The Third Graders made it look easy . . .

embroidery
It’s going to be amazing when it’s done, I swear!

Here are my first attempts at chain stitching letters. I keep telling myself that it will look better from a distance. And I’m hoping it will get better the more I practice. The sharp corners are tough to negotiate–maybe I’ll try to make it larger, or try a different stitch or a smaller thread.

Great ideas in small packages

spools of floss
Re-purposed thread spools now hold embroidery floss!

My colleague June Albright at the Upper Valley Waldorf School just showed me how to take tangled snarls of embroidery floss and wrap them around empty thread spools for easy storage. So much nicer than the mess they were before, and more beautiful!

Other exciting news this week: I finished my Sami inspired reindeer bag!

finished reindeer bag
A beautiful new handwork bag.

Which means I am allowed to start my next project involving mini stamps. Pictured below are the underworld, a tree, a boat, a fishing net, and a border.

mini blocks
Mini blocks awaiting their destiny in a larger project . . . to be continued!

Math is Art

purple star

I made this amazing purple star at my math workshop last weekend at The Nature Institute in Ghent, NY. I’m pleased with the coloring (I’m not always that patient!) and I’m pleased with the math: I learned all kinds of cool things you can do with pentagons, pentagrams, and the Golden Ratio. I love finding deep problems that you can teach to people at a variety of levels–6th grade through Calculus. I’m looking forward to taking another class there sometime soon.

Inspired by Finland

Reindeer and sun symbols combined in felt on what will become a craft bag.

I’m getting ready for my summer trip to Iceland and Finland by immersing myself in some beautiful images. This reindeer is from a book called Scandinavian Folk Patterns, and the sun framing it I found online researching Sami drum symbols. Felt is one of my favorite fabrics to sew because you don’t need to hem it and it makes big bold lines and shapes similar to the ones I like to use in my block prints.

Gallery of Work

I did it! I successfully created a print per month for the entire year. You can view the collection here. It was so much fun I’m ready to do it again. What’s Your Jam? is my first print of the new season. (Look for a color version coming soon!)  I’m collecting empty jars, getting ready for the summer’s bounty of dilly beans, tomatillo salsa, and hot pickled peppers. It’s definitely an inspiring time of year . . .