Back into the studio

Gardeners & art lovers enjoyed good weather for last Saturday’s Art and Garden tour. I was situated in a garden in front of an historic (1910) St. Paul home, one of several Peace Garden sites  in the Twin Cities. The gardens and plants were the stars of the tour. This garden was all about the rich textures and colors of leaves, and the structures of plants and shrubs. Here is just one example.

I displayed my runners and hangings on trellises, and placed my pillows on the brick stairs leading to the massive front porch. Textiles as garden art and decoration!

I have a couple of weeks left to prepare for the Loring Park Art Festival. This morning I discovered that I accidentally recycled one of my smallest stencils along with the newsprint used to blot and flatten it after use. This is something John Marshall warned us about, and now I have learned the lesson!

Stencils are soaked before and after using, blotted with newspaper, and flattened under books before storing them away for the next use. So if you layer a bunch of stencils  between newsprint under a pile of books, tossing one away accidentally is easy if you are not mindful when putting them away.

 

Upcoming Garden Tour

Meadow Rue Runner

I’m excited to be participating in this weekend’s Tangletown Gardens Art and Garden Tour in Minneapolis and St. Paul (invited by Swan Song Contemporary Arts, one of three galleries curating the work.) I’ll be set up in a St. Paul garden on Lexington Parkway with 5 other artists. Gardens are doing well in the Twin Cities this summer so I expect the displays will be stunning! And, weather is predicted to be great this weekend (we’ll see about that …)! Hope to see you there!

Working outside (and inside)

Indigo dyed linen

July 15th — and I’ve finally set up a way to stretch my work in our little old gazebo. (Both sides of my basement are full of stretched work at the moment, so this is a helpful way to work on more pieces simultaneously.) This evening I’m soy sizing some small pieces (zig-zagged together making a long piece).

Sailboat cleats screwed into the wood secure the harite (stretchers), but that’s my brush hanging there.

cleat with jizomebake brush

Many moons ago I painted these vintage linen napkins with Earthhues natural dye extracts (logwood and madder) thickened with gum tragacanth. I was aiming for some background visual texture. The results were disappointing, so I tucked them away. Then, earlier this summer using some of my small stencils, I pasted-then-dipped them a few times in indigo. Now I like them. The under layer of dye peeks through in certain places.

water, grass, egret, indigo dyed vintage linen