Category Archives: Make

Squam Art ::  The magic of Nicola Taylor

Posted in Creative Practice, Make, Make Stuff, Photography, Soul Work, Writing by

I really can’t tell you when I first learned of Nicola’s ethereal images, but they captured my imagination from the first time I saw them.  I had decided to go to the fall Squam Art Workshop partly for scheduling and partly because the workshop offerings were not really fiber-based (the June Squam offerings skew much more toward the fiber arts in general) but collage, and mixed media and jewelry making and photography.  Things that were not in my comfort zone.  At.  All.  Time to experience something new.

I was soooo excited to see that she was coming all the way over from North Yorkshire in  England to teach at Squam and I was fortunate enough to take a workshop with her.  “Finding your Inner Muse”.  Que the hand clapping and jumping up and down.  If that wasn’t enough, there were two of us in the Thursday class so we got to spend loads of time on our projects.

First up… Finding our muse.  We had brought/collected items that had some meaning for us, that we were drawn to….of course we had each brought many things, so we had to whittle them down to 6 (ok, 7 snuck one in ) write about each of them, create kind of a collage and then form a statement to guide our work.  (It was really much more in-depth and thoughtful, trust me this is the cliff-notes version)

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After lunch it was time to take the photos that evoked our muse.  Let me just say at the outset that I love to take pictures but I am in no way a professional photographer.  I couldn’t get my (just purchased and taken out of the package) remote shutter release to work, my camera was a little wonky on the tripod (which I had used several times before ) and my long lens decided to stop working… oh and did I mention that it started to rain…and Nicola had to tutor me on the proper way to fling fabric to make it look effortless

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…in the rain, when you’re on the dock in your bare feet and a nightgown and a prom dress rolled up underneath for a petticoat…It was fun anyway and Nicola and our helper and my classmate were lovely and encouraging and so so patient with everything…and I’m very happy with my images… just a little bit of magic and a whole lot of learning.

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When we were done with my photos, we worked on several photos of my classmate who was expecting her first baby and wasn’t sure she would ever have a photo of herself expecting.  We made the most beautiful photos for her and then we all had a good little weep.

Sublime.  Divine.  Nicola’s magic on the moors transferred to a lake in northern New Hampshire.  Thank you Nicola for your grace and generosity in sharing your work and yourself, it was a day I won’t soon forget  xo

exhibit a:

Posted in Craft, Fiber fun, Handmade, Make, Make Stuff, Sew this by

…or how do I get myself into these predicaments ?

 

exhibit a 8x5

 

See these?? These are the piles that have taken up residence on my work table…no, now these piles have nothing to do with my 4 boxes and 2 bins of fabric that are already in residence in the studio (that were supposed to be cleverly sewn/stashed/gifted down to two bins by *sigh* the end of last year) no, these piles are the result of my children conning me into pj pants, my girlfriend finding a steal on fabric pieces and a “can’t resist” sale at the fabric store…

exhibit A:  a stack of too fabulous and super duper cheap to resist fabric pieces from our last foray into Zimman’s Fabrics… next to last on the pile is 3/4 yard of beautiful blue print cotton which is slated to be a cushion for the comb-back windsor chair in the front hall…

evidence:  super-cute snowman fabric for red-bench pillow, orange cotton fleece on clearance for pants for gwen, two pieces of cotton knit on sale to experiment and make tops for myself

exhibit B:  Lily’s stack of fabrics from last week’s raid on Jo-Ann fabrics.  Her pj pants are halfway up her legs so it’s definitely time for new cozy ones…but somehow “pick 2 pieces of flannel” turned into 3 pieces of flannel and one piece of fleece.

look here:  Gwen’s stack of fabrics, same particulars as exhibit B above.

Obviously, this week…it’s a sewing week… otherwise I won’t see the top of my table until spring.  (arrow stamps are from Splendid Fiins Evidence Arrow Stamp and Brush set #2)

Go!

What projects are stacked up on your table this week?

back on the digi-bandwagon

Posted in Creative Practice, Digital Scrapbooking, Documenting Life, Every Day Life, Life in 2014, Make, Make Stuff, Memory Keeping, Project Gal- Memorykeeping by

Now that my computer has recovered it’s 120Gb of “other”  (crash plan backing up huge log files to my hard drive in addition to backing up on-line…needless to say, deleted crash plan and the files and hellooooo hard drive space!)  I’m finally getting back to some digital scrapbooking!

01-Intro-Page-webMy dear friend Janet is running a free class at Your Stories Go Digital called “This is me Exposed”  It’s a super class with FREE digi-templates and kits to use in the project.  I thought it would be a fun class and Janet’s designs are GORGEOUS!!  See her shop HERE .  The class runs for four weeks (and it’s kind of self-paced so although it’s on week 3, you can jump in now!)  and I’ve finally gotten to making up the title page for my collection.  I’m not sure what form it’s ultimately going to take but it will be fun going through the pages and answering all the questions….just might be getting my family in on the act as well!

What projects are you working on this month? I’m working out the best way to organize all the files and information for classes like this and will be sharing my methodology soon!

Happy Monday everyone!