I Am Grateful

Four months of radio silence is enough for me--it was snowing when I signed off and here we are on the cusp of summer! My on-line life has been relegated primarily to Instagram where I've been sharing bits of process from the studio.

I've had a lovely break though I dare say it is no longer a sabbatical per se but a new direction entirely. Two concrete decisions have been made. First, the doors of Sushipot have closed for good. Second, I miss blogging so here I am!

My first task back in February was to purge my studio of clutter and give the walls a fresh coat of white paint. The physical chore was a cathartic process and it literally gave me a clean slate to forge ahead into new art-making territory.

Lots of ideas and work are coming out of this time of experimentation. Patterns have been formed, textiles cut, ideas perused, stitches stitched, books read, sketches drawn, wax melted, objects gathered, paper torn and the list goes on and on.

I look forward to looking back at these weeks and sharing my new work with you. In the meantime I thank you for the encouragement you've showered on me via comments, messages and emails. The support during my hiatus has been overwhelming and I am grateful.

Holidays At Sushipot

I've been tucking one or two (or three!) of these wee gift tags into every package that leaves Sushipot this season. They are printed on Moo MiniCards. I left the back blank so you can write your own message on 'em (a fine tip Sharpie works best).

My work table always looks like this during a session of ornament making. I'm adding a handful of the dangle ornaments in the shop today.

More jolly products from Moo....I've already run out of these jingle bell stickers but more going to arrive this afternoon. If you wanna give Moo a try you can use my referral code and get a lil' discount.

Jingle bells are everywhere in the studio. My little elf loves crafting with them too ;) Had to document 'em before removing them from their lovely retro packaging.

PS: Sushipot's Holiday Sale continues through Monday, December 8th.

Wall Dolls

A trio of wall dolls are coming together nicely in the studio. If you follow along on Instagram these are old news....if you don't, I'd love you to come say 'hello'! You can find me @sushipot. As for these ladies I'll be back later in the week to share the finished pieces.

Doily Collage

Another late night peek from my studio. Here I'm working on another doily collage. The doily has been starched, ironed and painted to lend a somewhat firm, paper like surface. Next step will be to add a bit of stitching around the border of the collage. Not certain it needs it here but I love hand stitching ;) And yes...if you were wondering...those tools are indeed forceps.

Work In Progress

Popping in to share what's on my work table today. Two doll houses in progress...this is what they look like before applying their dark patina. Botanical and birth images for the eve of the vernal equinox.

Assemblage In Progress

Assemblage in progress: one deer bunny face, a clown on a paintbrush (kinda mummified with masking tape at the moment), always a Doll House in some half-completed state, another mermaid (not pictured). The anatomy man is hanging out...not quite sure what to do with him yet. Can you believe it's already the 2nd month of the year?

Paper Snippets

The pile of paper snippets on my work table is starting to grow. I've been gleaning images here and there over the past few days. The grand plan is to turn these into the first batch of collage blocks for 2014.

Playing With Doilies

Spent a bit of time over the weekend playing with doilies....starching, painting and stitching. Hoping to have something to show you later on in the week. Other than that we've been hunkered down trying to stay warm with our -20F wind chill today! Hope you've got balmier weather where you live.

Shop Note: All art blocks (including what's left of the holiday blocks) are marked down 30% through January 15th. 

Studio Snippets

A couple snippets from 'round the studio. Coming soon (most likely next week) Autumn-ish/Halloween-y blocks and some assemblage critters too. Have a beautiful weekend.

Studio Tidbits

A delightful pile of treasures arrived this week from the studio of artist Elizabeth Rosen. Lizzie and I had great fun unwrapping all these wooden bits 'n cuckoo clock parts. We entertained ourselves for some time playing around with various arrangements and pausing to share on Instagram of course ;)

Elizabeth's shop is a wonderful mix of carefully selected goodies for the mixed media artist and her own magical assemblages, paintings and mixed media work. Be sure to browse her shop when you have a minute--you're certain to find inspiration!

And...here's a peek at my work table this past week. I got a hair brained idea one night and started "skinning" my pile of old book covers.

The "book skins" are currently being stitched up into a pair of small art quilts. Hope to have them finished up next week to share with you. If you're on Instagram, you can find me there as 'sushipot' (duh!). Then you can see these tidbits from the studio faster than I get around to blogging 'em.

Filling Drawers

Remember this metal cabinet I recently claimed for my studio? Thought you'd like to see the drawers are now filled up with inventory and a few of my rotating vintage collections. I didn't realize when we brought it home that each drawer slides out and removes easily--like those old school card catalog files in the library. This drawer-removal feature makes it super handy to quickly make up game parts and game ephemera packets for the vintage shop. All this stuff used to be stored in plastic totes, stacked on a shelf which worked ok but this is even spiffier and more efficient.

Work In Progress

So much work in progress around here! This is what my studio looked like for most of the week and that's just a tiny portion of it. I started to feel kinda crrrazzzzzzzzy last night and cleaned it up a bit. And now its time to do it all over again....you see that coffee cup don't you?!

Random Bouquets

A few random bouquets from 'round the studio this week. And...don't miss Etsy's latest "There's No Place Like Here" installment featuring the Liberty Tool Company. Adding to my list of "places to visit if I ever happen to be in Maine". Happy weekend all!

A Midnight View

A view of my workspace around midnight last night (er...this morning).

'Round The Studio

Images from in and 'round the studio recently (mostly from this past weekend). I've been assembling new pieces, sorting objects and gleaning collage material. It feels good to stay busy and I'll have some fun things to share with you very soon.

Body Parts & Crisco

Here's a peek at some scavenged body parts and a can of Crisco that will be making their way into new pieces this weekend. If all goes according to plan I'll have some fun assemblage to share with you on Monday (or maybe even Sunday night). We shall see. What are you doing this weekend? Does it happen to involve lard?

Hipstamatic Vignettes

Last year I was taken to posting a weekly image of a vignette from around my home or studio. Unfortunately, the series of faux Polaroids died a quick death when Patrick and I gave each other iPhone's for our 10th anniversary this past summer. Long story short, I quickly fell in love with Hipstamatic. Anyhow, I realized I have many Hipstamatic vignettes from about my studio that I've never shared with you. So....enjoy!

Late Night Bricolage

I was up late last night working on a new grouping of collage for my Bricolage series. After losing track of time I realized I never prepared a blog post for today so instead you get to take a peek at this pile of un-stitched collage. Happy hump day!

Piles of Things

You know how when nothing is coming together right it helps to take a step back...(breathe)...and then CLEAN, clean, clean? Somehow the act of dusting, scrubbing, purging, organizing and general straightening up of things is good for the mind and body. Well at least it's that way for me! My studio received a bit of this cleaning action over the weekend as did our stove which was long past due. Our house is by no means "company ready" but it's been enough to make things start coming together again (ie, now I can find that particular book which I know has the perfect image of a certain pair of feet for the collage I'm working on without going crazy and throwing the entire bookcase across the room). **whew** Ok. Now that I'm feeling like myself again, I did remember to take some snapshots of the piles of things that I cleaned up around the studio. Boy am I glad it's a new week.