What it feels like to have an organized closet...

All I can say is, "Wow!" I was lucky enough to receive the several hours with a professional organizer by the name of Jennifer Linnig. Not only did she make the whole process fun, but I ended up with a beautifully organized and clean closet. We emptied out the entire closet from floor to ceiling. Then we sorted. Then we put thing away where they belong. There are lots of empty hangars from the stuff that will be FreeCycle'd or eBay'd and I actually have room to hang everything up now. I even found a few things that I had forgotten about. Now I just need to do the same thing with the rest of the house and I will have a perfect house. (Well, I can dream, can't I?)

A first for me on eBay

Well, today I received a question I had not been asked before. Someone saw this music fabric that I have for sale on ebay and wanted to know how much it would cost to sew a necktie out of it. Hmmmmm. Well, how much have you got? Seriously, though, it is difficult for me to put a price tag on such a task as it is not my typical sewing project. That fabric would make a really cool tie though.

I was really torn over whether to even agree to do such a project. On the other hand, it is money. So, I quoted what I hoped was not too unreasonable a price and we'll see what happens.

More fun with shredded junk mail

I just completed the next piece in my Junk Mail series. It is a smaller version of the first envelope. I made it especially for the competition called "Art That's Small in City Hall" in Laguna Beach. It is for artworks that are 12"x12" or less. I even got through the entire piece without breaking a needle on my sewing machine.

So, now I am trying to think up other pieces to add to this series. I was thinking of doing a sculpture of the shredded paper in the shape of a nest with fake credit cards placed here and there. The title would be "Feathering the Nest." And then I was thinking of another sculpture in the shape of a mail box with the title "Junk Mail Box."

Then I am going to have to order a bag of shredded money from the US mint and make a money tree. And I wonder what I can do with shredded IRS forms. Hmmm, the creative process at work.

Designing patterns

I have really been wanting to create more patterns for some of the things I create. I was very happy with the one I created for my patternless handbag. Those instructions have certainly ended up being referenced on a lot of other websites. Eventually, I want to do the instructions for my stuffed pumpkins and for my rag angels. And, with the video camera I got for Christmas (thank you Mother & Daddy), I can actually do videos of how I make stuff.


I got to practice my newly found video making skills a couple of weeks ago when I went to an elementary school up in Costa Mesa to film (sorry, video) the children's book author & illustrator Scott E. Sutton during one of his presentations to the kids. What fun! I had a hard time keeping the camera on him, I was laughing so hard. For a first attempt, the video turned out pretty good. Now it just needs to be edited down a bit.

That exercise has made me look more closely at how other instructional videos are shot. The problem I have when I was shooting my own stuff is trying to do it all myself. So, when I want a closeup of something, I have to stop, re-adjust the camera, and the start again.

The other more important issue is how much time it takes. It is easy to just sit down and make something. It is much more difficult to have to stop and think about how to make it, and to put it into words and pictures for someone else to understand. I found that it takes about 1 hour of working time to produce about 1 minute of instructions. So a project that takes an hour for me to make, takes about 60 hours of work to create the pattern and instructions.

Now that I look at it this way I understand why I have been so reluctant to start another pattern. And, I really understand why pattern designers get so upset when someone copies their design. I wonder how many times my patternless handbag has been copied.

Time to start thinking about spring art shows

Now that spring is officially here, it is time to start looking forward to the spring art show season. I have several shows lined up. I'll be doing the Oceanside Days of Art again in April and the following weekend will be at the San Diego ArtWalk. I really love both of those shows. They do such a great job of selecting good quality artists. For May, I signed up for the Balboa ArtWalk, but I have not yet heard back from them so I don't know if I am in yet.

So, I spent today printing out some of my cat themed greeting cards and clearing off my work table and getting a bunch of interfacing cut to size so I can start making my 8x10 collages. And I have lots of new music fabric to play with. You can see a sampling of my collages by clicking here.

Fun with shredded junk mail

Last night I took a few handfuls of the shredded junk mail from the huge bag that I collected and soaked it overnight in boiling hot water. It is amazing how much shredded paper just a few sheets of paper can produce. Anyway, today when I opened up the container, I had a nice soft mess. The paper shred hadn't disintegrated, and the type was still visible. So, I took a hand blender and made a nice pulpy, gloppy, gray colored stew.

Next, I scooped out handfuls and plopped it onto a fine mesh over a paper plate. I used the paper plate to confine the pulp to a circle. I laid another layer of mesh on top and pressed a towel over it to soak up the excess moisture. Now I need to wait for it all to dry. It is somewhat thick so it may take a couple of days. No photos yet. It's too soon to move it.

In the meantime, I am listing lots of new music fabrics on eBay. I just went over 500 for my feedback rating. Yippee!

boo hoo

Well, the Festival doesn't want me this year either. I didn't get past the first phase of jurying with even one of my submissions. Oh, well. I'll try something else next year. I really wonder if the judges understand fiber art. Whatever. It's hard trying to not second guess them.

In the meantime, I have made a departure from my regular raw materials. I had a bag of shredded junk mail that was about to go in the trash. It really bugs me to throw stuff like that out. So, I got to thinking about what I could do with it. I tried a small sample piece and found that I could actually sew on paper. I then made a much larger piece of "paper" and folded it into the shape of a #10 envelope. I stuffed a bunch of unshredded junk mail into the "envelope" and here is the result, shredded paper art! I call this first one "Junk Mail." I see a series coming.