The Color in My Mind

I had been dyeing wool and playing with acid dyes when I suddenly got this obsession about bright tomato red.

I could almost feel the color and there was no way escaping it. I had to put it on paper. With some doodles of course!

See the description at Etsy to get the explanation of the whole process.

Harvest, original collage, available at Etsy

Preparing for a Craft Fair

Set of 3 handdecorated papers, available at Etsy.

I am attending a craft fair in Helsinki after a couple of weeks. I have been spinning, dyeing, doodling and painting like crazy and even if it's fun, it is also hard. I do have my day job too. And it is always nerve wracking to put stuff for sale. People might not like it. They might find it too expensive. And the biggest fear: they might not get inspired at all!

I love seeing people who are passionate about what they do. I can tirelessly listen to anyone who talks enthusiastically whatever their specialty is. And I want to be one of them too. Even if I can criticize my own work endlessly, I want to forget all that critique when going to the fair. Being able to talk what I have been doing in the late evenings and weekends for years, it is a luxury. Like this blog is. Hopefully the things that inspire me will inspire some others too!

Two of Everything

Whatever I do, I always end up dividing myself in two. There's the logical side and the emotional side. There's the perfectionist and the one who really does not care. In crafts I have two passions: paper and fiber.

I made these tags for Lain Ehmann's ScrapHappy community tag swap. I opened my little treasure box of papers and dived in into the world of scraps and doodles. And inks. And strong colors. But when the tags were finished they seemed missing something. I finally got it: the string! Rushing to my stash of handspun wool, I grabbed some. Luckily I have the same taste of color with my knitting!

Fiber is like water, the world could not exist without. That's why I could not resist when my old schoolfriend Susanna brought some from our childhood area. It's been more than a year and we've played with it, carded it and spun it. Finally we were able to make it in bigger portions so that also you can enjoy it. Check out my new Etsy shop Woolgrey for organic wool and handspun yarns.

There will be new products soon at Peony and Parakeet too. And this blog continues to be a hub of everything that I make, either with paper or fiber. Thanks for following me!

Quilting with Pen and Paper

Have you ever heard of swapping deco squares? They are 4 by 4 inches squares that you decorate and send to your partner. This was my first. The given theme was "Playing with inks" and as I love inks I just had to participate.

The square shape made me think about quilting. I used to be a passionate quilter some years ago. I still like it but do not dedicate that much time for it anymore. But I love sewing with my pen, adding small stitches and lines, combining paper like fabric pieces.

Here's a sample of my quilting on fabric. Just a small potholder but I even named it. It's called "Childhood" and it really reminds me of my Karelian origin and my childhood home in the 70s. This one was given to my sister and she luckily liked it too!

Look Far

After spending time with overwhelming circles and patterns I felt that something quite opposite was needed. The world of folk art never stops inspiring me, japanese this time!

Marie Antoinette

I love the Marie Antoinette movie. I have watched it again and again and I love to examine the photos of the scenes. I wanted to doodle something overwhelming and overanything so I picked one photo, some paint and plenty of pens.

You can see the conceptual illustration in the lower right corner. I have found out that helps to figure the shapes of the doodles first. After the concept sketch, I made the original paper, shown in the upper right corner. Then I took photos of it and made some more versions on the computer. Romantic Monday!

A Happy Organizer

I am attending two great online courses at the moment, both in the area of scrapbooking. They are produced by Big Picture Classes. The first course is Stacy Julian's Library of Memories. It is about how to keep up with photos and stories. I have managed to organize my scrapbook pages plus 4500 digital photos within few weeks!

Another great course that has put me organize my stuff is Lain Ehmann's Mother LOAD. It prepares for 26 days scrapbooking marathon. I made this layout about my scrapbooking space as the first week's assignment. I think it's pretty cozy but actually it's only temporary as we have been renovating the library room at our house and once my table arrives, I will move my scrapbooking stuff there. The real library of memories and the place to scrapbook, I am so happy about it!!

Last week's theme at Lain's course was putting all the scrapbooking stuff in good order. I am pretty organized in that sector but after going through my die cuts and odd alphabets I got this idea. I put them all together in separate divisions of one plastic container. I love this arrangement, it's so practical! If you have problems with handling the small stuff, try this!

Here's my layout for week 2 of Lain's course. It's about how my dog Cosmo makes my life happy. I think both of these layouts really show the happiness. Well, on summer holiday, it's so easy to be content and happy!

More ATCs, made in the middle of summer nights. I love to stay up late and play with paints and doodles.

During the days, I have been dyeing yarn and wool! Here's some tussah silk and bluefaced leicester wool blend. Happy colors here too.