Luna's Baublebilities

This is the second part in my series of blog posts about planning a custom order satin or velvet devore scarf from either my Etsy or ArtFire shop.  Pattern options are found HERE.  I have a series of colorways that are well established in my studio and fairly easy to reproduce consistently. Customers may either choose from these colorways or suggest their own color combinations.

Custom color suggestions can be as vague as "I want something that has a lot of pink and purple" or as specific as listing a Pantone color or DMC embroidery floss color number you would like me to aim for.  The most sucessful colorways are made up of 3 or 4 analogous colors, which means that they remain in one quadrant of the colorwheel.  The color scheme designer is a good tool for playing with color schemes if you are not sure where to start or you can visit COLOURlovers and generate a color sceme and send me a link to the colors so that I have a strong sense of what color tones you are seeking.  Complimentary colorways can sometimes be successful if I use a blending color, like Ivory or Grey.

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Here are my established colorways with photos:  (remember that with any colorway, Satin scarves will end up paler than Velvet.)  Colorway titles and descriptions are below the photos.










Oread - a sunny sea inspired colorway with blues, purples and aquamarine.






 Cebola Church - inspired by a Georgia O'Keeffe painting, this scarf has Sage Greens, Ivory and Dusty Yellow













Iced Poppies - Cherry Charcoal, Pale Pink and Firey red




Pink Hills - another Georgia inspired colorway with Palomino Yellow,Ivory and  Coral













Helmsman - a stormy sea palette of Deep Ocean Blue, Storm Grey and Aquamarine

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I'm also working on some new colorways that still need good photographs and experimentation but are producing some good results:

Bacchus is a colorway that includes burgundy, red wine and purple.  (You can see it on velvet in the opening photo of this post.)

Maenad is also very purpley but leans further blue, starting from indigo and going through purple to reach orchid.

Watermelon Tourmaline is a colorway based on pale, gemmy tomes of amethyst, citrine and peridot.  It is pretty soft on satin but a bit bold on velvet.

Peacock is a colorway that includes a deep indigo, orchid and lots of rich brown.  It works beautifully on the swirl velvet pattern as a peacock eye pattern.    Photos coming soon!







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I've been making custom order scarves for friends and family for a while now and thought it was probably time for me to start offering them in my online shops.  This post is a reference page for anyone who wants to oder a custom satin or velvet devore scarf from me.  Want to buy one?  Click in either my Artfire shop or my LunasBaublebilities Etsy shop.

Below you will see photos of the devore designs that I have available and HERE you can see a sampling of the color palettes that I've developed.  Of course, you are welcome to submit your own color choices if you have something in mind that you don't see here.  You should send me a message if want me to create a custom color palette for you, I'll work with what you like to create a scarf whose colors blend beautifully.  The satin scarves tend to lean toward a paler color load while the velvet scarves soak up the dye like crazy and result in a very vibrant and intense color load.

Satin Devore Scarves - these scarves are rayon satin on a silk backgroubnd.  An etching acid has been silk screened on the fabric to eat away the rayon and leave the silk.  The shiny pattern is where the rayon was left on the silk.  Most of these (except Edwardian Floral) have a beautiful 6" long fringe at both ends.  All patterns are available without fringe if you prefer but that will take extra time to produce.  15 x 60- inches long.  Beautiful and luxurious!

Nouveau  Pattern  (fringed)




                                                                              Underwater Pattern (fringed)













Bamboo Pattern (fringed)








                                                            

         Edwardian Floral (no fringe!)













Velvet Scarves - These are 12 x 60 inches with 3 inches of fringe on each end - 66 inches of luxurious glamour!  Made of silk/rayon velvet,the same process is used to produce the designs as on the satin devore scarves.  These scarves are warm enough to cozy up with on a chilly autumn day and cool enough to wear through a day at the office. 


Jacobean Pattern










Swirls Pattern


















Blossom Pattern


































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Oh, how I wish we had electricity at the new house.  If we had electricity there, we could charge up batteries for the variable speed power drill so that we could keep using it instead of having it die in the middle of a job and not having a charged up batery right handy 'cause we're too hurried to think everything through evey time.

Sigh.  I did a quick search for electricity over at Etsy and found some nifty things including this lovely altered photo from studiolyon.

I also love this transformer tie from toybreaker.   We gave Bry a toybreaker tie last year - it is yellow with a raven silk screened on it.  It is holding up very well and the image quality is top notch.  I'd fill his closet with toybreaker ties if I had the cash.




 But mrsbutler takes the cake.  I wish I needed these right now.  Maybe I should order some so they'll be ready when we are???



 I want these colors for my kitchen anyway. . . .










This would be cute in Maxx's room.


And for our paprika (and brown?) livingroom









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From yesterday's post you know that what I really wish for are real walls, with wiring and insulation behind them.  Once I have those, some of these might be nice here and there.

I really like this this birch forest - and it would be very appropriate for our neck of the woods.


As would these Queen Anne's Lace Silhouettes.


I also like the cherry blossoms.  We've been talking about a paprika wall for quite some time . . . .



Molly has a great sloped ceiling on one side of her dormer window that creates the perfect sopt to hang sweet little birdcages.

And what little boy wouldn't want an airplane flying on his wall?

oh - it all moves soooo slowly!  I can tell that this process is going to be like pulling teeth without anesthesia.  We have begun work on the Beorningstead and I took some pictures yesterday so that we can remember things at their worst this winter when we are getting discouraged about our progress.  I hope by then we'll be able to say "But look how far we've come!"





Here is what my new studio looks like right now. It looks terrible but the rest of the house is much worse.  If I could secure all the doors and had a potty & a heat source, I would move my stuff over there now to work!  One of these days I'll draw out a diagram of where my work spaces will be. That will be handy as we get further along with renovations, anyway.





Here are pics of our bedroom.  Though I love the green (ahem) I think we'll be re-painting all of the walls in the house.  This room had us a bit worried about roof leaks but the Amish said they didn't have problems with the roof.  Then I thought about certain family members who have lived in the house in the past and realized why there might be a LOT of moisture in one little upstairs room.  Hydroponics, maybe?  It is a pretty evenly applied drizzle stain. . . . .




More about the rest of the house over on the Beorningstead blog.







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O.K.  So the Watermelon Tourmaline color scheme is gourgeous, if incredibly subtle on ribbon but pretty horrible on velvet.  I have a lot to learn still about trying to get pale colors on velvet.  (Ribbon photos coming soon.)   I've dumped the velvet into a vat of teal blue dye hoping to save this length of silk somehow.



However - My stitched shibori alchemy scarf turned out O.K.  I was hoping for greater definition where the stitching was but it was quite subtle.  The directions indicated that the fabric should be washed and dried BEFORE the stitching was removed, which I was skeptical about.  Next time I will take out the stitching after rinsing but before washing which is what I do with rubber bands.  The browns are is pretty earthy and hippie-ish, which is O.K.  I guess.  Maybe I will try some silk screening on it??  But what will that do with the hand of the fabric?  Hmmm...

Well, kindergarten has begun.  Maxx has been surprisingly happy about it the last two mornings and has hopped onto the bus without complaint.  (Whew!)

Now I have to get to work in the studio - or rather, in the kitchen, as the stuff in my studio has finally and irrevocably reached critical mass.  No one can do anything in there anymore except maybe package orders for shipping and that is only after much rearrangement of boxes, bins and bags.  I'm so ready to move.  My new studio will be so huge.  There will be a separate area for every type of activity - probably even room for a little table or easel for Maxx to paint at. 

We have started a blog about the house and lifestyle renovations that will be taking place over at the Beorningstead.  We are all excited and impatient to get moved over there.  Soon, we hope.

In the meantime I have to dye and paint a whole bunch of scarves and experiment with the blank tee-shirts I ordered a couple of weeks ago.  I also bought a Yudu machine - they are still on sale at Dharma.  I hope it turns out to be worth the $$$! 

I also hope I have enough Ivory dye to complete an experiment that has been naging my mind for several days.  One of my Etsy customers requested a special order containing seeral different colors of ribbon and cord and mentioned that she would really like to see some cord in a Watermelon Tourmaline color palette.  So what have I been seeing in my sleep for the past 4 days?  You got it - scarves and ribbon and even lengths of velvet dyed up in purple, citrine and gemmy green. I think I've got the formula figured out in my head already But I'm about to find out for sure today.  Wish me luck!

Well, it's officially over. Bry pulled out of the driveway almost 20 minutes ago to head to work, Maxx goes to Kindergarten Thursday and Molly will be starting in on her homeschool schedule Friday.

It is very strange having everyone start back to school before Labor Day. We all feel cheated - especially since Christmas break this year will be a scant week and a half and there is no indication that Spring break will be longer or that regents week will be sooner in June. Somehow the state or the local districts have managed to squeeze another full week into the school year here but there has been no information about a corresponding bump in teacher salaries. Maybe they think that they throw in a bunch of half week extras, the teachers won't be able to do the math and figure out that they are overworking their contracts?

Last night I spent some time contemplating my schedule and how I'm going to get everything done. I'm just not very prodctive on the best of days but I have really got to learn how to be. I hit 40 this winter and I've got to learn how to care for my body a little better. I need it to last at least another 40 or 50 years! Molly's homschool curriculuum this year is her most rigorous yet and while half of it will be done online, I will still have a serious time comitment reviewing History and ELA work. With Maxx in full day kindergarten, I will have more time for exercise, homeschool and studio work and I intend to bring in some serious cash this year to supplement Bryan's income. I'm just not sure how much I can really get done. What I really like to do is slack off most days, exploring nifty things online like this Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef project. I mean - how cool is that!? I want to make one.

Plus we have to get the new house ready to move into. We got our commitment leter from the bank three weeks ago (still no estimated closing date) and we have begun work on the Beorningstead, hoping and praying that we can move in before truly cold weather arives. We've already discovered some small unexpected and unbudgeted surprises over there so my studio will have to take up that slack. We are still very excited about it, though - my studio is going to be SO BIG! Expect a new blog about reniovating the Beorningstead soon, moderated by Molly, Bry and me.

Now - I'm off to see about dyeing some new tee shirts & scarves, creating a silk screen design for my new Yudu machine, photographing and uploading new filigree and beads to my Etsy and Art Fire stores, packaging orders from last week, cleaning the house, ordering MB's AP Bio Class, playing with Maxx, getting some exercise . . . O.K. on second thought, just wake me up around dinner time.