Blue All Over

Using the ExPort bag of goodies I connected five undyed fabrics, embellished, folded, tore and generally created texture.

The resulting panel became " Blue all Over".  It was dyed with procion dye as one piece.  The canvas and the cottons  each took the dye  a little differently.  The raveled edges of the tears took the dye differently than the woven pieces.  The orange rubbings acted as a resist and show well against the blue.  There are five sections, each worked differently and  seamed together. The piece is edged with blue jean material.

I covered and sleeved a piece of heavy pellon with white cotton and mounted the paned, unquilted.  I am please with the experiment and I hope to dye after quilting and/or embellishing  in the future.

Artichokes, peas and cucumbers with a little lemon

One of our art group members suggested we open our refrigerator and use what we see as inspiration.  I used this opportunity to try a few new techniques.  Golden acrylic products include a product that causes their acrylic paints to bleed and spread on fabric.  I started this piece with a white foundation painted with Golden Flow and green acrylic paint, making heavier coverage in places.

Using upholstery fabric I thread painted and appliqued artichokes, fabric peas and cucumbers covered with shiny organza to make them appear wet.  I finished with pea vines and appropriate quilted details.  It was a very whimsical piece, a big stretch for me.  I love the painting technique and I am very satisfied with the final result of our refrigerator inspiration.

2014 New Year's Resolution

If I am going to have a blog to read, I need to publish!  So easy. ha ha!  I decided to do a blog so my friends and family could follow what I am doing creatively.  My creativity has been stuttering and therefore my blog has stuttered as to be non-existent.  I apologize to my readers.  It is my resolution this New Year's eve to be more actively creative and to share my experiments and works of the heart on a more consistent basis.

I have been reading "The Artist's Way" by Julia Cameron.  Much to cover and good for the creative soul.  I have not been good about writing morning pages everyday nor doing an art activity once a week.  But, I have learned a lot about myself and my art.

If I was not spending my time creating, between all the other time consuming requirements and enjoyments of life, I really cannot image what I would be doing instead.  I like doing this.  Mixed media art includes everything I enjoy, sewing, quilting, painting, design and I enjoy the challenge of doing it well.  The statistics of doing a really good piece is one in ten.  So, I need to keep working, and sharing.

ExPort Challenge - bag of goodies

Our art group challenge for the month of May was to use at least 4 items from a goodie bag distributed to each member.  I really did not have a preconceived idea for how to use the items I picked out for the bags. (It was my challenge.)  Each baggie had some yarn, linen thread, small diameter hemp twine, a vinyl rectangle, 5 brass rivets, three buttons, a piece of textured wallpaper, a small rectangle of Formica. a small cupcake paper and a 2.5 x 3.5 inch index card. 

I decided to make a quilt and then dye it.  I have been reading C June Barnes' book, Stitching to Dye in Quilt Art and was taken with the concept.  I put together 5 non-straight, about the same width, panels of cotton, silk and canvas fabric, with pieces of dark blue denim (cut off from shortening jeans) on the right and left edges.  I used Shiva paint stick in orange and rubbed the wallpaper design onto the outside two panels of cotton.  I sewed pieces of the vinyl onto the canvas panel and added some rivets.  I used the buttons under the fabric and sewed them tightly like a yoyo, used the linen thread to gather some of the panels and added three strips of batting to the right side cotton panel as an embellishment.  I layered batting and backing and finished only the left and right edges up to the denim, which is a single layer. The top and bottom edges were left uneven and unfinished.  I slit the silk layer in several places to expose the batting and frayed the edges of the slits.  I made sure the piece was not square, pulling the bottom right side askew and adding more rivets to that part to pull the eye across the piece.  All in all, it looked pretty ratty, uneven, unfinished and a mishmash of whites and creams.  I planned to dye it blue when the quilt was finished.  Each panel was quilted through the batting and backing in a fold back and stitch method at the panel edge, until the last panel which was turned to finish.  I quilted a few small sections with free motion quilting to add a little more interest and texture.  The family reviews at this point were very subdued.

Here are a few pictures of the piece at this point in the process:

 

 

You will have to wait for the next step.

Thermal Run Off Series #6

I am finally finishing some of the Thermal Run Off series that  I started last summer.  The wall paper for this blog is from #1 in the series, an acrylic painting with paper and fiber.

Here is #6 - a fiber companion to the acrylic pieces I created in a series class with Heather Thomas.

 

 

This is a three layer sandwich finished with rat tail edging and mounted on  black fabric covered stretcher bars.

 

I used professionally hand dyed fabric, upholstery fabric, acrylic paint, brown knit fabric with metallic threads, and acrylic painted Misty Fuse.  Some areas were padded with batting to provide contour.  Quilting created flow and movement.  The analogous colors are a bit brighter than most of the natural thermal run off, but it is in keeping with the heat of the water.  The metallic paint recreates the light reflection off the moving water and the darker areas portray the slower pooling of debris and decay.

 

 



 

April's Art project

Our monthly art group was given the challenge to pass art forward in random anonymous ways.  We meet Wednesday to share our methods, if the weather holds and allows us an hour's drive time.

I am still working through photo shop elements and spruced up some  pictures of spring flowers taken in our garden and Mom's in past years.  Using white bond and art papers, I made cards to fit some envelopes I have had in a drawer.  I gave them to strangers with no conversation.  Most were addressed "For You" and said "Have a Nice Day" inside.  I have no idea what kind of responses were made.  I hope the recipients smiled.

We have two new members joining our group this month.  I am very happy with our group.   It is comforting, supportive, sharing and motivating.  How good is that?

 

New Medium - PhotoShop Elements

I was so inspired by one of my art friend's work with Adobe Photoshop Elements 11, I bought it for myself.  So, I have been experimenting, making art and doing my March and April, Art Group projects, all at the same time.

In March the group was assigned to photograph and create a presentation of things they love in their city that they see every day, or go often to enjoy.  I modified the assignment and photographed bazaar and unusual lawn decoration in my neighborhood.

I had recently purchased Golden's white digital ground.  I used it on art paper and tore the edges before mounting it on very cool construction paper.

Here is an example-

These "Wizards" are the carved stump of a very large tree on a corner lot.  They each sport a santa hat during Christmas.  I was very pleased with the ground and will experiment with other Golden products in their 'mixed media' group.