Travelling Carrots

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I had wonderful adventures in Tennessee and Mississippi last week.  My trip started off a little rocky with winter weather messing up my flights.  I ended up spending some quality time in the Detroit air port waiting to fly into Memphis.  To make matters worse, I had been routed to Minneapolis and was walking down the entryway to the plane when I heard my name faintly called, rescuing me from a few more unwanted hours in transit.  The good news was that I decided to see about checking in my needle felting materials on the TSA sites before I left and learned that they were acceptable as part of my carry-on stash, along with with some snacks.  I sat in Detroit and poking away at carrots.  There’s always a bright side and my progress was good, although I suppose I got a few interested looks.

At the end of my expedition I found the welcoming arms of the the Memphis Guild of Handloom Weavers.  They had invited me to do a workshop for their group and fourteen people signed up.  That’s a good size and they comprised an incredibly enthusiastic bunch with varied experiences.  

 Some had been doing tapestry weaving for years, while others were learning to distinguish the warp and weft.  We all held hands and worked through the process together.  I was well supplied with yarns and materials for inclusion into the weavings.  I had shipped three big boxes of supplies, plus I jam-packed a checked suitcase full of more recycled weaving materials.  Off we went!

I always start my workshops with a little history of who I am and how I got to the point of my fiber art career.  It’s fun to watch people’s faces when they hear about my path to my fiber artist career.  I have a Ph.D. from the University of Western Ontario in the Plant Sciences department doing molecular genetics.  

 I enjoy trying to convince people that creating fiber art and planning a genetic screen are both very creative processes that depend heavily on planning, creative thinking and problem solving. 

I’ve done a lot of workshops, and I always enjoy traveling to meet new people and put them on.  In part, I think that’s because I don’t do cookie-cutter workshops.  I don’t want everyone to have the same object to compare at the end.  Each person is encouraged to delve into their own creative abilities and create something that truly reflects them.  

 Some people come to workshops with a photo, and one in particular this time brought a beautiful image from a trip to China.  The colors of orangey-red branches on a tree that I think was in the birch family stood in the foreground with fabulous teal blue water and shore in the background.  In the mid ground there were reticulated white branches, which came together in a beautiful composition.  That’s what she wanted to emulate, and she did!  

 I’m looking forward to getting an image of the completed piece.  Another person traveled a fair distance to attend the workshop and must have woven all night in the hotel room to create the art that came together over the weekend.  She had a very clear vision of where she was going with her piece.  Others very very happy to just do samplers and experience all of the varied techniques that I introduce and explore using the mountain of materials and colors available for their compositions. 

In so many ways my workshops prove to be a starting point for the participants.  I give them permission to be creative without all the rules and structure they have embraced in the past.  It’s a lot of fun to look at the weavings and watch how tight and rigid and consistent the first few rows appear.  The emerging rows tell a temporal story, with the highest rows revealing the most relaxed and undulating structures.   

The emerging artwork parallels my relationship with the participants as we become more relaxed with each other and are able to share our experiences.  I feel that I come home with mountains of new ideas.  It’s hard to say goodbye to all of my new friends. 

I need to mention my side excursion that accompanied my trip to Memphis, which was a visit with relatives in Oxford Mississippi.  They told me that their house was only an hour or so from Memphis, and they volunteered to host me for a couple of days outside of the workshop.  It was so much fun to see all of the places and people connected with the family stories I’ve heard over the years.  Now when Martha talks about the basketball arena and her seats I’ll know exactly where she is.  When they talk about McEwen’s restaurant downtown I can remember our table, which is right in the middle of the website picture.  We stopped into Martha’s daughter’s store, Amy Head Cosmetics, and I had a wonderful visit with the store manager.  She turned out to be a fiber artist and we bonded immediately. 

When I got home I hit the ground running on my suspended projects in Bloomington.  Friday was the opening reception at the Blueline Gallery for a subset of my Beauty and the Beast costumes.  They were paired with sketches of fashion from the fifties, which was beautiful artwork from the grandmother of the owners of Blueline.  The exhibit is called Fashion and Fantasy.  It was great fun to revisit with all of my costumes. 

 Distance does make the heart grow fonder, and I haven’t seen them since November.  I love the way that Jim Andrews has curated the exhibit—there is a flow and a logic to the interactions and a color story so it feels very natural.  The exhibit will be up until April 29^th and there will be a second reception on the first Friday in April.  Come visit if you’re in town. 

While it was wonderful to visit with family and to make new friends, there’s no place like home.  I found a bouquet of roses and a delightful fish dinner with wine when I got home, and I relished sleeping in my own bed.  Best of all, on Saturday morning a tart cherry pie appeared!  I’m going to have to travel more often! 

Until next week,

Martina Celerin

Cincinnati is a great place for fiber artists!

I’m sorry I was so slow in writing my blog this week, but I’ve been catching up from my big trip to Ohio. I did a three-day workshop for a group of terrific and supportive group of fiber artists in Cincinnati over the weekend. That means that much of my early week was spent making sure everything was in order for the event. I color-coded my bags of materials so I knew which stuff went with each day. To be sure I had the best possible selection of materials I even made one last circuit of the thrift shops and recycled materials outlets like the recycle center. Since this was my longest trip away from my family I also made a trip to the grocery store to make sure they’d be able to eat reasonably well without me. Then I packed up my trusty Matrix that always seems to fit everything—it’s just incredible that way—and told Victoria (aka the Garmin) where I wanted to go. She led me through a gorgeous countryside of changing leaves, light traffic, and blue skies. I even surprised my hosts by showing up a little bit early.

The first evening I gave a talk to the group to introduce my art and myself. I brought copies of the talk on two separate flash drives, just because I like to be prepared, and the technology didn’t let me down. I was delighted to have lots of smiling and nodding faces in the audience during the talk and lots of questions at the end. Later I went to the home of my host, Gun-Marie, who is just the most wonderful, colorful, enthusiastic and knowledgeable person. I wish she lived closer! The following morning the group launched into ‘day one’ of the workshop: weaving with reclaimed and recycled materials. I built fourteen nail looms for the class so each person had a high-quality loom. I dumped out bags of materials such as leather strips, feathers, rocks, sticks, seashells, flax roving, lanyards, and a bunch of conventional yarns. I felt that I was able to push the individuals beyond their comfort zone in a really good way. I got one person who always weaves in straight lines with purple yarn doing undulating, uneven weaves using earth tones. I felt that they all just took the opportunity to explore aspects of their art and creative selves that they haven’t yet tapped into. I kept them moving too—every hour I made them get up and stretch. I’ve learned plenty of good stretches from Zumba and Jazzercise so I was ready for them. I also made them get up and wander around to see what their peers were doing, which I think was also a fabulous source of inspiration.

The second day brought new challenges, but we kept on having a good time. We embellished the weavings using techniques such as dimensional crochet and wrapping to make structures like trees and branches. I even took them outside to do some wet felting on another gorgeous day. We set up tables and had trays of warm soapy water to make small balls and noodles that could be incorporated into the pieces. The building we were in stands on a hill overlooking a valley covered with deciduous trees that all seemed to be changing colors. It’s about as close as fiber artists get to the plein air experience. That evening I got to visit a few of the studios that are part of a complex in an old schoolhouse converted into artist spaces. About thirty artists have studios there, and it was wonderful to wander around the different artists zones. On one stop I walked in and saw a jacket on display and knew I had to have it. I asked the Charlotte the artist if I could try it on, and when it fit, I informed her that it was mine—and how much was I paying her for it! Luckily for me she purchased it at a Goodwill store for eight dollars so I got a great deal.

The third day of the workshop covered needle felting. We poked till the cows came home! Actually, till about four o’clock, but I’m sure the cows were ready for happy hour and had begun to head for home. We started off making needle felted ornaments, but then I got them needle felting embellishments onto their weavings. Everyone seemed to have a grand time as we poked away and discussed various structures that they could make. I had some more really nice conversations with Gun-Marie, and I enjoyed hearing stories about her family. She was born in Sweden and emigrated to Venezuela, but with the current political regime it was time to move again. I could bond with her on that front because of my life upheavals caused by political crises in Eastern Europe. She has a wonderful family with four kids, including a daughter who is a gifted artist with training as a biologist. Our lives have a lot of parallels. The entire group of people just opened themselves up and I feel like I made a lot of new friends. I was very pleased and proud that they were willing to experiment and not be constrained by their own techniques and habits. The group included Teresa, an experienced needle felter who does amazing sculptural pieces, and in some ways it feels a little strange to try to teach someone so experienced. I feel like we were able to develop some new ideas and places she might take her art, so I’m hoping she got something valuable out of the experience.

The whole story ends happily, too, because at four I loaded up the car and headed for home. I zipped back to Bloomington to a wonderful dinner of kluski and a bottle of wine (an amarone—they did missed me!). There was even apple pie in the fridge! Now I have to transition quickly to scarf mode, because the holiday art fairs are speeding up rapidly. More about that next time!

Until next week…

Martina Celerin

Baby Carrots Find a Home

My maternal instinct kicked in this week. I wanted to finish the background for the ‘Baby Carrots’ commissioned piece I’ve been working on so my little friends could have a home. Not only did I finish the weaving, I even stretched it out and stitched it on the frame. After the frantic scarf-making and shows over the last few weeks I decided this was just the right thing to do—get in my art studio and weave! Now I just need to create the carrot tops. The cold weather is upon us, and babies lose most of their heat through their heads, you know. Oh, and I also cleaned up the back of the weaving. That process always brings back warm memories for me. My grandmother always said that a piece of art should look as good from the back as it does from the front. I’ve kept that idea to myself for years. When I first started having my work photographed by Tom Bertolacini, though, I had to laugh out loud at his first effort. He actually photographed the back of one of my abstract pieces, thinking it was the front! In his defense he said that it looked good—how could I be upset?

The events from last weekend spilled over into this week in some unexpected and funny ways. At the Fiber Arts Show I met a delightful woman, originally from Argentina, who was very kind and complimentary toward my work. She asked me if I taught what I do, and I said I really didn’t. I basked in the glow of many similar kindnesses from last weekend as I prepared to do a long-planned workshop in Danville, Indiana. Anyway, I had a beautiful drive through rural Indiana along highway 39. Full disclosure—it isn’t much of a highway. It has wonderful switchbacks through southern Indiana limestone country and lots of cornfields farther north at the southern end of the glacier track. The towns were tiny and quaint and a lot of the barns were leaning to embrace mother earth. I was richly and repeatedly reminded that Bloomington, my little oasis, does not represent Indiana. When I arrived at the highschool in Danville I was greeted by an enthusiastic bunch of people, including—you guessed it—my new friend from Argentina. It turns out she’s a teacher at the school. We laughed and laughed, and I guess I was busted for saying I didn’t teach my craft. The group was delightful and we had fun creating needle felted ornaments. This was actually a repeat visit for me, and Tiffany (the organizer) and her friend (another workshop repeater) had created some truly beautiful patterns on their ornaments. I’m scheduled to go back in the spring to run yet another workshop on whimsical felted turtles. That should be a lot of fun!

This week some of my summer veggies showed their displeasure with being ignored over the summer. In the bottom of the crisper I found half a cabbage from July and couple of old squash that were starting to get a little moldy. I just handed the whole drawer to my husband Jim for a trip to the compost pile. I did feel a little badly about my best-laid (but failed) plans to cook with the squash into soup. To atone for my errant ways, I whipped up some ‘Lois soup’ using kale that came to me from a generous neighbor, Nicola. The soup is named after the boy’s fairy godmother, Lois Graham. She lives an active life of retirement, split between Cross Village Michigan and somewhere in southern Texas, depending on the season. Her soup (in my hands) has greens, black-eyed peas and veggie sausages, plus a little spice to warm it up. It’s tasty and the perfect cold-weather soup. We had some the night I made it, along with fresh focaccia. Yum! The timing was good, because the rosemary plant that lives on my kitchen counter needed a trim.

Now it’s time to get ready for Thanksgiving. I’m planning on doing a little sketching to get some fresh ideas down, and the boys are looking forward to getting some time off from school. The only dark moment from the week came in Jim’s Tae kwon do class Wednesday, when he separated his shoulder on an ill-timed fall. He kept on going until the X-rays Saturday showed what happened, and now he’s a little disappointed about having to cut back his activities for a while. He does look cute in the sling, though!

Until next week…

Martina Celerin

Holey Nylons!

OK! I’ve had enough with the peppers! With a lot of my pieces, I start off really excited about an idea. It doesn’t always sink in how much work it’s really going to be, even if I’ve done a version of the piece before. It’s a lot like childbirth. When you’re right in the middle of the pushing and the cursing, you swear that’s something you’ll never do again. Then, when you see your little angel sleeping with an expression of the utmost inner peace and security, you think it wasn’t so bad. This week was the childbirth phase of my pepper piece. I was bearing down, pushing them through, doing my best to finish! I put the tops and stems on the last batch last night as the family watched a movie. DVDs haven’t been big in our house lately, which is good, but we needed a quiet evening. Home Alone 3 was the perfect medicine—a little more mature than the first two, but still really funny if you’re a kid. Monday afternoon I plan to attach them to the weaving I created a while ago. Did I say I was delighted to be finished?!

My current project is getting ready for a workshop on Monday. I’m heading over to Stonebelt, where we’ll be wet felting ornaments. I’ve been making the centers this week that my group will be embellishing as their part of the project. The ornaments are all wool, although the centers are wool melting pots. It’s like soup—the kind you make depends on what you happen to have. Some of it is wool fiber that’s been sheared and washed, but has fibers that are too short for spinning. My latest batch of ornament cores is made of chunks of old wool sweaters. Some are scraps that my friend Ruth Rives collected for me, and some are old sweaters that my dear husband unwittingly sent into the dryer. He’s trainable but forgetful, unfortunately. Anyway, I chop them into one-inch squares and pack them into my mother-in-law’s old holey nylons that she saves for me. One trip through the hot cycle in the washer and high heat in the dyer and voila! Felted ball stock. They look good and they’re ready to go into ornaments. Or tomatoes—maybe I could make another tomato piece!

My social calendar has been full this weekend too, which has slowed writing of this week’s essay. We started off at the Edible Lotus fundraiser Friday evening where my jeweled tree on dryer sheets was elegantly twisting above a dinner table. I really love the moment of recognition and disbelief when people realize what they’re looking at. Many thanks to Lee of the Lotus World Music and Art Festival for saving dryer sheets for me! It’s hard to collect enough for a big piece, even if you have a family of four with two (really three) rather messy eaters who inspire lots of laundry. The food was really excellent, and the ability to try all the donated foods was exciting. I loved the spinach paneer from Shanti. The dish can taste like bad seaweed when it isn’t prepared well, but this was great. I came as close as I’ve been to restaurant Tallent when I got to try their feta and red pepper (arrrggghhh, peppers!) creampuffs. They were smooth and delectable. I’ve got to get Jim to open up the wallet and take me there. Oh, and the mousse from Le Petit Café was wonderful, too. We’ll need to stop in for a bit more of that soon!

Saturday started out with the boys at their clay class while Jim and I headed to the Farmer’s Market. Then the boys organized a big Pokemon sale in the front yard that turned into a block party. We had eleven kids ‘running’ the sale at one time or another. That translated into a lot of running around, screaming, lemonade-drinking and fresh-baked cookie consumption. The rascals ate around six dozen cookies. By last night we were ready for the movie, since they had a sleepover at a neighbor’s house the night before and stayed up until eleven talking and poking each other. Today we all dressed up and went to see ‘Little Shop of Horrors’, the Cardinal Stage production at the John Waldron Arts Center. Audrey was ferocious, the dentist was appropriately self-centered and evil, and the performance was excellent. Dinner is about to come out of the oven, so it’s time to reclaim the boys from the neighbor’s yard and sit down to dinner!

Until next week…

Martina Celerin