I have been looking for  a while now for a way back to handwork. When you create for a living you tend to make what sells / what you have orders for, instead of simply creating for the joy of the creation. True this method keeps the kids fed but it doesn’t exactly fuel an artist soul. I have been longing for a piece that would drive me to do something I have never done before. I want to combine different forms of fiber art into one piece. I just needed the right blank canvas to start with. At my last big show of the year I think I finally found it. The piece is not new I made it several months ago, but it got hung up a different way than it had before and the new perspective spoke to me. This is a piece that I am especially excited to work with because it is one I dyed start to finish by myself. Most of our tie dyed pieces are done with myself and my husband in conjunction; he ties and I dye. But this is a solo piece tied and ice dyed by me. It is also the first time I had done multiple spirals in a piece and been pleased with the outcome.   So I have decided to “live” with it for a minute and see where it leads me. I have hung it up on the free wall of our bedroom so it is the first thing I see each day and the last each night. I am hoping that in this way I will be inspired as to where to take it from here. I know I want to quilt it with some hand embroidery…. I think I will start by creating a backing fabric , something ice dyed with gorgeous splits ….. Feel free to follow along as it becomes. I am creating a creation blog on our website and this will be my first project. I plan to show you step by step how this piece comes to life. It will be my most involved art piece to date as I hope to incorporate some of each branch of the fiber art tree that has been my life as an artist.  So, here it is in it’s beginning stages. I haven’t decided what I will call it, so for now it is just the ” Art piece “.