Crazy for Fiber | The artful creations of a high fiber Grandma with occasional political rants

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Go Figure

September 16th, 2014

Grabbed this from my daughter, Lisa’s blog because it suits what I am feeling about my creative life. Since we decided to move, about a year ago, my creative life has taken a back seat. I have been pondering lately about whether or not I should continue making art. It is more difficult for me to get in my groove – sneak down to the studio and play and find something that gets my juices flowing. My little studio is not as easy for me. It has been too hot to be there. I have felt distracted and unmotivated with only little bursts of art making that has made me happy.

Then, this week, I found out that my Kelp Dance quilt sold at the American Art Company gallery in Tacoma. I was told that only two pieces in the show have sold. That bit of news has buoyed my spirits (plus the fun of getting back to printing art cloth with Rayna last week). So, I look forward to cooler weather and more time to get my creative groove on. Never mind that deadlines for all the important shows have just passed me by!! There is always something coming up.

I barely survived 4.5 hours in the dentist chair yesterday morning. It was grueling. They removed two crowns and a bridge and prepared my eye tooth for a crown. I must say that the temporary dentures look quite good. I came home and got a fever and spent the rest of the day wrapped in a blanket. I feel a bit better today. I hope to go to SAQA tomorrow and then Thursday, I will have my STASH group here.

Posted in My creations | 5 Comments »

Fabric Printing Day Two

September 13th, 2014

Whew, I am exhausted from my week of hosting Rayna and the two days of workshop. I totally crashed last night – I might as well have been in a coma. I took Rayna to the airport this morning and then we went to the farmer’s market. I spent the afternoon dozing and working on SDA membership stuff.

I came away from the workshop with a few pretty good pieces. The piece up at the top was transformed from this. It was first printed with newspaper resist on a screen. Then I added yellow orange circles and some black marks made with a mesh type of ribbon. Finally, I used a syringe to add the squiggly lines.

Here is a detail:

This was another silk scarf that had some very pale marks when I used an anemic black dye for printing. I used the newspaper resist screen and olive green ink followed by purple lines using one of my favorite Stencil Girl stencils.

This piece was started with newspaper resist and then I used the school glue screen with mix of orange and yellow. The screen was starting to break down and I love how it turned out.

Here is a detail:

This next piece started as a piece of muslin that I was using for test prints.

I kept printing on it and then painted the whole thing with Dynaflow chartreuse paint.

The next piece was something I had in my stash. You can see the bottom section. I am not sure what I did to get those circles and marks. I printed over it with the glue resist screen of circles using purple paint. Not excited about it, but who knows what use I might find for it.

Lastly, here is my printing surface after a lot of printing. I always love how the printing surface is so spontaneous looking.

All in all, it was a great week. I am not looking forward to Monday. I am having 4 hours of dental work as they remove the disintegrating bridge from my upper right side. I will get a temporary put in and hope I don’t have to wait to long for the final fix.

Posted in Art Cloth, Mark making, painting fabric, screenprinting, Surface Design Techniques | 2 Comments »

Rayna is Here and 50th Wrap-UP

September 11th, 2014

Rayna Gillman, long time internet friend, is here in Portland. She lectured at our guild meeting Wednesday and is teaching screen printing techniques today and tomorrow. She arrived on Monday night and so we had a fun day on Tuesday taking the street car downtown to shop and have lunch.

I was hoping that her workshop would get me back in the creative mood and it is working. That piece up there has a background done with torn masking tape and then construction fence resist over that. The yellow background is a hand dye. I am planning to do a black print on top of this, not sure what, yet.

This piece is the start of something. I used a newspaper resist to print these lines on a pale olive cotton.

I took some unsuccessful silk scarves that I hope to rescue. Here is the first one.

I used a turquoise printing ink and a squishy whisk. I think it has been transformed.

I prepared a screen with a washable school glue resist for using tomorrow.

There are 22 people in the worship and they are all doing some fantastic work. I will try to get some photos tomorrow.

On Sunday, we celebrated our 50th anniversary at Trinity. Our friend, Heidi Rose, made 300 macarons and created a tower for the coffee hour after church.

She put two of each flavor in a box for us to take home.

Today, Lisa sent me photos that were taken at our celebration in California. You have to love this one of little Miss Paige photo-bombing the family.

Lisa selected two photos of the whole family:

I really love this one of Mr C and I.

So that is a little bit of what has been happening in my life. It has been especially fun to hang out with Rayna. Tonight we went out for sushi and ice cream.

Posted in Art Cloth, Family, Mark making, Paige Ada, Surface Design Techniques, workshop | 3 Comments »

Half a Century Flew By

September 5th, 2014

We arrived home Tuesday from our 50th anniversary sojourn to California and back. I took many photos in the car and at the beach house and still, I missed some important people. I have tons of our vivacious Paige and none of her beautiful mother. I will share what I have. I was hoping for the professional photos taken on Saturday morning, but I do not have those, yet.

We hit the road, with Scooter, on Wednesday and drove along the beautiful Umpqua River Valley to the Oregon Coast where we stayed in a less than stellar motel. Brookings seems to be a long series of strip malls along Hwy. 101. We picked up takeout at the grocery and ate dinner in the motel with Scooter.

The next day, we headed south on 101 to California. We stopped at an Elk viewing area. We could see them far away, but not close enough for photos. It was a pretty area with a creek and beautiful grasses and cat tails.

We stopped for lunch in the Victorian village of Ferndale. I found a vegetarian restaurant with lots of gluten free options and an outdoor seating are. Mario, the owner was a delight to talk to, and he brought Scooter water and a plate of food.

At some point, we left Hwy. 101 and took the winding, hairpin turns of Rte. 1 on our way to Mendocino. We had to stop soon after so that I could drive. I get car sick easily and if I drive, I do better. We drove through beautiful redwood forests for much or our drive in CA. I love the smell of these old forests.

We love Mendocino and have spent many fun times there over our the time we lived in CA. We stayed in the little yellow cottage in this photo.

The cottage was a special one for guests with dogs. Scooter enjoyed it.

We walked around Mendocino and picked up some breakfast food. I loved this yarn bombed tree.

For dinner, we got room service from the Inn at Little River. It was delicious.

On Friday, we found our way back to Hwy 101 and drove to our old home town, Santa Rosa, to pick up some needed supplies for the beach house. We arrives in Bodega Bay at our big house on the golf course in time for a quick lunch before the family started arriving. The weather was fantastic all week-end. We had blue skies and warm sunshine the whole time we were there, a rarity on the coast of N. California.

The view of the bay from our patio.

We had egrets and herons making regular visits to our backyard.

Jayme and Mark did not arrive until late on Friday night after she finished her stint at SF General in the NIC ward. She had a grueling month doing a practice residency in pediatrics so she was really ready for some R & R. The rest of us went out to dinner at Rocky Oysterfellas in Valley Ford.

On Saturday, our children prepared a beautiful feast for Saturday evening. There was much coming and going, looking for all the ingredients. In the meantime, my puzzle helpers and I worked on this.

Here is the food they prepared.

That last dish is salmon. Mark bought a whole salmon and had it fileted. He saved the head and trimmings which were used to make chowder the next day.

Lisa and Clay brought gluten free and delicious cake and cupcakes for the kids.

The cake was very tempting for little miss Paige.

Steve’s brother, Mike, and wife, Ann, came up from Southern California. So good to see them.

Here is Ann with her daughter, Jessica, who lives in the area.

All the cousins were having a great time in the garage/game room.

Miles and Jess’s daughter, Viola.

Paige and Jess’s daughter Celeste.

They look a little somber, but they were really having a fun time.

Here is Mia, taking a break from the pandemonium.

Mark – my handsome son and super dad.

Lisa, relaxing in the sun.

Clay and Wilfredo.

So, I didn’t get photos of the elusive Jack, Stephanie and Jayme. I got lots of photos of Paige!! Here she is in the fort that Clay made out of pillows.

It was a fun day and we greatly appreciate all the work that went into this by our children and their partners.It was what I most wanted – a relaxing time with the family. Mr C and I are so proud of the accomplishments of all of them. We are truly blessed.

On Sunday, the Barnes family left to get back to Portland for the start of school for M & M. Lisa and Clay went home so that Lisa could get back to work on her latest book which had a deadline of this week.

We enjoyed time with Mark and Jayme and Paige. Mark made this incredible chowder for us.