2013 Alice Ogden Christmas Ornament

I present Alice Ogden's 2013 Christmas ornament basket. It is currently hanging with the rest of my mini baskets on my basket tree, but beforehand I had to admire it up close for a bit. This lovely black ash cathead basket features a captured quadrafoil lid. Alice used light sap wood and darker heart wood to enhance the clover-leaf pattern.

Snow Day Project

Here in Missouri we joke that if you don't like the weather just wait a few minutes and for the most part that is pretty true. Everyone has a fit about the snow removal system we have in St. Louis, but the reality is that it usually melts in a day or so. So it isn't really necessary or make sense for the city to invest tons of money in snow removal equipment. Well of course that comes to bite us in the behind every few years. Just this past Sunday we got about a foot of snow and boy did it come down hard and heavy there for most of the day. It was really pretty and all the schools and many of the businesses closed for Monday. The university even closed, so I got a nice free vacation day. Of course, other than shoveling the walk I didn't even get out of the house for two days.

With all of that free time I didn't put away Christmas decorations or clean the house. No, I did what any respectable craftsman does, I started a new project! The one upside though of not being tempted to leave the house was that I actually finished my project.

I received a cute craft book, Little Birds, for Christmas. It included 26 projects made of felt, fabric and buttons. I was just looking for an excuse to try one of the projects.

So after a few hours (well a few might be an underestimation) of uninterrupted stitching I had my little birdie complete.

Of course I had to modify the pattern. You were supposed to enlarge it 200%, but that would have made a cardinal about 10" tall. I thought that was too large, so I only enlarged it 150%. While this made for a "cuter" size, it did mean that some of my pieces were a bit small to handle. It all worked out in the end though and I am itching to make an even smaller version or baby brother.

There was one casualty of the snow storm. My glasses kept fogging up, so I put them in my pocket since I really didn't need to see anything other than the path right below my feet. When I got back in the house after shoveling and began to un-bundle I discovered I have a couple things in my pocket. I couldn't figure out what else was in there beside my glasses when I discovered that the objects were the two halves of my prescription glasses. Oh well, I still have my contacts and I probably really need to get bifocal lenses anyway.

Well after 5 days the snow hasn't melted and we even got a couple inches more this morning. The main roads are finally clear, but the secondary streets, like mine are still a horrible mess. It is supposed to be in the 40s for the next few days and rain, so hopefully the streets will clear. The big piles everywhere are going to take awhile to melt though.

New Year's Cards

Happy New Year to all of my blog readers. I hope everyone had a wonderful 2013 and even better 2014. I know for me 2013 had a lot of changes and I look forward to a peaceful and prosperous new year. During my nice long holiday break I made a couple new cards with motivational messages.

As many of you know, my dad is an antique dealer and all around junk collector. Just tell him something you are looking for and he is going to find if for you. I had him looking for a vintage rubber stamp spinner and of course he found me the great one in the photo above. It is perfect to hold the blending tools I am using on whatever is my current project.

To create my new cards I used Adobe Illustrator to draw the shape of my mini Shaker cathead basket stamp and to place it in the lower corner of my card. After saving the Illustrator file in .SVG format I imported it into the eCal software that came with my Sizzix eClips cutting machine. The eCal software is great as you can easily duplicate and arrange your shapes to make the best use of your card stock.

After cutting out my card fronts, I stamped them with an old Stampin' Up! background stamp using Victorian Velvet Distress Ink and edged them with the same color. To add a little dimension to the panels I darkened just the very edge with Dusty Concord.

I stamped my Tim Holtz saying, "Courage is being yourself everyday in a world that expects you to be someone else," in Dusty Concord, layered my basket image (Coffee Archival Ink) in the cutout window and then framed the whole thing with a larger rose colored panel.

To finish the card, I affixed the assembled panel to a cream colored folder.

I also made a second version in a different color scheme, Distress Inks Weathered Wood and Faded Demin, and Espresso Adirondack Ink, with the Tim Holtz saying, "Life doesn't have to be perfect to be wonderful."

Well, I hope these two inspirations help steer the course for the year.

2013 Christmas Card

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and Happy New Year! I present my 2013 Christmas Card. I did a bit of everything on this one, die cutting, distressing, stamping, stitching, string, etc.

My inserts cut on my Sizzix Eclips and ready for edging with Ranger Distress Ink. I have lots of cutout snowflakes to use on some future project (like I need more stuff to add to my stash for future projects!).

I have always like the look of cards stitched on a sewing machine, but had yet to try it. I am not a taylor by any means, so some are not exactly stitched evenly around the edge, but I just tell myself that makes them look more homemade... Actually it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought and I actually learned a bit about using this vintage Singer featherweight that my Dad found for me years ago. I even learned how to wind the bobbin and re-thread it quickly, as Grayson kitty liked to play with the string and would manage to have the thread completely loose every time I would sit back down to stitch some more.

I hope everyone wasn't as last minute as I was this year. I do think everyone should receive their card before Christmas. I still seem to send out about twice as many cards as I receive, but so many of my friends say they keep my cards and have even hang them on their tree that I can't not continue to send them one. So, if you do get a card from me, know that you are pretty special to me as I have whittled down my list from about 100 to a little over 50. But, if you aren't on my list, please accept this digital card as my wish to you to have a very merry Christmas, happy holiday and hears to a fantastic 2014!

JoAnn Kelly Catsos St. Louis Basketry Workshop 2013

Well another wonderful workshop with JoAnn Kelly Catsos is over. While I am sad about it, everyone made some beautiful baskets and equally beautiful memories.

Three of the talented basketmakers get to work.

Our first basket was a full-size (approximately 9" dia.) Lightning Bowlt of natural and dyed hand-pounded black ash.

Lightning Bowlt Basket

 The basket is woven of  basically a two-two twill pattern, but it is the reversing of the pattern that creates the dynamic lightning bolt pattern.

Lightning Bowlt ready to have its rims lashed.

The baskets are finished with a dyed rim to match. While traditional Shaker baskets do not have any type of rim filler, this contemporary basket uses a twisted piece of waxed linen.

Miniature Lightning Bowlt Basket being woven.

After completing the full-size basket we are set to make a miniature version using hand pounded black ash expertly prepared by JoAnn and her husband Steve Catsos.

Full-size and miniature Lightning Bowlt Baskets.

 The contrast between the natural and dyed ash makes for a striking pair of baskets.

Instructor and basketmaker JoAnn Kelly Catsos.

On the third day of the workshop JoAnn introduces the next series of baskets, the Diamond Twill Bureau.

Full-sized Diamond Twill Bureau Basket ready to be lashed.

The color contrast in this basket is achieved from the natural color difference between the sap and heartwood of the black ash.

Miniature version of the Diamond Twill Bureau Basket ready to be lashed.

The miniature version of the Diamond Twill Bureau basket is a perfect companion for the its big brother.

The four baskets I wove in the 2013 JoAnn Kelly Catsos basketry workshop.

Four days and four baskets makes for a perfect long weekend. Now to find the perfect place to display these treasures.

Getting ready for class

Well, this is what the basement is supposed to look like in anticipation of my JoAnn Kelly Catsos workshop in a few weeks (Nov. 9-12, 2013), but I have a long way to go still. I have been working on it this weekend and it is looking better, but where did all this crap come from? I am a hoarder in waiting I think (or am afraid). I will get there. I am in purge mode, so am gathering up stuff to donate and to sell.

Look for class photos as they happen in a few weeks. I will be posting them on my facebook and instagram pages.

What I have been up to lately

Well work has still been kicking my butt, so there hasn't been a lot of time for fun stuff like crafting and basket weaving (or cleaning the house for that matter). I did take a week long vacation last month for my birthday and that was really nice. I bought a number of projects to work on, a book (I had almost forgotten what those were) and a bunch of DVDs. Besides crafting, reading and watching movies I did get to do a bit of junks (I would say antiquing, but that would be a stretch for a lot of what I was digging through) and I actually found a nice antique white oak ribbed basket for a fairly good price. I need to photograph it (sorry).

One of the projects I did get to work on was a new waxed linen knotted basket. Knotted baskets are nice for taveling as they don't require water and the only tool you need is a pair of scissors.

Nothing like sitting out on a dock on a lake working on a basket.

This is about as far as I have gotten. It is hard to tell, but the blue section is flat. Also my finger tips are orange from dying some bottle brush trees orange for Halloween (OK, so I guess I have worked on a couple other things).

Unfortunately now that I am back at home and back to work I have hardly touched this basket. It is still sitting right in front of my chair, so I haven't completely forgotten about it.

I did get the itch for whatever reason to start and finish something, so decided to dig through the tubs of felted wool sweaters I seem to have accumulated and through the stack of ideas I have printed off the web. I ended up making a little mouse kitty toy. As you can see in the photo below, it was a success, or at least Grayson liked it.

It never even made it off the table, it was ready, set, play!

So, that's about the extent of my non-work creative output lately. One of these days I will get back to all the other projects I have started ...