Lately ...

(Above: Me ... standing beside my artwork as shown at the Collector's Choice reception of the "Winter Show" in the Green Hill Center for NC Art. Photo by Barbara Tyroler ... one of the talented artists with work in the exhibit. Her website is HERE.)

Since last week's installation at S & S Art Supply and "Mingle & Jingle", the December "First Thursday on Main Street art crawl, I've been happily going through some of the things I got from my family over Thanksgiving weekend ... like a few thousand keys!



They weigh a lot ... easily over 30 pounds a container. My youngest Sister Sonya acquired them through one of her drivers. (Sonya has an mini-van shuttle service from Slippery Rock and surroundings to the Pittsburgh airport, bus service, etc.) This driver also works for Grove City College and knew about these old keys to dorm rooms, classrooms, mail boxes, etc.



Well ... they're now mine! Boy do they make my HAPPY!



I've sold well over 150 tagged keys from my "Wall of Keys" (above ... as shown last spring. The "Wall" is now in my studio.) I need to replace these sold keys. I have lots of ideas for the other "couple thousand" keys too. First, however, I needed to make more cord for the tags.



I use various yarns ... stuff from table lots at Bill Mishoe's "used household goods" auctions ... the remains of someone else's knitting stash. (I don't knit.) When making cord for a fiber vessel, I generally shove six or seven strands through the Bernina cording foot. When making cord for tagged keys, I use only two ... but I zigzag over the entire length twice. This makes the cord as thin as I dare create and also subtly colorful in a "used" or "makeshift" sort of way.



I also use old thread for this ... whatever I've accumulated at auction or yardsales. Most of the thread I used for this cording came from wooden spools which I'm now wrapping with wool and covering with embroidery. The "new batch" of wooden spools also came from my family ... from my grandmother's storage unit which was recently cleaned out.



Now I've got a nice sized ball of cord for the keys! (Click on any image in this post to enlarge.)



I've been stitching on the wooden spools while riding in our car ... back and forth to Slippery Rock, PA for Thanksgiving but also more recently. On Saturday Steve and I drove to Greensboro for the 32nd annual "Winter Show" at the Green Hill Center for the Arts. It was a most incredible evening. It started right off inside the main entrance where two of my smaller "Window" series works and one large "Faux-Stained Glass" fiber piece were hanging ... ALL THREE WITH RED DOTS! (SOLD!) Barbara Tyroler, a talented photographer whose work was also in the exhibit, took the photos ... this one with my camera! Her work is amazing!

Later in the evening I met the curator. She asked if I had more of the small pieces and if I would mind mailing them for potential buyers visiting the show through January 15th. As luck would have it, I'd just started another two earlier in the week.



Above is Window XXXV and Window XXXVI. I finished the stitching and melting yesterday. We put them in frames today and then into a box and then off to FedEx Ground. I forgot to snap photos before the framing ... so, above, are the two before packaging! I'm quite thrilled!