Just returned from a quick trip to Ketchikan with a friend. So glad I bought that new raincoat! It made it possible to enjoy everything -- food, parks, beaches, totem history, rust dyeing, boardwalks quiet before the storm of 1.5 million summer cruise ship passengers. Wow!
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| A little blue sky on our last day! |
It's been fun to create a few things to add to my Etsy shop, whose shelves have been bare for quite awhile. Here's a sampling of pouches and a small art quilt. Coasters to come. Thanks for looking!
https://www.bearberryworkshop.com
The first photo was taken just before sunset the day after winter solstice. The second photo was taken yesterday about an hour and a half after sunset after the sun dipped at its very shallow angle below the horizon. It's a beyond beautiful time when the skies are clear as the colors get richer and deeper. A Fairbanks secret. Shhhh.
We are coming up on our shortest day of the year here in the far north, about 65 degrees north latitude, and on the solstice our length of day (sunrise to sunset) will be 10:57 a.m. to 2:39 p.m. for a total of 3 hours and 41 minutes. That's short, but there's enchanting civil twilight on either side of that, and on a clear day, the light is pure magic.
I made a couple of pouches with some hand-dyed, printed fabrics that represent the golden qualities of winter solstice. Clear skies mean cold, and as we head toward a clear winter solstice, our temps will be in the -20s Fahrenheit. But you don't live in Fairbanks without owning enough layers and handwarmers to see you through.
With a background of birch weighed down by snow on this December day, here's a handful of summer in credit card zip pouches. Fields of bright poppies grow among the rocks, and willows line the edges of the riverbeds near the mountains. Keep remembering: all good things come to those...who wait...
I love making these 5" x 5" coasters--pushing the windows of color and design. Collage sketches with fabric. Do I make quilts? I get asked all the time. Sometimes. But I prefer broken quilts. Small works big ideas.
From the wet November forest of Norway pine in northern Minnesota to the winter spruce/birch mix near the North Fork of the Chena River and in our woods by my "little house" workshop, these towering giants reach to hold up the sky. As much as I also love treeless tundra, these big old trees give me comfort.
I brightened up the day by running some sunny colors through a soy wax screen on dyed cotton canvas.
Thanks, everyone, for the great response on Facebook and Instagram! All the hand-dyed and printed quilt coasters shipped today to places all around Alaska, from Nome to Wasilla, Kodiak to Ester and Fairbanks to Eagle River.
Let's keep the momentum for re-electing Mary Peltola to Congress, and get out the vote! Go Mary! A representative for all Alaskans--
The midnight oil is burning around here to finish a project generously funded by the Creative Center of the Mary Peltola for Congress campaign.
If you would like to tuck one of these handmade coasters with an original block print design under your mug, I'll be announcing a giveaway of 20 of these tomorrow (Thursday, Oct. 20) at noon Alaska time in a separate post. It will be first come, first served, so I hope to see you then.
Also, it will be the last day to apply for an absentee ballot. Do you have a voting plan? #MaryforCongress
My art proposal for the Creative Center of the Mary Peltola campaign was accepted!
It's been so much fun to create a project that supports Alaska's bright future with Rep. Peltola in Congress, working for all Alaskans. Thank you to the campaign for giving artists around Alaska this opportunity to share their support through art, and for supporting us. I look forward to seeing what others have created.
Here are some progress photos as I've been hand-carving blocks to print and quilt coasters. The group I'm making is almost ready to give away--to you! Keep your eyes open for an announcement here and on my Facebook and Instagram pages in the next few days. For now, back to work!
