Susie Monday . El Cielo Studio

Just a quick note until I get my long-promised e-newsletter together this week. The beautiful Majestic Ranch Arts Foundation will host a weekly fiber arts class this summer -- hopefully continuing throughout the year. I'll be there for the first six weeks, then Lisa Kerpoe , with her incredible eye for color and art cloth, will teach the second of two sessions.

The Majestic Ranch is located at the top of a spectacular hilltop about 5  miles from El Cielo (as the crow flies!), on State Highway 46 between Boerne and Hwy. 16 to Pipe Creek and Bandera. It's a pretty convenient location for those living in Boerne, Kerrville,  Bandera, Helotes -- and for those in the city who would like a little country respite each week. For more information, click through on the links above. I hope some of you will be able to take advantage of this wonderful setting and the studio fun with fiber.  

Help! I earnestly request that my  subscribers and readers click this link

NEW GALLERY WEB SITE 

and give me feedback, suggestions, corrections, ideas for what's missing, and any other critique you'd like to contribute to my new gallery site-in-progress. Since I am designing the site with iweb and publishing it on .mac, I particularly want to know how it works on PC platforms and on browsers other than Firefox. I won't switch my public domain, www.susiemonday.com until I've done a bit more work, but it's ready for some outside eyes.

There is still an enormous amount to do to get the site where I want it to be, but with this much done and published, I feel like I have met my Artist Breakthrough Program goal of developing the site by April 1. With your help, I can take the next steps to  fatten it out with more content, better edited photos, and additional pages during the next 3 weeks leading up to my sale at Fiesta Arts Fair, April 19-20.

A few specific questions:

Do the live hyperLINKS need to be a more distinct color?

Is it too weird to have the tense go from third to first person (home page to gallery pages)? And if so, which should it be ?

Should I have a more formal bio/resume page?

Should I have more or fewer pictures on each of the galleries? Should I subdivide more or combine them? Do I include prices? Size? Media? More description for each photo on the gallery page and then NOT include it on the slideshow?

What other pages do you think I should include?

Does the design and format look enough like my blog to have a consistent style? Any suggestions on visual "branding"?

Any other ideas? Really, I need them. If you don't want to leave a personal comment, email me by sending a message to susiemonday@gmail.com (you do have my new email, right?). 

Soy you want ta make some pretty cloth?

Sorry, I couldn't resist. I have been fighting technology all day, and making bad puns seems to be the only way I can get back on the sunny side.

Things were a lot more fun this weekend at the Soy Batik workshop at the Southwest School of Art and Craft. Eight participants attended, most of them from outside of San Antonio, and only one person was an APKTM (Artist Previously Known to Me). We were up to our eyeballs in dye and wax and the place reeked like a Chinese restaurant from all that soy wax. (One of the things I miss about beeswax is its luxurious scent. But I don't miss the hasstle of removing it from fabric, as opposed to the hot-water wash required by soy wax.) I think everyone did splendidly, but I always think that, because they do. This group of artists were particularly eager, experimental, able to take an idea and fly with it. Teaching is one of my true delights in life. I share with the "students" all over again the pleasure of the techniques, the sensory joy of the materials, when I see how others react to their "first time" at something new. That seems particularly true with hot wax and painted dye. The colors can't help but make your day.

Marta from Del Rio works on a watery swirl -- inspired perhaps by the creek that will be the focus of an art and science project this year in her home town. She and Linda (in back) are spearheading an exciting study at their art center, housed in the old Fire House.

Here's a sampling of work in progress. I left my camera at home on the second day, so I am waiting to receive promised photos from the participants. Unfortunately some of the emails I collected are impossible to decifer, others are just wrong, so I hope the magnificent 8 involved will see this post and send me the pics.

Roberto took a particularly adventurous hands-on course. He gave us all recipe calendars from his sales merchandising -- Nestle's Mexican product line -- La Lechera.  Take my word for it, the Dulce de Leche is fabulous.

One of Sharon's pieces in progress -- doesn't this look like a fabulous magic carpet? 

Button, button, whose got the button? I've been making these little stuffed heart milagros, embellished with vintage buttons. The ones I'm using were gifts from my friend Zet, and a few others that I've picked up  and stashed away. But now I need more, since I want to sell these at the Love and IndepenDance sale coming up at Joan Grona gallery on February 21 and 22. I did have them (as well as some art cloth journal covers) for sale at the Federation conference -- a last-minute sales idea that recovered the cost of my room and meals on the road! ($22.00.)

Coincidentally, Linda's niece sent me a link today to this Austin artist Malka Dubrawski  and one of her posts (see January 3) showed the buttons she had bought at a nearby junk and treasure's shop. I am jealous, so I guess it might be time to look locally for some junky shops -- buttons are rarely available at my usual thrift store haunts. So, dear readers, if you know of some shops for me to check, please leave a comment. Or better yet, send me 20 buttons and I will send you a heart!

Here are a few of the journal covers: