Blueberry Season

This week I made a huge scientific breakthrough by employing my degree in plant sciences.  I grafted a blueberry branch onto Bergenia rosettes—hahaha! Just kidding.  On my recent long drives (more on that later) I have been needle felting blueberry leaves.  When I was settled back into my art studio I finished the blueberry leaf structures.  I embellished them with veins and created berry clusters from felt balls that I overdyed with icing colorant gels to get the deep blue.   

Yesterday I combined all the leaves and berries onto branches that I made from floral wire wrapped with eight different yarns to match the color of the bark on a blueberry bush.  Ta da!  The berry branch is done!  This just a small piece for a large commission I’m working on that is nearing completion.  I promise to post pictures of the composition after the piece is delivered. 

In another revealing admission, I do spend a lot of summer hours as a passenger in a car.  Most recently I made the trek to Madison, Wisconsin for the Art Fair on the Square.  I had a very successful adventure overall.  The weather in Madison was cool and comfortable and the people were terrific, as usual.  They are an eclectic mix of personalities and I had a lot of rewarding and thoughtful conversations.  One of the most satisfying aspects of my career is when I sit on the perch outside my booth and watch people’s faces light up when they first see the art.  Their happy responses alone are rewarding.  One young couple that has been coming to my booth for three years finally decided to buy a piece—they couldn’t stop talking about a willow piece and had to bring it home with them. 

The last time I blogged I described finishing three new pieces.  Two of them (Tired Tree and Heirloom Tomatoes) found new homes in in Madison, as did several others.  Before we left for Madison I was able to finish two more pieces called ‘Car-nation’ and ‘My Sweet Peas’.  'Car-nation' is a weaving that explores our obsession with cars and the latest shiny thing.  I see a lot of old cars, forgotten and rusting as memories, in countryside yards and car part lots.  I decided to create a piece that featured all sorts of old car components buried underground and have a beautiful flower emerge from the rust and decay.  The carnation works as a flower for me because I’m especially connected to them—my Ph.D. research involved a pathogen of carnations, Microbotryum violaceum.  As I weaved and felted, the line from the song American Pie ‘pink carnation and a pickup truck’ kept cycling through my mind.  That’s how I knew what color the carnation had to be.    

As usual, a highlight of our Madison adventures is the hospitality and surroundings we find in Hollandale, Wisconsin with our friends Wendy and Duane.  Not only do they host us, which is wonderful, they make us happy by contributing to the success of the fair—it’s like having family to visit.  Wendy baked an amazing chocolate cake for Jacob’s birthday and made a triple batch of pancakes to feed the boys on Sunday morning as I was off setting up with Jim.  Duane grilled some wonderful salmon to go with pesto and salad for a celebratory dinner after Saturday’s show.  On our last morning there, Jim (my hero) faced mortal danger (OK, he scratched his legs up pretty good) and entered the wild patch to collect enough raspberries for a pie.  He and Wendy picked a few red and blackberries on Sunday before the rain set in, and even a few yellow raspberries.  I had no idea that yellow raspberries existed!  The Sunday berry pick wasn’t even close to enough for a pie, so Jim set off into the wild undergrowth to finish off the picking.  It was a wonderfully flavorful pie, but I finished the last slice yesterday along with a nice cup of espresso.  Sigh.

Now we’re back home.  It’s good to be home.  Based on my extensive art studio research, I have concluded that it is blueberry season!  Good news, Jim—they come in baskets at the farmer’s market and don’t have thorns! 

Until next week, or sometime soon,

Martina Celerin

Summer Art Fairs!

Wow, what a crazy art fair season it has been!  I’m terribly sorry for breaking my usual pattern of weekly blogging, but the events of the past month squeezed all the spare time out of my schedule.  My roadies and I did two art fairs in three weeks:   Des Moines, Iowa and Madison, Wisconsin two weeks later.  The bottom line is that twenty-three weavings now have new homes!  I’m so pleased, proud and flattered that so many people wanted to buy one of my pieces!  I’m getting a little ahead of myself, though.  

The last time I blogged I was feverishly preparing for the Des Moines show.  I had just completed my new loon piece and packed everything up for the trip.  The show itself circled the Pappajohn sculpture park, which turned out to be a very nice setting.   

The hours were brutal—ten a.m. to ten p.m. Friday and Saturday, then ten till five Sunday.  The good news was that the support crew was terrific.  My boys and I had access to free snacks, water and soft drinks all day long, something they took advantage of.  The people who visited the show were thoughtful and considerate Mid-westerners.  Even though Des Moines is a big city, the people give it a small, almost Bloomingtonian feel.  

 I didn’t sell a single piece on Friday, which made me briefly doubt all the good things I had heard from other artists about what a good show it was for them.  Things really got rolling on Saturday, though, when I sold several pieces.  The boys even got into the act and helped sell some of the work.  Jacob especially was telling family stories about how pieces were made, and how I acquired elements that went into pieces. 

 Most people listened in awe as he led them through the booth.  I’m sure he helped sell a few pieces for me.  I ended up leaving eleven pieces in new homes in Iowa. 

I have to say that I was pretty proud of my output of pieces over the winter—I started the season with thirty-one pieces in my booth and a couple in galleries around town.  After Des Moines, though, I was spurred to create as many new pieces as possible for the upcoming Madison show.  My family was terrific—the boys gave me some space, and Jim took over running the house and cooking.  I worked from sun up until sundown to replace a few of the pieces that were popular in Des Moines.  My ‘Garden Walk’ especially was one piece that was very well received and sold early. 

I was able to create a similar piece, along with two other pieces for which I already had made some of the needle-felted and crocheted components.  I took everything I had to Madison, hoping it would be enough.  I ended up finding new homes for twelve new pieces—my best show ever!  The show was made even better because we got to stay with Wendy and Duane in Hollandale, Wisconsin.  It’s a long drive in and back each day (around 45 minutes), but we get to stay in an absolutely quiet patch in the meadows far outside town.  Wendy and Duane take very good care of us.  We had grilled salmon and dark chocolate bread pudding, among other delicacies, to celebrate the art fair successes. 

While I worked, they all went off to explore the Cave of the Mounds, Aunt Mary’s Café, and play mini-golf.  I did get into the act a little on our set-up day, though.  Jacob suggested that we rent bikes.  We all spent Friday morning riding the trails around Madison’s lakes and streams (with a nice lunch at the Zuzu Café too).  I can’t tell you what a nice time the whole trip was!

The reality of my successes hit home as we drove home.  I just didn’t have enough pieces to justify packing everything up and doing the Uptown show in Minneapolis.  I was really excited about doing the show, which has received great reviews from some of my Fourth Street art friends.  It was a very sad time to sit down and write the e-mail telling them that I wouldn’t participate this year.  Even now I need to buckle down and make some new pieces to show at Fourth Street.  

 I figure I have five more weeks, with the boys in school for four of them.  I’m already well into a tomato piece.  I wove the background, which I think of as tomato sauce.  On our drives to art fairs I have been making tomatoes.  I have around twenty-three made, but I still have a ways to go.  I haven’t fully decided if it will be a salsa piece or a tomato piece, but right now I’m in a groove making tomatoes. 

Being back in town means sampling all the good things Bloomington has to offer in the summer.  The boys tested for their red belt with a black stripe on Friday.  One more belt (red/black) and they’ll be on to their black belts.   

We’re very proud of them.  We also got to the farmer’s market on Saturday for broccoli, corn, cucumbers, peaches and boysenberries (they called them blackberries, but I think they were boysenberries).  Jim made a delightful pie.   

It was so good that next week we’re going to stock up on berries for a freezer pie.  Berries are a great way to take a little bit of summer and save it for the cold days of winter.  So…  I’ll have coffee and pie for breakfast for the next few days, and no art fair to prepare for this weekend!  Life is good. 

Until next week,

Martina Celerin 

Madison sizzles…

Last week was a blur as I frantically prepared for my (fingers crossed!) annual trip to Madison, Wisconsin.  That’s where you would find the Art Fair on the Square and a base of exceptionally knowledgeable, fun and enthusiastic art buyers.  I pushed hard to finish one last piece I’m calling ‘Riding Into the Sunset’.  I’ve been moving that piece along for the past couple of weeks and wanted to take it with me to Madison.  I had laid out the green yarns for the grassy area at the base of the weaving and the gradient to a setting sun in the distance.  I envisioned a winding path through the gradient that flowed from a tangerine orange to a crisp lemon yellow at the top.  When I had the background under control I delved into my container of bangles that I’ve collected at various places around town, including Opportunity House.  I used those as the basic structure to created my bicycle wheels, which I then wrapped with silver cording.  I also used silver yarn that I got from an overstock sale on Etsy (thanks Marilyn Brackney for the heads-up!).  To create the tires I’ve been collecting black shoelaces of different thicknesses.  That let me create different types of tires, ranging from thin racing tires to thick off-roading tires.  Together they just roll off into the sunset. 

When Thursday morning came, the whole family packed up and we headed out to Hollandale, Wisconsin.  Deep in the rolling hills of southern Wisconsin, next to the headwaters of the Pecatonica River, we found our friend and host Wendy.  Duane was off at a business trip in Texas, but we were greeted enthusiastically (although with some suspicion) by Jamie and Buddy, the fierce guard dogs.  Along the way we stopped in Champaign, Illinois at Papa Del’s pizza and took three pies on the trip for dinner.  They weren’t as good as the pizza in the restaurant, but they were well received after the long drive from Bloomington.  We sat around and chitty-chatted longer than we should have, then headed for bed to get ready for set-up the next day.  I had been following the weather forecasts with predicted highs over 100 degrees with chances of thunderstorms each weekend day.  Fortunately, the forecast missed the mark and set-up wasn’t too bad with a pleasant breeze under overcast skies.  After fortifying ourselves with frozen yogurt we set up the show without a hitch and headed back to Hollandale.  When I arrived Saturday morning, the crowds were already there an hour early.  They might have been trained to visit the farmer’s market there, or they might have been planning to beat the heat, but the crowds showed up in big numbers.  Better still, I had a lot of fun talking to the show regulars who seem happy to visit with me and talk about my art.   

They tell me about the pieces from last year that they remember and comment on the new pieces—I feel like I’m developing friendships there and the art fair is when we have a chance to catch up.  Some of the new favorites this year included Solitude, which features a bicycle leaning up against a maple tree, and my new turtle piece.  The bad news was that on Sunday the thermometer shot up and the oppressive heat took a lot out of the fairgoers.  I could feel myself fading a little as the temperature approached 100 degrees.  I decided to put some ice in a ziplock back (actually three nested bags) and slip it under my hat to cool my head.  Within five minutes I was feeling spry and chipper.  I’m going to have to remember that trick! 

While we traveled to Wisconsin for the show, it was wonderful to spend time with Wendy and Duane out away from everything.  Wendy made us delicious shish kabobs using fresh marlin and vegetables, which turned out very well.  I really loved the barbecued onion from the grill.  She followed that up with an amazing chocolate cheesecake with a layer of ganache on top—yum!  A nice meal with a glass of wine, followed by something tasty and chocolatey just can’t be beat!  Alas, good things must come to an end, and Monday morning we packed up and drove back home to Bloomington.  It’s good to be back in my cool art studio, but I’m back in frantic mode to create more art for the rest of the summer shows!  It’s a good problem to have.  There’s only one thing that would speed me along, and it has something to do with ripe, juicy yellow-orange summer fruit and a crust.  I’m thinking of a number between three and four—any guesses, Jim?

Until next week…

Martina Celerin

Channeling the Cool of Canada…

This past week the brutal summer heat finally broke in Bloomington.  After a week or so over 100 degrees, and as high as 106, we’re finally back down to normal summertime temperatures.  The best news for me was that my art studio was the coolest part of the house (in the basement next to the air conditioner) so I could work comfortably with my boys nearby.  I even had cold toes and needed my slippers!  As I thought about escaping the heat I began channeling cool Canadian lakes.  Of course I’m an American now, having spent my first Fourth of July as a citizen, but that doesn’t keep me from thinking about Canada.  It’s the only time of the year that I really miss my former home as I think about trips to Pinery Provincial Park and the shores of Lake Huron.  This thinking carried me through my ‘Father and Son’ piece, which features a mature birch tree and a sapling overlooking a cool lake.  It makes me think of the beautiful relationship and bond that’s developing between Jim and the boys, but that’s another blog post.  One of the new elements from this weaving is that the water has more sparkle, thanks to some silver cording I found at a yard sale a couple of weeks ago.  The three ply silver cord was too thick for incorporating into my canvas, but I was able to unravel it easily and use a single ply among the blue yarns to bring life to the water.  It contributes a brightness than I’ve ever used.  I found a lot of treasures at that yard sale, including some white lace, fabric scraps and a pink sweater that will translate nicely into sweater petals for fall shows.  To finish off the piece I combed through my rock collection and incorporated materials that had colors that work well with the piece.  I’m especially fond of horn coral for this kind of weaving because it has a large surface area that makes it easy to attach firmly.  I also like the texture it provides—it blends into the grassy lake shore better than smooth rocks. 

My other art news involves commissions and travel.  I’m ready to launch on my next big commission piece, due by the end of September.  I’m anxious to get started on a piece that’s tentatively called ‘Life’s Path’, which is a huge (45 by 25 inches) landscape orientation piece.  The path will be the focus through a forest background and the piece will present some new structural challenges for me.  I already have the frame, thanks to Tom Bertolacini, my frame-maker, so I’m ready to begin.  Traveling is also weighing on my consciousness.  My out-of-town summer art fair schedule begins this week.  I’ll travel to Madison, Wisconson, for the Art Fair on the Square this weekend—stop in if you’re in the area.  It’s supposed to be very hot for Madison (approaching 100 degrees), but it’s my best show of the year so I’m looking forward to it.  It’s also a chance to catch up with friends Wendy and Duane (and their dogs and new barn) outside of town in the quiet, cool countryside. 

The family news of the week was Jacob’s tenth birthday—hooray!  He kept a countdown of days to the big event, and he made himself some ‘happy birthday’ posters on the door next to his bed that he covered up so he could be surprised on the actual day.  We had a great day, beginning with a chocolate chip cookie cake and buttercream frosting for breakfast.  Yum!  We biked around town, visited the library and had lunch at the Village Deli.  Jacob had more decadent food when he ordered the strawberry shortcake.  I backed off my motherly responsibilities for a healthy diet, at least until dinner.  It was also the first day out of the hundred-degree range, so it was incredibly nice to be out biking and visiting the town.  I have a lot of friends that can bike in hot weather, but it isn’t me!  Here’s hoping we have a summer full of berries, bike rides and cool weather!

Until next week…

Martina Celerin

Happy Canada Day!

The big news from my week involves completion of my large-format commission piece.  YIPPEE! When I thought I was finished, I realized that the beige sides of my base were fighting visually with the path when the piece was viewed from side angles.  I asked my second set of eyes, my son Tommie, what he thought.  He looked at me because he knew the right answer and also what I wanted to hear.  He finally said yep, it needs the green.  I went back and needle felted the blue-green understory on the sides and that’s really what it needed.  It now sits in my living room awaiting the big move to its new owner.  Anyone who comes to visit, like our neighbor Katy, gets to visit with it for a while.  Katy noticed that if you sit on the floor and look up into the trees you feel like you are deep in the forest.  And it’s true! 

With the Madison show, Art Fair on the Square looming, I’ve been working hard to bring together some new pieces in the next two weeks.  I was scanning through some of the sketches I made last summer in Michigan and I found one I really liked.  We’ve been having some crazy heat here in Bloomington, with several days in a row over one hundred degrees.  That was probably the trigger that made me start channeling cool Canadian lakes.   

Which reminds me—happy Canada Day!  I may be an American citizen, but I can still channel all my good memories from Canada.  Anyway, I showed the sketch to my family for approval and to get a name for the piece.  It features a mature birch and a sapling next to a lake.  Jacob thought it should be called “Father and Son,” a name that stuck with me.  Jim suggested I avoid “Son of a Birch,” which eleven-year-old Tommie found surprisingly hilarious.  I spent some time yesterday creating the branches for the trees.  This story goes back to Katy again, who brought us some candy flowers on wire stems from her trip to Rome.  Not her last one, the one before that—Katy travels a lot.   

After we ate the candies I wrapped the wires in a charcoal-colored alpaca fur for the small branches.  The alpaca comes from Cathy Crosson, who raises alpaca on a farm just outside of Bloomington.  I saw her at the farmer’s market yesterday, and she just started dyeing the alpaca yarn.  She had the most wonderful blue that happens to match our front door, our car and my bathing suit.  Can you tell I like it?  I’m going to use it for the sky in another piece I’m planning that will be called “Flower Parade.”  

The really big news came last night, when we finally got some rain around three in the morning.  There was lots of thunder and lighting to go with it, but not much in the way of damaging winds.  There was enough water to get the creek flowing next to our driveway.  This morning all that was left was wet ground and a puddle in the driveway, which thankfully the paper delivery person missed.  I think all of our flowers are happy again.  

 On a sad note, my blueberry pie from last week is gone already.  With two boys who like fruit pies they don’t last long.  On the bright side, we bought way too many peaches to eat at the farmer’s market yesterday, thinking that they could go into the freezer for pies in the future.  But now I’m thinking, hmmm, the first peach pie of the summer!  The mornings are cool enough to use the oven, aren’t they Jim?

Until next week…

Martina Celerin

Arts Fair on the Square, revitalized.

The big news of the week is that I’m closing in on completing the big commission piece—the last pieces should be in place by the end of the week.  I’m just delighted with how it’s turning out.  On the drive back from Michigan I made a bunch more leaf clumps for the forest canopy.  I was sure I had plenty and a few to spare.  This week I attached them, and lo and behold, I was still shy a few clumps.  Some days my husband thinks I’m a few leaf clumps shy of a canopy, but I still love him.  A few afternoons watching the boys do Taekwondo (actually, not watching) and I had enough clumps.  I completed the canopy, stood back, and thought: “wow!”  The dimensionality and density of the greens is really dramatic in person.  I just need to attach the greenery to create the forest understory, which is in progress, and add some rocks and sticks along the path.  Now I’m mentally in completion mode so it won’t be long now.

Saturday brought Arts Fair on the Square back to Bloomington.  This year I decided to participate again because Chad from the BPP took over advertising and marketing.  Chad is just an awesome, energetic individual, just the right person to be in charge.  The show truly was revitalized, with big steady crowds passing through all day.  Set-up and take-down were smoother, easier and safer this year with the adjacent roads closed off.  Chad just did everything right, except for not having a ‘Best-in-Show’ award.  He set that right by making me a special star for my booth—thanks Chad!  You’ve nicely revitalized a Bloomington tradition. 

At the show itself I ran into a lot of interesting people.  I saw two sets of kids that were classmates of Tommie and Jacob at Hoosier Courts years ago.  They’ve changed so much I wouldn’t have recognized them out of context—wow have they grown!  I guess my boys have changed a little too.  I was thrilled that Tommie volunteered to get up at 5:30 am and help me set up the show.  He turned out to be an amazing assistant.  He lugged the four fifty pound weights up the hill to my booth location, as well as all the really heavy stuff I needed to set up.  He never complained at any point, always asking instead what needed to be done next for both set-up and take-down.  Tommie was just incredibly competent and helpful—thank you so much!  Oh, and I have one more funny story to tell.  I was off on a break and Jim was booth sitting for me when a senior IU official came walking by.  He recognized her but doesn’t know her well.  She walked past, looked right through Jim and pointed out to her friend that Martina had “just finished the turtle piece.”  Sometimes Jim feels like everyone in town knows me and everything I’m doing.  He couldn’t understand how she knew that I was even making a turtle piece, but I’m sure she must have come through on the open studios tour when it was in progress.  It is finished now, and I’m delighted with how it turned out—my little turtle friend has a nice shady home in the garden understory. 

A last good note from the week:  after the fair set up, Jim and the boys ventured to the Farmer’s Market Saturday for their usual treats and vegetable stock-up.  They came home with three quarts of blueberries for a giant pie that I’ve been enjoying all week long.  The berries are a little tart, which makes for a very flavorful pie.  The summer is off to a good start!  Is peach pie next, sweetie pie?

Until next week…

Martina Celerin

Back from Michigan!

This week I have to start with some vacation news from a delightful trip my family made to Michigan.  We visited with Grandma and shared the house with cousins Dave and Martha, who drove up from Mississippi.  Dave was born and raised in the Saginaw Valley, but Martha is a true southern belle.  We had a wonderful time traveling around, shopping and just hanging out and talking.  Martha is a true storyteller!  I spent a lot of time laughing.  Another highlight was going on a fishing trip on the Lila Mae with Jim and Tommie to find some walleyes for dinner.  

Saginaw Bay is very shallow where we launch north of Linwood, so the first and last part of the ride involves a slow trip through tall cattails and marsh grasses to reach the bay.  We passed a lot of turtles, some egrets and lots of other wildlife along the way.  At that point we could power up and enjoy a ride on the waves to reach the Black Hole.  Really--that’s what it’s called!  We drifted to the secret spot and managed to catch a mess of walleyes.  Of course I had to be different, so I also caught a huge catfish (he went back safely, a giant white bass (very tasty!) and a freshwater drum. 

 Tommie caught a few walleyes and Jim did most of the netting, unhooking and managing the boat.  I got choose exactly the right colors of lures for the day.  To Jim’s surprise, black with red spots was exactly what the fish wanted. 

The long drive to Michigan meant I got a lot of time to needle felt.  The boys were focused on their electronic devices, Jim was focused on the road, and I was able to make many of the carrots, radishes and cherry tomatoes for an art piece I’m calling “Eat your Veggies.”  It’s going to be similar to a piece I did before called “Summer Salad.”   

After a seven-hour drive each way I’m doing pretty well on the veggies.  Also, before we left for Michigan I attached all the crocheted leaf clumps I had been working on for my giant commission piece.  I only managed to leaf out one tree, so I spent some time in Michigan crocheting the rest of the tree canopy.  I’m looking forward to attaching the leaf clumps this week.  Of course I actually have a bunch of projects going on that I’ve started and I’m determined to finish before the summer art fairs.  One of my current themes has been pieces involving bicycles.  I’ve been creating a big batch of bicycle wheels for different projects.  Fortunately, Friday was the History Museum’s annual garage sale.   

The boys and I both found treasures, but mine included bangles for bike wheels and silver cording that’s perfect for wrapping the bangles to mimic the chrome rims of the wheels.  I’m envisioning a new composition that involves riding bicycles along a path into the sunset.  It will features an orange-to-yellows gradient path and bicycle wheels of different sizes winding their way along a trail. 

Looking forward, this Saturday brings Bloomington’s Art Fair on the Square.  It’s my first summer show and I’m glad it’s in town.  The weather looks perfect right now, so check out the show around the courthouse square - after you visit the farmer’s market on Saturday.  Since I can’t be there, I’m thinking I should slip out to the Tuesday evening market this week to pick up some blueberries.  It’s never too soon to start thinking about another pie!  I’m sure Jim will make one if the berries appear.  I will need to get a bunch of stuff done before then, and I’m hoping the humidity will stay down low enough so I can paint frames for my new pieces.   

Oh, and I meant to mention that while I was in Michigan, I got to meet up with another family cousin, Terri Close.  She’s been making some really sweet garden pieces that are essentially stacks of recycled china, bowls and plates to create display flowers.  Of course we had to have one, which now sits in front of our house to make it a little cheerier.  Thanks Terri!

Until next week…

Martina Celerin

Madison!

I’m settling in at home after a truly delightful trip to Madison Wisconsin. The people I met at the art fair there are just so… Bloomingtonian! That’s the best compliment I can give. They really appreciate art, and fiber art specifically. An enthusiastic crowd turned out this weekend and made the whole trip worthwhile. Twelve of my pieces found happy homes in Wisconsin, which made take down substantially easier. It was almost a sad sight to see the few pieces that didn’t sell nestled in one half of a big plastic tub. That definitely sounds wonderful now, but on the way back the realization that my next show (the Fourth Street Festival here in Bloomington) is less than two months away! I have to get my creative juices moving and start weaving like the wind.

I guess I’m getting a little ahead of myself. In the last hours before we loaded the U-haul and drove off to Madison I desperately worked to finish my ‘Summer Salad’ piece. I’ve been really excited about this piece as new elements came together at the very end. I was poking away at tomato slices until the afternoon before we left. It wasn’t until that evening that my world slowed down enough so that I could attach the vegetables. A day or two earlier I still had a rectangular hole that I struggled to fill until I decided that button mushrooms were the missing piece I needed. I really like them, and I’m proud of how the whole piece came together. The composition feels like it has movement, which makes me happy too. Jim thought it was the most attractive piece in the booth and was sure it would sell quickly. A lot of people showed a strong, immediate connection to the piece when they saw it, which was fun to watch. At the end of the show, however, with more bare wall than art in the booth, ‘Summer Salad’ was still there! I’m secretly pleased, though, that the piece will be available for display for Fourth Street—I really wasn’t ready to give it up. Plus, I really want to show it off to my peeps here in town.

I had lots of wonderful interactions with fair goers this year. One woman saw my ‘Vine Ripened Tomatoes’ from last year and really wanted it. She said she regretted not buying it all year, and luckily it didn’t sell during the year. She was delighted to be able to buy it this year. Another couple came in and clearly wanted a piece. The wife couldn’t decide which to get, so the husband sent her out of the booth and picked out the piece he was sure she really wanted. It was just an incredibly confident thing to do. They ended up with ‘The Harvest’, one of my recent pieces with a hand pulling a carrot from the earth. Another couple was looking for a wedding gift for their niece. She was an Indiana University grad with a job in a local food co-op, and they chose my ‘Best Friends Forever’ piece. It features a carrot, onion and beet in an earthy background. I think they were delighted by the name and theme of the piece, which seemed to be a perfect match for the occasion.

While I was off selling art, Jim and the boys were exploring rural Wisconsin with Wendy and Duane, our hosts for the weekend. They were just terrific, making us a wonderful grilled salmon dinner with garlic scape pesto—very garlicky and tasty! The meal was followed up with a dark chocolate bread pudding. The pudding was superb warm and tasty cold the next day. Their help and care made everything about the show easy and fun. I even made a new friend in Buddy, the large white guard dog at the front of the house. And while I was busy during the show, in the morning before I got to explore a little bit of the countryside with my boys. One stop was for lunch at the Viking Café in Blanchardville. Everybody found something they liked and we all left happy. And the boys used their drink straws wrappers to channel the true Viking spirit.

Thanks Wisconsin, Madison, Wendy and Duane, Buddy and Jamie, puppy friend of Buddy! I hope to see you all again next year.

Until next week…

Martina Celerin

Madison, here I come!

I’m gearing up to travel again, this time to one of my favorite art fair destinations—Madison, Wisconsin. The fairgoer have diverse and eclectic interests, and my friends Wendy and Duane take great care of us while we’re there at their beautiful home well outside Madison. Preparations this year have been a little more challenging than usual, however. I spent a lot of time this week repairing the damage to my canopy walls. I ordered a repair kit from Creative Energies, although I quickly used the entire kit. I started calling around town to find repair tape specific for vinyl. J.L. Waters downtown came through for me and saved my tushie. Two more rolls of tape and I should be watertight again.

In the wake of my Columbus disaster I decided that I needed to keep making new art as I worked in repair and recovery mode. I’m excited that I’m close to finishing my ‘Summer Salad’ piece, although I think it might become ‘Summer Veggies.’ I’ve been poking away at little green onions to finish the piece. I knew I was on the right karmic track with my art when, on Wednesday, I drove to Musgrave Orchard to pick up this week’s CSA vegetables. I arrived a little early and I was poking away at my onions when Andy drove up with a big bushel basket of freshly picked green onions! I still need to make a few more, but I’m sure the piece will come together before Madison. In my near future I’m also thinking about making a ‘Lemons to Lemonade’ piece. It will have whole lemons and sliced wedges presented at various angles. After Columbus, it’s my answer to the old adage, ‘When life gives you lemons…”. On the other hand, you could take my friend Miah’s suggestion, “When life gives you lemons, just return them for some nice jewelry.”

As I prepare for Madison, I have a secret project cooking just outside of the veranda. I collected maple bark, lichens from a fallen tree, oak bark pieces and was given osage orange shavings. Each material went into its own big covered pail to steep in warm water. The pigments are extracted over a few weeks, and right now the maple bark has the richest colors. It’s good, stinky, messy science fun that will translate into some uniquely dyed fleece. It’s fun to think that when I get back from Madison I’ll have some buckets of natural dyes to experiment with.

Finally, now that summer is here, the CSA has injected its vegetables into my life. I’ve been getting weekly infusions of greens and onions, more than we could possibly eat in a week. This is my time of the year to make freezer meals for the long, cold months of winter. Over the past couple of weeks I managed to make huge batches of three kinds of soups with greens to freeze away. I made ‘Lois Soup’ with mixed greens and veggie sausage and a lentil soup with greens. On Saturday I made a nice sweet potato corn and kale chowder. I got the idea for this at the Unitarian Universalist art Fair last December. They have a lunch kitchen window open, and while I was trying to decide what I wanted, my friend Julie Lawson told me about the soup that she had made. It sounded warm and comforting and just perfect. I remember enjoying it so much! As I was trying to decide what kind of soup to make with the kale I had, I thought of that experience. And whom do you think I ran into at the farmer’s market, right after I after I walked past some sweet potatoes? To make a long story more compact, Julie sent me the recipe and I have another big stockpot full of soup ready for the freezer!

Until next week…

Martina Celerin

The secret to slicing onions

I have the skinny on everything this week. First, it was the week of the onion rings, which I completed by adding the skins. I poked at them all week long without any tears, except when I jammed the felting needle into my finger. Ow! I also added the skin to my tomatoes. There’s still a huge amount of detail work needed to complete them. I have to get all the internal structure right and get the seeds in place, so I’m sure I’ll stop in at Bloomingfoods to pick up a few models. Finally, my epiphany of the week: after hours and hours of felting while the boys were at school taking their ISTEP tests, I’ve concluded that there is absolutely nothing on daytime TV worth watching.

My sense of being locked in the house was amplified this week by the near constant rains. A lake forms in our back yard (Celerin Lake), which is drained through the fence into a small tributary (Drummond Creek) when the rains are heavy. Both sump pumps in the basement were cranking water out to the road. Water even started leaking up through the crack in my art studio floor. I’ve come to accept this as ‘the devil I know’. Instead of trying to repair it and have water come in through some other crack, I just keep a towel system over it that I change regularly. That will dry up soon and stay dry for most of the year, so it’s just another charm to living in our house.

I did give myself permission to leave the house for two trips into the soggy spring. My highlight was going to the Heritage Quilt Show on Thursday. As usual, I really enjoyed seeing all the quilts. Seeing the creative designs and new color combinations always inspires me. My only disappointment this year stemmed from the drop in non-traditional patterns. I’m especially drawn to the free form quilts. During my travels in town I met with Chad, the artistic director for the Bloomington Playwrights Project. He’s going to take over running the Art Fair on the Square, a one-day show in downtown Bloomington. I stopped doing the show a few years ago, but I know Chad is a creative juggernaut and a marketing machine. I feel like it’s going to be well worth participating again this year.

The last thing on my mind is how pleased I am with my new drum carder. I used to borrow the Spinner’s and Weaver’s Guild carder, but I reached the point where I just needed my own. It’s an expensive tool, so I debated buying it for a long time. I just felt I was being extravagant by wanting to have my own. But as I was cranking out mounds of eggplant purple fleece last night, I realized how much I appreciated having it. I don’t know how I could have completed my giant ratatouille piece without it. And it’s fun to use.

What else is there to say, except for the obvious? When’s the next pie? And what kind will it be?

Until next week,

Martina Celerin