Working With A Photographer

Before they left home, I took the Birds! collection to my favorite professional photographer, Walker Montgomery in Watkinsville, Ga. I’ve been going to Walker for over 3 years now, and I highly recommend him! I appreciate the fact that not only does he take great photographs, but he’s very professional, AND shares his process freely. I wanted to share these photos that Kate snapped of Walker at work.

Thank you, Walker, for helping your fellow artists out!

                                                                                       Breedlove Barn #3

                                                                                     by Rene Shoemaker

                                                                photo credit: Walker Montgomery

Questions For You

As I write to you, I often wonder what you are expecting to find here - what do you expect to read, what are you looking for? I have not heard enough about You. I need your help to know what kind of topics you would like to see covered in this blog. I’ve been writing and sharing my world with you for 10 months now, and it is time to re-access what I am doing, to help me stay on track, before a whole year passes by. Can you help me out?

I must admit, it is sort of fun to work in a vacuum, to write, and to try to think about what others might be interested in. But I realized the other day that my writing might be more effective if I got some feedback…

Since January, some of the topics I’ve covered have been: introductions and interviews, tutorials, behind-the-scenes work, travel, plans and goals. Oh, yes - and a story about my fascination with the history of pockets!

Let me know which of these subjects have worked for you, and what you would like to see more of. 

Thanks, as always, for your continued interest. Making art is a lot of fun, and it is also lots of fun to share it!

  -Rene

              

                                                                  New: shibori stole for a pastor friend

Working with ARROW

This month, it’s been delightfully busy, and I think it is just a result of gearing up for the fall season. When it gets a little cool around here, all of us slower-than-molasses Georgia gals get crazy with excitement. This week, I could write about my experience with Rinne Allen and working with the great group at Arrow in Athens, but daughter Kate just created a post on her blog with photos of the event - so click here to see what we were up to! 

Kate has been encouraging me to post a dyeing tutorial - so I will do that in the next few weeks. But in the meantime, here are two more of her photos showing how much fun creating colors and watching the rainbow come to life at the workshop was: 

Here are two quick items to share with you this week:

1) The Birds silks that were at the Jittery Joe’s 5 Points location have flown the coop to live in New Hampshire! I received a call that a very nice woman wanting to purchase the birds as a set - she sang into the telephone:

   “I love them!

        They make me happy!

            They need to stay together as a flock!”

I am so pleased that they will be living on a lake in New Hampshire, happy to be together still.

  2) To help support our local gallery, ATHICA (Athens Institute for Contemporary Art), I took the silkscreen design that I had submitted to the Mystery Triennial exhibit and had it printed by the local print shop Satisfactory.  It was my first-ever professionally screened textile design! Satisfactory did a great job printing them up for us. The shirts are available at ATHICA, and would make a great gift for fans of Athens, the Chase Street Warehouses, Tracy Street Studios, or of course ATHICA itself!  A portion of the profits are donated back to ATHICA to help support the good work they do. 

Happy Fall season to all my friends!

Shears

Earlier this month, the New York Times Sunday Magazine had a spread on Designer Shears, curated by Carin Goldberg.

"For New York’s Fashion Week", she wrote, "some of the industry’s top craftsmen and  women pay homage to their tools":

I loved seeing this spread because, as I’ve noted before, the tools that you use are very important - and so very personal! They really become part of you, your life, and your creative experience. 

And here is this designer’s favorite pair of scissors, signed by the person who made them. They were a gift to me, they have the perfect weight, and they work superbly. And, as Isaac Mizrahi noted, I never use them on paper!

                                                                René Shoemaker, of Coffee Cup Press

Let me know about your tools. I’d love to do a post on reader’s favorite tools!