Thanksgiving 2011

Before I tell you about my travels and discoveries from this past week, I wanted to share some more about the Déjà Vu show. It was held in the Columbus Commons two weekends ago, which is a wonderful venue for the show. This week Marilyn Brackney sent me a few pictures that show off the space and my booth and so here they are…

My last ‘new’ project was creating noodle scarves by cutting up felted wool sweaters and repurposing them. As I played with the process a little I realized I could take the process in new directions. I started creating wool flower petals and combined them with small felted balls I had in my collection and came up with a pattern I really liked. About then it was time to head for Michigan to see Grandma for Thanksgiving, so I packed up my felted materials in a bag with threads, scissors and my new thimble for the trip. During the drive I made a bag full of ‘sweater petals’ (thanks, Grandma!), my name for the new creations. They’re fun little bright spots to go on jackets, sweaters or hats. I just know that the gloomy weather is coming and a little bright spot can go a long way to brighten your day. I’ll display these at the Unitarian Universalist Church Holiday Art Fair and Bazaar this weekend (the UU show) if you’re interested in seeing them in person.

It was nice to travel to Michigan for the holiday to hang out with Jim’s mom, the Gibson’s next door and Aunt Lois. I got to just relax and spend time with everybody, although I did have to help with Thanksgiving dinner preparations. Jim made the crusts for the traditional pumpkin pies and prepared steelhead and salmon for one main course. These are the fish that he and Tommie caught in October so it was a real family effort. After Thanksgiving the whole crew spent a day at the King Tut exhibition in Midland, which I hadn’t seen since I was living in Toronto before moving to the states around thirteen years ago. Has it really been that long? I enjoyed seeing the Egyptian alabaster carvings and other art pieces, the gold work and liked the whole atmosphere. On Friday I helped Grandma transplant seven trees away from her barn, which made her happy and me sore. Jacob got into that project with me while Jim and Tommie were off fishing again. They did come home with a bucket full of perch from the pier at Tawas, so Saturday brought another nice fish fry. The whole family ate very well over the long weekend.

Now I’m back in Bloomington, back to Zumba to work off the holiday food, watching the first snow settling on the tree branches and gearing up for the UU show this Friday and Saturday. I’ll have all my new scarves—lattice, ruffled and noodles—along with my new sweater petals. Of course I’ll bring some art pieces for the display too, but I’ve been focusing on making scarves and commissions rather than new pieces to display. Stop in and say hello, see what’s new in my booth and don’t forget to pick up some cookies from the cookie walk!

Until next week…

Martina Celerin

Seems like déjà vu…

This week marked the arrival of my brand new deep dish pie plate! My friend Jan Arbogast, a local clay artist, made us a beautiful replacement for our broken pan. To my great delight, it’s bigger than the last one - I’m telling Jim that means we can have healthier pies—they’ll have more fruit! Jim got right to work and made a mixed apple pie Thursday morning. It was yummy! Everybody got two pieces, and I have enjoyed pie and coffee for breakfast since Thursday. I’m guarding the last slice for tomorrow morning after Zumba.

In the art world, I spent the week preparing for the Déjà Vu art fair. Because the show features art created from reclaimed and recycled materials I decided I couldn’t show my ruffled scarves. They’re made from new merino wool and have no recycled content—unless you consider the sheep are recycling material for their coats. To fill in I launched into another new project that involves up-cycling old sweaters. The project came upon me when Cappi Phillip’s husband Bud had the vision to wash and dry her beautiful alpaca sweater she got on her trip to Peru. Cappi was very sad, but knowing that I could do something nice with it helped ease the pain. At least that’s what she said. I played around a bit cutting up felted sweaters and sewing them on to strips of felt. That wasn’t quite what I wanted, so I came up with the idea of making crocheted noodle scarves. I begin with a sweater, felt it, and then cut it into a continuous strip that I crochet to form the spine. Then I attach strips of felted sweaters onto the crocheted spine and felted the whole thing again. I think the resulting texture is really interesting. It’s a bold statement scarf and I really like them! I made some with black noodles and red spine, then red noodles with black spines before I went off playing with new color combinations. I’m basically riffing on what I learned when I made the ruffled scarves. In some strange way I see them as similar. The only major crash I had came when I tried to felt in the washing machine and the whole project fell apart. By the time I scooped all the tangled fibers out of the machine and onto the basement floor it looked like a giant eagle had swooped in and eaten a huge black sheep, leaving only the scattered coat remnants. That’s probably why we haven’t had mice in the basement this fall.

Saturday morning I packed up all of my latest creations and headed off to the Déjà vu show in Columbus Indiana. It was great fun. The Commons is absolutely the right place to hold the show—it’s airy, spacious and the layout supports a good traffic flow of fairgoers. Plus there’s a huge play space for kids next door, separated by a big, glass. sound-proofing wall. Thanks to Marilyn Brackney who did an amazing job of organizing the event and making it happen. I got to see people in Columbus that don’t make it to the Bloomington shows, including some of my friends from the Cincinnati workshop who made a long drive. Everything new was well received, including the noodle scarves and my line of Re-shirts I’ve been showing at the Discardia events. Next up is the UU show (the Unitarian Universalist Holiday Art Fair and Bazaar) in two weeks where I’ll show all my scarves, shirts, cards and wall art. Stop by(Fee Lane and the bypass) to see what’s new and buy some cookies from the cookie walk! Everyone goes home happy, guaranteed.

Until next week…

Martina Celerin

Scarf season begins…

This week I was caught in a whirlwind of ruffled scarf creation. Last week I designed and wet felted a large collection of lattice scarves created from reclaimed and recycled materials. I combined novelty yarns, ribbons, and lace from my collections with ultrasoft merino wools to make my art scarves. I then decided I needed more ruffled scarves for the Fiber Arts show so I launched into creating black and red scarves from merino wool. I developed a strategy to make the outer scarf edge undulate, where the undulation is part of the actual scarf structure. I really liked how the red and black colors worked together, so after a few of those I made some of red, purple and black. That led me to two different shades of purple and black and then two tints of indigo and black, then on to scarves with tints of turquoise and black. By the end of the week I was looking for something different to do so I incorporated some shiny red Angelina fibers to give the scarves a little bling. I made so many that I was ironing scarves right up to the start of the Fiber Arts show. The good news is that the ruffled scarves were a big hit again this year. The bad news is that I don’t have many ruffed scarves left for shows later in the year! I guess that means I’ll be laying out more ruffled scarves before the December Unitarian Universalist Holiday Art Fair & Bazaar (Fee Lane & the bypass).

The Fiber Arts show itself was a huge success and a lot of fun for me personally. This year three local guilds put on their shows the same weekend, which was dubbed by the BEAD folks as the ‘Craft Crawl’. People could easily move between the local clay, glass and fiber guild shows at three nearby churches. Plus it was the weekend of the Handmade Market downtown. I think people enjoyed visiting all the venues—it was just a local art shopping weekend. For me, it was nice to see people I don’t get to chat with often enough. The Fourth Street Festival is always jam packed so I don’t get to visit with everyone. The Fiber Arts show is a little slower paced. I ran into my friend from Argentina, and I spent Friday and Saturday hugging people, laughing and catching up. I only stopped long enough to sell scarves, both ruffled and lattice, every so often. Now I’m looking forward to the Déjà Vu show this weekend in Columbus Indiana. I won’t bring my ruffled scarves, since they don’t have any reclaimed and recycled content, but I’ll bring a selection of my lattice scarves and my new upcycled sweater scarves. Even if I don’t sell a lot of art I’ll have a lot of fun with my art friends and show-neighbors Cappi Phillips and Pat Hecker. I’m sure that we’ll laugh the whole time. I went there with Cappi and Dawn Adams on a reconnaissance mission a few weeks ago to check out the space so I have an idea how the Commons will be laid out for the show. We had a great trip then, including lunch at Bistro 304—I’m looking forward to having a box lunch from there this weekend. Thanks to Marilyn Brackney for organizing the show, and I hope to see you there to show off my Re-shirts, scarves and a few weavings.

On the home front, when I have a successful art show my family makes me a celebratory dinner. This time things were a little hectic so I pulled some peppered salmon out of the freezer for dinner. Jim baked some bread and a boca negra (black mouth) cake, both out of the ‘Baking with Julia’ cookbook. It was sooo… good—Jim just nailed it. Just what I needed after a full weekend of chitty-chattying! I guess the last bit of news is that in the background of my life I’ve been working my new poppy piece, which is very labor intensive. For two months now I’ve been creating leaflets for the plant and I wanted to lay out what I had and see how many more I needed. I think it looks really good but I still have a lot of work ahead of me. I need more leaflets, plus poppy buds and flowers to finish the piece. I’m sure it will be ready for the first spring show! Oh, and if you’re in Bloomington and want to see some Scarf Art, I have several pieces hanging at the Bloomington Bagel Co. (on Dunn St). Stop in, have a bagel and enjoy the art (and the bagel).

Until next week…

Martina Celerin

The fall show season begins…

I promised myself that before the fall show season began I’d complete the two commissions I agreed to do at the Fourth Street show. I just finished the second piece, called ‘Low Tide’, and I’m pleased with how it turned out. I was channeling the beach, specifically the receding surf as it deposits little pools full of shell fragments, drift wood, and other treasures. There’s always something for an explorer to find, which is why the beach is so great for kids and artists. The whole process of sorting shells takes me to a special place, and this time I remembered sharing my hunts for sand dollars with Tommie on the beach. Between a powerful surf and a parade of collectors what we found was more like sand quarters and dimes, but we snatched them out of the surf with gusto and glee. I’ll probably have to make another beach piece when the snow starts to fly and I feel cold again.

This year I added the Chamber of Commerce show at the convention center to my fall circuit. It was combined with a runway show, which was fun. One highlight of the show was when the sweet little boy, who couldn’t have been more than five, came down the runway dressed in a stylish vest. He was moving and posing and the crowd went wild. His mom had to come on the stage to give him the hook. The best part of the art show was sharing a booth with Terry Taylor-Norbu, one of my Fourth Street friends. She does beautiful dichroic glass jewelry. She let me have half her booth and together we kept the show lively all evening. It was nice to interact with a different group of people.

This coming weekend is the Fiber Arts Show and Sale put on by the Spinner’s and Weaver’s Guild. It will be at the First United Church here in Bloomington on Friday from 5-9 pm, then Saturday from 10-5—twenty four hours of pure fiber fun! It will be nice to seeing some old friends at a show that’s so close to home. Stop in if you’ll be around Bloomington. And if you're around town, stop in at the Bloomigton Bagel Co on Dunn street and see my ArtScarves exhibit - it'll be up until the end of November.

The family news this week begins with putting Halloween to bed for another year—we picked up all the decorations from the front yard. We even put a few more display things in the closet when they went on big discount the following week. I finally got a window to get the boys room clean (they did most of the work and all the complaining) and then I vacuumed the house. That’s a sign for me that the seasons are changing. Then we all went to the African American Arts Potpourri show on Saturday night. We really enjoyed the dance group segment and the boys really liked the chorale ensemble, and the soul review segment was fun and full of energy. The shows are always very well done, and I enjoy the diversity you see in the performers. They come on stage big and small, tall and short, hailing from countries and cultures all over the world. What they share is talent and a passion for performance, which is what makes the shows special. Now we’re looking forward to the spring show. I guess that means it’s time to get busy making more scarves for the fall shows and start some new weavings for next summer!

Until next week…

Martina Celerin

I love weaving!

I always seem to forget that weaving is one of my favorite things to do. This week I got busy with the two commission pieces I need to complete in the near term. I finished my second take on ‘Tread Lightly’, a piece with rusty car parts in the background and a bike floating over the surface. I created the bicycle out of scrap wire that I found in Grandpa’s barn in Michigan and adjusted the thickness with old shoelaces. I wrapped them with yarn thrums I got from Peg Dawson, a friend of mine from the Spinner’s and Weaver’s Guild, that she got from another weaver in Minnesota. Yes, my bicycles come with lots of miles on them! I almost want to take them to Bikesmiths for a tune-up. I then launched into another commission piece similar to my ‘High Tide’ beach piece. Beach pieces are always good cold weather projects. I got to pull out my sandy yarns and seashells, which reminds me of walks on the beach and fresh ocean fish. Creating those weavings just takes me to a very nice mental space. Ahhh…

Back to fall and Halloween, which was last night. Before the festivities started, my friend and frame-maker Tom Bertolacini stopped by with nine new frames for weavings. He also brought the oversized custom frame he made for the McCormick’s Creek community weaving project I oversaw this summer. I guess I have a little frame finishing in the near future. I’m delighted because I’m just itching to start on some new weaving projects that are floating around in my head.

As evening fell, my three boys ventured out to places unknown to cajole candy out of unsuspecting neighbors. (Well, maybe they suspected). Of course I contributed to the process by handing out goodies at our house, decked out in its Halloween best with four carved pumpkins and ghoulish decorations all over the yard. I think that enough sugar and chocolate changed hands last night to keep everyone going until Valentine’s Day. Or, at least until Friday. You might not think that candy inspires math, but my boys will continue their Halloween tradition of making a pie chart in Excel and analyzing how much of which kinds of candies they got.

Finally, on a sad note, my deep-dish pie pan broke on our trip back from Michigan. My hands are starting to tremble a little bit from withdrawal. No. Pie. Since. Last. Saturday. Well, I suppose when you put it that way it isn’t so bad. Yet. I quickly got my friend and the boy’s ceramics class teacher Jan Arborgast on the case. She just e–mailed me to tell me she’s finished throwing the pan and did the fluting on the edges. Hooray! Jim, did you know there were still Mutsu apples in the refrigerator? Who can think of a number between three and four?

Until next week…

Martina Celerin

A little rest and recovery…

Last week I posted on Wednesday, and Thursday we headed to Michigan to visit with Grandma for the boy’s fall break. They get two days off and I figured I needed a break too. I’d had my fill of committee work and scarf making, although I enjoyed stirring up some big batches of soup in between. I enjoyed just kicking back and watching the tree leaf colors change from early fall (Bloomington) to late fall (Kawkawlin). Of course I couldn’t just sit still the whole time so I did all the hand mending that I’d been saving up for the past few months.

When we pulled in late Thursday we saw the damage caused by a big windstorm two days before. Three of the big generations-old oak trees came down when losing just one is an event. One tree decided to play dominos and crashed into a second giant, which sent it tumbling down in a different direction and taking out some smaller pine tree tops. The third oak fell across the road and turned out to be hollow and full of grubs eating the tree slowly from within. Elsewhere the entire yard, which normally looks like a park as Grandma keeps the grass beaten down with the mower, was a big mess. We spent a couple of hours Friday morning trying to pick up but it was obviously more than we could do. We gave up the task and decided to have a surprise birthday party. I whisked Grandma out to a fabric store for a new zipper, and the boys decorated the kitchen with streamers and balloons and Jim made flatbread. I think she was surprised and happy, and we all enjoyed the birthday apple pie for dessert. Of course we had a candle and sang happy birthday (two weeks early) to make it official. On Saturday Jim and Tommie went fishing and came back with some silver fishies and stories that were a little hard to believe, even if they have pictures. Sunday morning, after lots of gigglin’ and chilin’ all weekend we delivered hugs and headed back home to Indiana.

I guess with all the family stories up front I have to get a little art news in at the end. I actually got to weave yesterday and today, which I love to do, to create one of my commission pieces - a layout similar to ‘Tread Lightly’, my bike piece on a background of rusty car parts. Fortunately I have plenty of rusty material to work with from my last visit to the Auto Heaven junkyard. I wash all of the metal bits and then use my trusty wire brush to remove all the loose rust flakes. I pulled out my rusty colored yarns and pushed away all my other responsibilities to start the piece.

Last, I’m excited because my Zumba schedule at the Windfall Dancer’s studio is going to expand from three to five days a week. It’s definitely the best place I’ve ever done Zumba. They have sprung wooden floors, ceiling fans, dim lighting, lots of mirrors and lots of space. It’s an old church converted into a studio so it just has the feel of an accommodating gathering place. Now I’ll get up at six a.m. every day of the week to shake my tooshie to the Latin music with about six other people - come and join us if you’re awake!

Until next week…

Martina Celerin

Scarf making week!

I’m still trying to regain my balance after the workshop in Cincinnati, so I’m late posting again. After my big welcome home it took a few days to put everything away. I immediately launched into my scarf making mode, which means converting the dining room and kitchen into specialized work areas. I put two leaves in the dining room table so I’d have enough length to lay out scarves. To achieve a back-friendly working surface I raised each table leg by four encyclopedia volumes—hey, they’re good for something in the age of the internet! I covered the whole thing in a couple of layers of plastic to protect the wood and began setting the trend in scarves for fall 2011. I have to hold off as long as possible so the major designers don’t copy me, but now I’m ready to reveal that this year I’m doing all lattice scarves. I feel especially good about these because they consume the most reclaimed materials—I use yarn scarps that are the thrums from weaving projects and bits of yarn balls leftover from other people’s knitting and crocheting projects. The materials are mostly what I can collect over the year from resale and consignment shops around town such as the Opportunity House or the recycle center, plus leftover yarns given to me by my weaver and knitter friends. I’ve been having great fun creating the color palates for the scarves! Sometimes there’s a multicolor yarn that leads to a nice color combination, or sometimes I just channel a place or an emotion from deep inside. When everything is laid out I transform the kitchen island into a rolling station. I turn off all the lights, turn on WFIU and set myself up so I look out the kitchen window. I need 600 hard rolls in each session so I just get into a nice space and count through my workout.

Of course my life always seems to be filled with other nuggets of excitement. I had the pleasure of meeting the photographer from Bloom magazine, Steven Raymer. He has twenty-five years of experience photographic for National Geographic and he’s on the faculty in the IU school of Journalism. I was a little intimidated and felt a little humbled, but he is such a thoughtful, put-you-at-ease person that it was all great fun. He came with an assistant and took a bunch of shots in my art studio before going outside to get better light and take advantage of a beautiful fall day. He got a great shot of me with my yin-yang piece (I’m thinking ‘cover shot’ here Bloom editors—what do you think?). In other news, the whole family went to see Click Clack Moo on Friday. Like all Cardinal Stage productions it was a lot of fun, but I realized my boys were growing up. They’re a little too old for this kind of kid’s play (but not ready for ‘Hair’). We’re still on board to see ‘Annie’ with Grandma this Christmas, though.

Sunday the whole crew (Jacob too!) got into the Lila Mae and went to Lake Monroe fishing. Jacob drove the boat (the electric trolling motor) to get us on the fish and I filled up the bucket with crappies and wipers. Did I say I caught the biggest ones? I guess Tommie and Jim contributed a few too. Last night was the big fish fry and they sure were good!

Oh, and before I forget, this Saturday, October 22, is the Discardia Pop-up Sale from noon to 7 p.m. at the Bloomington Eco Center, 323 S. Walnut. The official blurb says “Discardia artists create one of a kind designs from 90% recycled materials. This non-profit consignment store is having it's second sale of items including jewelry made from bicycle parts, purses and bags made from rubber inner tubes and upholstery samples, clothing made from tablecloths and other used clothing, felted items made from old sweaters and more. If you are looking for something unique and want to help save the planet at the same time, this is the sale for you."

Until next week…

Martina Celerin