Ever Stretching!

Waiting for spring. Meanwhile, ideas keep surging through my head. Art concepts are ever stretching.

Since Joe and I no longer need a vehicle, we gave our well-used Honda van to a grandson who is a seminarian at a local theological center, and his wife and two year old daughter—whose name happens to be, believe it or not, Margaret Been.

A garage only has to sit empty (except for all the garden and home maintenance junk lining the walls) for a couple of days before brain seeds sprout. An outdoor room! An outdoor studio for art making and spinning gorgeous fibers into yarn. A place where kindred souls can visit, and neighbors can pause. Ever stretching!

This IS Wisconsin, which means the feasibility of enjoying a garage room is limited to the three summer months (given reasonable summer weather) and a few days at each end of the spectrum (given some surprise weather in spring and fall).

We put a small mock fireplace in the room. The decorative fireplace uses one light bulb to simulate burning logs, and a fan to blow a bit of hot air when desired—mainly for ambience, and not sufficient to handle our weather in a garage. (Indoors maybe!)

But dreams persist. Every day I linger for a few moments in this bit of summer heaven, just dreaming and thinking about family members and friends whom I will invite for art and fiber days.

I have two permanent art-making corners indoors, and I produce in these studios non-stop. Two spinning wheels, plus baskets of merino and silk in a riot of colors whirl constantly in our living room where the resulting skeins of yarn dangle from hooks and surfaces.

Art displays, a table on which to work, an area for storing brushes, paints, papers and additional art tools, another spinning wheel, and a (possible) lifetime supply of additional fibers join me in anticipating warm weather in the garage room.

My art goals are ever stretching as well—including a return to collage art between actual paintings. A few years back, I did a lot of collages from random materials and whatever abstract inspiration blossomed moment by moment.

Collages differ just as every artist is unique. Some are decidedly geometric; some feature words, photos, images of people and buildings, or symbols such as numbers. Others are more organic, kind of like an unkempt garden of color and flowing shapes. Or a messy landscape with tangled trees or turbulent seas. And mountains, plenty of mountains.

The materials are legion: gorgeous Oriental papers—Kozo, Mulberry and Rice Papers, and Japanese Lace; common old cheesecloth, tissue paper, and gauze; aluminum foil; ribbons, greeting cards, pieces of musical scores, and decorative gift wraps; wool fleece, yarn, string, and bits of fabric; seasonal and party napkins—with the backing papers torn off so the napkin design is translucent and delicate; acrylic and gouache paints—metallic and otherwise; dried leaves, flowers, twigs, and herbs; templates and stencils; poems; torn up bits of my paintings that didn’t impress me very much—-yet didn’t warrant the trash bin. Some of my kitty Louie’s fur from his grooming brush—with Louie’s permission of course!

And mediums: molding paste, gloss, matt, sand, glitter gel, gesso, bead gel, crackle gel, YES paste (although anything acrylic such as the above listed mediums plus acrylic paint acts as a glue).

Above is a sample of my collage art from a few years ago. It reminds me of some favorite things, and still hangs in our living room.

And finally, a collage of various paints and textured mediums.

Maybe our new summer garage room will facilitate the creation of more way out art! Meanwhile, Happy Stretching

Margaret L. Been — April 3rd, 2020

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The other side . . .

. . . of my art coin:  FIBERS!  I love fibers more than I can express—and definitely as much as I love my brushes and paint tubes.  Here are some of my handspun yarns—fresh from my two beautiful JENSEN WHEELS made right here in Wisconsin.

I love to wear hats, scarves, vests, leg warmers, and wrist warmers which I have knitted with my handspun yarns—lately a combination of Merino and Corriedale wools, and Tussah silk*.  Everywhere I go, people (strangers!) comment on my creations—I think because of the stunning colors I blend on my spinning wheels, not because of my knitting prowess which is intermediate and not striking in today’s world of over the top fantastic knitters.

So they comment—things like, “Oh, I LOVE that scarf” or whatever.  Then I mention that I made it from my handspun yarn, and 1) Eyes glaze over and 2) The person’s face goes blank and the conversation ends.  Many folks out there just don’t get it!

Here is my large, Saxony style wheel.  The JENSEN WHEELS come in several sizes and two basically different styles—Saxony and Irish Castle, but the mechanisms are the same; the bobbins are interchangeable, and all of the gorgeous wheels are made from cherry wood—that warm, antique-y looking Prince of Hardwoods.

The fibers you see in the basket (which was crafted by my incredibly talented daughter-in-law, Cheri Been) are Tussah silk and Merino (the chartreuse from LIVING DREAMS via AMAZON PRIME) and Corriedale (the bright blue from THE WOOLERY’s online store; the lighter blue is also Tussah Silk and Merino from LIVING DREAMS.

Actually what the folks with the glazed over eyes don’t realize is that we fiber people are a formidably ubiquitous sub-culture comprising a stubborn slow-lane backlash to fast-lane Corporate America.  All over the USA, one may find huge gatherings of fiber people (woolly characters that we are) where vendors sell their fleeces from their fleeced flock of really woolly characters—those allegedly stupid critters called “sheep” to whom we humans are compared in God’s Word, the Holy Bible.**

Also at these Fiber Fairs are yarn vendors and sellers of fiber dyes, spinning and knitting paraphernalia (I’d have to start a fiber blog because it would take forever just to list and explain the odds and ends in my home, pertaining to spinning and knitting).

Most Fiber Fairs will include food consisting of lamb as the main attraction (why don’t more people realize that lamb is the most yummy of meats?), workshops in many aspects of spinning and knitting (again, an ongoing blog would only begin to cover those aspects), pens with ewes and their adorable long-legged babies, classes on critter care—often including the raising of other fiber source animals such as llamas, alpacas, Angora goats for mohair, etc.  (I have spun a lot of dog hair combed from my decades of beloved collies).

Here are a few more shots from the fiber studio in our living room.  My painting studio is in our bedroom; obviously I have a beautifully tolerant and accepting husband, but don’t feel sorry for him; he has an entire room all his very own, for his computer and a Lazy Boy chair for watching his sports.  (I join him in there, to watch THE FIVE, SPECIAL REPORT, and THE ANTIQUES ROAD SHOW).

The model in the first pic below is Pinkie.  I believe Pinkie appeared on this site a couple of years ago—anyway that’s what she remembers and she has been begging me to go public again because she loves wearing and displaying my creations.  The things at Pinkie’s feet are wristlets (fingerless gloves).  I couldn’t quite manage getting them on the model’s hands.  Maybe feet?

Next, my other JENSEN WHEEL—the Irish Castle Wheel style.  This one travels well.  When we lived up north in the wild woods, I used to secure the Castle Wheel in a seat belt next to the driver’s seat in our van, and drive from 15 to 30 miles to attend a monthly spinner’s afternoon of refreshments, chat, and sometimes even some spinning.

Finally, more yarn.  Fibers forever!  I began my woolly life in 1980 and raised a small flock of very silly sheep for 18 years, on 3 acres in a country subdivision.  Some neighbors got weirdly uptight about my sheep,  It was a neighborhood of HORSE PEOPLE, and HORSE PEOPLE are a bit more trendy and upscale than SHEEP PEOPLE,  But we managed.  We simply moved the sheep to our backyard with our chickens and geese.  Then the neighbors couldn’t see them, although they could still hear them.

 

*Tussah is wild silk, gleaned from silk worms who munch and lunch on wild plants—as opposed to Bombyx silk cultivated in the controlled environment of a silk farm and fed only mulberry leaves.

**All we like sheep have gone astray”—true, but there is an ANSWER:  our RISEN SAVIOR, The LORD JESUS CHRIST.  It’s almost Resurrection Day, so I just had to get that in.  🙂

Margaret L. Been — March 24, 2018

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Additional passions–scarves and shawls: and MORE!

Scarves and shawls, plus capes and sweaters, fulfill as much of my creative energy as do paints.

Above are samples of pure silk blanks (available online via Dharma Co., CA) painted with Sharpies fine (brush tip are great) permanent markers (not the oil base ones).  This is too much fun.  Just color/color/color the scarf to your heart’s content, and when satisfied spray (saturate) with rubbing alcohol.  Allow to dry, then press with a hot steam iron.

These recently sold well at a pre-holiday fair.  Everyone loves them.  The selection of blanks is great—Dharma even has dancing veils.

Here Pinkie is happily modeling the world famous Potato Chip Scarf–so named 1) because it curls and 2) because you can’t just make one.  They are as addictive as the edible, salty variety.

And below we have Pinkie again, cowling it up.

Knitted, of course.  I go on yarn surges.  A few years ago, it was Debbie Bliss’s Baby Cashmerino.  Then Cascade 220.  Then Cascade Sunseeker.  Now it is Malabrigo Silky Merino:  49% silk and 51% merino wool.  All are wonderful.  All are unabashedly overflowing and falling out of countless baskets, many of which I have made in former years of “also passions”.

And shawls.  I make long shawls—prayer shawls, gift shawls, and some for myself.  A long shawl is the perfect wrap for our autumn and spring weather, either layered over a blazer and sweater or by itself.  And I love these little guys:

(The borders are crocheted.)  No, I didn’t make the penny quilt.  For me, knitting needles are relaxing—but sewing needles and machines are nerve wracking.  This quilt is a beauty.  It was some unknown artist’s masterpiece, possibly during the Great Depression, as the fabrics are apparently used clothing.  The quilt is huge, even on our queen bed.  We won it at a local auction years ago.  It’s been moved two times, stored on a high closet shelf, and now we are featuring it on our bed.  Things are to be used and enjoyed, especially with a good number of years behind us and not quite so many years left.  Why not?  🙂

Finally, spinning.  The basket filled with color contains wool roving, and the white fiber in the pink basket is silk.  Two excellent Jensen wheels, Wisconsin made, grace our living room and in this case one of them is (characteristically in seasonable weeks) working on our patio.  What a joy to make yarn, and knit it.  I still have a lot of gorgeous deep brown Shetland from my last two silly sheep, in the late 1990s.

But the patio leads out to even one more of many passions:

Coming SOON!  I can hardly wait.  How about you?

Margaret L. Been — February 28th, 2016

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Featuring Fibers!

Just for fun, I’m planning a brief digression from palette presentations—in order to share some other arts that I’m passionate about.  Painting is a huge part of my life, but there are other huge parts as well.  For starters, FIBER ARTS.

I love to spin wool and knit, and I’ve had wonderful years of weaving countless garments, place mats, and rugs on two looms which are currently up in our Northern home, as there simply is no place to put them in our condo.  (But my two best spinning wheels, Jensen Wheels, are right here beside us in our living room.  They are an indispensable aspect of my lifestyle!)

For eighteen years, when we lived in the Town of Eagle in Southeastern Wisconsin, I raised a spinner’s flock of from two to eight sheep—fine wool breeds.  At that time, I taught Fiber Arts Workshops in our home.  I found a (rather crochetty) gentleman to make a large rustic sign for the entrance to our drive:  FIBER ARTS:  Spinning, Weaving, Knitting . . . .” plus phone info, etc.

But what a struggle, getting that sign custom made.  The sign artist was bent on refusing to make the sign as I directed because, in his rather vehement words, “The is no such thing as ‘Fiber Arts’ “.  Finally I won.  I had cash, and money talks.  But I’ll never forget my shock over someone trying to tell me that “There is no such thing as ‘Fiber Arts’ “.  Yikes!

Anyway, I’m as nutty about fibers, as I am about my paint brushes and tubes of paint.  Recently some friends and I have been knitting prayer shawls for the local Vince Lombardi Cancer Center.  Since a lot of shawls can be produced at a rapid pace I make shawls for family members, friends, and myself as well.  Recently I had a shawl ready for the Center, when I learned that a friend in Seattle has cancer.  So that shawl went to Seattle, instead of to the local Cancer Center.

The shawls are too much fun to make.  If they were any more exciting, I wouldn’t be able to stand it!  Each one is an original, one of a kind, in a variety of colors that might have made Old Testament Joseph weep with envy.   I love color, and I love to make up garments as I go along—incorporating pattern stitches.  If I discover that I’ve inserted a color that doesn’t fit, or a pattern that doesn’t add anything to the mix, I simply rip—sometimes many rows—and start over to get it right.

It’s good to include button holes and buttons—at least one per shawl.  This prevents the slipping and sliding that shawls otherwise tend to do.  The buttons are special, some hand-made clay or fabric creations from art fairs, and others from yarn stores.  Currently I’m working on a Southwestern shawl in New Mexico colors.  It will have two buttons, roses in a brushed gunmetal grey substance resembling pewter—made in France.  Finally I trim edges or interior areas with a double crochet or fringe, or both as in the above example.

Here is one more recent creation:  perfect for our newest family member, great-grandson Leonardo Aguilar II.  His Mexican Daddy says Baby Leo likes to be wrapped up “like a little burrito”.

Margaret L. Been, May 2014

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