Artisan Studio Tour 2013

I've signed up to do the Mississauga Artisan Studio Tour again this fall, on October 26 & 27 in Port Credit.  You can get more detailed updates, map, participating artisans, etc. on my Facebook page, or the tour's website.  The paper brochures are being printed currently, I'll share when I get some in a few weeks.

Picture with strap on purse

Here's one of the silk bags with the strap attached.  My Etsy listings for the clutches indicate which colour the strap on each listed bag is - black (like this one), navy, gold, or beige.  The cross body style, as pictured here, measure about 46" (117cm) long.

Clutches with Straps

My silk clutch purses have now got straps.  The strap is 50-50 cotton viscose cord.  I have added shoulder/cross body straps to many of them, and wristlet straps to a few. 

Gallery Craighurst

We took a trip up to Craighurst, ON, north of Barrie today to bring a selection of my work to Woodside Pottery & Gallery Craighurst.  The owner is a potter himself, and has his studio space attached to this gallery shop, in which he sells work by various artists and craftspeople, including his own work of course.  He visited the Spring OOAK show, where I had a small booth back in March.  He now has some of my butterflies, scarves, and silk clutches. 

Baptisia / False Indigo

Here's the blooms of the false indigo in the garden :)

Plants, Flowers, Colour

Recently we've planted a bunch of new things in the garden, some herbs, vegetables, and flowers.  One that I was looking at last season was false indigo (Baptisia).  I just added a small one to the garden last week.  It can, apparently, be used as a dye plant, like 'true' indigo, though does not produce as good a blue colour.  I will have to wait until the plant is a bunch bigger, at least 2-3 growing seasons I think, before it's big enough to try it. It's got buds on it so once the flowers come out I'll share a picture.  I've also got rhubarb, beets (not a dye plant, but maybe a good stain?), red onions, and possibly other things that might make good dyes or stains.

Also, I'm going to be changing the layout of the blog shortly, so if you notice anything that isn't working properly, let me know?  Thanks!

Leaf Prints

So many plants have great shapes and textures.  Yesterday I was feeling a little badly about neglecting my artwork in favour of the outdoors, so I decided to bring the art outside.  I set up a little space on the patio table, newspapers as a table cover, a small sketchbook, old paintbrush, bottle of black India ink, brayer for pressing/rolling, and a small selection of leaves from the garden.  Especially in the breeze, the ink dries quickly, so only ink one piece at a time, but the idea is simple - brush the ink onto the leaf, top and/or bottom side, place on a blank page, cover with the next page or a scrap piece of paper, roll the brayer over top (this helps get a better print, though you can just rub with your hand or put some weight on the page), then gently open the page and remove the leaf to see the print.  If the first print had lots of ink, you can sometimes get a faint second print.  Here are two of the best ones from yesterday:

The first is celandine (a wild plant), the second is top and underside of lovage (an herb).