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Second round of voting and then the floors.

Some of you may know that I am competing in a contest to win the spot on the cover of the magazine The Craft Report" it is an industry magazine devoted to all business concerning art and craft shows and it is distributed throughout the USA. The voting is being conducted through Facebook in elimination rounds and I won in my "heat" with (drum roll) 491 LIKES!!!!! The next round of elimination voting is tomorrow. for 24 hours the polls are open and if I win, I will go on to be one of the four finalists competing for the cover. This whole experience has given me a little insight into what it takes to get elected. It is not enough to have friends, you have to have friends who vote and who are willing to help you win by sharing your message with their friends. The sharing is key. Not all friends will vote, but by sharing you can get other peoples' friends to vote and hopefully create a tsunami, a ground swell of support to push you to the top. I have been humbled and I am grateful for all the support I have received thus far and I hope you will continue to support me by going to the link www.facebook.com/CraftsReport. Tomorrow Friday, June 29,  after 11 am and "Liking" and "Sharing".  Look for my image, of my lovely assistant Monica in the Red Micro Coat. 

This is a seamless nuno felted, coat, hat and gauntlets. I used vintage silks and silk chiffon. The collar is a piece of lace from the lingerie designer Damaris Evans.

LOWELL LOFT UPDATE

In a recent conversation with daughter, who lives in Montana, I was discussing the trials and tribulations of loft living, my daughter chastised me, "Mom, ( be sure to draw the syllable out when repeating) you were supposed to experiment with the bohemian life style when you were young, brilliant and energetic" To which I responded, "I know, now I am doing it when I am old, bordering senility, and exhausted" Yes, there is a reason for youth.  Despite the constant feeling of living in the midst of a yard sale, I am making progress and making felt.   The image on the left is two new shawls drying on top of my new felting table, complete with a gutter to drain excess water. The table was created by Andrew Courtney of Red Hammer Builders. I love it and it is working very well.

Upon moving into our new loft it became apparent quickly that something had to be done to the floors. They are in deplorable condition and an endless source of rusty dust! It gets on and into everything. Though we were assured that the floors were sealed, it seems that washing and vacuuming accomplishes nothing. SO we begin the saga of "How do you refinish concrete floors?" Not cheaply it seems.

After many meetings, and back forth e-mails between tenants, the consensus, was scrub with a wire brush, till your back and arms ache, add water, wet-vac, and then paint or stain using an acrylic product. You then stand back and watch patches detach themselves, because you didn't get up all the grit. The good news is that the peeling paint lifts the grit and the subsequent touch up holds up nicely.

I decided to use a pale gray, to brighten up the space, as the only light source is from the windows at the front of the space. I love the color, it is called Arctic white and it is a Behr product. Our space is very large a little of 1600 sq ft. and because we have to move all our stuff around to accomplish the herculean task, we broke it up into thirds. Of course, most people would have logically started with the area that was furthest from the door and go forward from there, but remember I am bordering on senility, so naturally we started with the third that is closest to the door, the kitchen area.

A weekend of scrubbing, two coats of paint and suddenly I realized that this gorgeous light color was a dirt and stain magnet. Rather than totally repaint I thought I would try my hand at a little decorative painting. I got the idea from my good friend Andrea Garr who owns a delightful store in the south end of Boston, Bead + Fiber. This look is accomplished by taking a painting roller and wrapping duct tape at intermittent intervals. I am rather pleased with the result, but I am going to confine the technique to just the kitchen area as I will be putting out area rugs in most other areas, with the exception of my studio, where I work with water, I will leave the floor as is.

Thank you to all who read this blog and thank you to all who vote tomorrow.

Happy Felting.