Perception

I doodled this idea 10 years ago and let it sit until it was no longer deeply personal but something that I was experiencing on a regular basis. Perceptions spin out of control. I was spiraling, and still can. We all can. Spiraling emotion and experiences are chaotic and fragile for me. The weaving alone was too clean, so I eventually decided to add sequins. I found these helped visualize what I was feeling, and were both chaotic and fragile to work with. This piece reminds me of where I was, but also that things get better with time and when I gently move through the chaos instead of sidestep or avoid it.  

I took this piece off of my loom last spring and it took me bout a year to decide and finish because:

1) what else needed to be done with it (adding sequins)
2) what sequins to order, it took me a while to narrow it down to not spending $300 on sequins, this has 5 different style.
3) should I or shouldn't I wash the weaving first?
4) How to sew the dang sequins on and in what way.
5) Finish/hanging work

I have to thank my friend Abigail for asking me if I could create hair pins for her wedding a few years ago. They were to match the beading on her dress which was very dimensional. I had never worked with sequins before or considered that they could do much more than lay flat. I had a lot of fun with that project and it added a new technique to my toolbox. Check out those hair pins here. When I wanted my weaving to feel messier, I eventually realized that sequins were the way to go. 

I did wash this piece. The black portion is woven in twill and the colored is woven in plain weave. Washing helped the twill weave fill in a bit for sewing the sequins on. We won't talk about the amount of width I lost when I washed this though. 

Sewing the dang sequins on. I thought I'd sprinkle the sequins and stitch them on in little sections as I sprinkled. Sequins don't "sprinkle." They are staticky and stick to everything but where you want them to be. Mostly your fingers. This was a process, I kind of shoved them together in sections trying to vary the different sizes, finishes and shapes. I really love how the sequins turned out, but this was not as fun as beading is for me. 

The finish work. I give a seminar talk on thinking ahead of time about how you'll hang/present your work and I did none of that prep work for myself on this piece! I was kicking myself when I got to this part and hadn't looked at the header or bottom in almost a year. What was I thinking? I was so focused on having clean selvages for this weaving that I got caught up in that instead. I was going to add a hanging mechanism for the top and bottom but decided it was fine if there's only one way to hang this. I just like to have options. I'm happy that Perception turned out about like what I had in my head. I'm also glad it's done and I can move on to finishing some smaller projects before getting back to my next weaving. 

Fall Leaf Jewelry Set

 

The above set all began with a collection of beads to make a pin. The pin request was for "fall" colors. I created it as a thank you to the artist who handed much of her deceased sister's bead stash down to me. I made sure to use beads from her sister's collection for this pin. 

I liked the pin colors so much that I kept making leaves and created a set with a necklace, earrings and leaf bracelet. These will be available this coming Thursday, December 4th at I'll be at the Loewen Gallery in Williamston for Ladies Night Out from 4pm-9pm. 

I'm not sure what else to say other than I've been working on a lot of other things that aren't jewelry lately. So this set was a bit of a surprise when it happened. I'm starting to figure out how sequins should be sewn on to the weaving that came off of my loom in the spring. The house and property is buttoned up for the winter, many improvements were made along with our repairs with homeowners insurance. Artwork has been getting a bit too "worky" so I decided to be a beginner at something and have started learning elecric bass guitar. We're hitting a lot of punk, metal, hardcore concerts this month (3 in one week, lol) and I come back inspired, tired and at the same time refreshed from shows. Last night Andrew, the lead singer of Johnny Booth said to the crowd "Take yourself back to your first concert, the first time you felt like you belonged somewhere" and man, that is such a great summary of how I still feel going to shows, especially the smaller ones. Life is really good. 

Checker Circlet Earrings and Bangle Inspired by Ally's Hair

I've been escaping into color lately, anything that draws me in and sticks with me. Ally's mohawk is half bright dark pink and half bright orange right now and whenever I see her selfie posts I can't stop thinking about the color combo and how much joy it gives me. So I decided to mix it in with checkers since I know her from the Michigan Ska Scene, and well, checkers are part of that. 

Shop these earrings HERE

I got to see Ally yesterday at the Splish Splash Bash and her hair was still these colors, it was nice to see her and her hair in person. Despite the heat it was a really fun show with lots of awesome bands, some we know and have seen before, some totally new to us. 

While I recuperate from yesterday's long day outside I'm actually getting everything properly photographed and posted. You can shop the bangle on my website HERE and the earrings on my website HERE. 

Shop for this bangle HERE

For those of you who follow along on my personal social media...Bryan's car became no longer repairable and, somehow, his dream car was within our price range in AWD. It's a 2023 Dodge Challenger in a custom pearlescent blue. We're both very color oriented and didn't think the blue was great until we saw it in person. So now whenever we peruse online shopping we compare it to see if it matches the car. I've missed having a fun car to drive, but I personally need something I can fit doors and looms in, so I'm glad we have a fun one now too! I suspect my next color influence will be towards this blue: 

(And yes, he was pulled over less than 24 hours after we purchased it for no real reason)

Checker Huggie Earrings, Definitely Ska

While I was on on roll making huggie earrings, I went with a bunch of checker options. Checker is basically a baseline in my own wardrobe so it's nice to have the go-to black and white ones along with some colors depending on what I'm feeling like that day. The original black and white ones I was wear sold over the holidays so I had to start with a new pair of those.

Black and White Checker Huggie Earrings

My obsession with checker melds somewhere within my love of ska or "two-tone" music and love of nice even numbers, particularly multiples of 4. You may notice these are all 8 beads wide, the checkers in 4s. It's just very satisfying for me to work this way. 

Black and Blue Checker Huggie Earrings

I'm getting into whatever colors inspire me. Orange has been on the forefront for the last year: 

Black and Orange Checker Huggie Earrings

Purple is a staple in my life along with checkers: 

Black and Faceted Purple Huggie Earrings

I also made a pair of lime green and black ones, but Bruce has been playing on my table in the studio and I think he must have hid them somewhere on me. I have been digging around for them hoping to get them posted (or make a new pair) but alas, I'll just have to wait for them to turn up in a studio cleaning session. I am on to beading other things to send to the Crooked Tree Arts Center Shop in Traverse City.

Weaving Update: Perception

My larger weavings take some time so it's time to celebrate that I'm past the half way point on my current word-based double weave. I have a lot of additional ideas for this one. It doesn't seem...chaotic enough. So I'm thinking about adding bead embroidery and sequins for additional texture on this piece. I haven't done true bead embroidery on my weavings so I'll have to weave a sample piece I can play with. This fabric is a little loose and airy and beads can get heavy quickly. It's just a thought right now.

The middle of this weaving is all orange and black.  It fades out into other colors on either end, but the orange is the central glow. I'm laughing at my younger self because orange wasn't really a color on my creative radar and I kind of hated that my high school colors were orange and black. Here I am staring at orange and black while I weave and it takes on a new brilliance for me. I'm surrounded by orange on a daily basis due to my day job and it's definitely ended up taking the front seat as a color I like to work with in my fiber art in this moment. 

This piece is "Perception" and it calls back to a time in my life where everything felt like it was spinning out of control and what someone else viewed was completely skewed from what was actually happening. I knew what the lies were but the gas-lighting and drinking had gone on for so long I had lost all trust in myself. I have my confidence back...along with some extra that I had never had before in my life. 10 years makes a big difference when you start going in the right direction. I used to joke that it takes me 10 years to get over something, but now I really think it's true. The dramas of my past and the artwork ideas sketched during that time have started to come into physical existence. The first being "Playing with Fire" last spring. Once these ideas become a finished piece of artwork I seem to just...let it go. 

Bruce "helping"

Perception feels timely for this year too. I'm delving into my artwork in the safety of home and friends because I feel on-guard out in the world. Some days I still expect to open my back door to go outside and see the world on fire. I'm working on accepting and moving on, or moving...got my passport updated and have found myself looking into how to immigrate to Canada or what it would cost to move a house of furniture to Europe (mainly for my looms)....I think between myself and my husband we finally have our studio/offices set how we want them and have our equipment upgraded to what we've been dreaming of (my looms, his gaming and music) so I'm not desperate enough to move. I love our house, property, Lansing and our cozy little kitty-filled home.

Gratitude is celebrated regularly here in our home, there was a brilliant full moon this month and I love how quiet and haunting the snow-covered night and shadows feel in our back yard. This giant tree casts the best shadows. 

Jesse Maed's Outline Tank in Orange & Long Fringe Earrings

Art Installation on our walk to the Madness show!

We went to a metal concert on Valentine's Day at St. Andrew's Hall in Detroit and there was a woman there wearing a long skirt with large checkers. I had to compliment and inquire where she got it. Shein of all places, which is known for inexpensive (like really really cheap) fast-fashion clothing. She actually had me feel the fabric to confirm it was nicer than one would expect, I agreed and, of course, I ordered it. I recall a long period of time where it was hard to find checker-anything and it's practically a staple "color" for me so I don't usually hesitate to grab something checker right now while it's back in style. 

I love the skirt (yes, it will probably pill, it's already fuzzing weird after one wear, fast fashion and all) I decided I want to wear it for the Madness concert we went to this month in Seattle. I needed to pick a top to go with it and nothing that I had or was shopping for was inspiring me. I had purchased 2 patterns from Jessie Maed Designs in February so I decided it was time to knit one of those tops. The Outline Tank called to me and I went on the hunt for a really bright saturated color yarn. Of course there was nothing in my stash that fit the bill so I went over to Woven Art to hunt something down. 

I wanted a cotton/linen blend but everything was in neutral or pastels, in the sale area there was a lovely orange Manos Del Uruguay Alegria, a merino superwash and polyamide blend which I was worried would be too heavy for a drapey tank top, but I knit up a sample swatch, washed it and really liked how it turned out. (I also bought and knit up a sample of the Mojave cotton blend but what I thought was maybe a grapefruit color was much more pink when it knitted up than I liked). 

I had a month to knit this top. So I got started, it only took me 2 weeks, including a few tear-outs. I can thank our day at Pinball at the Zoo' for helping move this knitting along. Bryan drove (knitting time) and I was on the easy part of stockinette stitch so I got about 2.5 inches done between the drive and knitting while waiting for my turn on the machines. I also ended up hand-winding the second skein of this yarn on the drive there since it kept getting tangled on my swift. Thank you to Gotham Knits on Instagram for normalizing hand-winding a yarn ball for me! I really love the soft light weight of this top and yarn. The only issue is that the "outline" detailing isn't showing much in the straps and neck. The yarn is a little too squishy, next time I knit this I'll use a more structured yarn.

I was going to do a separate post for the earrings that I made, but they belong with this top. Even without the skirt finishing off the look....

I don't usually like to bead fringe. I pull too tight and it gets all kinked up, then when I loosen it, it seems to gap and have thread showing at the top between the bottom of the stitched base and the top of where the fringe starts, gravity taking its toll on the spacing. This is why I prefer to stitch beads into each other one and a time, tight and controlled. Not OCD at all....

(lighting is weird in this photo)

These actually turned out. 30 years of beading made me think through what would work best for my particular beading issues. A thinner thread makes me bead looser (it snaps when I pull too tight), I don't back through the fringe, I thread the fringe gently. I'm really proud of myself at how well these turned out, I kinda expected the same too-tight fringe disappointment but here we are with a successful pair. For a moment I thought, maybe I should start making fringe-earrings. They're really fun. Then I remembered how much I hate bead-stringing and I only do it when necessary. I'm not interested in getting into the habit of making these to sell, so fringe will come when it's needed for another outfit. 

I've gotten a lot of complements wearing the earrings and top together and separate. The Madness concert was awesome and I was glad to have a bright ska-outfit for it :)

Playing with Fire (Small Weaving)

I doodled these matches back in 2015. I had gotten divorced, I was out a lot and "playing with fire" was feeling like the best description for me and my life at the time. I was either lighting a fire or burning everything to the ground. I liked the look of this small sketch that I had drawn one night and set it aside. I didn't forget about it like I usually do when I doodle, it resonated with me.

Fast forward to now, my life is rather calm and I no longer have to manage drama and chaos. No more "playing with fire" in the figurative sense, it's a reminder of what that part of my life was like. 

So here we are now, I started sampling for a new commission and it seemed to be the perfect warp setup for this image that's been hanging around in the back of my mind and in my computer files for 9 years. I blew it up and started weaving. I don't feel like I have had a ton of success with my hand drawn designs but this is making me think that maybe I'd been trying too hard. Maybe I simply need to doodle and then blow up the design.

Black side detail

I'm referring to the side with more color as the "front" and the black based side as the "back" on this work. I'm quite taken with both sides. Just when I think I like the black based side better, the stark "sketchy" black lines of the colored side rope me back in. 

Colored side detail

This is woven from rayon that I dyed myself, the colored warp is plain weave and the black is a 2-2 twill. The finished piece measures 8.75 in x 16 in.  
 

Huggie Loop Stripe Earrings

I still bead at night, but it's a bit of a struggle to be inspired to make jewelry anymore since I'm no longer working in clothing retail. When I was in that job, patterns and color changes were abundant and what I wore to work mattered. Now what matters is my measuring, math and product knowledge, which, turns out, is a lot more fun for me. So, my jewelry-making struggles unless I have an event I'm planning an outfit for, such as Abigail's Wedding this past spring (which I created her hair pieces and new jewelry for myself).

In July I ended up planning an outfit to wear to the Sad Summer Festival. It was going to be hot and Jen got pit tickets. So, I had an outfit planned with my black Vans shortalls, closed-toed Chucks, and a loose tee. I had a color theme because I love my yellow 70's-look stripe platform chucks and I have a new yellow 15/0 seed bead I've been dying to use. 

I kept in mind being in the pit while panning these earrings and I didn't want them to dangle much, if at all. The pit usually involves lots of pushing and managing crowd surfers so dangly things can easily get caught and ripped off. I decided to make closed loops integrating the post and earnut as part of the design. The first pair I made I just focused on the colors in the shoes. They weren't quite what I had in mind, so I made a shorter "huggie" style pair with a black base and the yellow that I wanted to use so badly.

I finished and tried on both pairs while I was getting ready to go and really perferred the second pair, both in the short length and color. They worked really well for the outfit, and the pit (although we ended up on the side that didn't have the circle pit or crowd surfers).

I made a third pair while I was playing with some neon green beads I had gotten in Minneapolis last year which have a fun 80's vibe. I like that this style is simple and understated but has the pops up color and allws me to still play with color, plus they're easy to wear to work. These are headed to the Lansing Art Gallery for their Michigan Made Holiday show (Opening Reception is November 9th, 2023)

Fall/Winter Jewelry at Lansing Art Gallery

 

A few weeks ago, I dropped a fresh color pallet of jewelry off to the Lansing Art Gallery for their Michigan Made Holiday Show. I've been working on pieces for our wedding so much that I didn't realize how badly I needed a color change. As much as I will always default back to purple and green, I was really excited to pack up a whole bunch of new bead colors. I gathered and had to thin down beads for the train ride to Chicago for our honeymoon. I didn't get as much beading done in those 6 days that I thought I would. Which is good, because it means I was not stressed about producing and I was enjoying our honeymoon moments. 

I started with this wide St. Petersburg Chain bracelet, just to get my colors lined up and see how I liked them together. It has some fall colors but still includes plenty of pops of brights that I've been enjoying working with.

Leaf Clasp Bracelet

5-Leaf Daphne Necklace Variation

This necklace can be worn off-center or with the leaves in the middle.

Tiny pod earrings

Hints of muted turquoise are running rampant through my beading right now. I'm sure I'll get tired of it soon. The weather has started to change and I'm feeling like crawling into yarns with my weaving and knitting. If you'd like to shop this collection, they will be at the Opening Reception for the 2022 Michigan Made Holiday Art Market; Thursday November 10, 5-8pm.  I'll be by that night too!