Enjoying this year so far

As you know, this is the year that I hope to be able to forget the shows and commitments and producing for sales. I plan to play. I borrowed the book "Stitching to Dye" from the library and have been slowly working my way through the exercises. It's also been a good chance to put the new sewing machine through its paces. The concept behind the book is that you can produce/finish everything in neutral colours, and then apply dye to the finished project. I produced three pieces.
The first was whole cloth cotton, heavily free motion quilted. I then tried to apply the dye to various parts of the pattern, and was moderately successful. I had put the piece on a piece of construction plastic to protect the table while I worked. I hadn't thought about the dye moving between the plastic and the fabric and then seeping up through the fabric in places I didn't want it. I had used three colours of dye--yellow, green and blue. Well, the blue got into the yellow, and the green got overpowered by the blue. The finished piece looked fine, but the yellow had a green tinge and the green just appeared to be a blending of the two other colours--sort of what I was looking for, but not really.
The second piece was entirely silk, except for the batting. Again it was heavily FMQ'd. I used a much more subtle colour of dye this time and only two shades--spring green and aqua marine. I applied them with a funnel spouted plastic bottle so that I had more control over where the dye went. This worked well. Each of the 5 types of silk took the dye differently, but the differences were very subtle. This project had the best result--imho.
The third project was a combination of silk, acetate and cotton within the piecing. I FMQ'd with a more planned design that had minor variations in the density of the quilting. I pre-soaked the bound piece in soda ash, and discovered that this helped immensley in controlling the spread of the dye. I used four different dyes and their spread was quite controlled. I used very dilute dye, hoping for very pale subtle colouring. Boy, was I ever fooled. The silk noile took up the dye and became quite dark, the acetate barely took the dye ( I didn't really expect it to). The piece is much darker than had wanted. If it had been important --and it could have been--I would have thrown it out and started again. But I think I'm going to keep working and use it as a practise piece/bad example.
My next project is to start working through the book "Inspired to Quilt: Creative Experiments in Art quilt Imagery" by Melanie Testa. This one has several printing methods including the use of soy wax, as a resist. Guess I'll have to wait until I can afford the soy wax.

Love the new machine

The last two days have been spent in free motion work. wow! I'm doing things I've never done before. At the same time I'm getting used to the new machine, and I have to confess that it seems to be going much better than the same process with the old Pfaff. There are a lot of other techniques that I still have to try, but all in goood itme. So far I'm pleased.

Done!

I now believe that I have enough stock for the four sales between now and Christmas. The emerging problem is storage until I actually need it! Finally,-- my DH understands that I need to have something new for every sale, so yesterday we went through everything and culled out some of the stuff that has been around for awhile, especially stuff for which I have replacements. So what do I do with that stuff? For now it's in a trunk in the basement. Knowing me, it will probably be forgotten and stay there.

But now I can spend time working on things I want to work on without worrying about being able to sell them. I can take classes. And I can participate in some of the challenges that arise through my internet groups. During the "cull", it was interesting looking at some of my earlier work. IMHO it is better than the more recent stuff where I've been driven by maketability. So one of my goals is to step back and re-visit some of the concepts and ideas from 3-4 years ago, to see if they can be developed further or in a different direction. And I've already signed up for classes in using oil pastels and lino block printing.

A second goal is to learn to use my new sewing machine. The little bit I've done tells me that I am going to have to forget a lot of my old habits and learn new ways of dealing with things. This is going to take time--no question--and I think the first thing will be the free motion work. A whole different methodology with this machine, although I hope my FMQ'g skill set will still be valuable. My first actual lesson is next Saturday, but unless I get some practise in before then, I won't be able to ask the right questions.

Can't take any pictures. At some point the flash has been turned off in my camera, and I'm going to have to spend some time going through the manual to figure out how to turn it back on again. lol

Reconsideration, and new direction

I attended a lecture last Tuesday evening. A successful local artist described the marketing of her work. She stressed that you have to have a clear sense of direction, and a clear definition of what you want out of your work, as the very first step in your journey. Arg-h-h! Not the things to say to a navel-gazer and procrstinator like myself. So--what do I want out of my art? Do I want to make scads of money? Hell yes! Do I want to work as hard as I would have to to make that sort of money? No Way!!

So what do I want out of my art? I need to make enough money to buy the supplies that I need to keep doing the things I want to do. So--this is a hobby-not a vocation. Is this realization a good thing? Mixed. I now have the freedom to do what I want without having to consider the sale-ability of what I produce. That is a tremendous epiphany! But I still need to be able to sell. Downer! Where does my membership in artists' organizations fit into all of this? I htink it fits well. Being around other artists is a gratifying way to model your thought processes. It's an essential step in the development of any artist's mind-set.

So, for now, I will carry on with the sales I have committed to. This means more production work over the next couple of months. Not signing up for any further sales means that what I produce over the next couple of months will just have to be enough for the four sales I have scheduled between now and Christams. So, in the long run, I will have much more time for play. And I think I need to start today.

Eternal search for self

The work I spoke of in the last post--the collage with the watercolour paper and the make-up wipes--is sitting in the studio where I can see it every day. From an artistic viewpoint, it's not very good, lacking a focal point, but the colours and concept work--for me. I said I had been working on it for two years, and maybe it needs more work. But sitting and looking at it appears to be giving me a message that there are many, many more media than fibre for expressing yourself. Other ideas for collages are coming to the surface.

I confess that lately I've been more often identifying myself as a mixed media artist than a fibre artist. I wonder if I've stuck with the fibre over the years because I'm confident in my skill in that area, whereas any skill or talent I might have in other areas is yet to be developed. As a teen ager, I studied oil painting with a private tutor for several years, only stopping when I made the decision to go to university. A couple of years ago I took some classes in sketching and watercolour painting, with the idea that the sketching would help in any design development that I attempted and that the watercolour painting would help in my use of water-based textile paints--and both have worked-to a certain extent.

So--while I have no intention of leaving the fibres behind, my intent for right now is to explore other expressive media. I wonder if the answers I'm looking for might not be in an amalgam of various techniques.

exploring techniques

I borrowed a book by Sherrilyn Kahn that is full of techniques. Now I want the book but can't wait until I can afford it, so have been working my way through the techniques. Learned a few things that I swear I will never touch again, and a couple that look promising. I can't seem to settle to any one task, so have decided to explore the Beryl Taylor suggestion of creating a stash of bits and bobbles to use in collages. This has led to me finishing a collage I started a couple of years ago when I took a collage workshop. The workshop piece was awful and I told the instructor that I planned to paint the whole thing black! But instead, over the past couple of years, I've been working away at it. Layers of gesso and walnut ink and watercolour paper etc. Now I've added some painted make-up wipes, from the Kahn book, and I think it's finally finished. Very different from anything I've ever done before, but maybe something to pursue.

Dancing Muse

yes, she is. The ideas just keep coming! I can't get them on paper fast enough!

The photography didn't work out. I really need to play with my lighting, expecially given that I need to start to use one consistent type of light source, rather than the two I've used up to now. The fusing/piecing for Rock Face is done. I'm not really happy, but I'm not sure how to change anything. I believe that I should be able to modify it with some carefully planned quilting. This will be a bit of a stretch for me--up to now, my quilting has "just happened".

Last evening, a friend gave me some pieces of paper she acquired while in Japan. I'm interpreting this as a "sign". Over the past week my mind has kept going back to some ideas I've had for collages that would be much more paper based than fabric based. Now I have a few pieces of very special paper to use. This has beeen a recurring thought for about a year, and it makes me wonder if I may be moving into a different phase of my art work. This isn't necessarily a Bad Thing, but rather something I've been fighting for awhile. Maybe the gift of paper is telling me to stop fighting.