Finishing a Project, Pat Pauly & a Note to my Mom

Finishing a Project, Pat Pauly & a Note to my Mom

I’ve been busy. My Zoom class: Making Waves ~ A Drawstring Bag, which was an eight week “stitch along” is concluding today. We had SO much fun! I cannot show the finished bag in this post, but I will in next week’s post when I will also launch it in my Etsy Shop. Very exciting. Oh, okay, here’s a sneak peak…

Then a couple weeks ago my friend Pat Pauly sent me some amazing hand dyed linens that she did and I was just astounded once again by her artistry. She does such beautiful work! If you have any interest in learning how to paint, stencil and mono print fabric consider taking one of her fabulous workshops. She is a terrific instructor and has a great sense of humor. Her workshops are a blast.

This one I began stitching on. I admit I was a little apprehensive at first because I didn’t want to ruin the beauty of her work, so I just added a few wool shapes and did a tiny bit of stitching in one small area using a 3 wt Soft Cotton. I will continue working on this one and may add one of the above pieces to it. Who knows!?

Oh, and did I mention how much I love Pat Pauly’s silk scarves, which she hand-dyes and sells? I wear one every day. Seriously. That’s not an exaggeration. In the YouTube Video – A Snowy New York City that I posted on Tuesday I’m wearing one and pretty much any other video I’ve posted in the past few months you can see me wearing one of them. I have a few. Okay, in truth, I have SIX. I know, I know. I totally have this under control, I promise. I do. Really.

In the above photo I’m wearing one of Pat’s silk scarves wrapped around three times AND my brand new glasses, which, wow, what a difference!! (I promised my mother a photograph of my new glasses. So here you go, Mom AND you’ll be pleased to know I’m drinking lots and lots of water. I love you.❤️)

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!!

Finishing a Project, Pat Pauly & a Note to my Mom

2020: A Year in Photographs

January: Things start off easily enough. I release my Rhino Pouch and post it in my Etsy shop.
January: Created YouTube Channel: Ariane Zurcher ~ On the Other Hand.
February 20, 2020 – Posted my first Youtube video.
March: Designed and Posted my Abstract Pouch in my Etsy Shop
Found out I’d been granted a two week artist’s residency at the Chateau D’Oquevaux. All set to go in April, 2020, only to realize that wasn’t going to happen. Rebook my air travel for July, 2020 and hope for the best.
March: New York City becomes the epicenter of the Pandemic.
March: Home sewn facemasks become a thing.
And so do empty Manhattan streets in the middle of a day during the week. Pick a day, any day, the streets were empty.
March: A sobering moment when a mobile morgue parks just blocks from our apartment. NYC is unable to keep up with the numbers of people dying from COVID. Mobile morgues like this one begin showing up all over the city to contain the overflow.
April: The eerie silence of a great city in full lock down.
May: A little pandemic humor
May: And some beauty amidst the horror
June: Stores board up their storefronts in response to the demonstrations against rampant police brutality.
June: Design and release Otter Needle Roll
July: Outdoor dining transforms the streets of New York and brings a little magic to a stir crazy populous.
July: Design and release River Rocks Pouch
August: With little else to do, I continue to design, and release my Rock Gardens Bag
August: Celebration of my 60th Birthday on our roof with a couple of socially distanced friends.
September: Visiting an empty Highline
September: Design and release eyeglasses case.
October: My improvisational stitching idea continues.
October: Design and release scissor’s case.
October: A bike ride heading downtown.
November Humor
November: Fall in New York City
December: A little snow in New York City
Finish second improvisational stitching piece: “Perseverance”
December: A quiet Christmas.

Happy New Year!

Finishing a Project, Pat Pauly & a Note to my Mom

For the Love of Pottery

When we began homeschooling (more on that here, here and here), one of the things Emma told us she wanted to do was take pottery classes.  I found a pottery studio with a wonderful teacher who, upon seeing my obvious interest, suggested I join my daughter in learning.  We began with pinch pots and working with slabs of clay that we learned to mold into various shapes.

This is one of my favorite early dishes that my daughter made.  It was screaming for a pair of my earrings. Okay, not literally, her hope dish is perfect all by itself…

AZHope

Emma’s Hope Dish with Ariane Zurcher Designs Earrings

SlabPlate

Plate made from a slab

Eventually we were introduced to the wheel and the fun really began!

As with anything, gaining any degree of confidence and skill requires practice.  So there were lots and lots of pots being made, many of them returned to the great clay graveyard to be recycled.  I decided to begin painting on the pots I was throwing and started playing with underglazes, which is a whole art in and of itself.

The first pot I painted was a collaborative effort with my talented son whose taste definitely nudges the macabre, much like his father!

NZL'sPaintedPotNZL'sPot

As a child I was surrounded by art.  My parents collected modern, pre-columbian and African art.  I was used to seeing seemingly opposites side by side, so when I saw this piece, by Picasso in the Museum of Modern Art, I was particularly struck by it.  It felt like home.

picasso-les-demoiselles-davignon-700x700

Picasso’s Les Demoiselles d’Avignon

This piece reminded me of another artist my husband and I love, Alexandra Huber.

Huber_A07-11

Alexandra Huber

I began a series called “Faces.”  As you can see, the underglaze can look quite different than the finished product!  I found that by diluting the underglaze with water I could achieve a kind of water color look, which I like.

I love the Faces series…

While I was starting the Faces series I was also falling in love with all things quilted and began drawing little sketches of things I liked, which gave me the idea to draw them on my pots too.

And then I’d go back to my Faces…

My daughter even allowed me to paint on her pots.

A few more…

A few of these are already in My Etsy Shop and many more will be added as they come out of the kiln.  However, at the moment, I’m here…

IMG_1835So all of this will have to wait until the end of the week!