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NEW Artist Fabric Panels & Art Quilt Patterns are now available at Quilt Shops or on line through our website at Crow Creek Coolture! https://crowcreekcool.com/
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New Work in the Works!

With the Holiday gifts, made, purchased, wrapped, sent and gifted, Mama Llama is ready for some ART MAKING! I'm working on a new set of Art Quilt Pattern designs, some fun, small-scale metal pieces and even enjoying a mid-day hot-toddy or two! Daddy-O and I have even managed to make time for a couple holiday open house parties (Jana H. and Margaret D.'s are the BESTest!) which always lifts our spirits. Yes, partly due to the "spirits" but more importantly surrounding ourselves with new and interesting conversations, surprise live music being played by guests and the warm afterglow as we walk home arm in arm.

Wishing you that arm in arm glow that friends, family and lOve can provide this holiday weekend! 

Merry Christmas FRIENDS!

Daddy-O surprised us with date-night tickets to P the Man concert at Bear Tooth!  Check out their line drawings/art on their web site. These were part of the backdrop digital light show -wow. Nothing better than having your adult son drop off his parents for a concert and telling us to "be safe, and call when you need a ride home!"

Taking Off

Daddy-O just returned from a week in Hydaburg, Alaska where he took part in a Rural Alaska Native Culture Camp as part of the Rose Urban Rural Teacher Exchange. He had the opportunity to work with Haida Native Master Totem Carvers and participate in Alaska Native subsistence activities. Luck ducky. He was able to see ancient, historic petroglyphs and take part in the raising of a Haida carved totem, which was even printed in the Anchorage Daily News this morning (I recognized his backside)! Hydaburg is in Southeast Alaska near Ketchikan where it’s closer to go to Seattle than it is to Anchorage.

The week off from my normal mommy/wifey duties was nice

–Gus and I enjoyed several pizza nights and got on a root beer float dessert kick. I was able to get a few days of sewing in as I had Will take Gus running to get in shape for cross country that is coming up and also take him on his big brother errands. One of my new art quilts I finished I will hopefully be turning into a new pattern. I’m working on the technical drawing and design now. The polka dot fabric was from my stash that I picked up on the Sequim trip turns out to be from Kaffee Fasset –one of my favorite designers. I should have guessed, I LOVE his fabrics. I’m taking a week off also from welding to get caught up on the

pattern projects, sewing and general studio work. My last Farmer’s Market selling garden art was on the 23^rd because I need to start welding up sculptures for the state fair and replenish the Gallery. I'll plug the welder and plasma cutter in next week. Daddy-O just bought me a new fishing pole… It’s an Ugly Stik –don’t worry there’s no hidden message other than school starts for him next week and time is ticking AND my other pole "went for a swim" on their last float trip. At least it wasn’t my favorite Mother's Day fly rod.

First Things First

While my head my be filled with new ideas and my body reenergized from our mini-vacation I can’t even begin to work in my studio unless it’s organized and picked up. I left with a flurry of multiple projects mid stream. Before I allowed myself to sit at the new sewing machine I was forced to do some housekeeping which resulted in one huge garbage bag being filled for recycle, another for the trash and yet another for the thrift store. Whew. I don’t know about you but I can’t even begin to work unless all of my grinch-chores (as Daddy-O and I affectionately call them –regardless of who is performing them) are done. This can be problematic especially since I work “at home” –and when are the housekeeping duties EVER completely done?! After spending some time in the studio a good

thing happened, I fell back in love with my workspace. It was fun to think about why I surround myself with the things that I’ve collected or posted on the multiple bulletin boards and have things arranged the way I do. We’ve worked hard to create a space for creating and feel fortunate that I have the space that I do –the whole lower level of our house. I was appreciating the custom work tables Daddy-O built for me –the perfect height for tall body and long arms. Being away also meant I was out of shape. I’d forgotten the quick tutorial on my new sewing machine. It took me a few hours to get reacquainted and in the groove. I was able to finally finish the sample for my latest pattern “Husky Howl” that I should have had completed this Spring…oh well. I’m treating myself to one more day in the studio working on another fun fiber project before getting back out to the garage/shop area and plugging in the welder. Even though my last Market day was this last Saturday, I have a list of pieces that need to be done for Katie’s Gallery and they have been oh-so-patient. The best part is Daddy-O and Gus even made a trip to the metal recycle yard for me and even my steel pile is now organized!

Sample for my latest pattern design "Husky Howl."

Several of my Dahlia's are in bloom! This flower has multiple blossoms on one stem, and all are from Master Gardener, Sue Merriman.

Fitz and Felt

Mommy’s head hurt Friday morning. I surprised Daddy-O with tickets to the Fitz and the Tantrums concert at Bear Tooth Thursday night. What a rockin’ (late) night we had! Normally we would have been in bed just as the doors were opening at Bear Tooth for the concert and discovered that we’re

waaaaay out of shape for staying up past 10:00 pm –especially if you throw favorite beverages on top of a night out. Derek and I vowed to work on our “concert readiness” this year, after all we can literally walk to Bear Tooth

Theater and no DD is needed! Check out Fitz and the Tantrums, Daddy-O bird dogged this group before their trip to Anchorage and

I have to agree, these guys are going somewhere.

I’ve fed the art making need this week with more felting after seeing a post on pins by my friend Karen Tessandore who shared a link to Betz White’s tutorial on felted pins. I didn’t follow their style of making pins but wanted to make some sculptural pins after seeing some birds nests on Betz’ Blog header and loved the idea of working on a smaller scale than I’m used to. Of course, this latest fit of inspiration also required a trip to see

Pamela at Far North Fibers to stock up on more colors of Merino and Corriedale sheep wool! Spring Break started for the Anchorage School District Friday -even though it’s barely 10 degrees outside… As I made these happy little spring nests and my red “Arctic Poppy” pins it cheered me to hoping our real spring is coming. The Poppy pins were made from a beautiful red wool sweater I scored at my favorite thrift store, Bishop’s Attic. Along with pipe cleaners I use for felting for only 50 cents, look at the way cool little tin box I also found for $1!

Kristen wasn’t able to come home for Spring Break (sad sigh) because she had to finish some components of her chemical oceanography thesis at UAF before she departs on another science cruise in a couple of weeks. Fairbanks has had temps at 20 and 30 below and she has been more than ready for a break. I thought a little art making might be good for the other side of her brain. While picking up a flannel mermaid fabric, cheer-up gift for her at Quilt Tree I was surprised to see the beautiful display of my Art Quilt Patterns the store had on display!! Thank you Quilt Tree, I can see why the patterns have been selling so well!

Thrifty

We should go skiing today but it’s only 9 degrees... Of course, Daddy-O is on the Mountain (he’s tough) instead, Gus, Nimbus, Tauzer and I decided to have an art day (with Ding Dongs!). I know, isn’t EVERY DAY art day?! I found this cool wooden case of art supplies at my favorite Thrift Store a few months ago (for $5!) and stowed it on the art supply shelves in the studio. I’d forgotten about the find until yesterday when Gus was asking to do some acrylic painting.

He was inspired by my friend Katie Sevigny’s paintings at the Gallery and one of her Sunflower paintings we have at the cabin. I’m going to do a little felting of some sheep because I found a new source locally, for large quantities of wool batting from Pamela at Far North Fibers. I also picked up these two new handy dandy felting tools that are essential for felting larger surfaces or when you need more punches per second! Quilt Tree had these two tools for at least $4 cheaper than JoAnn’s. Speaking of Quilt Tree, they now sell my Art Quilt Patterns! Yaaay!

And speaking of Art Quilt Patterns, I finally finished up my latest pattern “Happy Husky Howl.” This one took a bit longer than I expected to get all three dogs just right. My first sketches either had the dogs looking rabid, goofy or cross-eyed! I added the swirls of “howling breath” coming from the second dog during my free-motion quilting process on a whim. It seemed he was just calling for it. I’ll wrap up the technical instructions tomorrow and send it off to my friend and pro-quilter Ann C. to proof, edit and test quilt it. The dogs were inspired for Anchorage’s upcoming Fur Rendezvous and the Iditarod Dog Sled Race. The Quilted Raven is having the Iditarod Quilt Challenge and entries are due Friday, February 25. I’m editing one of the dogs for the 10” x 12” requirements and adding a bandana to him. Should be fun -MUSH!

Birds of A Feather

My latest art quilt pattern “Empty Nest” was inspired by the metal version I have plasma cut and welded before. My friend Ann gave me the idea to make an art quilt chicken pattern this week. Ann had wanted to buy the metal chicken sculpture this summer at the Spenard Farmers Market and was going to put it in her living room. Thankfully she was talked out of it and suggested I add the hen to my art quilt pattern idea to-do list. Well, this little chicken got bumped right to the top! I was so inspired that Kristen (she has great color sense) and I went fabric shopping and with her color help “Empty Nest” flew the coop! I’m going to work on the vector file and pattern instructions this weekend. I’m finding that designing, cutting and piecing, whether it’s

in fabric or steel are very similar. Trying to give each piece some movement or illustrative style in both mediums is also important and a fun creative objective. The challenge for me working in fiber is the use color –I’m still working on being color brave.

The "Hawk" commission was completed this week too. I told myself that I needed to cut and

weld steel the majority of the week before I could even start on “Empty Nest!” If I don’t work by some “Cindy Rules” in the studio my production schedule would go out the window. Sometimes, I get so inspired that I want to ignore my regular work and can get so caught up in the timelessness of inspiration that a lot of other important work suffers and more importantly, so do my bills. So, before I even went to the fabric store with Kristen, I told myself that I had to have the Hawk which is approximately 50” long, cut and welded -well. No rush-rush, hurry-up work either. We could go fabric shopping ONLY after I put the finish clear coat on the Hawk and it was drying! It felt good to have such a productive week full of all kinds of

various projects and Kristen being able to help me. She packaged pattern orders, made Gallery trips with me, made deliveries and was a huge help in the studio. And speaking of flying the coop and Kristen…my sweet studio assistant and eldest offspring flies back up to UAF tomorrow ~sigh~ we’ve had such a wonderful Holiday together I’ve actually gotten used to bumping into another body in the studio! I’ll miss her and I know she’ll miss the brain break as she returns to wrap up her thesis work in 20 below zero winter weather. Thanks sweetie for all your help and FUN these last couple of weeks!

Dog-Gone Pup!

A friend commented that I was sure “lucky to be able to work whenever I wanted.” Ask any full-time artist and they will probably tell you that their hours may be unconventional but the time they put into their craft is usually more than any 8 to 5 job and there is rarely a steady paycheck! The same goes for me. It’s true I’m able to work around my family’s schedules but I rarely have down time. Mainly because it’s very hard for my hands and brain to be idle –especially here at the cabin. I sure do miss my studio but by using my laptop I’m usually able to get a lot of other things done. I was able to finish the digital conversion of my latest pattern “Dog-Gone Pup!” today. I also finished writing the instructions for my other new pattern “Kitty-Kitty Chickadee!” Creating a new design and sewing the sample art quilt is the fun part, but converting my drawings into Adobe Illustrator and writing the

instructions takes way more time for me. I use a Wacom drawing tablet and pen to create the vector files necessary to better work in the pattern’s graphic design layout. After I print out a couple sample proofs of the pattern and instructions, I’ll give them to my friend Ann C. to edit and advise me on better language to use for the instructions. I’m not very good at that part! Not only is Ann a professional but she also teaches quilting classes –which I’m signing up for in January. After we get the instructions and design proofs finalized I’ll again give the patterns to “test quilters” for their input. This was also Ann’s idea and a good one. Initially, I was ready to distribute my first collection of patterns without outside editing, because I am sensitive and didn't want to hear any criticism -however important it was.

The thought of giving the patterns to test quilters scared the heck out of me at first and was something I hadn't even thought of. But by sharing, listening and being willing to make changes, benefits the quality of the final products. Another unexpected benefit was that I feel much more confident about the patterns after going through such a thorough process. It was especially satisfying when a prospective Quilt Shop in Washington who would like to carry the patterns asked "nice designs, but have they been pattern tested?" YES! we were able to answer, thanks to Ann.

Inspired Giving (Receiving!)

Look at the treasures I got yesterday! My sweet and talented daughter Kristen gave me her art quilt entry from The Quitled Raven’s Winter Raven Challenge! Isn’t it just wonderful? I hung it above my reading light in the bedroom here at the ski cabin, that way I can think of her when she’s far away each time I snuggle into bed to read.

My friend and fellow artist Jules made me a “Solstice Raven” wall hanging from one of the Raven panels I gave her! Look at the delicious fabrics she used. I hung this also in the cabin near our bookshelf.

You know how I’ve become smitten about sheep… Since the temperatures have been below zero these new Hafinger boiled wool slippers (to replace the well worn mulit-color pair my sister bought me a couple of years ago) were a welcomed gift from my dear friend Pat. She always picks out just the coolest gifts for me! Aren’t these slippers just fab?! The sweet little sheep is wooly white and I can even step out onto the deck wearing them because the slippers are sturdy, felted wool with latex soles and wool covered cork foot beds. They’ve been perfect to wear in the studio too –that’s how I wore out the pair my sister gave me. I just might have to check out their other shoes at the Alaska Walking Store after seeing the Hafinger web site where it says “Step into a friendship.”

Gus has a new Wii with Wii Fit Plus and Wii Sport. My week-long chest cold is getting better but now I have a pulled butt muscle from a Christmas Wii Bowling and Bobsledding Tournaments -and I think Daddy-O is hiding a sore shoulder. What was Santa thinking?!

This Ol' Dog

The temperatures have dropped to 10 degrees this week and have been way too cold for me to want to work in the shop, so I worked on an art quilt of some friend’s doggies for a Christmas gift –much warmer. I’ve also been developing a wholesale business of Art Quilt Patterns and finished my latest pattern called “Kitty-Kitty Chickadee!” One of my goals this year was to diversify my art making to include other income earning possibilities that didn’t rely 100% on gallery sales of my metal sculptures.

I’ve been reading with interest the various tools and strategies used by other artists to earn a living. It’s made me feel a bit like an ol’ dog needing to learn new tricks! We all know it’s been a precarious economy and customers seem to be even more reluctant to part with

their money, especially to buy art. I’ve seen my customer base that used to think nothing of buying a $1,500 wall sculpture, drop 75% compared to two years ago. The average selling price of my metal sculptures used to be $425 and is now about $150. While I’m still lucky enough to be grossing the same annual dollar amount, and I have increased my customer base, I have had to crank out a larger volume of lesser priced work and get creative on how I sell it. A lot more work also meant larger hard costs for materials and most importantly more of my time. It seems most artists do “shows” for the revenue we can earn without needing to pay a Gallery commission, I pay anywhere from 35% to 50% off the retail price in commissions. More and more artists seem to

be moving to the internet and other forms of social media to reach new customers or to market themselves. While it’s not for me, yet, Etsy seems to be a popular choice and selling option and Tracey recently took the Etsy leap and has enjoyed a quick success. One of the best Blog posts I’ve read on “selling stuff” was a story this week by Whitney Smith and the “Simple Sell.” Anybody who wants to sell their work at a show needs to read this story! As a full time, professional working artist I cannot deny the power of social media and integrated marketing communications. When I left my graphic design business behind ten years ago to pursue a life of full time art making I naively thought I’d be able to limit my time on the computer. Oh, how wrong I was. No matter which avenue we choose to sell our art, it all takes TIME. With the complete

change in my customer’s buying habits, gallery changes and economic forecasts I forced myself to assess the work I was creating and the money I was earning –or not earning. The first biggie was I knew my website was out of date and I was paying too much for hosting and my IT guys to make simple edits. I moved my dot com cindyshakedesign.com to Blogger which now hosts dot coms for FREE and now I have the power to keep it up to date. Updates to my web site included getting rid of out of date graphic design pages, including new art work images, adding a “From the Sketchbook” and “This Week In The Studio” pages reflecting a more current look. We’ll soon see if this was a good move. I also

succumbed to the power of Facebook. ONLY after more than half of my customers told me they read about various upcoming shows or my latest project on FB…I admit “updating my status” is still hard for me to wrap my head around people actually giving a flick about minute

by minute updates of other people’s coming and goings. I do however, appreciate FB’s power in my “integrated marketing communications plan.” At least this ol’ dog doesn’t Twitter…yet. I’ll wait for my 20-something kids to tell me when or what’s next for me to sell my artwork “in collaboration with an external agent.”