It's been so long...

Goodness. I have so not been in the mood to deal w this, but today I will!

I've been making Goddess Dolls (only 3 so far), and thought it might be a good supplement to blog about it since I have them listed as custom work on http://www.ensemblepieces.etsy.com/ and http://www.ensemblecreations.etsy.com/

Or if you prefer I can make a kid safe bracelet on memory wire w beads that are less likely to break.

Become a fan of Ensemble Pieces on Facebook for special offers, deals, and 'hot off the press' pics of whatever I'm working on! And if you live in the Orlando area I post where I'll be vending w links to maps, times, and info!

Now, back to the Goddess Dolls!

These lovelies are very sturdy (I don't make much that isn't), so they're safe for small children as long as you take the coordinating bracelet off!

The sky is the limit when it comes to what these ladies can be filled w: custom stuffing, herbs, charms, rice, stones, keepsakes...you name it and we'll see what we can't cook up! I can also do a pouch on them so you can place things like notes w intentions on them, and healing herbs or stones.

I can make these out of most any fabric, Exceptional Creations sent me some of her tie dyed silk to try a couple w! I'll post those when they're complete! I can do them tie dye, solid, patchwork, cordory, satin, cotton, vintage, ....Even out of a favorite piece of clothing or I could incorporate scraps from whatever you want included!

Make her a story! Yarn hair, button eyes, words or phrases in fabric marker/paint, clothing, charms, beads, stones, ...Let's dream!

Some of you have expressed to me that you've only seen pictures of my dresses, and are a bit skeptical that they look as good on as they do on the manicans, so here's my proof. Above the two dresses are the same style tho not the same dress obviously, so you can get a really good idea of how the dress drapes and hugs its way down to your toes. lol.

Below are two best friends who slipped on their new dresses over their clothes so I could get a picture of them at Drum Circle. Mauve Geometrics is pictured in both pictures, but the only picture I have of the Soft Earthy Blue dress is of her new owner in it, but she's made exactly like the two on the left!

There really are four ways to wear these:

• as a skirt
• as a halter (shown)
• one strap over each shoulder and tied to the back top
• strapless

Upcoming Shows

My Saturdays are packed! For the next month and a half I'll be at a different location every Saturday! I've listed how often they occur and then the date(s) I'll be there.

Waterford Lake Farmer's Market, Oviedo, 8-1pm, every Saturday: 4/25, 5/16 or 23 or 30

Central Florida Earth Day, at Lake Eola, Sunday 5/2 from 10-6

World Fair Trade Day, at Dandelion Communitea, Saturday 5/9 from Noon to Sunset w/ a Drum Circle to follow, 7-10

Sand Lake Farmer's Market, at Sand Lake and I-4 Whole Foods Market, every Sat. 9-2pm: 5/16 or 23 or 30

Lake Eola Farmer's Market, downtown Orlando, 10-4pm, every Sunday: 4/26, 5/3,10,17

Full and New Moon Drum Circles, at Dandelion Communitea & Shine On Yoga, 7-10: 4/25, 5/9 (possibly last one at this location)

Alive After Five, Ist Ave Sanford, 5-8ish, 2nd Tues.: 5/14

Audobon Community Market, at Stardust Cafe, every Wed. 5-10pm: 4/15, 5/13 or 20

The Florida Market at Vistana, at Sheraton Vistana Resort, 8800 Vistana Center Drive, every Tues 3-7pm: 4/21, 28; 5/5, 12

Let me know if you have any additional questions about these markets, most have links and directions, or if you're a vendor you can find contact info!

Patchworking

My patchwork skirt/dresses are my hottest item right now! Many of you are more curious about the process, so here's a peak into it:

Here is the first step in the process. In this case i took around 20 quarter yards of fabric (the lady at Joann's was not terribly pleased when I showed up w that many bolts lol) and arranged the colors and patterns how I saw fit, then sewed them all together vertically.

The next part of this and the crucial feature is to sew the two ends of the sheet of quarter yards together to create a massive tube.

After making the tube, you then decide how wide you want the patches to be, and cut the tube in long horizontal lines. After this you open up the tubes--making them long strips. This is the step where you offset the patterns. Here i have chosen to create the illusion that the patches are moving up to and then down from the center, which provides a nice effect in the finished product.

And of course the fun part is sewing these extra long strips together. Ga, it takes forever! This sheet of patchwork ended up being over 20' long and 4' wide! I then cut panels from this sheet, enough for 6 skirts, which I then spaced out with solid panels.

Here two skirt dresses are seen with their proud new owners at market! There are at least 4 ways to wear them: halter, strapless, over both shoulders, as skirts; and several ways to emphasize your shape with the ties! All skirt/dresses pictured fit sizes 2-14!!! How radical is that! Comfort, ease, and cuteness! Genius!

Themed Jewelry

I've been doing a bit of research and compiling info on healing properties and such or stones. I'm very curious about them, and many of you have inspired me to explore, but have also been using the endeavor as a way to challenge myself thru color combinations, and to adapt design to make these combinations work! It's even showing up in my patchworking!

These were all created in my Fort Wed and Thurs, and I have more in mind but need to post this and clean up where all my wares have been drying since Tues. In my Fort I was able to use the space to focus on pendants, whereas in my Craft Room I have many projects in the works and it can be overwhelming! I've learned to work outside of my normally very inspirational organized chaos when I feel this way.

Since I've been focusing more on my clothing lately rather than my jewelry, I haven't had as much time to bead since the clothes are so much more demanding of time and space. My jewelry is now taking a turn to specialization rather than worrying about having something for everyone, more along the lines of things that I obviously made and can't be duplicated or found anywhere else.

Crown Chakra--zoisite, charoite, garnet, citrine, amethyst, milky quartz

All the violet stones are used with the crown chakra,and white to yellow white stones. Some signs that the Crown Chakra is out of balance are: Co-ordination difficulties , Poor balance and clumsiness, An attempt to stop new thoughts (in self or others), Lack of spiritual exploration .

Zoisite This powerful stone transmutes negativity into positive energy. It relieves lethargy and boosts physical energy. It offers stamina to the mental processes, facilitating advancements of the wearer's goals. Ruby often grows in zoisite matrix and the addition of ruby creates an energetic combination of stones helps to reach and maintain trance states, stimulating the mind and and powerfully amplifying both mental and psychic talents. It helps the wearer to maintain both their individuality and their connection to others, as it awakens the crown chakra.

Root Chakra--Red coral, snowflake obsidian, sodalite

Coral comes from the sea and was at one time a home for some marine life. Red Coral is good for helping to "tame" the wildness within. Such as tempers, rages, compulsive disorders. Helps to balance us to the spiritual. A good stimulant for the root chakra. Protects one from depression and despondency.

A variety of obsidian - a natural volcanic glass containing white 'snowflake' crystal patterns of the mineral Cristobalite. Snowflake obsidian has the property of bringing things to the surface. The things brought to the surface could be positive or negative, but with snowflake obsidian, these things are brought to the surface more gently that they might be otherwise. Snowflake obsidian can provide balance during times of change. It aids in seeing patterns in life and recreating them in a more beneficial way. It is a stone of serenity and purity, and can shield against negativity. It is associated with the root chakra and is beneficial for the veins, skeleton, and smooth skin. Snowflake obsidian gives protection from physical and emotional harm.

Sodalite, whose name reflects its sodium content is found in all shades and hues of blue and is a major constituent of the rock lapis lazuli, therefore these two stones are easily confused. It is told that sodalite will harmonize the inner being or the conscious with the subconscious mind.
It is most helpful for work in groups and stimulates thought. It is a stone wonderfully beneficial for healing breaches in communication, a stone of truth. It can help end arguments or other disagreements that have to do with communication or when communication has become an issue. It is particularly useful for honesty of emotions. It increases intelligence, knowledge and learning and will unite the logical with the spiritual.

Balance and Grounding--leopard skin jasper and unakite

Jasper is a supportive stone that helps people living or working in close proximity to respect and help each other. This stone can facilitate strength, courage, and vitality in many areas of one's life. Working with the lower chakras, Jaspers have a grounding and balancing energy, which helps one to maintain a realistic attitude during any personal evolution. Jasper is a slow-working stone that takes it's time to ingrain it's positive qualities into any situation.

Unakite, or epidote with feldspar as it is also known, consists of a combination of deformed red jasper and green epidote solidly bound together. Carrying the gemstone as a companion stone will help you to maintain a balance between your spiritual and physical lives. Allowing them to join forces in assisting you to create the life you need. Unakite is excellent at removing obstacles to your personal growth. Whether it is an issue from childhood or last month's divorce that is draining your energy and holding you back. Meditations with this gemstone will aid in releasing pain and anger that you are having trouble letting go of.

Rose Quartz Cluster.

This last one I got a bit carried away with. It hung for a long while as a just the rose quartz and sterling. When I set up my fort Tues. I grabbed it and a few others that have been passed over for a while to revamp, and noticed that it has some interesting features on the interior, possibly a phantom! Please let me know if you have a better idea! www.picasaweb.googl.com/ensemblepieces I mixed it more for color and form than quality, and am being a bit lazy on researching all the stones. So many! Rose quartz, and top to bottom, garnet, iolite, jasper, to left serpentine, to right rutilated quartz chips, petrified wood (salmon colored), charoite (purple), fancy jasper, spice jasper, unakite, and on the far left bottom a stick of green kyanite. I also added some more copper swirls and a piece of russian jade to the top, but haven't taken another pic.

Sun Bleached Shirts

I have had such a great response with my sign up list! And so many of you are still so curious about the sunbleaching that I've decided to do this week on some more details! I just love the results! And this is just the beginning!

Here is "fiesty" in process, and done. As with the sheets of fabric (in my first entry), mix all your colors before, the sun dries things pretty fast and the wetter your fabric is the more the dyes can move and develop, giving more contrast. After submerging the tank top to wet it, i placed an opened plastic grocery bag in between the two layers of fabric to keep the dye from penetrating to the second layer. It creates an interesting 'shadow' effect on the back side if the dye is allowed to go thru, just depends on what you're looking for. I painted on the dye w a 1" foam brush and blended it a bit, the fabric being wet helps w that. Time to place shadow on it: The letters are thick paper from the scrapbooking dept, they absorb a lot of the dye giving a nice contrast when done, and the blue wave design is some poster board i cut out a while back and have used on multiple projects, so although it absorbs it absorbs less, and bc it's been used the paper is more worn and bonds w the fabric making it difficult to remove when dry but leaving some dye behind and giving the mottled effect shown. The most intense contrasts came from crinlking the fabric and squashing it flat, and bc the fabric was very wet a large ammount of the dye made it to the peaks and away from the shadows.

With 'grassy' tank, i put no plastic between the layers, submerged the tank and creased it on a box, which I then propped up at an angle. I then poured the dye onto the high end, in this case the bottom of the tank, one spoonful at a time at varying intervals, rewetting the fabric as i saw a need for more flow of the dye. The back side of the tank was on top, and has the most definition, and the front side of the tank that was on bottom has a 'shadow effect,' which is identical to the back side but not as defined.

On my 'happy' tank top, as with most others, i placed plastic in between the layers of the tank, but when i applied the dye w my foam brush I allowed the fabric to bunch in front of it, creating the line effect. This tank fabric is thin, so it dried faster leaving less contrast under the paper letters. The sun and cloud are from a sheet of plastic stencils. I cut them out to use by themselves. Notice how they leave a very defined edge, while the rice leaves a softer shadow.

'Imagine' is one of my favorites. The word is another cut out from a plastic stencil sheet, the goddess and vine are from some of the pieces I cut out from poster board and have used on many projects, and the small grains are grits. I was esperimenting w diff absorbing agents, and so far have found salt to be the only one to affect the flow of the dye, but the others create nice shadows. The shells are the big difference on this piece. Bc they are 3d they create soft shadows as the sun moves as the shirt dries! I wet this one several times to help this process as it dried, and the act of rewetting it softened the colors and helped them blend. Later I went back and used fabric markers to embellish and add some detail.

Status Update

here's a general outline of my shows coming up, all subject to change due to weather, sickness, and vacation type activities, but not often. lol. and here's a pic of my booth last sun (can't see one clothes rack) and of some sunbleaching framed per Sarah Anne's suggestion. ah, new ideas and more stuff to do and haul arround to sale. 'tis the season in FL!:


Lake Eola Farmer's Market, downtown Orlando, 10-4pm: Every Sunday


Sand Lake Farmer's Market, at Sand Lake and I-4 Whole Foods Market, Every Sat. 9-2pm: 3/21, 3/28, 4/4, 4/18


Serendipity Square, by Dandelion Communitea and Misty Forest, 2nd Sat. 9-4: 3/14, 4/11


Alive After Five, Ist Ave Sanford, 5-8ish, 2nd Tues.: 3/12, 4/9, 5/14


Full and New Moon Drum Circles, at Dandelion Communitea & Shine On Yoga, 7-10: 3/10, 3/26


Audobon Community Market, at Stardust Cafe, Every Wed. 5-10pm: (fill in)3/11, 3/18


Mount Dora Art Stroll, Mount Dora, 6-8pm: 4/10


Waterford's Lake Farmer's Market, starting April 18, 8-1pm, I have to decide what Sat. to come here, probably last sat, 4/25


The Florida Market at Vistana, at Sheraton Vistana Resort, every Tues 3-7: 3/17, 3/24, 3/31, 4/7