SAFF 2008 Pictures

Bunnies!!!!

I will NOT buy a bunny. I will NOT buy a bunny. I will NOT buy a ....

What could be cuter than a bunny holding a bunny?

Art batts were a winner in my booth for sure.

Batts were turned into felted scarves by the wonderful folks at FeltLoom.

The main arena at SAFF. Next year I'll be there and be warm.

My friend Suzanne (left) and Barbara, owner of the amazing Cloth in Asheville.

A spindle bouquet. What a treat!

My new friend, Allen of Numma Numma fame (in the trench coat) and her friends.

WhorlingTides BFL roving on display.

WhorlingTides Merino Bamboo blend on display. These were HOT at SAFF.

WhorlingTides' softest ever Merino braids.

Peak season in Asheville happened for us during SAFF. Thanks!!

I'm too tired after my first day back at work to post a written description of my marvelous SAFF adventure. But I promise to keep adding pics and to write a summary the first moment possible. I will say that I have met some of the finest people imaginable at SAFF. And thanks to all the people who stopped by WhorlingTides. More to follow on all the great folks, too!

SAFF (Southeastern Animal Fiber Fair)

7 hours and counting...WhorlingTides will be at SAFF (Southeastern Animal Fiber Fair) in beautiful Asheville, North Carolina. It is one of the most exciting things to happen this year in my new business venture, and I cannot wait to meet everybody - vendors and consumers.

Addition

Thanks Suzanne. My friend, Suzanne, has been a friend since 1982. We met when we entered the MFA photography program at Indiana University. And even through ups and downs we have managed to remain friends all these years. Her daughter was 5 years old when I met them. Now Laure is married and a mother to 3 daughter. I will see all of them this week at SAFF. It will certainly be one of the highlights of my trip.

Suzanne is a book editor for fine arts and crafts. I don't have permission to say where but if she permits me, I will change the post to include her employer. Needless to say - it is a major publishing company and I'm honored that she is considering working with me on a book about dyeing for spinners. Once SAFF is over I will be able to focus on that once in a lifetime opportunity.

I trust Suzanne to read my writing critically. She is brilliant and knows words. She recommends that I amend my comments below with the following:

When I’m dyeing fiber, I usually have a specific and emotional goal in mind. “Accidents” can bring new insight but mostly my intention is to convey a deep and true emotion that I associate with a color set. Of course you’ll bring your own memories to the experience. As you look at my work, I invite you to try it yourself: does this one remind you of the lilacs you held at my wedding? That one of the Arizona sunsets of your youth?

I will make these additions because they will really capture the reader much more effectively than mine would have alone. Thanks to all who shared feedback including CC and IslandSweet. You are all special to me. You inspire my work and encourage me to a higher standard in my craft. Yet, we have never even spoken on the phone. Cyber friends. Real friendships.

Statement

My fibers are intentional. I am open to accidents when they occur, but mostly I have a goal in mind when I am dyeing. With my fiber dyeing I am seeking a feeling memory rather than a rational one. The goal is for each piece to evoke a color memory that is associated with a powerful feeling, a true emotion. The feeling could be a basic emotion without words like happy, sad, lonely, joy, or it could be one that the observer would have visted frequently enough to have a verbal tag or story for it. When someone looks at my work I want her/him to say "That yarn looks like the sunset when we visted the Grand Canyon in 1968, remember??" or "When I see that roving I am suddenly aware of the feeling that I had when I fell in love with Jamie." Each colorway does not have to evoke the same feeling in everyone who looks at it. Memories are not templated; therefore, colors should not be organized the same way for everyone. However, I do know that I have not done my work well if somebody says "You have the color blue that I need for my pattern." I also don't want to stay in the world of happy feelings. Each person has a range of emotions, some happy, some not so happy. A life without either end point is lived less fully than necessary. I cannot afford to live only part of a life on any given day. I hope everyone will enjoy the diversity in my 2008 - 2009 fiber collection. I have chosen to use the phrase... WhorlingTides: Fiber Arts for the Colors of Your Life. Now you know why.

My 300th Etsy Heart is Rawfish

Sometime ago I decided that I wanted to send a gift to the person who would be my 3ooth "heart" on Etsy. And this week, in the midst of all my new listings, along came Rawfish.

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5160042

Rawfish (aka Laila) happens to be another Etsy seller. She is a spinner and a fiber artist with a bold sense of color. For her "heart" prize she selected several of the Why Knot mini batts. They are pretty cute as you can see below.

Take a look at her shop, too. If you need some hip handspun, her shop would be a good place to start. And Laila...Thanks for looking at WhorlingTides on Etsy.

Rawfish blogs at http://www.rawfishcomics.blogspot.com/ - love her pics of roving drying on the porch. Looks like my back yard. You can find her in my list of fav blogs!!

Dyeing Over the Weekend

It is no secret that I had breast cancer 8 years ago next month, November 9th to be exact. And as far as we know, my body remains cancer free. No, I'm not a cancer "survivor." I don't want the diagnosis to have that much power over my life that I would have to assume a warrior pose. So for me to write a blog title like "Dyeing Over the Weekend" sometimes the words kind of get stuck in my fingertips. But in dyeing this entire 4-day weekend I was really LIVING every moment. Not dying. Totally living. When I work with colors and fibers, I am totally alive and moving from one breath to the next like a dance or wave of peace. Yesterday disappears. Tomorrow is of no consequence. All the colors are beautiful, even the colors that don't "match." I am very attached to that space, and I miss it when I am not there.

So here is a sample of where I have been. Let me know what you see and feel from these colors.

These fibers are handdyed using Pro Chem Wash Fast Acid Dyes. The fiber content is a creamy merino/bamboo blend with a 60/40 ratio. Bamboo does not take acid dye; it requires fiber reactive dyes. Therefore, as you can see, there is a light dusting of frost or even a sugary glaze throughout the top that is caused by the merino uptaking the dye and the bamboo rejecting it. Altogether - a really lovely look, not for everything but it will make some beautiful yarns for some purposes. Here's some more....

I haven't posted in a while so there's a lot to catch up on. Let me briefly introduce my friend Carson Cooper. I call him a "friend" because I felt an immediate connection with him via correspondence. He's a wheel maker. He builds them from scratch - as in by hand. Here's a link to his website called Ztwist..... http://www.ztwist.com/ I'm enjoying getting to know him. He knows things about spinning that I don't know. We have discussed collaborating on some projects together - like making some spindles together - a version for him to sell at sales and a WhorlingTides edition. Doesn't that sound like fun??? Thanks, Carson, for making the most beautiful oriface hooks. Oh, didn't I mention that we met on Ebay when I purchased some of his hand turned oriface hooks in a yummy variety of woods and styles. He's writing a book on building spinning wheels. How cool is that?!?!

No more updates tonight even though there are so many more to make. Tomorrow will perhaps afford me time to add more updates. Off to spin until sleep arrives. I'm spinning some blue BFL scraps to see just how fine I can spin. It is an empirical question....