Time for Something New

While slaving away on the recently finished piece, several ideas and images came to mind.  So I'm taking a bit of time to try to get them onto paper.  This means a bit of research on things like "The Green Man", and "The Whore of Babylon".  Pleasant topics I'm sure ( Snort!)  Google Images, sure helps.  Not sure where this will take me, but it will be pursued.

I've also spent some time talking to a friend who is an art Photographer.  She had one piece that bothered me. It was, basically, the view, through rain on a window, of a pine tree. The tree was in soft focus, as she wanted the clear focus to be on the image of the rain. She gave me a print, which I brought home, and worked with using a viewing board ( a square hole in a piece of cardboard)  By moving the board around I finally found two areas where the image of the rain became primary, by muting or eliminating the shape of the tree, but retaining the colour and shading. Now I'm wanting to translate this into fibre.  

Yesterday, I put together a pattern to use with the dyed wool roving and fused glass button. that I bought at the recent Fibre Festival.  I've added some chip beads of yellow jade, and anticipate a finished size of about 12" by 12".

Two more ideas are still in my head, as I just can't pin down the sort of image that could result from them.  But I'll keep going.

Blocking a quilt

The day before yesterday, I finally finished the quilting on my most recent piece--the one I can't post a picture of because I hope to enter it in a show.  This has taken over two months to quilt, after it was dyed, and prepared as a whole cloth hanging.  Just finding the "right" colour of silk thread for quilting proved to be a challenge. But "tis done.  Because the quilting was somewhat uneven, the piece had to be blocked.  

This has never been a problem, as a friend gifted me with a professional blocking board that she had used for years with her exhibition quality crewel embroidery.  In turn, I used it for a number of years, during which I worked as a needlework finisher.  For the past few years, I've used it for my mixed media and fibre art wall hangings.

A quick glance told me that the board would be too small for the current piece.  A closer look told me that it was time for the board to retire. This meant finding a board that would take multiple uses involving Tee-pins, and could be covered to prevent contamination of the fabric blocked on it, and to minimize the chance of any watermarking of the fabric.  The original board had been covered, first with a waterproof layer, and then with 1/4" Gingham.  The Gingham provides straight lines and right angles, so that the piece being blocked can be carefully squared up during the process. Gathering the necessary materials took two long days of shopping in unusual places,  I found the necessary board, and then, after having bought clear vinyl to use as a waterproof layer; instead of cotton Gingham, which was too narrow for the board, a length of flannel-backed vinyl tablecloth that had been printed with a Gingham pattern.  Thank Goodness the clear vinyl was on sale, and I have no regrets in putting it aside for another project.

So the board is together, and the piece blocked.  We had to use brass thumb tacks instead of the Tee-pins, as the board was a little harder than expected. (brass to prevent staining from rusty tacks). And we had to deal with a recalcitrant compressed air stapler, but the job is finally done.

Inspiration

Last evening I attended an art sale fund raiser that included a fibre artist.  Her work was about half way along the continuum from traditional quilting to pure art worked in fibre. Sales appeared to be going well.

Today I attended a "Fibre Festival".  A very large exhibition building, with live sheep and alpacas at one end. The baby Alpacas were s-o-o-o cute!  There were demonstrations on sheep shearing, cleaning, preparing, and carding the wool, spinning, knitting weaving. There were even a couple of booths that were selling individually constructed garments.  These had hand dyed fabrics, often decorated in some "one-of-a-kind" way.  There was felting, wet and dry.  And everything for sale from raw wool to beautiful spun yarn to buttons and embellishments to slumped glass bottles (?!?)


To say that my brain is on overload would not be an exaggeration. I am overwhelmed with colour, and realize that exuberance and colour have been missing from my work for awhile.  Awhile ago, a friend(?) told me that she could always tell my work because it was controlled and  elegant.  I have valued that comment as a compliment, but now wonder if it has, in someway, limited my use of any childish approach and certainly in the use of vibrant colour.  Once I add my frequent forays into depression, it's no wonder my work sometimes appears lifeless, and that sales have been off in the past couple of years.

Now I look at the piece I'm currently working on, and almost feel despair.  The colours are pale and the design static. But--there are already three more designs wrestling for position in my brain. Hopefully, tomorrow I'll get some of them into my sketch book.

Time for more introspection

I spoke about this on my other blog, but felt it would be more appropriate to enlarge on it here.

Yesterday was my alcohol ink workshop, and for some reason, I came away a little dis-satisfied.  I had taken the workshop last spring and had to leave for a couple of hours in the middle of it.  My hope was that I would come away with more on the technical aspects of making landscapes.  Didn't happen.  Thinking about it I realize that the instructor had moved on in her own journey and the class she taught yesterday reflected the direction her work has taken--as it should.  So, maybe the flaw is in me.  This left me thinking about what I had wanted to accomplish by taking yet another workshop.

Alcohol inks are hot right now, but there aren't enough years 
left for me to become really skillful with it. So why do it?

1. to satisfy my curiosity. I've never met a technical challenge that I didn't, at least attempt to, meet.

2. to answer the question of whether this technique might have a place in my work.  No, probably not.

3. Is there any potential for me to make money  at this? No, others are doing it better,and this really is a sort of "flavour of the month".  just a passing fad.  And the supplies are expensive.

So, Only # 1 provides any rationale at all for me to pursue this.  I will play with the supplies I have, but go no further.

And I will appreciate the skill I see in others.

Some progress

The newest piece is coming along.  With the help of the silk colour card I ordered, I was able to find the last bit of thread I needed.  But buying off the internet can be expensive.  For a spool of thread that cost $7.95, I paid $11.40 in postage.  Ar-g-g-g-h!

It is certainly a labour of love.  I underestimated how many times I would have to start and then break thread, with ends at beginning and end of each line of quilting, some less than 1/4" long, that need to be tied off and buried.  My arthritic hands do not like this, and frequent rests are needed.  Two days of hard work resulted in an area about the size of a dinner plate being quilted.  But--it is lo-o-o-o-king go-o-o-o-d!  Since I have no idea whether this might be a show piece ( it just might!), I can't post a picture.  I also think, that until I've finished the quilting, the surface may be too pale for a good picture.

Somehow, over the past week, I've acquired two 50% off coupons from Micheal's.  Tomorrow we head out to use them.  I'm thinking of some Zentangle tiles.

buying supplies

Studio time has been limited, the past couple of weeks.  There is a serious piece brewing in my mind, which means selecting and/or buying the necessary supplies.  I decided to use 100wt silk for the FMQ'g, but needed to be sure of my colour match, so went off to the one LQS where I knew the silk was sold.  Imagine my shock to find out that they are significantly reducing their fabric and thread inventory in favour of more machines!!  Evidently they are loosing a lot of business to the Internet and, to a lesser extent, to "cross-border-shopping".  I know this is a problem all over.  What will people do when there is no LQS to go into for advice and help?  How sad!

My husband suggested we take a look at other quilt stores in the province and make a day trip, if we could find the silk available.
No such luck.  My last resort??  The internet.  I have ordered some, but trying to match colours on the monitor is a crap shoot.  So I also ordered a colour sample card.  At least the source I found is Canadian.

In the meantime, I have been piecing a couple of charity quilts from a design from the most recent episode of The Quilt Show.  This design was provided complete, with fabric requirements and cutting instructions, for our personal use, so no copyright has been breached.  But, no matter how I tried, I couldn't get a decent 1/4" seam from the Janome. An old problem, but thank Goodness for the old Pfaff---still trucking along and working perfectly--if only it had the wider harp!!

Awhile ago I bought fabric to make two baby quilts.  I thought I bought about the right amount, but these two make quilts 4 and 5, all from the same fabric.  They aren't yet quilted, and that may  take awhile.

 

Hand Stitching

Hand embroidering these little ATC's has been difficult.  These elderly hands are no longer up to the task.  I don't know if the flareup of my arthritis is because of the hand work, or if it is the cause of the difficulty with the hand work.  The hand stitching on them has been finished, but I had to use every trick in the book to get it done, even to the point of dragging out my old floor frame.

My first love was hand embroidery.  I developed a fair bit of technical skill in this, especially with counted thread ethnic embroideries and in producing intricate, fine surface stitchery. I have taught both.  I have exhibited my work nationally as well as locally, and have won awards for it.  I have seen the writing on the wall in terms of this and have devoted a lot of time and energy teaching myself to work with the machine,  ( to say nothing of the money I've spent on machines!), which has lead to my fibre work and FMQ'g.

More recently I blogged about setting up four fibre pieces that would feature hand stitching, since that is all the rage at the moment.  Well, those will be done,but using any technique I choose.

My heart hasn't really accepted the end of this, and I will probably try it out every once in awhile, but I see it as the end of an era.