Pursuit of Color

I mentioned that I was consciously trying to use more color in my art making.
I am your basic neutral color gal - white is a wonderful color- as is cream, gray and black.
And rust.
Love the color that rust gives up.

I talked about the colorful monoprints that I made in this post.

Here is another colorful  monoprint posting.

I love to see artists use bold color and I almost envy their command of it.
But I have never really used a lot in my own artwork.
So I have set out to do a few small pieces doing just that.

Here's the beginning of the first one.

lovely sheers atop handpainted cottons

vintage purple sheer (not a lace or a sheer but...an open fabric.
I guess.

thermofax print

running stitch over screen print with reverse applique

yummmmm

More color to come!

MonoStitching

I took one of the monoprints that I didn't really like and screen printed the (hand drawn) design on it.
The screen print image is the stitching guide as well.

You can see several painted layers on the fabric - magnolia leaves (in white).
The orange-ish portion was from a vine in our yard.
I rolled a transparent blue paint onto the plate then placed the vine stem onto the gelli plate.  I then removed the stem before pulling the print.

I drew out a design that I saw on a kleenex box, then created a thermofax screen out of it.
I screen printed it onto the top of the fabric surface.
It's in white, well light grey now that I think about it.
It is also under the red thread. I used it as a stitching guide.
Boy, did it make the hand stitching easier!

And just for grins, here is the back of the fabric.
I love the way the design looks that way as well.

It's just an experiment at this point.
It may or may not go into another piece.
Either way I am enjoying the meditative action of pulling thread.

Teaching Schedule Updated- May Classes In Virginia

Please check the "Teaching Schedule" tab to find out about my May classes in Alexandria Virginia at Artistic Artifacts.
I'm excited to be teaching a few classes this summer and hope that you will join me!

I'll be teaching the ever popular Bound By Heart, Made By Hand book class. Everyone is always so excited about the books that they make in this class,
It has started more than one addiction to book making...

Also on the schedule is a Reverse Applique Fingerless Glove class (what a mouthful!). This is an easy, yet oh so beautiful (mostly) hand stitching class. You will leave with the most beautiful pair of fingerless gloves you have ever had!
Class includes instruction in hand stitching, beading, reverse applique along with thermofax screen printing.

The last workshop is the Quarterly Journal Dress (published in the Feb-Mar 2013 issue of Quilting Arts magazine).
 We will create a dress inspired by an antique christening gown and learn to turn vintage (and other) papers into fabric collage sheets, tricks to stitching on paper and how to use acrylic mediums to your advantage.

Check out the Artistic Artifacts website for more details or email them at sales@artisticartifacts.com.

These are all post SAQA events. I do hope that those of you that are in town for that event will stay over for more play with us!
Book your spot before the classes all fill up!

Modern Hand Stitching

My friend, Ruth Chandler, has a new book on the market.

"Modern Hand Stitching" is a great primer to ditching the tedious, perfectly reproduced (yet beautiful) embroidery of yesterday and allowing your creative muse to take over!

The table of contents is broken down into six different categories of stitches from the embroidery dictionary.

Straight stitches, Building Stitches, Cross Stitches, Knots, Chain Stitches and Couching & Wrapping.

Ruth has included tutorials on 38 stitches from the embroidery dictionary.There are step by step photos illustrating the traditional way to create each stitch.
Then she offers a plethora of free-form variations for each one, often showing completed pieces of artwork to showcase the stitch or combination of stitches.

While I do think that experienced hand stitchers will benefit from this book, it's the person that is wanting to approach free form stitching that will really get the most bang for the buck.
It's full of "food for thought" to get your muse up and running.

Check it out here and be sure to leave a review on Amazon after you receive it!

What's On Your Table?

Here's a sampling of what is on mine.

Outside -

Outside work table, full of rust that I use for dyeing

And inside -

I use a couple of types of sewing thread in my hand stitching.
Usually variegated.

I place mohair tendrils
(or "trimmings" if you want to leave the poetry out of the picture)
on the felted base, then stitch over them for this
lovely curly-cue shape.
No thinking involved (during the stitching process that is).

couching down naturally dyed crochet thread

silk /cotton thread that accepts eucalyptus dye beautifully
(available at Christine Mauersberger's shop )
(this is dyed with euca from one of the trees in my yard)

I cannot get enough of those French Knots!
Especially beautiful on top of rusted batting.

Can you see the Spanish Moss that I captured under the
netting? It is in the left hand side of the photo.
This is one way to preserve memories - add things
that you collected during trips.
This one came from Charleston SC on a kayaking trip.
I felted the moss, netting and scrim onto the wool base.

Well, another piece of the fiber collage has been stitched.
By hand, that is.
What lovely plant matter shall I machine stitch on top of this one?

Dyed, Felted and Stitched

I think that I might use the smaller dyed, felted and stitched pieces for a larger collage piece.
Maybe.

As you all know, that plan may change as time goes by.
But for now, it looks like a good idea.

Here is one small piece that I have completed.

Click to enlarge and see the wonderful texture in this piece.

The base is a piece of wool from a repurposed skirt that I had previously felted some type of fibers onto.
I no longer like the colors (well I liked them but didn't want to work with them right now and I needed a good base). I just felted over what was already there.
I felted small scraps of rusted and naturally dyed fabrics & fibers onto the base with a machine felter.
I also added a small amount of Spanish Moss (under dyed scrim) and paper that was dyed with leaves and rust.
Then I spent a few hours over the weekend sweating over some hand stitching (read "stitching while watching a movie or two").

It was beautiful at that point but why stop there, right?

I decided to add machine embroidery too. (Or do you call it "thread sketching"?)
The sketch comes from a Dover publication about microscopic plant forms (although the above sketch does not look  like a microscopic view...).

I really like the color combination though.
I dyed (well I assisted Mother Nature with the dyeing) most of the items that I used in this small piece, which btw, measures apx. 5 x 6.5 inches (apx. 13 cm x 16.5 cm).
In this scan, the piece is damp from being rinsed off...so the colors will lighten a little bit (but not a lot).

I have done a bit of machine stitching on the larger piece that I was working on (the grayish one in earlier posts).
I'll post photos when I get a chance to take one or two.

I hope that you're all doing well and flexing those creative muscles every day.
It truly is a matter of "if you don't use you, you lose it".
By flexing that muscle, you will begin to find inspiration and ideas at every turn.

Happy creating!

Felted Needle Case

I have another project I completed a while back that I have not posted photos of.

I helped my buddy, Liz Kettle, in one of her Art & Soul workshops last year.
It was a machine felting class.
I had never tried machine felting before (only needle felting) so I was excited to learn as I helped her.

I felted the base of the piece while in the classroom - a very quick, very basic machine felting.
Very quick and easy since I was (mostly) helping out.

I was undecided about what I was going to make out of the felted base until the very end. I considered creating a small book cover, a small clutch or something like that.
I really didn't want to make a fold-over book (with the signatures that are stitched into the book) since I knew that it would fill up quickly (or not at all).
And I didn't really need a small clutch that fancy (since I was beading it) so I let it  just sit there for a bit while I made my mind up.

One day I picked it up and went back to work on it (without a notion of what the end project would be) because I just loved the hand stitching so much.
While stitching, I misplaced (lost) one of my favorite needles and I found myself wishing that I had a needle case to put them in.

Heyyyyyy...a needle case.

So I decided right then to do just that - make a fancy needle case.
And I am so glad that I did!
All I have to do now is grab it and I am set for ANY type of hand stitching.

Here's several (a lot) of photos cause I just love the close-ups of the tedious, I mean small and creative, stitching.

It's about 4 x 6 inches when folded up.

It looks like I used a piece of black wool or thick commercial
felt as the base for machine felting.

I backed the case with commercial felt (thin) and made
the "pages" from wool that I gathered from
an old skirt. It really made the pages
nice and thick.

I just noticed that I still have the wrap around cording
pinned in place. I did this when I was trying to decide
how long to make my cording.
I'll try to remember to fix that (lol).

I braided beautiful hand dyed gimp for the wrap around closure.

lots and lots of stitching

lots and lots of beading

The green thread to the left of the green yarn (on the right)
is sewing thread.  I used a lot of that in the stitching.
My friend Liz donated a lot of the other thread as I didn't have
a lot of embroidery thread (I am working to remedy that though).

Well, I am feeling pretty good about sharing not one but TWO completed projects on my blog recently!

I wish that there was a way for all of you to share yours with me.

Oh wait. 

There is!

You could leave a comment with a link to your projects or just email me with that info. I'd really love to see them.

Would you do that?

I'd love to see them!

I don't read as many blogs as I use to. Not many at all.

For a couple of reasons - it can suck up so much time and I don't really want to flavor my own work with everyone else's work.

And Pinterest - wow weeee. 

I can hardly go there without spending AT LEAST an hour or more looking around!

Lots of beautiful things there though.

Anyway, send me links to your projects!!

Kindle Cover

I just remembered that I never posted the completed Kindle cover.
Silly, forgetful me, right?

I finished all of the stitching (and there is a ton of it there) and let it sit for a week or two.
Why?
Good question.
My answer is this - I guess I was afraid that I would "mess it up". The work that I had done and the purchased cover.
My husband reminded me that we paid less than $20 for the cover, why worry when it could be replaced in an easy enough manner.
True, true.

So, results be damned (in a way), I grabbed the items I needed to put the whole thing together.
Heavy adhesive (Golden Regular Gel), binder clips (I use those a lot)

(is "alot" a word or not? My spell check highlights it and it's not in the "real" dictionary but everyone writes it that way).
OMG! I just went to dictionary.com to check spelling and that very thing was one the topics of the day there.
(FYI it is "a lot" not "alot")
(but wth does it really matter on this blog?)

Where was I...?
Oh, yes, grabbed the stuff that I needed to finally finish the cover.
Then glued it in place.
I put clips on it to hold it in place until the gel dried and placed weights on top of it.
And waited...

If you read my blog or know me, you are well aware of my penchant for creating things "by the seat of my pants". Better known as making things without an end plan or directions or a lot of fore thought.
One of those "hey, I've got an idea!" kinda things.

I make some cool stuff but I screw up a lot of stuff too...
This project worked out pretty good but I did learn a couple of things that I would do differently.

I would not use the binder clips next time. They did a fantastic job holding things in place but a couple of them did leave small indentation on one corner. It's not a big deal and really, it's barely noticeable to anyone but me. And I barely notice it anymore (lol).
But all the seam, I'd try to figure out some other way. something that would hole it in place but not have so much pressure on it. I used the clips around the edges, trying to keep things in place since they can shirt.

Oh, and one good thing I did I did was this -
do not put glue on the spine of the cover.
It allows a little "wiggle" room for the cover.
Plus it makes it easier to attach the two.

So - here you go.
Here's the beautiful cover that I love. That makes my Kindle MY Kindle.

You should totally make one too!

I've read that you should never post a photo that you have to apologize for.
I just won't apologize then!
I wanted to post the finished project and did not have the time (or inclination) to set up a photo booth to get better shots.

There you have it - weeks of work (albeit sporadic), a handful of supplies and a new passion for felting base surfaces.

Have you made anything for yourself lately?
I am usually working on samples, things to sell or things for other people.
When I go to a class or something like that, I rarely have anything to show that I made for myself.
I decided that I am going to change that!
So far I have made a needle case, a travel bag for paints/pens and such, a Kindle cover and a travel sketchbook bag (an altered sports bag).

What have you made for yourself?
Show me!

Things I Do To Pass The Time

I've been stitching away, slowly and thoughtfully, on the piece in the previous post.
Here's another area or two that I've got around to running thread through.

I liked the darker area when I added it but not so much now

A blend of DMC thread and natural dyed (gray) thread.

A small scrap of well worn canvas being stitched onto the piece.

I am still stitching circles on everything.

beautiful silk thread over organza and a bamboo blend fabric

So I will continue to take my time with this piece since it is feeling right to do that.

I do have an idea for display on this one. I'll have to try it out soon.

I wanted to dye some thread with walnut leaves and decided to throw some paper in there as well.

Oh, walnut, how I love thee!

The color are so rich and I am always surprised by the variety of colors that I get.

I needed a darker color of thread, so I clipped my paper with binder clips. That is such an easy way to change the colors that nature offers to us.

Here's a few photos of the paper (watercolor).

Be sure to click on this one to see the color variety on the paper.

Look at those beautiful lines!

a note reminding me that I left thread in the pot

I just stuck the entire stem into the paper signature.
Won't this be beautiful to sketch into?

marks from the binder clips

If you click o the photos, you can really see the different colors that I obtained.

I had not done anything to the paper (other than allow it to dry) so the pages are wrinkled and warped.

Some pressure under a stack of books and a little heat from the iron should take care of that though.

I've also been updating my Etsy shop with more thermofax screens.

I'll do another post with some images from that.

It's cooler here in South Carolina and I am loving it.

Kinda...

I love the cooler temps and the crisp air but it sure does play havoc on achy joints.

Getting old is not for sissies, is it?