The Contest Is On And More Are Invited

The contest is a GO!! However, if you haven't entered there is still plenty of time. The deadline for the 3 pictures is July 31, midnight. (How is that for official.)


Remember, I need your address to send you the pin/clamp. If you haven't sent  me your address on my email, I don't have it. (I would never share your address or use it for any other purpose, so please do not worry about that. I have no interest in selling anything.)


This is a strictly for fun contest to be enjoyed by all.
Many hugs, Cameron

Another Contest

I spent a lot of time looking for shawl pins that would go through my "jackety-shawls" without snagging the silk. Most of the pins were made for knitted shawls and had blunt ends. While shopping at one of the big "box stores" I got an idea for making my own shawl clips. They won't work for every application but they are the answer that I had been looking for, and now I have decided to have a contest for anyone who wants to participate.

First let me show you what I am talking about. This is one of my jacket-shawls with my clip on it. The clip allows the wearer to adjust the shawl to be worn in many different ways, as a cowl neck, gathered in front, off to the side, etc.



Now for the contest.

If you are interested, just let me know on this blog. Those of you who check in please share this as I have to have at least 6 contestants to do this.

I will then mail you the bare clip and you will decorate it. You will take 3 pictures of it and post them to me. I will only have your pictures to judge by so make them good, only 3 pictures. The most creative and most wearable clip will be the winner. That is only one winner, creative and wearable. I will try each one on my shawls, assuming I get contestants.
Please share this information.

The prize will be a jackety-shawl and 10 clips that you can play with all you want. The 10 clips part is only if you want them.

Here are a few more examples.










I love contests and I hope that you do too. Hugs.

Silk, Wool, and Vintage Lace Combine As Wearable Art

A preview of some wearable art for the Salem Art Fair.

A vintage lace and wool shawl
inlaid with silk.

A coat with wool laminated over black chiffon ,
inlaid with silk.

A silk and light weight wool scarf.

A small light weight top , silk and merino wool.

A light weight jacket made of
silk and wool and decorated with
vintage lace.

Mom and Dad

These are some pictures of my parents that were taken by a wonderful photographer named Ben. They are not my property, so I don't sell them or commercialize them, I just play with them. I have used them to apply some of Kim's wonderful textures. I also applied the poster adjustment to the  middle one. This is so much fun. If you get a chance, to take Kim's classes I would recommend it. Many hugs.

Some New Fabric and Some Leftover Pieces

Light weight for summer evening.

 While at the Clay Ball I met many wonderful people, and I met a very nice woman who asked me to make her a garment for a wedding. She gave me her card and I agreed to call her after the Ball. Since that time we have met and talked about the style of garment she would like and the colors. She has expanded her wishes to include an evening jacket of some kind also. This is wonderful because she has presented me with an opportunity to be creative and challenged at the same time. The fabric above is the first one that I made, the one right below is the second. They are, of course, very different, one heavy more for autumn, winter, the other for a summer evening. I have beautiful silks to add to both of them. The third one is much lighter again, for evenings during the summer.

I also made 2 fabrics using pieces that I had. We are meeting next week and she has invited a friend who likes  different colors than she does. I thought that it would be fun to have a variety of different things to look at. I included a couple of pictures of layout and how I put the rovings around the silk and prefelt. The picture reminds me of a tide pool at the coast. Again I am having too much fun.

Hugs for all my "blogger buddies."

Heavy nuno for autumn or winter.

Lighter weight for summer evening.

Using up pieces.

Adding the roving

Layout

Time Goes By and More Shawls

The Clay Ball has come and gone and it was so much fun. I finally found a group of people who really appreciate my wearable art. The city I live in is very conservative and people do not like to step out of the norm very much. That is fine, but it is a bit hard on folks like me who like to dress in bright colors and show off, and who like to make brightly colored clothing for others. People came to the event in all kinds of wonderful dress, some formal, some just dressy, some cocktail, a lot of great vintage. There was a silent auction and a live auction and I had a piece of wearable art in both. I modeled my "jackety-shawl" while it was bid on. Wow, was that intimidating! I wore the shawl in these pictures over my lace dress, very vintage. The pictures just don't do it justice-oh well...

I have had a lot of fun making scarves and shawls using my lace. I decided that using it was the best thing, that letting it sit in a drawer was not what it was meant for. I am careful to let the great designs and the delicacy of it show through. 

This white one would be great for a winter wedding, or for a cool evening. It is so soft and the lace is so beautiful. 

Now I just need to find someone who is getting married. Hugs

Felted Shawl On Old Lace Skirt

My granddaughter came over to model my garments for my Etsy Shop. She makes everything look great. I asked her to show off the shawl that I made using the vintage black lace that had been an old skirt. I used the whole skirt as I couldn't stand to cut any of the lace. It felted beautifully since it was cotton, and I think that I left plenty of it untouched so that the beauty of the lace catches the eye. Now, where to wear it?

Snow, Shawls and the Clay Ball

 We woke up to an inch of snow this morning. There is such hype about snow in this area as we just don't get it that often. The local media goes crazy building the snow story, and the snow seems to always come up short. No matter, it is always pretty.

In the meantime, I am still getting ready for the Clay Ball. I have been experimenting with shawls. I will wear one and my friend might.

 Jan, one of my blogger buddies, came to visit her father and was kind enough to model for me. We agreed that I would just show the shawl. I enjoyed her visit so much, knew that I would. Jan's blog:

http://laughingdogarts.blogspot.com/

I love the way that these turned out, but not for the Clay Ball, so I went back to experimenting. and came up with more. These are red wools and plum wools over metallic netting with silk laid in. So much fun. More to do.

Fun With Photos

If you haven't yet taken Kim Klassen's classes on Photoshop Elements, Layering, Textures, etc, I highly recommend them. I read about them from another blogger friend and found them to be very inexpensive and highly informative. http://kimklassencafe.com  Today I played around with a few of my pictures of my great niece and some old childhood pictures of my mother. I still have many things to review about layering, but I have learned so much from Kim. Before her classes I just couldn't get it.

 In this picture I overlaid a picture of my mother on top of a current one of my great niece. The old one already had sepia tones so I didn't add any more texturing. I need to go back and relearn how to remove the bright dress from the babies face. That will come.

In the second picture you can see my mother's doll also, and again the sepia tones. Thanks to Kim, I am now using a photo program that I have had for several years. Thanks Kim.

One Generation To the Next

Last weekend we celebrated my mother's 89 birthday. My two sisters came from LA, and we did our traditional shopping and lunch trip. We love getting Mom a nice present, though she fights us the whole time. This time we got her a nice down jacket and she looks great in it. As she is often chilly, this should keep her nice and warm when she goes out. Mom says that she loves it when she sees her girls together enjoying each other so much. These are moments that we treasure as Mom gets older.

Mom is now 89 and Dad is 88, just 7 months apart in age. They have been boyfriend and girlfriend since the fourth grade, and now married for 67 years. This kind of commitment doesn't seem to happen anymore. Their life raising 7 children hasn't been easy, but whose is?

We had a big party for Mom and fixed lasagna with all the trimmings. My sister's daughter came from Seattle with the youngest member of the family. She will be a year old in March. She is so beautiful, and is now crawling everywhere.

With my mother turning 89 and my great niece almost 1 year old, I am witnessing two ends of a wonderful generational spectrum in our family. How did I get so old?