Artful Women’s Exhibition with Zonta in Canon City, CO

The international organization, Zonta, has an annual fund raiser.  This fundraiser is for their scholarship fun and local and international service projects.  It is called the Artful Women’s Exhibition.  An Art Show that has 3 categories.  Drawing/Painting, Photography, 3D and Fiber.  I have 3 pieces that will be in the Fiber category.

Pastels

We will be having one or two fiber artists from Ft Collins, Colorado judging the 3D and Fiber category.  I believe this is the first Art Show that I have entered any Fiber Entries that will be judged by actual Fiber Artists.  Most times, the judges are NOT fiber Artists so I have never been able to understand how they could JUDGE Fiber.  I am looking forward to this.

The opening night is October 5, 2012 from 5:30-7:30pm.  The show will also be open October 6 and 7, 13 and 14th, and the 20th.  It will be at the old Sunflower Bank Building at 531 Main Street, Canon City, Colorado.  Admission is $5.00.

I plan on getting to know more about the Zonta Organization and the local chapter.  Their mission statement is:  To empower women to improve their status through education, economic stability, health and wellness, to serve our community through local and international projects and through contributions, and to further the mission of Zonta International.

Bits and Bobs

This is a good thing and I hope to find out more about them.

The 3 pieces that I am entering will show hand spinning, hand painting and dyeing, spinning from carded art batts, spinning from locks, crochet, weaving on a rigid heddle loom and free form crochet.

Beehive Art Yarn Shawl

My three entries are Pastels, Bits and Bobs, and Beehive Art Yarn Shawl.

Pastels is an 8 ft triangle shawl.  It was woven in continuous warp method on an 8 ft triangle loom from yarn that I hand painted.

Bits and Bobs was hand spun from art batts, rovings, and various other bits and bobs of fiber received over the years.  It has alpaca, merino, wool, angora rabbit, angelina for sparkle and glitz, and other assorted fibers that I have no clue about as they came in art batts.  I hand wove panels on my rigid heddle loom and free form constructed this jacket.  I also wove a bag that I later felted for extra durability and wove a panel to be used as a wrap skirt to complete the outfit.  This outfit has not been exhibited in Fremont County.  It was my entry into the Art Prize Competition in Grand Rapids, Mi in 2011.

Beehive Art Yarn Shawl was spun from locks and hand painted in vibrant colors.  The yarn is extreme chunky and bulky.  I used a crochet hook that is much bigger than my thumb and free form crocheted this into a unique OOAK shawl.  Ribbon was added for a nice touch and to close the front of the shawl.

I am looking forward to this exhibition and hope to see you there.  Come Look for me 🙂

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Update:  “Bits and Bobs” won Third Place in the 3D and Fiber Category at the Artful Women’s Exhibition.  The judge particularly liked the different textures, colors, and seeing the “hand” of the artist in the weave and spinning.

First Ever Salida Fiber Art Festival

The first ever Salida Fiber Art Festival is next weekend.  September 8 and 9, 2012.  I have to have all my things ready to put in the booth on Friday, September 7.  My sister is coming in to Colorado Springs tomorrow night and it will be her first time in Colorado.  She is also bringing her daughter, Isadora, who is 5 months old and flying for the first time.  First time for both in extreme altitude, first time for these two city girls to be out in the backwoods of the mountains, so very many firsts in the next week or two!!!

I decided to specialize in Lincoln Long Wool Locks in small quantities for spinners and felters and hand painted and hand dyed yarns this year.  Our guild has a double fiber booth so many members are putting things in the booth for sale.  I may consider doing a booth on my own in the future but I would have to buy the tent, sand bags, set up the tables and be there for the entire fiber festival which at this time I just can not manage with my health.  There is no reason I can’t participate in my guild’s booth because if all the members did their own booth, our Guild booth would be rather empty.

Hand Painted Lincoln Long Wool

I have hand painted Lincoln Locks, solar dyed Lincoln locks, natural colored or white lightly washed Lincoln Locks, and some of the white Lincoln locks raw.  There will be much to choose from. The dyeing of the Lincoln Long Wool Locks is already done.

Solar Dyed Lincoln Long Wool

I have 36 200 yd skeins of 60/40 Merino/Mohair 2 ply lace weight yarn.  This fiber was grown here on Alba Ranch and I had the mill blend the two fibers into this yarn.  Merino wool came from  White Mama and the other crazy white merino.  And the Mohair came from Michelle, Lucy, and Sammi.  That is a grandmother, mother and wether Angora Goat Family.

Sammi, Angora Goat

I also have 21 200 yd skeins of 2 ply spider lace weight (28 WPI) skeins of pure Angora Rabbit yarn as well.  All 57 of these skeins I am hand painting today.

I have those skeins plus 6 other skeins already dyed to make 63 skeins of yarn.  I will have 40-50 individual bags of Lincoln Long wool locks.  I have to tag and price every single one by Friday.  I think my sister will be pressed into hard labor to help finish these!!  haha

Any of the yarns and locks that I do not sell in the Fiber Festival, I will upload to the Alba Ranch Shop Online as I haven’t added any new products recently.  I have been too busy creating to do computer work.  I am off now to the dye pot or I will never finish today.  Blog writing is NOT getting any dyeing done!!

Snow Days on Alba Ranch

Wow,Wow, Wow!! We got more snow in the last 24 hours that I recall getting even as a child. We have about 20+ inches on the ground. Now mind you, that is on top of the 12 inches that I got last week. Which with all the cold temperatures did NOT melt.

Driveway Area after 20+ inches of snow in 24 hours

I tried to get out with the 4WD Landrover yesterday. I got about 20 feet and was stuck. It left a perfect imprint of the head lights in the snow drift that built up in front of the bumper. Managed to get it reversed and back in its post.

Our Mountain and Pole Barn Site
Landrover in there somewhere??

Then we tried the 4WD Suburban. It took off, up the hill and down the drive the eighth mile to the gate where I had to stop as the gate was closed. I guess that lift kit and huge tires really help with ground clearance since the snow was all the way up the running boards. Got it turned around and back down to the barn. I got into a bit of trouble on the hill as I was trying to turn around and started to slide. Well, being from Michigan originally and always driving cars that were rear wheel drive and most often with bald tires, I seriously know how to slide. Gunning it a bit, I slide in sideways using the slide to get the arse end swung around and wallah, back in front of the barn and did not even hit the Landrover.

We shoveled about 20 inches deep of snow off about 750 sq feet area in front of the barn where the vehicles go and moved them back in place. Then it was time to take my baby out of the barn, my 1985 CJ7, and take her up the hill. I was stunned. She dead ended in the snow at about the same spot as the LandRover. Apparently the Rover and Jeep, can not make it through more than 20 inch of snow. They do NOT have lift kits you see. Oh well.

Alpacas unimpressed by the snow

The Livestock Guardian Dogs (LGD) were out with the alpacas through the storm. Of course they were smarter than the alpacas as they were buried in the BACK of the shelters with the alpacas lying in guard over the door opening. Hey who said dogs were not smart??

Larick, the LGD of the female alpacas

We took 2 border collies out for our usual walk of a quarter mile in the evening. A mother and daughter dog team of Abbey and Cinnamon. Cinnamon decided to go off trail and was literally snorkeling. The snow was OVER her head and she had to tip her nose up and try not to inhale all the snow. Abbey, older and wiser, stayed in the tracks with mom and dad! ha!!

Abbey, much more comfortable INSIDE on the rug
Cinnamon, crashed out on the rug after a hard day of play!

This morning, we took almost the entire pack of border collies out in the snow to play and go for the quarter mile walk as I expect the snow plow guy will show up sometime today. Abbey only made it about as far as the Landrover and Jeep and she was down. It is 3 degrees out and it was just too cold for her puppy paws, so Charlie had to carry her back to the cabin. The rest of the dogs were younger and more foolish and they floundered on with mom. Dad came back a bit behind us and got some good video of them all going under the snow over and over.

Snow Snorkeling Border Collies. Gotta love them!! Everyone is now back in the cabin with a roaring fire in the stove and steaming everything up.

All this snow has made it very interesting to do the chores outside. I have had to shovel out the hay feeders several times for the alpacas to have their hay. We boil gallons of water to unthaw all the water buckets….repeatedly….several times a day. We had to shovel paths everywhere to even find the alpacas and chickens. We were out yesterday morning at 6:30 am shoveling and putting up a tarp for the male alpacas because one went in the shelter and the other stayed outside. They are not exactly friends, so with the tarp, it gives a second space away from the other to be in shelter. The girls have several shelters in their pens so they were fine.  With all these extras needing to be done because of the snow, any fiber work had to be postponed.  I try to do fiber creation on a daily basis of something.  Course, I guess it does depend on how you look at it.  The fiber animals survived through the store to grow more fiber on a another day.  That is Fiber Creation at the most basic, right?

I had to take the long handle broom and knocked off several feet of snow built up on the edge of the barn as it was poised for an avalanche and more than likely would have taken all the eaves off at the barn at the same time. We used the same long handle broom to get the several feet of snow off the Landrover and the Suburban. Charlie was out in the barn sawing up off cuts of wood from the barn build to make dry fire wood for the stove as the rest is buried under several feet of snow that the snow plow guy put up over it last week, then add the new 20 inches of snow on top of that. I think we won’t find that wood until JUNE!!

Going to go have homemade meatloaf, bread pudding and purple mashed potatoes for breakfast. Yes the potatoes were purple naturally so the mashed potatoes are as well. Charlie thinks they are weird!! We had it for dinner last night and I am still NOT out of comfort food mode!!

Winter Carnival Contest from Spin Artiste

The Winter Carnival from Spin Artiste is in full swing. You have this week only to vote on your top favorite three items. This contest is celebrating fiber things created with winter in mind.  The Holly Berry Ruana ensemble is handspun merino yarn plyed with baby soft angora rabbit.  Wearing this outfit, is like having a bunny hug all day long!

Holly Berry Woven Ruana, Skirt, Hat and Bag

Alba Ranch has entered the Holly Berry Woven Ruana, Skirt, Hat and Bag ensemble. You can see the contest here and vote by commenting at the bottom of the thread with your favs.

There are many entries that are beyond stunning.  so Hurry on over and have a look and see all the yummy fiber lovelies!!

Winter Carnival from Spin Artiste!

Update: Nicole Constantine won the Winter Carnival Contest from Spin Artiste with her “Long Winter’s Nap”. Congratulations Nicole!