Dusting My Shoulder Off

I wanted to place my bumper sticker that Gerrie had mailed me on a gun shop or shooting range but was too chicken to do it.  A friend and I even scouted out a shooting range (in the downtown area of all places) close by where we use to work.  It always looked like an abandoned business but yet has been there for years.  The windows are blackened so you can't see in but my friend just knew there had to be cameras and we would go to jail for vandalism, and that wouldn't be good for her since she is job hunting.  So on my car it went.  I am parked on the street across from my parent's house.  I went over to claim their backyard as my new space to dye fabric. 

I dyed just 2 colours, brazilnut and ecru, light (1/2 teaspoon), mediu (1 tsp.), and dark (2 tsp.).  The outcome was a pleasing start but I'm going to continue to manipulate the fabric using the book Complex Cloth as my guide.  Also, if I had a deeper understanding of colour mixing I saw that I wouldn't need to buy the colours "brazilnut" or "ecru"...these colours I've acheived accidentally by mixing my basic blues/reds/yellows.  But it was a day I needed after being so pumped up from Magic on the Mount.

The door opens to the Calving barn that houses 5 studios, a kitchen, and a bathroom.  Studio 3, my favorite of them all, (although if I could continually handle going up and down the steps all day, the loft would be a perfect space to really spread out as it runs the length of the barn).  The grain silo (I guess it was a grain silo) sits opposite the doors of the Calving barn and behind a very large barn that is a year round studio for a sculptor and costume designer.  I'm always compelled to take pictures of the silo every time I'm there. 

I wasn't as prepared as I wanted to be. (I can hear Peter saying to Mo and Ade "if you don't plan to succeed, then you're planning to fail...uggh) I took six pieces and nothing under 200 for sale.  Didn't sell anything but boy did I have a good time.  I demo'ed silk fusion and transfer paints (finally got around to using them, Valerie).  The festival ran from 3-6 and most of the activity was outdoors and was set up so that festival goers wound themselves through the grounds.  From 7-9 there was a Brazilian guitarist and other artists down by the lake but I used that time to continue working and begin packing up around 8.  I had about 75-100 people come through.  It helped that I was in the building with the bathroom also.  I enjoyed talking to people about what I was doing and was asked lots of questions.  Talking and demo'ing at the same time is like patting your head and rubbing your stomach...once you get going you're on a roll.

This is the hallway that divides the studios.  Five of the six pieces I brought hanging on the wall.

If I can get a hold of the photos of me demo'ing, taken by the designated photographer for the event, I'll share those. 

It was a boost to my spirit seeing my work hanging up as a group.  Let me go ahead and dust my shoulder off ;)