound, totally amazing. Two more weeks of new friends, delicious food and astounding artwork. OH man... and the scenery!

(View from the dining hall.)

Haystack is located on the coast of Deer Isle, Maine; one of the most beautiful places I have ever been. Driving there was so crazy because I started on 95 and the roads just kept getting smaller and smaller. At one point on a two-lane highway some where in the middle of Maine I passed a nut store with a giant wooden squirrel outside it. (I'm not kidding- that thing had to be at least 15ft tall...)

Because the campus is actually on a island, you have to cross 2 causeways to get there: tiny roads with water on either side. Some days the water was right up next to the pavement and the next time you'd drive by it would be so far out that you couldn't even see it. Tides are awesome.

(So is fog!)

The campus itself is composed of absolutely stunning structures. The architect designed the buildings to have as little contact with the ground as possible, so as to allow as much natural wildife as would be found an undisturbed mountainside. Which translates to an interconnected collection of dorms and classrooms that feel like they are constantly floating just above solid ground: like a New England clapboard treehouse!

(View of the dining hall from the deck of the textiles studio.)

(There were more kinds of lichen than I had ever encountered in my life! They grew everywhere- even between the floor boards.)

(Crazy stairs! Turn around for a view of the ocean...)

(Just to the right of the peninsula and straight out to sea!)

(Especially magical at nighttime: the view from outside my dorm.)

The weather was stunning. 75*- 80* during the day- warm enough to demand a daily ocean swim- and mid 40*'s at night! Perfect sleeping weather! Swimming in the ocean was freezing... most days I had to convince myself to get all the way in. But I was determined! I think I only missed 2 or 3 days out of the entire session!

(Myself and Clair at the beach.)

I could go on forever... but I'll try not to. Suffice it to say: fricken' gorgeous. And full of amazing people! Haystack is signifigantly smaller than Penland so the dynamic is a little different. Whereas I made a couple of instantly close and lasting friends at Penland, I met a ton of different people a little bit less intensely well at Haystack. Which isn't to say that I didn't come away with some (hopefully) life-long penpals and art buddies... but I felt like I met MORE people at Haystack even though there were only half as many than Penland.

(Elizabeth, book arts/pin hole photography; Anna, enameling; Joanna, knitting; Sin Nae, enameling. Ice cream on a day trip to.. uhmm... Stonigton? Some tiny Maine sea town on Deer Isle.)

(Joanna again, Jeanne and Brece: all knitting.)

(Anna, myself and Colin, husband of Janet Morton and publically elected Mayor of Haystack. Yes, I am apparently singing into a beer. ps: thanks to whoever took this photo! It is awesome.)

Although I was scholarship student, as a TA, I was lucky enough to not have to work in the kitchen or do other work study jobs. Which meant that I got to spend a little bit more time with the members of my own class.

(The whole knitting class: this photo will make infinitely more sense once you see the artwork, I promise!)

Other fun stuff we did that wasn't class related:

Went to Nervous Nellie's Jams and Jellies: the totally bizarre (but tasty!) curio and jam shop down the road from campus.

(Sin Nae and Elizabeth.)
Lobster Picnic on the rocks by the ocean!

Hot Shop Dance Parties!

Totally undescribably amazing. But the art will knock you dead. So stay tuned!

The Pie Diaries: Month 1

2009-09-27T23:46:00.007-04:00

I have always considered September the month that actually marks the beginning of the new year. Having spent the majority of my Septembers starting a new year of school, I guess my tendency seems pretty natural. Since finishing school, I find September to be a loaded month, even without the beginning of classes to look forward to: it's the month that ushers in my favorite season (fall) and the month I find myself most susceptable to catching a case of Epic Ennui (what is my place in this life? Le sigh...) So it seems fitting that this September be the start of a new and ongoing project; one that, although serious to some, is intended to... shall we say... lighten the mood a bit. (The mood, perhaps, but not my weight.) Thus, I introduce to you:

The Pie Diaries.

The goals: 1. To make a new pie for every month of the year. 2. To collect a group of reliable, tasty recipes for at least 12 different types of pie. 3. To perfect the art of the gluten-free pie crust.

Yummm. Here we go!

September: Peach Mini Pies

I bought the fruit for my first pie at the Clark Park Farmer's Market: New Jersey Peaches; and I decided to use on online recipe (find it here!). Ok, so I know that using online recipes might be a bit lame but... I guess that's part of the project- to amass a collection of reliable recipes. So I wrote it down.

(Super Hot mixing bowl handmade by Adam Conway!)

Now, for me, the trickiest part of pie is the crust. I've been living gluten-free (ha! who am I kidding? Gluten-lite? Low-gluten? Little-to-no-commitment-ability-even-in-the-face-of-killer-stomach-aches?) for about a year now, so I've had a chance to try more than a few gluten-free pie crust recipes. The low-fat, no butter, rice and vegetable oil crust, albeit healthier than any crust has the right to be, is usually pretty good. But... the Fresh Grocer's on 40th didn't have rice flour so my only choice was to buy a Gluten Free Perfect Pie Crust Mix! (Just to check it out... y'know.) It called for 10tbsp of butter AND 10tbsp butter substitute... But man does it taste delicious.

(My kitchen is tiny! I rigged up this space-saving spice situation: 10 layers of magnetic latex primer, green paint to match the dishes and magnetic spice containers from the Container Store! It makes me happy.)

I had everything all mixed up and ready to go when I realized that, in the craziness that surrounds moving I had completely lost track of my pie pan. ??? There are still so many things I keep forgetting we don't have! At least now we have a decent spatula... trying to flip eggs with the Snowflake Shaped spatula was just a joke. Anyway, I had no choice but to make cup-cake sized pies.

Aren't they the cutest little things you ever did see? Amazing. And tasty! The size-to-crust ratio means that the mini pies are mostly crust but seriously, anything with that much butter pretty much has to be delicious.

I declare the first month of The Pie Diaries a success! A tasty, flakey, peachy success... Stay tuned for October... my guess? Kahlua Pumpkin Pie! (I'll make sure to buy a pie pan by then.)

Snow Farm Summer 2009!

2009-09-24T11:16:00.000-04:00

After one of the best summers at Snow Farm Summer Arts Program for high-schoolers, during which I took (I kid you not) maybe 200 photographs, I managed to accidentally delete all but 4 of them. !!!! So, here is a visually truncated description of this year's totally fantastic session.

(Camp Director Christine with Assistant Director Jocelyn. Apparently, they were Just

Married.)

Almost the entire staff had returned from past summers, so we started the session like a well oiled machine. The night before all the students arrived, Abigail and I silk screened enough t-shirts to clothe the entire staff! Unfortunately, however impressive this show of momentum was, as soon as Mike was hit with the first water balloon we were embarrassed to realize that we had used the WRONG kind of printing ink... washable. All the shirts were running and staining! Egads! So we took all the shirts back and vowed to replace them by the end of the session. We tried not to get too down about it and started classes with resolve.

(Photo by Abigail Heuss, metalsmith extraordinaire.)

Unlike last year's textile classes, this year we had plenty of students to fill both the morning and the afternoon class! Plenty of ideas and enthusiasm to go around. Susannah and I also fiddled with the content and schedule of the class- mixing up the tried and true(ish) schedule of the last two summers. The newly written course description reads like this:

The two week summer textiles program examines both the artistic and socio-economic life-cycle of a garment. Students will not only have the opportunity to design and create their own garment/creation, they will also get a broader view of the global textile market. The class will move from 2-d design into 3-d: starting with dyeing and shibori (a highly controlled Japanese resist-dye process similar to tie dye), then adding patterns and images through silk-screening and finishing the session by using the fabrics they have designed/ printed to sew a functional garment or object. Class conversations focus on the social, economic and ecological implications of fashion-based culture and how each student can start their own revolution by using their ingenuity to redesign their wardrobe. Although the class is based around garments, individual students are always encouraged to use their new skills to make other things: stuffed animals, non-functional art pieces, etc. The more creative the better! This is a great class for anyone who loves color, imagery, patterns and thinking outside the box.

The socio-economic part of the class was the most exciting new element for me. I bought a huge map of the world and, as part of our daily class routine, I had the students "map" their clothing by putting a pin into each of their garment's country of origin. It ended up being a great experiment! We didn't even know

where a lot of the countries were, so it often doubled as a geography review. It was great to see which countries ended up with the most pins: China, Mexico, the US, El Salvador.... There were tons and tons in Central America. Unfortunately, sessions at Snow Farm sort of hurtle to a finish and although I was hoping to be able to do some statistical analysis of our findings, no suck luck. Oh well, next year!

(I even told them that if anyone complained about being "bored" I'd make them go look up sweatshop conditions in the countries with the most pins. Nobody complained...)

It was the perfect jumping off point from which to have a conversation about Where Stuff Comes From and Where It Goes when we're done with it. Our annual trip to the Salvation Army served as a perfect example of the latter part of that equation. The Salvation Army in Hadley MA is one of the largest thrift stores I've ever been to: row upon row upon row of perfectly wearable garments, organized by garment type, color, size. Literally, anything that you could be looking for- no matter how specific your criteria- you can find there. And no matter how much stuff you buy, there is always more stuff getting hung up. The life-cycle of a garment is not simply defined by the amount of time that it is in fashion, or even by the amount of time an individual chooses to wear it. It begins with fiber cultivation- farm to harvest to yarn, moves onto weaving/knitting and then into a factory for garment construction. It's packaged and shipped to a store all before consumers even have access to it. Hundreds of people have touched each and every

garment that you wear. And once we've decided to discard clothes, they don't just disappear: thousands of pounds of textiles are recycled, donated, and sent to third world countries every year.

This year's textiles class had a chance to enter into that conversation and were given the opportunity to take control of their own participation on the system through new techniques for designing their own garments. And they made some really amazing stuff!

(Myself and Jasmine in dresses that we made: hand dyed fabric, silk screened, and patterned from a dress we bought at the Salvation Army!)

We also FINALLY got the photo emulsion with sun exposure to work this year! We've been trying every year since I started at Snow Farm so it was so exciting to finally have success! To celebrate, I had the classes participate in a print swap! Each student made a screen using the photo emulsion and then printed enough patches for everyone else to get one. At the end of the session we swapped and everybody got to go home with a piece of art from everyone else. It was awesome!

(Left to Right. Top row: My Gentle Alpaca, Emily, Jasmine, Drew. Second row: Juliana, Juliana, Kelsey. Bottom row: Eliana, Chelsea.)

One student, Emily, even decided to use the mapping project as inspiration for her patch! She drew a picture of the globe and labeled the countries: the size of the label reflects the ratio of production as reflected by the number of pins in the class' map. Fantastic. It reminds me a lot of the WorldMapper,

a project that redraws the earth's continents according to different statistics. (Definitely play around with it if you have a moment! It's enlightening, to say the least.)

(A terrible cell phone photo of Emily's print. Apparently, my scanner isn't working either. Damn.)

We also had our first male student in class this year who decided to take the class because he was interested in toy design. He was a 2-d artist who drew these amazing characters and he was hoping to learn how to make them into 3-d stuffed animals. It was great to try to help his realize that goal! And he totally did it! Nope! I don't have any photos of it! (Damn damn double damn. Hopefully, I'll eventually get my hands on some and I'll add them to the bottom of this post, I promise.) Drew added a wonderful presence to the class and although I was worried that he would feel ostricized by the girls who have a strange but undeniable commitment to listening to Disney music during class, he informed me one day that "what? Hercules is my favorite movie." AMAZING!

(A stuffed monster I made with a teeth-shaped-welt pocket for eating things like the dried up fabric markers.)

Outside of classes, the session was full of fun activities!

Like cardboard robot dance battle fashion shows!

Stealing whole bowls of gluten-free chocolate cupcakes! (Ok, that one was just me.)

Complaining dramatically about how loud the kids were at night time!

Building a pizza oven! (Technically that was second session but I'm running out of photos..)

After the session was over and the students had all gone home (or away until second session) we had one of the most prolific silk screening parties of all time. Seriously, I silk screened for almost 15 hours straight! Including! New and improved (aka NOT washable) staff t-shirts!

This summer was fantastic. I'm so thankful to all my co-teachers, art friends and amazing students. Snow Farm is one of the most fun and satisfying things I do all year long. Hopefully, nothing will get in my way of coming back next summer!

The Craziest Summer EVER. (And a half.)

2009-09-14T20:21:00.003-04:00

Gah!! I can't believe it's actually been, like, 2 full months since I updated my blog!! Especially since my summer was SOOO full of amazing art-adventures! Unfortunately, it was also full of super crazy-making moving/ homelessness situations that have prevented me from having the time or peace of mind required to sit down and articulately express the amazingness of the summer. (See?? Still not really articulate!!) I sat down about 5 weeks ago to write an entry about Snow Farm (already overdue at the time,) only to discover that all but 4! of the 200! photos I had taken during the session were GONE!! Totally inexplicably! Full disclosure: I'm sure that by "inexplicably," I really mean, "through my own stupidity and lack of proper reflexes" but it's still a blow. (Don't worry- I'm still going to throw together an entry from pilfered Facebook photos... of which there are about a million.)

AND! even though I am finally settled in my new place (did I say finally? I meant finally!!!) my already bumpy re-entry into the general pattern of my life was made harder when my computer hard drive crashed. !!! Even though I had everything backed up... and even though I still had 16 days left on my warrantee... somehow, getting all my information back has still been ridiculously complicated. (Stupid cocky bastards at the damn apple store. They always make it sound so easy! Liars.)

So... in conclusion... excuses excuses... but STAY TUNED!! Lots of awesome stories and photos are coming this way soon. 'Cause I gotta get on with my life and I feel like it's on hold.

But in the meantime, here's an interesting poster that Erin and I came across during one of my multiple over-night stays in Boston.

Last Chance to Check Out THREADS!

2009-06-23T21:52:00.008-04:00

All right, now I know you all want to hear about my superincrediblyfantasicallymagic time at Penland, but in order to really do it justice I'm letting myself digest a little before posting about it. (Aka... I'm waiting to sort through everybody's photos on facebook. What? I didn't get ANY of me inside a giant kitchen pot or in my crazy armadillo costume! Ha! Now you REALLY want to hear about it, don't you?!) Anyway, I've got a couple things in the meantime:

I can't believe it's been a whole month already, but the Threads Exhibition is coming down this weekend! In case you're having trouble remembering... the Code Quilt that Nellie and I put together last fall is currently hanging in an exhibition at SOMArts in San Fransisco as part of the annual, month-long, queer arts/party festival! And this week is your last chance to see it!! Here is a list of the other (amazing!) artists that participated in the show:

Threads Artists:

Adams, Atticus
Ahearn, Bren
Der Ananian, Greg
Baldwin, Mara
Ball, Jasper Gregory
Bazant, Micah & Ramstad, Emmett
Boudreaux, Zee
Boyer, Travis
Buitron, Michael
Claude, Teri
Clausen, Alex
Collins, Liz
Cros, Muriel
Cummings, Torreya
Ellsworth, Angela
Faulk, David & Johnstone, Michael
Fiveash, David
Gerard Romero, David
Gratland, Paige
Hammond, Harmony
Hanasik, Jason
Hellstern-Kjoller, Henriette
Hillman, Patrick
Hogan Finlay, Onya
Hubbard, Katherine
Huron, Sade
Kahn, Jesse M.
Kahn, Jesse M.
KillerBanshee
Lohner, Harold
Lopez, Steven Vasques
Lorch, Kate/Fletcher, Welly
Maida, Lee
Menone, Christopher
Metzger, Cyle
Monday, Zak
Muholi, Zanele
Naschke-Messing, Ali
Pepe, Sheila
O'Arwisters, Ramekon
Rinehart Kurz
Roberts, Lacey Jane
Robinson, Michael Sylvan
Roseborough, Tim
Rossi, Kjerstin
Rubiku, Anila
Sanders, Jeremy
Simms, Jeannie
Telford Keogh, Catherine
Tess, Rebecca
Ulrich, William Cricket
Waters, Irene
Whitehead, Anna
Wilson, Angie

(Uhm... ok, so they kinda effed up our names, but y'know, whatevs.)

But see?? Don't you want to see that show?! I do! But unfortunately, I didn't even get to go to the opening 'cause of my class at Penland. (Which I wouldn't have swapped for the WORLD!) Here are some photos from the June 7th opening:

Ooooh... those look like hot queeeer people!!!

It looks like they had a pretty good crowd! And the gallery looks PACKED with amazing art! Is that another quilt I see there in the background?? Oooooh, I wish I could have been there!

And there's the quilt!! Look! Someone's looking at it!! Oh, man, I feel like a REAL artists! (Also, I think that's Alfred Hitchcock in the background... Hmmm...)

Everything looks so pretty...

All in all it sounded like a great show! If anyone out there reading this actually got a chance to see/experience the show, I'd love to hear your thoughts! Highlights? Anyone I should look up artist-wise? Kthnx.

Penland stuff coming soon, I swear.

Penland '09 (in IV Acts)

2009-06-21T23:30:00.023-04:00

Sorry I have been so neglectful about posting all about my numerous summer adventures! Things have been crazy here in Nora-land... but I promise, much reminiscing and story-telling-via-blogging will be had over the next few weeks. Let's start with Penland!

PENLAND! (That's right- I said V (five, 5) Acts... 'cause any less wouldn't do it justice.)

Act I: Penland- the Place

Penland Mountain School of Craft is beautifully situated in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. (It's about an hour outside of Ashville.) The buildings that make up the campus are all gorgeous, historic structures... that are cock full of studios and creative people. Arriving there was like arriving in Rivendell... if Rivendell was full of artists and beer! It was pretty awesome!

This is pretty much the view from my studio. !!! I was in suck sock... not culture shock exactly... but location shock. I think of myself as being a woodsy type of girl but... having spent the last few years almost exclusively in the city, all of a sudden being surrounded by trees and plants (and poison ivy) was sooo shocking. And fantastic!

The building with the work study dorms (the Craft House) had this amazing porch with wooden rocking chairs. I actually wish I'd had more free time so that I could have relaxed on this porch more.

And every surface was covered with art! Every day I discovered another amazing hidden pocket of art. It's the perfect location to get totally immersed in your art.

Act II: Life as Penland Workstudy Student

In order to afford my studies, I was offered a work study scholarship which meant that I slept in a shared dorm and was given a job to perform every day. The dorm somewhat resembled a make-shift WWII hospital: just a row of beds separated by curtains. (Really not as bad as it sounds... I didn't end up getting that much sleep anyway.) And my job? Pots and dishes. !! Do you know how many pots and dishes are used to make food for 200 people!? A TON! I swear, I was armpit deep in cauldron-sized pots for 2hrs after 2 meals a day! The skin on my hands immediately started peeling off (they're still, 4 weeks later, pretty dry! Dish Lepracy!) But it wasn't unenjoyable at all! There's a sort of instant comradery that's established between the kitchen work studies students... Plus, it was like we got to have 2 hot, wet, sweaty dance parties every day! (I can't believe I have zero pictures of me head and shoulders inside a pot but... apparently we were all too busy to take photos.)

I made some amazing friends pretty instantly:

(Sasha, ceramics; Amanda, lithography; Shawn, books (and griping); not pictured: Anna, lithography; Arthur, ceramics.)

And we spent a lot of time hanging out :

(looking for the llamas), going to Asheville:

(and getting lost in Tennessee), swimming (and avoiding the poison ivy) and visiting eachother's studios:

(clearly getting a lot of work done). The Core students (students who live at Penland, taking classes and working in the studio for 2 whole years) also provided us all with some brilliant

activities!

Getting ready for the Andy Warhol Factory Dance Party!

Artists have the best costumes. They're the Marilyn Monroe print! Get it?

Drugged up floozy, rich patroness and crazy lesbian Valorie Solanas. (Holla to my feminist reading group! That's right, I'm carrying a copy of the SCUM manifesto and a bubble gun with which to shoot Andy. YES!) There are a whole bunch more photos but they're a little too incriminating for the internet. Hahaha... oh, good times.

Act III: My Penland Class

The class that I took was titled "Alternative Clothing and Pocketology" with Jan Ru Wan. It was an amazing mixture of specialized instruction on sewing perfect pockets and creative, intuitive art making.

One of Jan Ru's assignments was, and I'm not kidding you, to find a 4 leaf clover every day of the session. !! We were supposed to bring the clovers to class so that we could put them in our sketchbooks. We were also supposed to keep a journal about how we felt while we were searching. Our class become both the crazy pocket class AND the class that was always out in the field looking for 4 leaf clovers. But we found a surprising number of them by the end of the session!

(Shawn and me looking for clovers.)

Our other assignments were more pocket based. We were instructed to bring a complete men's suit, which we then took apart seam by seam. We were supposed to explore the intracacies of tailoring, be inspired by the nuances of the fabric and history of the suit itself. And most of my classmates were. Unfortunately, having taken apart quite a few suits in my artschool career, I found myself a little less awed than my classmates. So I instead poured my creative juices into the next step of the process: build a new object or garment from the deconstructed suit pieces.

(The studio in action.)

Act IV: My Art Work

So, I plan on doing a little bit more writing and posting a much more elaborate blog entry on this piece after I've had some better photos taken, but here's the short story of how my Armadillo suit came into being.

As I mentioned before, I was in complete shock over being in the woods... especially because I really don't consider myself a city girl. So, I was thinking a lot about human animality and how that animality manifests itself in our actions and our clothing. Some animals have their protection built into their bodies: turtles have shells, armadillos have scales and apparently lepracy. The suit, a symbol of conservativism, professionalism, business... was at complete odds with my current location and in the way i was thinking about myself. Also... because of a certain housing crisis (my not actually having one) the idea of an animal being inately imbibed with their own home was especially interesting to me.

I started by creating a repeat image of scales or shells and printing it on the suit pieces.

Then, I built a jacket.

Referring back to the animal-defenses, the shape and structure of the jacket is determined by the contents of it's pockets. With huge, balloon pockets at the hips and tiny pockets in the shoulders, the sillhouette of the body gets larger and more intimidating the more stuff that gets stashed. My thinking was that the act of stashing stuff into pockets would become a visual manifestation of anxiety: the more anxious you were, the more stuff you would need on your person, the larger and more obvious your anxiety would become. There was also a secret zip pocket back pack behind the razor back panel.

Unfortunately, all the photos of me IN the suit make me look like a crazy person, so I'm not going to post them. Again, once I get some better photos, I promise I'll post something longer. :0)

Act V: Loooot

The trading potentials were endless. I printed a bunch of armadillo iron-on patches and traded them with the other artists like legal tender!

I got a bunch of great ceramics, some great lithograph prints, some jewelry, some photo prints... now all I need is a home to hang things in! And, in the process of trading, I made connections with some truly amazing artists and craftspeople. Check out the newest additions on my etsy favorite's page to see some of their work!

Oooh... le Sigh. That was long. Ok, so basically I could never explain all of the amazing fun times I had at Penland. But thanks for reading!

Double Wedding Rings

2009-05-27T20:34:00.007-04:00

The double wedding rings quilt pattern is one of the oldest American traditions. First published by Capper's Weekly in 1928, it came to represent the bonding of two people in marriage. During the great depression, it's popularity grew due to the fact that it could be pieced out of even the smallest scraps of fabric; some patterns called for as many as 48 smaller pieces of fabric to make a single block. For this reason, it has always been considered one of the most difficult patterns to execute.

"Real quilt enthusiasts delight in this all-over pattern but it is hardly the design for the novice to undertake."

So... it turns out they weren't kidding. I, in an embarrassing display of quilting hubris, decided to go for it anyway. My good friends Mary and Justin got hitched a couple of weeks back and I wanted to make them something special; a quilt (maybe not full size, I'm not that much a glutton for punishment!) seemed the perfect thing! Especially because their wedding was bird and origami crane themed and I happen to have just a few scraps of beautiful crane fabric left over. (Fate? Destiny? The inevitability of a Hoarder?) And since I am in the habit of documenting EVERY step of the way, here is my first attempt at a double wedding rings quilt.

Working at Viv Pickle has not done anything to diminish my hoarding sensibilities. On the contrary, I seem to find myself drape over the cutting department trash can at the end (middle, beginning) of every day pulling out scraps of fabric that are too small to use for handbags but too big to be thrown away. (The truth is that I now have several times my body weight in small fabric scraps that I have to move to every new apartment... but it just doesn't seem right to let them go!) Anyway, I have all this fabric, so I decided to use it where ever possible.

Each block is constructed out of 8 arches (4 of each color, in this case green and blue) which connect in the center by a gold square.

Then, 4 ovals and 4 underwear-shaped pieces are sewn on (shown here with an indecent amount of pins holding it in place.)

Once two or more block are completed, they fit together with the rings connecting across the surface of the quilt! Magic! At this point in the quilting, I had to come to terms with a couple of things. 1.) the blocks were damn hard to make! The curves weren't entirely impossible to navigate, but the points NEVER managed to line up right and the measurements NEVER seemed to line up! There was a lot of fudging involved... and an embarrassing amount of easing... so much so that most of rings almost look gathered when you look closely (shhhh.) 2.) the blocks were HUGE! Each block finished at about 25"! I was planning on making the quilt throw-size; about 60" x 60". Instead of the 9 blocks I had planned for originally, I shifted my plan to 4! with a nice, wide border (red recycled fabric) around the outside. 3.) No matter how I cut it (literally) I just wasn't going to have enough crane fabric to use it on the entire background. I settled for using black-themed fabrics on two of the four total blocks.

So I got it all sewn up, prepped a backing of charcoal grey cotton, and basted the crap out of it (Titty Kitty Helped. Mostly by chasing the thread. Which is actually not all that helpful, but the thought meant a lot.)

And I quilted around all the curves. It was like swimming in fabric!

And I made a lovely commemorative patch for the back. (They were married on May 7th, 2009. Get it? 5.7.9) And I blindstitched the bias tape around the edge using the tried and true Kurz Family Method.

Et Viola! Lovely! Colorful! Totally warm and snuggly!

Best Wishes to newlyweds, Mary and Justin Bloch! May your marriage be lovely and colorful and totally warm and snuggly!

And as for me... I think I might wait a while before trying another double wedding rings quilt. I think I might need just a little more practice before I can really do it well.

The Code Quilt goes to San Fransisco!

2009-05-16T20:38:00.006-04:00

Nellie and I are super-excited to announce that The Code Quilt will be exhibited as part of this year's San Fransisco based National Queer Arts Festival!

"Since 1998, QCC has organized an annual month-long National Queer Arts Festival. To date, these Festivals have presented more than 400 different events featuring over 2000 Queer artists including Bill T. Jones, Alice Walker, Robert Rauschenberg, Ester Hernandez, Adrienne Rich, Marga Gomez, Justin Chin, Cherrie Moraga and Dorothy Allison. The 2008 Festival attracted more than 65,000 people."

How cool is this? The festival is CHOCK FULL of amazing lectures, workshops and parties- and has been a San Fransisco tradition for 10 years! The exhibit that Nellie and I are participating in, THREADS, will be held at SOMArts Cultural Center with an opening event on June 7th.

"Threads is not just about fabric and costume but also how queerness weaves the threads of our physical, social and moral existence together into a multi-dimensional fabric of community and our selves. What are the threads that bind, mend and sometimes unravel this spectacular fabric? How do we fashion, perform, subvert or display queerness in our art and lives?

So fashion yourself high or low and don your hottest threads for the opening! There will be a photo booth and photographers roaming about capturing the fabulousness of it all with music and performance in the galleries—not to mention, food and drink. All for free and fun."

(I also love that the button for the Threads show on the QCC website is totally in the same section as a photo of one of the members of my good friend Katie Allen's Boston-based Drag group, All the Kings Men! We live in such a small community, don't we, friends?)

(Just in case you needed a reminder of how awesome the quilt is...)

Also available at the exhibition (maybe? If not, on the esty at a later date) will be the super-exciting, full color, second printing of The Code Quilt Zine: a booklet containing an artist statement, photos, and all the research/information needed to fully "decode" the quilt. (If you can't wait for yours, you can always buy one RIGHT NOW! at my etsy!)

Sweeeet. Unfortunately, neither Nellie or I will be able to attend the opening or, nay, any of the amazing events planned throughout the month of June! Nellie will be in Santa Fe working for the Santa Fe Opera again and I will be starting my class at Penland. Poo! That means that it's up to those of you who live in San Fransisco (uhm.. I'm looking at you, Jess Sum? Eh?) to check out the gallery and report back. 'Kaythanks!

Sweeeeet.

Alternative Clothing & Pocketology

2009-05-09T18:30:00.000-04:00

Exciting Summer Announcement Number 2! Figuring it was just as easy to fill out two scholarship applications simultaneously, I also applied for classes at Penland Mountain School of Craft, outside of Asheville, North Carolina. And, yay! I've been offered a work-study scholarship to study there the first two weeks in June! The class is:

Alternative Clothing & Pocketology, with Jan-Ru Wan:

Pocket: a small pouch inside a garment for carrying small articles; a resting place for our hands; a temporary container while we travel through our lives; a transition space between our body and the outside world; maybe even an intimate space for our thoughts or fears. We will explore different ways to make pockets to create space and volume in wearable art/sculpture/installation work. We will create our sculptures on the body by recycling old tailored suits and other found materials.

I'm really excited to take this class! After reading it's description in the Penland catalogue, I couldn't help but dwell on the fact that handbags are simply portable pockets. I think this class will help me expand my understanding of the objects that I am increasingly drawn to making- and to be able to push the boundaries of what a handbag/pocket is. I also keep thinking about a pocket's inherent secrecy, privateness and, in breaking those traditions, it's sense of permission. You'd never just stick your hand in someone's pockets (or, similarly, casually enter and look through a persons's bag)- however permission to do these things is sometimes offered. Intimacy? Anyway- as the date of the class approaches I find myself waning more and more poetic about the conceptual potentials.

Aka... I am stoked.

The artist teaching the class is Taiwanese fiber artist, Jan-Ru Wan. Her complicated and varied body of work evokes a conversation about repetition, meditation, gender, tradtition and spirituality.

"By manipulating common objects I intend to re-contextualize them to be perceived with different kinds of senses creating new avenues. I have always emphasized the contrast between the interior and exterior of my work: harshness vs. softness; tension vs. freedom; free floating vs. measuring; compulsive energy vs. imperturbable silence. This gives rise to the simultaneous existence of repulsion and compulsion. All contradictions melt into a new kind of balance." -Jan-Ru Wan (exerpt of an artist statement)

Jan-Ru Wan's "The Ripple of Resonance" is made up of 800 printed plastic houses, each with a bell inside that was dipped in wax.

Jan-Ru Wan's "Sprouting Within" is made of two ikat weaves with acupuncture needles and glass test tubes.

“Weight on my shoulder”

“Weight on my shoulder” detail

“We are on the same boat"

“We are on the same boat” detail

More links for Jan-Ru Wan:

http://www.indyweek.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid%3A35782
http://www.sefea.us/artists/wan/wanas.html

Sheepies and Wooliness Festival '09!

2009-05-03T19:14:00.017-04:00

This past weekend was the 36th Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival! So I trundled down to Baltimore to see my excellent friend Elisabeth and check out the sheepies and the wooliness!

The festival is held annually in West Friendship, MD, at the Howard County Fairgrounds and is, unless I'm very much mistaken, the largest Sheep and Wool Festival in the country!

We got to see lots of animals of varying fuzziness:

Baby Alpacas! With really funny haircuts.

Baby goats on lawn chairs!

Unfortunately groomed Llamas...

And, of course, SHEEPIES!! Here's Madame Elisabeth nuzzling a lovely ewe.

Baaaaaaahh....

This is a Jacob Sheep! It has two sets of horns! It's like an extra set of handles!

I spent quite a long time petting this sheep on the muzzle... it was so awesome. And I got to feel it's horns: they were totally warm! Of course I knew that their horns were a part of their body but I really never expected them to be... warm... it was totally weird and awesome.

Oh.. and we also spotted... A nun.

A nun in combat boots.

!!

She was so cool. She was clearly there by herself and even though I suggested a couple of times that we introduce ourselves and make friends... it almost didn't seem appropriate.

Y'know... inappropriate like getting stealthy cell phone shots of her all over the festival.

Holy woman in boots. Lovin' the sheep. And I'm lovin' her.

But besides stalking women of the cloth who love cloth, there were also hundreds and hundreds of amazing fiber booths! Yarns, spinning fibers, spinning wheels. I was in HEAVEN. (Much like the nun. What, too much?)

I even ran into the woman who sold me my spinning wheel! She was there representing the Green Mountain Spinnery of Vermont. It was great to see her and she told me that I could take a class or two from her when I'm in New England this summer! YES!! It's exactly what I've been looking for!

Oooh.. and there were these CRAZY, portable spinning contraptions...

It totally made me think of tinkers and traveling Gypsies. Awesome...

So... I bet you're wondering how much moolah I dropped, right? Not as much as you'd think! I exerted much self controll, thank you very much. I bought a pin that says "Knit Addict," a couple of note cards, a small bag of spinable sparkle, and ONLY ONE SKEIN of yarn! But, oh, was it worth it:

Oh man, it's a hand-spun yarn made of 50% recycled bamboo and 50% organic cotton... so great. Can't wait to knit it up!

Yay Sheep and Wooliness! Thanks, Elisabeth, for a great weekend!

1st Annual Airing of the Hotties Stash

2009-04-30T21:39:00.014-04:00

Fiber enthusiasts have a tendency to collect- patterns, ideas, materials- and these collections have a tendency to accumulate into what is known as a Stash. For knitters, it's exorbitant numbers of skeins of yarn. You buy one extra skein of something soft, or the last skein of a really great color, or three too many skeins of sweater yarn because you're too lazy to do the right math to find out how much you actually need... anyway... after a few months you realize that you have SO many of these extra skeins that you've stuffed them into a bag or box and forgotten about them. Therefore, knitters invented the traditional "Airing of the Stash." Once a year (or whenever you get to it) you pull down the box of unused yarn, pull out each and every sumptuous color and fiber, look at each one lovingly in turn, and then put them back in their box and forget about them again immediately. Ha! No. Sometimes you find the perfect yarn for the project on your brain, or remember about some really great fiber that inspires some great new design. Airing the stash is wonderful for reinvigorating inspiration (you know you already love the yarn 'cause you've already paid for it) and it's a great way to remind yourself that you really don't need to buy anything new because you already have a shit-ton of material!

I have quite a large yarn stash myself, but today I'm going to air another kind of stash. A stash of Hotties.

After my computer told me that my "startup disk was almost full" I thought I might as well delete some of the (ridiculously huge number of) images that I keep on my computer for reference. As I was perusing my collection to see what to get rid of, I stumbled upon a folder marked "hotties." Hence?

The First Annual Airing of the Hotties Stash!

Here are this years' Hotties... vaguely assembled in order of least nerdy to most nerdy. (What? That was what made the most sense.) I've also added links so you can check out my Hottie collection for yourself! Enjoy!

Alan Rickman, circa. 1976. Yum...

Gary Oldman, in real life. Adorable much?

Collette, the amazingly beautiful French author, performer and bisexual lover.

Rachel Maddow, journalist, nerd, hottie.

Amelia Earhart. Female pioneer in plane-flying and pants-wearing.

Rachel Maddow as Amelia Earheart. Uhm... need I say more?

Han Solo. Mrrreow.

Legs (aka Angelina Jolie) in Foxfire. Just stopping in to cause some trouble and break some hearts. She then went on to date Jenny Shimizu... hawt.

Spike from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. His love defies the fact that he doesn't even have a soul. C'mon... that's so tragically romantic...

And, of course, Agents Mulder and Scully from the X-Files. And although they never actually hook up in the show... in my head they usually look like this:

Stay tuned for next year's Airing of the Hotties Stash!

Spring Sweater!

2009-04-22T12:07:00.005-04:00

Now that it's warm out... I've finished my sweater!

All right, to be fair, I finished it almost a month ago but there are a few things about it I've been hemming and hawing about so I waited to post about it.

I started with a pattern from the Fall 2008 Interweave Knits called the "Little Blue Sweater" which called for a ridiculously expensive yarn. So, after perusing the vast selection of yarns at Webs I settled on a similar yarn: Valley Yarns Berkshire, in a similar color to the original pattern because, hey, I love that color. Unfortunately, the Valley Yarn had a lightly smaller gauge than the one called for, so I decided to make the sweater an increment larger than my measurements (it would only change to size of the sweater by an inch or two). I also decided that although the original pattern made the sweater with short sleeves, the odds my ever wearing a short-sleeved sweater were pretty nil. So I improvised some long ribbed sleeves.

The sweater has these great cable and lace rows running vertically up the front and back. I got to do a double yarn over for the first time, which was exciting, (y'know, to me anyway,) and I finished it pretty quickly. I wet blocked it, sewed it together and knit the collar.

Trying on a completed sweater for the first time is always a little frightening. You've been knitting and knitting for so long and you never know how it's actually going to fit. No matter how much you measure or how many times you hold it up to yourself, the finished product is always different and always unpredictable. There's this moment as you're pulling it over your head where you're holding your breath and thinking, "this is when I find out whether I'll ever actually wear this sweater." This is only the second sweater I've ever completed. I knit the first one in college out of a yarn that turned out to be excruciatingly itchy. Although the pattern was simple and the sweater looked ok, the turtle-neck was impossible to stand with the itchiness of the yarn. So I put the sweater in my closet and promptly lost it. I have no idea where it is today. Needless to say, I was a little nervous when I tried on this, my second sweater attempt.

It's not perfect. The ribbed sleeves are a little bulky and, for some reason (I'm ready to blame the wet-blocking) it's way too big in the under-arm region. The yarn is really thick and, because it's just slightly too big for me (thanks, of course, to my making it a size bigger. dumb dumb dumb...) it's not the most flattering of sweaters. There's no way it's going to fit under a jacket and the large double-yarn-over lace holes make it a little breezy... I haven't worn it yet. Le sigh. But I'm hoping that it'll be a good summer night-time pull over type sweater.

Over all, it was fun to knit and, hopefully, I'll get some good wear out of it over the next few years. And even though it wasn't a perfect outcome... I'm already thinking about my next sweater. I'm thinking.... gray lace cardigan? Yum...

Wool Equal Bronze/ Time Does Not Equal Money

2009-04-12T15:45:00.002-04:00

The past few month, during which I have been admittedly blog-negligent, I have actually been quite busy! It was just the kind of busy that takes a few months to get results... y'know... applications kind of busy. Show submission, summer scholarships... I feel like all I did in February was apply for shit. (After which was followed by a period of unprecedented productivity.) But it's all starting to pay off! I'll be posting exciting news as it is confirmed.

First! I've been offered a Teaching Assistantship at Haystack School of Craft in Deer Isle, Maine! If you haven't heard of Haystack, it is a fairly prestigious program for students of all ages. Last summer I didn't even get in, so I'm pretty stoked about this year.

("Studios remain open 24 hours a day, seven days a week while workshops are in session." Basically, all I want in life.)

The class I'm going to TA is called Knitting: Wool Equals Bronze/ Time Does Not Equal Money, with artist Janet Morton:

"This workshop will explore hand knitting as a valid and vital sculptural/installation medium and as an alternate means of measuring time. Through a series of slide talks, discussions, and exercises, participants will be encouraged to playfully and critically examine their relationships to the natural world, everyday objects, and equations that link time to “value”. Experimentation with materials, scale, technique, and ideas will be encouraged. Participants will develop personal projects, and will be invited to work collectively on an onsite project."

O. M. G. !!!!!!

Sorry for my temporary lapse into 14-year-old-ism but, c'mon! Could this class possibly sound like something I'd be MORE into?!? The TA application asked for a MFA level education in the subject you were hoping to work with and since there really are no MFA degrees in knitting I managed to convince the scolarship committee that my two-straight years of doing basically nothing BUT knitting (and watching copius amounts of tv-on-dvd) was just as good as a degree. It's SOO vidicating: I'd been spending quite a bit of time lately bemoaning my "waste" of knitting time spent over the last few years... mainly because I wasn't making Art (capital letter.) Now I feel like it was worth it... and here's my chance to transition all of my new knitting skills back into a conceptual avenue. YES!

I refrained from looking up Janet Morton's work until I got into the program (mostly in an attempt to not get my hopes up, I think.) It's AMAZING. Here are some of my favorites:

Sweaterbike, 1994. hand knit bicycle covering
When you're cold... put a sweater on your bike? Now I really want to make one for my bike... but I'd have to make it removable for easy laundering.. this city is so dirty...

Canadian Monument #, 1994. hand screened red flannel, dinner plates. 20 x 12 ft.
Lucy Larcom reincarnated! Maybe a lumber-jack love interest? Anyway, totally awesome.

Newsflash Blanket, 1995. hand knit blanket. 23 x 9 ft.

Newsflash; Madame Defarge Eat your Heart Out, detail. 1995. stacks of the three Toronto daily newspapers, 12 framed images of knitter, 1000-plus balls of wool, a false floor, chair, vinyl text, and a television playing.
I think the title for this is HILARIOUS because my mother mentions this Dickens character in response to all of my text-based fibers work. Seriously, she's mentioned it at least 3 times. Here, at least some of the irony is the fact that knitting anything that complicated can HARDLY be called a "flash." To me, it also references traditional women's work and the overwhelming contemporary news consumption.

Capitol, 2004. hand knit model of the Capitol Building. 30 x 20 in.
Swoooooon. This way beats the knit turtles.

Felled, 1997. 300 leaves sewn from used work socks form poetry translation.

Felled, detail. 1997.
"I interpret this making of beautiful delicate items, from work-worn, day-to-day socks as a mark of respect for the labour they participated in." (From the Lovely Textiles blog, linked to below.) I also wonder if the title isn't a reference to the sacrifices one makes for "work;" injuries and sheer time spent toiling.

Changing Channels, 2000. 36 gutted televison sets, plants.

What a fantastic container garden! There are a number of my favorite artists who blend fiber art with gardening. I know that Ghada Amer has spoken briefly about the connection between gardening, domesticity and women's work, but I feel like there might be something more there. It's a topic I might explore more in the near future.

And those were just the highlights! For a much better interpretation/discussion of Janet Morton's work, check out this blog I found while google-ing "Janet Morton". Also check out the rest of Janet's online portfolio. Amazing!

I can't wait to have the opportunity to work with such an amazing artist and to experience the creative atmosphere I've heard such wonderful things about at Haystack. The end of August it gonna rule!

Mel! the Amazing Stuffed Dog and Drummer

2009-04-06T13:55:00.002-04:00

I got an email a while back from my brother and sister-in-law with an entreaty to make my nephew, Angelo (1.75 yrs), a stuffed dog of his favorite tv character. This dog, Mel, is a drummer on the Noggin tv show Jack's Big Music Show. (Nope- I hadn't heard of it either.)

Cute, huh? Apparently, not only has the show been off the air for a few years, but Noggin (not the highest budget station) never even made any show-themed products for resale. My sis sent me some pics and a video or two and wondered if it was even possible...

Uhm... sure? I mean... it can't be that hard, right? (Bear in mind, I've never made a stuffed animal.) So I get on the internet, make some sketches and order some fabric samples, and start patterning...

Moog! Cute nose!

A paw in action...

A pile of appendages... (hehe... say that 10 times fast...)

O.M.G. This could be fun...

Ahahahhahhahaahaaa! Ok, that was probably the funniest part! Also because sewing his butt closed on the machine didn't even work and I had to sew it by hand. There's something about creating a stuffed animal that feel sort of... wrong? That's not the right word... but... uncanny. It has so much character so early on in the process. Anyway, here's the finished product!

How'd I do? Not bad, right?

I brought Mel down to Baltimore this past weekend to present to Angelo. It was such a hit! That kid is CRAZY for Mel! He's just starting to be able to understand abstract concepts and it's so funny to watch him: any time he started drumming on something, or there was music with a beat, he was like "drum! Mel! Mel Mel Mel Mel!" and then ran around the room looking for the stuffed animal. Mind, the dog is only a few inches shorter than he is. ADORABLE. I make gifts for each of the nephews (total count: 4) at each holiday, but because I don't get to hang out with them that much, I'm usually shooting in the dark as to what they will and won't like. So this was an especially great opportunity to try to cement myself in Angelo's memory. One can only hope? Maybe someone got some photos of him with the dog...

Ok, that's done. Next?

More Nephews- More Quilts!

2009-03-28T22:48:00.000-04:00

As long as my siblings keep having kids, I suppose I'll keep making them quilts...

As if I didn't love having the excuse?!

Ergo- let's all welcome the newest Renick:

Louis Douglas Renick
born to Colin and Kim Renick
March 2, 2009
!!!

And ergo... quilt!

Heather Ross' Mendicino line! Amazing squids, mermaids, sea-horses and turtles in a lovely gender-neutral colorway! (Who says boys can't love mermaids? Poo to gender conformity!) I got the fabric at Spool, my wonderful, local fabric store. I had bought a bunch of these fabrics to make into bags and stuff... but when I started to think about a baby quilt they seemed to perfect to pass up!

I actually even got a chance to meet Heather Ross in person at Spool, which was pretty cool. Although it seemed a bit much to ask for an autograph... quilters are nerds, too?

Quilting is magic!

It's also a good excuse to do a lot of (dangerous) ironing.

Ahh.. the Kurz family traditional technique for backing quilts as passed down to me by Nellie Kurz. Thanks, Nell!

All done!

The back is all gold fishes... so that Louie can sleep wit' da fishes. (Not to play on an Italian stereotype or anything... )

The quilt will be presented to young Louie next weekend when my parents and I will visit him for the first time. Welcome to the family!

Tapestry Extravaganza!

2009-02-21T00:26:00.004-05:00

Anyone who has been in close vicinity to me over the last few months had heard me stressing out about giving a tapestry demo at the Museum of Fine Art in Philly. I got the gig as kind of a fluke: An email that (I think) was meant for MICA staff/faculty said the Museum was looking for Artist Demonstrators for a one-day event sponsored by the Philly Jewish Cultural Alliance. I answered the email and ended up with a job demonstrating tapestry weaving.

So I got out all my old tapestry notes, built myself a frame, got it all warped up and then I remembered....

I freaking hate tapestry.

GAH! All of these memories of struggling through tapestry weaving at MICA flooded back to me: it takes forever, the frame looms are bulky and tough to weave on... Only by abandoning my first frame loom (because it was HUGE) and building smaller frames (weaving about 3" across instead of 8") was I able to work up enough enthusiasm to even work on my demonstration.

Then the nerves hit... I was sure that I wasn't what they had in mind. I was demonstrating TAPESTRY in front of the GIANT TAPESTRIES of Constantine the Great!! (No pressure...) And I was weaving a PACMAN sampler on a frame made of stretcher bars! Not exactly the definition of professionalism. I wanted to know EVERYTHING about tapestry... all the history, all the how-tos... just in case, even if my weaving was a little paltry, no one would be in doubt of my knowledge. (In case you're curious... everyone everywhere in every society did tapestry weaving. All of them. The history alone was a little daunting.)

And then there was my inner-political-guilt-o-meter that started obsessing with the political ramifications of working for a Jewish Cultural Alliance that looked (from the website) that it might be leaning toward the Zionism side of the spectrum. After just reading about anti-zionism organizing in my feminist discussion group I was plagued by a need to openly declare my anti-zionist sentiments, but couldn't figure out a way to do so without being blatantly rude to people who were paying me to demonstrate something totally unrelated to international politics.

Le Sigh. So I locked myself in my bedroom for the week preceeding the event, reading, writing, gathering history, weaving... mentally preparing mysef for the worst of the worst.

And then the day came.

Look! I got a sign! It has my name on it!!

(Computer with historical/technical slide show, sample weavings, extra shuttles/bobbins for weaving, handouts of techniques, Try-it-yourself tapestry loom, zines of history/how-to for sale, and an in-progress sample. With Pacman.)

So.. I may not have had to most professional set up out of all the demonstrators (the other artists all had displays and machines and stuff)... but I definitely had the most interactive table. Instead of spending my time building and warping a loom like I had planned, I ended up just setting out the biggest loom and letting the visitors try weaving a row (with help.) Because really? After all my worry and all of my preparation.... none of the people I talked to were over the age of 7. Seriously.

They were adorable. I had these teeny tiny little kids, with noses no higher than the table, their arms above their heads trying to get the shuttle through the shed! Soooo cute! And they were soo excited to weave! The weaving was uneven and ugly but those kids seemed so empowered by the act of weaving. It was a stark reminder of my first experiences with weaving: remember all those frustrations I spoke of earlier? With the slow speed of weaving and the annoying loom? Well, when I first started weaving, even on a floor loom, I hated it! But when I took my first weaving off the loom I was struck dumb by the fact that I had created fabric. Fabric was something that existed in the world before me in a way that I had always assumed was untouchable. I was astonished by my own ability to create something so real. I was humbled. I think it's one of the major reasons I fell so deeply in love with textiles. And these kids got that sense of power and joy just from weaving one row, incorrectly, on a shitty frame loom I made in my kitchen. It was awesome.

Here's the weaving that all of those kids worked on. (Allright, not technically tapestry, what with all those warp threads showing.) It was great to be able to take something with me from the event: tangible evidence of those kids work, through my preparation. Like the way rings in a tree trunk record seasons in a tree's life, each row of this tiny, sloppy fabric was woven by a different participant. It's almost a petition of the event... and through all of our combined efforts we made fabric. Sooooo cooooool. (I hung it on my wall!)

And! My amazing new friends Sasha (thanks for the photos!), Amber, Stephanie and Rebecca came to visit me. I was great to have support and friendly faces!

I also got this sweet pacman sampler out of the deal. Which, clearly, also went on my wall.

If you're curious about tapestry and are interested in purchasing the 24 page full-color zine that I produced for the event, lemme know and I'll throw them up on the Etsy Page! They're pretty awesome: they've got a history/context section, a few interesting internet links, and an entire how-to section that covers building a loom, warping and weaving techniques. Only $8! You know you want one!

Thanks to everyone who bolstered my self-esteem by telling me (often repeatedly) that everything would be ok! You were right... like usual... but thanks for listening to my irrationally panicked whining anyway... :0)

My Own Personal Fun-A-Day!

2009-02-14T16:20:00.024-05:00

While I was busily preparing for the tapestry demo (of doooooom), I managed to miss the entry deadline for the 2009 annual Fun-A-Day Show! Oooops! Ah well... I didn't actually finish anyway. So here's an almost complete month's worth of Animal Combination Drawings!

1: Panda ("Panda")

2: +Walrus ("Wanda") 3: +Salamander ("Pandamandrus")

4: +Meerkat ("Katamandalruseer")

5: +Spectacled Bear ("Pandamandled beerkalrus")

6: +Octopus ("Spectoctamanda meelrus")

7: +Kangaroo ("Meerktopuspectamander walbearoo")

8: +Big Horned Sheep ("Octospectahorned wandamanderookat")

9: +Mandrill ("Salamandrilled pandarookatrus sheepectapus"

10: +Emperor Tamarin ("Empactlerus hoctarookat tandamandrillander")

11: +Vampire Bat ("Kangapandamander octobeemarin manrushat")

12: +Sea Turtle ("Vampamandaloorill turtaclebigbear walroctapusmarin")

13: +Three-Toed Sloth ("Bigaroodrillanrin waltacleblothle vampamanapus katamander")

14: +Platypus ("Walpusheeparoo seatamarillat spectandamandearpus")

15: +Great White Shark ("Sharkatoedapus vamplymandrill walbearoo tamasheepanda")

16: +Humpback Whale ("Woctopandmanbackat platyroonedillarin slothearatlarkat")

17: +Ring Tailed Lemur ("Whaleothopusharkrill lemperorkatypus kangkatrusandamander spectursheep")

18: +Hippopotomus ("Hippoplatypandamandrill meerpirbacklotharoo octamarinusemurtle sheeparkear")

19: +Clown Fish ("Fisheepippoctopandamatidalrus turtrillanrinearoobat clothalemurtypsharkat")

20: +Giant Anteater ("Anturtailothat humpandamandrill octopippopusaroo fisharkatamearusheep")

21: +Marine Iguana ("Mandriganaroopo walraclotharinda sharkurtereepypus whalemurishire manderkat")

22: +Anaconda ("Antacondalothale tamandrillemurtle walamandisharkat bearoopusiguanippo fisheepat")

23: +Moose ("Anandalrusharkat moondrillemurisheep salaguanopusippo kandaturtamacled vamplathale")

Actually, at the end there I was pretty sure I had accidentally re-invented the Chinese Luck Dragon. Turns out that January has a lot of days in it! Gah! Thanks to all my Pickle Cohorts for picking all the animals!

Ok, I gotta run to pick up the (ungodly expensive) 'zines for tomorrow's demo of dooooom and then off to the REAL Fun-A-Day show!