Yesterday afternoon was the first cloth journal workshop. It was an excellent beginning and I was quite happy about how it went. I think it's going to be fun and everyone now has a fairly clear idea of what they want their project to be, at least in a general way. One of the fun things about a project like this is the way more ideas come as you stitch. One woman has a lot of stuff she wants to use and doesn't want anything left. I suggested she might want to make two journals and she was thrilled with the idea. People seemed a little bit unsure about what these journals are, but after I showed and explained mine and they passed it around a few times, the ideas were bouncing around in their heads. I told them that these journals could be whatever they want, but that since the idea of infinite possibilities could be daunting, in this class, we'd have a plan--it can be a loose plan, but they want some parameters. Once they have the one under their belt, who knows where they'll take it. It was very moving to hear the reasons for their journals and what they are hoping to do. A few left with a start and a couple of women decided that what they want to use for their covers was still at home, but now that they knew where they were going with this, they were eager to go get their supplies and begin. I'm so looking forward to seeing their work progress! I was also very pleased to hear more than one of them comment more than once about what a good group it is. I agree. It's always a gamble in a situation like this. You never know if there will be one person who is highly annoying and disruptive in one way or another, but the chatting was part of the fun and I think they'll be happy to share ideas with one another as we go forward--at least I hope so.
A friend who also attends the yarn group at the library asked me if I could teach her to do kumihimo. She'd expressed an interest a few months ago and I got her a disk but she hadn't tried it yet. She's taking the journal class and as she was rummaging through things to see what she might want to include, she found some old jewelry that she wants to deconstruct and use in kumihimo. So today she brought her disk to yarn group and I showed her how to do it.
Last night I finished up a brooch that I was making for her. She's mentioned in the past that she likes brooches, the color blue, and the colorful ribbon yarn I've used for many braids. A friend found it in a charity shop and got it for me. I've done so many braids with it and I think I have enough for another one or two. I tend to use novelty yarn for either weaving or kumihimo, but ribbon yarn isn't great on the pin looms, so kumihimo it is. Anyway, here's her brooch, which I gave her today. Sorry about the less than fabulous photo--I was rushing this morning and had little time to snap the pic before I was off.
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| kumihimo braid sewn into spiral with glass art pendant attached sterling silver pin on back |
I recently completed this one, too. I love purple and the purple/teal combination.
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| kumihimo braid sewn into spiral, teal glass bead, sterling silver pin on back |
Today, because I was showing someone how to do it, I loaded my disk with 8 strands of yarn, each a different color. I figured it'd be easier to keep track of the strands that way. I brought some scraps so she could do the same on her disk and that seemed to work well. I'm kind of liking how the braid is coming out so I'm going to continue. It'll be a shorter braid than I usually make, but I'll use it for embellishment on something.
It's been a busy week, at least by my standards. I'm thrilled to be at home now for the next several days. I picked up a library book that was waiting for me when I went to the art gallery yesterday (it's just next to the library on the ground floor of a larger building). I'm looking forward to starting that very soon. But first, I think a nice cup of tea is in order! I hope your week is going well.
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