Elizabethan Embroidery, here I come!

Look at the elaborately detailed embroidery

Preparations all complete, I'm off for two days to the Gail Harker Center for the Creative Arts to learn all about and practice Elizabethan Embroidery.  I've really been looking forward to this, as I do all of the classes at Gail's, partially because so much of my work is done by machine that it's nice to slow down and have the relaxing experience of hand work, and also because I really enjoy history and costume.

My love of costume goes way back to my childhood.  Sure, like many little girls I enjoyed playing 'dress-up', but I guess I never really outgrew it! I remember my parents taking us to a medieval faire when I was quite young, and I've continued attending many of them throughout my life.  When I was 14, I had my first job... working for a private seamstress doing alterations and clothing construction.  I tore out and replaced so many jeans zippers with elaborate top-stitching, that I pretty much swore off of garments for some time (and still have somewhat of an aversion to sewing clothing.)  When I started in college, I wanted to be a costume designer.  Unfortunately, I wasn't really ready for college at the time, so went off to work after one semester.

Nikki and I in our historical costume at
Reno Friesian horse show

I did love to dress quite wild, either in vintage clothing or items that could be considered costumes in my early 20's.  Then I started a small business making Rock 'n Roller costumes for bands and fans, which I kept up for a short time.


Through the vagrancy of life, my main chapter of costumery took a hiatus for some time, though I never lost my love of it.  Then I had some fun in reviving this long-lost love of mine, when I had my beautiful Friesian mare and was showing her regularly.  From time-to-time, there were costume classes at the horse shows, so we both got dressed up in Renaissance gear.

My Friesian mare and I in full Renaissance costume 

Now, with my older son being a Viking aficionado and member of the Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA), I get to play at dress-up once again.  There's even a chance that I can do demonstrations of the embroidery I'll be learning at the "Ursulmas" event in January.  I'm so lucky to have two sons who actually like doing things with their Mom!

Well, I'd best be off to bed, as I need to get up early and drive to La Conner for class (about a 75 minute drive from our home.)

 

Scope Creep

Large Unfinished Feltwork at Tieton

Have you ever heard of scope creep?  Sounds like some kind of peeping tom that uses a periscope, doesn't it?  Well, it's actually where the intent and expectations of a project keeps increasing.  Perhaps I just have big ideas... but I'm finding myself being really excited about the prospects of the Tieton exhibition.  For instance, the large felted piece that I mentioned yesterday?  I started thinking about a documentary on Mongolia I'd seen and how they would felt large pieces by pulling the roll behind horses.  Here's a link that has some info on the Mongolian felting tradition, as well as a YouTube video of the steps of the process.  Well, I'm a horsewoman... I recently sold my horse but still ride and know lots of people in the equestrian community.  One of my contacts has a Friesian farm in the Yakima area, not terribly far from Tieton, where they have big beautiful black horses that draw carriages.  Shouldn't be too hard to drag a roll of felt, then, should it?


Will and Teresa Bron with two of their lovely Friesians

I also got to thinking about a fiber group whom I read about in Quilting Arts Magazine (June/July 2012).  They are from the Netherlands and create all sorts of outdoor installations.  You can see some of their work on their Windkracht 10 Blog.  We also have had a wonderfully colorful addition to many of our outdoor spaces here in the Seattle area... yarn bombing.  Just google yarn bomb Seattle images.  Here again, Tieton would be a perfect place to do all sorts of wonderful outdoor fiber art displays.  So, the scope of this exhibition may just be creeping up a bit more.

I'm thinking that it might be too much to ask of our CQA artists to also do the outdoors pieces, so perhaps I'll just write an open call for artists in Washington... that shouldn't be too much extra work, right? 

Tieton would also like to have lecturers and classes available from fiber artists during the show run.  So, I've opened this up to CQA artists as an opportunity, but I may need to open it further, if I don't get enough response.  Well, I suppose I could pull a class together before next May....

Oh, and I'm thrilled that Mighty Tieton, having their own print studio, has offered to make a catalog of the exhibit!  All I need to do is provide high resolution images of all the artwork, artist statements, information on each piece, and write a curators statement.  No problem!

As you can see, it's easy to commit and commit, and then not take time to do your art.  I'm committed to make a piece (or more) for this show.  But as artists we need to weigh out our commitments and look at our overall goals.  I do believe that putting this show on in style will be a positive experience for my artistic career.  But the major sticking point that I struggle with is in making enough art.  Making enough to be good.  Making enough to develop my artistic voice.  Making enough to feel fulfilled.  As I work through my goals for the coming year, I'm looking at committing to making a small art piece (5x7?) each week.  However, I struggle with whether that will stop me from making my larger pieces.  I have a partially-completed quilt (OK, who doesn't) on my design wall that is about double-bed sized... I don't want to stop making something just for the sake of some promise to do a small piece every week.  And I'm not sure I have time for both.  Well, I guess I will think it through some more before I write out my goals and plans for 2013!

Eastern Washington Seed Pods

Here's my favorite inspiration from my day!  The sunshine and shadows on these seedpods was lovely with crisp air filled with the smells of all the dried grasses and grains.