Friday, April 07, 2006

Dye Day Tomorrow

I’m getting ready for another one of my Dye Days with a full class of 5. I spent this morning cleaning up the basement/dye studio but I haven’t got all the stuff put out yet down there. We need plastic on the freezer, washer/dryer, and counter plus the dyes, cups, spoons, syringes and plastic wrap all ready to go. I’ve printed out the handouts yesterday so I just have to staple, sort, and label the folders. I have to wind and tie all the skeins and make all the rovings/slivers into nests. Then I have to find all the samples and books to plop down in the middle of the dining room table. It takes a bit of work to prepare, but it’s a great excuse to clean the house! Students have to get comfortable in my house and we end up using most of it. (It’s not that big!) My last several classes were very tidy and had the place cleaned up by 3:30pm with a chance to sit and chat for awhile before they left. I’ve done it enough now that there’s a routine. Though each class is quite different: some are exuberant and flinging dye everywhere, while others are subdued and gently pressing the minimum dye into their fibres. I’m enjoying it more now and it’s not taking so much out of me to teach. I used to feel like a wrung-out sponge afterwards. Still try to take a quiet day after a class though so I don’t overdo things. I want it to remain fun or otherwise why bother? It’s not like I’m making any money really.

I went a little bit nuts yesterday while I was downtown on my way to a fibre arts guild meeting. I went to Dressew first and bought some white and some purple shimmery polyester chiffon and some black tulle. Just a yard of each to play with some surface design/art quilty things. The way things are going though it’ll be next week before I even get around to messing in the studio. The muse has to sing to me first. I also went to Chapters (of course!) and got a few more magazines and (because I’m feeling rather reckless) some more books. There’s a neat magazine-nearly-a-book out from the publishers of Belle Armoire and Somerset Studio (the latter is a name I can never remember). This one is called Haute Handbags and it’s really quite wonderful if you’re into the current craze for one-of-a-kind purses, handbags, totes etc. and want some inspiration to make your own show-stopper. They’re supposed to have another special issue too, Belle Armoire Jewelry but I haven’t seen it yet. It may not be on the local newsstands but I’m not going to order a copy for $14.95 US plus an extra $7.95 US shipping and handling. Yikes. $17.95 CDN is enough to pay for something that’s more than a magazine but not quite a book.

I also got another book on serging called Serger Secrets. It has some great information and tips and tricks that I haven’t seen elsewhere. It’s a bit dated (1998 vintage) but very usable. I need to play some more with my new machine. The summer issue of Cloth Paper Scissors is out. Some really interesting multimedia work including the challenge pieces from a drawing by Violette. Folks took the drawing of part of a girl’s face with a bird on her head and made their own interpretations. Fun to see where it took them. This is all the purchases I’m going to admit to for the moment! I’m just about to start the local chapter of Bibliophiles Anonymous.

Well, now that I’ve read over the list of things I still have to do before 10 o’clock tomorrow morning — I’d better get to it!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I just bought Serger Secrets too! Nice little book...

Noticing that you are 'reckless' often :)

.....As I head off to a spin in tomorrow with three vendors to choose from!

Susan