Back to Felt

Lately my UPS driver comes up the driveway in the dark,  delivering boxes of things I've ordered for the store, to my back porch,  just as I'm cooking supper.  I've been cleaning, crowding things on to shelves in the store.  Now is the time to hang my tin stars up around my porch, before the weather finally changes to cold.  I love to see them twinkling there, and it's almost Christmas again.

I've been weaving scarves and potholders, and felting and dyeing wool.  This little set of trees emerged  last week, and I'm pretty pleased with how comical they look.  Each one with its own attitude, as they wobble on dyed cotton chenille stems,  rooted in a small chunk of birch branch, with a little glitter snow.  My hands are very, very clean.

m. whitecloud hats

m. whitecloud hats for sale in the store now: Granny Square, all recycled materials, rabbit fur, and double knit striped ties. Handmade, slow design. This one is for a smaller sized head.
$60. + sh/h (WI sales tax applies to WI sales) SOLD


m.whitecloud hat: Hot Bonnet, hot pink rabbit fur, all recycled materials, handmade, slow design, medium size, $60. + sh/h (WI sales tax applies to WI sales)


m. whitecloud hat: Brocade, faux fur, recycled materials, handmade, slow design $60 + sh/h
(WI sales tax on sales in WI).


m. whitecloud hat: Double Knit, faux fur, all materials recycled, hand made, slow design. $60. +sh/h (WI sales tax to WI buyers)

m. whitecloud works in Viroqua, WI, making bags, hats, and other amazing styles (Amish meets Bjork?) Working in the slow design movement, she makes batches of items, each by each, using local, recycled materials (bike inner tube rubber, thrift store fabrics, unused coffee bean bags from the local coffee roaster). She always pushes the edges on each object she makes, finding "just one more thing to add that will make it better." She's such an inspiration to me! I'm lucky to know her, and to be able to sell some of her work. If you are interested in purchasing a hat, or need more information, send me an email: susan@avalanchelooms.com

Thanks to Sofie, for perching on my uncomfortable stool to model hats!

Hanging out

Today in the workshop, Sofie was here to model some of Jessica's new hats for me. Jessica (M. Whitecloud Bags) brought them in to sell, and they are gorgeous, with rabbit fur, and faux fur, three layers of warmth, all recycled materials. They remind me of Dr. Zhivago, but she says their style is "Amish meets Bjork."

A new long Dutch scarf, with a little hand felted X-mas tree balanced on top was set up for pictures for a new ad. Meanwhile, outside, the birds were stuffing black sunflower seeds at the feeder, getting ready for a long trip.

Abundance Is A Bandage!

Felt button making today was a little like baking cookies. Sofie helped. These were dyed in a simmering bath of dye and vinegar and salt, decorated with french knot dots out of perle cotton. Stitched to a safety pin back.

++++++++++++++++

Internet auto-translation can be such a rich experience. Any writer can become two, or even three, times better than she ever imagined through this simple application. In my last post about creativity and inspiration, I tried to say that self-censorship is my biggest problem to overcome, and felt I had expressed that idea as well as I could. That is, until I came across an internet site that substitutes any writer's words with synonyms, starting with letters from the beginning of the alphabet. I've no idea why the site exists, but there it was, and this is what I found.

In my version I wrote: "I wonder, Why do I stop myself? I'm actually not doing anything alarming, or earth shakingly over-the-edge. It's only a scarf, and mine is a scarf with crooked edges, and bright moments."

Observe the transformation magic of robot internet synonymization:

... I wonder, Why do I stop myself? I'm absolutely not accomplishing annihilation alarming, or apple shakingly over-the-edge. It's alone a scarf, and abundance is a bandage with agee edges, and ablaze moments.

See how much better?

In Tina Fey's words, rephrasing the lyric "Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose", "A synonym's just another word for the word you want to use...."

Looming Lempi

Deep Diving scarf, plain weave & Rosepath, linen, cotton, silk mixed wefts on Swedish cotton warp.

Creativity, inspiration, borrowing, copying. Where do the ideas come from? For me, they spring from many sources. Some that I'm aware of, and others that I'm not. I'm someone who believes she knows her own mind, but come to find out, I'm too close to the forest to see the trees.

I'm old enough to know there's nothing new under the sun, everything we can do has been done by someone before us. But not quite the way we will make it. That's the way imagination works. It spills, and moves from person to person. Ideas are meant to travel. I've met artists, weavers, who try never to look at anyone else's work, so they'll be sure never to be guilty of being influenced. It might be their method to work that way, but what kind of artist stops looking at anything? I try to see everything, everywhere, all the time. The effect can only be beneficial, and, frankly, I need all the help I can get.

My ideas come through my window, from other artists and painters, from pictures on Flickr and artist's blogs, and some, spookily, seem to come over my shoulder while I'm weaving at the loom. I think it may be a Finnish grandmother suggesting, "Yes, now pick up the unbleached linen...." The biggest enemy to my creativity is self censorship. When I see how far and wide other artists go, I wonder, Why do I stop myself? I'm actually not doing anything alarming, or earth shakingly over-the-edge. It's only a scarf, and mine is a scarf with crooked edges, and bright moments.

Congratulations, Sofia Arnold!

No More Detour

County Highway Y reopened yesterday. No more driving by this lawn target deer to get to Avalanche. I think there is a door in his side like a pinata, where toys and goodies spill out when
the bullet hits the mark.

Looking Around

Today I finally finished sewing the Half-Woolly bag (half of a full Woolly Bully bag) woven in rosepath with wool rag-rya. Then I took my last cotton and linen scarf, with rosepath designs, and hung them in Mrs. Mamakitty's doorway for a picture. She paid no attention.

She needed a new bed of fresh pine needles, since the nights are cooling off, and the big pine tree is dropping its needles just now. After lunch she tried it out, and found it very suitable for an afternoon nap. This morning Sofia woke up with an extraordinary ringlet curl in her hair.

I then tried to call the congressional offices to register my opinion again that, as a self employed person, without health insurance, I support a strong Public Option for All in Health Care Reform. (My call got through, tomorrow I'm going to send postcards).