Tree stump stools! cute slipcover turns any 5-gallon bucket into a comfy stool.
fun cotton prints + felt bark
before + after
Tree stump stools
Sneak peek
After two days without sleep, it is such a relief to post these photos and tell you all that we finished installing our piece for Providence Art Windows! The window is located at 191 Westminster St., and our opening is Thursday night from 6-8 at Design Within Reach, 210 Westminster St. (diagonally across the street from our window). The exhibition lasts until June 13, 2008- thank goodness! It was such a big project that it would be painful to have to take it down after only one week or something. We're really happy with how it turned out. These photos were taken earlier on in the day, so they don't show the completed setup. Please stop by and take a look!
Left Out
embroidered illustration from a few months ago (wow, my walls are so purple.)
Wheee! This week is moving faster than seems possible. The girls and I spent a good chunk of time locked in the gallery together, and our show is really coming together nicely. Drop by if you're in the area!
Lacy white squirrel
Another little fabric creature for Providence Art Windows! This squirrel is made from a wire armature, fiberfill, muslin, eyelet fabric from a bathing suit, and cotton balls. 100% sewn by hand.
Little white bird
Hi friends. This is part of a piece for a new project with Providence Art Windows, opening Thursday, March 20th in Providence RI. You'll be seeing more of it soon- I'll be sharing more little sneak-peeks in the days to come. It's good to be working with needle+thread again!
Tammy can hardly keep her paws off this little bird. Or did she just want her photo taken?
Magnetic broaches
Here's the last of my leather experiments so far. These are magnetic flower broaches made from leather, muslin, and Bolivian seeds and seedpods. There is a small, powerful magnet embedded in each of the flowers. Place another little magnet on the inside of your shirt or jacket for a lovely little burst of color. These also hold well in hair, and look sweet on a plain pair of ballet flats!
Leather jewelry
Another leather scrap project! This was for keeping my hands busy between meetings with artisans in Bolivia.
ring, necklace, and earring
necklace, leather
ring, leather and bronze
earring, leather
various earrings, leather
wood loves fabric, take two!
After working with wood and fabric before, I decided to take advantage of the availability of solid wood in Bolivia to create a totally different lamp. Ivan Franco, a woodworker from La Paz, is the skilled artisan who brought these from drawings to reality. The fabric lining these lamps is linen that I dyed in a subtle color range for each.
We started with a small prototype, 9.5" diameter in pine. Then Ivan moved on to the full-scale model, approx. 17.5" diameter.
This is the largest piece Ivan has turned in his shop. He's made all his equipment by hand, and he's working on another lathe that will allow him to turn large pieces more easily.
We also made this wall sconce version... pardon the scuffs! This photo was taken after this poor lamp was dragged from bus, to plane, to customs, to plane, and to bus again.
These next three photos show the lamps installed in our exhibition in La Paz.
Leather applique pillows
One of my main goals for my work in Bolivia was to find uses for the mountains of scraps left over from Cynthia Escobar's leather works. It was so fantastic to be able to grab a handful of soft colorful leather bits and play with them until something real emerged. What made this project even more engaging was that creating a product from the scraps would help Cynthia's business save money.
Using little bits of leather as accents puts a spotlight on their rich colors and textures. It also allowed us to pick and choose the most perfect spots of color and texture. The skins always include unusable sections due to defects on the animal or imperfections in processing, so the flexibility of working with small pieces helps to maximize usable material.
See more pillow photos at Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/allicoate/
Tree Pendants in the shop
Now available in my Etsy shop: eight tree pendants for $12 each. Perfect for gifts or a little treat for yourself. Enjoy!