It's the Holiday Season.....

So, what exactly is the time frame for the "Holiday Season"? There are holidays that happen all throughout the year, so I wonder what makes up this specific season.  I've heard that some people include any holiday during the month of December.  Others think it starts at Halloween and runs through Valentines Day, and I'm all for that!  How 'bout we just stretch the Holiday Season into March to include my birthday! Whew! That's a lot of celebrating!  Its also why I don't have a problem with the greeting, "Happy Holidays!"  I think its an inclusive, all-holiday greeting for a festive time of year, meaning "Hey, let's celebrate!" 

Of course, holidays also mean gift giving.  I love giving and receiving gifts. Its one of my primary love languages.  In order to make gift giving as meaningful and sustainable as possible, I am definitely an advocate of patronizing small, local businesses and independent artists.  Our support means so much to them as business owners and craftspeople.  

It's also time for the 4th Annual Handmade Holiday Sale at FAM/WCU! Besides yours truly, a few of the artists that will be at the sale include:
Julie Fawn Craig: Clay and Glass
Rivers Marchesoni: Mountian Sunflower
There will be many others, including the WCU Ceramics Club, which is always a big hit!
So, needless to say, I've been busy getting super duper new scarves to debut! 

I have 30+ scarves out of the dye, just waiting to be printed by next Thursday.  Yikes!  There's almost every color of the rainbow and a variety of fabrics.   I'm so pleased with the color results.  You just never know how a certain fabric will take dye and what color variations you'll end up with.  It's like a guessing game.  You must surrender to the process and be ready for whatever the final results are.  There are definitely fabric-dying techniques that require preliminary tests, extreme precision and formulations, which will yield specific results every time, but that is not the way I choose to work.  I like the magic.  I like mixing a new color combination every time, not knowing exactly how the color will reveal itself on the fabric. One time, I over-dyed a light brownish fabric with a vibrant, robin's egg blue for the fun of it and ended up with a marvelous lavender-mauve color.  So, go figure.  I think this unpredictability is what makes the process so exciting. 

Here is a detail of one of the new scarves.  A lovely deep blue, azure, turquoise combination with a tree bark screen printed pattern.  This photo was taken right after the heat process on the dye-discharge paste, so there's no telling what the now "orangey" printed part will look like once its washed.  Its all part of the fun!

Happy Holidays!