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Archive for the ‘12X12 challenge’ Category

Pop Art Identity

Monday, June 1st, 2009

opartidentity

The Twelve by 12 group had the theme of identity for this month’s challenge. I had to get mine done early because of the trip to Kansas City. To execute this, I did a thumb print which I scanned and played with in Photoshop. I zoomed into the center whorl. I printed the patterns on Wonderunder and fused the pattern to the fabric and then fussy cut the pattern using small scissors and and Exacto knife. This was then fused to the complement fabric. I hand dyed the fabric and purchased matching thread so that the stitching would not interfere with the pattern. I flipped the thumbprint for two of the blocks to create the undulating pattern.

Here is a detail.

opartidentitydetail

You can read more about it on the Twelve by 12 blog and see the amazing pieces done by the other 11. I am always so impressed with the thought that they put into their work.

Today I took a class on photography textiles. So, I have no photos!! But I learned a lot about my camera and using the manual setting and also about lighting a piece. I thought shooting work outside in the shade was sufficient, but no!! I will be getting proper lights, soon.

In lieu of my own photos, I will share a couple of photos taken by my adorable friend from Toronto — Anu. She is home now and e-mailed some photos she took. Here are the two of us, which she took to show her husband. I have loved meeting the young members, especially the student members.

kansas-trip-024

Here is a photo she took of Judy and I at the picnic on Thursday evening.

kansas-trip-023

I am going home tomorrow. Woo hoo. Can’t wait.

Winding Down

Sunday, May 31st, 2009

spidersculpture

This is a photo of the spider sculpture on the front lawn of the Kemper Art Museum. One day, I caught this squirrel hanging out on the spider.

squirrelonspider

Most every one has departed from Kansas City. We have one week of post-conference workshops that start tomorrow. I will get latecomers checked in tomorrow morning. After that, I am taking Digital Photography for Textile Artists — a one day workshop. I will be packing up and heading home on Wednesday.

This morning, I heard a lecture by Jerry Bleem about Unconscious Advice for the Self-Conscious. His premise was that we often enter our studios with goals: the next show, the next sale, success. He asked us to see what we might learn from artists who ignore career, market and style. He proceeded to entertain us with the wonderful world of the self-taught and the visionary as he entertained us with slides of outsider artists. This is something that I often think about. Just doing the art for the sake of doing the art can be very fulfilling.

Next, I enjoyed a demo of Using Soy Wax Three Ways, by Jane Dunnewold.

janedunnewold

The three ways are stamping, folding and dipping and stenciling. Here is a piece with dye brushed on after stamping with a stamp cut from a sponge.

soywaxspongestamp

This is a piece that was dyed, soy waxed, discharged and then printed with a screen to get a very complex surface.

janesoywaxdischargeetc

I added some more photos of the wearable art to my Flickr.

Tomorrow is June 1 and the reveal of the latest Twelve X 12 reveal. The challenge was identity. Be sure to go over and see what we have done.

Neighborhood Color

Saturday, May 2nd, 2009

Before we take the neighborhood tour, some fiber talk. I finished quilting my 12 X 12 identity piece.  I have to finish off the corners of the satin stitching and photograph it and I can check it off my list of things to do before Kansas City. I also finished the scrap piece that I started when Mia was here on Thursday. This is Scrap 050209.

scrap050309

These are only about 3″ by 5″. This one has scraps of an old silk dress of mine and a blouse that belonged to Sue Benner’s mother.

Today when we took Maggie for a walk, I took my camera along. You know it is spring and the end of the semester, when Reed College puts up signs telling us we can’t come on campus until next Monday and things like this spring up on the lawn. The event starts with a parade of seniors, through a throng of students accompanied by exuberant music, as they turn in their senior theses.

reedrenfair09

This was parked on the street with some weirdly dressed folks coming and going.

busonbus1

busonbus2

It was a beautiful morning. We had lots of rain later in the day, but with plenty of sun breaks. I took som photos of some of the beautiful color. All of the photos can be seen in my Eastmoreland Neighborhood Flickr Set.

RED: Japanese Maples and chairs

neighborhoodred

FUCHSIA: Azaleas

neighborhoodfuchsia

PURPLE: Ajuga

neighborhoodpurple

YELLOW:

neighborhoodyellow

PINK: Dogwood in our backyard

neighborhoodpink

GREEN: Our front yard

ourneighborhoodgreen

Mr C and I went out for dinner and now we are watching the first season of The Tudors. The costumes and sets are just incredible. Being Episcopalian, this story was part of our theology class last year. I love seeing the different ways this story has been told. This one is quite spectacular. I must say, I have never seen such an attractive Henry, before.

Spurned and Moving On

Wednesday, April 29th, 2009

Snickers/Scooter was given to someone else today. The husband came home from work with the news that a co-worker wanted the pup. I guess it all worked out since I have not heard that he is available again. I was very sad. I really felt that he was meant to be our boy. I moped around a lot today. Call me crazy!!

This afternoon, I finally got my act together and went out to the closest store with thread and bought some to quilt the identity piece. Pretty good color matching.

identitythread

While at the beach, I started doing some hand stitching on this funky tree piece that i started way back when in a class with Rayna. I pulled the stitching out because it was too regular. I am going to start over. While we were there, we found this strange little bead store with great prices. Terry blogged about it here. I found some embellishments that might work with this piece.

funkytreeembelishments

We got the organic fertilizer worked into the garden beds and placed the plants around. I will go down to plant them in the morning, if I get a nice sun break like we had this afternoon. I bought a set of Wells Lamont garden gloves at Costco. I just love them – great color!!

limegreengloves

There is a glove for every need. I especially like the ones that are waterproof for working in sopping wet soil!!

Tomorrow, I get to have a visit from Miss Mia while Steph takes Miles to an appointment. This may be a standing Thursday play date. I’m excited.

A Boring Monday

Monday, April 20th, 2009

It was a beautiful day, again. I had to spend a lot of my day taking care of registration details for the SDA conference. The work is not as intense, now. Stuff sort of dribbles in and I let it pile up for a few days. I had theology class tonight so I had to do some homework this afternoon.

Tonight, I did some more cutting on the pieces for my 12 X 12 challenge. I can’t really show you what I am doing, but here are my scraps. What can you tell from this?

whatisit

That’s all from here!