International Week!

Last night's Ebay sales were a true international extravaganza! I had customers from
Japan
Korea
Hong Kong
France
Spain
Mexico
and of course the US and Canada. Thanks to Babelfish I can usually figure out any questions I'm asked in languages other than French or English. I hope my answers make sense...if you've ever tried putting your translation back into Babelfish and turning it back into English...well, the results can be pretty funny!

The bellydance workshop was nice, it was fun to see some friends and familiar faces. The guest teacher was Virginia from Miami, she was a fantastic dancer and a very good teacher. Unfortunately for me the order of the workshop had been reversed...I went on Saturday because the listed class was drum solo technique and a drum solo choreography, but instead it was an intricate and very structured Oriental (Egyptian) choreography, which isn't my favorite style to dance though I love to watch it. The drum solo was taught on Sunday instead. Oh well, it was an interesting day and I did learn some great Saidi steps to incorporate into cane dance. The show on Saturday night was wonderful, this is the fourth one we've gone to and every year has been great. The dancers work really hard.
Next year I plan to get my courage up and dance in the show.
Eshta's Vintage was a success again and it was fun to see what people selected. I always enjoy that!

Twelve Little Pairs, And a Skirt!

I am so happy to be back in the studio again, and some decent beads are appearing. Here are twelve little pairs for earrings...I made more but some just didn't appeal to me so they will go into the "Orphans" basket. There is always someone who sees something in the orphans that I don't see, so I've learned not to discard those beads anymore!

These used lots of silver foil and reactive glasses. They are quite fascinating to make because they tend to look a little different going into the kiln than when they come out of the kiln, so it's quite fun to see them in the morning. Usually there is one set that I thought was ugly that turns out to be my favorite, and visa-versa...there's a metaphor for life in there somewhere. I really like the pair with the star murrini.

Yesterday I started making a skirt I've been thinking about for a while. A year or so ago I found a pile of vintage silk scarves at my fave thrift. I think they're from the 1970's or early 1980's. They averaged 42" long and 6-8" wide, and were all thin gossamer silk from India. Some seemed to have been cut from vintage saris, other's were definately block printed to be scarves, with defined borders. The hems were all hand sewn, and a few had crumpled paper tags (Made in India Silk). The colors were the muted shades I often see on old silk saris...purples and blues, muted greys, aquas, dull soft greens, and a spark of black or pink here and there. The prints were mostly traditional block printed florals and paislies with a few great little figurals and one beautiful red and black batik. I think I counted about 120 of them. The condition was great, they were all neatly folded and some were joined by a stitch in lots of 12, perhaps they were old store stock? I knew I wanted to make a skirt with some of them, and since I'm going to a Belly Dance workshop on Saturday, I decided it was time to give it a try.

I also knew I didn't want a drawstring or an elastic, I don't want anything bunchy at the waist, it bugs me! So I decided to stitch them in layers onto a wide waistband that would tie in front like a hipscarf. This worked great. I ended up using 36 scarves for the skirt. I trimmed them to 32" as this needs to be tied low on the hips. After I had them layered, I stitched again about three inches down from the top edge to keep them from shifting around. This morning I stitched two pairs together at the short ends and then joined thened along one long edge to use as the waistband, folded over the stitched layers. With some topstitching added for stability, it ties securely and looks great, very floaty. When I stand still it looks like a multicolored pleated skirt, but with movement the thin silk flutters and moves. I'll tie a coin scarf on top and I think it will be fun to dance in!

This picture isn't great, it's really very pretty!

Happy Spring

Happy Spring!

A time to wake up, a time to change, a time to unfold from the bud or to emerge from the egg.

The perfect time to start a blog.

Welcome! This is going to be fun!

Karen