San Diego Fun

San Diego is a fun city with a variety of things to do. In a few days I managed to visit the Contemporary Art Museum and saw a very interesting beaded color field exhibit by Liza Lou, Gaslamp District, Little Italy, Old Town, and Balboa Park. I also stopped at Crate and Barrel outlet store and bought a 8 yards of Marimekko fabric.

I spent a day exploring Balboa Park and some of the museums and the IMAX theater.

This was the view I saw as I walked into the park.

The architecture was truly impressive. I spent half of the day looking up.

I got some nice photos of the lily pond and gigantic koi.

 This huge sculpture of a dragon is located outside of the Mingei Museum. It's constructed with concrete and covered with tile and marbles. They allow visitors to climb on it. Quite surprising.

This is Spanish Village Arts Center. It has 30 or 40 talented artists with little studios throughout. It's a very charming area.

 Another stop was Old Town. They are definitely getting ready for the Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) celebration on November 2nd.

 There were plenty of skeletons everywhere I went. They are quite beautiful with very elaborate costumes.

These two had a whole story line and wedding in progress.

Felting and Stitching

I'm such a lucky girl. My good friend Susan Italo gifted me with some of her hand dyed wool for felting AND hand spun yarn. She dyes her own wool and then spins it gorgeous yarn. Truly amazing.

Look at the great items I scored in her yearly studio clean out. I'll use this wool in hand felting projects. I don't know what I'll do with these gorgeous bits yet, but for now they are happy living with the rest of my stash.      

I'm not sure if it's the jabbing with a sharp object or the rhythm that I enjoy, but I think hand felting is pretty relaxing.

Here's a piece that I just finished hand stitching on. It will be a postcard once I add the backing and finish the edges.

Here is one of my Photo Note Cards that I've added to my Etsy shop. There are 25 different cards, all of them are 5 x 7".

Etsy Store is Open!

Yay . . . the Etsy site is up and running. So far, I have the half yard pieces of dyed fabric and some fiber art postcards listed. I still have quite a bit more fabric and dyed silk scarves to get listed. I'll also be selling 25 different Photo Note Cards.

The store name is JudyRysdesigns. If you want to take a look, you can click on the name and it will bring you to the Etsy store. I'll be working on Photo Note Cards this afternoon, so they should be live tomorrow. Thanks for looking and let me know what you think.

Black and White Photography

Lately, there have been several photographers showing black & white photos at my camera club. They brought me way back to my college days and inspired me to convert some of my photos to black and white. Here are a couple that I think turned out pretty well.

 This calla lily was shot in a shaded area of my backyard.

Lake Los Caneros is a beautiful place to go for a walk.

Pepper Jelly Anyone?

Something had to be done with all the ripe jalapeno peppers in our garden and the best solution I came up with was Pepper Jelly.

My tolerance for spicy food is sort of on the low side and I don't eat much sugar, so I won't be eating this, but I'm sure my husband will love it. He has been away this week for work so he hasn't tasted it yet. The recipe uses 2 red and 2 green peppers and 10 jalapenos. I left all the seeds in this batch and I'm too chicken to taste it to see how spicy it turned out.

Tomorrow, I'm going to make another batch and leave only half of the jalapeno seeds in. That level of spiciness may be better for most people. I think I'll chop the peppers a little smaller for the next batch.

Anybody have any other ideas of what to do with a lot of jalapenos? My plants keep growing.

Jelly making was my break from posting information on Etsy. It's going pretty well but I have a question and I'm waiting to hear back from them. I should have the site up and running tomorrow.

I'll keep you posted.

Fremont Street Experience

Here are some photos from the Fremont Street Experience light show in Las Vegas. I took so many great shots, it was difficult to narrow my choice down to a four.

 This photo gives you an idea of the overhead canopy where the light show is taking place. See those dark shapes that look like trees. There are a bunch of them that run along the tunnel like canopy and provide the power to the 12.5 million LED lights.

Yep, that's right, 12.5 million lights lit up overhead at one time and constantly changing. And music too! It was pretty amazing.

The designs that flashed by were incredible. I can't believe how well my camera photos came out. I guess there was plenty of light available. haha

There was a different light/music show every hour that lasted about 10 minutes. We were there for 3 different shows. There are 3 or 4 stages set up under the canopy with free concerts going on, and a bunch of casinos, restaurants and stores. Plenty to things to keep you entertained for an evening.

Search Dog Foundation

A good friend of mine told me about the Search Dog Foundation a couple of years ago and I've been a supporter ever since. I'm really impressed with the work they are doing and how many lives are being saved. These dogs are highly trained to find LIVING people among rubble and chaos. As you can imagine, they get shipped to every disaster around the world.

If I'm ever stuck in a bad situation, I want these dogs looking for me.

If you want to learn more about the Search Dog Foundation, click here.

Hand-Dyed Fabric for Sale

As you know, I've been busy dyeing a lot of fabric lately. I've decided to share some of my gorgeous fabric with the world and have begun selling it. If you you see something you love and just can't live without it, send me an email and we'll work out the details. I'm pretty close to getting all the photos and details finalized for my Etsy Shop but I thought I would give you an idea of what is coming.

Fabric 3: Gorgeous Sateen Fabric, MX Dyes, Fat Half (22" x 36") $12.00

Fabric 4: Gorgeous Sateen Fabric, MX Dyes, Fat Half (22" x 36") $12.00

Fabric 11: Gorgeous Sateen Fabric, MX Dyes, Fat Half (22" x 36") $12.00

Fabric 12: Gorgeous Sateen Fabric, MX Dyes, Fat Half (22" x 36") $12.00

Fabric 19: Gorgeous Sateen Fabric, MX Dyes, Fat Half (22" x 36") $12.00

Fabric 29: High Quality Broadcloth, Thread Count 133 x 72, MX Dyes, Fat Half (22" x 36") $10.00

Fabric 36: High Quality Broadcloth, Thread Count 133 x 72, MX Dyes, Fat Half (22" x 36") $10.00

Fabric 38: High Quality Broadcloth, Thread Count 133 x 72, MX Dyes, Fat Half (22" x 36") $10.00

Fabric 42: High Quality Broadcloth, Thread Count 133 x 72, MX Dyes, Fat Half (22" x 36") $10.00

Using Resists during Dyeing

Look what happened when I stacked brass circles between folded fabric and sandwiched it between plexiglass. The rubber bands held the stack together while I squirted yellow, red and purple dye between the plexiglass plates. 

This is what it looked like when I opened the bundle.

Sky blue was used to over dye the whole piece. It certainly is a unique piece of fabric. It was an interesting experiment and worth exploring more. Next time I'll use a fat quarter instead.

My daughter dyed this shirt using wooden clothespins for the resist. I really like the way she placed the pattern on the diagonal.

Don't the clothespins make a great pattern?

Knittin and Stitchin

There's quite a bit happening in my studio, but nothing is completely finished. I've been dyeing a lot of fabric and silk scarves and printing note cards that feature my photography. I'm planning to open an Etsy shop soon, however, it's quite a bit of work to get it all organized and get everything photographed. If any of you have any advice for me, it would be greatly appreciated.

I meet with a group of friends once a month and everyone except Lora and me knit. Well, I decided to jump on the bandwagon and started knitting a Russian Wedding Band Cowl. Normally, it has 3 loops that intertwine, however, I think I'm going to make two loops and keep the yarn the same for both. I consider myself a novice knitter and have to review how to cast on stitches every time I begin a new project. This is the first time I've used circular needles. So far, I think it's going pretty good. What do you think?

 This is a prayer shawl that I've been commissioned to work on. The large cherry tree was designed by the client. The background is lightweight wool and the tree and flowers are silk. I'm using a buttonhole stitch to applique all of the shapes onto the background. It's been a bit tedious, but it's coming out quite nice and I'm almost done.

Fun Things to Do in Cambria Area

Mike and I went to Cambria last weekend for the opening of Andi Perejda's exhibit at the Cambria Center for the Arts. Andi is so talented . . . she does absolutely everything from painting and dyeing to masterful hand quilting. And she's a really nice person too. If you've never seen her work, check out her website. She does a hand quilting class for Craftsy, travels around the country teaching, and she'll be doing a demo when we go to the Houston quilt show.

We never miss an opportunity to spend the weekend in Cambria, and this was no exception. The weather at the beach was extremely foggy. It didn't stop me from taking a lot of photos, but honesty, most of them didn't come out very good.

We visited many galleries and shops. There are so many talented artists in the area and there are so many beautiful items on display. This visit we happened upon a shop called Grow on Main Street. They have rare and unusual succulents and gorgeous pottery. You can see some of it below. The colors and textures are wonderful. We ended up buying three plants, two of them are mutations that I've never seen and the third is just a bit strange. If you like plants and yard art, this is a great nursery.

If your husband can't handle all the shopping and galleries, there's a place for him at the Cambria Ale House. We didn't go there, but the sign made me laugh.

 We went to San Simeon to visit the elephant seals, but it was pretty quiet. The mature bulls won't return until November or December. When they arrive, they are so loud you can barely hear yourself speak. We had dinner at Manta Rey Restaurant in San Simeon. It's our favorite restaurant in the area and eat there every time we are in town.

If you live within driving distance, it's a great weekend get away.

Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder

Photography is one of my great passions. I was 14 when I received my first camera and set up a black and white darkroom in my bathroom when I was 17.

Since then, I've taken thousands of photos. Some of them are great, most of them are average, some went straight into the trash. I'm sure that scenario sounds familiar to most of you. Thank goodness for digital cameras.

These days, I'm using a Canon 60D and loving it. This was an upgrade from a Canon Rebel that I used for several years and also loved. An expensive camera has a lot of bells and whistles, however, if you learn the basics of photography, you can take great photos with any camera.

I would like to start sharing some of my photos with you that have nothing specific to do with any project that I'm working on.

Some will be straight from the camera, some will be manipulated. Let me know if you like the addition of photography.