Olmec Indians

Now I find this out.  Another dirty little mom secret.

I got to the opening moments of the Palm Beach Fine Craft Fair yesterday.  There was some great stuff there, a few new artists and craftspeople with some wonderful things.  The show seemed pretty heavily weighted towards jewelry booths but there were some good ones to poke at.  The other thing that I thought was over represented were the wearables.  Don't get me wrong, I love to see all these things, but for the most part I found that there wasn't a lot of innovation.  I know the artists are hobbled by sizing and current style considerations that must fit within their financial constraints, but I got a bit tired of looking at racks and racks of square jackets.  Would have been nice to see a different viewpoint.  

What I did manage to not talk myself out of was a woven canvas rug for my kitchen by Joyce Barker-Swartz.  I absolutely loved one of her large runners on display but it became apparent quickly that it wasn't in the stars for me to own it, so I bought it's first runner up (get it?), a much smaller and more affordable, and DARKER design that won't show every drop of crud that hits it.  I only wish it were larger...

I have (almost) finished four of the five drop cloth quilt tops so they are ready to layer, and in fact I have such sore hands from yanking the embroidery threads through the painted canvas that I took a break and cut the backings and batting so they are ready to go.  Tomorrow I have more hand work and yanking tough threads but for tonight I can finish up the applique on #4.  The last one is all pinned so perhaps I can get that under control tomorrow too.  Perhaps this week I can finish the layering too but it's a busy week coming up with stuff to do every single day.  

I had a bad time this week looking for studio space without much success.  Initially I thought I might pick up a space in an industrial park here because the economy is so bad and I have seen so many empty spaces but apparently the smaller spaces like I want are more desirable for those companies downsizing.  And also, the small spaces are still about twice as much space as I could ever want.  Maybe something will happen along, but with winter almost over and the plan of leaving here in 2 months, it might not be practical now to continue the search.  I think I am going to have to give up on this project for now and settle into the spare bedroom with no light and too much stuff.  Of course I could very easily dump three quarters of my stuff and simply concentrate on one thing instead of twenty, but WHICH one?  I love the new artists books, the collage is fun and related to the book making, all the photographic processes and digital printing are integral to everything I do and the printer is way big- and of course there are the quilts although I don't do as much of that work here any more.  Then I have a basket of jewelry equipment, fiberfill for three dimensional work, and many many baskets of knitting paraphenelia.  

OK, what would YOU give up out of your studios?  What abandoned process, what equipement that you thought you would use all the time but is still in the original box, what to-die-for fabric that is too good to cut?  Let's doa  mental clean-out.  Tell me what to toss.  Might get me started!