Find your place at Spring Bird
I’ve written about my fondness for Valentine’s Day before in this blog. For me, it’s not about the romantic love and teddy bears; however, I did read far too much into those conversation hearts that I received from grade school crushes. I just loved the …
For a very long time, I’ve been wanting to host an Artist Residency at Spring Bird for artists, writers, and makers who are longing to have the time and space to make! I know how critical this cottage and woodland was to me in the …
You’ve probably heard the saying “dress for the job you want”. The implication is that you will be perceived as more successful, artistic, or however within the professional setting in which you work. But what if you work from home, and the only eyes assessing your dress …
These Stuffed Animal Pillows are my attempt to create huggable wildlife! I love have always loved stuffed animals and dolls –especially homemade ones. They are also huggable paintings since they are made from fabric printed with the image of my watercolor paintings. I also really enjoy observing …
How do we make our homes? Our culture impresses upon us the value of disposable trends and knicknacks sourced at Target end caps, but I remember growing up with elaborately embroidered dish towels and pillow cases and braided rag rugs constructed from work clothes. Traditional …
The absolute truth is that making soft, stuffed heart ornaments makes my heart grow three times as large. I can’t explain it, but it is a project I regularly undertake in various iterations each winter. This year, I decided to use upcycled wool (from old …
Anyone who has harvested their own walnuts knows the power of their husks to dye. It’s impossible to come away with unstained hands no matter the pairs of gloves you wear. Last year, we dyed some cotton yarn. This year, we dyed some old cotton …
In renovating the cottage, we decided to paint the kitchen’s linoleum floor instead of replacing it. I had some crazy vision to paint the floor like a quilt– in tiny triangles. I chose six colors: light gray, dark gray, dark green, gold, and pink in porch …
I had one previous experience dyeing with indigo, and it was truly magic because a textile dipped in an indigo bath will actually turn blue when exposed to oxygen. So, after pulling them from the dye bath, you sort of wash them in the air …
Every time that I gave a tour at the Roger Brown Study Collection, the visitors would spin on their heals mesmerized by the myriad of art pieces that Roger Brown had collected. My eyes would always be drawn up to one particular piece, a paper mache jaguar mask, …
Those of you who are subscribers to Woolgathering might remember my piece in the Fall Issue about stuffed pumpkin. For those of you who aren’t subcribers or don’t remember, the following is an excerpt: “A few years ago, we heard about stuffing a pumpkin on an NPR piece about …
This Summer we got caught up in a beautiful collaborative web at the Renaissance Faire. The Faire’s collaborative webs were strung between trees with simple, white string. Visitors and Renaissance residents tied and wove leaves, sticks, pieces of yarn, lost pacifiers, and broken bits to …
If I had a secret weapon in my war to be a creative productive person, it is the mighty pamphlet book! A pamphlet book is a simply stitched book with a soft cover. It’s basically what you would make if you have one of those …
Dyeing with Two Pots For this adventure in dyeing, we got smart and bought a second enamel pot. It’s larger: 5 gallons versus 3. So not only can we cut production time by half, but the larger pot can contain voluminous quantities of plant materials …
Why Use Natural Dyes? My journey with natural dyes began over steaming pots of onion skins and turmeric and with a mysterious flowering vat of indigo. It was about 12 years ago, and I was taking a beginning weaving course at California College of the …