December 4 Reception at Artist in Residence

Kelee: Cow Skeletons and Aliens in The Cave of Legends; Or Screen Printing T-Shirts

We've been meaning to make some The Flying Disc t-shirts ever since we opened our Record and Coffee Shop back in 2004. After a six year blur of latte making, record alphabetizing, guitar string ordering, baby birthing, relocating, and coffee drinking, we ordered a DIY t-shirt printing kit all of a sudden a month or so ago. We ordered it from this company online (screenprintingsupplies.com) because it's owned by a person, because the kits come with everything you need to get started (except shirts) and because the kits come with instructional dvds.
The process started here at the computer where Ben spent many creative hours getting the design exactly right. Mostly by emailing my old friend Greg from EIO Design and getting him to do the design work. I'd highly recommend Greg's design skills except I don't want him to be too busy doing your design work that he doesn't have time to work on our next idea.

Ben emails.

Then Ben set up the sweatshop/workshop in the laundry corner/garment corner of the basement/The Cave of Legends Recording Studio and Screenprinting Workshop.

He poured out some pink gunk from one container into another.

He smeared it onto a screen.
Ben centered the shirt on the centered-shirt holder.
With a swiftness unable to be captured with even the best cameras available,
he printed the shirts.
Curing.
Cleaning the screen.
First designs made!
The Flying Disc family cutes up the shirts.
For sale!
Hanging next to records.
Second Design.
Cow bones.

Alison: For my 16 year old (!) daughter

I made this today from photos I took while visiting my daughter in Germany. She turned 16 recently and is just an amazing person. I have been so fulfilled sharing a life with her. Here you go, Zee!

Showtime

Hats.

Dolls.

Crafty shows.

We will be at the Enosburg Opera House November 12, from 9 a.m. - 2 p.m.

Come visit us!

Kelee: Fall in Vermont Necklaces

Fall in Vermont is just as amazing as it's reputation suggest. Here, it is it's own season all unto itself. With it's own food and own traditions. The nights are chilly. The sky is blue, unless it's gray. The leaves are colored. Really colored.

I can think of two different trees that noticeably changed colors in the Mississippi Delta (not counting those weird Bradford Pears everyone went all hot and heavy over a few years back). Not two types of trees, but two specific trees. One was on the side of a cotton field on Old Carter Road between Yazoo City and Silver City. The other was in front of a white house in Isola. I'd always heard of people traveling to Vermont to leaf peep, but I never understood the concept.

“Yall are going to fly all the way to Vermont to look at colored leaves? But you can just drive down Old Carter Road and see that pretty yellow tree. Then imagine there are a bunch of them. Besides, it's cotton season.”

 A cotton field is lovely all to itself – white as far as the eyes can see in all directions and a fine, snowy dust of DDT falling from cropdusters flying overhead. Combines littering the side of the roads with fallen white cotton like flower girls preparing the aisle for a bride. And for what the leaves lack in color, the fall Delta sunsets make up for. I remember one year where the sunsets were almost overwhelming in their beauty. My father explained to me that is was because the light was reflecting off of the ash from a volcano that had erupted in South America and probably killed or maimed lots of people. Ah, the romanticized notions of a young schoolgirl. Crushed.

But fall in Vermont is a celebration of color. An explosion. Like Mother Nature ate a big box of colors and then threw up over everything. I hadn't really thought of it, but I'd sort of assumed that when leaves changed colors, they did it all at once. On a per leaf basis, however, they change over time. 

So one leaf can be half summer green and half brilliant red. Often in a tie-dyed pattern that could put the hippiest hippies to shame. Seriously, this is why the hippies hate fall. What?!

The intensity of the color was also surprising. The red is not a hint of red or tinted red.

It's Transvestite Lipstick Red. 

The yellow is, um, the color of something that is like totally yellow.

And the green is somehow different from spring green but every bit as bold. 

It all seems more fleeting than spring, Ponyboy. These leaves so vibrant and red one day, are crunchy and brown the next. I guess we could get all metaphory about spring and fall and birth and death, but my husband has been forcing me to watch the original Star Trek series and my metaphoring abilities have become as squinting as Captain Kirk's eyes.

When I walk my kids to school or on the various other exciting outings (bank, post office, and library) around the Village of Enosburg Falls, I am blown away by the colors. Every day it's different and lovely in its own way. Otto and I took a walk in the rain with the camera to gather these pictures, except the one of Kirk, of course. That's Otto by the fountain with his Perry the Platypus umbrella.

And, finally, nature inspired me to make art!

New polymer necklaces inspired by the colors of fall in Vermont.

Nature is so bold this time of year. It's only natural to want to celebrate it by adorning your neck with the same boldness.

Isn't it?

Yes, totally natural.

Now, go image search "fall in Vermont" and be amazed at the big picture of the gorgeosity of the big picture. Or better yet, come see it for yourself.

Alison: Hello Doll-y

I've been making girly dolls. The thought process took a lot longer than the making process, I must admit - especially the what to wear part. The fabric for the dresses is light, airy and beautiful. Nearly all of it came from Delectable Mountain Fabrics in Brattleboro, VT. The bottom layer on the blonde doll is a fine linen from Leipzig, Germany where my daughter is spending her sophomore year of high school.

I've decided to rip the fabric along the grain. I love the unfinished look - I have a tendency to get too tight with my work sometimes and I want to keep loose with this series.

These three dolls are hanging around the living room naked. This group is made of natural colored linen. The blonde hair is vintage linen and the black hair is silk. The doll above is a tribute to Patti Smith.I just read her book about her relationship with Robert Mapplethorpe. It was an inspirational read. I must admit I don't know her work, other than what is in the book "Just Kids," but I love her sensitivity and her devotion to art.

• • •

While in the ripping fabric mood, I made a skirt out of fabric I HAD to have from Nido in Burlington, Vermont. 

I ripped a piece to about knee length, sewed three channels 1/2" wide and threaded 3/8" elastic through the channels. The fabric is a soft cotton. I will wear the skirt with leggings. Lying in bed at night I was thinking of ripping the skirt in 4 vertical places and placing triangular insets - to make the skirt more full at the base. I'll try that with the next one.

Kelee: Making and Selling Crochet Hats

I love making hats. It is the perfect marriage between relaxing and being productive. Like weeding a garden, playing solitaire, or picking up pecans. Although, I supposed playing solitaire isn't really productive, but it feels like it satisfies the same portion of the brain. Mindless mindful work. Mindful mindless work. Where concentrating meets zoning out. And at the end of it, you end up with a hat. Plus, I get to watch tv while I work. Or I crochet while I'm at work at my "real job."

I mostly sell the hats that I make in our coffee shop (hence the quotation marks around the phrase "real job"). Since we sell a little bit of everything and we live in Vermont where hat season stretches out over eleven months, it does not seem too odd. Either that or our customers are just as odd as our store is. Because my small town is so small and there are just so many heads in need of hats, I'd like to sell hats online, but I find the whole process to be rather daunting. The sizing of hats seems so personal. I've seen adults buy hats that fit snugly on my six-year-old, and that was back when she was three. She says her head is so big because she can remember everything. Plus, all the photographing and editing and uploading and describing and whatnot. I'd rather be crocheting.

I bought a big batch of yarn from Knit Picks recently. I got all the colors of Wool of the Andes in Bulky that were available at the time, and I used it all up just making hats. It was super fun. I did lots of stripes, some solids, and a few pompoms. Then I made my family sit still for hat portraits.

Now I'm going to sell them at the Harvest Festival on September 12th or so in Lincoln Park in Enosburg Falls. Does that sound too optimistic? Let's try again. These hats and many more will be for sale at the Harvest Festival on September 12th or so in Lincoln Park. After that, the remainders be at The Flying Disc. If I can undaunt the selling of them online, I'll put them in my etsy shop, too.

Also, I've tried for longer than I care to admit to get the pictures on this blog to line up nicely in a row. I give up. Check out more of them on our flickr page where they line up in an orderly fashion.