Sue's
in the studio......look out......she's focused and experimenting.
I
like what she's doing here. It's like marbleizing on pottery
I
thought this double rim bowl was an interesting pot.
This
was a request from a customer. A Knitting Bowl. I
guess you put your yarn into the bowl and bring a string out of
one of the openings and it keeps the yarn ball from running all
over the place.....good idea so Sue made the next one for alpaca
yarn.....
I
think this one is really cool and will be a good seller, there's
nothing like alpaca wool.
I'm still working on the
quilt. My mother loves taking photos of me with an iron in
my hand or sitting at the sewing machine, like the one below.
I've
pieced together the 24 squares. that each had 19 pieces in each
one.
That's.......a
lot of cutting and sewing. But it was fun and relaxing and I
couldn't think of a better studio to work in. Having the sun
streaming in the window and looking out at the woods and weather,
it was really quite a nice experience.
Some of my
earlier squares were not the same size. I made four extra
but still came up a little short on some of them. The
binding will now be attached around the perimeter....I'll start
that tomorrow.
Sewing long runs of fabric was
hard. I'd never done that.....I think I need more pins to
keep the fabric more in line. Plus it would help if the
sewing table was at the same height as the sewing machine.
So I'm going to make something that will make it easier to sew the
long bindings on the sides.
February
is turning out to be a good month. January was poor and last
February was terrible, but this year, this month could be our best
February in 29 years of business. How about that.
Last
month Sue put the finishing touches on her Drum and Ocarina combo
seen below
Within
days of it being in the gallery it sold. I know I don't have
a really good photo and I'm hoping Sue does. I never really
got to play with it either, I only know from when Sue was testing
it how great it sounded. So that's gone, she'll have to try
another. But we do have a video I have embeded from Sue's
YouTube channel....check it out below.
Sue
is packing a lot into each day. She has orders like the
dinner ware set below.
There
are six plates here drying rim to rim. She has 16 plates
drying right now. Plates can be very problematic as they dry
so Sue lets them take as much time as they need.
These
mugs are part of an order for the local PBS station. Sue is
once again making their incentive for donating.
So
things are buzzing along pretty good now. But being in this
business and life all these years I know it turns on a dime.
Like
I painted, "Moonrise Over Jay Mountain Range" in
2006. Over the past five years it's gotten a lot of
looks. Maybe unlike a lot of artists, I raise my prices as
time goes by on each piece. If it isn't selling that means
the price is too low. This painting I had to move for New
Years because we needed the wall it was hanging on. So I
recently put it back on the wall that is behind the sales
counter. You can't not notice this painting when you
come up to the counter.
I've
always had people ask be about the painting and make
comments. In the last week though I had two different people
show much interest and don't you know, off it went.
I
don't know how many times I've seen that happen. I know I've
spoken of it in this blog somewhere, that when we put our
attention into one of pieces, that energy gets picked up by people
coming into the gallery and they are drawn to look at it.
Perhaps look at it in a way they hadn't before.
Sue
and I spent many years practicing "intent". I
guess it's the art of putting your attention into something and
receiving a result you wanted. Of course making art and
craft like we do is doing that already. But we've seen it so
many times in our lives and business life as well.
I've
learned a lot recently about fabrics and quilting. I ran out
of some fabric that I haven't been able to replace but I needed so
little, I found a decent replacement at a Jo-Ann Fabric store 90
miles away.......I guess I got the bug.
So each
time I finish a square I take a photo and I've pieced together
some designs that I might use. I'm still making squares
because I want to have a selection.
My mother is of
the depression age and she doesn't approve of this wasteful
method. But you never know with me. I might use the
unused squares for a book cover or something.
I'm
already planning my next quilt, it's going to be for a queen size
bed, this one is a baby quilt size, so it'll be a different world
making that one.
I probably way ahead of myself on
designing another quilt already, because I still have to do the
quilting part of the baby quilt. Sue said she would join Mom
and me and we'd have a quilting bee.
Without really checking I think
this January was probably my most productive blog writing
yet. That's because I've been busy doing things
finally. I think I've re-focused my time. Having the
quilt project and knowing that I have a role in a play to do and
limited time to myself has done this. Being in the play
requires such discipline and that's what I needed right now.
I was going too Adirondacker.
After the play,
"The Birthday Party", which opens on July 26, 2012 at
the Upper
Jay Art Center, I can go back to being Adirondacker.....leaning
and loafing at my ease.....in pursuit of creative endeavors of
course.
The quilt is on hold I'm only several
squares away from putting it together, but I'm short on one
fabric, I've ordered it, but don't you know it's on
backorder. But, baby isn't due until mid April.
Today
was one of the few days snow has fallen this year. Sue had
to make a delivery to The
Community Store in Saranac Lake. The roads were
terrible, it was 40mph the whole way, but we just sat back and
enjoyed it, there were few cars on the road. The town fought
hard to keep Walmart out of town and out of the Adirondacks. so
the idea of a Community Store sprung from that. They have
wonderful clothing, underwear, socks, all the stuff you need and
more. Now they have Sue Young pendants and mugs.
Sue's
building up a wholesale business, mostly locally with solid
businesses that are going to stay in business and actually sell
the work. Pendants have sold very well, they ordered in
December and re-ordered in a month, we're hoping the mug will be a
hit with the Saranac
Lake Winter Carnival crowd.
After the slow
drive there and back I got started on my tomato sauce.
Those
are giant cans of diced tomatoes, I might as well make a lot as
make a little. Organic carrots and celery. I read that
celery was a vegetable that really held on to the
pesticides. It's mostly water so it would have higher
concentrations in its cells. So I've switched to organic
celery. Of course its easier now that the kids are grown,
the food budget is smaller and there's more time to shop and think
about what you are buying.
So I dice up the
carrots, celery and onions, sweat them up and caramelize them
slightly down. Salt and pepper about half and hour.
Add the tomatoes and bay leafs, simmer for about two hours, blend
with an emulsifier add spices, simmer for another hour or so.
This
makes me a nice tomato sauce stock. I can freeze this and
then add to it whatever I like for the meal I am making.
Tonight I added pesto that we froze and additional basil
leafs. But you could roast peppers and add them, additional
garlic....etc....
I use to just add sugar to the
sauce to cut the acid in the tomatoes, but then on a food show I
saw them use carrots to sweeten the sauce.....tried it and liked
it. I didn't peel the carrots.
I've been
working on digital art lately. I have a nice project going,
involving loons. I once did three different etchings of
loons. "Looner Reflections", "Looner
Reverberations", and "Loons Bathing in Northern
Lights". They were very popular, but I didn't print
many of them because they were so hard to print.
I've
been recreating the idea of Looner Reflections in vector art this
time. I'm having some success, but it's been a learning
process. I'm beginning to lean toward the idea of creating
my own prints digitally. My ideas are original and unique, I
know they would sell very well at the right price point and
presented well. Perhaps next week I'll be far enough along
to put a proof of my idea up here on the blog.
But
in the meantime. I worked on the following idea this evening
as I was going over photos in my camera. I took this photo
in Peru NY of a farmers field.
I
felt there was a lot here to work with. I took out the water
town, buildings and distant trees. The big tree I felt was
leaning to the right out of the picture.....so I cut it out but
duplicating the photo, splicing the photo in half, rotating the
tree about 3 degrees and lining it back up. Then I cut out
the barn and then I put that back and was able to change the color
saturation levels on the different objects to make the photo
below.
By
tilting the tree to take the lean out of it I created a little
rise in the field, but that brings the eye back to the middle of
the photo. The barn and tree shadows I burned a little
darker as well.
Sue
will be giving a workshop in the new clay studio at the Cultural
Center in Plattsburgh, it's for experienced potters. Sue has
been experimenting, successfully, over the past eight years with
making musical instruments out of clay. Udu's, ocarinas,
flutes, xylophones, and now she's putting the finishing touches on
an instrument that is a combination, drum and ocarina.
Sue
has it strapped down while she glued the sheep skin. She has
the head tied and clamped, and around the rim was a pony clamp
while the glue dried.
The
she trimmed the goat skin drum head and put a nice fabric border
around it. The drum percussion comes out after making a 90
degree turn, and it comes out through the middle of a circular
ocarina. She below how she plans to play the ocarina.
Sue
has a tube coming off the ocarina mouthpiece and she's wrapped it
in a nice fabric. The mouthpiece is going to have bead work
on it.
This
is where the ocarina mouthpiece meets the tube. Sue has it
glued and wrapped in fabric.
The
mouthpiece will be beaded. Here Sue has begun work with
colored beads to create the mouthpiece cover.
I
hope to shortly record Sue playing her instrument and we will post
it here.
I eagerly anticipated this day. I've come to
enjoy quilting, or maybe I enjoy sitting in front of the skylight
and having the Adirondack sun warm me on a morning that was 10
below zero. Perhaps it's the joy my Mother gets at watching
me at the sewing machine, she keeps taking photos of me,
apparently she can't believe it.
It's also the
quiet contemplative time it takes to sew together the pieces of
the quilt.
I've
precut strips of fabric that I want to use and I just lay them
next to and over each other to get a feel for them together.
All the centers of the quilt squares have the deep blue square in
the middle. On the right I'm preparing to sew the first
strip onto the center square.
So
I turn the strip onto its back and line it up on the front side of
the square and sew them together along the ¼" line. I
then trim the strip to fit the square.
After
each sewing of pieces together I iron the piece nice and flat.
My
Mom put an Xfactor into this quilt. After we had started and
I'd already made about four squares she decided that she liked
this checkerboard blue fabric and that she wanted to have little
squares in some of the corners. I, who never used a sewing
machine before and did very little sewing, and that was back in my
army days. (the army actually issued a sewing kit) I now had
to do an extra tricky step.
The two fabrics are
lined up and then placed good side together and sewed across the
right side. (If you understand that then your doing better
than when Mom first told me)
On
the left is what it looks like when it works. Then I take
the strip with the blue plaid attachment and line it up on the
fabric pieces I already have sewn. I sew along the bottom
line and then when it's flipped over and ironed
it
looks like this. Four pieces of a nineteen piece square.
Below
is the progression of this square.
I'm
going fabric shopping tomorrow, I just found out about a fabric
store I haven't been in, I'm turning into a quilting junkie.
I sewed three squares today and now I have eight. I'm going
to need 16 I think, but I'll put together about 20 so we can mix
and match the design and have some choices.
I have
an awful lot on my plate it seems all of a sudden. Tomorrow
rehearsals start for the play I'm in this summer, six month
commitment there. So I'm making the time for the quilt
making now before that get's going with too much steam.
I've written down the beginning idea of a
play. About a 94 year old woman and her 63 year old son, and
how they are making a quilt together for her new great
grandson. Not only am I learning a lot about quilting, but
also about my Mother, Me and life.
Here's
my work station. Not too shabby huh? Mom has her work
table, formerly the dining room table, set so that it's bathed in
the light from the skylight. It's also wonderful to stretch my
eyes by looking at the window every so often. Sometimes a
small herd of deer will be out there or a flock of turkey's, sun
streaming through the trees, it's always a changing picture.
The sewing machine is old and belongs to Sue.
I've been able to thread it and prepare the bobbin now. I've
run into different problems and fixed them all. I'm
understanding more about the machine and sewing with every stitch.
Mom just doesn't have the energy to do the cutting
and sewing, she does the design work and I do the labor.
She's made several changes and taken apart some of
what I've already sewed, but she was working out her ideas and now I
think she has it, we have it.
Just when I thought I was getting the hang of it,
she threw in an "X Factor", like in a reality game
show. She wanted to have little squares of a light blue plaid
on some of the corners.
It's certainly harder than what it looks like.
You have to sew the blue plaid into the fabric your going to use,
it's difficult to make it straight every time, and then there are
layers going under the needle which adds a new dimension to the
sewing.
However, it makes it look more like a baby quilt and
it offers up a host of design options for Mom once we get a bunch of
these squares made.
I made a trip to the quilting store, I wanted to get
something in yellow, but only found one that would work for the
quilt. But they were having a sale and I picked up some blues
that looked nice too. I'm having thoughts and visions of
creating my own quilt now, that I can hang in the gallery. I
was looking over the selection of fabrics and thinking of ideas.
When I brought the fabric back to Mom I told her I
went to Target. They do not sell fabric but Mom for some
reason doesn't care for the quilting store I went to and thinks
their fabrics aren't good. They are, but she's 94 and I don't
argue unless it's going to affect her health and well being.
I learned to make sure she doesn't see receipts,
unless I want her to. She didn't want bread anymore when she
saw that a loaf of Pepperidge Farm Thin Bread was four
dollars. I talked her out of it but there were other things
too before I got wise.
So there was no quilting today, because we went to
see the Doctor today for a regular visit. All is fine, Mom
just runs out of energy and has angina and she's 94 and a
half. Tomorrow is a visit to the eye doctor, Mom will be
getting some new glasses. Sue will be coming with us to help.
Probably Sunday will be the next quilting day, I'm
looking forward to it.
One of the benefits of having a New Years party in
the gallery is that it gets all cleaned up for the new year.
Starting around Thanksgiving we get flowers every two weeks for the
gallery, to put in vases and for the Ikebanas. It really helps
sell the work when people can see a beautiful arrangement in Sue's
pieces.
By the time Holiday shopping is over, the gallery
needs to be straightened up and having the party is the perfect
vehicle.
It's very quiet in January and we are closed three
days a week now so we can concentrate on studio work. I love
taking a break and strolling around the gallery, looking at the
work, getting inspiration and soaking up the good vibes.
Some days there is a little snow on the ground and
some days there is none, it's that kind of winter. Today Sue
had a work station set up in the gallery as she was working with a
home schooled girl and they were binding a book. She wrote
quite a nice story and she wanted to give the book as a gift to a
friend.
When Sue was doing the large mural projects she
used a lot of space in the gallery for those projects. I
like sitting by the window, checking out the birds, drawing and
listening to music.
But right now is end of year book keeping.
I've always been amazed at the amount of book work this little
business does. It's quite a bit less than it use to be, but
it's enough to keep me busy all this week. There's inventory
of the wholesale items we buy for the gallery, and inventory of
all the supplies we use in the art that we make. Yearly
expenses, etc., etc...
Glad I have the atmosphere of the gallery to keep
me sane.
I can't believe I didn't take any photos of the
finished crab cakes......bummer. They were good, I have some
frozen, but it wouldn't be the same photo.
We had 25 and the singers were great.
Most everyone had a solo, there was quite a
variety of tunes.
There was acting and choral singing.
We borrowed a digital projector because one of the
original Sam Balzac tunes was about the Land of Make Believe so we
projected some images from a program DVD about Arto Monaco and his
Land of Make Believe on the gallery wall while they sang.
We have done so many parties over the years, we have
real glasses and utensils that we keep just for gallery
events. Literally from ten to a hundred, we have done many
varied events in the gallery. New Years Eve parties among
them.
In the photo on the left is the large punch bowl
bear that Sue made and on the right are examples of the gift boxes
we used for Let's Make A Deal.
We have coasters on all of our displays so even the
very large wall can be slid out of the way. We can seat 25 to
30 comfortably. I have cardboard sheets measured to fit over
the glass displays so we can put hot food on them. We have
electricity on the displays so hot food can be plugged in. The
lights can always be arranged to focus wherever we need to have
it. Sue and I have always said this is like out little
theater. We were step up into it from the studio it's like
coming on stage for us.
We kicked around an idea for many years and tried to
find land and finance a small theater because we liked doing this
and I was getting interested in doing theater. We eventually
did it through JEMS because we could make it a non-profit and raise
enough money, but that's another story.
I would like to do some kind of theater in our
gallery space this year, something funny, I'll have to look
around. I am going to be in a play in July at the Recovery
Lounge, more on that later.
Here is smiling Sue.
So after the singing and a little noshing I played
Let's Make A Deal. Had a lot of fun, everyone got a gift of
some kind, there was a lot of laughter and spur of the moment funny
stuff.
After that I went to the kitchen, opened a bottle of
Proseco, and started frying my croquettes and my crab cakes.
We had so much prep done, Sue keeps a list that we check off.
I always schedule in chill time, otherwise you'd get burnt out
before the party is over.
I really enjoy cooking and having a party enables me
to have a nice culinary kitchen challenge, everything was a big hit,
you can't go wrong with great flavors.
New Years Day was very active for me. I
cleaned the gallery and got it back into shape. Moved all my
drums back and shined all the displays. I worked on my Mom's
quilt during the day and visited with her tonight at her house.
Any type of New Years resolution would evolve around
my time with Mom. I think I'm finally getting a mental handle
on the whole switching roles thing that goes with taking care of
aging parents. Because of that, I'm really beginning to feel a
twinge of creativity, but even more so, the desire to do something
about it.
So that would be a big resolution to make.
I remember the book "The Artists Way" and
an important step in finding the way back to your creativity was to
have a "place", a studio space where your creativity could
flourish. Also to put aside the time for it.
So I'm going to strip my studio, all the old ideas
and notes will be out. I think I'll pack up a lot of stuff and
put it in storage too. I mean I have papermaking supplies,
gocco print supplies, inks I probably won't use ever again.
Framing stuff that I'll never use again, because now I just go the
easy way and buy the metal frames in bulk.
I'll replace the old music with new. I have
four albums that Ervidlus gave me over the summer that I haven't
even listened to yet. Sitar and Indian music, and a wonderful
cello and sitar.
Last month I got in lots of New Supplies. BFK
Reeves printing paper, Arches Text Wove, Binders Boards. I had
to get my glue in before the winter because they can't ship the glue
in the winter, so I got the glue, tape and some brushes. I'm
all set. Let's see what happens, creatively.
Also this year I want to hike. Last year I
didn't hike, probably the first year in my whole life, other than
being a kid. I really missed being out in the woods, and that
will affect your creativity as well.
I want to discipline myself for this part in the
play "The Birthday Party", set to go in late July. I
have a small part, so that's perfect for me. I haven't even
read through the script yet, I'm really not all that excited about
it actually, yet. Talking with Scott about the dynamics of the
play was exciting and I'm sure once I can sit down with the cast and
we all read it and talk about I'll get into the spirit of it all.
Sometimes though I shake my head and say to
myself, "What have I done?". It will require
the discipline that I haven't had of late. I had it
once, I'm sure I can get back to it. I've lost weight
with each play I've been in, because rehearsals interrupt my
dinner hour usually, So I eat very lightly because it's
either too early or too late.
So I have just a couple of resolutions, oh and
drink more water and eat more fruit.
Also I wanted to write some stories and essays
and put them in a special place on the blog.
I've lived half my life in the Adirondack Mountains
now. I'm 64 this year and I've lived here 32 years. I'm
very excited about this coming year.
Here's
my work station. Not too shabby huh? Mom has her work
table, formerly the dining room table, set so that it's bathed in
the light from the skylight. It's also wonderful to stretch my
eyes by looking at the window every so often. Sometimes a
small herd of deer will be out there or a flock of turkey's, sun
streaming through the trees, it's always a changing picture.
