Last week was a bit of a vulnerable share, showing you the work I was submitting to two juried art shows, but I really do believe in championing our own creations! Choosing myself first, declaring my work worthy enough to invest in the submission process, maybe has even more value than being chosen by someone else.

That said, it sure does feel good to get a yes!

And to get two yeses? Wow, what a week!

I'm delighted to share that one tapestry was invited for the 15th Annual Abstracts Only show at the Wailoa Center in Hilo (dropped her in the mail on Monday!) and BOTH pieces I submitted were selected for the Wondrous Light: Aurora Borealis show in Honolulu!!

The waiting really is tough, though.

I kept myself busy through the first day of waiting working on finishing up the purple tapestry. My custom panels didn't arrive in time, so I spent Saturday building my own: buying and cutting the wood, gluing the frame and front panel together, and then painting it silver (I totally looked like the Tin Man, ha ha, because I used my hand!) to dry overnight.

Sunday morning, the morning of drop off for jurying, I hammered in the 150 some odd tiny nails and then I literally mounted it onto the wood panel in the car on the way downtown to drop it off for jurying. (Shoutout to my husband for driving!)

Whew! Talk about cutting things close.

I didn't want to DIY the panel. It wasn't as well done as the professionals can make them. But it was good enough. (The painting helped to disguise some of the imperfections, too.)

While I was waiting to hear back about that show, in my antsiness (is that a word?), I decided to go ahead and start working on building a second panel for the other piece I really wanted to reframe.

Seascape I was one of my earlier tapestries and I hadn't quite worked out my preferences for framing them yet. I had built a simple frame for it and although it got it up on the wall instead of stuffed in a drawer, it was a bit saggy and I wasn't happy with the way it looked. I knew she deserved better!

Of course, that was the one piece selected for the Abstracts show!

So I got back to work building a second panel. And wouldn't you know, just as I paused after hammering in the first long side of nails, my phone pinged: my custom panels were out for delivery! Hooray!! (Two days earlier than their already much delayed arrival date estimate.)

So I stopped hammering, ha ha.

While I waited (yes, more waiting!) for the delivery, I took some side-by-side photos of the old vs. new. The difference was striking, and not just in size. One board in the old frame was a completely different color than the rest! How did I not notice that!? Or did the color shift that much in the time since I made it? It seems crazy to me now. But that's how we learn, right?

Here they are, all three (old, Connie-made, professional):

And here's a close up look at the edges (professional panel on the left, mine on the right):

Also, the maple boards I bought were WAY more work to hammer all those stinkin' nails into than the birch panels are!

But I got it done and in the mail and Seascape I is now vacationing on the Big Island!

(And it looks SO much better. To me, at least.)

Of course, I don't know if I'll get to go see it on display, so that's kind of a bummer. But I'm still excited to have gotten into the show.

To be perfectly honest, I wondered if maybe the first art show last year was a fluke or if maybe I just got lucky. But this and Aurora makes three! So I reckon it's time for me to step into the title of Fiber Artist, eh?

We're out of town for a couple weeks, so I haven't seen the Aurora show yet (it just opened yesterday!), but I'll be back home in time to visit during the final days and I can share some pictures then. I've been refreshing socials hoping for a glimpse from the gallery or organizers... but no luck yet.

If you're in Hawaiʻi or plan to visit soon, here are the show details:

​Wondrous Light: Aurora Borealis​

• Juried by Suzie Liles and Hugh Jenkins
• Presented by the Hawaiʻi Handweavers' Hui and The Glass Fusion Collective
• Downtown Art Center, Honolulu, Hawaiʻi.
• On View July 9-26, 2025

​15th Annual Abstract Only​

• Juried by Glenn Yamanoha
• Sponsored by Hawaiʻi Island Art Alliance and the Hawai’i State Parks
• Wailoa Center, Hilo, Hawaiʻi
• On View August 1-28, 2025

And here's hoping I get to see at least one of them, myself!

Fiber art is such a slow process—weeks (and sometimes months!) of planning, spinning, crocheting, trusting, refining. So when something connects, when the work resonates enough to be seen and selected, it feels like a quiet affirmation. Okay, maybe also a bit of a sigh of relief that all the time I poured into it was worth it!

Thank you, as always, for joining me for these creative adventures, and for making space for slow, thoughtful creativity in your own way, too.

Cheers!

-Connie

P.S. I forgot to download bird pictures from my big camera before we left town, but this pretty little duck let me get close today! She was playing chase with two of her sisters in the water while we ate lunch.