A Close-Up of My StudiO

tiles above the back door

Over the years of traveling to teach I have had request for pictures of my studio. Being an artist and totally visual, I find it important to have things that surround me to be visually delightful...to fill me with that creative sparkle...things that I love...
What do I see as I am creating everyday...what are the little things that I find so wonderful??

I started with the basics- of color of the walls. I needed it to be calm and soothing so I picked out two shades of robin's egg blue- not quite blue and not quite green...but equally balanced. One shade in my personal work area and another slightly lighter shade in the classroom area.

Then added fresh white and green accents...

an old picket fence my husband found for me-
already painted the perfect green!

close up of my cabinet with some of
my favorite tea cups!

Added some soft touches...

old quilt

new quilt
cute quilt

Then filled in with my personal small items...

little birds and "luv muffins"
that sit on my worktable shelf

sitting in front of my design area
pretty pincushions including
a gift from a friend- a betz white cupcake!

favorite books on my shelf
I collect Japanese craft books...

little dolls and pincushions
that sit on a shelf above my computer screen

baskets filled with
Japanese & Chinese fabrics

jars of pencils

and jars of ribbons

The filled the room with soft music...

One of my favorite online music stations is pandora. You can create your own stations of music you like. Right now I am listening to Jim Brickman or Kevin Kern and created a station around that kind of music.

All in all it is so wonderful to create things you love and
it helps when you have an atmosphere surrounded by things you love-
it cannot help but nurture your creativity!

heart that hangs on my front door with TWO lucky cats!

Chinese Miao Embroidery

During our time in Santa Fe, Mark and I were fortunate to see the Chinese Miao Exhibit at the Folk Art Museum. The Santa Fe International Folk Art Museum is really one of the best I have seen in the world. The museum holds a collection of more than 135,000 artifacts pieces plus the changing traveling exhibits which was this Chinese exhibit.

This exhibit held 500 pieces of carefully and skillfully embroidered Miao clothing and accessories. It was inspirational! The tiny delicate work of so many hands to create such beautiful treasures! This wonderful group of people also create the wonderful children's hats that I so love!

front & back of child's "chicken" hat

China embroidery is one of Chinese excellent folk traditional needle craftworks. Embroidery is closely connected with China’s sericiculture (silkworm raising) and filature. Hence embroidery is also called silk needlework (sixiu). China is the earliest country in the world to discover and make use of silk. Roughly 5000 years ago, people begun to raise silkworm and make silk products. As the using of silk, silk articles appeared and developed, and the embroidery gradually sprung up. In accordance with the record of Book of Documents (shangshu, 尚书), more than 4000 years ago, the clothing embroidery was required widely. In Song Dynasty, the embroidered garments were widely welcomed and embroidery gradually popularized widely in folk society.

The museum has changed their policy of photographing (use to be able to with no flash) to no photography. So in respect to them, I will share with you other similar photos of the Miao's exquisite work.

Women's jackets with
close ups of embroidery work

The Miao Minority group live in seven different provinces of China, each group has their own distinct style of dress. Besides their beautiful embroidery many are known for their fanciful silver work.
They are known to be friendly and welcoming and love to sing and dance.

Books I like:
One Needle One Thread Book
loved this book- a how to!

Miao textiles from China
beautiful images and good text!

Santa Fe International Folk Art Market

Back from Santa Fe and back into work...

...but I would love to take a moment to share with you some of the sights from the Santa Fe Folk Art Market!

There are artist from 40 different countries that show their wares at this show. It was quite the experience and for all the public that attends (over 20,000) it is well run and organized. Although, it was a test in patience for this dollmaker with all the masses, the heat, and the noise...but overall a fun time.

While looking over the scads of photos my husband and I took, there was one thing that really stood out for me- the people...and that is what I would like to share with you.

ok...not that crowd of people...
there are booths in there-somewhere!

but the people who traveled thousands of miles
to bring their hearts and their goods...

Japan

China

Mexico
Mexico

Kyrgyzstan

India

Peru

Indonesia

India

Once again if I take a moment and take a breath, and really look beyond the crowd and the noise...

I find that simple beauty in a person's smile that radiates from
their heart and into their shining face and passes into their work!

If you would like to see more in depth photos
of the entire Santa Fe trip than feel free to

sign up for my monthly ROotie E-News!

Next week...the Chinese exhibit at the museum!

Santa Fe

This weekend my husband and I are in Santa Fe on a long needed break.

Besides all the other wonders of Santa Fe...there are two exhibits that I am very excited to see...please check out these links and I will report back to you next week with photos!

Folk Art Museum Exhibit- Chinese Minority

Santa Fe Folk Art Fesitval

Until next week...
Leslie

White Rabbits- Soul Stitches

When I first started this blog my intent was to take time to stop and take the time to notice the simple beauty in life. I should of realize at that moment that I was telling myself of what was to come...

....to slow down and take the time. With some recent health concerns I have had to slow down and this has actually been a blessing!

While creating these rabbits (in my "new" slower state) the joy of dollmaking has returned to me. I have found a parallel with my health and my dollmaking- both are both a concerted effort. I have taken the time to re-learn (and still working on it!) how to enjoy or "stroll " through the journey instead of a break-neck pace through to the completion of the process.

With this effort, I have now been able to experiment with some new techniques and time to think about what I want to communicate to you, the viewer, with these dolls.

All in all dollmaking has always been a part of my DNA- a gifted instinct- working on creating these dolls has helped me realize just that...they are stitches from my soul...

Soul Stitches

Available at Glennie Coombe Gallery