Mother's Day

We'd planned a quiet day strolling through the historic McGill Rose Garden in north Charlotte. The roses were beautiful, the day lovely. We knew there would be plants for sale, but were pleasantly surprised to see art offered also.

I was immediately drawn to the mixed media and unique jewelry by the gifted young artist Gordon Merrick Justice. Using found objects and ephemera, Gordon creates art which is fresh and inspired. His work has soul and a certain Zen quality.

I fell in love with a pin created from an old tin type, which depicts a young child sitting on its Mother's lap. It was the perfect purchase on Mother's Day.

This was Gordon's first show. His work will soon be available in the McGill Rose Garden gift shop. Look for it. Hours are Tues. - Sat., 10-4 with a 3rd Friday Gallery Crawl 5-9 through Oct.
http://www.mcgillgardenshop.com/



This pin really spoke to my heart.

















All photos: Bill Guerrant

Mary Jo's Cloth Store

Patty and Mary Jo enjoy a laugh.

For fabric lovers, no trip to NC is complete without a day at Mary Jo's. Patty and I shopped, took a break for lunch at Tony's Ice Cream Parlor, then returned to make sure we'd left no fabric unturned. I bought mostly Amy Butler remnants while Patty added to her Civil War fabric stash. http://www.maryjos.com/default.aspx Be sure to check Mary Jo's website. From there you can click on her blog.

Love the neon ice cream cone at Tony's.

Tony's menu selections are truly old south! I've been a southern girl for most of my life, but will never ever try anything called livermush!

Seagrove

Seagrove NC, just east of Asheboro, is home to more than 100 potteries. The area's clay is perfect for throwing. We spent a wonderful day there recently.

My SIL Mary Moon packed a delicious lunch, as there are no restaurants nearby. Except for a few in the tiny town of Seagrove, the individual potteries cover a wide area, making driving a necessity. We began at the NC Pottery Center to see the styles of potters. From there we listed the ones we most wanted to visit.










Mary Moon recommended Turn and Burn where we found potter David Garner (shown above)at work. Here are some photos from that day.

Regina VonCannon's Pottery Junction was my favorite. Housed in the original old East Side Gro.building once belonging to her husband's grandfather, it was like stepping back into another time. I'm a huge fan of old stuff so this was heaven for me.





















I was happy to find a beautiful bowl by Regina containing the unusual colors in our home. She was kind enough to pose with her piece.

My beautiful bowl.





More of my Seagrove pottery.








For more images of Seagrove, click on my slideshow in the right sidebar.

Greensboro

My sister Patty and our son Matthew hadn't seen each other in five years! We remedied that while she was here. Our visit included lunch at a favorite restaurant, Thai Bangkok, and ice cream at Yum Yum in the heart of the UNC-Greensboro campus.

My son Matthew and his Aunt Patty get acquainted once more.

Suzie's brother Rob helped 'til the kids' garden plot. They worked in an entire compost pile to enrich the soil. They can't wait to have 'mater sammiches this summer.

Rob, Suzie, Matthew, Patty and Rob's dog Luna take a break from putting in their garden.


The neighbor's adorable puppy has almost figured out how to reach Luna for playtime. Just a little more digging and..................

While in Greensboro we squeezed in a visit to my friend Randy's shop - one of the best in the southeast. www.randysquiltshop.com


Here I am with long-time friend Randy Silvers, owner of Randy's Quilt Shop. His store is amazing, with everything a quilter or fiber artist might need. My sister was thrilled to find Aurefil thread there.

More Projects

Foiling:

I used both Wonder Under and Foil-on Textile Transfer Adhesive in my foiling tests. Patty foiled many peace symbols on a yellow hand dyed fabric. Foiling takes a lot of muscle! I'm not sure you'll see any of it in my work, as I'm not a glitz girl.

Tyvek:

We also played with painted Tyvek fabric. I think Patty's piece would be great as the focal point in a larger project. I can envision it embellished with beads and fibers. Note: Tyvek fabric is far superior to Tyvek envelopes. Besides, new U.S. Postal materials are for mailing purposes only. It's OK to use canceled envelopes.

I purchased Tyvek fabric from New Zealand fiber artist Stephanie Quattrini at our guild show. http://www.hanzoncreativity.com/


Sunprinting:

Artificial ferns from the dollar store were pinned to still wet fabric which had been painted with Pebeo Setacolor Transparent paint. This paint is heliographic, meaning it is light sensitive. When set in the bright sun, it reacted beautifully, leaving a crisp fern print.

Note: Make sure items used for sunprinting touch the painted fabric firmly. Loose items allow too much shadow and do not make a crisp print. Remember to do sunprinting while the fabric is still wet. On cloudy days, an Ott light is a good substitute for the sun. I've even used regular lamps.

Patty pinned the end of each frond fern to ensure a crisp print. The fabric was painted on a piece of old foam core, making this an easy task.

Still More Sister Fun

Boo hoo. Patty left this morning after two weeks of great fun. Here is some of what we did while she was here:

Patty, Debby, Ellen

Dyeing day at Lake Norman with Debby Harwell, a fellow guild member. Not only was it a beautiful spot - Debby's husband Don (a prize-winning competitive barbecuer) smoked a pork butt 12 hours for us, creating a divine lunch served with great style on the pier!

Debby and Patty met last summer while studying for two weeks with master dyer Carol Soderlund in Ohio. They approach the process scientifically. I preferred my serendipitous method until seeing their results. Wow!

Two of Patty's resist pieces:

Patty's hand-dyed silk scarf.

My sister has a great sense of color coupled with a 'take no prisoners' attitude!

These pieces are mine:

I used my favorite purples and blues for my scarf.










I don't often work with green, but.............

The color even worked its way into this mostly fuchsia piece:

More Sister Fun

My sister Patty has been visiting for nearly two weeks. We've had a blast. Here are some of our dyed and surface design pieces.

Patty used Setacolor Transparent paint for the blue sunprint. Procion fiber reactive dyes were used to create the chartreuse cotton.

My pieces - pleated and then dyed.

Sister Fun

My baby sister Patty with our parents.
Late 1960's.

My baby sister Patty is here for two weeks! Yeah! We've been having a blast dyeing fabric and getting into all sorts of trouble. I'll try to get photos up in the next couple of days. Be well. Peace!