Rescuing the Wardrobe

 As predicted, today I moved on to the Wardrobe.  Here are the before pictures.  Note the two somewhat bulky crib quilts, on the left, and the bags for transporting quilts, crammed into the bottom of the area.

Here is the smaller top section.  This has been used to store adhesives and two glass pint jars crammed with "junk".  The red thing in front left is a frame weight and indispensable, when I'm doing handwork or beading, and beside it another lead weight so very useful when gluing paper of cardboard.

My process is to separate items into keep, donate, and trash.  So far I've just almost filled three 5 gallon pails with trash.  I had no idea how very many crochet hooks I own.  And how did I get two medical dissection kits?  Any glue bottles or glue sticks that weren't absolutely fresh or still in the packaging, are gone.  I trashed three traditional velvet beading boards that haven't been used in years, even with the amount of beading and teaching beading that I've been doing.     Here is the after picture of the of the wardrobe.  Note, that the top of the chest on the right is also now cleaned off.  In the larger section of the wardrobe the white on the left is two quilt transport bags hung up.  The others are trashed.  The white and colour area in the middle is 4 items that are scheduled to be put into a craft sale I'm participating in at the end of April.  The dark on the right is a UFO (unfinished object) that only need quilting.

All of the drawers have been gone through, and quite a few smaller objects put in the donate box.  Tomorrow I'm taking a look at the area between the wardrobe and the Bead cupboard beside it.  As far I only know that it contains a variety of larger sketchbooks, and some large pieces of glass I use in my jury-rigged light box, or as an aid to mono-printing.  I hope there are no surprises.

There is no challenge without accountability

 So here is the Day one report.  Today I tackled the bar area.  I generally use this area as a "wet" part of the studio.  My fabric and acrylic paints are kept close by, and other inks and dyes are stored under the bar. One cupboard under the bar contains all of the plastic tubs (yogurt and margarine), while larger honey pails, useful with handles, stay on top.  They tend to be my water pails.

Here are the before pictures.  Please note the fridge, and the CD player beside it, also the griddle, slow cooker and behind the slow cooker, a small blender.

    

And here is just general junk.  I regret not taking a close up of the sink.  It was filthy

But here we are now.  The appliances, other than the fridge and CD player are gone.  The plastic tubs, other than water containers, are gone, and so is all of the junk.  The bar has been cleaned and the sink thoroughly scrubbed--several times with different chemical.

So, one day done, and planning for tomorrow.  Maybe the wardrobe, in the picture above.

Another Challenge

 So, I have experience an art-related challenge, and survived.  What's been learned?

Doing this and posting about it makes me accountable for everything that I think is worthwhile in the studio.  The actual post serves to clarify my thinking and force me to make a concrete decision about the direction my work is going.  

I'm of two minds about whether setting a minimal amount of time, that must be worked every day, in order to count as completing a portion of my challenge.  I say this because a good portion of my planning and problem solving, occurs while I'm getting to sleep.  It's really surprising how often I think about a problem before sleeping, and then wake up the next morning with the solution to the problem in my head.  I've reached a point where I'm starting to rely on this, and see it as a necessary part of my creative process.

The next challenge will be an effort to address the problem of how much time I spend thinking about how to reduce my store of supplies to a more manageable size. This is really preying on my mind. I plan to spend a few moments every day sorting the items in one cupboard, shelving unit, or cabinet.  I plan to seriously purge, but also to clean.  Right now my whole studio needs a good cleaning, and there is no way this could be done in one fell swoop.

There is a second consideration. I have quite a few small finished items that could be sold, but there aren't enough of any one item to make the effort worth considering.  But, I have been invited to participate in a small craft show, with a group of crafters I belong to, at the end of April.  I'm welcome to use a table or even share a table, at no cost.

If I could gather together all of the small items that I have, it might be worth my while, even if I put distress level prices on them.  They aren't going to sell in my storage room!

So, I have plan.  As I have an out-of-town meeting tomorrow, the challenge starts Monday.

Done

  

The Challenge piece continues but I have given it the title of Boho Revisited.  Once I started filling in the center I realized quickly that the stacked embellishments simply weren't working.  So off they came, and were re-done without the stacked elements but with one small red circle and a bead.  I'm so much happier. Here is the finally finished piece--Boho Revisited.  It still has to be mounted, which I do by hand, and then framed.

Here is a close-up of the final version of the stacked embellishments.

And this is the center section where each individual piece has been attached with tiny gold beads.  I have used scraps of every paper and fibre used in the overall piece.

Second Thoughts

 I'm liking this 30 Day Challenge piece less and less.  While I tried to follow some elements of art in my colour choices and building repetition into the design, I lost a couple by leaving too little space between elements, and no space to rest eyes.

I have finished the next row which consists of "stacked sequins".  I prefer to call them stacked elements.  Each one starts with a small yo-yo made out of cream-coloured organza.  Then I added flat pieces of both paper and fabric, stitching everything down with a gold bead that matches the ones at the focus of the floral-type elements around the edge.

The stitching should be finished by Monday, but the challenge doesn't end until Friday the 18th.  however, my challenge was to create and familiarize myself with the methods I learned in that workshop with Jessica Brady on Textileartist.org, and there are a couple not used in this piece.  A good chance to plan another piece.

 

Thirty day Challenge continues

 The darn folded paper towers have proven a challenge all by their selves.  Each tower requires one square of coloured paper.  I chose to use four shades of red, purple, and gold as my colours.  Each colour of paper was cut into 1", 3/4", 5/8" and 1/2" squares.  I folded a good selections of each and stitched some of them down.

Oh! Oh!  Not liking this!  But I did like the corner where the towers had been turned upside down and beaded.  After thinking a bit, I decided the space might look better if the upside down towers were used in the whole area.  But that would mean cutting a whole bunch more  tiny 1/2" squares and getting rid of the other sizes.  I really dislike folding those tiny squares, and my arthritic fingers aren't too pleased with the idea either.  But, by working on nothing but that task, and working for only a short period at any one time, the job is getting done.   I can manage about 12 every day while watching the 6:00 news. Here is the first corner finished.  I think it looks good and will fit in with future work quite nicely.

One of the rules I set for myself when starting this challenge was that I wouldn't buy any more supplies to complete the challenge.  Well, that didn't last long as I had to buy both purple and gold beads.  But I was determined not to buy red beads, and sifted through all my red beads looking for beads of a size to use.  Here is the final selection.  I used some in the above and feel that they do well.  There is even a gold bead on one of the dark red pockets.

But, now I have to fold another 46 red 1/2" squares of paper.  Yuck!

New work & a 30 day challenge

Members of a Facebook art group I belong to have recently been accepting a 100 Day Challenge.  Since my art is somewhat different than their sketching and drawing, and the fact that I've never entered a Challenge before, I opted for a 30 Day Challenge.  I'm working on some of the techniques I learned in a workshop with Jessica Grady on Textileartist.com Stitch Club.

The Challenge started February 16th but I only solved my computer/camera problem recently, so there are no pictures of my early work.  However, I've managed to work every day since. My piece is a stitched fibre collage. Most of the early work was in constructing the various pieces to be collaged onto a base fabric.

Fabric circles had to be cut out, but since both sides would show, the fabric had to be fused to itself before cutting out the circles.  I needed 24 circles, but cut a couple extra in case they might be needed.  Then I cut several smaller circles out of painted tracing paper. and fused those onto a few of the circles, to add a bit of variation.  The circles were then folded and stitched to create tiny blossoms.

Then a couple of different pieces had to be created.  One used the inner liner from a box of Ritz crackers, and the other a piece of small scale bubble wrap.  The bag from the crackers was cut open, and smoothed out flat.  It was then placed over a large piece of baking parchment. I sprinkled small pieces of candy wrapper, scraps of yarn and very small pieces of red paper, folded the second half of the bag over top, followed by the backing parchment and ironed the whole thing with a dry iron.  The bag adhered to itself, trapping the small coloured bits.  This process was repeated using the bubble wrap.  The different wraps gave very different texture, when cooled off.  These will be cut into smaller pieces, either triangles or squares, and stitched down into the center of the background.

Here are the small red flowers stitched in place.  The frame is 14" square, and I hope to frame the finished result at about 12" by 12".  The straight lines are red felt , stitched down with long straight stitches from the edge into the center of the felt, with the stitches about 1/4" apart.  I chose to used Kreink couching silk, in a gold colour, for the stitching.

Next will be some three-dimensional paper pieces that will fill the corners of the shape.  There are a LOT of these, and since the challenge started, I sit and fold them, while watching an hour of news every evening.  Should be finished tomorrow.

Lastly, I plan to create some stacked pieces using a very small "yo-yo" as the base.  They will be topped with a variety of paper pieces, and some smaller cuts from the fused plastic sheets above.

I'll try to keep you informed as things progress.