wrenbirdarts

I’m excited to share that I’ll be presenting over .zen next week! And you can join too, for free. Give yourself a little mid-day stitch break!
Link in my B 👁️ Oh! If you join through the affiliate link, it sends a few bucks my way if you purchase the recordings later!

I came home from vacation and got sick, thinking it was just jet lag, until I lost my taste for coffee and weird ideas for stitches came through. I’m glad I listened to the creative urge/fever dreams. Now than I’m on the mend, these scribble stitches are a blurred memory.

Japan! We have a couple more days here, but what an experience it’s been! Trains, walking, look up, look down, the luck of seeing Junko Oki’s gallery show in person, an insider tip from Lindsey, for which I will always be grateful, replica food, the most beautiful trees, and, of course, cats! I’ll be home soon, but in the meantime, a little peek at what ive been up to.

We made it to Japan and spent the 1st day in Nippori in Fabric Town, a mile of sewing shops. I fell in love with this colorful variegated thread, and couldn’t help but buy a few extra skeins. I’m back in my room, scheming about embroidering something on this well-worn shirt.

You guys, I had so much fun making a puppet this weekend! This fun workshop snapped me into creative mode, developing a character and a backstory. Originally I had planned on making a tomato, but after realizing that smoothness was a challenge I was not up to, a potato was born! This guy, Jimothy, has many eyes and a few sprouts. I’m thinking I may need to make more veggie friends, and he won’t be so grouchy.

Last summer’s dried marigolds steeped like tea and strained becomes a sunny yellow. I added a scrap of cotton, a doilie, embroidery and sashiko threads to a big pot, and let the color work its magic over a few days. Of course I peeked a lot in between. The green threads were dyed with indigo before adding them to the pot.