New Work

I have recently been asked to show my work in April at the Riverfront Art Center here in Stevens Point. The show is called Common Threads and will include several textile artists. This will be the first time my work will be exhibited in Wisconsin and it has really motivated me. I have gotten away from showing my work and I am finding that making new work feels refreshing and fun. Here is the latest piece I completed yesterday.

The trees are made out of rusted wire and the small house is made by weaving shredded money. No, I didn't cut up my money, I purchased a bag of shredded bills quite a few years ago and have done a few things with the material. I discovered that if I ironed the small pieces flat they could be woven into a really interesting fabric. I guess this makes sense because the paper money is made out of has a high percentage of cotton rag. Let me know what you think of it!

Tea!

One of the hightlights of our trip to Colorado was a tour of the Celestial Seasoning's Tea factory. I have been drinking Celestial Season's Tea since I was in college and that was a loooooong time ago. All of Celestial Seasoning's tea is made in Boulder, Colorado and when we drove into the parking lot we saw a very colorful store front with graphic images taken from the art used on the tea boxes.

The tour begans in the tasting room where several teas, both hot and cold, were brewed and ready for tasting as well as individual cups of any tea we wanted to try. The tasting room not only has tea but also the original artwork used on the boxes. If you haven't looked carefully at the boxes, take a moment and pull out your teas and look at them. They have lovely illustrations. In addition they have a collection of artist made teapots that were great fun to check out.

After the tasting and a short film we went onto the factory floor and it smelled like heaven! There were bags of herbs and teas stacked to the ceiling. One of the rooms we went into was the peppermint room. They have to keep peppermint seperated from the other ingredients because it has such an intense smell. If it was kept with other ingredients it would start to change the flavor of the other herbs and spices. After standing in the room for a few minutes I could feel my head and sinuses start to clear!

Of course, the tour ends at the gift shop where I scooped up a few boxes of tea and a cute little dish in which to 1put my used tea bag. If you ever find yourself in Boulder, Colorado check out the Celestial Seasonings tea plant!

Colorado

My sweetie and I just returned from a great January get-away. We went to Colorado and visited my cousin and a friend. The mountains were beautiful, the food delicious and plentiful and fun was all around. We didn't ski (haven't done that for decades and the idea of ending up with something broken didn't seem like a good way to spend a vacation) but we did take a gondola to the top of Vail mountain and took photos and had lunch. Here are a few photos of the trip.

CHEERS!