Where is Spring?

Well, spring may not have completely hit here in Michigan, but it is in full swing down in Southern Indiana where we spent the Easter weekend at my mom's. Her place is simply magical this time of year - I wasn't ready to leave! A few pictures....

Missing Pig!

Has anyone seen this little piggy? He came upstairs with me for a photo shoot, and never made it back to my studio.... maybe he went to market.

Around the house

That's where I've been, in case you're wondering.

If you have kids, you know that a change in seasons means more than just opening the windows and switching to lighter jackets. It means tackling a mountain of clothes from last year - what fits? What can be passed on? Is this too girly to be passed on to your brother?

Last weekend, I washed ALL of the winter clothes - snow pants, snow bibs, snow suits, gloves, hats, scarves, coats... knocked all the mud off and wiped down the snow boots. I folded it and put it all away. Of course, it snowed on Sunday night (stuck!) and we had to drag it all back out on Monday for school. Michigan in winter means that the kids wear snow boots every day. So, that means that they haven't worn any other shoes in months. Guess what? None of their shoes fit from last year, so suddenly we are out of shoes. We have a mountain of shoes and none of them fits anyone. Sigh.

Finally, I feel we have transitioned to spring. Yesterday it was in the 70s, today the sun is deceptively shining - it is in the 30s. Sigh.

Easter sales for me were pretty good - I'm so glad I was stocked up and prepared. Last week I was looking at a pile of brown bunnies thinking "why did I spend so much time on these and now they haven't even sold?" In a matter of days I was sold out. Phew! I don't even have any Easter eggs to carry over until next year :)

Today I'd like to take a break from work, and make some little spring animals for my kids' baskets. I've been sewing deer and lambs and pigs for weeks.... it's time that I put a little of that energy into them. Tomorrow at Handwork Group, I think I'll snag a few patterns from the other artists and make... well, I won't spoil the surprise!

I find the best way to get back into blogging is to just start a post about anything, no matter how mundane, how short, edited or unedited. So here goes...

What have I been up to? Well, I finished that pelican I was working on. Like weeks ago, but I left you out of the loop - sorry. He is already sold! I was thrilled to hear back from the guy who originally asked me to try it and he bought it on the spot.

Here he is partially finished (without his final layer). I took it with good intentions for blogging about my progress.... I had some trouble with the beak, and ended up completely severing the first beak, and redoing it from scratch. Be glad there are no pictures of the first beak - yikes!


And finally finished!

The birds are telling me spring is just around the corner!

Today has been one of those days that's hard to break into. I just can't seem to get my act together to get anything accomplished. As I gloomily checked my email, said good morning to my Twitter friends, and got some coffee, I overheard my kids playing hide-n-seek with their caregiver. Smile. "It's not such a gloomy day," I thought.

I noticed that the sun was starting to shine on my window shade, making the whole studio glow. Opening the shade, which involves refolding the accordian pleats and clipping it up with plastic clips (yes, I still have those temporary paper shades after living here for a whole year and a half), revealed this lovely sight.


It may look dismal to you, but those are the tracks of my children, which were created just a few days ago on a snowy winter day. Today, those tracks reveal grass peeking through, and the thought of my kids running around out there having a blast gives me a warm feeling. Too often, I'm scolding them for venturing into the snowy yard when they haven't the proper boots on, too often I'm in a hurry to get out the door, too often I forget to enjoy the little things.

It's 45 degrees right now. I cracked open my studio window so I could hear the birds, which is well worth the chilly breeze that occasionally graces my bare feet as I sit here typing. The snow is melting. The sun is shining. The birds are singing - spring is coming!

Pattern Making - a favorite part of the process

In the handwork group's shop, a customer asked if one of us could try a pelican. I love a challenge, and this has been great fun so far! I thought I'd share a bit of the process with you.

I start with a sketch, and try to work out scale. I've looked at books and the internet to view pictures of real pelicans - all different sorts. My customer didn't specify a particular species of pelican, so I'm doing a black and white one. I think they are a bit more aesthetically pleasing than the common brown pelican :)

Next, I look at photos of stuffed animals - mainly birds for this little pelican - to get ideas on construction methods - where to put the seams, what the shapes the fabric pieces might look like flat, etc. Then I start to cut up my drawings into little makeshift patterns. I fold them and tape them and try to form a real 3-d animal. If a piece doesn't work, I take it off the model and trace it, making modifications, a snip here and there, and try again. And that is the point I have reached with the pelican ~ I think he's coming together quite nicely so far!


Next, I'll try him out in craft felt (not using $wool until I know the pattern works LOL)! This will give me perspective on what is too hard to make, what works great, and where I can consolidate pieces. I like to sew as few pieces together as possible. Also, at this point I'll look for feedback from my other handwork group artists. It's already been sugggested that perhaps I could make the beak a single piece instead of a 3-d beak, but I'm not sure.... I kind of want to emphasize the beak since, well, it is a pelican.

Our school is on break right now, so the handwork group is meeting at my house in the morning instead of the usual cozy fireplace room at the school. Hopefully I can make my home feel cozy enough that we will all be comfortable there (and productive).

On that note, I better go and give the toilets a good scrub, tidy up, and make sure the coffee pot is ready to roll...