more juice + the work ahead

There's so much happening right now.  Lots of inspiring bits and a concerted effort to be in this moment and awake.

Joy of joys, this morning I finally got back out to the Arboretum for a walk.  Amazingly the parking lot was virtually empty (yes!) and I set off with dark clouds gathering.  As I walked along a favorite section of the trail through the pines, little drips started to fall.  Halfway through the walk, it turned into rain.  I cannot remember the last time I walked in the rain, no raingear, no hat, no 'protection'.  I walked for half an hour in a steady rain, pretty much soaked, water dripping down my forehead, my glasses fogging up, enjoying every minute and giving thanks for such an unexpected gift.

Now back to the studio and a sample of some of those inspiring bits to peruse ...
. . . the current issue of Surface Design Journal is a small treasure, full of glorious and exceptionally yummy images.  I started to scan something to post here and couldn't bring myself to choose.
. . . the imagery of Robert and Shana ParkeHarrison - talk about testing my comfort zone (which I've decided is more like a soap bubble than a rigid circle).
. . . a new book Experimental Pattern Sourcebook - which I bought mainly for the images of Sarah Renshaw and Cipriano Martinez.  Unfortunately there's not much on-line about either of them, so I'm very excited to have the book.

Then there's my own image experiments.  Right now I'm loving this triptych.  It's still a w.i.p., but I'm thinking this or something similar is going to show up somewhere in the near future.  It may just end up on my wall, we shall just have to wait and see ...

And then there's the work ahead.  The jumbo box with my samples arrived today ...

In the next couple of weeks I'll be disassembling all the stitched silk pieces, doing a thorough perusal of everything else, running components through the tumbler and reassembling, giving the whole body of work a summer cleaning and sprucing up, then shooting new photos for the catalog and website and any other promotional materials I will need, updating my print catalog, then updating the website and this blog to tie it all together into a lovely new package.

On top of all that, the Gem Show is this weekend (I'll be going over on Thursday).  That means shopping for sparklies to complement what I now have and, with my Pantone Fall 2010 palette in hand, putting together some delicious new color combinations.  Inspiration is surely to follow, so I have no doubt I'll be designing some new additions to the catalog, then make and photograph, etc etc etc.

One more thing - some new background music.  Cat Power aka Chan Marshall..... 





joyously onward .....
blessings - kvk