![Quilts!]()
by Ariane Zurcher | Aug 7, 2016 | Art, crafts, creative process |
Remember those “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie” books?
This is my version of that…
If you show a girl a quilt, she’s going to wonder how it’s made. When she wonders how it’s made, she’s going to take a Block of the Month class to see how it’s done. Once she’s signed up for the class, she’s going to begin making a quilt herself.
Center Block from the Flower Pots Quilt Designed By Kim McLean
When she starts to make a quilt herself, she’s going to think about how she can make it uniquely hers.
Detail of one of the Center Blocks
When she begins to make it uniquely hers, she’s going to incorporate all the stitches she learned in the Craftsy class given by Sue Spargo that she wrote about a few weeks ago on the post, Change.
Detail from Flower Pots side panel
Once she begins adding all those stitches she learned…
Almost finished Flower Pots Quilt!
she’s going to want to start designing her own blocks…
Rhino Block designed and stitched by Ariane Zurcher
…which will lead her to a two-week Artist’s workshop retreat.
The artist’s retreat will be life transforming and will give her all kinds of ideas for new pieces that she wants to design and create…
Manhole Cover at Onondaga Community College
While she marvels at all the things she’s seeing and learning she will be reminded of other things she’s already working on…
Detail from Flower Pot Quilt Border
One of those things will be manhole covers! Who doesn’t love manhole covers and if you love manhole covers, wouldn’t a quilt inspired by them be even more fabulous?!
So it’s probably best to give a girl her first quilt while she’s still very young so she has plenty of time to learn and do all of this!
Merlin overseeing the work.
Coming next week: pots! Not flower pots as in the quilt, but real pots, thrown pots, hand painted pots… gotta love pots!
![Quilts!]()
by Ariane Zurcher | Feb 11, 2015 | Art, crafts |
Last May we pulled our daughter, Emma from school and began homeschooling or non-schooling or… I’ve written more about all of this on the other blog, the one I share with my daughter: Emma’s Hope Book. One of the many benefits of homeschooling, aside from the huge relief and plummeting stress level, is that we get to explore, together and separately. The beauty in exploring is that the goal is to be curious and discover. There’s no right or wrong and there’s tremendous comfort in that. The entire process of learning becomes one of joy and experimentation without the burden or stress of feeling one should know something before having learned it.
So it was, some eight months ago when I sat down with Emma and asked her what she was interested in learning about. She typed that she wanted to learn German and take a ceramics class among a number of other things. So we bought Rosetta Stone for German and Emma began taking pottery lessons at a nearby ceramics studio. Her teacher, seeing my obvious excitement and interest, asked if I might like to make some things too. I eagerly said, “Yes, please!”
Learning anything new is full of experimenting, exploring, tweaking, practicing and refining techniques learned. To dive into something you’ve never done before can be daunting, but only if you are comparing your work to another’s. Particularly crushing is if you expect you will be able to produce something that is of similar expertise as someone who has been studying and refining their technique for decades. The exhilaration comes with the process of learning, practicing and improving. But so often we are not taught that this process is wonderful at all. In fact, we are taught that it is hard work and the end product, only produced after years of practice and toil, is all that is of value. Everything else pales in comparison.
I disagree.
This cereal bowl that Emma made for me is perfect for walking while eating. It has an indentation that perfectly fits one’s thumb while cupping the bowl in your palm. Why hasn’t anyone designed a bowl like this? I’ve never seen one before, but oh, how I love it. This is my new, favorite bowl.
My favorite cereal bowl made for me by Emma.
The platter below? “It matches” was what Emma typed in reply to my exclamation that I thought it perfect for serving cheese and crackers or maybe a brioche en croute with fresh baguette.
Emma’s Platter
This bowl that Emma made used cookie cutters and then she painted after joining all the shapes.
An Autumnal Bowl
A few months ago, or maybe it was years, (this is an aspect of getting older, the years feel like months, yet another example of that saying people tell you when you first become a parent – the days are long, the years are short) I asked Emma if she had any interest in learning to knit. She said she did, and as I love knitting (I wrote about some of that “here“) and used to design knitwear, I thought we’d start with something simple, like a scarf. Emma chose a light blue yarn. After a couple of tries, she lost interest and so I began making a long scarf using an alternating knit 2, purl 2 pattern. I rarely use knitting patterns or cooking recipes for that matter, but that’s another post. Anyway the scarf began like this.
Light blue scarf in alternating Knit 2, Purl 2 pattern with the beginning of a navy blue chenille infinity scarf in the background.
The finished scarf ended up measuring 87 inches in length and 11 inches wide. What you don’t see is the other side where I changed my mind after an inch or so and decided to make the pattern more elongated.
The Finished Scarf
This is the edge where I began knitting and decided to change the stitch. Three times. The final stitch pattern is a Knit 2, Purl 2 for three rows and then Purl 2, Knit 2 for 3 rows and repeating for the remainder of the scarf.
The I-Changed-My-Mind-Edge
I’m hoping Emma will try knitting again sometime, but in the meantime, I’ve started a couple of other projects, one is this deep blue chenille yarn that I’m knitting, using a newly learned brioche stitch, into an infinity scarf for a friend.
The makings of an infinity scarf using a brioche stitch
And finally this is one of my ceramics projects.
Pebbles in a Plate
For those familiar with my jewelry, this may remind you of something else…
Ariane Zurcher Jewelry – B26 Lotus Collection – 18 Kt Brushed Yellow Gold, 25.08 ct Pink Topaz, 2.69 ct Pink Sapphire, 12 ct Tourmaline, 2.96 ct Aquamarine, 17.21 ct Mandarin Garnet, 4.03 ct African Paraiba
by Ariane Zurcher | May 30, 2013 | Art, creative process, Jewelry |
Ariane Zurcher Jewelry ~ Juno Collection: 18 Kt Brushed Gold Earrings With Removable 18 Kt Brushed Gold Ball and Chain
On my other blog ~ Emma’s Hope Book ~ where I write about the ever evolving process of being a parent and human being and how my daughter’s autistic neurology has made me rethink everything I once thought I knew (in the best possible way), I wrote today about her perfecting a “catch” at the trapeze school she has gone to for several years. You can read the entire post ‘here‘, but that process, hours and hours of practice that led up to the video clip I attached, showing her flying through the air on a trapeze and then letting go and catching another person’s arms, looks so much easier than it actually is. So much in life is like that.
Most works of art, whether the written word, paintings, sculpture, or things we wear, took time to create. Like a terrific actor who makes the role they’re playing look believable and natural, luring us into the story so we forget this is someone acting a role from a script they’ve memorized, the most beautiful works of art make us forget there is any process at all. We have an emotional connection to the art, the hours, days, weeks and even years it may have taken to produce it, is not something we think about. But usually the process of creating is messy… in my case the creative process means metal dust gets under my fingernails. My hands, face and clothing become covered in a fine dust. So much so that once, on my way home, a friendly stranger asked, “Oh! Are you a mechanic?” There was a trade school for mechanics across the street and no doubt she assumed I must work or teach there.
So I want you to see where I go everyday. Welcome to my studio! This work bench is one of two, where I make the models of designs I’ve created, sometimes from a sketch, sometimes from wax I’ve carved or hot wax I’ve shot from a gun, sometimes I just start playing around and things happen, things I hadn’t intended. Often what I visualize in my mind isn’t at all what I end up creating. Other times it is exactly what I visualized. But the actual process is always similar. I have to sit at that bench and work to create anything. Michael Crichton once said that to become a best-selling author, he had to sit down and actually write. He used a commercial airline pilot as an example. He said, “If I am due to pilot a plane filled with people, I can’t say, “You know, I’m not really in the mood to fly today. Let’s reschedule.” I love that! So yeah… I have to show up and do the work…
This is one of a half-dozen sketch books I have. I always carry a sketch book, a pencil and an eraser with me. As you can see, I made lots of notes and drew pretty detailed sketches for what I wanted to create.
Ariane Zurcher Jewelry ~ Juno Collection: 18 Kt Brushed Gold Orbs Strung on 22 Kt Gold Chain With 18 Kt Brushed Gold AZ Logo Box Clasp
The finished product ~ an 18 Kt Brushed Gold Necklace with Hand Fabricated Box Clasp took a number of tries before it looked like this! And in the process I went a little box clasp crazy. I made a square box clasp, an oval box clasp, a rectangular box clasp, a small circle box clasp, a medium-sized circle and a large circle box clasp, I even made a box clasp with a false bottom that no one would see except the wearer.
I’ll have to devote a post to box clasps one day, they are a beautiful thing!
This Labradorite necklace with gold “bead” began as a sketch on the page opposite the sketches of the clasp. It went from pencil sketch to this…
And eventually ended up worn like this in Italian Vogue!
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