The Studio with work in progress

For those that haven’t been to visit my studio, or that have only been here during planned Studio Tour visits (when my studio is all cleaned up for visitors!), I thought I’d give you a glimpse of what the studio really looks like most of the time, when I’m in the middle of my creative flow.

My fabric cutting table

Auditioning fabric stacks along the backside of the long arm table

I think it’s safe to say most every flat surface in the studio is covered with something:

My Sewing table with some of my first cloth weavings, using my hand and eco-dyed fabrics.

Here’s my ironing table, the silver gray fabric on the wall in the background is the silk from the black bean dye pot.  The bluish fabric in the foreground is the cotton fabric from the black bean dye:

My Ironing table

The long arm is more of a table right now….

Another of my first cloth weavings, resting on the long arm

Here’s a view of what’s on the sewing table from a different angle:

Sewing table, work in progress

And the larger piece that I’ve been working on hangs on the wall on one end of the “gallery” area.  The cloth on the table in foreground is some of my eco-dyed fabric from 2 summer’s ago:

Eco-dyed fabrics in foreground, work in progress on the wall behind

And lastly, a couple more of my first cloth weavings:

2 cloth weavings in progress

So there it is.  My studio in all it’s glory.

My Work in Progress

I have several pieces in progress, but most recently have been actively working on one larger piece (on the wall in background above), as well as exploring my first cloth weaving and hand stitching, as I’ve been drawn to Jude Hill’s Spirit Cloth blog and classes.

Through Jude’s influence, I have started using some of my “other” fabrics (beyond 100% cottons) for the first time and I’m liking the variety of textures this creates, as well as the different look and feel that can be obtained with combining these fabrics with the hand stitching.  Another fun thing is I’m finding use for my eco-dyed fabrics, as they go nicely with this approach to cloth-making.

I’ve got 5 woven blocks started, and I’ve been mainly using a broad pink and brown color scheme, which got me wondering, where that came from?  Why am I so drawn to pink and brown?

And then it hit me as I was falling asleep the other night – it’s my little red headed girl EMMA!  She’s my brown (and pink-bellied) baby.

Are you happy with your current ball?

My first Spirit Cloth work is a cloth about my Emma.  And that makes perfect sense given the significance of animal spirits within Jude’s teachings.