Working on modifying the dye painting.

 I had shown a couple of my dye painted pieces to my fibre art support group--The Fibre Art Divas.  They had several suggestions for modifying a couple of them, so today I attempted it.  This time I used acrylic paint combined with textile medium.  Any sort of thickened dye was too thick to work well with a fine paint brush and the result too weak to make any difference.

For the yellow-based piece, they agreed that the main problem was a lack of focal point.  Someone suggested adding a bird.  Well, if one bird would make a difference then five would be that much better.  Right?  The first is the original piece and the second the altered one.

I'm much happier with the altered version.

Tomorrow I'll show the altered Blue piece.  Still some work to do on that one.

Trying a new technique

 I notice that it's exactly and month since I posted.  I wonder if this is a symptom of the type of change that Covid 19 has brought to our lives. I've heard so many other fibre artists, and more traditional artists, saying that they are really struggling with finding their creativity during the last few months.  I know I certainly have.  But, suddenly, one morning the dam broke and several pieces came together.  More recently, I purchased a set videos from Design Matters tv, on using thickened dye to paint on fabric. I've certainly heard of this, as several friends have spoken of doing it, but I had never found any reason to try--until now.  So I accumulated the supplies, and prepared to get to work,  But, as the thickener used in the videos was not available in Canada ( not that I could find), and no information came with what I had purchased, I wanted more detailed information on how much Sodium Alginate to add to the water to use with the dye. I finally remembered the two books I have by Jane Dunnewold, "Complex Cloth" and "Art Cloth".  There was much more info to be found there, and over the past 3 days, I've played with the technique, making 6 different pieces of fabric in two colour ways.  I didn't vary from the actual technique demonstrated in the videos, but I did come away with several ideas for doing other things, and have now had to order even more supplies.  Here are my pieces.  The smaller ones are about 22" by 26", and the larger ones are about 26" by 36".  I have a few ideas about how they could be used, but as far as I'm concerned, I'm just going to have fun playing

Well, back in business

 Blogger has been re-organizing its site, but I think I've finally figured out how to use it again.  After a long drought, the studio is again busy.  The "fish" piece that started with an EPP'd background is finally finished.  It was started in March and has been sitting on the design wall ever since, but a flurry of activity got it done about a week ago.  I quickly learned that my FMQ'g has suffered over the past  few years, through neglect, and I really need to re- train myself to use it.  I've always taught my students that the only way to get good at it is through practice, practice practice.  Too bad I forgot that lesson myself.

 

The next piece has been pieced,  and sandwiched.  Yesterday I had  to go out to find a new can of spray baste, and today I hope to get down to quilting it.  This one too, requires FMQ'g within the area of the ferns, but the rest will just be matchstick quilting done vertically.  I'm pretty sure that it will be trimmed a little narrower on each side before it gets bound.  Since I haven't yet actually sprayed it, I didn't want to move it to take the picture, so you see it on the table .

The ferns were sun printed last spring, but since the fabric was painted not dyed, I had trouble matching the colour for fabric to use
for  piecing.  This impacted greatly on how I designed the piece, so I reverted to a fairly basic strip design.  The area  of the ferns will be FMQ'd, probably with a background in micro-stippling, done with 100 wt Kimono silk.  the rest of it will just be matchstick with matching grey cotton.

Finally back to the sketchbook

 Finally I've found the time to get back to my sketch books.  Firstly I tried a another collage, this time wanting to create something that I could use to practice using an acrylic glazing technique.  I don't think I quite made it, but here it is, such as it is.  I still haven't added the acrylic glaze, but I don't think a paler colour will add much to the finished look.

This is an older piece that I added some smaller circles to.  I believe they add to the design.  The darker corners have also been added.  They are from the same collaged painted paper towel as the larger area at the middle of the bottom.

Then I played a bit with a couple of the Thermofax screens I bought from Brandy Mazlowski.  The backgrounds had been painted some time ago.  I'm much happier with the second picture, but still feel that something is missing.  I'll go back to it again later.

Then I started dealing with some of the flowers and leaves that I've had in my flower press for the last few weeks.  The first picture shows some Alberta Roses that have bee firmly glued down with gel medium, but I have no idea what the flowers in the middle one are.  All of these pages require more work, but I have to wait until the gel medium dries before tackling that.

Finally, this is also natural leaves dried and glued down with gel medium, but I've been able to do a little more with the pages.  Firstly I used a Thremofax screen and gold Lumiere paint to put down the fainter image.  Them I made the stems with Inktense pencil and wet it, so that the gel medium wouldn't liquify it.  The leaves are from the mature American Elm that towers over my house and yard.  At one point they were a gorgeous gold colour, something that rarely occurs.  So I dried them hoping that the colour would remain true, but, of course, it didn't.  These, too, were glued down with gel medium.  Once that was dry I used a little gold oil pastel in the corners of the border, and then a mixture of  acrylic glazing medium and  Quinacridone Gold fluid acrylic, to add a little colour to the background.  I don't think it shows well in the picture. Again I'm not sure whether this needs a little more or not.  I'll have to think about it.

Going back to the beginning

 My plan, whenever I face creative block, is to do something, even if it's just to fondle fabric.  I also tidy and clean the studio, which also leads me to fondle the things I find.  Well, I found several stitched samples that I've put in my sketch book, when working on a major piece.  The pieces are long gone, ant the samples really don't serve any useful purpose, so I've re-purposed them.

This first one was a machine quilted  piece of fabric to which tiny dots had been added with metallic fabric paint.  I added the silver beads, and mounted it on one of several pre-cut mats I had bought years ago and never used.  I then packaged it in a Crystal Clear bag.  Since the bag was sealed I hadn't wanted to open it, as that might have meant that I would have to find another bag, and I don't have many left.  Sorry for the glare, but I took the photo through the bag, as I did with all of the pictures.

This was similar process, but I had to block the quilted remnant  before I started stitching on the beads.  I used two hand made beads. I painted Tyvek  with metallic paint in different colours on each side, then rolled it up, and hit it with a heat gun.  I'm very pleased with the final effect.

For this piece I used all commercial beads, but varied the shapes and sizes.  For all of the pieces, I tried to have the colour of the mat, work with the beaded design.

This is different.  It is also a much older sample. The background is dried flowers held in place with tulle, which has been stitched down around them.  Then I made a similar flower using hand stitched, free standing, "stump work"

This whole effort has pleased me, and I hope to place these pieces in a gift shop for sale.  All of the components came from my stash, so I consider them to have been 'found objects', and therefore having no supply cost.  Always a bonus in my mind.

Not really accomplishing much

 I don't know if it is a remnant of the sloth that developed during the Covid lock down, or if I'm still experiencing the side effects of the virus( of some sort) that I suffered with in late March, but I just can't seem to settle to anything creative right now.  I found some Tula Pink videos about EPP, and thoroughly enjoyed them, even learning a bit.  I sure didn't think there was anything about EPP that I didn't know, but I was wrong.                        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CzTBbxHsj9Y  So, I've been working on that whenever I can.  It was originally something to work on during those rare periods when I watch tv, but there has been a little more tv watching recently, and I'm accomplishing a fair bit.  I have almost finished the fourth "square" from the Flossie Teacakes book, and have ordered a kit from Tula Pink, that consists of a pattern and includes all of the papers needed to make the pattern.  The piece, titled "Nova", will finish at about 46" square.  Now, her fabric designs can be pretty bizarre, and I can't afford to buy too much of her fabric, but I'm going to take a look at what might be available in a local quilt store, but also know that I would be more advised to wait until the pattern arrives before getting too much. Darn it!  I wonder if I might be able to use some of my Kaffe Fassett fabric?  Hm-m-m?  I'll have to think about that.

Yesterday, I was privileged to be able to participate in a 3 hour video workshop with Lyric Kinard.  I have followed her for a few years, and she has been one of my "gurus" for a long time, so this was a special occasion for me.  It was very much a theoretical class, so there is little I can actually show you, but I have several pages of notes in my scrap book.  Textile and Fibre Arts Manitoba, who sponsored the workshop, are working on a couple more, so I'll look forward to what may come up.  I had wondered what an internet workshop might be like but it ran quite smoothly and  I was very impressed.

Hand stitching

 While the sketchbook stuff is taking most of my studio time, when relaxing I tend to do hand work.  This often takes the form of English Paper Piecing(EPP). Lately I've been working on a pattern from the Flossie Teacakes book on EPP.  This uses only a 60 degree diamond, but relies on colour to form the design.  I've completed only one block, which, rather than being actual squares, takes the shape of a hexagon, albeit a large one--about 16 1/2" across the widest part.

The green and pink will be consistent within the blocks.  They are both Kona cotton solids, Laurel and Sangria respectively. The patterned pieces are batik, and there will be 6 different batiks used, with each block using the same batik.  I'm hoping that having 6 different batiks will mean that no two adjacent blocks will be the same colour.  Unfortunately, two of the batiks came from my scrap bin, and may not provide enough pieces to achieve that.  We'll have to see.  I'm hoping that this will keep me busy for most of the next year.

Having fun

 The sketchbook work continues.  I'm gradually going back and adding to the pages from previous Modules.  I've also been taking pictures, and searching Google images for material to add. In a previous module, I prepared some papers to be used in this way, and am finding them useful.  The pages I'm most pleased with are abstract collages.  This is a surprise to me, as I had agonized over the collage section of the workshop.  Here are a couple that I consider finished (I reserve the right to reverse that decision).

The above is a happy accident.  I had done something to cause the two pages to stick together.  In trying to force them apart, I tore the surface layer off both pages.  This left the whole area quite weak, so I wanted to reinforce it, and added a torn piece of tracing paper that had been used to protect the table top and had pink-ish paint all over it.  I glued that on, but it still need something, so a second darker layer was added to that.  That was okay for awhile (a couple of weeks)  Then I added the checkerboard stamping with a home made  stamp.  I quite like the result, but still feel that something is missing, and will probably add onto it again.

This second page started when I used two white pages to clean my foam paint roller.  The yellow shredded paper towel was added, then the collaged  tracing paper pieces to which black marks had been added.  Finally the rubber stamping with both commercial and home made stamps.  I'm pretty well sure that this is finished.

Finally, I keep coming back to this.  This is my favourite page, and I'm convinced that there is a fibre piece hidden in here.  I fully intend to pursue that.

New project and having some fun

The EPP project is still getting started, although I think I have enough papers cut, and enough fabric cut to size to get a good start on it.  In the meantime, I started a set of Postcards, hopefully to be used for sale.  But I'm not going to worry about that, and just have fun making them.  The technique is mixed media, and I'm trying to use various techniques that were covered in my sketchbook workshop. I'm pleased so far.

There's still work to do, and I hope to get to that tomorrow

What to do now?

While playing happily with my sketchbooks since the lock down, I've also tried to spend a few minutes every day with a small EPP project.  I had originally thought it might serve as a background for an underwater scene, I'm now having second thoughts.  I finished the hand piecing yesterday.  This is what I have so far. It is about 20 by 30 inches.  

As you may remember I also used this lozenge shape in a small piece I finished right at the beginning of the lock down.  This may serve as a reminder.

I thoroughly enjoyed having a small project to hand-stitch during my quieter moments, and have started planning another one.  

Starting again?

I've purchased the last module of the sketchbook workshop, and have read it through this morning.  It appears that my next step might be to go back to the work I did for the first module and re-work it using the information and techniques I now have. I sort of had that figured, and am quite prepared to do it--starting today.

The sketchbook group I have joined on Facebook, not connected to the workshop in any way, ( Facebook--Up for a Challenge) has challenged its members to post a short video of themselves working out of doors.  There have been several and most of them are posting a video for the first time.  I sort of see this as a challenge for myself to learn how to do that.  About half of them are using a laptop rather than a Smart phone, so there must be a way I can do the same thing.  Sort of scary!

Making a start

One of the steps that I've been given in creating art sketch books is to pick a theme, and spend some time developing that theme.  The examples given in the course show some wonderful results.  I can see this as a possible strategy for me, as I've worked with several themes over the years, but haven't really worked through one for any length of time.  I think of my labyrinth pieces, and the number of times that fish have appeared in my work.  Leaves, in general, and more specifically the American Elm in our yard come to mind.  The overall theme that we were given when starting this workshop was "My Place", concentrating first on our home and more specifically the kitchen, then enlarging the sphere to the garden and then the local area.  What if I further enlarged the theme to include my city, and even my province?

So today I visited a friend, who is a talented art photographer, and mentioned my tentative plan to her.  She urged caution.  Evidently, Manitoba scenery tends to be poorly received, unless presented with a much more specialized focus, such as snow falls, (her specialty. weather extremes, or even specific wildlife. We discussed the reasons and considered the very bareness of our landscape, with a general lack of focus, other than horizon lines and sky.

I took a couple of pictures from her deck, that show this.

The only way these could be of use would be if it was feasible to home in on very small areas of each picture.  The small fenced area in the first picture is actually part of a sheep pasture containing 19 lambs and their parents.  Lambs can make a decent picture, but not necessarily for a sketchbook.  In the second picture there is a small area just about central, that contains some gorgeous bright red poppies.  Again a small contained picture, with no relationship to the larger landscape.

I did get a couple of picture of the Seine River, from a bridge, that might have possibilities for a finished piece, but probably won't contribute much to a sketch book.

So, I think I'll have to keep looking for my theme.

A new start

A very encouraging response from the instructor about my decision to look at the sketchbooks as an art form, rather than as a springboard to anything else. Today I decided to start working on improving my actual sketching, as well as my use of water colour paint.  The result was pathetic, and I'm not going to show you a picture.  But I did do some work with my exploration of printing as a technique for the sketch books.  I have cut out 5 "Lino" blocks, and made proof prints of them into the sketchbooks.  I also tried two different methods of mono-printing into the books, with mixed success.

The first picture is of a more familiar type of mono-printing, one that I've often used in my fiber work.  I spread paint on a small palette, and then made marks on it with various objects.  This palette was then picked up and placed paint-side down on the sketchbook page.  I'm very pleased with this, and can see using it in some form.  The other side is a different method of mono-printing, one, I'm not familiar with and one that didn't work worth a darn.  I've since done three more prints using this technique, and finally got a better, but not great result.

This second spread is a proof printing of one of the "lino" blocks, that of a decorative fish, on a prepared page..  I tried printing three times before re-loading the printing block.

The last picture is of the proof prints of several more new printing blocks.  As well, at the upper right, I made a print from two of items I had used to prepare the palette for the first picture above. I am pleased with everything on these pages.

More self reflection

I received a communication from the instructor of the sketchbook course, in response to a couple of pictures I posted in the Gallery section of the website.  She pointed out that, maybe I needed to ask myself why I was making the sketchbooks.  Did I see it as a way to influence and develop my work? Was it a form of journaling?  Or did I see them as an art form, in their own right?  Wow!  That cuts right to the heart of the matter, doesn't it?

I've been thinking about this for a couple of days now.  I have admired her sketchbooks for several years, probably because I do see them as a form of art in their own right.  But she has also commented on how something in her sketch books had informed an art piece, and I think my years long obsession with sketchbooks has perhaps been a search for inspiration, as the creative process has always been the most difficult part of my art process.  But--what if I could look at sketchbooks as an art form?  One concept that I have heard before about the sketchbooks is that each artist can use their own sketchbooks in any way that has meaning for the artist himself.  Mine ( and there have been a few over the years) have served as a record of my process, including original concept, any pertinent stitched samples, examples of fabric selection, and a final photo.  Why not continue with that, while treating myself to a parallel process of creating the sketchbook as art?  Maybe, once in a Blue Moon, part of that process that might influence my art--or it might not.  It would still take a time commitment,and still involve skill development, that I have wanted to avoid at my age.

I can do anything I want. and anything that might have meaning for me.

"Slugging along"

I used that phrase and then wondered if anyone other than my family would know what I mean.  Well, I see the job that is ahead of me and I'm progressing, albeit slowly, and with less enthusiasm than it maybe deserves.  I'm talking about my sketchbook course, of course.  Module three is all about different methods of creating prints, most of which I've done, in the past, and several that I've even taught. The exception is a method of mono-prints that I've seen, but never actually tried, although I've been using mono-printed fabric, the result of a different method, for years in my purses that sell well in gift shops. So I've created samples of these  print-making techniques (except the mono-prints), and even tried to add text to the samples.  All well and good.  But I'm not pleased with them, because they don't have the depth and pleasing design of the many samples the instructors have provided.  Then I have to remind myself that I'm here to learn, except I also have to ask if what new learning I've received is worth the ultimate cost of the workshop and the supplies that have proven necessary.  On the other hand, I have had a purpose and a goal during the over 3 months of social lock down I've just come through (--with more ahead).  The work has kept me busy, and I've been working with colour and craft, which always fills my heart with joy.  Still, has the result been worth the labour.  Not in my opinion.

How does what I've learned influence my future work?  I've learned that I need to improve my skill in using water colours.  I can see some future practice with creating paper collages. I can see a need to increase my skill with drawing. But--I also have to ask if increasing skill with more techniques is the answer, or if maybe the skill I lack is a basic ability to design.  Oh, I've read books on the principles of design, and studied colour theory.  I can analyze a design in a fibre piece, and articulate the principles used, and maybe how and why.

I will complete this module, and play with the exercises, but also spend some time determining whether I really want to put out the money for the last module.  Will doing so, really improve the quality of work in my sketchbooks?

Hot work and the wind blows

Yesterday was spent in the yard, battling both a hot sun that dried paint so fast I had trouble using it, and a vicious wind that blew so strongly that I had trouble spreading both fabric and the newspaper I used to protect the table.  First I tried making a sun print that I hope to use as the focal point of a new piece. Secondly, I tried making some leaf prints, that I had hoped to use as focal points in some new work.  "Hoped" is really the right word, as the main leaf print piece I had wanted, just didn't turn out, and I'm going to have to re-think that whole project.  But a second piece has possibilities.  I also got a couple of good negative prints that may have possibilities.

This is the main sun print.  I used ferns from the neighbour's yard.   We tried all week to catch him in the yard, but weren't successful. So I assumed that the invitation he gave me last year was still good.

Here is a close up of the  ferns.  I left them as they came,  as I wasn't able to pin them down because the table hadn't been padded enough.  The paint is mainly grey but with a bit of purple, blue and green as well.

Having used several colours I had to give some thought to how I was going to put the piece together. I want the ferns to be the focal point, but I also want to try to make the rest of the piece somewhat interesting. So I made small pieces of each of the colours used, and plan to try a bit of low level piecing.  I certainly did't want other piecing to take away from the ferns, so greyed each colour down. I was also a bit concerned about the lack of value, so created a second pure grey piece, but much lighter. As I said, the actual design hasn't been planned beyond this point.  We'll just have to see where it goes.

Then came the leaf prints.
Here is the second piece of hand dyed fabric to which I added leaf prints.  Again value plagued me, so I decided to aim at having the finished piece being long and narrow.  The objective is to free motion quilt the leaf print and background and then add beads--lots of beads.  Here is a leaf print on the lower right.

And a close up of the two prints that were added.  They are leaves from the small Maple bush in my front yard.

The next venture was negative prints.  With the very first leaf print,  I got a wonderful negative on the first try, but it was on a paper towel, As soon as I realized what I had, I started using fabric for the negative part of leaf printing. The second one below isn't very good and may be just added to the "orphan block" pile.  At the same time, the best use for the other two has yet to be determined.

But, I also did some leaf printing in my sketch books and the results there were wonderful.  I can only show you two of them, as the other two were done with white paint on the white page.  Now that they have dried, I'll be putting a water colour wash over them and they should emerge.  I tried this with some stamping I was doing and I'm thrilled at the lacy border that emerged on one of the pages.

Love this lacy border!

So that takes care of yesterday.  I'm not really sure where today is headed, but the day's half over, so I better figure it out in a hurry.

I'm taking a bit of a break from the intense sketchbook work, so 
the last three days I've spent some time keeping  busy making book marks for the Gift shop in Selkirk, which will be re-opening at the end of the month. The decision had been made to completely remove what is there and replace it with new stock.  Some book marks had been put aside to this, but I realized that they look exactly the same as the ones I would be taking out, so I had to start anew.  There is also a perceived need to reduce my sale price. In my many purges, much of my junk box had gone, so there wasn't much to work with, and the paint got away from me, so some of the colours are too similar.

These are the ones that have actually been finished.  I say that while thinking that, even though I want to reduce production costs, in the back of my mind, I would be happier if I was able to stitch around the edge of each of them.

These are in progress, but may just need their tassels.

These all have a way to go.  There are 7 more being dried in the book, below.

Some of them have caused a lot of difficulty when I tried to punch the hole for the tassel, and I had to get  David's help.  This has given me pause to think that a different way to reduce production costs, might be by using a whole different method of creating the basic form I use.  But, there is also a tiny thought forming that maybe it's time to stop making them, as they aren't generally profitable.  However, I'm not purchasing any new supplies for them, so, as long as I'm using supplies  have on hand, I can ignore the issue.

What's new

In terms of finished work-not much, but I've sure been busy.
The last two days have been filled with trying to clear up unfinished business from Module 2 of my Sketchbook workshop.  My stumbling block was in my lack of understanding regarding making a sketchbook collage, but finding a critical video helped me sort out what was expected of me. So having painted more pages yesterday, today I set out to make a collage.  It had been suggested that  we find some item within our household area that was both colourful and meaningful.  Well  my white kitchen and white dishes didn't work, but I found a small plate that was a souvenir from a visit to Cuba, and decided to use that.

First I wanted to use a wash of colour over the background, and while that was drying, I created a pattern for a fish using the plate for inspiration--much more than inspiration if the truth be known.
Here is the plate and the remnants of the paper pattern I created from it.

The pieces are ready to paste down, but that will be for tomorrow.  then I'll have to add the details, by hand. I'm wanting to add a couple of long skinny seaweeds as well, and have to figure that out before getting the glue out.

Here are a couple of other sketchbook pages. the first one was using a photo, and then integrating it into the book by adding colour.  It was also a experiment in exploring the effect when oil pastel is used  on paper before adding water colour, as is shown in the table top the mugs are sitting on.

One of the first exercises was sketching with a pencil and using the sketch as the basis for a simple water colour.  Probably to help the students become comfortable with the water colour paints that were provided as part of the workshop.

This third piece is again using a photo, and integrating it into the page.  I first used a water colour wash over the page.  Then I added the orange bits.  The black was my experiment with using a water colour crayon that I received in a mail order instead of the Acrylic paint pen I thought I had ordered.  Won't make that mistake again. I cut the photo in half and put half on each side, then again, tried to integrate the photo into the page by extending various parts of it into the background. Not a great result but better than I expected. 

 In the end, I think I've finished with Module 2 and look forward to starting module 3.  I've been holding off, telling myself that the experience will be my reward for conquering the darn collage.