My First Ever Studio Sale (until the 1st of Sept)

Eight of my older baskets are looking for homes by September 1st. As incentive, each of these is now 35% off of the original online price. They are in gallery-ready condition, and all but the hairy basket have been renewed with the application of encaustic medium. (If you're on Facebook you can click here for the individual photos.) For more details or how to buy one of these baskets, please email me at kari@karilonning.com  

Here are the specifics:
1. Inspired by Terra Cotta $1560 (was $2400)  24.5" x 17"
2. Spinning Double, double wall $1300 (was $2000)  4" x 12"
3. Salmon Feathers is sold (it was $625)  12.25" x 12"

4. Talk of Furniture  $1660 (was $2400)  21" x 12"
5. Here She Stands  $3120 (was $4800)  22.5" x 12" x 10.5"
6. Taking Flight, Montana Tapestry  $1560 (was $2400)  22.5" x 12"

7. Emerging from Chaos  $2600 (was $4000)  22.5" x 20.5" x 16.5" 
8. Encaustic Doughnut, double wall  $1560 (was $2400)  3.75" x 10.5"
9. Pumpkin Seagrass Ropes  $1040 (was $1600)  19" x 12.5"

I'm working on a new post but I'll put this up now rather than delay even longer ... As many of you know I'd rather weave and edit photos, but there is so much to tell you about. It's an exciting time.

Excited and Inspired, and Working Like Crazy

This winter into spring I've been weaving, photographing, learning about iPhone apps (and applying for a grant to study this phenomenon), so passionately that I've had to force myself to stop doing one or the other things in order to eat and sleep! I've been so excited about color and patterns in the baskets that I've been designing new pieces before I finish the ones I'm working on. (I still plan to write about the square, double-wall I mentioned in the last post ... but that will have to wait.)

I'll be exhibiting in Craft Boston next week, March 23-25 and then at the Smithsonian Craft Show in Washington, DC April 19-22. My website has been updated with all the new pieces. I still want to add encaustic to a few of the flat woven baskets. The encaustic makes the baskets stronger, protects them from moisture (and maybe light over time) and adds a slightly richer quality to the dyed and natural colors. I expect to use more of this technique in the future. 

Here's a peak into the encaustic studio (aka the greenhouse) and a few of the pieces I'm working on. There's a closer photo showing the frying pan (don't know what else to call it) with the molten wax/resin and brushes here.

The garden is starting to explode with flowers and photography potential. The flower photos above are close-up shots of a few of my hellebores. (You can see more on my gardening blog.) It's taking me longer and longer to walk down the driveway to get the mail. I get distracted by seeing what has just bloomed or by wanting to clear out just one more small bed ... I really need a clone, or TWO, to help me do all the things spinning around in my head. 

Beginning 2012 with A New Way of Seeing

Usually I think of myself as a basketmaker and 3-dimensional artist, but now I'm looking at the world with the eyes of a painter/photographer. Everything I look at, I see with infinite graphic potential. I see patterns, color combinations, studies in light and shadow, and I also imagine how I can enhance and/or distort them. For the last few months I have been overtaken by a serious infatuation with photo apps. My favorites are Paper Camera and Instagram. These and other applications on the iPhone's camera, have changed the way I look at the world around me. (I've posted a few Paper Camera photos on my Facebook page, but I'll talk more about that in a future blog post.)

.

Yesterday, after pouring espresso into my steamed milk, I looked at it, and I found a DUCK in my latte! (The point here is that I'm noticing more, and looking at things with new eyes.)

.

This morning, I saw this reflection in my living room window. (Everything appears double, ie. the vertical bars and the two houses ... because of the storm window. The backround greenery is the arborvitae out back. The houses are little sculptures in the reflected window.) This photo, although cropped and darkened a bit, was not otherwise altered. The exciting and remarkable point to this photo is that I've been trying to create images like this with the photo apps. This morning though, nature and circumstances created it and I just showed up at the right time and caught it with the camera.

.

I'm not sure what I'm going to do with all the new photo inspiration, but I'll never get bored.

.

And ... I still want to write about the square, double-walled basket I made ... (another post waiting to be written soon).

.

Inspired by Norwegian Reality TV, I Made a Basket Entitled "Midnight Sun"

Once I have a basket design in my head or at least have an idea, I usually listen to books on CD while I weave, but this time I was glued to my computer. I had no idea that I was about to join 2.5 million Norwegians who were watching their public TV (according to ABC News).

.

My cousin Per sent me the link to "Hurtigruten: Minute to Minute," a 134 hour documentary of what is called "The Worlds Most Beautiful Sea Voyage.” People have been traveling up the Norwegian coastline since 1893 and I was about to join this voyage from my kitchen! I followed the map as the ship as it travelled from Bergen, up the coast between islands, to the way-northern port of Kirkenes.

.

As I worked on the basket, I saw what the 22 cameras saw, documenting the trip. The country had been alerted to the NRK project and all along the way, people cheered and waved flags from land and boats. Because the cruise ran during the longest days of the year, filming was possible 24 hours a day. They say in Norway that on June 21st it is so light that you can read the newspaper outside at midnight. My work schedule was such that it was often quite late over there, hence the rosy glow in the photos I caught off the computer:

.

The ship passed Ålesund, a town known for it's dried and salted cod, “klippfisk.” (Here they're drying in the sun.)

.

There were serene views of wave-washed rock and hazy, snow studded mountains.

.

I watched and wove, on and off for 4 days, often just listening to the waves and sea.

.

After a while I realized that the basket had taken on characteristics of the boat (notice the shape of the hull), the water colors, and the warm glow from the midnight sun on the landscape.

.

The basket measures 14.75" x 13" and will be on exhibit at the Shaw Cramer Gallery this July.

.

**With the exception of the basket shots, all the photos that appear above, were taken off the computer as screen shots courtesy of NRK's TV broadcast.

I'm a Color, Texture, Pattern Nerd

My sister and I were in Hawaii recently. One afternoon I paused to look at a small, showy garden, but it was this fresh, new shoot, that kept me there enthralled. The closer I looked, the more details I saw and the more interested I got. I lost myself in looking at the subtle colors and patterns. One day we took the road to Hana and stopped at the Ke'anae Arboretum. This was the highlight of the trip. There were Rainbow Eucalyptus trees, gingers, tree jasmines, bamboos and a favorite, a Blue Marble Tree with bright blue, one inch seeds.

.

On the way to the airport, we had our only rain. The fuzzy light and soft colors appealed to me as much as the sun appealed to the sunburnt tourists we left behind.

.

On the way home from Maui, I stopped in TX to visit a close friend and her husband. As part of my sight seeing tour in Amarillo, we went to Tri's Market. There, I was beside myself in the produce section! I know that I puzzled a few shoppers and employees by photographing the fruits and vegetables, from Daikon,Taro and Sugar Cane (pictured) to Dragon Fruit. These natural palettes and surfaces, and all the graphics they conjured in my head, created an excitement for me unparalleled by the finest art museums. Some could say that I'm easily entertained, but I'd respond that I feel all the richer for it.

.

I am an artist not because of what I create, but because of how I look at the world. In exchange for opening my eyes and becoming vulnerable to the environment, I receive the best and worst of what's out there. I choose to delight in what I see; the colors soothe and inspire me, the textures intrigue me, and I see patterns forming everywhere. All together, they help me keep my balance when crowds get to be too much and the world starts to spin. (Emma and Kitt help as well, but in a different way.)

"Winter into Spring" (greens)

The colors this spring have been intense. I don't know if it's because winter seemed to last forever or if it's because I'm just noticing more. Some days I'm nearly breathless with the beauty. Every day something new blooms along the trails or in my garden. It's been very hard for me to stay inside to weave.

I was supposed to be working on a commission. I had double-dyed a very, dark grey that helped me focus, since I really wanted to work with it. (Sometimes its the colors of newly dyed reed that inspire a basket.) The shape I started to weave was too shallow for the commission, so I changed ideas. Here's what I made. In retrospect, I see the linear, neutral colors of winter accented with the fresh, green leaves of spring (with a little orange for interest).

.

After 30 odd years of making baskets and many more of gardening, the idea that I can live a life weaving together the colors I see around me, me makes me pause and think. My life isn't perfect, and I'll probably never have a lot of money, but I appreciate that I have eyes that can see, hands that can make things, and an imagination that keeps me curious and motivated.

.

And ... I share this time with Kitt and Emma.

Delayed Inspiration

What does this scarf have to do with my baskets? It's an example of how everything I look at feeds into the collected information I use for inspiration. I'll begin with saying that I'm drawn to stripes, from wallpaper to textiles. As I was working on my new striped basket I realized that it reminded me of something. I went upstairs and found this scarf. I'd bought it in Norway two summers ago.

.

For this basket, I wanted to weave bold stripes in a just-dyed, dark grey reed. I needed an accent color and remembered one I had dyed after studying the colors in a photo of peeling birch bark. Unfortunately woven together, the series of natural colors I created looked like mud. Not all ideas pan out.

.

I put that basket idea aside, but found that my favorite color, a warm neutral was what I needed to play off the cool grey. (The basket is 20" x 15".)

.

One thing I enjoy about using rattan reed is how I can alternate between weaving flat and "hairy" textured baskets. I wanted to work on a flat surface and make a larger basket after having finished a small, very bright "hairy" basket. All this is in preparation for an upcoming craft show in Boston from March 25th to March 27th. For more information and directions you can click here.

Why I blog

This winter has felt very long. For weeks, a part of every day was spent shoveling snow or chipping ice. February came and went but the doldrums and cabin fever set in. Even Emma and Kitt seemed stressed. March is showing improvement. The need for burdensome layers of clothing is lessening as the amount of daily mud appears to increase, on the kitchen/studio floor.

Seemingly out of nowhere, ideas for new work have been flooding me. It's almost as if spring has loosened creative seeds and I can't work fast enough. It's a good thing too, since I have a fair in Boston at the end of the month. I've been posting process photos of a new basket to my Facebook fan page. The photo above is how it started. I'll be back shortly to write about the process. (The idea I wrote about earlier - inspired by birch bark, didn't work out the way I had envisioned it, but now I have lots of dyed reed and a vague idea for another basket.)

.

So ... why this blog? Although I don't post often, I'm constantly trying to find words so I can share what goes into how and why I weave. I often tell people that words aren't my "media," so this is a place where I practice getting my thoughts out of my head into words. This is also a collection point for my other blogs. There's a new one where I've been collecting design sources called Pinterest, and a photo blog where I've been adding photos of Emma and Kitt, taken with my iPod. If you've read this far, I hope that you'll come back. I'll do my best to post more often.

.

A New Year's Resolution and Shades of Winter

January 1st has come and gone, 2011 has begun. I don't like to make New Year's resolutions because they can be so disappointing if not kept. And, what if something more interesting presented itself? I approach starting a new basket the same way. Usually I have an idea before I start weaving, but I often modify it as I work. The shape may suggest a different pattern, or an unexpected color combination could set me off in a new direction, so I give myself permission to see where it will lead me. (My training was in ceramics, but I prefer the flexibility in weaving baskets.)

.

After a busy fall and all the comings and goings of the holidays, I'm looking forward to a quiet January. The soft shades in this Bridgewater, CT lake and the clear colors in Sarah's photo from Chicago make me want to weave. I want to design something so that I can play with these color combinations.

A few days ago I came across this birch tree. The bark's natural beauty and complexity exceeds human design. It made me think about working in textured papers and fabric, but it also made me feel humble about calling myself an artist. I want to go back and study it in different light and marvel at it's beauty. It's hard to explain, but framing these photos and then being able to appreciate all the layers and patterns in a two dimensional format is more exciting to me than going to most of the museums I've ever been to.

Contemplating the colors in the above seascapes touches me emotionally, and being able to appreciate the textures in this bark reminds me I am but a small part of something greater. As an artist and naturalist, I will try to share and preserve the beauty of what I see around me. This will be my New Year's resolution.

Fall Colors and Collecting Acorn Caps

The fall colors weren't as showy as in some years, but what they lacked in brilliance they made up for in subtlety. The sun on this chartreuse spirea surprised me one day on the way to the greenhouse. By the time I came back with the camera, the sun had gone away. The light had softened, but the leaves glowed. The bush is one of the first to bloom in the spring with tiny, white, fragrant flowers, and this year it was the last to show color.

.

All fall, I collected acorn caps. I felt like I did when I was a kid looking for sea shells on the beach in Florida. A few caps were nearly flat, others were deep and vessel shaped. Each one was slightly different. As I gathered them in my hands, I noticed how the smaller ones nested inside the bigger ones. This gave me an idea ...

and, added tiny red beads that look like wild, barberry berries.

Kitt helped by showing how they moved when they were hung up.

.

There were a few exceptions to the limited fall palette. Japanese maples peak after the rest of our New England foliage has fallen. My friend Dawn grows a few exceptional ones. Walking around this speciman was quite a heady experience. (To see a few more fall photos click here.)

.