I am delighted to announce that this past week, I was able to get my baskets displayed for sale in the new shop located on Water Street near the plaza in Santa Fe, New Mexico.  The shop's name, Le Ciseaux, is French for scissors.  It contains the works of eight women artisans who make jewelry, silk flowers from recycled men's ties, handmade dolls, aprons, and much more. Le Ciseaux is a new gallery in Santa Fe NM at 207 W. Water Street across from Collected Works Book Store. It is a professional presentation of select handwork that is beautiful and useful to daily life. The gallery currently represents seven local artists ages 13-80. As a working studio, there are on-site demonstrations, individual and small group lessons and on-going workshops. 

I've just set up a display at the new consignment shop in Los Alamos.  It's called Nu 2 You and located next door to the Urgent Care Center on Central Avenue.  Please check it out.  The store is owned by Keith and Barbara Lindsey.  They have an assortment of beautiful items that include clothing, furniture, kitchen items, and gift items.  Please check it out.

These are the latest baskets that I've made.  I call them "Fiesta Baskets" because of the multi-color fabric that I used.  I love the way they turned out.  

First, I select the fabric.  Next, I cut the fabric into strips measuring 1 1/2 inches wide.  Then, I sew the fabric strips end to end before adding the cotton cord that I stitch into the strips.  It's like making piping.  Once these steps are completed, I begin the process of making either a round or oval basket. The entire process takes about three hours per basket.  I also sew a label on the bottom of the basket once I've built the starting coil to about 3 inches in diameter.

My current project is to make machine embroidered leaves to applique onto vests.  More about that process next time.

I am occasionally asked why I use so much denim in the recycled items that I create.  Here are few facts about denim: (reported by Daphne Sashin and Toby Lyles, CNN updated 2:22 PM EDT, Mon May 20, 2013)

1. Jacob Davis, a tailor in Reno, Nevada, came up with the idea of riveted pants in response to a customer whose pockets kept ripping. He feared someone might steal his idea and recruited Levi Strauss, owner of dry goods wholesaler Levi Strauss & Co., as a business partner. They obtained a patent on May 20, 1873.

2. Denim jeans -- or trousers, waist overalls or dungarees -- started out as work-wear for hard labor in mines, factories and fields. By the 1980s, as high fashion brands began to introduce the concept of designer jeans, the shape and fit began to slim down.

3. Consumers in the United States buy approximately 450 million pairs of jeans every year.

4. On average, U.S. consumers have seven pairs of jeans in their wardrobe, according to Cotton Incorporated.

5. Environmental awareness has pushed denim laundries to improve techniques for bleaching and coating jeans to give them different looks, Corrente said. Where lots of water, aggressive washing and sandpaper was once the norm for creating that worn vintage look, lasers and ozone gas cameras are now being used to minimize water waste and chemical runoff
6. A typical pair of blue jeans consumes 919 gallons of water during its life cycle (this includes the water to irrigate the cotton crop, manufacture the jeans, and the numerous washes by the consumer).

Whenever I create something to sell at craft shows, I try to keep in mind what we are doing to the environment and what I can do to help protect it.  

I was inspired by my friend Maryna to create these baskets.  The blue ones are made from strips of used blue jeans and the brown basket is made from a piece of calico that was given to me several years ago.  I love the idea of making something beautiful and elegant out of something that might have ended up being thrown in the trash and end up rotting in a landfill.

I've been spending more time crafting items from denim.  The photo above shows samples of my latest creation, denim pouches crafted from tie-dyed denim.  I use a bleach solution to discharge the blue dye specific to denim.  Once the fabric is tie-dyed, I cut the pattern and embellish it before assembling the final piece.  These pouches have magnetic or button closures and straps crafted from vintage, hand-woven belts or corded straps fashioned from bias tape and cotton cording.

I received an e-mail on Thursday, March 20th that has stayed with me.  The e-mail stated that March 20th was declared International Happiness Day and included the video of Pharrell Williams singing the song, Because I'm Happy from the movie Despicable Me 2.  I began to think back over the past year of my life when it all changed when I received a phone call from my sisters who live in Atlanta, GA. They told me that our mother was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer (she was given four months to live) and that she was in the hospital.  From the moment I received the news, my world changed and my happiness began to slowly slip away.

After spending months assisting my mother as she went through chemo treatments, losing my job, having to look for a place to live, packing and moving, and being emotionally bludgened by various family members, I reached a place where I thought that I would never know happiness again. Thankfully, that thought has disappeared and with it's disappearance a glimmer of happiness has returned.

While watching the video and seeing all types of people smiling and dancing with such joy and abandon, a seedling of happiness began to grow inside of me where depression and sadness had existed.  So, I asked myself; "What makes me happy?" The answer I told myself was simple: The process of creating something beautiful and contributing to making the planet a cleaner place to live makes me happy.  Wearing hats makes me happy.  Eating an icecream cone on a hot summer day puts a smile on my face and makes me happy.

So, I've included pictures of some hats that I've dressed up with flowers.

I collect used denim jeans that I take apart and remake them into usable, beautiful items.  My first attempt at making a coiled basket with denim and cotton clothes line is shown below:

Although this is a work-in-progress, I think I have been able to create something beautiful out of something ordinary by adding pieces of cotton crochet lace to this denim jacket. I intend to hand stitch some beads to add a bit of bling to the jacket.

So, my daily quest is to do something that puts a smile on my face, a song in my heart, and brings a bit of beauty into this world.

I've been making silk roses out of bits of lace and antique Japanese silk scraps.  I will use these flowers to make pins, as decorations on hats, and headbands.