The Art Odyssey Tour 2014 is Ended

I am so exhausted. 3 very long days that would have never been possible without Ron as my extension. This is my first year for the art studio tour and I had no idea what to expect. We had 100 people sign the guest registry and estimate a minimum of 50 who did not sign it.  I am so grateful to everyone who came to find out what fiber art is all about. At most, there were 5-6 people who weren’t interested in talking about the work and how it is done. That’s a very low number compared to an art show/sale where the majority of the attendees are having an enjoyable day out as they stroll through the art.

Neighbors came, friends we had lost touch with and a surprise visit from a family we knew from wintering in the Rio Grande Valley who moved to the beautiful Ozarks in December.

The living room was turned into a mini boutique style gallery with samples of my work. The fireplace displayed publications I’ve been a part of and exhibition catalogs [ I called it the I Love Me display] and natural printed scarves were in the dye room. Then I took them into my sewing and storage area to see how I design on the design wall and showed samples of  hand dyed fabrics.

I was so thrilled to be able to share what I do with so many people. I hope they were richer for discovering an art form that most of them didn’t know existed.

janicepainedawes janicepainedawes janicepainedawes janicepainedawes

Wow…Our latest Eco Bundles

The Studio Tour starts in a week!  I am the great procrastinator floating along like I have all the time in the world. So I gave us a kick in the butt to get the last few natural printed gauze scarves ready for the tour.  We collected leaves a few days ago for the project, fresh and not dead fall. I guess a purist would cringe at that, but I am a Master Gardener and proper pruning was used so no trees or bushes were harmed.

We used combinations of leaves and mordants. A couple of the scarves were failed projects but the way this dyeing goes, they just added layers of mordant to get these fantastic results. I think I know which were the red cabbage blah results but I’m not certain. We were worried that the loose weave of the cotton gauze wouldn’t get good results. We could not be happier with this batch. Of course we would never be able to exactly replicate any of them, but that is what’s fun and exciting about this process.  I am linking to http://ninamariesayre.blogspot.com

One of the mad dyers.
One of the mad dyers.

Mixed Leaf printing Mixed printing with vegetation Mixed Leaf Natural Print

TAO The Art Odyssey Ad

janicepainedawes_TAO 2014

The Art Odyssey website is   here   where you can read about the other artists in this year’s studio tour.

The magazine will have a bio and photo of each artist and directions to the studios.

This is my ad that will be in the TAO magazine for after the tour.

Time is getting short so I’m working hard to see everything is in order.