Artist Profile: Susan Strangway

Canadian artist Susan Strangway's art is hard not to notice.  Her playful designs and color really bowled me over.
I asked Susan if she had a philosophy to her work and she responded "to me art is life and life is art."  She said her biggest artistic statement is her home. 











The home of Susan Strangway and Weave Cleaveland is filled with her fabric, art, altered items and unique vision to a beautiful, whimsical effect. 

The couple owned a beautiful Art Deco home which was well loved in their community.  Sadly, the home was too delerlict and needed to be torn down.  The couple then built a new home which became the canvas to their unique vision.

They were approached this last holiday season to open their home to tours for charity for the Nite of Hope breast cancer fundraiser along with other community homes.  See below for your own mini virtual tour.

Susan and her dog

Susan's home may be her favorite canvas, however she continues to work on other projects.  She designs fabrics on Spoonflower, creates items to sell such as tea towels and aprons and has been commissioned to create embroidery designs.

My family considers itself lucky that we have access to Susan's work via her Spoonflower shop called Orangefancy.  My daughter loves her new Strawberry Dance lycra dance leggings.

 

Sprout Bags

This week I was able to finish the three lined zippered pouch projects that I purchased from Sprout Patterns.  The pouches are approximately 9 in x 6.25 in.  On the Sprout patterns site, you select a pattern and then handpick fabrics from the Spoonflower site to fill in the pattern template.  The designs I selected seemed to be scaled down from the original size shown on the Spoonflower site.
 This one I call Protea pouch and it uses the patterns: Primary - Colour Maps by candyjoyce; Botanical Bloom by fizah_malik.










I imagine this woodsy themed one as an excellent gift bag with a shaving set.  It uses patterns:  Paint by number woodland animals by hollycejeffriess and Life on the great reef by edsel2084.

Lastly, is my chicken pouch.  State Fair Poultry Barn by rubydoor and Fairground Fireworks - Fuschia by rhondadesigns.

This weeks contest entry is on 80's hair.  I lived through that and even got my hair to some pretty big heights back in the day with the help of Aquanet.  My entry, 80's Hairclips focuses on all of the hair accessories I wore back then.  Please consider voting.

80's Hairclips

Golden Monkeys for Chinese New Year and a Free Swatch!

This week’s Spoonflower challenge theme is monkeys in honor of Chinese New Year coming up on February 8^th. Chinese temple decorative patterns with their bright color palette were my inspiration for color and style.  I also wanted incorporate a monkey from China.  When I saw the golden monkey I felt it had excellent graphic possibilities.  They really have such unusual coloring.  Please consider voting.

Golden Monkeys

Today Spoonflower is also offering a new material, Cotton Spandex Jersey as a free swatch for you to try.  I hope you will check out my shop while you are there.  Pick it up anytime between 10am EST today through 10am EST tomorrow.