This and that

My studio keeps calling and I seem to be able to be there most days. The two tea cozies are finished and they are quite different from one another, but both required quite a bit of engineering in the creation.




I've also been working on a new book, this time using full tea bags for the cover and the full size opened tea bags for the pages. I need to figure out a good way to bind it all together, which is a little tricky with the full bag cover.


I've also gone back to working on the canvas tryptic. Two panels are now complete and I have begun the third. I'm not sure if they will hang next to one another (which would be a piece 12 feet long) or over one another with some space between the canvases. Certainly the latter is more practical, but it really depends upon how it all looks and the space available for hanging.

Stargazer Lily and Morning Glory

It's been a busy and stressful several weeks looking for and finding our new house-to-be!  We are excited to be moving in January to Woodstock where we will be close to friends and stores and I will be able to move my studio to our house.   It has been hard to carve out time to make art and it will be very welcome to be settled in our new place in a couple of months....
Today is a wet, cold, gray November morning and so it is somehow even more pleasant than usual to work on floral prints.   They bring back memories of summer and warmth and color.
This first print is black and white....

"Stargazer Lily and Morning Glory"

9"x12" - linoleum print

The hand colored print is finished as well....

"Stargazer Lily and Morning Glory"

9"x12" - hand colored linoleum print

I now have four completed prints for the calendar I would like to publish next year.   Each one attaches to a month--and lily and morning glory are definitely some time in the summer!

Building Hat & Coat Ornaments on Cold Nights

My hat & coat ornaments have proven to be a big success on the holiday market so on these cold cold evenings I've been lounging in my Night Studio, bundled into my soft blankie, sewing ribbon into beautiful ornaments while hatching plans for new illustration projects. Here are the ones I've created in the past few evenings. (The dark one must be the one I made while watching the very dark "Book of Eli" with Denzel Washington. I changed to "Narnia" after that.)

By the way, You can find my ornaments at Something Old Something New consignment shop on Route 4 West in Woodstock, at the Holiday Bazaar at the Chandler Gallery in Randolph, and also online at my Etsy shop: www.EmerlyeArts.Etsy.com

Cozy in Vermont

The tank swim suit was easy to finish. I haven't figured out yet how to display it.....somehow it doesn't seem right to put a swimsuit on a hanger. Maybe a clothes line would be better.......


I'm having fun creating tea cozies at the moment. The tea tag one is just about finished. In this photo the top handle hasn't been attached, but I'm thinking of using a stack of round tea bags for this purpose.


The piece I'm working on now is made from full tea bags attached to a canvas backing. It may take a few attempts to get this one down, but it's an interesting experiment. My tea bag suppliers keep supplying and the ideas keep flowing!

Tank Chic

During the past week I've been working on a tank swim suit. I sewed long lines of unopened but emptied tea bags together to form stripes, then ironed the stripes on to fusible fabric, normally used to created interfacings. I found the piece to be much more fragile that I thought it would be, but with a lot of care managed to get it together. I needed to sew tea bag trim around all the edges, giving it a lot more stability. (I've had to do this with a number of pieces and I hope that they will hold up well with this edging). Here's a photo taken before all the edging work was completed:



Carol has given me an idea for what may be the next piece. She suggested a tea cozy and right away I had a vision of what it might look like. How great to get so much support from friends and family for my work!

Fringe

I'm back from a wonderful trip to California and Chicago, just in time for some really cold weather. It was good to have the scarf pieces with me, as I had a lot of travel time in which to sew and knot the fringe on to the ends. It took close to ten hours to do it, on the plane and bus, in the airport, and relaxing overlooking the Pacific. So the scarf is finished, tea bag string fringe and all!


This week I have begun to make a tea bag swimsuit, maybe to celebrate the coming of winter. I'm playing with an entirely new technique, adhering the bags to fusible material with an iron (suggested at an Art-wise Women's group, my ever helpful friends!). It's a bit tedious, but seems to be working, so I'm hoping....