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 View from the Roof of S Type Creative Studio My friend/investor/landlord, one could even say creative enabler, signed the papers last Saturday on 302 Clinton Street in Defiance Ohio. The new home of S Type Creative Studio. This week Joel and I started cleaning out the retail space and prepping the office space for paint. If all goes well, by the end of the weekend, the store and office will be painted and ready for new flooring. For longer than I can remember, it has been my goal to have an integrated art studio and retail space. A boutique-style shop that is a hybridization of all the things I love: Home Decor, Fine Art, Photography, Cool Art Gifts, Jewelry, and if all goes well Cigars. The building is rough but has the best “bones”. The retail space just needs to be “rebecca-fied” as several friends have said. The second floor hasn’t been inhabited for decades but will soon become working studios for my self and several other area artists. The third floor, eventually, will become our home. By the end of this August, S Type Creative will have both Office/Design space, Retail space, and studio all under one roof. If you’re in Defiance, swing by and peek at the progress through the windows. Otherwise, I’ll continue uploading a glimpse into the project here. Use Art Every Day!
 The building in it's current state.
So many thanks to my friend Bob who has spent uncountable (well, he can probably count every one of them) hours in my studio with his camera photographing products for the launch of my new product lines. Tonight for seven hours, he sliced and diced fruit to take lifestyle pictures of candles and soaps after hours of photographing my new porcelain buttons and jewelry. Here are a few previews…
To view Bob’s fine art photography visit his website. Soon, his work will also be available for sale here!!!
The tactile elements of ceramics have always intrigued me. It’s a medium I’ve had a desire to explore for decades, yet somehow, never managed to do. Until now.
………………………………………………………………………….. After decades of dreaming, it’s becoming a reality. This August, I will be launching a new studio/gallery here in my hometown of Defiance Ohio called S Type Creative STUDIO at 302 Clinton Street. The shop will feature my own work along with the work of several other talented artists, unique gift items, and a few tasty treats.
In update to my last post, I finished the sweater. This was my first attempt at dying and spinning enough wool to actually “make something”. As it turns out, spinning enough yarn for a full sweater isn’t nearly as daunting a task as I thought it would be.
For all the time I’ve been knitting and designing, I’ve been intrigued by the sheep to garment process. I’m not quite at the point of raising sheep in our turn of the century church-home (though I have asked for llama and been rebuked), but I have been venturing into the world of spinning. To be able to handle the raw fibre, dye it to any color I want, spin it into any texture I’d like (or honestly, am able to manage at this point), then knit it into any garment I decide…well…it’s the ultimate process for me. I now have a deeper understanding of how the dyes work similarly to watercolor but completely dependent on the fibre and the process. Spinning each ply and controlling the length of each color run or simply blindly grabbing the next nest of fleece from the basket and flying blind is indescribable. Choosing two different plies and spinning them together into a single strand, watching in wonder as they nestle around each other in ways I could have never guessed. It’s an art, a craft, and a touch of magic all wrapped up in one. I’m still on borrowed time with Lorie’s spinning wheel – the Ashford Joy. And it is a joy. Unfortunately, I’m also almost out of fleece. A few weeks ago at the Black Swamp Fibre Festival I purchased a pound of BFL (Blue Faced Leicester), 3 shades of Acid Dye, and went home with the determination to make something. I dug out the pound of Mohair I had purchased last fall (not knowing what I was going to do with it at the time) and had a 6 hour dye fest. This weekend I spun. I used the techniques learned at the Fifth Stitch Retreat (thank you again Arlene) to pre-draft my fibre and started spinning my heart out. The pile of nested pre-drafted fibres on the coffee table (and all around me) inspired me to paint. I’ll be working on a new painting showing the beautiful progression of colors in the next week or so. For me, one craft always inspires another until a downhill avalanche begins. I’ve now started knitting. As I get through the knitting process, I’ll keep you updated. Hopefully, the knitting will be finished tonight as the yarn is chunky, the needles are big and I’m all jazzed up about the dress I want to make to go with it.
Entrelac knitting looks like a woven fabric when it’s worked. When it’s felted, though, it looks like diamonds – similar to argyle without the extra stitches. Entrelac is a technique that can produce either the most stunning effects, or make me woozy with the vomitous color combinations chosen. There is no in between for me. Occasionally I wonder, was the knitter blind to have chosen that combination? On the other hand, I more frequently wonder, how the knitter had the amazing patience to complete such an intricate project. A few years ago I did a sweater this way. Ambitious, I know. That was my first entrelac project. If I ever find the photos, I’ll post them. During the process, I realized that intricate is a bit of an overstatement. Really, the question should be, how is it possible that the knitter remained uninterrupted long enough to finish each row. It requires nothing more than basic knitting skills, patience, and the abilities to both read and count. A lot. I know. Some days, nearly insurmountable obstacles for my attention span, but I finished and am now enjoying. Recently the need for a cool tote bag and a desire to work a more challenging pattern led me back to entrelac and a classic colorway. Rather than knit the bag back and forth, then seam it together, it is knit entirely in one piece from the bottom up with three skeins of Universal’s Deluxe Worsted Wool.
Want to knit one yourself?
PDF Pattern ::: $5.50
It was a long day. A good day, but a long day. Productivity was high today and as such, when 7pm rolled around, I was downright sleepy. If you know me, you realize how bizarre that statement is since I’m a bonafide night owl. It’s Thursday. Thursday is when the Defiance Society of Artists meets to paint and kabitz. It’s always a pure pleasure. I make it as often as possible. So at 8, I drug my butt off my chair at the desk, threw my paints and a few painting blanks into a big totebag (actually, Joel did that part for my pathetic self), and zipped across town for the art gathering. My expectations of my artistic contributions were low. I was surprised by myself and everyone else. It seemed to be a night that everything was aligned JUST RIGHT for creativity. Rosie had several massive painting break throughs, and kept exclaiming “I really learned a lot tonight”. Her paintings are turning out to be stunning and she’s a newbie, having painted for only a year. Rich earth tones and odd greens were the flavor of the night for me. Elaine offered me some purple paint. I never use purple. I mix purple, but I don’t use purple out of the tube. I, however, had not grabbed the proper ingredients for purple in my mad dash. Tonight, a new color palette emerged for me. Cool greens, hot yellows, deep purples, vibrant ultramarine blue. I painted a series of tea lite candle holders and 3 abstracts on reclaimed lumber, my new favorite surface. Conversation was good, sassy, and occasionally…well…very entertaining. I returned to the studio at midnight re-energized and ready to work. Here are the fruits of my labors. I’m very pleased I didn’t succumb to the soft pile of down comforters and pillows that were singing their siren’s song to me at 7pm. Music in the studio tonight…Morphine
First off, let me say, LOVE LOVE LOVE Diabolical Streak (the album) by Jill Tracy. (Listen here) While listening, and pondering the flotsam & jetsam that continually seems to find it’s way into my lip balm, I decided, regardless how neurotic, to knit cozies for my lip balm. In the true fashion of you’ve got your peanut butter in my chocolate (or was it the other way around?) I combined my love of leftover yarn with my hatred for gritty lip balm. Make one and you’ll see the madness of my ways.
Want to make one yourself? Feel like joining club neuroses of the clean lip balm? Find the free pattern download HERE.
Find other snazzy free stuff HERE. My friend Mark has introduced me to the fun of StumbleUpon.
And now, I have succumbed. Oh sure, I knew what it was before now. I’ve used it randomly when looking for something to occupy my mind when I needed a break and a little artistic inspiration. But now, Oh, dear, I have actually installed the settings. I installed the shortcut tool bar. I’m hooked. This was my fun this early early morning… playing with The Scribbler. |
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I don’t really think there’s anything else that can be said about that, but yes, I’m seeking treatment for the lip balm issues.