by Tammy Vitale
I'm not really sure where to start. Since I was here last lots of things have come and gone and it is getting to the point that if I don't start somewhere I may never blog again – the sheer volumen of: Hey! Look at this! – is going to overwhelm me.
So I'll start with silk painting which I did for the first time on the 6th (oh, my – almost 2 weeks ago!). We had a presentation by local artist Betty Leppin (alas, no website) at the Calvert Artists' Guild's December meeting. I'm not usually a meeting person but this intrigued me so off I went. Lovely holiday food and a wonderful presentation on silk painting which is much like water color (at which I am terrible) but for some reason I took to this like a duck to water. So for the new year I'm planning on playing with a few silk scarves because the medium works for me – I could see it before I started, unlike water colors. And the dye spreads so yummily on the silk that I have to need to overwork it – the colors are beautiful and intense (which I never seem to get with water color).
Here's another: 
The silk is curling qhich is why I can't get good flat photos – I still have to steam the colors in to set them (which I hope to do within the next week). It's all so exciting!
I have asked Santa to please bring me the rudiments of equipment for making beads. I could buy 12,000 very expensive handmade beads with what this "rudimentary" equipment is going to cost (hence my plea to Santa), but I'm finding glass beads hard to make and myself challenged and determined to get a handle on these beads.
Meanwhile I've hit Bead Boutique's December sale and Fire Mountain and spent all of my own christmas money on beads and beading stuff. I'm totally addicted. But I had a nice little show (only a few people but the median purchase point was over $100) at The Palms Salon and Day Spa in North Beach…which I fell into. We'll see where that goes, but I have a poetntial house party as a result of that little foray and I'd love to get that started as a an income stream.
Of course we have also put our tree up. Here is Grandson setting up the yearly ceramic tree that his great grandmother on his birth paternal side made many years ago. This year he looked forward to 
this tradition – the first time he has remembered and he also participated in hanging ornaments which couldn't hold his attention last year. Don't they grow fast?!
And the next picture is bread dough ornaments I made my first Christmas with Husband – when he had hair and I had a waist. (That's Husband hanging them together – Daughter had hung them on different sides of the tree, and Husband quickly put them together). We always hang them on the tree side by side and I do believe I have a picture of them every year. That would be a fun project in my spare time…go back and round up all those pictures and collage them. Hmm. I think I'll let that one wait a bit.
I'm going to stop the narrative here. There's more. Hopefully I'll make it back here Saturday for more show and tell.
thought for the day: Private dealing developed in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries when the new class of industrialists and merchants thought they had inadequate art background to commission work directly from artists, and chose instead to go through informed intermediaries. Some dealers became very wealthy…Private dealers sell their services as consultants, using the argument that collectors need to be wary. Dealres and auction houses, like real estate agents, represent sellers, not buyers. Don Thompson, The $12 Milliion Stuffed Shark: The Curious Economics of Contemporary Art
9 Comments
ooooo tammy those scarves…those are inspiring me and I don't need ONE MORE thing to do right now….but they are so deeply rich and colorful…those are watercolors on there or some sort of water pigment?? you will have to give me a detailed explain…anyway dearie, I am so happy to see you again, have missed your posting and wondered if I would ever see you again! should have known you would get back eventually…love the "had hair and waist " comment…ain't that the truth, darlin'…ok best go to bed…..those scarves are STUCK in my wee brain, burning holes … those colors are to die for … no wonder you love it!
blessings for the holiday to come…
When I feel that way (overwhelmed), I take a deep breath and decide to do one thing, just one. And if you choose just one thing, Tammy, have it be the silk painting. It was made for you and you for it, that is obvious!
Happy Solstice Greetings to you, Tammy!
I too am in the mode of so much has happened I may never blog again! Sometimes life has a way of accelerating and depositing experiences in such a fashion we almost can't grasp it all. this month has been one of those times, and I am heartened to learn that it seems to be a universal energy and not just my life that is spinning out of control.
I truly love your silk painting, especially the spiral sun.
May the winter bring you health and love and prosperity. Blessed be.
Your silk paintings are beautiful, Tammy! I also enjoyed reading about your family traditions and keepsakes. Have a safe and happy Christmas!
I've had that feeling before of 'if I don't start somewhere I may never blog again,' and with a lot less going on than you've had. Times like that, I wish there were a 'pause' button…
Those silk scarves ARE yummy-looking – gorgeous colors and designs! What fun you must have had. Your grandson looks so sweet, decorating his grandma's tree. Love the bread dough ornaments too – what great keepsakes to have, like a running story thread, stitching all your Christmas' memories together. Makes me want to make some bread dough ornaments myself – though I'm not so sure how well they would turn out in the toaster oven — it's done pretty well at adapting a lot of other recipes while we're saving for a new oven – but bread dough ornaments might get a little crispy-crittered. Yours are lovely!
I love the silk painting….It is so beautiful. I enjoy the picture of your grandson and the special ornaments.
I have a Christmas message for you on my blog. I hope that you can drop by and read it.
Merry Christmas
That makes me want to paint :). I understand how you feel. I get into slumps sometimes, but the good thing is, when I get out, I AM FIRED UP :). Thanks for sharing your Christmas pictures.
xoxo
Hi Tammy, how lovely to see your first silkpaintings, which are like sunny greetings from a warmer place:) and you grandson looks so sweet and concentrated, decorating:)
The dough ornaments:) I smile looking at those and laugh at the "when he had hair and I had waist"
feel related to that although my husband still has his hair but I not my waist:) LOL
have a lovely pre-Christmas time and thanks for sharing
Andrea
yes; I think that silk painting was meant for you; I've never done this but it looks like you have to move fast with it? (you might take a look at those dr ph martin watercolors as they are brilliant in color and already liquid and perhaps more to your liking)
just how sweet are those two little ornaments in those two little hands…