Saturday, August 31, 2013

Good Morning Sunshine

I have been writing a lot about Leah and Mij lately, but since equal time is fair play and since I wouldn't want to leave him out of my blog, I thought I should write about my son Will tonight.  Will is NEVER going to see this, why would he ever be following blogs????  However, if he ever found out about this he would say "What in the world were you thinking when you put me in your BLOG."  He would NOT say this with a happy face or friendly demeanor.  But, since he is not going to ever find out, here is goes.....this blog is for you, Will.

Will is a rancher in the Sandhills of Nebraska.  He has cows and horses and dogs.  He is an animal person, just like the rest of the family.  He is a roper and you can see him above at a rodeo or team roping event.  He is the one heading (on the right).   Below is one of my favorite pictures of Will.  I call this photo "3 Blondes at a Brandin'"
because all three of these horses are palominos.  What are the chances?  Will is on the right again, on a horse I call Blondie.  He calls her Sunshine.  He renamed her on a day when his feelings toward her were taking a severe dip.  We can assume that the new name was laced with a little sarcasm.  It was one of her first brandings and she, being a more city horse at the time, resented her introduction to his more country ways.  They have sorted that out, but Sunshine got to keep her new name.   I think she is beautiful, but he assures me that beauty has nothin' to do with it.  You are either a good horse or not......pretty is just not a factor.  He and I can agree to disagree.  I still like pretty and all MY HORSES ARE BEAUTIFUL.

Sorry this had nothing to do with antiques or rug hooking.......I will do better tomorrow.
Janice


Thursday, August 29, 2013

I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas

I AM dreaming of a white Christmas......seriously.  It has been 100 degrees in the shade around here for a week and I am pretty tired of it.  So I ran across this pillow and thought it should grace my blog tonight.   This is a really darling pattern by Need'l Love.  I always try to stock it in the store and I always order it on linen!!!!  They show it with a red background, but I thought this blue grey was nice.  I made this years ago when I first made the monkey series.  There is grease monkey, funky monkey, spunky monkey and monkey business.  They are a related dye series, my own recipe and some of my favorite wool colors.  The background here is funky monkey.  Grease monkey is even lighter, monkey business is a brighter blue.  Spunky monkey is a rich brown/black that has lots of color overtones.  Fabulous background.  But for a pillow that needed some chill in the air, I went with funky monkey.  Ahhhhh......frosted window panes, carolers at your door, the smell of cinnamon in the air as you bake your Christmas cookies.........crowded malls, cranky last minute shoppers, presents that must be returned.....OK, I am over it.  I will take a few more days of summer heat.  I am not quite ready for the snow to begin.

Don't melt friends......
Janice

Wednesday, August 28, 2013

More Good Stuff

This is one of the neatest things I have had in for a long while.  It is a feed bunk with great red paint. It would be great outside with flowers in it or would make a neat coffee table or sofa table with glass on top.

This crib quilt I bought on our trip to Ohio.  It came from Illinois and has a little history tag with it.  It was made in 1885 for a baby gift, complete with family name.  Good shape, fabulous colors.  I wonder if it is Mennonite?

Then a wonderful collection of cookie cutters in a tin container.  There are 23 cookie cutters in a variety of shapes......animals, diamond, hearts  etc.
Obviously someone's entire collection,

And as promised, more baskets, sitting on a flower stand.  The pine piece is beautiful and would be terrific for a collection of crocks, stoneware or baskets.

These baskets never fail to attract attention.  There are so many sizes, color and detail.  Their construction is top notch and as I said last night, most of them are signed.  Some are ready for snippets and tools, some perfect for noodles and more noodles.

They are beautiful and very reasonably priced.
Call or write for more details.

I am dyeing today, some new techniques, some old favorites.  This is really nothing new, because I dye wool every day, but I got a wonderful new casserole pan that will hold bigger pieces, so I have been giving it a whirl.  The Friday rug hookers will be in a for a treat......beautiful new wool to look at.  I know, I will try taking pictures to put on the blog tomorrow night.  Sometimes the beauty does NOT transfer in a photo, but I will try.

Mij and Leah were up today and the love fest continues.  Leah took Mij to a dog park yesterday and it did not work out so well.  Mij would rather have private time with Leah, not be hassled by all those other dogs.  She really is a more 'air conditioning' type pooch anyway.  And since it has been 100 degrees around here for days, I suggested to Leah that the dog park should wait for better weather.......or perhaps for...NEVER.

Mij would rather come to Grandma's house and enjoy the air conditioning in the store, anyway.  She is becoming quite the little store girl and of course,  I will dog-sit anytime.

Soon,
Janice



Tuesday, August 27, 2013

Antiques Again

Back again with some more antiques new to the store.  Above is a walnut spice box, homemade with 6 drawers.  On the bottom of one drawer in old script is a handwritten recipe.  No paper on hand, quick, turn over the drawer of the spice box and write it there!

Next is a homemade spoon carved washstand.  This has a lovely iodine stain that gives it a reddish appearance.  Really unique.  The towel bar would be spiffy with hand dyed wool laying over it like hand towels.  Hmmmm......I should try that tomorrow.

Below a few of the many baskets I bought while at Sauder Village.  These were made by the Sauder ladies and most are signed on the bottom, by their maker.  These two have strap handles and are perfect for hauling lots of wool to your next hooking event.  There are lots more Sauder baskets in the store.  All shapes and sizes, so if you are in the area stop by and see all the interesting news things.

I will show a few more tomorrow, so check back. Maybe tomorrow I will show you the new project I am starting.  First I guess I should show you the one I just finished.  Yes, that is what I will do.......see you tomorrow, then.

j



Monday, August 26, 2013

Antiques and More

Here is a photo sent to me by the very fun visitors I had on Saturday morning.  These ladies came from Minneapolis and are quilters, appliquers and a rug hooker.  There was a Lori, a Laura and 2 Ann Maries.  What are the chances?  They were wool lovers and had a good time shopping for wool for their projects.  Ladies.....it was great meeting you!  In the next photos you can see some of the new antiques I got in.  The green gameboard was acquired on our trip to Ohio.  I love the colors and shape.  It will be gorgeous on a wall  Next is a dry sink.  Absolutely beautiful, with chamfered doors.  I love the little door and and the lines of the backsplash.   The flour tin is in great shape and I LOVED the color.  I am not sure I have ever seen a black and white flour tin in this style.   Blue yes, green, sure, but not black.  Hmmmm, it would look good in MY kitchen.  Love it!   There are many new things in the store, so I will add some more pics tomorrow night.       Tomorrow then,  Janice
                                                                                                 



Saturday, August 24, 2013

Dogs and Cats, No Precipitation


Well, I had a quite a day here in the store.  So many interesting people and activities.  I had some lovely ladies visit from Minnesota.  I will talk about them more tomorrow, they are going to send me a picture that I took for them in front of the store.  Until then................

Look!!!!  Her Mijesty is officially a theatre dog now.  Leah had a special one day theatre class in Lincoln, NE  (if you are in the Lincoln area, my daughter is an amazing theatre and voice teacher, check her out at ta4k.com...it is not shameless self promotion if you are promoting your daughter, right?  OK, maybe shameless promotion, just not of  SELF)   Anyway....Mij the Marvelous after only 6 days of being a city girl went to theatre class with 30 children, where she was quite a hit.   Mij of course has turned out to be quite a low key kind of cattle dog and slept thru 99% of the class.   But how can you not love a little spotted dog at theatre camp!  Go Mij, go Leah!

The day was full of customers and visitors, but at the end of the day neighbors Mark and Colette came by to help us give the 2nd round of shots to the six little feral kittens.  You many remember from a previous post that these little cuties were spayed/neutered a few weeks ago and got 1 round of shots.  It was time for another go round of shots before they can be released.  They are so tame now, we thought this would go without a hitch.  Why do I think these things.  I should have thought one of us might be killed by one of the darlings in the process of receiving shots and then the eventual outcome would have been a pleasant surprise.   However, it all went sooooooo badly, at one point I thought

one of us MIGHT die in the process.  You know how people say if you pick a kitten up by the nap of the neck, it paralyzes them, like their mother does when she carries them.  Well, first Carl tried that technique on Joyana.  That kitten turned inside out and clawed Carl's arm up one side and down the other so fast, all we saw was the blood spurting from his arm.  (OK, I exaggerate, there was blood dripping not spurting)  Let me just stop there and say THAT was the one out of 6 that went the best.  By the end, when all were vaccinated and dewormed, the 4 of us humans were a mess.  I had shrieked myself hoarse.  Carl was losing blood fast and the neighbors were sorry they had ever volunteered for the project.  We all had to sit down for a while to regain our composure.  The cats, I am sure, will never speak to me again. They will have to stay in their crate for another week or so until they forgive me.  If we let them out now, they would head south and not stop until they reached the Kansas border.   Once a feral kitten......maybe always a feral kitten, at least when it comes time for veterinary handling.  Yikes.  It was bad.  Carl will not die from his wounds, but the scars might be permanent.

So, speaking of cats, I threw in pictures of 2 different cat rugs I have hooked.  They are both based on antique designs.  The first one is hooked on a plaid piece of wool and has numerous pennies on it.  Someone should have suggested I count the pennies before I started this, because several dozen pennies into the project, I was sick of the whole thing.  If you see it up close, you can see my stitches started out reasonably small and ended up as huge basting stitches.  I thought it would be difficult to hook thru the wool, but it was not at all.  It was not even a particularly loose weave.  Try it sometime, it gives a very nice effect.  The little rug on the bottom has very primitive  kittens and a hit and miss border that looks very old.  This is one of 13 stair step rugs I made for my staircase.  I made it long ago, when cats and I were still on speaking terms.  It might be a while before I hook another feline.

Next time,
Janice

Thursday, August 22, 2013

New Rug Hooker

I had a visit from an old friend Laura Schram who brought her friend Barb up to the store to get some hooking supplies.  Barb has been knitting and doing other crafts and took to rug hooking immediately.  She is shown below trying out different hooks and frames.  It is amazing how you know immediately which equipment is right for you.  Barb liked the first hook she tried and a dozen hooks and tries later, she still liked the first one.  Laura sat and hooked with us and we had a very nice morning.  Thanks for stopping in Laura and Barb.


As promised, below is a pillow I hooked in a Diane Stoffel class last year.  It is Biscuit as a puppy and I gave it to Carl for Christmas. I apologize in advance for the picture quality.  At some angles it shows up fine, others it looks like a black blob.

 This was one of my first attempts at shading and here is what I learned from Diane.  It has nothing to do with color......it is all about value.  So my black lab pup has no black in her at all.  She has purple, navy, grey, green, brown.....but no black.  Diane had me think about everything in light, medium or dark value.  Then as long as the value was right, the color didn't matter, I just mixed.  Deciding where the lighter values should go was the biggest problem for me.  Lighter values to help the leg show up better, the shading in her face, were all easy for Diane to see.  Me.....not so much.  I just followed her instructions and it came out fine. Now I have done several more primitive shading projects and am starting to get how it works.   Looking at pictures to study the shading and indentations in faces and forms really helps.  As with anything, the more you do, the easier it gets.

I really felt like a grown up rug hooker after this little shading project.
Maybe I am ready for a shaded rose......yeah, maybe NOT.


See you next time,
Janice




More Dog Days

 Leah and Mij are doing fine.  Mij has Leah fairly well trained now.  Mij, who was going to sleep in a crate in the kitchen, now has free rein of the house, is sleeping in bed with Leah and when the TV is turned on, she heads straight for the new leather couch that was my house warming gift to Leah.  Whatever, it is just a couch.  A few white dog hairs on black leather will hardly be noticed.  I will just remember to take a lint roller with me when I visit.  Those white hairs stick to everything and everybody.


Mij is coming to my house tonight and I get to babysit her for a couple of hours.  I am pretty excited about that.  I have some work to do in the store, so she and I can get a lot done.  All this talk of dogs has put me in the 'dog' zone.  I don't want you to think I only hook horses.  I have hooked quite a few dogs too.  Here are a few of them.

On top is a Muensterlander that is owned by my brother-in-law.  Her name is Flash and I made this for him for Christmas some years ago.  Flash is a hunting dog, so I thought this pattern by Quail Hill Designs was perfect.  Next is Spanky, a Jack Russel Terrier owned by my friend Amy Swinford.  Spanky was a fly ball champion and never went any where without his ball.  It just had to be in his rug too.

Susie, the silver Schnauzer was a dog my mom rescued when her elderly owner passed away.  My mom eventually came to live with us and so did Susie.  I made this rug for my mom for Christmas one year.

And last, is a rug I made for Carl.  This is our dog Biscuit as a puppy.  She is ten now, so it has been a number of years since I made this one too.  This is a Woolley Fox design based on antique rug.  I used leftovers of as is wool for the background, hand dyed wool for the dog and the red echo.  This rug hangs in the store, I must have confiscated it from Carl at some point.  I am sure he doesn't mind.  That reminds me, I hooked another rug of Biscuit in a Diane Stoffel class last year.  I will find more pics of dog rugs to show you tomorrow.

Til then, wish me luck with Mij tonight.  I am sure it will be only a matter of minutes until she will have me trained to her liking too.

See ya,
Janice



Monday, August 19, 2013

Heirloom Beauties




  Here are two heirloom beauties made in last year's heirloom rug class.  The one above was made by Sandy Weller.  She chose the Cape Ann pattern from Woolley Fox and we color planned it with lovely vintage look wools.  The background is a mixture of greens and the whole thing is quite lovely.  The only problem is, it wasn't supposed to be that lovely.  Sandy just couldn't make herself go all the way into the homely rug arena.  She is taking the class again this year and I told her by gosh and by golly that this year's rug is going to be homely or else!!!!!

The rug below was hooked by Colleen Cochrane in the same class.  I drew this pattern for Colleen, inspired by several different vintage rugs.  She added her children's initials and birth years, and her and her husband's initials.  The background was a mixture of many different pieces of wool dyed Moose on the Loose and Itty Bitty Moose.  The background looks wonderfully old and faded.  The very effect we worked so hard to achieve.  This is truly a rug so homely only a mother could love it........and I do love it and so does Colleen.  She made it into a bench pad.  It is a great example of a beautifully homely  kind of rug.  Way to go, Colleen!  Sandy........keep working on it.  Your rugs are just too darn pretty!!!

Til next time,
Janice

Sunday, August 18, 2013

A New Home for Leah and Mij

This blog has nothing to do with rug hooking or antiques......altho, come to think of it, I see a rug of this adorable dog in the future.  My daughter Leah just got home from her summer theatre gigs, moved into a new house in Lincoln and waited 24 hours to get a dog.  She has been wanting a dog for years and it just never worked out.  She was all prepared to hit the pound and rescue sites when I got a call from her brother, Will.  He had a dog, Mij, who is just a year old.  She is a Hanging Tree, Border Collie cross, bred to be a cattle dog.  This little cattle dog prefers being a couch potato and Will thought she might make a nice house dog for  his sister, Leah.  We zipped up to Burwell today and picked up Mij.  Well, actually, first we gave her a bath cause she smelled a little like a cow.  She seemed to enjoy the bath and all the attention, said good bye to Will and ranch life and jumped into the car to head for her life as a city dog.  Leah already has plans to use her as 'Sandy' in ANNIE.  I know, the spotted dog might pose a problem being used as Sandy, but we have already solved that by making a few script changes.  We even thought she could be in SEUSSICAL, the Musical.  I definitely see her in a little ruffled clown collar.  Oh yes, hang on Mij.....you are in for a new kind of adventure.   Leah is already planning to have bandanas of all colors, so their outfits can match.  Some of this stuff, I will keep from brother Will.  It might all seem a bit much for his cowboy ways.  Best he not know all the details of Mij's transformation from country girl to city girl.   

Til next time,   Janice

Tuesday, August 13, 2013

Our GREAT Day

 Our day at Sauder Village has come to a close and we had a GREAT day!  This morning we went antiquing and then went to a wonderful chocolate shop called Stella Leona in Pettisville, Ohio.  The owner was an absolutely darling lady who opened for us even tho it was her day off.  We all bought tons of chocolate items and ate ourselves sick ALL DAY LONG.

Then we went to Sauder Village and it was wonderful.  We visited every shop and learned all about basket and broom making, tinsmithing and cooperage....ing.  We bought one of everything.
My traveling buddies Pat Shafer, Colleen Cochrane and Jan Goos were game to see and try everything.

With 4 horses at home, of course the first thing I had to do was take a carriage ride.  This darling girl Kayla was the driver and a retired Standardbred racehorse Big Boy, was our trusty steed.  Jan Goos and I are pictured with Big Boy and Kayla.

We all learned a lot about Erie Sauder at the museum and took this enchanting picture of Pat, me and Colleen.  They are apparently traveling incognito, with their shades on.

And finally a picture of me with my GHOST HORSE rug at the Sauder reception.  We had a chance to see good friend and great teacher, Pris Buttler.  We ran thru the vendors, repacked the van, ate more chocolate and are ready for bed.

Tomorrow.....home again, home again,
jiggedy jig.

Janice




The Road to Sauder

I am going to keep this short and sweet because we have some exploring to do here at Sauder Village.  But I must share one story of our trip here from Nebraska.  Yesterday I loaded 3 game ladies up in a rented mini-van and we headed off.
At the rental place the nice approximately 10 year old boy posing as a employee for Enterprise, brought the van to where we had parked our gear, helped us load up and we were off.  We made it a little way into Iowa before someone needed to use a rest stop.  We parked, went in and hurried back out to continue our journey.

Well, here was the problem.  I could not figure out how to start the van with the new fangled key fob thing.  There was a little tiny key that did not start the car and a big plastic thing with the door lock mechanism.  I tried and tried to get that key to work.  Everyone gave me advice about buttons to push and levers to manage.  No deal.  I traded places with one of the other ladies, she tried.  Here we were on our great adventure to Ohio and we were stuck in an Iowa rest stop, apparently too collectively stupid to re-start the car.  Oh, Dr. Susan where are you when we need you!  ( Dr. Susan is our usual driver, who couldn't get off work to go along with us.)

Now we started laughing that there was not one of us with an IQ above 60.  We were yucking it up and still stuck when I saw a van similar to ours pull in to the rest stop.  I sprang into action.  I ran up to the car, still laughing hysterically and said "I have a strange question for you."   The kind woman came down to our van, looked at the key and said "You stick this plastic thing in the ignition and turn".   The van rumbled to life and we......still laughing.....motored down the road.  That was in the first 45min. of our trip.  The 10 hour drive took us 15 HOURS.  More on that later.

Off to explore,
Janice

PS The rug is a chair pad I hooked for Dr. Susan's brother.  It was the only vehicle I could find in my stash of photos.  I am trying to keep with a theme here!!!!!!!

Sunday, August 11, 2013

Ghost Horse

I am packing for Sauder and will be leaving soon to go visit my 'Ghost Horse' rug, which will be a part of the display of Celebration finalists at Sauder Village this year.  I sent my rug off 10 days ago and hope it made it to Ohio without incident.  This is a photo I took myself and it has some shadows on it, but you at least get an idea of what the rug looks like.

I designed and hooked this rug in a Diane Stoffel class here at the store, last year.  Have you ever met Diane?  She is a little spit fire ball of energy, all of 5ft tall, with so much rug hooking knowledge and color sense packed into her little self, you cannot blink during class or you will miss something that will absolutely change your rug hooking life.  Remember........don't blink!!!!!

I told Diane I wanted to make a rug of my beloved horse Blackie, who you met in a previous posting.   He is buried right by this pasture and I wanted this to be a winter scene, with the grey horse standing in the snow.  Diane said, "OK, but here is what you are going to do, this horse needs to be RUNNING thru those trees and everywhere his ghost passages by a tree, it will change the color of the ghostly image!"  I said, "I am not sure I can do that."  Diane said (in her irrepressible Diane way), "Of course you can, I am going to help you!"  And she did.

White is an interesting color (or non-color) to work with.  Here we needed white snow, icy white sky and a white ghost.  Yeah, sure thing.  Fortunately, I like dyeing whites and have a huge selection of them in the store.  Diane would grab whites off the shelf, throw them on the table by me and say "Use this here".  At first, I had no idea what I was doing.  It was alright, because Diane DID know what she was doing.  After a while, I started to get what was going on and was able to start figuring this whole idea out.  Over-dyed whites are still colors, with bits of pink or blue or green or whatever.  So, the snow was pinky whites and bluey whites and greeny whites and yellowy whites.  The sky was bluey whites and purpley whites and greyie whites  (Is greyie really a word!)  Because the horse was a living thing, even as a ghost, his colors needed to be warmer.  So we went with creams, onion skin and parchment colors. 

When it came time to hook the horse's face and shoulder into the tree, Diane came to the rescue again.  This is a purpley grey color that perfectly set off the morphing ghost color as it passed thru the raisin colored tree.  Oh yes, that is another thing I learned from Diane.  I intended to make the dead winter trees black and grey and brown. Wrong!!!!!!   Diane says winter trees are purples, raisins and taupes.  And of course she was absolutely right.

Just so you don't think any of this was EASY.....the snow had to be a completely different pattern than the sky.  Diane suggested doing these little strips that butt up to one another at 45 degree angles. The sky became these little puzzle pieces or key hole designs.  She also thought the sky should get colder as it got higher in the sky........I did that too.  It is a little hard to see this from the picture, but in person, the sky definitely chills as the air rises.

Well, there it is, my 'Ghost Horse'.  I always say that I am still so close to Blackie's spirit, that sometimes I swear I still see him standing out there in that pasture.  Some days I have to look twice, before I remember he is gone.  I could not think of a better way to honor him and our 30 years together than the making of this rug.  And the person I have to thank is Diane Stoffel.  I would never have even thought of the idea, let alone accomplished the rug without her.  She is a fantastic teacher.  If you ever get the chance to study with her, leap at the opportunity.  Thank you Diane.

Love, Janice

Friday, August 9, 2013

A Trip to Vegas

When my daughter was a student at Eastman School of Music in Rochester NY, she had a wonderful voice teacher named Carol Webber.
Carol was a fantastic singer, teacher and mentor.
My daughter considered her 'family' and on my visits to Rochester I was allowed to watch and even participate in classes that not many outsiders were allowed access to.  I always say, my daughter's Eastman education paid off for me and still does.  Whenever I have a technique problem with a voice student, I call Leah.  She always knows just from my description of the problem, how to make the fix.  Whether it is tongue position or a soft palate issue, she knows what to advise.  I really should also say a mental thank you to Miss Webber at those times.  She was the source of Leah's excellent vocal performance education.

Leah is in Minnesota right now, directing an opera being performed by many of her Eastman friends.
It got me thinking about Miss Webber and all the nights that Leah was invited to dinner at her house.
Sometimes Leah cooked, sometimes Miss Webber cooked, but the friendship and camaraderie  were invaluable to the young woman living so far away from home.

Once, right before Leah graduated with her master's from Eastman, I was invited to one of those dinners.  Off we went to Miss Webber's, where I got a little insight as to why these evenings were so important to them both.  Miss Webber lived in a lovely house on the edge of one of the great lakes.  Please, don't judge me, I don't know which one it is.  And as a girl from Nebraska, I am not really familiar with the geography of the great lakes region.  All I know, is we sat on Miss Webber's porch, drank red wine, watched the sail boats in the distance and had a wonderful time chatting about the world and stuff!  They told me that they called the porch "Vegas".  Why......well of course, when 2 'girlfriends' are chatting, then "What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas".  They had exchanged many confidences, dreams and tears over the years, but it always stayed between them.

When I got home from the trip, I knew I had to make a rug for Miss Webber's lovely home.  I always advise people, that making rugs as a gift can be dicey.  Sometimes people don't get how much money, time and effort go into making a rug.  You may find out later that they put it on a garage sale, or left it rolled up in the closet.  I thought Miss Webber would appreciate the rug, so.....game on.  I drew the lake with the sail boat, her porch and flowers, just as I remembered them.  Hidden in the border below the porch is the word "VEGAS' as a reminder of the times shared by two good friends, teacher and student.

Next time,
Janice

Wednesday, August 7, 2013

Summer theatre

Summer theatre is over and our performances were a great success.  The kids did a wonderful job showing off the skills they learned thru out the summer of classes.  To keep this rug hooking related, there were several children and grandchildren of rug hookers in the cast.   Our violinist was Emily Shafer, granddaughter of Pat Shafer.  The littlest angel in the photo below is Ellarie Owen, daughter of rug hooker and fellow blogger Deb Owen.  And blogger/rug hooker Kathleen Salak's son Ryan was an important part of the cast as well.  My own god daughter Alison White was another 'little' in the show.  The rug hooking world was well represented!

We had a fun 1st Saturday hooking last Saturday.  We had a good sized group and I am pleased to say that several more people are done or nearly done with their 'ladies' rugs from the April Pris Buttler class.  We are planning to do our photo shoot of all the rugs on September 7, when we will have another 1st Saturday hooking day.  Scott Avery, the theatre photographer that took these wonderful pictures will be there to take the pictures of our rugs, make sure they are appropriately pixelated and put on a disc for further use.

The rugs are absolutely beautiful and each one is entirely unique, even tho the 'lady' is the same.  The stories they tell are heart warming.  I will show more of them this week.

I am getting ready to head off for Sauder Village next week.
If any of you in the blogging world will be there, please say hello.


It will be my first trip to Sauder and I am looking forward to meeting people that I only know over the phone or by email.  What fun it will be to put faces with the voices.  Can't wait.

Next time,
Janice

Saturday, August 3, 2013

Klimt Remembered

I am just home from rehearsal for the summer theatre performance and what better way to unwind after a long day, than blogging.  I ran across this picture in my photo file and decided to write about it and our Klimt class, several years ago.
Pris Buttler came here one extremely snowy day in January to teach a class based on the work of Gustav Klimt.  It was a great class and everyone's project was entirely different, however they all had elements that were Klimtesque.  If you are not familiar with Klimt (and I was certainly not when Pris first suggested the class) he was the artist who painted 'The Kiss".  He was quite a ladies man and enjoyed 'getting to know' his models.  He used lots of bright colors and strange little designs in his work

Deb Owen did the wonderful dragon, above.  Deb has 3 beautiful daughters from China.  The two older ones have done summer theatre in the past and this year, I got the youngest, Ellie.  I have know Ellie since she was a tiny little thing and it has been a treat to watch her grown up.  She is doing a great job singing and dancing and is quite a character.

The Klimt lady was hooked by Mary Jo Lahners of Lincoln.  Pris drew the lady and Mary Jo added many of the wonderful figures in the background that are so in the Klimt style.

The black horse is my project from the class.  Of course, a black horse!  However, this project was one of the first I did that was out of my more primitive color zone.  I loved doing it, all with Pris' help of course.  The tree of life mane on the horse is from another Klimt painting and the polka dot horse resembles a polka dot dress on another Klimt subject.  The fish swimming thru the background, the Egyptian eyes, stars and staffs were all Klimt favorites.

Goodnight Gustav, it has been a long day.
Janice