flowers

While i was away at the HAF this spindery orchid took to blooming. She has the slight fragrance of spice and has the most long spidery  petals i have seen on an orchid..

Lucy in the sky with blue eyes supervises from the latest flat box placed

 from an advantageous  spot for her. She spends about an hour in the morning galloping,  racing around and grabbing up throw rugs and giving the rugs a good thrashing, especially the rag rugs. She is a rescue of sorts as she spied on us the the hedges for awhile before strolling on to the deck. 

And in no times she took over as in ...everything here is mine.

. 

At the festival i have 3 tent poles and cables at which i place a bucket of tropical flowers and greens in a bucket. I wrap each bucket with a half yard of my my hand painted fabric so the edges of my area are.well, colorful . I brought my new Nikon along  but once again as the day unfolded, 

 as people walk in and i begin to talk about process and field questions of all kinds,  i did not get a chance to make shots of details . Lucky for me my helper Sherry took some just as i was starting the day. Thank you Sherry for helping me all weekend. you are an angel.

I bring  my Singer FW 221 along for display and for a useful prop. i can put bills under the presser foot whilst making change.( i do remove the needle and bobbin case at home  for safety.)

The sweet cat under the arm was Noodles, one of our rescue cats. If i were to put a title to this  this sweet  photo i would have to say,   Nothing purrs like a Feather Weight.

Yes it works, still used for straight seams and i get to tell the story of sewing a prom dress on this great machine back in the day.

This was a great fair the 20th time i have juried in and set up and get to  talk story with a lot of folks. Thanks to all that spent some time under the canopy and sharing and shopping.

I hope to see some of you again at next paint class,

Wishing a Happy Summertime to all!

Sonja

How long did it take to make?

Sometimes i take photos of various stages of making  a project . This is  probably due to my desire to see what i do from a distance and it helps when i am asked that most unanswerable question, the one most frequently asked  of " how long did it take?" straight  off i would have  say

 "i have no idea but i had a great time making this.". So if asked  i might  explain about the time before i begin , the lifetime of gathering information  to get to the place this  idea seed  popped up, and wool gathering , and  before i can get the concept what materials to gather to make this, the  redo when it goes arye, and how it changes as i work through the project

 and the problems i solve that i set in motion.... 

That might be too much info for folks. Thank you if you have read this far.

This week i am making some journal covers of paint, cloth and  thread. And imagination!!

i start with a plain vanilla cotton fabric, in this case a heavy cotton, and some fabric paints diluted slightly screen printing ink in squeeze bottles, oh and paint brushes.
after cloth is dry it is time to layer up a bat sandwich and

 

picking out threads i wish to use, takes a moment..

i call this free motion quilting  pattern 

"Pebbles in a stream, drifting"

after a song line in  "And this is my beloved" from Kismet

.

 after free motion  quilting  is done  and if i used different colors, 

i need to weave back the the tails of starts and stops, that is so much less fun than watching paint dry!

watching paint dry...........

inside of a journal, the lining 

Wa La!...probably could have googled  on

" How to make a journal cover to fit the composition book you just  bought."

instead of reinventing the wheel. 

So yes, stuff  takes time, Art takes longer.

From glimmer of  that idea seed to the time you can pick it up and turn it over in  your hand,

I still  think my best answer is

"It took all the time!"

 I'll be in my colorful booth # 88  near info tent
 at  

The Haleiwa Arts Festival

 July 13 and 14  10AM to 5PM  both days!

Be well, Sonja

HI HO come to the Fair ! HALEIWA ARTS FESTIVAL 2019, one more time

With less than  three weeks away, the Haleiwa Arts Festival

 is looming largely  on the   horizon .

I have several project in the partially made stage, a few more almost ready and a few that need the final touch.  As a curious maker of ideas with cloth and color  into something perhaps 

 tangible, touchable, shareable, i get even more ideas as i work .

                                                             some coaster drying in the sun
                                 painted mostly with  what i like to call the original paint brush... finger tips!

This orchid with freckles makes me smile as i make yet more dots

Photo of one of the ladies from Yokohama paint class of 2012, in action dotting away.

We poured small amounts of paint into small recycled  plastic lids and well, play with color!

I'll be maning  booth # 88 near the front of festival near community and info tent. 

 This memorial is at the front of the 

Haleiwa Beach park, front entrance to Haleiwa Arts Festival

wonder what i'll make today with this yummy  sherbert color fabric? 

Come see what can  happens in 3 weeks! 

AND there will be some "dotty"  things including 

some little notebooks available as well

.

dotty little notebooklettes

July 13/14 2019

Sat/Sun 10 am-5pm

Haleiwa beach Park=North Shore Oahu

110 Artists/Live Entertainment/ it's free

Hi Ho !

This is the 22nd  annual 

Haleiwa Arts Festival!!

Newest "painters of the pacific" 2018

Here are the very newest painters of the Pacific!  Glowing!

The bird of paradise, orchids, hibiscus and plumeria  flowers are represented and shown here by the artists who designed and painted them. How cool is that!. They were a wonderful group who didn't know one another previously and now have new art buddies with  lots to share

 and learn from each other.  One kind lady offered to help with Hawaiian quilting to a woman that had recently arrived to the islands.That is so kind!!

Many folks wandered through my big white tent at Haleiwa Arts Festival last July.

 I attempt to field a lot of questions from some,  explaining  my kind of  fabric manipulations  and use of paints and inks. Art is really hard if not impossible to put into words for me  so i talk mostly about process. Some are curious enough to ask if i have classes on how I get my  fabric those colors.

 I have a clip board handy for information and if they wish to sign up. When i get several interested, i will contact them shortly to get a group together on a day that works of everyone.

And these ladies were brave enough to come back out to the country last Saturday to spend the day looking at flowers and leaves, seeing what they are looking at, sketching the  many wondrous shapes of nature, refining, and mixing paint to get colors that please....ripping up fabric into usable sizes from fat quarters to post card sizes, drawing and finally painting.  They eventually commit to paper a sketch, several actually and then  they transfer image to  fabric and  then the  painting begins.

  There is a lot to do and think about  and  since I've been at this colorful fabric journey of curiosity  for long time, i'm old,  I can answer many a question, except perhaps how long anything takes . 

It takes until it is done is best i can offer, mostly 

black orchid 

 (trichoglottis bronchial)

  Most of us are attracted to color and fragrance and the flowers of Hawaii do not disappoint! This time of year i am blessed with an  amazing abundance of the black orchid shown above..(i still think it is more of a Merlot or Cab color...) For the class  i also I gathered leaves and flowers that i brought to the table to view, smell, see and enjoy, to sketch and paint.

 After the class is over, these very same flowers and leaves that inspired painters inspire me to make a sort of arrangement , much like the very first flowers and leaves 

i painted in the "80's to quilt up in a pillow form.

                                              arrangement  of leaves and flowers

 

                             a fabric post card i made for a trade in a mailing art online group 
                                                                     art2mail  i think


                                         After the class was over, I painted up some remnant fabric, 
using palettes of paint left over  and yes that is a  glass of Merlot next to a  6 pack tray of paint!

                                             i call this painting  above a seascape of the imagination
  

this is what remained after cloth painted dried on the freezer paper under it

one of the painters left her enhanced flower sketch behind

i mailed Sarah her post card fronts that she painted and left in my studio to dry!

What a wonderful way to spend a day! 

 Mahalo to Sarah, Dorita, Jeannie and Cindy

for sharing a colorful day in the country!!

Be well, see well,
 Sonja

palette love

After the fair is over

Mahalo to all the folks

 who walked through my tent last weekend at the Haleiwa Arts Festival and had time to talk, offer comments and enjoy the view and laugh and share stories! Mahalo to all those who went home with some of my
 smaller  art  pieces  in  hand  painted bags . 
A Big Mahalo to Sherry for helping me once again, you are a treasure!

i am recovering  my energy levels and mentally composing a post fair post.

I am grateful for all the fine folks i met for the first time and greeting folks from before.

i hope i remembered your names...

Be well, Sonja

Hi Ho Come to the Fair! Hale'iwa Arts Festival 2017

It's that time again for the Hale'iwa Arts Festival!

Where did the year go??

I don't know as i was painting the fabrics for my arts and then it was July, Again!!

 

(Hale'iwa War Memorial at the entrance  landmark)

July 15th and 16th  2017

Haleiwa Arts Festival  #20 

                 Held at Haleiwa Beach Park, Haleiwa 

           on the  North Shore, Oahu  

Saturday 10 to 6pm       Sunday 10 t0 5pm

 I'll be manning my booth # 98 near the front 

near INFO booth and community tent 

Music and  visual arts, ono foods, kids art tent,

Celtic Pipes and Drums early Saturday

Ian O'Sullivan Sunday  am

and so much more! 

Hope to see you there!

                                                               Last Years Booth Shot, 2016

 with the woman behind the work!

                                                         www.HaleiwaArtsFestival.org

for more info

sunny saturday

I have been in studio preparing for the Haleiwa Art Festival that i do each July. I have juried into for the past 19  plus years so 2017 will be my 20 th show under those white billowing tents. As much as i love blogging, sometimes and for a period of time, i have no words to share,

 other than inner dialogue going on in my head, around and around. 

My hands are talking to my stuff and inner artyself, mostly. 

And just like any painting or quilt or story or piece of work, it simmers and changes and stops/starts and is resolved  in its' own time frame. It is in  this process where i am problem  creating and solving as it flows and if one stimmies me, i shift to another project because perhaps the next step has  just become clear to me by not thinking about it..but in the shift of thought/mind. Interesting. 

Anyone reading this that is a maker might recognize the joy/agony in the making process. Those who are curious about the finished work might gain a bit of  insight knowing that ideas do not come to most of us fully formed but rather in more fits and starts and parts and wrong turns ...
each one informing the next decision/s.

And so it goes; it is a journey for me and the piece is the log, the diary or proof of the documenting processes. It no longer is/it never never was   an idea.... 

the object is more of the sum of many ideas, it is itself, a quilt, a painting ,a story, a cake....a miracle perhaps and at least something that did not exist before.... 

OKAY, here are some of my favorite tools of the trade:

 cloth, paint, brushes, cutters, large work surface, water, small rocks. 

 This is how most of my work beings.

 And with that seed of a inkling of a possible idea kernal...it begins.

i must add each side track is fun like the

 3 brush containers in the front, 

under the wrapped fabric lurks an empty pint jar that once held my paints/inks.

 love quotes that say to me 

Yes! that is just what i was thinking and someone else has already located 

 and arranged those descriptive words, beautifully !!yea!!

If i am dreaming of creating a quilt using some of my fabric painted cotton 

in every color imaginable, 

i reach for scissors, pins, threads and one of two of my favorite sewing machines,

my Featherweight 221 singer

Noodles  the watch cat  

Noodles 

 or my Bernina 830 record, the old square one.

My current cat assistant and studio investigator, Ruby

I like joining  up fabrics on the FW and quilting free motion on Bernie 

 i have both of them set up in opposite ends in my studio so i can get up and move often.

Also, after machining there is always hand stitching involved and ....
i like to take that outside and sit under a shady tree.

So, do you have favorite tools or helpers in your make spot?

Be well, see well, Sonja