Much accomplished, little finished…

I thought this week I would begin by talking about costumes I’ve created for the Sounds of South production of Pippin.  That project has taken over most of my week.  One of the big tasks I moved forward, with the help of Nancy Riggert of course, is making Charlemagne’s costume.  In the spirit of full disclosure, Nancy’s son Will and my son Tommie portray the king, so Nancy refers to us as the queen mums.  We worked on the king’s regal cloak, which I wanted to make as rich and ostentatious as possible to reflect his character.  I found a blood red velvet curtain at the recycle center (Materials for the Arts program) months ago, and this became the starting point for the costume I envisioned.  If you’re a person of my generation, there’s a hint of Carol Burnett in the costume, without the curtain rod.  I also found bits and pieces of costume embellishments at the Recycle Center, including a formal red table runner and trim from fancy pillows.  

I added used black fake fur from the hoods of jackets we collected at the Hoosier to Hoosier sale last year, as well as the last bits of a black vest I used to make the headdress for the beast in Beauty and the Beast.  I even found a use for some rings from an old purse, a gold hair barrette, black trim that we harvested from a different red curtain and gold fringe that we got from the Bloomington Thrift Shop.  If that wasn’t regal enough, we added lots of harvested gems to give it sparkle as well.  I love how it looks on the hanger, but I think it looks even better on the actors!  Now I need to create a crown worthy of the cloak.

A second project that we’re tackling is completing an arsenal of swords for the chorus army.  I created a sword design to complement the armor and helmets of the warriors.  The real challenge is repeating the process for seventy swords!  Bret Rothstein cut over 140 hilt halves from rug padding that wasn’t used for the armor.  Charlotte Appel cut out my swirl pattern from craft foam and Bill Riggert cut the lengths of PVC pipe from scraps we found in the theater woodshop, the Re-store and Alice Lindeman’s backyard.  We also cut out blades from leftover corrugated plastic recycled from last year’s Beauty and the Beast costumes.   

Misti Hayes glued the handles all together, including attaching plastic ornaments I collected from the Recycle Center on the handles.  Nancy Riggert is attaching all of the silver fabric to the blades.  Finally, we’ll need to paint the handles silver and attach them to the blades, then -- ta da!  Seventy battle-ready swords for the stage. 

I also spent some time at South working on the sculptural piece needed for the performance, a duck puppet.  For the body of the duck I used a deflated, oversized volleyball that I got from Brian Shepherd at Binford Elementary.  I cut a hole for the actor’s arm to fit in and filled the inside with remnant quilt batting that great Aunt Lois gives me.   

The arm entry passageway is crafted from a stocking of Meredith Burnham that she no longer wanted.  The head I carved from a cylindrical piece of foam from the Recycle Center and the whole thing is covered with felt remnants, also from the Recycle Center.  I began attaching the final layer of feathers, which are leftovers from Babette’s feather duster costume of last year.  It’s so fun to know the history of each little piece of my creations—nothing is cookie cutter when I get rolling. 

On the weaving front I did manage to release the water and sky background from the loom for the willow commission piece and stretch it out into its frame.  It is a small step, but the process is moving forward.  Next I will use my dimensional crocheting technique to build the water forward and create the land mass from which the willow will emerge. 

On the family front, the first week of school is behind us!  It was a long week, even though it had only three days.  As school moves into full swing, the boys will keep training in Taekwondo and weapons as they move toward their second degree black belt.  They will add twice weekly evening rehearsals for Pippin from now through the end of October.  

 It’s going to be a busy fall!  On this Sunday morning, though, after a restful Saturday, they were catching up on their electronic gaming.  This afternoon when the homework clock struck one, all games ended.   

Hmm, and did I mention there is no pie?  We had visitors from Ann Arbor Friday and Saturday night, who generously took us out for a leisurely brunch.  Unfortunately, we missed our Farmer’s Market trip, so at this point there are no peaches for pies or watermelons and cucumbers for the week!  Hopefully the Tuesday market will come through for us.   

Until next week,

Martina Celerin

Weaving blue skies…

This week I spent time in my studio working on my next commissioned piece.  After the long, wonderfully busy summer, I needed to take myself back to the beginning of the summer.  We spent two weeks on the beach in North Carolina looking at water and blue skies, and I’m delighted to report that the background of my commission captures those elements.  The foreground will feature a willow with its long branches swaying over the water.  I have started working on the tree as a traveling project to poke at while I wait for the boys at their activities.  I have been using army blankets to create the inside of the tree trunk and I still have one more blanket piece left.  Those of you who are regular blog readers will recall that I began using army blankets when Grandma gave me Grandpa’s old army blanket.   

She didn’t know what to do with it and didn’t want to throw it away.  I discovered that it was perfect for the core of trees I make.  It’s basically a felted, solid wool base that I can build on to form the trunk.  Over the surface I needle felted fleece that came to me by chance from a young woman raising Shetland sheep.  She approached me at Fourth Street a few years ago and I bought some fleece from her and I’m just now using up the last of it.  It’s the perfect color for willow bark. 

The Fourth Street Festival, my next big event, is rapidly approaching.  The image that I've posted is of this year's T-shirt design - a tribute to Jerry Farnsworth and his amazing kaleidoscopes.  Coordinating all the small tasks and making sure they’re completed commands a lot of my attention these days, but only for another month.  I made the difficult decision in late spring to step down as president of the Fourth Street festival committee.  I’ve been with the group for over twelve years, and I’ve learned an enormous amount from them.  

 I’m grateful for the experience and the friendships I’ve made.  Still, it’s time to move on after this fortieth anniversary art fair.  I’m excited about all of the artists that will participate this year—120 come from all over the U.S. to descend on the art-loving community of Bloomington.  I’m very proud to be associated with the event that is such an integral part of the Bloomington arts scene.  I do need to keep my nose to the grindstone and create a few new pieces for the Labor Day event.  I have had a very successful summer art fair season already, which means that I will need more work to fill my booth with a fresh display of my pieces. 

On the family front we are approaching the beginning of the school year.  Wednesday will find both of my boys in high school!  Amazing!  I will have to split my time between my studio and the costume studio at Bloomington High School South to complete thecostumes for Pippin.  One of the last elements of costume design that I’m contemplating is providing headdresses for circus performers.  I found a used copy of the “The American Circus:  An Illustrated History” online and it has plenty of inspiration. 

Yesterday morning Jim and Tommie went off fishing and Jacob and I headed for the farmer’s market.  We slept in a little longer than the fishermen and we found the market packed and rocking—it was full of people!  We scampered around to get the produce we wanted.  We got watermelon, corn, cucumbers, basil, plums and peaches.  We dropped our treasures off at the car and sauntered back to get delightful dainties from Maria at Piccoli Dolci.  Jacob and I relaxed on the grass and watched the world go by on a pleasant Saturday morning.   

Oh, and the best news of the week!  All is right with the world.  I found a warm peach pie after the last market that went delightfully well with decaf espresso in the morning for breakfast.  If that weren’t enough, Gwen Witten dropped off a warm Derby Pie yesterday evening for dessert! It was AMAZING!!  Life is very good.

Until next week,

Martina Celerin

Friends in the Garden

It’s finished!  My large commissioned piece is complete.  If you’re a blog regular you know that I’ve been working on the components for a large garden piece for some time.  The last friend to join the garden was a female yellow warbler that I created this past week in Michigan.  More on that trip later.  This particular piece was a challenge for me because I had to figure out how to make new flowers and creatures.  One of the special parts is the dragonfly that is hovering just above and barely in the weaving itself.  It’s a special guardian.  

 I made the wings out of the lace from the dress that Heather wore the day Dan proposed.  I was delighted when they stopped by yesterday to pick up the weaving—I felt really good about how the piece came together for them. The piece was ultimately so intricate and three-dimensional that I felt I needed to make a movie that I posted to Youtube to help reveal its character.  The link is below:

When the piece left the studio last night I briefly considered taking a day off.  That’s when I remembered that I was commissioned at the show in Madison to create a willow tree by a shore, very similar to the piece that found a home there.  A person came by on the second day of the show eager to buy the piece, only to discover that the willow was gone.  I love willows and feel a special bond with them.  There is a Czech expression that if you have troubles you should talk to the old willow.  The political turmoil in this country is such that I’m looking forward to chatting with my new willow.

And as promised last week, I’m posting some images of the finished armor for the chorus members of Pippin, as well as the armor for Charlemagne, Pippin’s father and Pippin’s half brother Louis.  Huge thank you to Nancy and Alice, and all of the other worker bees that made this come together!!

 I still need to engineer and attach the strap mechanisms so that it is an easy on-easy off costume change for the soldiers.  I’ve been collecting black plastic clips from old backpacks and fanny packs and the like.  I have about forty and I need at least seventy for the performance.  I’d be delighted to receive more donations of these if you should come across some no longer in use. 

We made a quick decision to do one more trip to Michigan this summer.  We hauled the boat, which makes the trip a bit longer, but it was soooo worth it!  Jim and Tommie were able to get the boat on the bay three times, and I accompanied them on the second venture.  

It was an amazing early morning boat ride out on Tuesday out to the Pinconning bar on Saginaw Bay of Lake Huron.  The sun was shining and a gentle breeze moved us along and the humidity was delightful compared with southern Indiana.   

We fished into the early afternoon and Jim and I caught walleyes steadily until there were fifteen in the boat.  While we trolled, Tommie focused on catching perch, which are Grandma’s favorite.  He was able to contribute seven to the fish fry.  

 And oh, was it a fish fry!  Fresh bread, sweet potato waffle fries, Grandma’s cole slaw and potato salad made it a meal to remember.  For desserts, Grandma made some delightful chocolate/cherry/almond no-bake cookies that went well with a glass of wine.  Sadly, though, there still was no pie.  We did collect transparent apples in Michigan in Grandma’s orchard, found a few ripe volunteer blackberries in our garden, and bought a big basket of peaches at the farmer’s market this morning.  There just has to be a pie soon, right!?!?

Until next week,

Martina Celerin

My Cerulean Warbler Searches for Pie

I have been working full-on to complete my commission piece, punctuated with a few ventures to Sounds of South to keep my costuming project moving forward.  The weaving features an intricate garden scene.  The background is now completed.  It is a lush flower and vegetable garden full of vibrant colors and blooms.  Now I’m working on finishing two songbirds for the weaving intended to be focal points.  They are both warblers and beautiful songbirds, although that decision complicated the piece.  The first warbler I finished is a cerulean warbler.  Cerulean describes the beautiful blue color of the bird, which has a rich song to match.  When I studied the warbler I learned that only the male sings.  That’s perfect, I thought, so I named him Dan.  The problem arose when I realized that I needed to find a female warbler with a beautiful voice too.  My choice of a female Magnolia warbler, based on her colors and feather patterns, failed the biological accuracy test when it turned out she doesn’t sing.  Only a few of the female warblers actually sing so my choices were limited.  Curses!  Shouldn’t all warblers sing?  After an exhaustive image search I settled on a the stunning female yellow warbler.   

Her coloration will bring a warm glow to the piece.  In addition to the birds, I’m having a lot of fun with the composition because there are a lot of family heirlooms incorporated into the piece.  I hope it is both aesthetically appealing and meaningful to the commissioners.  I promise to post a picture of the finished piece after it appears in its new home. 

On the costuming front, the Pippin costumes are moving along beautifully.  Nancy Riggert and Alice Lindeman have been busy bees, especially for creating, assembling and painting the armor for the war scene.  Did I mention that there seventy kids in the production?  That means seventy chest plates, helmets and swords.  I am incredibly grateful to them for their hard work while I was off wearing my art fair hat.

  I designed the armor patterns, but Nancy and Alice and other parents traced and cut the chest plates out of reclaimed insulation foam and carpet under pad.  The complementary shields are cut out of craft foam - leftovers from last year's production of Beauty and the Beast.  The pieces are glued together and painted with silver paint.  They also enhanced the shadows of the three dimensional armor features with black sharpie and added rivets that we created from the filters of Keurig coffee units.  Thanks Dawn Adams for collecting and thanks Dale for drinking much of the coffee. 

For some variety, we’re also using the grey caps from pharmaceutical bottles donated by Cook Pharmica to the Materials for the Arts program at the Recycle Center.  Next week I’ll post a picture of the riveted variety, but for now just admire the shining armor! And the sword blades are done – seventy, cut from recycled corrugated plastic - thanks Bill!! If you want to see the final production in all its glory, Pippin will be presented on the final three Saturdays in October. 

On the home front, Jacob is finally got to have his ‘friends’ birthday party yesterday.  He invited fifteen of his closest teenager friends—OMG!  Jim and I hid downstairs in the art studio until the pizza came.  When it was finally quiet we come up to survey the damage—the house was still intact—and they were outside playing a marshmallow-throwing game – all good.  I think my reward for going through the process of cleaning the house and preparing for the party should be a pie – just sayin’

Until next week, or sometime soon,

Martina Celerin

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

Work, work, work…

I’m back from the Des Moines Arts Festival and it was wonderful—it never lets me down.  It isn’t just the community of art appreciators and collectors (over three hundred thousand people attend)—they are pretty amazing—it’s the show’s philosophy, organizers and hundreds of volunteers.  The Festival organizers are highly thoughtful, efficient and professional.  Everything runs smoothly.  The art fair dovetails with events in the adjacent parks, bringing fireworks, concerts and even outdoor yoga to the long weekend.  Grand Funk Railroad headlined the Saturday show, bringing an American Band to our town.  The volunteers are constantly on the job, bringing by water and snacks, squeegeeing the streets after a rain, or just asking if there were things they could do to help.  The set-up window is long enough that we can leisurely put together the booth.  I arrived to my two rented 500 pound weights in place.  They lie on either side of my booth space so I can tie my art down to big rocks with handles and keep everything from shifting around too much.

I passed over a very nice part of our trip to talk about the festival, and that was a night spent with Ute, David and Simon in Iowa City.  Ute is a friend of Jim from graduate school and they put together a nice salmon dinner for us on Wednesday night.  It makes the trip so much nicer to spread it out and see friends.  Thursday breakfast brought fruits (white currants, strawberries, and plums), rolls, and home made black currant chutney.  Yum!  The best part was that Ute sent me home with a jar.  She even visited us at the fair on Saturday with a friend so we got to chat a little bit more. 

One of the most popular pieces at Des Moines was my willow piece.  There’s always enough breeze to keep the leafed branches swaying a little.  The movement draws in a lot of people to see the drama of the piece.  Many people admired the it, and a few even came back to show friends the piece after it sold and were disappointed.  When the dust settled, four pieces had found new homes.  For me, selling pieces has a few stages of realizations.  First there is a very happy sensation to sell the piece, then it’s a little sad, and then:  oh crap!  The reality of the next show looming on the horizon sets in.  In this case its Madison, WI (Art Fair on the Square) and I need more pieces!  That’s the mental space where I am right now—work, work, work!  I do pride myself on being organized and prepared, though.  Just for such a contingency I had several pieces in various stages of completion when I arrived home.  I’ve been up early and working late to complete three new pieces to take to Madison. 

The first piece that I finally brought together is called ‘My Roots’ I have been pushing the piece along, continually discovering that I needed a few more vegetables to fill in a space or round out my vision.  If you haven’t been following the blog, it is a statement piece about root vegetables that tell the story of my roots.  Some of them, such as sweet potatoes, are a very recent addition to our family food repertoire.  I didn’t grow up eating them.  Others I can’t remember not eating, such as kohlrabi.  Radishes, of course, were the first root vegetable seeds that we planted with the boys.  Yellow onion, especially the skin, is my favorite natural dye to work with because my grandmother first told me about using them to dye Easter eggs. 

The next piece to be finalized is called ‘Heirloom Tomatoes’.  I did the weaving of the ground months ago and incorporated all sorts of objects that families pass down, which is part of a family’s history.  Sometimes objects mean something to only one person.  For example, I have my grandfather’s stage make-up set as a treasured keepsake.  He was a bass in the Czech opera, and the make-up case was passed to him from his uncle.  While that’s not in my weaving, I do have objects such as fishing lures that are an important part of my husband’s family.  The weaving includes an old rusty lure with hooks filed down that used to belong to my husband’s grandfather.  The sewing bobbin in the piece reminds me of my great grandmother the seamstress.  Actually, the origin of the composition began when I discovered a tailor’s circular knife at the Recycle Center.  I wondered what it’s story was (the boys thought it was an old pizza cutter).  I knew it belonged in my piece.  Another item in the background is a hair curler.  My family went to an estate sale in our neighborhood and discovered the tools of the trade in a hairdresser’s estate.  One of the extensive collections for sale involved hair curlers.  I told the daughter that I planned to use them in a weaving.  That got me thinking about Fonzie from Happy Days and his famous comb, along with my childhood combs.  The piece also features objects that were essential but are now obsolete, such as film spool winders and a skeleton key.  In my ‘Heirloom Tomato’ piece, the plant is an heirloom because it springs up from its family history, not that the variety is truly an heirloom in the eyes of a gardener. 

My third piece is called 'Tired Tree'.  As a kid I always dreamed of lazy summer days as I imagined them from books.  I wanted a swing on a tree that traveled out over the water from which I could leap into a cool lake.  The best I could do now is to create that experience for myself.  I also enjoyed the unexpected materials that surprised me as perfect for the piece.  I created the tire from a small section of core material used to create the piping on the edge of furniture.  I wrapped it with black yarn and glued three rows of shoelaces to create the tire tread.  A very thin shoelace forms the lip of the inside tire rim.  If only I could be five inches tall, ever so briefly—I’d have a great time on my swing!

The drive home from Des Moines was long, bringing us home late Monday night.  We did find a delightful restaurant in Crawfordsville, Indiana, called the Barefoot Burger.  What a fun place!  We’ll be back after the next show on the road.  The sad part of weekend art fairs is missing the Saturday farmer’s market in Bloomington.  What ever could I do to get a much-deserved pie?  Fortunately, in a stroke of husbandly brilliance, Jim brought me to the Tuesday afternoon Farmer’s Market.  Lo and behold they still had tart cherries!  Three boxes of late-season ripe tart cherries and the wheels were in motion.  Jim pulled out his pitting tool (thanks Grandma!) and by morning we had a pie.  Of course there were several pie filling units in the freezer, but I thought I might not get one in season this year.  Hooray!  Now the bad news—I finished my last slice of pie this morning.  It was an amazing tart pie, but now its just a distant memory.  I wonder what the next farmer’s market will bring?  Which berries are blue and tasty in a pie?    

Until next week, or sometime soon,

Martina Celerin

Summertime travel, with art packed in the crevices…

It has been a jam-packed month since I last posted.  This is likely to be the summer pattern until I make it through the summer art fair travel season.  On the bright side, my days have been filled with family time, enjoyable workshops, work on commissions and preparations for travel to art fairs.  First came the family time.  At the end of the school year we made our annual trek to Topsail Island in North Carolina.  I thoroughly love people and interacting with them to share ideas, but at some point I just need some down time with my wonderful family.  This year we opted to spend two wonderful weeks relaxing on the beach.  

 It was exactly what I needed to recuperate and regroup before my busy summer schedule begins.  We ate fresh ocean fish (grilled amberjack was a very nice surprise), walked in the surf, collected fossilized shark’s teeth and found seashells. Jim made three glorious pies while we were there.  One was a blueberry-strawberry pie from local fruit and two were peach pies, baked together when Jim realized he had way too much filling for the available pie plates.  The time off was just what I needed.

On the drive home from Topsail the boys dropped me off in Richmond Virginia for my workshop.  One of the organizers is a long-time Facebook friend, Elizabeth Woodford.  She met me in Richmond and brought me to Fredericksburg.  We had a fabulous hour-long drive where we finally got to talk one-on-one and bond.  I think we must have been sisters in a previous life.  She’s an amazing person and I’m so glad to have finally connected with her to share a big hug.  After dropping boxes of workshop supplies at the Artful Dimensions gallery, Elizabeth delivered me to my hosts, Barbara and Bobby Posey.   

What amazing people!  They were gracious, generous, fun and interesting.  I just can’t even come up with enough positive adjectives to describe them.  We had such wonderful conversations.  I’m just delighted to be part of their world. 

I arrived in Fredericksburg early enough to be a tourist for a day.  I had the opportunity to visit some interesting local sites, some historical and some artistic.  I was as struck by the cannonballs embedded in a church since the civil war as I was exploring the local galleries that featured contemporary artists.   

That includes some fiber artists using synthetic felt and heat guns to create sculptures and textures that almost looked aquatic.  I have stored away some ideas that I’m sure will influence future pieces of mine.  We walked and had a wonderful time, but I was jarred into some of the realities of the civil war era.  The slave auction block in downtown Fredericksburg stands in stark contrast to the quaint charm of the historic southern town. 

The next day, Monday, was the beginning of the workshop.  Fifteen participants arrived, bringing a very high level of enthusiasm.  Working with them was somewhat intimidating because most were accomplished artists in their own right.  

 They embraced my ideas of weaving outside of the conventional structured methodologies and incorporating non-conventional materials into the weave structures and the weavings.   

We all had fun pushing the envelope of creating art in unexplored areas.  I truly enjoyed seeing the pieces that were created at the workshop and the sharing of ideas among the participants.  

 I’m looking forward to seeing how their workshop experiences influence their subsequent pieces.

On Wednesday I flew home to Bloomington for a day and a half.  That was just long enough to do laundry and re-pack my suitcase for a trip to Michigan.   

At Grandma’s house in Kawkawlin we overlapped with Martha and Dave from Mississippi and Haley, Kris and Arya from New Mexico.  It was a full house, including one giant family dinner with the Gibsons from next door and Aunt Lois from Essexville.   

Dave and Kris each got to spend a day with Jim and Tommie on Saginaw bay fishing for walleyes.  This was the first venture of the new boat onto Michigan waters.  They were very pleased with the boat and the fishing, resulting in a delightful fish fry and a freezer full of walleyes to bring home. 

During all my early summer adventures I have been working on my commission piece, which involves needle felting of a large number of leaves.  I have a mountain of sweet pea leaves completed as well as leaves for a lily plant and a blueberry bush.  Now that I’m home I can start assembling the pieces I created on my travels.  I can’t rest for too long, though, because I’m scheduled to travel to the Des Moines Art Fair next weekend.  

 I picked up my weavings from my exhibit at the Bloomingon Bagel Company and I’m beginning to pack the rest of my weavings for the trip.  I’m looking forward to my first art fair, but there hasn’t been a pie for breakfast since North Carolina.  On the bright side, we caught the tart cherry pie season yesterday morning at the Farmer’s market and bought enough tart cherries for three pies later in the season.  Tart cherries make my favorite pie, so I know I’m in for some treats.   

When I get home I’m imagining that I might get a blueberry pie as a reward for a successful trip west to Iowa.  Bring on the art fair!   

Until next week, or sometime soon,

Martina Celerin