Christmas Day

Hello all


Tending to the Pilot Light will be on vacation between christmas and newyears.

{{{{This is the text of the weekly email invitation to individuals who have signed up to be on my mailing list.}}}}

We will start back up in the new year with a series of projects designed to explore who we are, what values we hold dear and what we would like to manifest in the new year. On January 3rd and 5th, we will be creating "Illuminations" of ourselves. Bring a photo of yourself at any age with your face at approximately 6 inches tall. It can be a xerox or color print or an illustration of yourself. We will create a self portrait with many mediums, incorporating the image and others that will "find" you in the process of the project.

The following week, ((January 10th and 12th) we will work with backwards bubble charts and images to create a map for our year. These may be focused on our creative, professional, family, spiritual, emotional, etc., journeys we would like to embark on in 2012.

In the third week,(January 17th and 19th) we will re-visit Intention Candles and work through the process of letting the distillation of the "turning of the year" energies, hope and intention for our lives and "choosing" our word for the year direct the composition of the candles. These candles provide an interactive reminder/mindfullness activity that can be engaged at any time during the year.

This would be a great time to shoot me an email if you have suggestions of activities you would like to see presented at Tending to the Pilot Light in 2012 or if you'd like to be taken off this mailing list.

I have a couple of quick questions I would really appreciate feed back with. Please take a moment to email me back with your opinions so I can massage this endeavor to better suit your creative process.

1. If you've never attended, would you like to be taken off the mailing list?

2. If you've come once only, what changes in format/setting/topics etc. would bring you back?

3. Do you think the charge of $10 is fair or too high?

4. Do Tuesdays and Thursdays work for you?

5. Would you be interested in multi week projects that get into more depth? (example: bookbinding)

6. Would you be interested learning from a guest artists? (the cost of these evenings would be determined by the guest artist; I would merely host the space)

7. Would you like to be a guest artist?

8. Do you have any other suggestions/complaints to share that would make the evenings more valuable to you? (Please be frank, I'm seeking honest feedback to improve this project and will not take anything personally)

I have lots of great pictures from the last Tending to the Pilot Light and from the Thrifty Gifter series which i will post on my blog in the next few days...but for now, Happy Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone.

ps. it's still pretty early, but i'm gearing up for my FIFTH! Valentine Making party here in Lawrence and it will be held the 4th and 5th of February to give everyone time to mail out their creations on time. This is a two day extravaganza for which I actually have to rent chairs! Plan on bringing family and friends (supervised children are welcome!) to this great midwinter party complete with heart shaped scones, hot beverages and more pink and red and white and sparkle materials than ever!



pps. Also, ladies (and fashion courageous gentlemen) join me in my absolutely insane tradition of wearing a skirt every day in February as a sacrifice to the "gods" of spring to ensure a timely warming in our region! (This is a much greater challenge in Lawrence than it ever was in Seattle... mind you



Take care and warm wishes to you and yours. Happy New Year

Liza

Blog Hop

Experiment in the blogosphere!

Tending to the Pilot Light: Plushies-Stuffies-Lovies!

Last week we gathered around the table for some adventures in hand sewing!

One of my best selling products is my "Chibi-Head" plushie Boston Terrier

And since it is based on the construction of a baseball, why couldn't the pattern be used for other creatures? or modification of the basic cone shape i had used for some silly rabbit dolls I made last year just for the fun of it.

So, I set up the table with everything I could think of - felt, buttons, decorative and christmas fabric, hot glue, trim, stuffing, fleece, yarn, charms, pompoms, googlie eyes, ribbon, pipe cleaners, and yes, even some glue on jewels... just in case!

I'm going to try and load the video i took of all the "ingredients".  If it does not load, you can get an idea from the picture above... the baskets are full and stretch the full length of two six foot tables.

Here are the INCREDIBLE and totally cute creatures created here at MacKomics Studio!

This last one is one I made on Sunday night to test whether we could be successful within the two hour framework of Tending to the Pilot Light... And... as you can see, I finally got a tree!  no decorations yet, but it's in the stand, smelling divine.

Once again, there are a few more pictures to post, but not until after stockings are stuffed, so certain relatives will not have their surprises ruined....!

This was a great project, even for the novice seamstress, since we worked primarily in fleece which is so stretchy and fuzzy that it hides all imperfections.  I was thrilled to see the projects evolving and even morphing completely... for example, the original design for the "Grouper Claus" above is this sketch for a mousy below.

We had teenagers as young as 15 creating their own patterns, figuring out structure and engineering (upright cat tail above) and of course, great conversations through out the evenings.

I look forward to creating with you in the near future.... I will be continuing this series in 2012 and might be making changes to the format based on feedback from a questionnaire I will send out to all of you on my mailing list.  Please let me know if you do not get the weekly emails regarding these projects and I will add you right away. 

This week is my debut teaching at the Lawrence Public Library for the last session of the Thrifty Gifters Series.  We will be making yarn wrapped wreaths on Tuesday and Thursday in the Auditorium. 

The Tuesday evening session is filled but there is still room left on Thursday.  If you are already signed up for Tuesday but are not going to make it, please contact the library as soon as possible so they can call the wait list!  Here are a few photos of some sample wreaths I've put together.

and here are just SOME of the wreath forms I've made from foam pipe insulators.  I'm happy to say I've solved the issues I encountered with the first round of these wreaths and even repaired the wonky crooked first wreath I made.  If you made wreaths here at Tending to the Pilot Light and they have become, let us say, less than circular.... please let me know, and I can FIX the problem!

I'll be adding a few more pictures of the preparations later and of course a big post after this week.

I'm very excited about this workshop and am busy this weekend transforming the last skeins of yarn into balls, cutting tons of die shapes out of paper, felt, and fleece and collecting the last few embellishments we might need.

Important note regarding Tending to the Pilot Light this week... I will have the tables set up for Wednesday night only with a follow-on week of plushies/stuffies/lovies.

Please just let me know if you will be coming!

Best wishes to all who visit here.

Liza

PS. There was one more session of Plushies for 2011... see pics HERE

Tending to the Pilot Light Christmas Cards

During the last week of November and the first of December, Tending to the Pilot Light was all about Christmas cards!  I printed "Happy Holidays" on A2 (quarter sheet) sized cards and laid out a smorgasbord of materials...

I ordered extra holiday themed charms like Santas and trees and candy canes, as well as lots of tiny instruments like trumpets, drums, violins and guitars.  We had volumes of decorative holiday themed paper, sparkly tissue paper, sheet music, pipe cleaners, tiny snow flakes, mini (>1/2") candy canes, fancy scissors, stick on jewels, metallic papers, and of course lots of glitter and glue!  I also brought out all the cut out animal silhouettes i used on Christmas cards last year and some vintage photos I've printed from the Library of Congress online catalogue.  I also put out this bowl of random holiday themed items that just collect around my studio as I'm composing cards... cut out mittens, cowboy boots, trees, and bows, paper snowflakes, and cherubs.  The my lovely friend T. made this incredible banner from various elements and I hope I've done justice with the photos!

On other nights, efficiency was the word of the day and working together, we streamlined the process and made a beautiful boxed set of embellished cards.... here is a pic of the project in process and then the final product

Not all cards ended up being for Christmas... here are a few made just for the Solstice

And what would a good card making session be without sharing it with my lovely student from Little Bostons at MacKomics Studio?

Isn't this great work for a six year old?!!

Here are a few I made along the way to demonstrate techniques and to inspire ideas - check out this tree where i meant for it to look like snow on the branches but got the layers mixed up and now it looks more like a triple layer cream puff....mmmmm

The mini candy canes on the one below are suspended on invisible thread so they swing freely from the snowflake....

I will post one more after the holiday since it has not been given yet and I'd hate to spoil the surprise!

This was a fun project which hopefully inspired even more creativity.

Once again, thank you to all those who come to my Tending to the Pilot Light Sessions.  It is a joy to work with you and to deepen our friendships.

Have a lovely day

Liza

December Dress-Up Here is your Challenge!

Anything with wings! Think about it... in the northern hemisphere, Christmas time, what do we have, but ANGELS singing and what about the warmer climates to the south? How about FAIRIES! From Angels to Fairies... that is a wide spectrum of design choices! From delicate dragon fly wings to heavy multi layered angel wings.... what beautiful elements to create and add to a dress of your choice!











I look forward to seeing all your submissions!

This has been an incredible year of creativity within the seemingly limited parameters of paper dresses.  Collectively we have witnessed artistic blossoming, design challenges met with gusto and so much variation.  I have really loved being involved with this year long challenge and have been honored to be hosting it for the last part of the year.  Thank you Angela, for launching this project for 2011 and for creating such beautiful submissions.  I am interested to hear whether people are inspired for another year of dresses or whether YOU would like to move to another passion?  I've seen purses and tags and bags and of course artist trading cards... what about shoes? chairs or other furniture? hats, animals, houses, faces, any ideas clicking here? What about recycle or upcycle projects with monthly themes? Tell me what you think!

Have a beautiful day
with love and best wishes
Liza

Here is the link tool for December's Dress-up

Tending to the Pilot Light: Home Made Stationery!

Right before Thanksgiving, waaaaaay back in November, we had a couple of evenings of home made stationery making.  Here are some pictures of the creative sets we made.  Most participants made kits for gifts and a few individual masterpieces were completed as well!

Working with stamps, stencils, ribbon, jewels, embossing templates and a manual die cutting machine, we created beautiful collections for the (almost) lost art of letter writing.

We constructed the envelopes out of heavy duty craft paper, musical scores, maps, and newspaper and then laid a strip of double sided tape on the sealing flap.  The tape comes off the roll with a paper protective sheet on one side, keeping the strip fresh and sticky until it is time to  seal the envelope.

We used stamps and inks, grommets, brads, burned edges, vintage copper edge 3 hole protectors, you name it... beautiful ephemera.

I apologize for not posting more regularly.... I say this even though typing here in this blog is like throwing love notes out the window while speeding through a dark tunnel.  'Never sure whether this gets read or looked at... I blather-on here to my phantom readers (if they exist) as if there was some kind of conversation happening. Strange medium this is.

I've been extremely busy.... filled orders for over 350 handmade cards at two retail stores and have been prepping for my big three arts and crafts shows at the end of the year. Bizarre Bazaar, Holiday Art Fair, and LOLA Giant.  Anyway, here's a few pictures of my space from the last show (Yesterday's Holiday Art Fair).

I wish I had pics from the show Thanksgiving weekend (Biz Baz) ... I was running around in fish net stockings, semi high heels, a polka-dot dress and wearing my fascinators all day - (see pink mini top hat below)

We had really compressed spaces in the Lawrence Arts Center for the Art Guild Show - measured to maximize the number of artists on the lobby level.  I borrowed my BFF's grid panel system and was able to squeeze my wares into the prerequisite space while still providing access to the LAC reception desk on both sides of my display (see lighted area behind grid system below).

If you're in Lawrence, be sure to check out the little desk you can see on the right in the picture.  It is a custom built art-class sign-up kiosk, built with keyboard keys embedded under glass on the surface and surrounded by hand cut wood blocks created by the talented Nicolette Ross who was our Artist in Residence last year and sadly (for us) has now moved on to Chicago-land.

One more show to go this season... LOLA Giant, being held this weekend (Dec. 10 and 11) at the Van Go Arts Building across Seventh Street from the Train Station.  This will be one of the last chances (this year) to buy creative arts, crafts and goods made by local artists!

On another note,

I've noticed that no one has submitted a dress for November... sadly following my lead at being late in my own submissions.  I even bought a cheap copy of Pride and Prejudice to cut up for my Neo-classic dress! Just haven't gotten around to the actual project.

Tending to the Pilot Light will continue with Christmas cards this week and next week will be making mini plushies for stocking toppers, key chains, or just for fun!

Take care,

Liza

Tending to the Pilot Light - Yarn Wrapped Wreaths

This most recent Tending to the Pilot Light Session was a trial run for the Craft Workshop I'll be teaching at the Lawrence Public Library in the third week of December... Yarn Wrapped Wreaths for the final session of the Thrifty Gifter Workshop Series

Great flyer design by Mandy Stos of IamtheMandy

Although I'm not completely satisfied with the pipe insulation material we used, my students made the most amazing and cute and beautiful wreaths!  I just love to see the creative gears working away... and the conversations we have and the connections made - I am so grateful for the community we are forging.

Here are some snapshots of these beauties... and apologies, R. for the blurry pic... it's sub par, but at least the detail came out great!

Here's the pinky I completed on Tuesday night...

This week we will be making hand-made stationery sets as gifts!
Check back here next Sunday for pictures of those creations...
Have a great week and I hope to see you here for Tending to the Pilot Light!

Liza