Arts In Rhode Island

Ive been trying to do more pieces that are inspired by fashion. So here is a picture I ripped out of Septembers Vogue catalog.I really love this red jacket and I have an undying love for grey hair, so I really loved this picture. If only I could afford the jacket!! hahahah The jacket is a Louis Vuitton wool coat for $2K. So I wanted to do a red hair piece. Lets get right to it! Here is what I came up with.
I was really excited to include the pair of vintage earrings. Also I was really excited to include vintage pearly stamen from Germany.

What is your inspiration this month?

Hahaha bet you didnt know I was even gone!

Last week I was farm sitting for a friend who has alpacas. What are alpacas? Well here is a pic of a farm close to the one that I was sitting for that just had two new baby alpacas.

What I had to do was get up and feed them, give them water, scoop beans (poop), feed chickens, feed dogs, walk dogs, check kitties, and anything else twice a day. It was a lot of fun, but I only wish it was cooler last week!

Unfortunately due to my being away my shop has not had any new items. So what have I been working on? Well this merino.


Okay okay it looks pretty confusing...well it is! Hahhahaah I heard of Navajo plying and thought I would give it a try. So what you do is make a really long single ( I did 4 ounces worth). This part seemed to take me forever....probably 20 hours. Then you put on a new bobbin and Navajo ply it! It is like hand crocheting, so you get a 3 ply yarn from a single! I could not have made a 3 ply yarn the traditional way because I only have a total of 3 bobbins, and being how expensive bobbins are I did not really want to buy another one. So this was great!

Well I didnt stop there. I Navajo plied the whole single. Then I took off half onto another bobbin and spun the two together. So now its a 6 ply! holy cow~! I was pretty excited about my first 6 ply. So now I can make a 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, and 12 plied yarn! Pretty cool!


The yarn is a 64 ct merino. So it isnt super soft, but it is super squishy. I hand dyed the roving in blue and brown. Now I just have to think of something to make with it. Maybe inside shoes?

Hi there~

My name is Sarah from Hanami Gallery. I am going to be blogging here every month on the 26th, so look forward to it! Why the 26th? Well because I was born December 26th 19... waiiittt lets just stick to December 26th~ Nice to meet you and please take care of me~

So whats harmony got to do with anything? Well all team members of Arts in RI were proposed with a challenge under the theme of harmony. ENTER CHALLENGER: Hanami Gallery (dun dun dunnnn). So the first thought to my crazy head was doing ying and yang. So here is what I came up with:
Except these are not harmony! The pattern is not a symmetric pattern, or what I would consider harmonic, so I figured I would do these pieces in color to mask the inharmonious pattern. I tried to do complimentary colors, but if you notice in different shades.


First up was the purple and yellow one~ This one I tried to do in a very purple and yellow shade. I did not take any color liberty here. This one is mounted on a gold barrette. This one I will be posting tomorrow in my Etsy shop (this will be important later).

The second one I worked on was the pink and green one. I did not want to do red and green due the resemblance to Christmas. This one is mounted on a comb. This one I will be posting on August 3rd. You will want to check that listing to see if you are a winner in the giveaway - more to come later on this~ promise~


The last one I worked on was the blue and orange. I tried to do a pale greyed out blue with an orange with a slightly pink tint. I took the most color liberty with piece. Lastly this one is mounted on an alligator clip (all different clips!). This one will be posted August 10th.

My next posting on August 26th will feature my true harmony themed piece. It will have more of a resemblance to ying and yang and I am really excited to work on the piece next month, so look forward to it~ Now onto the good stuff....the giveaway~

In celebration for my new dedication to doing blog posts every month here I am giving away a piece. It is not my usual tsumami kanzashi, but rather an alpaca kanzashi~
I made this piece out of 100% alpaca. I crocheted up the flower and dyed it in shades of pink and purple. It is mounted on a barrette and has two beads on it. The back is 100% wool felt. This is truly one of a kind. I made these especially for an event and have this one left over. I plan to never make this again, so you will truly receive a unique and special item. The flower is about 2" in diameter and the whole piece is about 3" long.

So how do you enter to win this soft pretty piece. Easy! There is a list of our shops to the right! Visit one (or multiple!!) and comment about an item you like, and a week from today I will randomly select a winner and then announce it on August 3rd in my Etsy posting for the pink and green piece listed above.




******UPDATE: WINNER noble beeyotch!

Thank you to all that participated~ I really appreciated it and I hope to see you again~

I grew up in the Poconos of Pennsylvania. I went to high school in New Jersey and then did 1 year of college at University of Vermont. After listening to too many drum circles I transferred to Syracuse University where I got my degrees in Mathematics and Economics. I have been in art classes since I was a kid, but honestly didn't think I would have a job as an artist which is why I chose those degrees....and here I am not doing anything with them. I have done regressional analysis to determine my target market....nope just kidding.

When did you first become interested in your art form?

Ive been doing origami since I was a kid. I then became interested in modular origami in college and even did an event for Pi Mu Epsilon on the mathematics of modular origami. So, I have always liked working in paper. Two years ago I visited Japan and picked up a ton of craft books one of which was on tsumami kanzashi. To me it was a lot like origami, except instead of folding paper it was silk.