A Fiber Artist Raises Money for Haiti

The following is a copy of a blog post by my friend, Susan Italo. If you are interested in her offer of one of her original jackets in exchange for a donation to Doctors Without Borders in support of the Haitian people, please contact her directly at her blog (wildonionstudio.wordpress.com).

The devastation to Haiti is unimaginable to most of us, the Wild Onion household included. As an artist, I have racked my brain trying to figure out what to do to help. After 911, I made 10 quilts to send to various agencies to comfort those affected. For the people of Haiti, it seems to me that what is needed is medical attention.

I am offering an original Wild Onion Jacket, with the entire proceeds to be donated to Doctors Without Borders. If you would like to buy this jacket for $175, please email me. I will accept a check, made out to “Doctors Without Borders” in the amount of $175. I will pay the shipping to you. We all win– you get to donate to a worthy cause, and so, in a way, do I. Plus, you get an original Wild Onion Jacket to wear or give as a gift!

Here are the specifics: this is an original Wild Onion Jacket, created with love from 100% cotton fabrics, quilted with 80% cotton, 20% poly batting for warmth, stability and cuddliness. The easy fit jacket is a size Medium, fitting a size 8 – small 14; the length is upper thigh, to cover the derriere. Machine wash and dry– how easy is that!

Fun with Painted Shoes

Today, after our regular Fibervision meeting, several of us stayed to experiment with painting shoes. We were led by the intrepid Linda Cassirer who leapt right into the joy of shoe painting after seeing Margot Silk Forrest and her book Sassy Feet! featured in the Dharma Trading Company newsletter. Linda generously shared her paint, her observations in the first few pairs she had painted, and her goal in apparently wanting to paint everything in her home which is currently in a neutral color. A couple of fellow Fiberettes had seen Margot at the Wearable Arts Connection meeting last year and were inspired by her, so knew we were in for some fun. Too bad Lucilla and Susan I. couldn't be there with us today.

The top photo is the group result of our afternoon (you can double click on the photo for a better view) and the second and third photos are the shoes I painted. Mine started out with plain black leather uppers with a very dull light jute for the wedge covering. In our enthsiasm, we forgot to take "before" photos. These shoes were provided by fellow artist, Anne Braddock, who found a couple of pairs of shoes at a second hand store that just cried out to be transformed and brought them along. I won't be wearing them because they are a smidge too small for me and she won't be wearing them because they do not fit her definition of comfortable.

Anybody interested in a pair of hand-painted, size 9 wedge shoes with a 4" heel?

Dye Day Saturday

I don't own the supplies for hand-dyeing fabric. I'm usually content to paint fabric for the colors and textures that I want, but about two times a year I manage to wrangle an invitation to the workshop of one of my friends who do dye their own fabrics. Yesterday a group of us made a day of it at the home of Susan Italo, all 'round talented artist.

Left to right: Susan Italo, Judy Rys, Linda Cassirer, and Mary Norton. All happily playing with dyes and fabrics.Now, here's a picture of "the hard part". After we had applied dye, we had to let it batch for four hours. It just sits there. We aren't supposed to poke it or pick it up to see what's happening. We just wait. We originally had a plan to work on some self-portraits while waiting for the dye to strike, but somehow that turned into eating too much wonderful food, drinking wine, and drowsing until we roused ourselves in order to have some espresso and chocolate trifle.

I'll post a couple of pieces of the fabric I created. Somehow several of us ended up with more white areas than we wanted, but in my case, have paints, will transform white into something else.