After many months of "to blog or not to blog", I've come to the conclusion that I should give it a go. Now I just need to figure out how to actually make something appear. I guess the first order of business is to tell you who I am and what I'm doing here.
Firstly, I'm a fiber artist, I live in Saskatchewan in Canada, and have the good luck to live in the country on an acreage. Up until a few years ago, we had horses here, but now have an assortment of other critters, such as cats and parrots and whatever else wanders onto our property. We currently have a den of foxes in one of our pastures who seem to reappear every year, so I must assume they also live here.
I work primarily in stitched landscapes, but also dabble in vessels, books, and I love love love to dye. I'm fairly well versed in the usual dyeing methods, but am just really getting into the natural dyes, in particular, natural indigo and all it's foibles. A great many of the things in my house are now blue. I also love rust and all things that acquire rust.
I'm a juried member of the Sask. Craft Council, a member of the FibreArt Network, SAQA and assorted online groups. I started out being self taught, as I could find no one in my area doing thread painting, but decided that I needed more, so have certificates from the Gail Harker Creative Arts Center in WA in Art & Design, Machine Stitch and Hand Stitch. I have taken workshops with Anna Hergert, Gloria Loughman, and others. After my courses were finished, I spent the next 18 or so months learning techniques. I confess to being a techniques junkie and this has proven to be a serious distraction in the past. It's hard to finish a piece when you're thinking of a half a dozen other ways to do what you're doing.
I have only just started showing this year. A serious back problem has kept me out of things, but it's as resolved as it's likely to get, so I've jumped into the mix and have enjoyed the show/sales I've been to so far. I have three more scheduled for this year alone - and that's quite enough! I'll be working around the clock just to keep up. I'm happy to say that I've sold most of what I've produced so far - this shouldn't be interpreted as bragging, simply me being astounded by the fact that people seem to like what I produce.
Anyway, this is more than enough for a first post. I won't be posting every day - more like every week. I hope to be able to post pictures as well, but this will happen once I'm more comfortable with what I'm doing. So, on that note, I'll talk to you later.....that is if anyone is actually reading this!
