Sunday, September 23, 2012

Catching Up!

I took a break from blogging for two weeks while I was finishing up some things and starting some others.  

About a month ago I wrote about sewing a ballroom dance dress for our friend Heather, who also dances with my daughter Laura's partner Dakota.  They have a competition in North Carolina in a few weeks (Laura's not competing in this one) and I needed to finish the dress.  Fortunately it fit pretty well and didn't need a lot of work to finish.  Here's a couple of photos of it fitted, embellished and hemmed.


I also finished painting another holiday/gift basket to list in my etsy shop, which I did, just yesterday...and today it was purchased by a family member!  I have a great family.  I feel very honored when anyone wants to have something I have made, and when that someone is family, it just makes it more meaningful to me. This is the one I finished, listed and sold within a couple of days!

  
















I've also been working on my last basket of the six we made.  I thought I would show a progression of how I paint them from start to finish.  I made good progress this weekend.  Here is where it begins on the first day, with the wood already sealed:

I put base coat paint layers on it, in this case white:
Next, for this basket, I used a sponge to put layers of darker and lighter blue paint over the base coat and then a brush to start the design:

I did get more done; one side is nearly done but I didn't get the last photo before it got too dark out on the enclosed porch where I work. I'll put that in the next progress blog.  This basket is going pretty fast so far.  Plenty left to do though!


Lastly, I'm working on other ideas for things for my shop.  I think I'm in an exploration phase as I try things to see how I like making them, and how people respond to them, and if they will sell or not.  It may take a year or more to sort out what shape this venture will take.  It's fun to experiment and see what happens.  The hard part is trusting myself, and the process of trying different things and evaluating the results, to lead me to the best choices.  Being true to myself and following my heart is my intention.  

3 comments:

  1. Congrats on the sale. The baskets are really cool.

    ReplyDelete
  2. What a fun dancing dress! I dance too and just bought a 1940's dress that I'm stoked to wear.

    And congrats on selling your lovely basket and quickly too!

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