Working through the basketball game.

Last week I promised to share the image of my completed lemon commission, but the piece has not yet been delivered to Massachusetts.  I promise that next week I’ll post it – for sure!!  In the meantime, I’ve launched into my next commission, which involves revisiting my very first version of Winter Birches.  I pulled out all my whites and soft greys, greens and purples and began weaving the companion piece.  It feels a lot like retracing one’s own footsteps, because I’m weaving with the reference piece right beside my easel.  

 I look at the original and think…  oooh, that’s how I did that!  I even managed to find some of the original yarns I used in the piece.  I still need to make the trees and the branches, so that’s on my agenda for this week. 

I’ve also been working on the needle felting parts of two garden-themed pieces that I have in progress.  I managed to make two of the three onions for the ‘We Three Kings’ piece that will feature three onions underground.  The white onion is created from a natural-colored white fleece.  The yellow onion is fleece that I dyed with yellow onionskins last year.  The third, purple onion is something I’ll be working on during the IU game this afternoon.  It features hand-dyes purple mohair that I got from Fleece Fair last year.  The surface veins for this onion feature a beautiful purple alpaca – and I have no idea where I got it!  If the game is an easy win for IU, I should be able to get it done during the game.  If it’s intense battle, like the Butler game, I probably get too caught up in watching the game and I’ll have to finish the onion tonight.  

 This week I also completed the three crocus flower heads I intended to put into a weaving.  Now that I’m looking at the finished flowers, I might just choose one of the flower heads for the piece and add two buds that also pop out around the main flower.  To me, that is more reminiscent of the clumps of crocuses that come up in the spring.  I’ll see how I feel about the composition when I lay out the flowers on the piece.  

Mid winter is a busy time of year for art and city meetings.  Tuesday I hosted the Open Studios Tour meeting.  The event will be happening on April 27^th and 28^th this year.   Plenty of planning has to happen before then.  This year our call for artists brought in forty artists, with almost two thirds of them are new to the event.   The organizing committee is an enthusiastic bunch and it’s great fun to work with them.  And at home, tomorrow I’m planning on baking some lemon-poppy seed muffins, as requested by the boys.  It’s a poor substitute for pie, but I’m optimistic that the pleasant smells in the kitchen will remind Jim that he needs to bake another pie!  Peach, please!

Until next week,

Martina Celerin