Susan Carlson This Week in My Studio: Life is Like a Collage

Within the last couple weeks, from the middle of one to the middle of the next, life was quite full with good stuff—pieces that came together in a fun and satisfying way—not unlike pieces of materials that fill a collage. Pieces of fabric, pieces of broken pottery, flotsam, jetsam, and Bigfoot washed up on a beach. Pieces of time—rearranged to meet up with and get inspired by friends. It was a great seven or so days.

Wednesday, a week and a half ago, I woke up remembering that my teaching friend from Australia, Gloria Loughman, was still in the States and not too far away. A couple hours later, I’d contacted her and decided to drive the 3 three hours to have dinner with her and her husband in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. As a bonus, another friend and fellow quilter, David Taylor, was there to hang out with for the spur-of-the-moment evening. I stayed the night at a local B&B, and had an early morning walk with Gloria, like we used to do when we met up, though it had been years since that happened. By mid-day that Thursday, I was back home and working on Saturday’s blog post. By Saturday, Gloria was back home to Melbourne.

Last Saturday’s blog post included the introduction to a new Follow Along set of presentations—Captivating Cats—beginning at the end of this month. On Sunday I was pulling out fabrics to get started with. I decided that an example for this class needed to be a Halloween cat portrait—a black cat with a few pumpkin orange highlights and a few bats. I’ll keep you updated.

Stepping Stone Mosaics

On Tuesday, my sister Heidi and I, were on our way an hour south along the Maine coast to our friends Darlene and Leonard’s (and Sophie’s) beach house. A perfect spot for sunrise with a hot cuppa. It was a return visit to continue a late-August stay—where we began mosaic-ing stepping stones—like little outdoor collages!

In August, it took me the equivalent of a couple days to finish (all but grouting) one of three planned garden mosaics, on 16″ patio blocks. This week, I burned the midnight oil to finish the other two in one day each.

While Heidi and I were playing with broken dishes, Darlene was playing with fabrics—taking time to work on her latest of many collages—of a large and colorful octopus. Little Sophie, lost in a warm blanket, was dwarfed even more than usual, below the sea creature.

Earlier in September, Darlene received beautifully finished collages back from her quilter—including Sophie’s portrait, and that of Sophie’s beach buddy, Gidget. It was fun for me to see them up close again and finished, though I missed a chance to get photos of the pups next to their portraits.

Beach-combing at Ocean Park, Maine

Gidget’s mom stopped in Tuesday afternoon to let us know that the nor’easter storm on Sunday and Monday had churned and tossed up quite a few shells onto the beach. So we took a break for some beach-combing. The break lasted longer than we had intended—especially as we started arranging our finds into groupings and vignettes—photographic assemblages.

The most prevalent shells washed ashore were by far the moon snail shells—they were all over the place—even locals were amazed. Many shells had hermit crabs (or tiny sea urchins) hiding out in them—but the ones with the original snails inside didn’t seem to fare as well while stranded on the beach waiting for the tide to return.

The hermit crab above, was somehow separated from his shell, but still alive. We had no idea if this was a temporary or terminal situation, our futile attempts to interest him in a new home were rejected. The rising tide was going to reach him soon so we had to just wish him well. I found it interesting that his hind end was shaped as a spiral—reminding me of a seahorse or the zodiac sign, Capricorn. I do love the spiral symbol and am feeling inspired by the masses of shells we saw, all just a little different, and many that stood out in pattern, color, or size.

Heidi was by far the best, or luckiest, at beach-combing—she found the oddball plastic flotsam. In our couple beach excursions, she not only discovered a fabulous Bigfoot, but also a green shark, a pink princess figurine, a rhino/model car combo, and a rubber duckie.

Beach-combed collages can be addictive.

And so ends a special week, both in and out of my studio—beginning with one friend and ending with others. Rearranging time to gather ideas and inspiration, to build on friendships. I did allow myself to sleep in a little the last couple mornings, but I also feel energized and ready to get back to some pending projects… and then there’s some grouting to do too.

May we all have a lovely week to come.