Calamity Kim

In Love with Julie Whitmore's Pottery

I recently found a potter over at Flickr that makes the most magical things from clay that I have ever seen. If I could make pottery I would try to make things the way she does. It's almost as if she looked in my heart and saw what I desired most and then created it from clay, fired and glazed it! 

The Fantastic Mr Fox with a home for a handle is on the look out for chicken tenders and pies left cooling on window sills, unattended.

Her name is Julie Whitmore and I wish we were neighbors! I can see myself coming over to her house to have a cup of tea and chatting about aprons and flowers and me admiring her work and trying to talk her into making a gnome cup or maybe a gnome with a Chinese lantern like this rabbit out for an evening stroll.

I love the way the clay is still very raw- not overworked and smooth. I like the imperfections and earthiness. Julie's figures come to life as she paints their features and some of the Farm Girls seem about to speak or smile as I longingly stare at their faces, waiting for them to show that they are real and alive.

Flowers grow off handles and when she makes beads and birds I want to laugh out loud with delight!

Barn owls are some of my favorites and their heart shaped faces are so sweet- especially when rendered in clay.

They remind me of Beatrix Potter and Tasha Tudor illustrations, except in 3 dimensions. I can't wait to see what she adds to her Etsy shop and I actually have her on my toolbar bookmarked to see when she adds something new. I usually get there too late to actually buy anything but I have hope that someday I will be in time to find a perfect little something waiting for me.

Something sweet and whimsical and happy.

Something about tea parties and fresh, clean laundry on the line; drying in the warm sunshine that brings back memories of my childhood.

That's me, by the sea with my favorite hand painted parasol. No, not really, but it is in my imagination. Taking a stroll by the sea with a fish for a handle and nibbling scones from the nest plate while rabbits look on as they smell buttercups. That's where my mind will be today as I go about the house getting the bed made and folding laundry, I will be daydreaming of Julie's pottery and wishing I had a cupboard full of it!

That's part of the joy of the internet- to be able to find artists all around the world who create things that are beautiful and enhance the lives of others with their work. Having tea or putting jam on toast isn't just the mundane task or dull routine when the tea is sipped from a mug like this:

or a jam pot like that:

So, bookmark Julie's Blog and make her Etsy shop a Favorite and keep an eye out on her Flickr but be warned- she will steal your heart and you won't get it back anytime soon!

All photos are by Julie Whitmore and used with her kind permission.

Thanks Julie for a virtual day at the farm. I feel refreshed and able to go do some work now.

xo,

calamity kim

eatin table

eatin table, originally uploaded by danny mansmith.

checking out some friends photos on flickr led me to Danny's dining room where I would love to "hang around" and watch the artful happenings and enchanting exchanges.
He surrounds himself with textures and colors all meant to whet the appetite for creativity and thoughtful self expression.

 

His latest creation, an offering bowl filled with color and rusty nails has me coming back for more views of this spiritual container that says "objects inside are precious and meant to be honored".

Danny inspires me with his artful life and work...check his etsy to get some for yourself.

explored calamity

explored calamity, originally uploaded by calamity kim.

Today is the first of May and this year seems to be on roller skates; whizzing by at the speed of a 6 year old, high on twinkies!
Personally I like my years to be at a pace of grannies on walkers....slow and careful- not fast and reckless!
Scheesch! It doesn't matter what I want or am comfortable with, it is the way it is and the world spins the same as it always has- it's just my perception of how fast (or slow) it's turning.
I was at the eye Dr a few weeks ago and requested regular glasses- not bi-focals because I never could quite see clearly through them. Well, now I have great driving glasses but had to continue wearing my old glasses for typing on the computer or cooking or anything requiring close vision- if I wash the dishes in the new pair, my plates look like ovals and while I enjoy the occasional optical illusion, all day, it's pretty tiring.
So, yesterday I spent the day organizing and cleaning up my "paper" room. Today I am happy to just sit and quilt, but it's really too early to tell, what the day might bring.
I want to finish the table runner, the tea cozy and maybe even a mixer cover. The toaster doesn't do much work around here so it only makes an appearance when it's needed!
I just wanted to share some of my photographs that have been featured on Flickr's Explore.
Lynn made a poster like this last week and I finally got around to it myself.
Please click on the picture and then click the links below the picture to see the small thumbnails in a larger size. If ya wanna.
I am planning on posting about the nuno felting workshop and what I did with one of my samples soon.
Happy Uno de Mayo!!!
xo,
ck

sew much drama

sew much drama, originally uploaded by Bent Objects.

This guy is amazing!
Check out his Blog at Bent Objects

Red Riding Hood Papercut :)

Red Riding Hood Papercut :), originally uploaded by Elsita (Elsa Mora).

Another work of art by Elsa Mora

And speaking of red- that reminds me... Did you see this by Andrea of Badbird? available at Etsy

Be sure to download her new  FREE (how sweet is that?) embroidery pattern- I hope she does a mermaid to go with it (for next month- hint, hint!)

The Game

The Game, originally uploaded by calamity kim.

There is a game going round Flickr....
Copy the answers to these questions in Flickr's search bar and then copy the url of a photo from the resulting first page. Then go to Big Huge Labs and make a mosaic.
Looks like some fun to me!

What are the questions??? Oh, yeah: What is your first name? Kimberly 2. What is your favorite food? Pasta 3. What high school did you go to ? Sarasota High 4. What is your favorite color? Aqua 5. Who is your celebrity crush? John Cusack 6. Favorite drink? Sweet tea 7. Dream vacation? Hawaii 8. Favorite dessert? Crème Brule 9. What you want to be when you grow up? Artist 10. What do you love most in life? Time to create 11. One Word to describe you. Imaginative 12. Your flickr name. calamitykim c'mon! It's fun!

Top 10 Most Interesting Pictures From My Flickr Account

I posted this picture of FiFi's kitchen from a magazine layout on Nov 16, 2006 and it has been viewed 3,372 times and is my most "interesting" picture.
 That seems somehow ironic to me. I didn't take the photograph, nor is it in my home.
 I have 8,198 pictures in Flickr that have been viewed 78,175 times.
This is listed as second most interesting.
 I did take the picture but it features the doll quilt I received
in the last Doll Quilt Swap and was made by Christie of Pigeon Pair in Australia.
Third interesting is another photo of FiFi's kitchen from a different mag article.
It has 1,650 views since Nov 27, 06.
4th in interestingness is the red work embroidery details of a doll quilt I made last year in May.
 I used a pattern from Vicki at Pattern Bee that so perfectly shows Alice and her friends having tea. Finally something that everyone finds interesting and is one of my creations!
5th is my sewing room before we painted and put in a new floor. It has been viewed 1,103 times.
#6 is yoyo's that I made and made into a garland.
#7 returns us to FiFi's house with her lovely backyard deck.
 I can't blame anyone- I would be so happy to just be a periwinkle planted in her flower bed so that I could live out my life in glorious shabby chic heaven.
#8 is this all wool fantasy flower garden pincushion that I made (and later sold on Etsy). It looks almost like a chair but has a white trellis in the center covered with flowers and vines all painstakingly cut from felt and hand sewn on. I could see it in my mind and had to make it. I love wool felt very much and enjoy making pincushions, though I haven't made one in a while.
#9 is the yoyo garland in action with some cute paper houses on our mantle.
Last but not least is the Giving Tree pincushion I made for a swap.
 It is also made from wool felt and has shrinky dink gnome pins that I also made.
 So there are my top 10 most Interesting Photos from Flickr.
 It sort of surprises me that I have so many pictures- I think it's because with digital you can just click away! Someday I will go through and sort them out and remove some- I couldn't possibly need all of them! But as long as Flickr has no limits them neither do I!
I am really enjoying the doll quilt swap discussions- I don't usually participate, but have made some friends there and it's fun to chat or stop by and leave comments.
 It's a lot more fun than my Doll Quilt Group which someone asked if it was dead.
 That kind of hurt my feelings but didn't surprise me.
I get all caught up and excited about things and then just slowly fade away. It's not that my interest is waining but that I have just gotten caught up in something else!
I love to make aprons, dolls, pincushions, doll quilts, pies, and paper dolls.
If you visit my pictures on Flickr through those links provided,  feel free to leave a comment or look in my other Groups and Explore.
In fact if you do a search in Flickr (using the search bar) you can find pictures tagged with just about everything possible.
Have fun and don't get lost...sometimes I set the stove timer so that I will be reminded when an hour is up just so that I can avoid spending hours and hours on there.
Oh, that's not quite true. I usually shut off the timer and go back for just one more!
Flickr also has an Explore category and it has some of the most interestingly beautiful and haunting photos I have ever seen. Try it. You'll like it.
have a happy Saturday!
love & stitches,
calamity kim

Celina

Celina, originally uploaded by Elsita (Elsa Mora).

This is from Elsita (Elsa Mora) on Flickr...Good Morning and happy Monday!
I have so much to get done today!
I am going to go walk first and enjoy the morning while it is still cool...
I thought you might enjoy some of Elsita's flower girls.
Please click on the picture to transport to Flickr to view more of her lovely work.
Have a Great Day!
Love & Stitches,
Calamity Kim

Visit Elsita's Blog here

Danny Ponders Pending Mending

Over at Flickr there is a whole world of Art waiting to be found.
One Artist that I especially admire is Danny Mansmith.

He lives in Chicago and creates the coolest ART.
He hung these red thrift store ties on a wire fence with his friend Cathi and it is Art. Maybe a joke, too, as they have $1.00 price tags on them. Are they saying that anything can be Art?
Something Highbrow about Conformity and Businessmen, daily grind, not Living An Artful Life?
Who knows what they were laughingly saying as they hung each tie and what the people walking by said as they watched.
In the City, I can imagine that they have seen it all and probably didn't think anything of it. Christo has led the way.

His Studio is hung with strings and hundreds of clothespins and his work literally covers the walls.
Fabulous faces, figures, clothing, art quilts created with layers of paper and fabric and lost and found bits of ephemera from his life.

I think I have a favorite until I see the next picture.
I want to save them all in my Favorites and visit them again and again. No, I am not an Art Stalker, I just really like your work. He can paint with his sewing machine. His thread is drawing a picture, each line depicting movement or expression so perfectly.

I imagine walking by his Studio, wrapped in my woolen coat and scarf and stopping to admire the artistic scene displayed there.

I go inside and turn slowly and try to absorb it all.

Clothes pins hit my head as I duck under a few low hanging lines.

I smile as I imagine wearing one of his garments.

His drawings are elegant in their simplicity and haste.

The fingers say volumes.

Expressive.

Danny Mansmith says it with Scraps of fabric and paper and threads.


So, I saw a picture of him and it said wait, I can be something else.
I printed it (ran out of yellow, must use Black & White) onto a sheet of fabric and away to the sewing room.
Before I could stop myself.
Before I could think about what I was doing.
The right Brain saying we are all Connected.
Flickr has made that true for me.

I have friends everywhere.
We gather in Groups and share our pictures like happy, excited kids on a playground trading baseball cards.
Leaving comments of encouragement and love.
Yes, Love.
I see images that are so beautiful it is painful.
To allow myself the time to explore other peoples lives.
Gasp at their talent.
Allow it to Inspire me to Grow and become better at my "Crafting Art".

Nervously taking the pictures and showing them on Flickr to Danny- Will he laugh and think its crap?  Politely say, I just don't have the room...?

My self doubt nags as I do it anyway. Unsolicited Artwork, forcing someone else to take what I have made because I wanted to make it!

No, I had to make it. 

I couldn't start what I needed to be doing until I did actually make this!

Am I crazy? Seems so.

Letting my Right Brain take over to the brink of insanity.

I will just make and make and send it out all over God's Creation. Whether you want it or not.

Put it in the closet! Under the sofa; line the birdcage. I don't care. It's my Art Therapy and you are gonna get some!

Too simple and country girl?
Will he get how I see him with a cloud of sewing notions swimming in his noggin?
His wrapped binding idea put to use around the edge.
I wanted to try it.
That's my excuse.

I couldn't rest until I had done a small quilt with the edge that way.
I don't even know enough about Couture to know if this is Innovative and unique or a standard?
I only know that I have only seen Danny use it on Flickr on the edges of his work.
For me, it is extremely fresh and exciting.
Not to bind with bias tape and allow freedom of the edges.
Art quilts are allowed to be untraditional and I have seen many with edges that have shapes like rectangles and circles and rods shooting off from the body of the quilt...but they were still bound very traditionally.

I love to imagine things deconstructed- the lining showing in gaps in the seams. Tattered and shattered and falling apart.
Like some old-fashioned dress manikin with a forgotten gown, decaying in the heat-freeze of Seasons passing.
In the attic, tulle filled with dust, glass glitter dark with age.

On Flickr I can find that and more.

I wish I could have gone to Danny's Big Sale last weekend. I bet it was Amazing!!!!

I want him to be successful.

I wish him all the best.

I want him to be on Project Runway. He would so rock as a competitor!

I think he should be in magazines- hello Threads!!

Or Quilting Arts!!! Hello!!

See this very talented Artist??

Imagine the Giant Neon Arrow pointing from above to his Shop! So, go visit  Danny at Flickr or his Blog or his Etsy Shop. Dream. Imagine. Share. Explore. Create. Stop Being Afraid. Just Do It. Make a Mess. Live an Artful Life. Start Today in some small way.

Pollen Girl.

Pollen Girl., originally uploaded by Elsita (Elsa Mora).

This is how I feel today.

Check out her Blog here.

Why can't I be a bee? Check out her ETSY Shop here.

Whites

Whites, originally uploaded by Knitting Iris.

This was created from Flickr photos by Knitting Iris. Click on it to see more. White is so clean and pure. I like to tea-dye most white fabrics...can't resist aging it sometimes...This morning Sherry from Hunny Bunny gave me link to a wonderful place I had never seen and I loaded up on some of the free collage images available after you sign in with your name and email address. Thank you Sherry, for giving me a cup of joy this cloudy, gray morning!
I am blissfully heading back into my sewing room to make another pair of linen calendar pants. The first pair is too small.

I also have fabrics laid out for several smock aprons.
Yesterday I made a groovy Moon bag for Deb at Picasso's Moon.

I didn't get pictures- maybe next time.

It's LOST Thursday. *sigh*

barbie soup

Amanda sent this  link to me.
I had to share it.
Really.
That's funny.

It wouldn't be much of a meal though, would it?

photo by sfbamaboy at Flickr

middleroad

middleroad, originally uploaded by sfbamaboy.

ever have one of those days?

This is Jenn's Sugar Plum Fairy Dining room...

Sugar plum dining room, originally uploaded by twinkle twinkle shabby star.

Look at Twinkle Twinkle Shabby Star's house!!! She is taking part in Karla's Party themed: "What I Love about my Holiday Home". Click on this picture to see more on Flickr. Now, that will give ya a real bad case of Christmas Cooties!

Visiting with The Artist Known As Princess Tat of Tinkle Shed

I don't know what Art is, but I know it when I see it.  I could be a good Blogger and look that up in Google and give credit to the right person (probably Yogi Berra) but I am too lazy. [(*edited* or just too stupid- I realized that I was taking something out of context- this isn't about porn- there's no fabric pictures here, or George Clooney in the nude  or Gerard Butler, sorry ladies!) ] Yep.  That's right, no time for excuses today.   
I am not gonna say I'm tired or still not quite awake.
I am just begging your indulgence for the moment.
There are more important things to share.
I was over at Flickr, wandering around and "researching" as I like to call it, when I came across an Artist's work that made me forget what I was doing and look at all her pictures.  I only know her name so far and will try to find out more- like if she has a Blog or sells her work... But first I must share with you some of the creative work she does. I am using pictures from her account so keep that in mind as to photographic credits. Like this great image of someone ever so politely sipping her cuppa. Perhaps she is using it as a moment to collect her wits before responding to an absurd question from the photographer. Do you care for flies in your honey? Or on your table?

She describes this picture by saying that she has inherited a lot of linens and is enhancing them with flies, bugs, ants and wants to do a series with "pithy" remarks. So British. So funny. She has a great wit. It comes out in her work. I don't know what to show next- one picture is more lovely than the next. But this one with quilts drying in the trees does me in. I have to sit still as my eye darts quickly all around then at last settles on the colorful patches sewn together. Moving slowly over to the other.
The dappled sunlight creating shadows and the grass where I know wee gnomes are hurrying about their daily routines collecting acorns and grass to weave into hats...see, back there in the tall grass? This is best viewed large over at her Flickr site and I will link you up with Princess Tat of Tinkle Shed but just let me show you a few more things. You have time, don't ya? To languish for a moment in some visual decadence? The color and texture juxtaposing (I have the dictionary out today) ( how do you say Juxtaposition without sounding like a pompous ass?) to create a new image- Princess Tat uses a lot of found materials and recycles them into whimsical  funny expressions of  children's minds. Like this series:

"A tiny monster, in bed, lets his imagination run riot. He conjures up ghosts and creatures but happily they are friendly";  reads her description.
There is more.
I love the softness of the felt and the simplicity of the creatures but the complexity of color just sends me running to my happy place. I recognize plastic bear eyes used backwards. I must be too staid and conformist because I have never thought of that. Of all the eyes I gave to bears, dolls and rabbits over the years. It NEVER occurred to me to use the other side, which is by far the more interesting view. Then we have this side of her work:

Knitted carrier bags made into chair covers. Y'all know I admire any kind of knitting so much, because I don't know how. But, this kills two birds. Recycling and knitting and a cozy cover that would be waterproof and easily cleaned! Back to the garden for some more luscious color... I glance at the clock and an hour has just passed.
Flickr can transport me anywhere and in this case it's the English country side.

I am entranced.
I am missing Martha Stewart's Show.

I am not feeding the dog or giving her a bath or doing chores or starting a new doll for the Mrs Blathersby's theme at eBay...I am enjoying the moment, seeing the world through Princess Tat's eyes.

Click here to visit Amanda Goode's Flickr Account.

Again, my world has opened up a bit larger and I am inspired by others.

Rock on Princess Tat Goode.

juggling-with-words-by Suana Verelst

juggling-with-words-, originally uploaded by amimotoys.

I found this at Flickr- Please go visit this Artist's Blog - she is awesome!

Suana  also sells stuffed toys at Etsy

Martha's Vineyard June 2006 by Cindy from "Romantic Home"

Martha's Vineyard June 2006, originally uploaded by Romantic Home.

Wandering around Flickr can transport you to the most wonderful places...wouldn't you love to have a cup of tea on this porch? For more fun check out Cindy's Blog

Cindy's Photos from Romantic Home on Flickr

Cindy's Photos, originally uploaded by Romantic Home.

Something to make your eyes sparkle from Cindy at Romantic Home on Flickr

Cindy's Cottage Style Bedroom

My  Cottage Style Bedroom, originally uploaded by Romantic Home.

How about this lovely dream space? I am in love with the banner made from handkerchiefs- the light shines through and makes a shabby chic stained glass effect. Sweet use of the window frame also....and the plates..Did you go see her Blog yet?