Eco printing, alpacas and time travel

What? It's December? When did that happen? :-)
I have run through 2 months of combining silk work and portraits and December simply brings a bit of panic into it!

I dug into the eco printing and have had some gorgeous results!

Various kinds of eucalyptus

It takes practice but in the end...the thrill (yes it is) is in not knowing what you'll create!

But knowing that I'm printing Nature's colors exclusively is another appeal to this art form.

I spent 10 days in October at the NC State Fair as the silk artist in the Village of Yesteryear

rose leaves from Seven Sisters

Heirloom roses and pineapple sage

and although it was tiring with daily 12 hour days, I met SO many people who were happy to add a scarf to their handmade collections!
November seems to have dissipated and I don't know where it went to. I do know that I am on a borrowed computer as mine bit the dust (although Best Buy is determined to make it work since it is under warranty) and I had no idea how many of my photos were on the other computer. Luckily I have Carbonite backup but having to make temporary folders to store work is time consuming.

I'll pop some portraits up in my next post...seems odd to mix them with the silk. :-)

Oh and I must add one more image....Bella! The newest member and a future supplier of fiber for adding some roving into some of my silk!

Meet Bella!

No doubt about Christmas!

Nope. No doubt about Christmas and Thanksgiving! They are here and have been creeping up for several months. But for us, that's a good thing! When one area of our art becomes overwhelmed, other areas have to flounder for a bit....so we opted to make December the month for a few of our popular art classes and then in January we're back in the saddle in that department:-)

In the meantime both Steve and I found ourselves in the NC State Fair in the Village of Yesteryear showcasing areas of our art that are not as big as the paintings and portraits.  That was the silk work I do and the sign painting that he's done for many years. Amazing how awed people were watching him hand letter a beautiful sign!
So for 10 days we were demonstrating and displaying our art. Long hours but we enjoyed the crowds and loved demonstrating in front of them!

Yep we had to dress Colonial times :-)

Steve attracting lots of attention!

So I'll bring in more detail later but enjoy a few of the closeups from a different artistic perspective!

The Terrier scarf

The owl scarf

The incredibly lovely Coachman Sign!

Theresa's black silk scarf from her block carvings

Steve's Singing Pig hand painted and lettered