Des Moines Art Festival, here we come!

My loon piece is complete!  I finished needle felting the loon in Michigan and it was fun to be able to show the piece to my family there, especially Grandma, in real life as opposed to just in pictures.  When we got back from Michigan I needle felted the loon onto the weaving background and decided to add some reflection of the loon on the water. 

 I used very thin, gauzy layers of black and white merino fleece and felted like crazy into the water’s surface.  I made the cattails and leaves earlier, so I stitched them on as soon as the loon was in his place.  I’m delighted with how it turned out!  When we returned from Michigan I leapt into action on my large format ‘trail through the woods’ piece.   

I finished attaching the understory and stitched the background on to the frame.  When we were on vacation at Topsail Island we collected a box full of special beach rocks called mother stones.  I knew when I was collecting them I knew they would be useful for something, and I thought they were perfect for the trail’s edge.   

The piece projects off the wall about twelve inches, and I just love the way it looks when I walk around it.  I have it in the living room where we can all enjoy it before we pack it up for the big trip to the Des Moines Art Festival in Iowa.  Speaking of the trip, I woke up during the night thinking about all the new pieces I created for summer art fairs.  I suddenly had the realization that I don’t have nearly enough protective weaving covers for all the new pieces!   

As my family was watching Apollo 13 on movie night, I was cutting up old pillowcases, tablecloths, bed sheets and some fabric scraps I got from our previous trip to Michigan.  I also love using up scraps, including threads.  This was my opportunity to use all my wound bobbins remnants, which gave me a rainbow palette to sew up my weaving covers.   I now have 18 brand new weaving covers appropriate for my large format pieces.  In the past I just used old pillowcases, but my work has become even more dimensional that I need to create my own protective weaving covers.   

Sewing brings back fond memories for me, since I always think of my step-grandmother the seamstress when I’m sewing.  She used to complain that my lines were not straight enough and compare my sewing to a puppy peeing.  I think she would be pleased with how straight my seams have become, and the fact that I zigzag all my seams. 

In vacation news, our trip to Michigan was wonderful.  We had Haley and the new baby Arya fly in from New Mexico.  Dave and Martha drove up from Mississippi on their ‘visit the family’ tour.  For several days Grandma had a very full house, and it was terrific.  One of the fun things that we did was go on a charter with Captain Dougat Fish Point lodge.  

 Between the lot of us we brought home 17 walleyes.  We released a lot of small fish, many sheepshead and a couple of huge catfish.  We ate well, got plenty of hugs and laughed a lot, so it was mission accomplished for me.  Yesterday morning was the Farmer’s market.  Jim and I managed to slip out together.  It was a delightful morning—it was like a date!   

We picked up some local blueberries, perfectly ripe tart cherries, black raspberries, peaches, cucumbers and some fresh broccoli to come home with us.  The tart cherries are pitted and in the freezer, waiting to become a pie.  This morning, oh my, oh my, I smelled a black raspberry pie!  It looks beautiful and I can’t wait to try it! 

Until next week,

Martina Celerin 

A loon swam by for a visit…

Right now I’m working at full steam to complete two pieces before the big Des Moines Art Fair at the end of June.  A few weeks back, during the Open Studios Tour, I had created the background for a piece that will feature a loon gliding on the water through cattails.  That was before our visit to North Carolina, and I think I was channeling northern waters when I started it.  Now I’m close to finishing the loon.   

A huge amount of detail work has gone into getting the body shape just right and forming the intricate design on its back.  The level of detail reminds me of the days when I used to do counted cross-stitch.  Luckily, I’ve had a lot of meetings to attend, boys Taekwondo classes, and visits to the doctor  (just checkups!) to give me time to work on the loon.  Just a couple more car trips when Jim drives and I should have it complete!  I do have to be careful when I work on the eyes, though.  I’ve learned from past experience that I should never poke at a creature’s eyes around other people—it just weirds them out, even though it’s wool. 

While the loon piece has taken a while to get back to, my major studio focus has been a large format ‘path’ piece.  I’ve been posting snapshots on Facebook (I have a Dimensional Weavings page, which you’re welcome to visit and‘Like’).   

Recently I attached the tree trunks, added crocheted leaf clumps and branches, and lately I’ve been working on the understory.  Soon I’ll be able to stitch the actual weaving onto the frame and call it done!  I’m excited to have two more new pieces to take on my summer art fair trail.  First it will be Des Moines at the end of June, but this week I also learned that I was invited to participate in the Madison Art Fair on the Square again!  Hooray!  Everybody is excited to do the show, especially since we get to see Wendy and Duane in Hollandale.  I know we’ll eat well and laugh a lot. 

With the summer comes a whole bunch of family activities.  The boys announced that this summer they wanted to learn how to paddle a kayak.  As fortune would have it, we ran into one of their former teachers, Cindy Creek, who is one of the two teachers in the multiage classroom at Rogers elementary (with Mike Love).  She’s also a Zumba person, which is how I ran into her lately.  She’s an avid kayaker and volunteered to get us started.  We rented three kayaks on Friday, a day when the lake’s surface looked like oil. 

 It was flat and just perfect for learning.  We had a great time splashing around all morning.  Also on the boys ‘to do’ list was to ride the zipline in the Brown County.  We had a fabulous time, zipping along at thirty miles an hour, sixty feet over the forest floor.  I think we’re ready for the advanced (longer and faster) lines now.    

Jacob has also gotten into baking this past year.  His class started an ‘Emeril’ cooking project and compiled a cookbook.  He picked up another cookbook in North Carolina and has been baking ever since.  He’s made tiramisu cupcakes, chocolate covered strawberry cupcakes, scones (chocolate chip, then cranberry), and a peanut butter brownie sort of a dessert.  

 And finally, we found tart cherries at the farmer’s market on Saturday.  Of course you know what that means—pie!  Jim made a delightful pie.  He and Jacob thought it was too tart.  Tommie and I disagreed.  It was so flavorful, though, that we went back to the Tuesday night market and got more cherries.  They were pitted last night and popped into the freezer for the next time I need a pie fix.  This time it will be a mix of tart and sweet cherries, so hopefully the whole family will like it more.   

Although, if I love it and they don’t, hmmm... more for me? 

Until next week,

Martina Celerin 

Three weeks full of art excitement!

My life certainly has been full!  I’m afraid it has gotten in the way of blogging.  The good news is that I have three weeks chock full of art news to relate.  Two weekends ago we opened up our house for the Open Studios tour.  I hosted Talia Halliday as a guest artist and my two boys supported the operation as doormen and greeters.  Talia does beautiful work with recycled materials to create art books. 

She took over part of the living room and hallway, while I displayed my work in the dining area.  Anyone who wanted to see my studio came downstairs to see my latest loon piece at an early stage.  We had a few familiar faces come through, but there were a huge number of new faces among the eighty-six visitors on Saturday and fifty-six on Sunday.  I enjoyed showing them the space.  Generally new visitors are amazed at how much material I have stored downstairs.  I often use between fifty and one hundred different yarns in any given piece to get the intermediate tones I want for each element and the color gradients I use for the backgrounds.  I have boxes and boxes of raw materials I’ve purchased, inherited, traded, or recycled from one source or another.  Anyway, the show came off without a hitch.  People commented on my polite and well-dressed doormen.  On the slow times, Jacob and Talia even collaborated on a book, so the freshest art was always on display.

I currently have two elaborate pieces that I’m trying to bring together before my first summer art fairs.  The first will feature a loon on the water, which was in progress during the Open Studios Tour.  I have since finished the water and I’m well into the cattails.  I haven’t completely decided whether there will be one loon or two just yet.  Right now I’m leaning toward one and calling the piece ‘Where is She?’  I’ll have to see what feels right when I get farther into the first loon.  I’m also working on a large format piece featuring a trail through the woods.  It is similar to a commission I did last year that I really liked.  I hope to have it completed in time for the Des Moines show at the end of June, and I’d like to find it a home in Iowa!  

 Right now I’m working away on the large tree trunks, tree branches, and mountains of leaf clumps I need.  The leaf clumps I’ve been making out of the mountains of green yarn I dyed last month and blogged about.  I do have two and a half gallon bags of leaf clumps completed, but last time I remember I thought I had enough, but I seriously underestimated how clumps I needed.  The tree trunks I need are coming along nicely too.  I make these out of Grandpa’s old army blankets.  I cut up the blanket and wrap pieces (triangles, actually) around some used baling wire before stitching it all together.  Of course the blankets are wool, so I’ve been felting them by sending them through the washer and dryer.  Speaking of the washer, I’m on a pause right now because it isn’t spinning, leaving me with a load of clean but very wet clothes. 

The helpful fellow from Morrison’s Appliance should be here this morning to have a look at the beast for me.  Between the washer, the roof leaking again, and Jacob’s trips to the eye doctor after getting bashed with balls on two separate occasions (he’s fine!), my life has been pretty full—even hectic!  And just when I thought my art was on a good trajectory for my Des Moines show, I mentioned to an art friend (she owns the Hidden Closet) that I wasn’t doing any art shows until June.  She burst by bubble by pointing out that June is next month!  And only three weeks away!  A big flurry of art has to happen between now and then. 

Looking back over the last few weeks, there have been some great times and big rewards.  I’ve been up early to do Bollywood at nine most Saturdays, which cuts into Farmer’s Market time.  Last week I was up at seven and bounced downstairs, ready to go.  I persuaded my boys that we needed to go to the market and off we went.  The bad news was that it wasn’t officially opened at seven.  The good news is that they sold us strawberries and rhubarb anyway!  We initially bought two pounds (rhubarb) and two quarts (strawberries), but the berries were about a third gone (thanks to Tommie) before we got very far. 

We picked up two more quarts for shortcake and eating at home.  They didn’t last more than a day.  The rhubarb wasn’t enough for my big pie plate (lovingly made by Jan Arborgast), so Jim was forced to make a delightful strawberry-rhubarb pie .  Mmm, was that ever good!  Jim baked some biscuits for strawberry shortcake too (Jacob doesn’t like rhubarb-based pie), so everyone was happy.  Tommie then took over making biscuits, a new skill he learned in Home Ec class in middle school.  That’s the first useful skill he’s learned—I’m sorry, I can’t count making microwave brownies as a life skill!  The pie lasted until about Tuesday, and Sunday was Mother’s day, so of course we needed to fulfill the rhubarb-pie-on-Mother’s-Day tradition.  Jim got busy again, this time with three pounds of rhubarb (last Saturday’s trip to the Farmers Market).  This one was great too, but I think I prefer the one with strawberries mixed in.  It has a richer flavor, a little more color and some different textures.  But I’m not complaining!  I’ll take two pies in two weeks any time!  For Mother’s Day Tommie made some more fresh biscuits that we had with jam for breakfast (do you get the idea that I’ve been eating well lately?), Jacob made me a beautiful card, and Jim made me the pie.  Unfortunately, someone gave me a cold too, so I wasn’t at my top form.  Still, my loving family helped me through.  What more could I ask for?

Until next week,

Martina Celerin