Fourth Street on Labor Day weekend!

Over the past week I’ve been making the final push to create some fresh art pieces for the Fourth Street Festival.  I had a very successful summer of art fair travels, which left my booth looking a little threadbare.  Unfortunately, all of my most recent pieces sold.  I like to have some fresh work to show all my friends, old and new, at the Fair.  That means I had a couple of weeks of pretty intense weaving.  The piece I finished most recently is called Flower Fiesta.  The concept grew out of a piece I did a couple of months ago called Bike Parade.  It featured bike wheels dancing on the horizon between the sky and grass.  This time I wanted flowers instead of wheels.  I decided to try creating flowers based on my sweater petal strategy.  

 I also wanted to take charge of the color palette for my piece, rather than rely on what I can find at my local thrift shops.  I therefore did a little over-dyeing this week.  I took the big circles of felted sweater material and dyed them in purple, red, orange and yellow.  The colors came out beautifully, with one unexpected twist.  The dye wasn’t able to penetrate the entire thickness of the felted fabric, such that the core of the flowers remains the original colors.  It makes perfect sense in hindsight!  When I cut the sweaters to create the shapes I need I get a light colored outline around each swirl of color.  I think the mottled effect just adds to the spontaneity of the piece—there’s a real happiness and lightness to the piece that makes me smile.  Come by my booth at Fourth Street and check it out.  

In local news, the squash that I’ve been babying along (and excited to cook and eat!) is starting to look an awful lot like a decorative gourd.  The fruits are just not getting any bigger—dang!  The boys are getting into the swing of school and Jim is finally back teaching five mornings a week.  I decided that everybody needed a little reward on Friday night.  In my travels I stopped at Angel B’s bakery for some treats.  I learned about Angel B’s during the Art of Chocolate event last year when they produced some amazing confections.  I picked out a delightful selection that we all shared.  I must say that was a great idea!  Because it’s the last week before the Fourth Street festival, my life has been incredibly busy taking care of the last few details. 

Yesterday morning I was interviewed by the Herald Times videographer, as well as the arts writer, but I’ll save that story for next week as part of the Fourth Street Fair report.  You can look for me online on Thursday, if you’re a Herald Times supporter.  All I need now is to have Hurricane Isaac veer a little more to the west so the rains don’t hit us next weekend.  I’d like to have some nice weather for the show!

Until next week…

Martina Celerin