Sleightholm Folk Art

   This weekend I got the chance to indulge my inner-Tasha Tudor and create beautiful thing among amazing antiques. How lucky was I, to get to set up on the porch at Blue Heron with my spinning wheel and spin in the shade, with so many gorgeous old things nearby.
  I have such a weakness for antiques, especially the Early American pieces. Their colors are so rich and deep, although they’ve seen centuries of wear. There’s nothing better than a piece that is worn smooth from being handled for decades. And Blue Heron is definitely the only place in Oklahoma where you can feel a little bit like Tasha, surrounded by old beautiful things.
    We finally had a weekend that wasn’t cold and wet– if you can believe it. It was a proper prairie spring day on Saturday, with clear blue skies and lots of sun. But it was lovely in the shade, and I’ve been spinning up some lush white wool.

  I’ve been thinking lately about Tasha and how she had so many hobbies, but she was able to stay focused on her work and not get sidetracked into “maybe I should try adding this or that to my business….” and lose her artistic focus. That’s something that I’ve really taken to heart as of late, as I try to renew my focus on art and not go in a thousand different directions.
  What she was so good at was indulging her interests, and then using them to make her art even more amazing. That is a lesson I think is worth learning for me now, as time has become so precious as the kids get older, and we have committed to homeschooling for the foreseeable future. I need to use my many hobbies and interests to make my own art more interesting and true. Yet another lesson learned from my favorite artist!

   Perhaps most exciting of all of my projects is this new painting that I just finished called “Eliza’s Knitting.” Taking Tasha’s lead and combining my own interests to make interesting art, I’ve made a colonial girl sitting at a window knitting! I’ve decided to do a whole series called “Colonial Crafters”, depicting people doing all sorts of crafts. I’ve already started my second one….any suggestions for crafts you’d like to see painted?

   The original painting is currently for sale in my etsy shop— I’m so happy with how it came out! A few months ago I found a book about decorating in the Colonial Williamsburg style at Good Will and it had a lot of good fabric swatch examples; using those as inspiration, I created the floral curtain panel and the simple red calico pattern of her dress. I am fond of red. And salt box houses! This piece has more of a New England lanscape, but my next piece will definitely have more of a Williamsburg flair.

  And so…that’s what I’ve been working on these past few days! So much of it is always a work in progress. But I’m happy to have the painting ready to go! I’ve also got some requests to send prints to a lovely little shop in Eureka Springs and I’m so very excited about it! More on that soon….

Til next time, Craft On!~
And Happy Tasha Tuesday!~
~H

This post is part of the “Craft On” series hosted by Frontier Dreams. Visit her blog to see more of the posts from this week’s crafters!