snow, screening, small world story

SNOW Yesterday it was 65 degrees and I was barbecuing ribs on grill for dinner. Tonight, it is winter.

It's barely 1/2" of snow, but just enough to be annoying. My husband's secretary will pick him up tomorrow and I will be in all morning...at the very least. SCREENING My friend Susanna is coming over tomorrow morning for some help with the silk scarves she has dyed or painted or both; she's a printmaker and is new to surface design. On Friday she came to my studio and I showed her how to do deconstructed screen printing. I tore the finished fabric in half and we split it. Here it is on my wall at home. I had made a couple of screens with the wonderful pods that Regina Dwarkasing had so kindly sent me from the Dutch West Indies and got a lot of prints out of the screen without even using it all up. I am happy with it and there are some really terrific bits. The black on the lower left was stamped with the gizmo I used to make a different screen. Couldn't waste the black thickened dye, could I??

Here are a few of the bits. There's plenty to cut up and use in different pieces - or maybe even the same piece. We'll see. Click to see them close-up; they're more interesting that way.

SMALL WORLD STORY Houston 2005: I first met Judy Gula of Artistic Artifacts at Quilt Festival. I arrived as she was leaving the room of a friend we both (unknowingly) had in common and shared a room with, sequentially. It was a quick intro and although she was all packed, she showed me a few of the funky and amazing antique/vintage items she had sold at Quilt Market. May 2006: my mother broke her hip in West Palm Beach. I flew down to stay for a few hellish weeks and called Jane Steinberg, whom I knew from the dyers list and some other lists. Jane and her friend picked me up and we went to an art quilt exhibit at the Norton Museum and had an elegant lunch. It was the only good day I had while I was there and I was sorry I didn't have another day to spend with Jane. At the time, Jane had a great business dyeing the most gorgeous silks I had ever seen! We kept in touch. About a year ago she had to leave Fla.; she moved to MA, where her children live and she had to sell her dye equipment because she didn't have room in her new digs. She had said she wasn't going to dye any more and that she would sell off her fabrics. June 2008: I was teaching at QSDS; Judy Gula was vending. By now her business had grown to include books, paints, beads, and all kinds of unique objects and one-of-a-kind hand-dyed fabrics. I hung out in her booth at lunchtime and everybody was in there buying her beautiful things. December 2008: Small world story: I knew both of these charming, talented women but had no idea they knew each other until a few days ago, when I found out that Judy carries Jane's hand-dyed silk pieces that are perfect for collage. So today, I hot-footed it over to Judy's site and bought some of Jane's silks at: http://www.artisticartifacts.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=A&Category_Code=hdck

and http://www.artisticartifacts.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=A&Category_Code=hdtyr the Festivia.

While I was there, I saw some of the other wonderful things Judy carries - grab bags of game pieces, buttons, lace, and all kinds of supplies for the art quilter, including Stewart Gill paints. Judy's Annex in Alexandria, VA is a classroom space. Laura Cater-Woods was just there teaching -- Elizabeth Woodard's blog has great pix and commentary on the workshop. I hope to be teaching there sometime in '09. Past my bedtime. What else is new?