Another surprize

I was at the small gallery today to pick up the other two pieces, that were in the show, and while I was there, another hanging sold. I was stunned, to say the least.  When I got home, I e-mailed my family and friends to tell them of my "happy dance".  A little later I got a short response from a sister, pointing out that both of these pieces have been made within the last 8 months, and questioning whether the two sales indicate that my "sabbatical" has resulted in a renewal of my creativity, given the public response to the results.  Yes, very much so.  I have so many ideas that I can't get them down fast enough.  And each idea builds on the previous ones.  I'm looking, again, at the small "quiltlets, that have received a good response in the past.  These are 12" by 12", original designs, and contain a lot of hand work. they are smaller, as that is the only way I can actually bring a design to fruition, before it is pushed out of my brain by another very valid concept.  There are so many ideas. All of them have to be tried out, even with knowing that not all of them will be worth finishing, but I learn something from every attempt.

I wish I could show some pictures. I took my camera out to the gallery today, but then found that the memory card ( yeah, the large memory-- 252 images--one that I use all of the time) is cracked and useless.  I have a small--10 image--one and will have to dig that one out, but both hangings will have been picked up by their new owners before I can get out again.

Got fooled

I did the test  of how the machine took to FMQ'g through various types and thicknesses of acrylic paint.  Quite fine!  I don't have to worry about that anymore.  So my only decision is colour, and I think I'm going to go with the oil paint sticks because of the sheeen the iridescent paint leaveson thefabric.  The next step was to design and paint the waterfall.  A lot of research left me with the understanding that:
          -you don't see coloured water when you look at a waterfall from a lower position, only if you look at it from above.
          -as soon as the water goes over the edge, it becomes white foam.  There may be areas of slightly darker foam but the basic and predominant colour is white.

Well, glad I did the research, but don't know where I'm going from here.  An acqaintance told me recently to stop obsessing with waterfalls, and to "chill out".  O-k-a-a-ay--didn't realize it was getting that bad.  Artists obessess on regular basis--don't they?

Very pleased to report that one of the pieces I have in a small local gallery has sold.  This was quite unexpected, and has left me with a slight problem.  I had planned to bring the piece home, take it partially apart, re-size it and enter it into another show---the show it was actually made for.  After giving it a lot of thought, I decided to go ahead and make another piece based on the same concept.  I will use a similar colour scheme but, perhaps, some different techniques, and a very different overall appearance.  So the pieces will be different, but a viewer would also be aware that they are part of a series.  It is interesting that anyone who has seen the original piece and spoken of it, refers to it as being black.  It is actually navy blue, so very blue that I did all of the quilting with black thread to try to mute the colour.  Guess it worked.

To help me "chill out", I have started to work my way through a fibre design book.    I'm really not sure where this will go.  Either I will learn something, or what I have learned in the past will be validated.  An interesting process, none the less.  I'll keep you posted.

Getting down to business

The two pieces I have in mind are setting me off in a new way of working.  In the past, I've usually had something planned in my mind, and then jumped right in with fabric and paint.  This time, I have a certain "look"  I want to achieve, and have to figure out how to do that.  I thought I had two options--fabric paint which is transparent and acrylic which is opaque.  My brain was telling me that I wanted opaque, but never having used fabric paint over the whole quilt top, I figured that I needed to learn more about it before starting to slap it on my limited amount of fabric.  I bought a video download lesson on painting on fabric.  The teacher uses a fairly thick layer of paint, but then FMQ's right through it.  This concerns me.  I've quilted through a thin layer, of acrylic, but noticed quite a change in the sound of the machine when it hit a slightly thicker section.  So I did a test strip with sections of all of the thicknesses and types of paint I was considering, planning to quilt the strip so that I had a tru comparison.  I have fallen in love with, and are determined to use, a polished cotton, so did a second test strip of the cotton, after it had been washed but before painting it.  I wasn't really happy with the look of either of the paints, thick or thin.  In desperation I tried a couple of Shiva Paint Sticks that I had on hand.  Absolutely perfect!  Exactly the look I want!  Once this test strip is dry, I'll quilt it and then apply some acrylic paint, as I plan to do in the finished piece.  I need to be sure that the acrylic paint will adhere to the dry oil paint.

I have been on the internet looking at pictures of the images I plan to use.  I find that it helps to view a lot of different images.  They tend to blur together in my mind, but the distinctive bits stay, and come together to form an entirely new, and original, arrangement.   In the meantime, I need to do a sample of the FMQ'g pattern that I hope to use.  It is quite complex and practise in indicated!

Gotta get Organized!

Today I delivered my three pieces to Gwen Fox Gallery for their November fibre show.  Now, I don't know what to do next.  There are several more shows on the horizon between April and June, but nothing is started for any of them.  I find I'm forgetting what and when they are, so will have to draw up a prioritised list to work from.

A second consideration is that it has been almost a year since I was last in a sale.  It is time to make a decision about my future direction.  I love what I do, but once a piece is finished, my emotional connection ends, and I'm usually willing to have it go to a new home.  The shows and exhibitions are great for exposure and name recognition, but both of those are usually directed at ultimately selling the work for profit, or as a means of promoting a teaching careeer.  Is this where I want to go?  I enjoy teaching, but, if this is to ever be more than a hobby there is a lot of work required.  It takes me at least a month to set up a class.  Then I have to run a test class, and fine-tune the class. Then comes the promotion, which can be time consuming.  So the teaching will always be part of me, but I'm too old to be looking at it as a new careeer.

That leaves sales.  Wouldn't it be wonderful to find an agent who would do all of the hard stuff and "donkey-work" of promotion!!  Leaving me to work in my studio producing wonderful art.  Not going to happen!!  So, I need to give a lot of thought to the sales, and how I can participate in them without loosing the wonderful creativity that I have re-discovered during my "year off".

Done-sort of

Yes, the FMQ'g is done, the piece has been paintedand the beading is finished.  I had to reduce the amount of beading I had planned by more than half, but it still took 3 1/2--14 hour days to get it all done.  Now I just need to back it and do the facing--which should take most of tomorrow.

But I can't tell you what a horror those 3 1/2 days were. I had a tension headacke most of the time, I wasn't sleeping for worrying about getting the job done, and the house became a dump.  Meals were whatever could be heated quickly from the freezer.

This is for an exhibition for all of November, and then, hopefully, another one next spring, so I can't put up a picture.  The other two pieces are fully finished, sleeve on one, beads and framing on the other.

But I hope I've learned my lesson,and that I never accept a looming deadline.  It is just too hard ont he system, adn on the marriage.

Deadlines

We all hate deadlines, but continue to expose ourselves to them.  Does this mean we are all procrastinators, and need the externally imposed structure of a deadline to work?  Early in my career, I learned that the best option was to do the job as soon as possible after accepting it.  Now I said that I learned this as a truth--it doesn't say that I do it!  But often I have a piece finished well ahead of the deadline.  I found that to do otherwise would end up with poor workmanship and frustration.  Well, it seems that I forgot this somewhere along the way.

I have committed to three pieces for a show at the end of the month.  One is finished, one is done except for beading and framing ( I have the frame ready and will mount it myself).  The third was planned but hadn't even been started when I made the commitment, a week ago.  My way of working often involves quilting the background before doing whatever surface embellishment I have planned.  So I started fairly heavy FMQ'g on a piece 28" square.  Got it about 1/3 done when I accidently sewed over a pin, on another project, and knocked out the timing on my machine.  Panicked trip to the dealership on Thursday, where I advised him of the deadline, but, foolishly, told him I had a back-up machine that I could use, and Monday would be alright for getting the machine back.

Spent Thusday evening setting up the old Pfaff and trying a bit of practise FMQ'g on it.  OMG!  It is going to be a very long learning curve!  I had forgotten what a chore FMQ'g was on the Pfaff!  Very easy to set up and the needlethreader is wonderful, but it needs an entirely different skill set.  Obviously I have learned the rythym of the Janome quite well and most of the work is beautifully regular and even.  Not so the Pfaff!  So much practise and working on the piece itself.  Have difficulty seeing where the stitching is going because the FM foot obscures my view.  The machine doesn't like my thread and the other spool of black has more of a sheen than the first one and it shows.  So-- much reverse stitching, and with uneven stitching, this is a PITA.  Then today it starts skipping stitches.  Now, I know this is either the timing out of whack or my hands moving too quickly for the machine.  Again much reverse stitching.  Painful, frustrating,  reverse stitching!!  Many bad words were spoken.  Finally, I gave up.  I will work on beading the other piece over the next couple of days, and hope there is enough time to finish the original piece, once the machine comes back.

 But again-- I took on a deadline and every thing that could go wrong, did go wrong.  I am tired, angry and frustrated.  DH has taken to hiding in the computer room, and even offered to run some errands alone today, rather than spend time alone with me in the car.  Smart man!

Peer support and inspiration

We all reach the point when we need the involvement of others who think as we do.  In my area there are only a small number of fibre artists, and those represent a variety of interests.  We DO get together about once a month, but only for a couple of hours.  As we often meet in each others' homes it becomes more of an idea exchange and "show'n'tell" session, as it is in the evening and lighting can be a problem..  Once in awhile we get together during the day and take the time to explore techniques, or enjoy each others company over hand work.  But all of these get toethers are more social and gently supportive sessions.  Sometimes you need more.

Last weekend I attended the annual retreat of the Fibre Art Network ( http://www.fibreartnetwork.com/ ).  (FAN) This is a group of professional and semi-professional artists working in fibre.  These retreats are not stitching marathons but rather more business-like.  A friend related them to professional scientific conferences where there are meetings, such as organizational committee meetings, the Annual General meeting, and the presentation of professional papers, as well as time for social interaction.  As well as all the associated meetings, we often have workshops on either technical  matters or professional issues such as time management, and other organizational aspects of fibre work. Most importantly, our professional papers involve reports on our work over the past year.

It is the personal experiences and resulting work that is the most valuable part of the retreat for me.  I saw some stunning art, and being able to hear, directly from the artist,  how the piece came to be and why, was a crititcal part of the process.  I also heard how some of the members work together collaboratively, even to the point of organizing small shows in their home communities.

This conference is what keeps me going.  I come home inspired, refreshed, and full of creative ideas.