I am just back from my first Design Outside the Lines Retreat of the year. Marcy Tilton and I had a delightful creative group who came to gather around fabric, sewing and  surface design play  in Santa Barbara, California, (info about our retreats are on both of our websites- Marcy’s site: www.marcytilton.com )We have  two more this year, one in Sisters, Oregon in June and one in Taos , New Mexico in Sept. Both unique venues we love sharing with fabulous, creative women who want to come and play and grow their work.

First Friday was hands-on in the studio~I used some of my new stenciled/painted pieces to decorate my studio with a Valentines theme.

First Fridays of each month in Ashland,  the galleries are open with new shows, music and wine tasting. This month, it was a great evening to share in some hands-on with the community. Since I have been enjoying some new direction in my fabric painting and stenciling…I spread out a canvas in the studio and had visitors print, doodle and write as they came through. My Jr high friend, Cerie, came and drew heart designs that I cut them out as stencils for everyone to use. I like to use acetate…but for  this quick collection of new stencils, I used manilla folders…and they will last for lots more printings.

The fabric we all created  inspired several bags. The bags will raise money for a scholarship for several kids to come to my Make Your Own Treasure Box Class in March here at the Art Center. I am enjoying coming up with generative activities that can add energy and support this community where I live- and this was a fun one I will tweek and do again.

A ROOM WITH A VIEW~

Here is how the studio is looking this month. I am just starting in  on my second Ethan Allen chair. I have been inspired lately by the graphics and applications of Foransetti-you may want to goggle him…wow- very inspiring! Anyway, you can see on my chair…I have ‘mocked up’ the idea of the chair unzipping to expose blue sky ,clouds and a bit of Ashland skyline…

this will be great fun to create. I’ll let you know how it is progressing.

New Cards, prints and Sketchbooks from my  Illustrations-

I have started creating prints and cards from my drawings….my first offerings are on my website, and Here are my first 2 sketchbooks !…the perfect size (5″x8″) fits nicely in a purse. They are available on my website starting this week.

STICKS  & GREENS~

with Spring coming on here in Southern Oregon, we are being blessed with some amazing weather and the trees are all verging  and ready to pop out in blossoms and fresh greens! I know it will inspire some  drawing of plants that I can add to my card collection.

About this ‘blogging’ process…..although I still can’t figure out lots of the basic things about using this amazing tool…(like how to get the pictures inserted where I want them…and how to find the 2 drafts of this Feb. past I already started!!!!) I will persist, knowing I will get better. Right now I am just feeling VERY lucky I have this post to this point and I can hit the publish button with a feeling of real accomplishment!  I know some of you are responding to these blogs….and I am not always sure how to get back to you-so be patient with me. What really makes my heart sing? To know you are running off to play with your own creative stuff!

Lots of Creative Joy to you all,  Diane

Dear Creative friends, The changing seasons always  inspire new projects for me. The tea cozy is one of my favorite creative formats for designing and play. It was the  topic of my first HomeLife article of the year in  our local Ashland Tribune. Here is the link:

http://www.mailtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20091231/HOMELIFE/912310327

Here is some  of the pieces from this design play. As you can see, one of the first  things I do  is bring collections of materials together that I want to play with for each design…here is my table with a collection of tea cozy ’starts’. I start with the one that is really calling me-

Tea cozy 'starts' -some have been stenciled, stitched or have a collection of elements that will be part of the finished cozy

Making lots of them at one time is very stimulating and grows my creative problem solving in  new ways.

Here are some of the finished ones….

… I don’t know if I can make something that doesn’t involve sticks!

My collection is growing and I have so many special ones to use and enjoy. Here are two of the cozies that had to  have sticks ….they are clearly taking  me off in another direction.

I now find my  love of making small sculptural elements ( often showing up as jewelry) are jumping onto my tea cozies.

I made the bird from a mans shirt, adding some bits of linen and embroidery thread. She has wire( tie twists) legs and  a bit of shredded bark in beak as she  heads out for a spring nesting spot.

Tea Cozy Pattern: If you haven’t seen my Tea Cozy pattern, it is on my website .Here is the link:

http://www.dianeericson.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=ReVisions&Product_Code=Pattern-202-TeaCozy&Category_Code=PATTERNS

I am NOT done with this tea cozy experience….remember, it doesn’t mater what we are making…it is always inspiring every aspect of our lives….

INSPIRE=To breath in…inspire-ation= to create with what I breath in.

What is the winter air bringing in  to your work/play?

Much Joy, Diane

Welcome to the incarnation of my Creativity Newsletter! Although I am a newbie at this blog experience…my motivation is to be in touch with you , sharing the creative ideas and and projects that are growing out of my creative process. Some of you (who signed up for my newsletter last spring) probably though I was on a world journey…exploring new terrain somewhere  out of computer reach. To confess, I was overwhelmed with one more computer process keeping me away from the work I am most passionate about-so I put it on the back burner. I am so excited to be back! At the beginning of my new, more spontaneous  frontier: blogging!

We have so much to get caught up about…..I have a new studio in the Ashland Art Center here in Ashland, Oregon where I live. I can’t wait to share photos of my work in  progress there. It is wonderful to be in a community of other artists there as the Art Center grows into its own.  I am working on a spring workshop schedule which I will post on my site soon. If you are in the area, I will be hosting a Celebration Cloth workshop Jan. 8th and 9th, in downtown Ashland. There is more information available on  the workshop page of my website.

On the left, is one of my Celebration Cloth pieces: It is 25″ high and made out of fabrics that went through the flood with me and my children (in ‘95). Making this piece was about working through this life-changing experience and helped me to find my grounding again.

I have started writing a column in the magazine section of our local papers each month. The theme is around how cloth holds some of the most important  memories in our lives, and ways to create and live with some of those pieces as we move into the future. I am  offering some simple hands-on project ideas in some of the issues to get even a novice sewer into the process. Here is the link to the first article:

http://www.mailtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20091029/HOMELIFE/910290356

Winter is often the perfect time for some of those projects that are in the ‘To do pile just for me’. Working on the Celebration Cloth articles and workshop are reminding me  how pivotal and precious these kinds of  projects are.They remind me to celebrate and appreciate the meaning of working with my hands and staying in touch with my heart.

Happy Almost New Year, stay tuned for lots of photos in future blogs! Diane

Here I am -at work in my studio space in the Ashland Art Center. I'll give you a tour on my next blog!