All in the Family

This wonderful poster for Izzy’s upcoming show just arrived in my email.  It was created by Ryan Spellman at the Athens Public Library.  If you’re in the area, stop by and see the show.  We hang it next Friday (July 30)

Take Me to the River

Last week, we actually had half a day to take a ride out to Marietta and follow the Ohio River back down into Parkersburg.  When I was a kid, we used to come down to Athens to visit my grandparents, and each trip included a ride in the country.  I didn’t get it at the time, and spent most of those rides with my nose buried in a book.  But time (and glasses!) happened, and now I love to go out and see the verdant hillsides when they are in full summer bloom.

Here’s Izzy, balancing on a piece of driftwood at the banks of the Ohio.

We took some bread for the geese.  Here they are figuring out what’s going on.

The white geese were really persistent.

Marty was watching the boats on the river.  We also saw several fish leaping out of the river.  I have never seen that before, and found it really cool.

Sometimes when we are riding out in the country, I imagine what the insides of the old farmhouses are like.  (Pilot Precise pen and Inktense pencil in Moleskine sketchbook).

And what the wildlife thinks.

And then I design pieces incorporating the colors, textures and feelings of those trips.

And finally, I go into the studio and create my own “ride in the country”:

“Safe Harbor”  15.5”  x 15.5”  Reverse applique, fusible bias tape, hand beaded, machine quilted.

“Midnight Snack”  16” x 18” (measurements approximate)  Reverse applique, machine embroidery, machine quilted, fusible bias tape, hand beading.

“Summer Joy” 20” x 16”  Reverse applique, fusible bias tape, fusing (in black circles), machine quilting, hand beading.

The progression of inspiration isn’t always this obvious to me, but each piece holds something of a place I have experienced, even if it is just a color that reminds me of the sky over Mound Road by my grandparents’ homes, or an object, such as a colander or water tower, that I remember loving since I was a small child.  It’s always a surprise to have these flashes of memory in the middle of the long production process.

What shows up in your work without you realizing it?

When Life Gives You Lemons

Make lemonade.  When Life gives you lots and lots of empty cereal boxes, and an empty house, make art:

Layer one on this one was red, then I spray painted squirrels using the leftover wood frames from the wood puzzle sculptures that Izzy received for Hannukah.  The next step was the bamboo shapes carved from Speedball Speedy Cut, octopus stencil based on my octopus bag of late last year, and finally another layer of shapes carved from Speedy Cut.

This one was simple Green Gold and Cobalt Teal, then I painted some big bubble tape with some Folk Art metallic blue and printed over that.

Deep ultramarine blue, then the octopus stencil painted with sequin waste to make the repeated small dots.  The larger dots are more bubble wrap paint transfer.

Red-orange with a layer of bamboo print.  Not sure what is going to come next, maybe Cobalt Teal somethings?

                                                                                                               Top: Cobalt Teal, followed by Titanium Buff stenciled through sequin waste, then star stencil made by repeatedly punching construction paper with a star punch.

Bottom: Green Gold mixed with yellow, then stamped with the Speedy Cut shapes.

My favorite so far, bright red stamped with teal bamboo and then stencilled with polka dot octopus. :)  Each cereal box was primed first with a layer of gesso.

Octopus stencil, cut from card stock. 

Of course I could have done all of these if people had been home yesterday, but where my youngest son and my husband were out on a day long ski trip, it was much easier to spread everything out on the living room floor and just play.  I love days like that, where my only responsibility is to myself.  They need to come around more often.

The Stern Workshop

This has been a busy week in the Stern household.

Izzy is experimenting with food coloring and various foods for his science unit (we are studying cells).

“Hey Mom, why you taking my picture?”

We also have an upcoming show at The Plains Public Library, in addition to the two shows I already have work in, so it is up to the studio we go:

Izzy at his clay station.  We spent a good half hour earlier this week cleaning up the old clay. He couldn’t be happier to have the extra room to work in.

A different angle.  You can see the many plush creatures I’ve made from my own patterns as well as a few from Ravelry and books.  My hats are off to the right, and that is a mini quilt hanging from my design wall above them.

Izzy wanted me to take a picture of him demonstrating how to make a bead.  He uses Sculpey III brand polymer clay.  I supervise the baking process.  Izzy has been sculpting for nearly 8 years now, and I am amazed at how detailed his work is becoming.

Here he is decorating an earring part with Pearl Ex powders.  I was watching him while I was seated at my sewing machine.

Not to be left out, I have been creating, too.

Yellow strips in process.  I was having a tension problem and had put this piece aside while I figured it out.  Finally I managed to dislodge the lump of lint which had made a home in my bobbin case and all was well. 

Here is a closeup of the big yellow base.  I added the ten long strips I pieced between yesterday and today.  I am very happy to have my sewing machine working again.  To the right is “Day of the Cichlids” in process and to the left are the completed White Queen and Frog Prince.

The family who creates together stays together!

Driving Lessons

Someone over at Plurk posted that it sounded like a car hit their building. Then someone else replied that at one time someone had run into their house. Which brought up a few fun memories of driving lessons I would have been happier doing without.

When I was about 12, my Grandaddy took a bunch of us over to the A&W at 15 and Mound for some ice cream. He had a little olive green Dodge Colt that we all squeezed into. For some reason, he left us parked in the lot and was standing in line when one of my crazy cousins, jumping around in eager anticipation, knocked into the stick shift and knocked the car out of gear.

The car started rolling into traffic on 15 Mile. Grandaddy was at the ordering window, clueless.

Me, being the big brain trust I was (hey I grew up in Detroit, I should have known cars!) jumped out of my door and grabbed on for dear life, trying to keep the little Colt from rolling into traffic and (dum dum dum) certain doom. Screaming the whole time for Grandaddy to come help.

Everyone else noticed me. Eventually he did too. And after he ran over to the car and pulled the emergency brake, he said "Why were you yelling for me? All you had to do was pull the emergency brake!" (Emergency brakes play a part in my future driving lessons too, now that I think about it, but first....)

My second memorable driving lesson came when my aunt was parked in our driveway. She left, yes, another of my crazy cousins, alone in the car while she said goodbye to me and my mom. My cousin climbed into the front seat, put the car in drive (this time it was an automatic) and plowed into the fence right next to our cranky neighbor's house. I guess it's a good thing he was too little to reach the pedals. (And yes, he is the little brother to the cousin who almost rolled us into rush hour traffic).

And finally, my bestest memory of all. I was heading out from Wendy's on Texas Avenue in Bryan, Texas, to go take my SAT. As I pulled out into traffic, I heard a pop, and suddenly I was left with no working clutch cable. I rolled into traffic because I had no choice, stopped the car (did not turn it off, this is important in a minute here), put on the blinkers and got out to go back into work and call my dad to come get me.

As I'm on the phone, I hear one of my co-workers shout "Hey Andrea, your car is driving down Texas Avenue!"

Sure enough, I had not put on the parking brake.

Fortunately my co-workers ran out and helped me retrieve the car without anyone getting hurt. And I made it to the SAT on time. But yeah.

That parking brake? There for a reason!

Every Bunny Loves Somebunny Sometime

Rabbits have been an influence for quite some time. When I was a child, my mother painstakingly embroidered this lovely growth chart for me, using a stamped kit from Lee Wards.

(Evil Bunny, detail)

While I admired the work and the colors and that it had my very own name on it, the eyes on this rabbit always gave me the heeby jeebies. They just seemed wrong to me and I was very happy when I finally outgrew the growth chart and it went into my mom's drawer of memories.

I forgot about it for a long time, and then late last year I began doing some sketches with a Bic pen in a Canson sketchbook:

Carnival bunny with cathedral window headdress.

Always being a fan of picture in picture stuff, I gave the rabbit a "rabbit on rabbit " look.

The next piece in the progression, a jester stick design.

And combining a rabbit and a bat in a pastoral setting ( I always loved the illuminated manuscripts' images I'd find in our Time-Life collection of history) with a bit more whimsy.

Detail of the memento mori collar and the crown, this rabbit has a secret.

And finally back to fabric, where I drew the rabbit onto a piece of canvas, painted it with Setacolour paints, and then embellished with machine embroidery, beads and sequins. Still in process.

Closeup, Evil Rabbit grows up.

It's funny how I forget about that rabbit wallhanging until I am cleaning in the studio and come across it, but obviously it has never been too far from my thoughts.

Tyger Tyger

While working between larger more serious works, and while avoiding the larger work from anxiety, fear of not getting it right, etc, I sometimes manage to make something else. This piece is based on a tiger face I designed intending to create a handbag, but which morphed into a quilt square instead. The background is pieced of the various batiks I had sitting in the stash, while each tiger face takes advantage of the lovely array of Dutch wax batiks I have collected over the years from Becky at St Theresa's Textile Trove

On the back, which I have no photo of, I used some yardage of Detroit Tiger licensed fabric that I had bought at WalMart. I remember going to see the Tigers play once with my mom, Grandaddy and Uncle Sam. I don't remember if they won, but I do remember the ice cream I was able to get (we were constantly on diets when I was little). I'm sure the nearsighted thing also played into the not remembering the game. I do remember the game I went to in 1984 with my friends Beth and Wes, the crowds chanting "Louuuuuuuu" which sounded so much like "boooo". That year was great, though I made a faux pas when talking to Marty one day, not realizing that the Tigers and Orioles were battling it out that year "How about them Tigers"? Fortunately despite that and the fact that I woke him one morning with lovingly prepared peanut butter cookies, he still stuck around and we are together to this day.

Well, I digress. The stripes that divide the rows of tigers reminds me of the stitching on a baseball, and they were inspired by a stripe along the selvedge of one of the batiks (I also need to add that at the south side of Detroit off of I-75, there used to be a oil tank that was round and had the Tigers logo painted on it, for some reason I also thought of that while working on this piece). I quilted the piece with blazing neon orange Madeira thread, adding even more fun to it. It may not be a "serious" piece, but I sure had fun and it makes me smile when I look at it.
I think we all need something like that in our lives, something that is just for us. What do you have in your life that you do "just for you"?

An Introduction and About the Inner Farmgirl

This is by way of saying howdy-do to everyone on the Plurkette Hencircle . I was born in Detroit proper, and lived in the suburbs until I was 14. But my grandpa always had a garden, a huge garden, and some of my first memories are sitting on an adirondack chair under their willow tree shucking corn with my Mom-Mom, going out to u-picks and helping pick green beans to can, and driving out to the farm near Pontiac for fresh from the cow milk to bring home (my parents were the hippiest non hippies I think I've ever known).

Then when I was 14 we moved "out to the country" a little house nestled near the village of Holly, with enough land to have a 100' x 100' garden out back. And chickens. And turkeys. Oh, I loved my chickens and turkeys, would talk to them every day. Sometimes out my mom and dad's bedroom window. ("Those guys are really smart. How did they figure out we were in this room?" Unfortunately I never got that younger sibling to blame things on.....) Weeding the garden and helping to can, not so much, but the products were o so good.

The one thing I excelled at was baking and cooking. Give me a recipe and I could make it (still can, and now I don't always need a recipe even). So that is what I contributed to our little family.

Many years and several moves later, I am deep in the southeast corner of Ohio, near the home of Ohio University. Lots of hippies, a really cool farmer's market, and many opportunities to re-envision that lifestyle. I contribute to the family income by baking for a local coffee shop (Donkey Coffee and Espresso) , designing projects for Lark Books (my latest for "The Artful Storybook" should be hitting shelves soon, I received my contributor's copy), writing the occasional article, and of course selling my art quilts, beadwork and knitwear. And I am very excited for the opportunity to expand my community through the Hencircle.

Busy Beadwork

I finally got around to making some necklaces with a few beads that have been around a bit. The fisherman buddha was a gem show purchase of way back, while the rainbow Guatemalan glass bead is a bit newer. Aisha models my pencil earrings.


Detail of Guatemalan glass bead. Chinese foil lampwork stars, Czech glass in an unusual pale blue, and swarovski crystal complete the look.

Fuller view of necklace. I did the last 4-5" in a Japanese triangle bead in copper lined aqua.

Detail of the Buddha bead, see his fish?

Fuller view of the necklace. Again with the Chinese lampwork. I just won't eat them. :) The spirals are regionally made ceramic beads I received for my birthday. More of the light blue Czech beads and Japanese triangles finish this piece.

A very happy Aisha wearing a pair of pencil earrings I made. More pencils are in process. I will announce when I post them on my Etsy

Free Comic Book Day

Because we were uptown to vend yesterday, I was able to get a copy of this at the Free Comic Book Day event at Universe of Superheroes. I just grabbed it for the cover, not realizing it would be so cool inside as well. It's an excerpt from Lynda Barry's upcoming book "What It Is" and has tons of exercises and cool drawings and collagey words in it. I am just very very grateful I was there in time to get a copy, as they were all gone about an hour later when I went by with Aisha (she got Gumby and I was picking up Spiderman and Mickey Mouse for Ben).

The best part of vending was when Izzy had his first sale at around 2:30. He had worked so hard making stuff and pricing it and had plans for the money he'd get when the items sold. He was getting so discouraged because we were in an odd part of town (there are two streets that sort of converge with a pie-shaped piece of land in the center where Domino's and a law office live; it is the next to last cross street off Court and everyone was just walking past without even looking down our block) and had worked so hard. But he ended up selling 3 pieces by the time the show was over at 4pm. One more than me!

Sunday Morning Rewind

Sunday mornings back in the day (aka when Marty had a day job outside the home), Aisha and I would go to Donkey to review our week, prepare for the week ahead, plan and just get outta the house. We haven't been able to do that as much (mainly from enjoying sleeping in, but I digress) but yesterday we were both up and it was a perfect day for the new upstairs.

Here she is, looking thrilled to be photographed. I was sitting in the maroon chair.

Here's the view from the chairs in one direction. I didn't think to take a photo of the windows. It was balmy enough that they were open and the air smelled good (no smokers outside at the tables) and it was relatively quiet (college town on Sunday morning, do the math :) and it was sunny. The ambience was a lot like my studio when it is clean and sunny (it has been clean more than dirty lately because of the major reorganization and purge, sunny started being more regular as of last week). It's good to be home :)

The Embellished Cookie

Today is Donkey's great grand opening and gifting for their new upstairs and their 5th anniversary. I made smaller lemon cutouts than usual, but Izzy still decorated with his same panache.

Izzy and his work in process.

A closeup of the cookies in process. See how exuberant he is with the colored sugar sprinkles!

The rest of the pictures are at my flickr, including a great one of the afterimage left by the baked on sugar sprinkles :)

The Rewards of Driving

We went to Columbus today, in search of yarn for a baby project, and organic vanilla, unsalted butter and cocoa powder for our new baked goods. Aisha drove til we got to 70, and then drove from south of Lancaster home, even getting in some night driving!

Here she is, going the speed limit (entering the two lane just north of Nelsonville)

And this is what was waiting for her at home (sour cream cutout cookie with vegan frosting).

Oh, and it was a quasi-successful hunt, with baby project yarn purchased, but Whole Foods didn't have the Green & Black's cocoa powder. I did get the vanilla, butter and a bottle of rosewater to make rose cupcakes.