I taught a student this morning and she had seen my wave landscape patchwork while scrolling through the site. She asked me how I get inspiration and how I choose colors. So I showed her. I told her that I don't purchase special fabrics and normally go to the scrap pile and choose strips from there. She asked to help me choose fabrics. She is 8 years old. We went to this morning's scrap pile and I told her that I would choose some random colors and make them work together. Th

I always run a class or 2 like this every year.The students never know when its going to happen. Those that have been with me longer, always want to know when I am going to spring that surprise on them. It is not a good idea for any artist or creator to become set in one's ways and this is a refreshing wake up. Life throws rags at one, learn to create with them. When creating I usually work in a planned manner. I either go to my color sorted boxes or decide on a particular c

I am working on 3 tutorials this week. 2 landscape tutorials and another, the second tutorial in the sewing course. In the first tutorial I use a twilight scene as a vehicle to teach textile landscape fabric "painting" as a medium for creating. As I usually do, I go to my scrap pile and look for interesting color and texture combinations. I am looking for the torn, crinkled and fraying pieces. I go to my supply of threads and choose a number of coordinating colors. Begin stit

Those tie dyed remnants. I keep all of them. Circles to make yoyos Squares, rectangles and oblongs to make new fabric which creates new pieces. A tie dyed t shirt vest And a long tube which serves as a gaiter/scarf in the winter Beautiful colors and some imagination with a bit of skill creating beautiful products.

Creating using what I have on hand. I found my box with the tie dyed remnants that I collect. Blues, turquoises and shades of oranges. Its really hot outside so seeing these colors I thought of a Caribbean beach. I have one bottle of mixed colors of buttons, and another of mixed colors of beads available. I fished out a collection of ocean colored beads and buttons. I very often create an entire piece using relatively narrow strips. Today I wanted a defined strong skyline. I

At High Hopes Dyes & Gifts They sell artsy tie dyed clothing and gifts for people who want something truly unique. That definitely is the case. We live in 2 different countries, far apart, so when I order something I prefer for it to be larger so that I can resize and adjust to perfection. There is a second reason. I use the remnants from the alterations to create. The color mixes that Carol creates, give my art and fashion accessories a range and depth of color shading which

She decided that upon reaching her Bat Mitzvah she did not want to have a standard party in a hall. Instead she wanted to share the experience of learning to sew with her classmates. She began studying sewing with us when her nose barely reached the edge of the table. First, we saw her in the summer sewing camps, and then as she grew older, she decided that she wanted to learn more and more techniques and share the knowledge with her friends. We sat down and planned the eveni

I finally finished that small art garden in greens. I create a base consisting of fabric, yoyos, pleated ribbons and then I begin to paint with buttons and beads. What I had available this week was a relatively small selection of green buttons and a bottle of upcycled beads which were collected over the years from broken jewelry pieces. A mix of everything. Crystals, glass, wooden and plastic beads. I spent an hour fishing out all the greeen shaded ones that I could find an

After teaching for many years I have come to the conclusion that we are all artists and creators by nature. That is until the system tells us otherwise and puts us into boxes. When I teach I watch the children and how they create. I am in awe o ftheir instinctive color sense and aesthetic choices. There is no rigth and wrong in art and design to my mind. It is an instinctive gut feeling, until we are taught otherwise. I love looking at their choices. I never interfere when th

Remnants from remnants. Because I don't throw anything away I have an endless supply of strips and small pieces for creating art. Today we are going to be looking at choosing colors and textures, placement of fabric strips and additional elements, fabric seams and buttons. I keep all the pieces, thin strips, overlocked edges, fabric seams, basically all the remnants. I find that the ripped pieces which fray at the edges create beautiful texture when used in landscape art. I p