Artfest 2010 Trades

I am heading to Artfest next week and I am getting very excited. Imagining 550 plus creative people in the same area for 5 days sounds pretty exciting. I am collecting supplies and making many lists. One item I have delayed on a little while is the trade I am going to bring.

Trade as in trades as in 100 plus handmade goodies you bring to trade with other Artfesters. Now, it is not a requirement by any means, but it is highly recommended on the message boards as a way to meet people and get your name and website out there.

I did some Googling to see what other people had done in the past and a lot of it seemed like little charms, or magnets, or pins. I don't really have a small, signature item that I make that would be appropriate and besides, I think if I tried to make some small pin they would end up mediocre anyways and nobody would remember me.

So, I was wracking my brains, trying to think of something to bring and I thought, "ah ha!" what about something to put all your little trades into? I am good at making little drawstring baggies with linings. Even though I have oodles and oodles of fabric (it's a serious problem of mine, collecting fabric), I had to go to the fabric store to find stuff more appropriate to the fairy tales theme.

I started to experiment with different sized baggies.

I also decided I wanted to try and do some iron-on transfers. (That's one of my 36 Things To Do Before 37, so I might as well kill two birds with one stone, yes?)

Only problem, is I am not sure I like the dark gray fabric I picked out (and I have a lot of it) I actually like the backing, the light gray side better.
What do you think? I have so many ideas swimming in my head, it is hard to chose! I have started cutting out fabric and ribbon and printed all the iron-on sheets I need, but I can't decide on the gray.

I am hoping to make 100 of these in the next 5 days, we'll see what happens! But I think they will be memorable trades and quite different from everything I am seeing so far.

Quick and Easy Baby Blanket

I've never been that interested in babies. We have mostly surrounded ourselves with baby-less friends, but when that occasional friend or cousin (my cousins are serious breeders) have a baby, I want to send them a gift but I am usually flummoxed about what baby sort of thing to buy.

About 10 years ago I was having this baby gift dilemma and I think it was my sister Holly's idea to create a baby blanket out of a piece of fleece.

And it was easy but it looked sharp.

So this has been my go-to gift for babies for the past 10 years. I have made a lot of these blankets. The nice thing about them is that they can be used for many years and thrown in the washing machine. One year I made a whole bunch of them at Christmas time for a women's shelter.

Start by buying a yard of interesting fleece. Cut off a foot on the long side to make it a little more square. Or you can just keep it rectangular, but I like it to look more square. Also pick out coordinating embroidery floss. I love looking at all the colors on the floss aisle. You only need 2 per blanket. Notice that I bought 3 for each blanket and now I have left over. I do this every time for some reason.


I have a big sewing basket but I also have my cigar box that is easy to carry around the house. I bought it at a yard sale years ago and just love it.

It perfectly fits a pair of scissors, my rotary cutter, pins, embroidery floss, tape measure, and needles. I love my Sewing Susan needles.

But for this project I needed my larger embroidery needles.

Cut a couple arm's lengths of the thread you want to use and separate the floss in half so you have 2 lengths of three strands each. I'm not sure why I always divide the floss strands. I think my mom taught me to do that and it is one of those things I have been doing ever since.

I don't like to start on a corner; I start about 6-8 inches in from a corner. Decide which way you want to work. I work from left to right. Tie a knot about an inch down from the edge because you are going to roll the edge down twice.
Start by folding down the edge and then fold it again. You get a nice roll.

Then just wind the thread around the roll and come through the back and keep going.
It's pretty darn easy, sorry to insult your intelligence with explaining how to make a roll.

The corners are trickier, but just barely. I usually trim a little off the corners before rolling them so they won't be so bulky.
For some reason, these blankets make me so happy. I just love the wobbly edge and the texture of the finished edges. It can be very meditative to just sit and work on these blankets. This one took about 2 and a half hours to sew.
I know you can buy something similar at IKEA or Target for barely nothing, but usually the colors are boring and they are made in China. (Although I am sure this fleece is from China too!) But this looks so handmade and cozy.

Power Food

Quinoa is a very interesting food. The ancient Mayans ate it. It's not a grain; in fact, it is in closer relation to spinach and beets than it is to wheat! So being gluten-free is nice, but it is also high in protein and contains a complete set of amino acids, making it pretty darn amazing.

The only thing tricky about it is that if you buy it in bulk, you have to rinse it first. It has a slightly bitter coating on the outside of it called saponins that easily rinse away. If you buy it in a box, it comes pre-rinsed.

Besides being a fabulous superfood, I personally like its fluffy texture and mildly nutty taste. You can serve a stir fry over it or eat it for breakfast with maple syrup and dried fruit. I also like to make salads with it.

This is my go-to salad when the fridge needs to be cleaned out the night before our farm veggie delivery. You could easily substitute tuna for chicken or use chicken thighs instead of breasts and add all sorts of vegetables.

Yogurt Curry Quinoa Salad with Poached Chicken serves 4

2 cups quinoa, rinsed

1/4 head red cabbage, shredded and chopped
1/4 head savoy or green cabbage, shredded and chopped
1/2 red pepper, diced
1/2 red onion, diced
2-3 carrots, diced or shredded
1 zucchini, shredded on box grater
2 0r 3 green onions, minced
handful cilantro, chopped

2 chicken breasts, boneless and skinless

2 cups lowfat, plain yogurt
1 tablespoon of your favorite curry powder
squeeze of lemon
salt and pepper to taste
Combine 2 cups rinsed quinoa with 4 cups water in saucepan. Bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat to simmer and cook for 15-20 minutes or until most of the water has evaporated. Allow to cool a little.

Meanwhile, place chicken breasts in another pan, fill with water until chicken is just covered. You may use a little wine here and throw in some dried or fresh herbs if you like. I added some smashed garlic cloves and a teaspoon of zatar, a middle eastern mixture of thyme and sesame seeds. Bring to a low boil and cook until chicken is firm, 15-20 minutes. I cut into the chicken after about 15 minutes to check for doneness. Drain chicken and cut into 1/2" chunks.

Combine yogurt with curry powder, lemon juice, and salt and pepper and then combine with the chopped vegetables. Add chicken and quinoa, toss thoroughly to coat with dressing and serve!

There's a Weirdo in the Shower

If you haven't figured out by now, we are cat people. I sometimes wish we were dog people, but that will not happen until one of our three cats moves on. It's actually more like we are special needs cat people. (Meaning our cats have special needs, not us.)

We have one cat that is a runty whiner (Mr. MoneyPennny), an obese cat that is a little bit of a scaredy cat and bully at the same time (Vincent), and one that loves to get in the shower with you (Sack Cat).

I am not kidding. She also loves it when I put her in the sink and give her a wash down.

And she loves to get in between the two shower curtains when you are taking a shower and meows at you. I know, weirdo.
But she is so darn cute!

Air Drying Clay: Troubleshooting Problems

OK, I have been having a lot of fun working with air drying clay, but I have come up against a couple of problems.

First, it dries out very quickly. As there were no directions on the package, I was just winging it, and assumed it would be bad to add water to the clay, afraid I might weaken it. Several discussions and how-to's I viewed online today all suggested using water to help soften the clay, but I am still wary.

Second, as it dried, I got quite a few cracks. Not so bad on the Raven, just around his skinny legs.

Far worse, and more visible, on the Dachshund sculpture.

A few of the smaller ones I knew I could just fill with paint, but the larger ones were a little more troublesome. So, I pulled out my handy Durham's Rock Hard and filled in the gaps. If you haven't seen this stuff, it's amazing. Just add a little water and it will patch anything! You can even cast with it, but it is not so cost effective.

I think I could solve the cracking problem if the pieces dried slower, so I am going to make another one and wrap it in plastic when I am done with it and see if that helps.

Repaired and now crack-free sculptures:

I am not entirely finished with the paint jobs but I was running out of daylight and wanted to get some photos. I have to add some more detail to the Raven and then I want to put a glossy medium over both of them.

More Fun with Air Drying Clay!

Couldn't stop with just the Raven King, had to make a Dachshund wearing a Fez. I guess I like animals with things on their heads.

I am having way too much fun with this stuff!

But now I have to run and get ready because today is my husband's last day at work and his co-workers put together a little party for him. He's taking 5 weeks off before starting his next job and I am sooooo excited!

I Love to Paint

Wow, why didn't I start a large format painting sooner?

Answer: We have no walls big enough in our house to display them properly!

Answer: It is expensive to buy large canvases and all the paint needed.

Answer: Because I was afraid to start.

Coming from an art school background, especially from a school that focused a lot on "conceptual art", it is hard for me to let go sometimes and just have fun with art. When I started this painting, I was determined to "just have fun with it". Funny thing is, the more I paint, the more meaning I am starting to put into it!

Being a member of the Museum of Glass, as well as a contractor there, has put my eyeballs on the exhibits quite a bit in the past couple of months. The current Preston Singletary show, Echos, Fire, and Shadows, is really beautiful. He is a contemporary glass artist that creates modern works based on his Native American (Tlingit) heritage. One of my favorite pieces of his is based on a story about Raven Stealing the Sun.

I think about this story a lot, and about other creation stories as well. Even though I am an atheist, I understand the comfort and anxiety about wanting to know where everything comes from. So I started thinking about how Raven could steal the sun, based on different cultural beliefs and the history of astronomy. How much do we really know about the sun and what did scientists think of the sun 100, 500, 1000 years ago?

Well, that's the direction I am heading into right now, no saying what is going to happen tomorrow!

Air Drying Clay Tutorial: Raven King

I have never worked with air drying clay before (I am more of a polymer cook-it-in-the-oven fan) but when I saw the little ornaments Michelle My Belle made last year, I was inspired to try it out. ( I also bought one of hers so I could see the texture and feel how hard the clay actually was. Well, I also bought one because they were so damn cute.)

First, you need an idea, so I made a whole bunch of sketches and decided to start by making a small Raven King sculpture.

Second, you need a few basic clay carving tools, aluminum foil, wire and wire tools, and some rocks. I also had this handy little sushi serving board my friend Ann just gave me and it works great as a base!

Why on earth do you need a rock? Well, I was making a freestanding sculpture, so I wanted the base to be heavy so he wouldn't fall over. I wrapped 2 of the rocks in foil and made a basic body shape out of foil and wrapped it all in wire to hold it all together. In hind sight, I would have wrapped foil around the legs too. The more foil infrastructure you have, the less clay you have to use. This clay is pretty expensive, $10 a pack. And I used half a pack. $5 doesn't sound like much, but you can't reuse this stuff so make sure you know what you are getting into!

Once my base was done, I started adding clay. Keep the rest of your clay wrapped up because it dries out fast! Even though it takes a couple days to dry out completely, I found that after using the clay only 1 1/2 hours it was getting pretty hard to manipulate.
Sometimes I forget how much I just love to sculpt things.

The crown was a little tricky to mold since the clay was starting to get stiff. But I used a little water to help smooth it out.

It took me about 1 3/4 hours to complete him. I am pretty sure I would have finished him much sooner, but I threw The Fellowship of the Ring into the DVD player and kept getting distracted. (Yes, I know in my heart of hearts I am a geek.)

I am anxious for him to dry so I can paint him. I will show completed photos as soon as I get him done!

Is it Luck or is it Skill?

Latest sketchbook drawing. (I have been playing a lot of poker lately.)