Color Inspiration, Succulents

I'm officially obsessed. I've been collecting succulents. I can't get enough of them. It doesn't help that there are thousands of varieties out there. Each one is so beautiful and unique.

(I really need to make one of these living pictures, so cool!....Soon!)

I'm helping out the environment by planting drought tolerant plants, see? Water conservation should be practiced by all. What? You're not buying that excuse? Me neither... I love these little plants because I can't kill them no matter how long I neglect them. :) They are all still sitting pretty in their little pots even after a week of forgetting about them...probably even longer!
The symmetry of their leaves is a work of art. The leaves alone are amazing; cute and plump, some are even furry and downright hug-able...though I wouldn't recommend cuddling with them.

From icy cool tones to warm deep reds, how could I not be inspired to create a colorway just about them?

So here we go! The August Club Fiber is here! :D I hope you love it!!

Little Things

Back before fiber arts took over my life I was into digital art. I have few of my own paintings that I may share someday but in the meantime I'd like to introduce you to Meowza. He is my absolute fave artist. He's so amazing and creative. How awesome is this?!...he has a collaboration with a gal who sews!!...and on top of that...it is a knitting themed accessory bag!! How could I possibly pass it up?! My new bag!

How cute is it?! It's perfect for all my knitting accessories!

Kukubee on etsy carries tons of other cute bags in various sizes and lots of different themes. Zombies, nerds, coffee addicts, animal lovers, and even the 80's. The illlustrations are from the amazing mind of Meowza (Brent). I can't gush enough about his work! You can check out his portfolio here. :D

This one is my personal favorite, of course!

Summer Fun

Summer has always been my favorite time of year. This summer was full of fun here at the BME hive. My sister and her family come out to visit from Missouri every year. I'm talking a long visit, like a month! It's a whirlwind when they're here! I get to become a local tourist. :)
This year they came out at the beginning of July. We were busy almost everyday! Lots of fun evenings just relaxing too, of course. It was great to see our kids having so much fun together.

(My kids with their cousin in the middle)

We all made a trip up to Santa Barbara for a couple days. It's not too bad of a drive from here, about 2 hours. We visited the SB Zoo, went wine tasting (Oreana and SB Winery), swimming, dinner, and walked along the pier...and that was only the first day! The next day was a bit more relaxing building sand castles at the beach and swimming in the pool at our awesome hotel, the Harbor View Inn. I just wish we could've stayed longer.

(our private patio view)

(my mom and I wine-tasting, beach, zoo, and swimming with the kiddies)

The day after we got home we went to Disneyland. Always fun! After that we had to slow down and concentrate on Renegade Craft Fair. My sister and I shared a booth this year. It was wonderful seeing some familar faces visit my booth and great to meet new friends. The fun thing about Renegade is bringing spinning out in the open and educating curious people. I hope I inspired more than a few people to give it try!

(my newest wheel! a Spinolution Mach II)

TdF Prizes

Thank you team! You all did an amazing job!!

Prize: 8 oz of ANY color custom dyed

$25 BME Credit

Free BME Braid

My New Dyepot!

I never would've guessed I could get this excited over a pot. I love it! I added a massive stainless steel brazier style pot to my dyepot collection. It's huge! The pot needs 2 burners to heat and barely fits on my stove. I can fit up to 1 lb of fiber in it.

I wanted a pot with a lot of surface area for kettle painting fiber and yarn. I like the stockpot style but the dyes don't get to the fibers on the bottom without stirring. We all know what stirring hot fiber does! With this pot there is no stirring needed. :D The pot is wonderful because its shallow and not as heavy as a stockpot would've been.

I've been experimenting with heat, acid, and dye recipes. Sometimes the dye colors splitting is really beautiful so I've been tracking at what temperature and how much acid is needed for certain effects. Here are some of my experiments so far.

Fiber Club!

I finally started a fiber club! I've been wanting to do one for sometime now and I don't know why I put it off for so long. It's so much fun!

The subscription lasts for 3 months, September, October, and November. Each month the members get one braid of fiber dyed up in an exclusive club colorway. The braid weighs between 3 to 5 ounces depending on what kind of fiber I use for the month. The memberships sold out fairly quickly so I may start a waiting list for the next round for new members. Current members are guaranteed a spot if they choose to be in it again. :)

I wanted to do something really special for the first one so I found an amazing blend! It's 50% silk, 30% superwash merino, and 20% seacell. It is soooo amazing to work with!

My inspiration for the fiber colorway was the Autumn Moon Festival. Every year on the 15th day of the 8th month of the lunar calendar the moon is at its maximum brightness. It occurs late September or early October. This year its on Oct. 3rd. It is traditonally spent with loved ones to give thanks, eat mooncakes, and make paper lanterns. I focused on the paper lanterns and tried to create September's Fiber Club colorway thinking of the lanterns glowing against the brightly moonlit night sky. Deep plum, purple, navy, and blues with a touch of a fiery glow. I hope everyone will enjoy spinning it while thinking loving thoughts of family and friends. :D

Spinning at the LA County Fair

The LA County Fair has an awesome art gallery, the Millard Sheets Gallery, and this year the exhibit's theme was The Making of Art, the first 30,000 years. The exhibit was amazing! The art gallery at the fair has always been one of my favorite things to visit so you can imagine how excited I was to be a part of it. The exhibit starts out showing visitors how humans first created art with their bare hands and later invented tools and methods to aid in their expression.

The really cool part is that they invited modern day artisans to demonstrate these skills...and I was one of those artisans! They also had a weaver, ceramic artist, wood carver, glass maker, and a rock sculptor. It was so fun to be a part of this amazing gallery! I had my own little platform to spin on with a table to display my goods and they even printed my name out and framed it. :D

Most of the visitors who stopped by knew nothing about spinning. There was a lot of fascinated looks by adults and kids alike. I got the usual comments: "You're too young for that", "Why do that when you can just buy yarn in a store", "Spinster!", and of course, "Don't prick your finger. " LOL! It was wonderful to hear stories from people of spinners they knew and how it brought back memories for them. I had a nice conversation with a sweet senior man about how his mom would spin on their porch and how she made woven clothing for him. Really cool stuff. :D

This weighted loom was a replica of one they found in a cave dating back 10,000 years!

I had such a wonderful time but just wish I could have stayed longer. :)