corned beef and cabbage

happy st. patrick's day! i had a little early luck o' the irish last weekend, when i happened be in portland for some friends' early st. patrick's day dinner. (a little head's up for vegetarians: there's a pretty meaty image at the bottom of this post). there were 2 kinds of soda bread, plain and the 'american' version with caraway seeds and raisins. both delicious.

by the way, i just saw the soda bread recipe on CRAFT, which i definitely want to try.
cabbage and potatoes, of course!and corned beef!
yum.

mandy greer 'dare alla luce' at the museum of contemporary craft

i've been a huge fan of mandy greer ever since i saw and was blown away by the silvering path last year. which by the way is on the cover of the new issue of fiber arts.
one of the things i was most excited about seeing in portland was mandy greer's installation at the museum of contemporary craft. entitled 'dare alla luce,' it was originally commissioned for the bellevue art museum last year, but i missed it then, and have been waiting to see the portland installation. i was also really looking forward to my first visit to the museum of contemporary craft, which is an amazing addition to the pacific northwest art and craft scene.

unfortunately, on sunday when i tried to go with a few crafty pals, we found out too late that they have seasonal hours (=closed on sunday as well as monday through may!) boo.

perhaps this is an excuse to make another trip to portland in april, when the museum will be holding a screening of faythe levine's new documentary 'handmade nation' , a panel discussion, and also a crochet-a-long with mandy. yup. that sounds awesome.

pie day

yesterday i had some wonderful pie from random order. it may be the best pie in portland.

road trip

i stopped for a little road trip treat.
i came into portland when the late afternoon sun was lighting up the town.
between two trips to powell's books (ahhh, wonderful powells) i had really yummy (and super healthy-organic and vegan) lunch at the blossoming lotus in portland's pearl district.

eco-earrings by cynthia del giudice

eco-earrings , originally uploaded by Cynthia Del Giudice.

i'm off to portland for the weekend, and i am so excited to see some old friends and some cool stuff.

before i leave, i wanted to share this amazing jewelry by cythina del guidice, from argentina. they are made of fused plastic grocery bags! using fused plastic to make this and that and totes and jackets has been going on for a while, but this use of the material is the best i've seen.

she sells these and other lovely jewelry in her etsy shop: http://cynthiadelgiudice.etsy.com

ipod nano sleeve

the felt ipod nano sleeve is finally up in the shop!
here are some hand felted and naturally dyed baby booties that went out today.

last chance to shop indiefixx sale

the indiefixx shop is closing it's (online) doors, and you have until sunday march 15th to save up to 50%! jen will still be running her indiefixx blog, but this is the last chance to pick up some goodies from her shop at a great price.

william kentridge: part 2

the show last night was great! and today i visited the exhibit at the henry (runs until may 3), which i highly recommend. there are prints, drawings, stereoscopes (very cool!) and multiple video installations.

his work is also on display at the greg kucera gallery until march 28th (image from the gallery website).
and what looks to be the most amazing, kentridge is also directing 'the return of ulysses', the first opera for the brand new pacific operaworks company, which includes life size puppetry by the south african handspring puppet company. wow. the first show is tomorrow night (march 11) at the moore theater in seattle, and there are also shows on march 13, 14, 20, and 21st.

william kentridge in seattle

william kentridge is one of my absolute most favorite artists of all times. from south africa, many of his artworks deal with issues of apartheid and capitalism.

he works in a variety of media, but what i find most striking is his video art, which he makes by drawing large charcoal sketches and altertering them by smudging out, erasing, redrawing, and layering. he then creates animation by photographing these drawing as he alters them. the results are stunning. he also make lovely shadow puppets.

the image above is from the henry art gallery, where an exhibit of his work is on display until may 3rd, 2009.

tonight i am going to see his performance, "I am not me, the horse is not mine:"

This performance, first presented by exhibiting artist William Kentridge at the Sydney Biennale in 2008, combines live performance, animation, narration, and a vocal and instrumental soundtrack. The work continues Kentridge’s investigation of the roots and trajectory of modernism, drawing on instances of censorship and brutal artistic repression from the Stalinist era of Russian history.

from the henry

i'm pretty sure it's going to be awesome!!

felt jewelry by belokrinitski

http://belokrinitski.etsy.com is the shop of elena belokrinitski, who was born in moscow, and moved to israel when she was 12. her designs are so sweet, including this felt jewelry!
via etsy's spotlight feature in the stork.

ricotta cheese recipe

someday i want to try this: homemade ricotta cheese, link via CRAFT. i haven't tried it yet; the photo is from the same source as the recipe: kat baro of a good appetite blog.

my mom went through a cheese making phase when i was little. i just remember slicing through the curd (?) midway through the process. and being fascinated by the texture, and process of slicing into even cubes both horizontally and vertically. strange, but i can't remember tasting the cheese at all.

anyway, this ricotta recipe looks very easy, and sounds yummy.

the wanderous

i met the dilettante/curator behind the new site the wanderous last summer at the local farmer's market, and she's posted a lovely write up about felt cafe within a larger post about felt.
the image above is my felt! and today's wanderousness post is about my pals at piano nobile and includes our collaboration.

and in an earlier post i discovered this work by arthur hash.

more brilliant felt creations from das kaninchen

i've posted about the beuys bunny by das kaninchen on this blog before. she has even more felt goodness you can see on her flickr page, including this custom order kit above, and more bunny photos below. this is still one of my all time favorite things, such a clever and well executed art history reference!

baba yaga houses by melissa sue

melissa sue made these wonderful houses inspired by baba yaga, a russian fairy tale i read when i was about 9 or 10 years old. i remember enjoying the story and being fascinated by baba yaga's house. via CRAFT.

these lovely objects are made by melissa sue, and you can buy them in her etsy shop, at http://melissasue.etsy.com.

girls' day in japan

march 3rd is girls' day in japan, celebrated with special food and doll displays. the photo above, with the full display on 7 stairs, is from ping magazine, which also has a great and in depth explanation about the dolls and the culture of the festival.and this bag was made by the super nice and talented seamstress jacqui of mee a bee. and she's giving it away! check out her blog for the details.

felt bunnies made by feltfinland

The gang, originally uploaded by feltfinland.

these adorable bunny rabbits are made by flickr user feltinfinland.

have i mentioned how much i love flickr? it's so easy to find beautiful inspiring work! since i've resolved to post here every day in march, i thought it's a good opportunity to share some flickr finds too.

march

spring plum blossom pattern on a traditional japanese tenugui towel.

i'm looking foward to a lot of things this months, including some new projects i am working on, and some healthy habits i want to keep up.

including posting everyday. the theme for nablopomo in march is giving (up), which sounds great, as i have been recently reminded that i have more belongings than i need, and i want to give them up!

bookhou in toroto

i was in toronto for a few days last month, and one of the places i made a point to visit was bookhou, a most lovely shop. their pieces made of felt, linen, gorgeous prints and elegant simple furniture are a perfect collection. and they have screen printing workshops in their attached shop, too!

happy valentines day

My heart is yours!!!, originally uploaded by hine.

this overly literal cat, from flickr user hine, is one of my favorites from the CRAFT pool tagged for the valentine's craft challenge. so clever.

(updated to add: CRAFT picked this one as a winner too!)

and on a sad note, you've probably heard by now that CRAFT magazine will stop producing their print magazine after the current (#10) issue. thankfully, they will continue to exist online at http://craftzine.com.

CRAFT is dead, long live CRAFT!

valentine's felted conversation hearts part II

more needle felted valentine's conversation hearts!and for those of you looking for supplies, i've put together a kit of supplies if you want to try making them yourself at home. it's over in my shop.
for step by step instructions, check out my previous post.