A Blast from the Past

Today's post was prompted by an unexpected email I received this morning.  A comment on one of my blog posts needed approval.  That alone wasn't too surprising, but it seemed a little weird because I didn't recognize the title of the post.  Well no wonder.  It was a comment on a nearly 5-year-old post on my old blog--Still Dreaming - in Fabric.  I was heartened that at least one person could still find that post and had found something of value in it.  But I was also grateful for the comment because it made me look back at the post myself.  To my surprise it was very appropriate for my current situation and gave me the little pep talk that I needed.

Here's the link to it if you want to read it yourself.    dog-days-of-summer.html The post was about keeping going...putting one foot in front of the other, even if you are not sure you are on the right path.  At least that's how I read it today.

As I mentioned in my last post, lately I have been equivocating about where to put my creative energies.  How much effort should I be putting into jackets? scarves? pillows? decorative art?  In my last two shows, only one scarf sold and not a single jacket or vest sold,  but several artworks did.  The artworks were in the same price range as the wearable art, so the sales difference wasn't just a function of price.  Women rave about the jackets and scarves--the looks and the workmanship--but there is always some reason why they "can't" buy one.  So what do I do?  I have at least one more juried show and possibly two, where I am committed to having jackets and scarves.  Do I make new work for those shows or just bring what I have now?  Which is the bigger risk, accumulating more unsold inventory or taking a chance that my work will seem stale? 

When I apply to new shows should I apply with just artwork instead of wearable art?  Should I try applying with both?  Some shows allow you to  submit entries in two categories, but that means two entry fees.  If I put jackets, scarves and artwork into one submission, would that be perceived as too disparate?  Most shows only ask for three examples of your work, so if I put them all into one submission, they'd only have one photo of each category to go on.  That seems risky too.  So you see my dilemmas.  I have a lot to figure out over the coming months.  I'm open to advice if you have any.

For the time being, until I sort out my plans for my wearable art, I am concentrating on purely decorative art.  Here are some of my current projects.

I am pretty sure this one is finished in terms of the stitching on it.  Just needs to be mounted over the canvas stretcher and I have to give it a name.

I've been working with my gelatin prints and skeleton leaves.  I figured out relatively recently that Misty Fuse works quite well for attaching the leaves.  In the last couple, I added embroidery over the leaves, but this time I decided to just rely on the fusing.  I'm thinking that having the piece mounted instead of leaving it soft will give enough stability to make sure the leaves don't become unattached.

Below is the first "draft" version of the piece I am currently stitching on.  Another gelatin print,  but no skeleton leaves.  (At least not yet.  I never know exactly where a piece is going until it's done.)  The final draft turned into a somewhat larger version with more space around the central motif.

Here are very early "drafts" of a couple of other pieces.  This general idea came to me sometime in the night.  I have a bunch of these pieced squares of Maria Testa scraps that I created during another of my "I just need to keep going" spells.  Then early this morning it occurred to me that maybe they would make a good background for some of my gelatin prints.  These are the beginnings of testing that idea.  I'm not too sure what I think yet.  I think I need to let things percolate for a while.