Studio Notes

In honor of the first snow of the season, I’ve turned on the snow machine here in the studio.

T H I S is why I spin.

I’ve always dreamed of being able to make the fantastical yarn that lives in my imagination, the kind of yarn that takes over my dreams and haunts my waking hours.

When I realized I could open my heart and let paint move freely across the page, I wondered I could spin as freely.  I was thinking too much when I sat at the wheel, worrying the fibers into position, examining the twist and forcing the yarn to BE something in particular.

This was quite different.  I carded locks of wool into slightly lumpy bats, placing the colors in the intake tray very quickly. Then, I spun them as they wanted to be.  Thick. Thin. Whatever the fleece wanted.

Years ago I read an article about wrap and roll spinning.  It sounded physically impossible. You ply the wool with a fine core yarn, sliding the wraps up to completely cover the core. The core is twisted by the wheel and untwisted by a drop spindle at the same time. Surely I needed at least three hands.

What the author didn’t say was that the core yarn takes care of itself. You don’t work the drop spindle in the usual way. You gently nudge it into motion. You make the yarn inch by delicious inch.

But, don’t listen to me.  Listen to your fleece.

I remain grateful for inspiration. Today’s journal page began quite differently, a simple representation of a sea goddess. My hand had other ideas, and in the end, the familiar words of the Charge of the Goddess echoed through my mind.  I love when a page goes it unexpected directions.I love it even more when a drawing emerges from out of nowhere. I had every intention of sketching a simple outline and filling it with collage.

I’ll take inspiration anywhere I find it. I’m just excited that I am finding it after such a long creative wasteland. Today’s inspiration comes from  Panthea’s Create-a-Goddess. After creating an icon sized goddess on that site, I chose to recreate her in collage. I present Hestia, Goddess of the Hearth and Home.

Is it an oasis or a mirage? All I know is that after months in the creative desert, I have found a few drops of inspiration. Issue 12 of Art and Life arrived last week and I am still savoring the eye-popping color and richly layered pages that are Teesha Moore’s fabulous style. I’m always inspired by her work, and this time I was driven into a creative frenzy over this little journal construction project.You know I am not a linear thinker, and this journal is perfectly non-linear. There are pages for thoughts, after-thoughts and lists. The first page you see when it opens is somewhere in the middle of the back. I love it.Now, if only this creative oasis can refresh me long enough to fill this journal.