Why the Artist in Residence notion is labor intensive!

The AIR 2016 is labor intensive partly because as gallery manager and general art director of the libe Donna rightly said, I decided to do it big, how typical of me, too true, and partly because I only include fiber arts in which I already have experience and have either exhibited or taught.

However, that's a range, and it means every week I usually have to refresh my knowledge and skill!  can't claim to show  something if I can't remember exactly how it goes, after all...

So this week, among other things, for Week Seven of nine, this is all your doing, Quinn, I'm refreshing my old skills with beaded knitting where you use a crochet hook to insert the beads.  It's mesmeric and you just don't want to stop once under way. 

I decided to embark on a new small piece, a phone purse, similar to a couple of others I'm bringing, just to demo the concept and to encourage visitors to try a small item for themselves at home.  I find new knitters tend to think in terms of large things like scarves and sweaters and can get a bit daunted when the finish line recedes like mountains in the distance.

And I'm using fine string and glass beads, a nice and unusual combo of materials. Another reminder that you can use anything you want as a yarn.

Anyway, now I have to hold back from finishing the thing too soon!  I need to have some left to show.  The pic here I took this morning, right after I got under way, but the item's nearly done now, oh dear. Note the extreme fineness of the hook -- the hook end is barely visible.  This is because you need a hook small enough to thread the bead onto it over the hook, and to draw it back out with two thicknesses of your yarn on it.  Which means you have to have beads with a bore (the hole in the middle) large enough to allow this.

In addition to this technique, I'll be showing books and ideas about doing your own designing, too, to encourage that, and will be showing a stitching on net still on the hoop, the design taken from my own drawing. 

The technique of using Vilene and net, which I might have invented, at least I never saw it anywhere,  is part of this, too.  A lot of textile arts are really not difficult, at least to embark on, but they seem mysterious until you see them happening.

Varied and interesting session, at least that's always the hope.