Another fascinating artist, Caroline Larsen.

Black and Orange Oval by Caroline Larsen 2011

She paints needlepoint, textile, weaving.  Using oil paints she employs 

a technique that makes you want to put out your hand and touch the fabrics.  

MSC Napoli 2011

Fresher Than the Harvest 2011

Take a look at her work.

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From a place of frustration, a second new design.

I know what you're thinking.  She was moaning about not having enough time to create and here she is giving us glimpses of another new designs, the second in one week.  The way I work new designs is I have between 5-10 creations going at once.  Some are a straight shoot from start to finish, some are a stop and go that can go on for years.  And all of these take up lots and lots of time, but you know that, you too have chosen this turtle paced artistic interest.  When two new designs show up in one week, it's just a coincidence and funny timing.  It really does not negate anything I jotted down here.
I am preparing for what I believe will be a beautiful spread of items for expo night at ANG Seminar in Philadelphia on August 30th.  I've been putting lots of thought into the arrangement of my goods.  I really want to create 5 beautiful tables displaying my work.  I've got some great ideas, some of which have to do with glass cloches, branches, lighting and hanging from iron gates.  I'm very excited about this and I'd love for you to drop by my space to see what I've done.
So, you see, playing around with ideas and making them come to life, all for one night of about 3 hours, would you consider that good use of time?  Isn't that part of what is fueling my sense of frustration?  I have no answer, except that I want to do what excites me, I need to follow my passions and do what I think I do well.

This new design is part of a big surprise.  It will be explained here in Philadelphia, at Seminar.  Watch for announcements...

 *     *     *     *     *

There was much excitement about our Atelier teacher, Teresa Perleberg,  who teaches wonderful felting classes using wool from her own sheep on her own farm.  This week Teresa has introduced a new class with a new creature:  The Beginners Felting class - the Penguin.  Stop over to visit him and see how her bunnies and sheep are doing!

Teresa's Penguin

I hope you are all connected to electricity and sitting in your cool homes, stitching away.
xoxo
orna

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A Smelly Addiction revealed!

My mother always says that the sense of smell is the strongest vehicle for a trip down memory lane.  She says that some of the strongest memories of childhood, associated with home, come from cooking smells.  I tested this on Shiri and she agreed, so many of her memories have to do with what food I prepared, especially for her. 

Another similar experience I remember, from way back, the smell inside an art supply store.  In Israel, at the beginning of every school year, we used to go get our school supplies at a small local art supply/stationary type shop.  It was the highlight of the end of my summer.  The only reason I wasn't extremely upset with going back to school.  Ahhhh, the smells of paper, of colored pencils, of oil paints, of leather bound journals.  I remember standing in the shop, in no hurry to leave, just taking it all in.  Moments of bliss, truly moments of bliss.

The Original 5 floor Pearl Paint in NYC! A treat if you get a chance...

Art supply stores are still an addiction! So much potential inside a small box of a store (or big box of a store). Every aisle, a sea of temptation! Sometimes I buy to have.  Just to have.  Sometimes I buy to make something, which may never come to fruition and then there are the times when I have a purpose, and off I go.  Every crayon, paper and pattern inspire me to think of some project that could be, should be!

Art supply stores that are situated close to an art school are the best! 

One of my favorite stores in Philadelphia

I love my Derwent watercolor pencils!

I love cross over tools.  You may find "specialty" tools in posh art supply stores priced at a premium, but upon second glance you realize, "hey, that's what my dentist uses!  At that point, go for the dentist supply stores, same tools will be much cheaper!

Clay/dental tools, very useful!

And then there is the handmade paper.......... yum.

Casa Papel, handmade paper store in my neighborhood

My smells of childhood.

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From a place of frustration, and a new design.

You will have to forgive my mood this morning.  I could keep this to myself, but you have been my sounding board for so long, I feel a need to write this down.  

I've been feeling frustrated and a bit frantic for quite a while.  It's the balance between being able to design and create and the need to do all the rest.  I don't get enough time to do the former and spend so much time doing the latter.  My head is swarming with ideas, and not just the ones that are sort of general, not concrete, fleeting.  I have so many specific, thought out, sketched or started ideas and I just can't set aside enough time to execute them.  The only way to be able to get to these endeavors at the rate I would like, would be to put aside the charting, the writing, the kitting, the teaching.  Do I really want to do that?  I've never considered myself to be the kind of artist who creates for myself, not concerned with the public, not concerned with the connection to the world, not interested in sharing what I discover.  That's not me, I need to be a part of what's going on outside my studio, I want my work to reach others, I want to have mutual connections. I just can't make the balance work and I don't see the way out.  

One of the reasons I'm writing this today is that I have a new design, put the very last stitches in it this morning.  And I love this moment!  I love seeing a vision come to fruition.  I just wish I could have more of these moments.  Many more.

My new piece: THE HOUSE I BUILT

Size: 7" x 6.25"

THE HOUSE I BUILT

New with this piece is my use of small intricate polymer clay pieces, (the small round shapes in blue and in yellow).  I've connected with some very talented polymer clay artists and even commissioned some pieces replicating some of my designs. The Scissor Fob/Key Chain below is new in my shop.  It's embellished with silver beads and has a very neat wire ring for attaching to your keys or scissors.

Scissor Fob/Key Chain can be purchased here

 

I thank you for "listening" today.   Perhaps it is all just a MONDAY thing and I'll be all better tomorrow?

xoxo

Orna

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Pickle me Pink! (plus one of my favorite recipes)

The definition of pickled is, "preserved:preserved in vinegar, brine or another liquid." But it is actually a lot more complicated than that! I find pickling an extremely satisfying and beautiful food craft.  Not only is it a way to stretch your fresh garden veggies into the winter months, but the pickling jars are a gorgeous thing to have in your kitchen, layers of color and flavor--what could be better!

There are all sorts of tiny cottage businesses that have sprung up around the pickle thing, McClure's in Detroit (home of famed Vlasic pickle) which you can only buy by the case.  Sechler's has 39 varieties of Pickle, as well as a pickled "apple cinnamon chunk" --yum! Pickling is an ancient craft that is believed to have been used by the Mesopotamians all the way back in 2400 BC.  Queen Elizabeth had a fondness for pickles, as well as the great Thomas Jefferson, and Shakespeare makes mention of the pickle throughout his plays.  Pickling really got going here in the States around 1606, when Virginia began to produce and sell a commercial brand of pickle.

People can pickle the strangest things, although I tend to believe recipes trickle down through families and into their culinary repertoire without a thought--these recipes are a heritage, and, really who can argue with someone who is OK with eating Pickled Pigs Lips??  Pigs Feet are also common pickled items, as well as Eggs and Cabbage. The Smithsonian actually has a pickled Mammoth! The pictures are less than delectable, so I will spare you and instead show you a product of particular interest: Pickled Walnuts!

The 2012 Good Food Awards include in their Pickle Winners,  Cuisine en Locale's  for their  Pickled peaches, and Farmhouse Culture for their Smoked Jalapeno Sauerkraut. A recent article in the New York Times hailed this Kimchi ( a traditional spicey pickled cabbage from Korea) as the best. And what son-in-law would dare to argue?

Kimchi

I am also, an avid pickler, and have included a recipe below that will certainly delight an pickler's heart!

PICKLED CUBANELLE PEPPERS

From my Aunt Bella 

6-8 Cubanelle Peppers sliced into thin long strips.

2 cups of water

2 cups of white vinegar

2 cups of sugar

6 cloves of garlic

4-6 hot peppers (could be dried)

Place the sliced peppers in an air tight jar.  I use this type.  Mix all the ingredients and pour on the peppers.  Top with a dash of olive oil.  Seal and place on a window ledge or any place with some sunlight.  After 2 days, move to refrigerator. 

Really great with sandwiches, as a side with chicken or just out of the jar.

Enjoy and thank you Aunt Bella!

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Tweet This!

The thing about birds.....is this a craze? There are birds everywhere, from the patches on kids clothes to the sheets on our beds. It is such a craze that the recent sketch comedy, "Portlandia", did a skit around the immortal words: "Put a Bird On it!" And Put a Bird on it we do--these winged little fellows are everywhere, you can't spend a day out of the house, or in the house, on the web, and not see a bird somewhere! Actually, here are a few now....

Bird on A Pillow

A Bird round Your Neck

Geninne

A Rainbow of birds

An embroidered Bird..

Birds of Felt

Tell me you have noticed this too??!! Is it just me?  I did a series of needlepoint birds a few years back, and suddenly the urge to do another round...should I do another set? I feel a flutter in my design hand.....

and my bird.

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Summer Plans

The options for kids and their Summer Entertainment are endless! There are Japanese Culture Camps, and Learning to make a Film Camps, there are Writing Camps, and Bug Camps, Robot Making camps, and Swim Camps. After sorting through all the options with Nina, we came up with three very different camps this summer, one for each month.

The first is almost the most exciting because it includes a week long stay with big sister Shiri in Brooklyn NY! My little girl is heading to the big city, today!!  How many 10, (well, practically 11),  year olds can say that?? In Brooklyn there is an arts day camp and Nina picked--warm a mother's heart-- weaving! Yup, fiber art, following in my footsteps! Check out the Textile Art Center.

Later in the summer there is tennis camp.  Nina has really taken to tennis. I loved when she was a skater, but it's Tennis she really excels at.  I think that she will probably be wowing us with her backhand after all the practice she is going to get in this camp.

The last of the camps is the most traditional. Like the summer camps from the movies: teams, colored t-shirts, lots of volleyball, softball and hiking through the woods!

Now, none of these are sleep over camps, Nina still won't go for that, but I really feel like this summer is going to be a great one for my girl-- new kids, new places, and maybe next year we can start the sleep over stuff. A step at a time!

The camp Nina will be going to!  I want to go there for vacation...

 

PS - The amount of paperwork for these camps, forms to fill out, is CRAZY!

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Cross-Stitcheramazing!!

I spend a lot of time looking for new places to put needlepoint, new ways to utiize our designs which we spend so much time working on. It's tough: we don't want it to get dirty, dusty, or roughed up. But when your walls are full, and you still want to stitch--what's a girl to do?

Well, I have just come across the work of Lithuanian artist Severija Incirauskaite-Kriauneviciene. This is truly one cool approach to cross stitch! Objects, no matter the material, are beautifully worked: a car door, an old rusty pail, a frying pan. Take a look:

She refers to her work as extractions of the "banal and simple" and puts it into a "syrupy" kitsch context: our everday objects transformed.

I don't know about all that, but I do know it makes me think that I have not yet tapped the boundaries of what we do. I wonder if Reid would mind if I "transformed" our SUV.....

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What the Hungarian Stitch can do for a child...

 "Nina, you did a beautiful job!  Really, for a first time, reading a chart, counting and stitching, it is spectacular.  Let's take a picture."

 "COOL! Now a photo with you holding your piece up to your face..."

"Hey Nina, show us how you really feel about your accomplishment!"

Ladies and Gentlemen, the wonders of the Hungarian Stitch!

** Nina is working on my sampler book design called "SWEET!".  It's a Thread Gathering for children. 

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