Sarah's Artwork and Her Traveling Muse: Australia, Mexico and Africa!

We have this little gadget on the front page of our Fiber Focus Group that pulls images from Flickr tagged "fiber art".  Last week this cute guy with a red face and wings popped up:

Merman by Sarah's Artwork

I quickly clicked on it as I wanted to know more about it.  I knew instantly that this was a piece that would be close to my heart.  And where there was one, there would probably be more.

I was right!  Merman led me to a treasure trove of wonderful work! I am especially attracted to work that is influenced by ethnic art, yet twisted into something new.  If you visit the Sarah's Artwork blog, you will find this to be true in this case. The blog is loaded with images of inspiration and how they become translated by Sarah into something new.  For example, take this piece from her series, My Tribe: 

Source of inspiration: Africa!

Other My Tribe pieces all recall Africa, although Sarah said that she is also inspired by the immigrants she sees in Melbourne, often wearing tribal tattoos or henna designs from their place of origin.

But, Merman, looked distinctly Mexican in flavor to me.  Hmmmm....  Sure enough, Sarah has been to Mexico and fell in love with it!

And, where does this well of creative juices spring from?  AUSTRALIA!!!!  It's A Small World After All started playing in my head...  Sorry.  It's all that childhood indoctrination...

Its A Small World (After All) - Disney

Sarah is prolific and diverse in her work.  The soft sculptures are heavily embellished and expressive.

Woman by Sarah's Artwork

King by Sarah's Artwork

She also draws, filling space intensely, creating wonderful environments of chaotic order:

.

The Embrace by Sarah's Artwork

Sometimes the sculptural and figurative become combined into the functional:

I have found that artists who fill their artwork with detail and texture, like Sarah, tend to also decorate or fill their work spaces in the same way.  This is true with her.  Sarah's former studio was an altar to life.  Walls, even the ceiling, celebrate the world, bringing cultures together into a collage of color and texture.

I contacted Sarah and told her how much I liked her work.  We exchanged several e-mails and she turned out to be as interesting in cyber-reality as her work.  I don't expect much when I contact people out of the blue like this.  Many never respond, people are busy, whatever...  but, Sarah was enthusiastic and shared quite a bit about what is going on with her.  She packed up her studio and is in the process of crossing the ocean to start a new phase in her life: Montana, USA!  She has friends there and eventually wants to make it back down to Mexico.  Montana is a long way from Kentucky, but it gets my hopes up that if we are at least in the same country, there is a tiny chance that we could meet someday.  

Meanwhile, visit Sarah at her blog, leave some comments here about how wonderful she is, and from us all, we wish you "Happy Travels, Sarah!"

Click on this short bio to see a larger image:

Sarah's Artwork and Her Traveling Muse: Australia, Mexico and Africa!

La Chapina Huipil Crafts Expands Etsy Store: Guatemalan Supplies!

Recycled Huipil Baby Doll made by Erin Stoy

It's not easy to find your niche on Etsy- the competition is fierce! But, some sellers find their market and are able to grow their stores into healthy operations. I've had the pleasure of watching Erin Stoy of La Chapina Huipil Crafts do exactly that! I asked Erin to share her experience as I think she has hit on the key to making a living through online sales: balance your handmade creations with complementary supplies. Look around your environment and see what you can find that others might want!

Other key lessons to learn from Erin: clear photos, affordable prices, healthy selection (her store is stocked with over 200 items right now), and good descriptions.

When I joined Etsy in May of this year, my plan was simply to continue selling my hand-sewn crafts made from recycled Guatemalan textiles. I'd had success doing that off-Etsy for the previous seven months, especially with my Christmas ornaments and personalized art for kids' rooms. However, with sales in my new shop starting off slowly, I began to brainstorm ways I could expand my product offerings. I noticed that the top sellers on Etsy were almost all suppliers, and that certainly made sense: Etsy is a market full of creative people wanting to buy interesting things with which they can make their own arts and crafts! So instead of trying to compete solely based on my handicrafts, I began my search in the local markets and shops here in Antigua, Guatemala, for textiles to sell as supplies. I'd already been selling bags full of my textile scraps, so this was the next logical step, and I began offering cintas (hand-woven hair ribbons) and squares of textile fabric, along with the occasional whole huipil (traditional hand-woven blouse worn by indigenous women and girls in Guatemala).

Recycled Huipil Scrap Sampler Bag

It took a change in mindset to make the move to sell something unrelated to textiles, as the name of my shop was and is "La Chapina Huipil Crafts". At first the idea of this change made me uncomfortable, as if I were abandoning my original vision, but then I came across a great little shop that sold ceramic beads made in Guatemala and Peru. I loved these little beads and charms, and I knew many of my customers would, too. Tiny Guatemalan people in traditional dress, little animals, fruits and veggies, and skulls (for Day of the Dead!) are just some of the styles of beads I now regularly stock in my shop.

Pendant Beads

Once I started selling beads, I found myself really wanting to try my own hand at making jewelry for the shop. However, jewelry is one of the most saturated categories on Etsy, so I needed to make a niche for myself. I found a local source for beads made of tagua, which grows in the South American rainforest and is an excellent and eco-friendly alternative to ivory. Using dyed beads and slices made from tagua seeds and nuts, I've had a great time making some simple jewelry, and the fact that it is environmentally friendly fits with my previous emphasis on recycled materials.

Ecofriendly Tagua Bracelet and Earrings Set

A few months into my expansion, three of my ten shop sections are dedicated to supplies. Some of my best sellers are different sizes and styles of Guatemalan worry dolls, ceramic beads, and lovely small prints -- great as scrapbooking embellishments -- by a local watercolor artist. I also carry some wood items like miniature handpainted masks and fruit.

Watercolor Maya Mother and Baby

Large Guatemalan worry dolls

Although huipiles are no longer the sole focus of my shop, they still have a special place among the other Latin American crafts and supplies. Offering supplies has greatly increased sales (though lowering the average selling price per item) and brought in many new customers who are not necessarily interested in the items I make myself. And perhaps most importantly, the search for new supplies is a lot of fun !

Spanish Rubber Stamp - Excelente with Star

Erin Stoy of La Chapina Huipil Crafts is an American whoʼs lived in Guatemala for over a year, caring for the daughter she and her husband are in the process of adopting. During her time in Guatemala,she has developed a passion for Mayan textiles. She has been selling arts and crafts she makes from used huipiles (traditional, hand-woven Guatemalan blouses) since October 2007. Her blog is http://huipil-crafts.blogspot.com and her Etsy shop is http://lachapina.etsy.com.

La Chapina Huipil Crafts Expands Etsy Store: Guatemalan Supplies!

A Maze in the Amazon: The Shipibo-Conibo Path in Textiles

I first learned about the Shipibo through their beautiful ceramics. Fine black lines create mazes of pattern on white backgrounds, framed by the red tierra cotta clay. As I was exposed to more of their work, I saw that those designs were also abundant in their textiles, as facial tattoos and as wall art on the outside of their houses.

A Different Approach carries Shipibo pottery wholesale.
They are a fair trade organization that support many pottery
efforts in Central and South America.

Many authors refer to the Shipibo in conjunction with another indigenous group, the Conibo, as one people, the Shipibo-Conibo, as the two have merged through intermarriage. They live along the Amazon River and its tributaries in small villages, although many cities like Iquitos and Lima now have Shipibo communities as well. Estimates number the population at 35,000 people in 300 villages. As with most indigenous groups around the world, the Shipibo-Conibo face the old story of displacement due to logging (Cultural Survival has an article about mahogany culling in the region), climate change, and assimilation into the mainstream popular culture. Yet, they have been able to find a better balance than many other groups through their profound knowledge of medicinal herbs, shamanism, and production of handicrafts and textiles.

Several permaculture efforts have networked with them in an effort to help them produce better foods locally, decreasing their dependency on trade. Ecoversity describes some of the challenges they have experienced in reaching remote communities while other less isolated groups have enjoyed significant gains through participating in events such as the Santa Fe International Art Market.

Photo by Howard G. Charing
See his pdf article, Communion with the Infinite, for more information
on the textiles and their spiritual significance.

Shipibo-Conibo textiles are closely connected to their religious context. The World Culture Encyclopedia has a page description of Shipibo belief. Boiled down to one paragraph, they believe that spirits or gods live up in the sky which can be accessed by the "vegetalista" or herbalist (shaman). Western medicine is fine for treating diseases of the flesh, but the vegetalista will know how to cure the spiritual maladies. Shipibo cosmology translates itself into art through the vision of being part of a larger whole. Dan James Pantone, Ph.D., has an excellent article which explains some of this dynamic. I thought this insight was especially interesting:

"The art form of the Shipibos is little understood by the outside world. To the artists, is not something that they are taught, rather they are inspired to create their distinctive patterns. The women, rather than the men in the village, are the artists. Commonly the women will work together to produce a single piece. Each of the women seems to be moved by the same artistic spirit and one woman can interrupt her work and then assign another woman in the village to complete a particular piece. When the artwork is finished, the resulting piece will look like it was made by a single artist. This really is communal art at its finest."

Photo by Lorna Li

It reminds me a bit of quilting bees, yet if you watch how these textiles are made, it's a little more abstract in design than most quilting patterns. The textiles also call up Aborigine work to me. Instead of dots marking a pathway, lines move you through the piece.

Vintage 1960's Shipibo Textile, by Patina Green

There are two main forms of the textiles, both very different in their final impact. The simple white and black textiles are painted with vegetable dyes, resulting in stark geometric contrasts. The second uses embroidery. Although the patterns are also geometric, the use of color introduces the potential for walking on the wild side of the maze. Designs may explode with clashing oranges and blues, while others may bring calm and a sense of peace with greens and purples.

Photo by Sabine Rittner

"This is the "Wayvana" pattern:
the wavy lines mimicking each other are people eating together
underneath a tree (the little square in the middle)." Willem Malten

Sabine Rittner, of Heidelberg, Germany, spent several months with the Shipibo in 2005. Coming from a music therapy background, she researched how the vegetalista or shaman approached healing in their context. She quotes:

`Every human being possesses a body pattern that is formed by his energy flow and is not visible to the average villager but to the shaman. When the competent and experienced shaman uses the plant in question, then he gets insights into a patient's energy field and flow of life force, energetic disturbances and blockades. Shipibo shamans say that the ayahuasqua drink helps them to see through a patient's body, like x-rays. However, they see neither skeleton nor organs but rather the disturbances and blockades in energetic balance. The exact site of the illness may be located in this way. The ayahuasqua plant permits shamans also to contact the spirit world. Above all the so-called `masters of powerful trees' support a shaman in his therapeutic work. These patterns resemble the style of the patterns we admire on earthen vessels and textiles. But according to the shamans' descriptions they are much finer and more complex. If a person falls ill in the course of his life this becomes visible in an imbalance, a distortion, an unclearness or agitation of his body pattern. Ayahuasca helps a shaman to see the pattern and evaluate it. He tries to reconstruct the pattern through songs transmitted to him in his ayahuasca induced state by the masters of the trees. For the Shipibo these songs are sacred and healing, they are also called `pattern medicine'. When a shaman sings his therapeutic song, then rhythm and intensity of the song show their effects in a patient's body pattern. While the shaman's healing song leaves the breath of his mouth in a linear and rhythmic flow, it forms a fine pattern that becomes embedded in the patient's body and causes harmony in the energy balance and the mind.' (From: Gebhard-Sayer/Illius, 1991).

Photo by Sabine Rittner

She concludes her fascinating article with a note on what she learned:

"Everything I tried to present in this paper is the result of momentary impressions. Despite written versions of the Shipibo language, theirs is an oral culture living in the flow of `improvisation', that is, being recreated all the time. There is the continuity of a common history, a tradition passed on in tales, myths, shapes, colours and music. But this is the art of creation that lives anew every day, every moment, with each listener. The stories told in ethnological books are, strictly speaking, only true in the moment of telling, not for the next day, not for the next ayahuasquero, not for the next village. It was a lesson and a challenge for me to discuss with the Shipibo this kind of `permanent impermanence' that has more contradictions than consistencies.

My intention was not to idealize the Shipibo culture. Notwithstanding our postmodern longing for the `original' and `authentic', the life of the Shipibo is full of existential problems, with unbelievable material poverty and tremendous social wealth. I am deeply grateful to them for accepting me as a guest and permitting me insights into their everyday lives and spiritual healing traditions."

On that note, perhaps we should all give up some thanks for our own roles as guests on this earth and for our impermanent contributions to the maze we each walk in.






Here are some Shipibo products available on Amazon and Novica:

A Maze in the Amazon: The Shipibo-Conibo Path in Textiles

The Costume Page, A Most Wonderful Resource

Have you heard of The Costume Page? Are you interested in clothing design, apparel throughout the ages? Do you have many, many, many hours at your disposal to explore this extensive list? The Costume Page is a resource that compiles links to websites with costume related information. Julie Zetterberg Sardo, who developed the site, states:

"Welcome to The Costume Page, my personal library of costume and costuming-related links. I'm sharing it for the benefit of those who study and/or make costumes: costumers, students, historical re-enactors, science fiction fans, professionals, amateurs, dancers, theatrical costumers, trick-or-treaters, writers, researchers, and all those interested in fashion, textile art, and costume history.

There are over 1,000 unique links listed on these pages. Some of them cover more than one area of interest. I recommend that you browse through all sections of The Costume Page if you don't immediately find what you're seeking. I've tried to cross-reference where possible, but you're likely to find some additional gems if you dig!"

The subjects are divided into the following topics:

Home | Reference | Museums | History | Topics | Ethnic | Theatrical
Organizations | Events | Schools | Instructions
Halloween | Other Lists
Materials | Accessories | Costumes

Each of them opens the door to a vast compilation of links. Of course, my favorite is the Ethnic tab. This one is divided into:

Africa | Asia & India | Western Europe | Eastern Europe and Siberia
Near & Middle East | North, Central & South America | Pacific Islands

The linked sites are varied and include documentation of historical costumes, how-to pages, and ethnographic information. Photocollect deals with old photographs such as the Japanese warrior below. They target museums and private collectors as clients.


Macedonian Folk Embroidery offers samples of embroidered clothing and patterns such as the one below:


Maya Adventure has a page on woven symbolism in Mayan textiles.

Those three are just a small sampling of what is available in the ethnic section. There is a lot more on Japanese kimono, Indian saris, Middle Eastern garb, African wraps and a huge section on European costumes.

The Costume Page is especially rich with information on Western historical fashion. The Middle Ages, Renaissance, and Medieval links are fascinating! Footwear of the Middle Ages is one example of an excellent overview of how shoes were made, what tools were used, and what the various designs meant in that period.


One of the Paducah artists had a costume party last year with a 1960's theme. Another one used a flapper theme. I used this site as an idea place to figure out what to wear for both parties. Sometimes you just need to look at some good images to get some inspiration. This is the place to come.

There are also many links that have excellent educational resources for kids (or adults who like to play...). David Claudon Paper Dolls has a huge selection of designs from all over the world through the ages. My sister is home schooling her kids and I can just imagine her using these as teaching aids.

The Costume Page is an invaluable resource for theater people, designers, historians, and anybody just curious enough to poke around the site. I can only thank Julie Zetterberg Sardo for putting such an excellent collection at our disposal. Thank you for all your hard work!

The Costume Page, A Most Wonderful Resource

The Beautiful Adriene Cruz, Portland Fiber Artist

My local fiber art group, Paducah Fiber Artists, meets once a month for a pot luck, show and tell and general good fun. It's a monthly highlight for me. I arrived a bit late (as usual) to our June 2008 meeting to find this gorgeous woman sitting there. She was a guest artist from Portland, Oregon, spending a month at A.I.R. Studio located in the heart of Lowertown, our art district. Adriene Cruz embodies color, life, elegance, and texture, both in her persona as well as in her art. Her work has obvious African influence, but she incorporates pieces of textiles from around the world and their origins also add their voices to the final creation.

Adriene's website, which she claims is horribly outdated, gives continuity to her work. It is bright, decorated with borders taken from her textiles and filled with words of love and a vision of peace.

Adriene is a transplant from New York, and although her heart is still there, she has become actively involved in Portland's community life. Their local PBS station, Oregon Public Broadcasting, has a program called Art Beat, which interviews local artists and then develops curriculum based for children based that artist's story.



Adriene is there and her video will explain a lot of where she comes from, what inspires her and how she creates her pieces. If you have children or work with them, you might enjoy the three projects on Adriene's page as well as the other artists in the program. Lots of great ideas!

Her community involvement has led her to collaborative work with other artists that have permanently changed Portland's landscape. She has worked on murals, billboards and other public art. The most impressive this train stop:


The North Killingsworth Street MAX Station
Interstate Avenue at N. Kilingsworth

Portland, Oregon's public transit system, the MAX, is beautifying its stations through the designs of a variety of public artists. The North Killingsworth Street Station, which opened May 1, 2004, was developed through a mentorship between Adriene Cruz and design team artist, Valerie Otani.

Adriene's work has been published in several books and her pieces are in private collections all over the world. The Exhibits and Honors page on her website lists the many prestigious places where her work has found a home or made an impact. Has this gone to her head? Nope. Adriene's feet are planted firmly on the ground. And her struggle to survive as an artist continues as a difficult, albeit joyous, path. I had the pleasure of visiting with her a bit at the studio while she was here. Her mother was also here, from New York, and I saw where Adriene learned her spirit of giving and love. Her Mom has the warmest, softest hands I have ever felt. Her smiles radiated benevolence, eyes sparkled with life.

If we are chips cut off from the block, Adriene's block has been solid and good. Speaking, or writing, about cutting, Adriene has no fear in transforming textiles into something new. She bought a Turkmen coat from me very similar to the one on the left (available in my Etsy store, hint, hint), chopped it up and made a beautiful bag out of half of it. She had forgotten to bring one with her, so... no problem! Chop, chop, sew, sew, and there you go! Another accessory to complement her best art piece: her self!

Adriene used the embroidery from the side of the coat as the front flap of her bag and incorporated the embroidery along the hem and front as the strap:

I am inspired by artists and people like Adriene. They help build bridges among people and she has also contributed toward enhancing the physical space of her city. It makes me feel good to know that she is out there and the brief time I had with her here was a sunny day in Paducah!

The Beautiful Adriene Cruz, Portland Fiber Artist