With the new month comes some major decisions. But before I tell you about them, I have to show you the beautiful cards I received from Kathy Schmidt of Quirks Ltd. I love everything about them, including her interesting signatures on the back.
I’ve been following Kathy for some time, and this month she hit her 2,000 post! What an accomplishment! To celebrate she was having a giveaway, and I was a lucky winner of two of her lovely cards! If you’ve never heard of Kathy, she has to be one of the most prolific creative artist I’ve seen. If you want some inspiration, check out her blog. She has a gallery where you can see her finished work too. I don’t see any links to purchase, but I assume she has some of them for sale. As I said she creates a lot, and sometimes I wonder where she gets the energy. Again, if you are interested in fabric art, check out her blog.
Now to the decisions. I’ve been agonizing over this for over a year. I have decided to close my classroom at Lyndaheines.com, and retire my classes effective October 1. Back in 2016 when I created Icy Delights, my ice dyeing class based on my technique, no one was teaching it. I had taught a webinar through Interweave in 2013, and I was still getting royalties on that (so I knew there was interest although I didn’t realize how popular it would be!) when I decided I really needed to have my own class and add much more information. So I spent hours dyeing 45 different colors so my students could see how the dyes break out. It would help them to decide which dyes they wanted to purchase. I also put together combos, a dye calculator, and lots of information. Over the years I’ve had hundreds take that and my other class, Easy Silk Dyeing. Easy Silk Dyeing came from a local class I taught. I wanted to bring it to a broader audience.
I had decided to add more classes to the classroom. In fact, I have several courses outlined, but I just couldn’t get the energy back to putting them together and then marketing them. So the more I thought about it, I decided this isn’t how I see my teaching future. However, this doesn’t mean I’m going away. I’ve really enjoyed the Zoom lectures I’ve given this year, and I see more of them, and uploading more videos on my You Tube channel. Of course, I’ll continue to write tutorials here.
It’s been great to see all the beautiful fabrics that have been created, and to meet so many of my students on the Facebook Group, which will also close October 1. They have inspired me so much! I have sent everyone in the classroom an email. However, if you are one of my students and you didn’t receive it, I wanted to post the information here. Please download the pdfs you want to keep, and watch any videos you want to see again before October 1 when the classroom will close for good. Until then, everything will remain the same. It’s been a great journey.
Now on to the next phase! Thanks again to Kathy for the beautiful cards.
I couldn’t agree more….Kathy is a wiz……and the fastest quilter of quality work I know! Best wishes for your new endeavors…..I truly know just how tough career decisions can be. I struggled mightily with my retirement….should I or shouldn’t I. After a lot of thought I came to the conclusion (and it sounds like you did too)…..I’ve been there, done that……time to move on. I wasn’t in the practice of selling my work back then simply because of the need to have on hand for books, articles, workshops and my cruises and tours. Now that’s all I do….create work to sell…..
It’s challenging because the Asheville area is flooded with artists of all mediums. Unfortunately fiber still doesn’t have the hot ticket appeal of say painters or photographers…..but I’m enjoying what I’m doing and at my age that’s all one can wish for. I know with your talent you’ll do the same!!
Mary, You really get where I am!! The “been there, done that … time to move on” is exactly where I’m at and have been for a year. Also, turning 70 at the end of 2020 pretty much was a wake up call! Your work is lovely. I would think they would do great in your area. Yes, and Kathy is a wiz. Wish I had half of her energy!! Thanks for dropping by and commenting. Thank you for your kind words.
I hope you find delight in your next chapter! I, too, have been there done that and decided some years ago to stop entering exhibits and teaching (well, maybe with a few exceptions). I wish I could sell more of my work, but as Mary said fiber,doesn’t have the acceptance yet of painting and other mediums.
Lynda – I have to say that I have been a lurker for quite a while now. Not jumping in and actively doing anything in particular however you were so creative, and I just loved your approach and explanations. I am sorry that you are shutting down the “channel” that I have to your creativity. I do realize that sometimes …the “have to do’s” take away the fun and the “want to do’s” have to wait. When I get asked to make a quilt – which is usually my creating art with fabric, the design is fun, the beginning is fun but somewhere in-between it is not as much fun as when I am winging it. Plus – though I am not quite at the magic number you are – though hot on your heels – we SHOULD be doing what we want eh? We SHOULD be filling our cup up, always sharing of course but mindful of how full our cup is. Oh – I don’t know if that makes any sense -but thank you for your inspiration – thank you for letting me lurk – thank you for the “someday I am going to do that”s” that you gave me. May your next chapter be filled with color, texture, delight and love.
Liz, Thanks for commenting. Hold on!! I’m not shutting down this blog and I’ll continue to write tutorials and show readers my experiments. The classes I’ve been working on that I mentioned in the post, I’ll be posting here and on my You Tube instead of putting them in my classroom and charging. I’m just going back to sharing here instead of making a formal class which involves a lot of work and marketing. My whole goal for this blog when I started it in 2009 was to inspire, and to help me document my creative journey. So I’m really going back to my original purpose of being online. So I hope you will stay with me as I spend more time creating just for the heck of it!
Sherrie, I feel some weight have lifted with just making the decision, and not having to think of the next class I need to create, or that I really needed to start marketing the other classes again. I can continue to play. I’m not saying I’ll never teach again, but not that way. Selling is difficult. I was so disappointed in my sales at the art council’s Christmas sale, but I know I’m not alone. Love your stuff. Thanks for chiming in.
I am happy to hear that you will continue with your blog! I do not often get around to trying out the techniques that you share because of lack of energy and having to priorities everything I do in life due to health issues and will turn 74 soon. I mainly focus on a couple of things although I love to read your blogs as they are very informative and interesting. You mentioned PDF that are still available and suggested we download before Oct? I am not sure where to find them. Are they part of the topics on bottom of pages or separate> I am most interested in all the different color splits with the dyes when doing ice dyeing. Is it available? Many thanks, I often have wondered how you can manage to keep house, garden, teach, blog , etc. and still have “me” time. Nice to hear that you will be doing more of that!
Couldn’t agree more–do what you love, move on when it’s time, enjoy life. Time starts moving faster now that we are ‘aging’ and there is more urgency to exploring all the things!!! We can wish that fiber art was monetized more, but that won’t keep us from creating it…because we MUST.
Thanks for the kind words about me and my art.
Claudia, The message was for my Icy Delights students. They needed to log into the classroom and download the pdfs. Thank you for your kind words about the blog. Yes, all of it has gotten to me – something had to go. Thanks for stopping by and commenting.
Kathy, Yep, you are so right. Thank YOU for those beautiful cards and your inspiring blog.