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Archive for the ‘painting fabric’ Category

Eureka!

Thursday, June 23rd, 2011

For my past machine needle felting forays, I have been using prefelt for the base. It is quite thick and it gets expensive to get all the colors you want. I read someplace on the web about using water soluble stabilizer as a base for creating flat felt.

Instead of running out and buying some, I decided to look in my drawer of stabilizers. And low and behold, there was a huge sheet of Superior Water Soluble Stabilizer.

I cut a piece and laid out some fibers horizontally and vertically and started needle felting. It worked like a charm. The first photo is the front side and here is the back.

Nice! Here it is after soaking in water to remove the stabilizer.

I want to do a large piece, similar to the Twelve x Twelve piece that I did, for the special exhibit that our guild is doing at the APWQ show in Tacoma in August.

My other activity this afternoon was to try painting the gray shibori with some watered down black paint to see if I could make it grayer. It worked.

Maybe it is too gray. I might have to try again with more water.

The old deck is gone!

I have to remember that I can’t walk out of the dining room to the deck!! I think I need some of that yellow do not enter tape.

Mark and Jayme arrived at lunch time yesterday. We had a fun family dinner at a local pizza restaurant.

Miles loves rhubarb crisp, which was the dessert on the menu last night.

He was not happy about sharing it with the rest of us! Actually, we had two for the table.

Today, M and J packed up their backpacks and headed for Seattle and then they are going on to the San Juan Islands to go camping and kayaking. The will come back here next week to spend 4th of July week-end with us. Then, Jayme is going back to work on her summer research project while Mark builds our new deck.

Now What?

Thursday, March 31st, 2011

 

 

 

 

 

 

The bridge piece that took over my life did not get juried into The Space Between show. I am not at all surprised and maybe a bit relieved. I was not happy with it. Value is such an important part of design for me and this one was too medium value. The bridges were the biggest problem.

When I conceived of this quilt, I was in the winter doldrums and I wanted to portray Portland in a happy, colorful way. It just didn’t work.

Last week, Mr C and I had dinner at The Urban Farmer in downtown Portland. It is a really cool new restaurant in the Nines Hotel. They had a display of digital art on the wall. It was scenes of bridges and highways around Portland. The bridges were black silhouettes with very colorful backgrounds.


I got the idea that my bridges should have been black, but by then, it was too late. But, not now. This afternoon, I went down and attacked the bridges with black paint. It may take a couple of coats to cover the batik. Then I will edge them with black satin stitch. I am really enjoying painting the bridges. At least it is not like painting the Golden Gate Bridge!

High Fiber Diet has the theme of North West Vibes and I think I will enter this in that. It fits the theme. We shall see.

I should mention that the list of those who got into the Space Between show is filled with wonderful art quilters. I am honored that I even got invited to submit a piece.

Tonight I finished quilting the second piece that I did for the chartreuse colorplay theme. It is such a simple design, but very visually pleasing to me.

Tomorrow, I am going to take Steph out to lunch. I really enjoy having special time with her without the kiddos and the guys.

 

 

 

 

 

Painting Bridges

Monday, February 21st, 2011

I have 4 bridges drawn, cut and painted. I am quite happy with them.  I wanted to do one more bridge, but I don’t think the composition can manage one more bridge. I need to get the background done to see if I can add one more.

I tested some different paints and colors before I started painting.

I wanted to scan some Portland area maps to print on organza for this and I found out tonight that my scanner driver does not work with the Mac Snow Leopard OS. This happens every time I upgrade. Thankfully, my Epson printers work. I have a request in to Canon for some help. I hope I don’t have to buy yet another scanner.

We had an uneventful week-end. We went to Mia’s basketball game. Her school has not had basketball teams in the best so they are just getting started. They always lose by a lot of points, but it was such a thrill to see the heart and excitement that they give to the game. They are the Chinooks and they wear t-shirts that were printed with real fish.

Tonight, when I was working in the studio, I heard Scooter barking and Mr C yelling at him. Scooter ran downstairs and this is what he looks like when he knows someone is mad at him.

Don’t forget!! If you would like to buy an autographed copy of the Twelve X Twelve book and get a small piece of gericon art, click on the book in the side bar.

Studio Play Time

Thursday, January 20th, 2011


The next exercise in the Drawn to Stitch book is to add a layer of marks with variety in sharpness, width, shape, etc. I used some red paint and made marks on the black and white woven piece. Then, I almost obliterated the brown and yellow piece.  I am going to cut this one up and reassemble it. The paint was still wet when I took this photo – messy fun.

I also printed on the organza water with metallic paints using bubble wrap, a stamp with tiny dots, a sponge and even a fish.The yellow in this photo is really more green than this. Metallic paint is hard to photograph.

The second piece of organza has more white space which helps when I layer it.

I am anxious to start cutting and piecing this.

I also worked on a panel for the Dream Rocket project.

The Dream Rocket Team is collecting nearly 8,000 artworks from participants around the globe. The artwork will be assembled together to create a massive cover in which will wrap a 37 story Saturn V Moon Rocket at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama. We will also be displaying submitted artwork in dozens of national venues prior to the wrapping of the Saturn V.

The panel has to be 2 ft by 2 ft. I had a quilt that I made for an online challenge last year — a black hole. I mounted it on felt that I covered with gold metallic organza to make it the correct size.

I did some stitching on the organza and added some copper foiling to blend with the quilt. I then covered it with Golden Matte Medium. It ended up looking more gray than gold, but it still works. It will be outside in the elements so I wanted to do something to protect it. Definitely not a great work of art, but it was fun and is going to a fun project. Maybe when the matte medium is completely dry, it will look gold again.

With our health care, we get membership in an exercise program called Silver and Fit. You have a choice of facilities. Mr C goes to 24 hour Fitness. I just don’t like the mega gyms. So today, I went to the local swim and racquet club which has just started a program. I can take Pilates and yoga and work out on the machines. In the summer, I can use the pool.

I feel as if I am getting back into the swing of things. My energy level is greater and I am having a good time. If I keep throwing paint at stuff, something is bound to stick!!

Painting Water

Wednesday, January 19th, 2011

The Surface Design Association has a non-juried members’ show at the conference. The theme for the conference is Confluence, as in the meeting of two bodies of water. The conference takes place in Minneapolis where I assume two rivers meet. The title of the members show is Merge and Flow, another water reference. The piece is to be 12 inches by 26 inches, either vertical or horizontal.

I plan to do another piece like the sunset piece I did for one of the Twelve X Twelve themes. I painted the organza with several different blues and blue-greens. I placed a piece of silk under the organza which will be used as the base of the quilt.

It has to be done and photographed by Feb 1 so I must get busy. I plan to do some more surface design to the organza with some metallic paints. Then I can start cutting and sewing the little pockets.

I found a new art crush.  Her name is Ivelisse Jimenez from Puerto Rico. Her work is fascinating to me. Great color, complex layering, architectural elements, mixed media – really cool.

Ivelisse Jiménez uses painting as a point of departure to construct pieces that deal with the idea of simultaneity and contradiction. The manner in which objects, images and materials are articulated questions the hierarchies of what is most present.

The work consists of structures made out of a diversity of elements partially covered by a veil of acetate or plastic. This wall/screen serves as a connector that stops or ejects the viewer by making impossible frontal access to what is behind. The blurring of the outside panel unifies the singulars into a whole element. We can still view the inside where the elements are shown as irreducible and coexistent. Perception is relative and dependent upon the position from which it is viewed. The spectator must negotiate a series of points of view. The images are constantly shifting between integration and disintegration. They refer to the body/mind decision making process of finding a method to make something present. Jiménez is interested in structures that are parallel which exist in other configurations such as language. This act of synchronizing is finally a metaphor for the elusiveness of the balance of factors that determine the production of meaning.

So, when I saw the first piece up there, it reminded me of this piece that I made a while ago which I love, but which never gets into any show. Maybe I should start using the actual construction fence!!