Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Eco Shopping Bag Tutorial
Thursday, October 7, 2010
Knitting Heaven
My friend, Kory, is going to a special wedding this month - her son's! So, dutifully, three of us got together and made a supreme sacrifice. We sat around one afternoon eating cheese, fruit and chocolate and drinking a little wine while Kory gave us a fashion show of all the dresses that were contenders for her mother-of-the-groom look. We successfully picked a great dress...but it needed a scarf or jacket to complete the look. One more sacrifice coming up! I'd knit if she bought. So off we went last Saturday to my favorite local yarn haunt, "Yarns, etc", and picked out these fabulous yarns - 5 of them. 
I love to knit and love an excuse to knit for someone else...especially when the yarn is beautiful and the pattern is easy! I'll be back later with a photo of the finished scarf. It has a surprise ending :)
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Patching things up for Louise
My girlfriend, Kim, has a cute 8-year old "puppy", Louise.
Louise liked the bedspread on Kim's son's bed soooo much...
she ate a big hole out of it!
So Kim and I put our collective creative heads together and...
sewed bits of fabric from a suit of Kim's husband...
and now the bedspread is sportin' a fine, handsome patch.
And Louise has reclaimed her rightful position as queen of the house :).
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Unforgotten in cloth, felt and stitches
For a while now, I've been wanting to combine the various media and techniques I've learned into one piece. I challenged myself to do just that in this piece entitled "Unforgotten". Inspired by the poem by Robert Service, I wet-felted the background and then added details in fabric and stitches to render the written into the visual. The images can be enlarged by clicking on them.
"Unforgotten"
I know a garden where the lilies gleam,
And one who lingers in the sunshine there;
She is than white-stoled lily far more fair,
And oh, her eyes are heaven-lit with dream!
I know a garret, cold and dark and drear,
And one who toils and toils with tireless pen,
Until his brave, sad eyes grow weary – then
He seeks the stars, pale, silent as a seer.
And ah, it’s strange; for, desolate and dim,
Between these two there rolls an ocean wide;
And she is in the garret there with him.
merino and corriedale wool roving, cotton, linen, embroidery thread, beads, cord, hand wet felted, machine and hand stitching
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Xylem : Stitched
The life of a wall-hanging:
From inspiration...
 |
| From "Heaven and Earth", published by Phaidon |
to cutting and swirling and piecing and stitching...
to finished hanging...
to its debut at the "Come Out and Play" art show...
to sending it off to a new home :).
.
Adios Amiga!
Friday, August 20, 2010
In the Studio: felting fun
I'm getting ready for the "Come Out and Play" Sculpture and Art Show that starts next Saturday (August 28th). This year, I'll be adding some new pieces including hand-felted bracelets. So the last couple of days have been spent making "coils", and today I started beading them. Here's my very first one:
I was stumped as to how to make these adjustable and not have some dangling end underneath - horrors. I finally came up with this twist, literally, of wire that can be raised and lowered to tighten over the end where it fits the best.
I'm excited!
Thursday, August 5, 2010
Discovering an Inspiration
I'm excited! I love it when I come across something and, all of a sudden, my brain starts going bananas with inspiration. What a fun feeling.
I've been going through a book I bought recently: Collage Sourcebook. Many artists are featured including their techniques. But one kept catching my eye. And then I read an essay by her on her creative process. I could identify with so many things she said...or I aspire to become that kind of free artist, an artist whose creations are the outpouring of my heart and my soul through my hands. The artist is Deborah Putnoi. And her website has so many encouraging and inspiring words and works...even for those of us who "can't draw". I especially enjoyed her Journal pages.
I'm ripe for the picking on this, too, as I am starting to do more collage or assemblage with fiber-related materials. Yea for inspiration! :)
Both images are from Deborah Putnoi's site.
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
It's a treasure to be treasuried (Etsy treasury, that is!)
Kitty016 has been kind enough to include me in her treasury and I just love the shops that she's found. It's worth a look-see-click :)! (One of these days I'll learn the secret to copying the treasury in a smaller format...errrr)
Earth is loving wood and green
$429.00 USD
$49.00 USD
$42.00 USD
$8.00 USD
$40.00 USD
$40.00 USD
$33.00 USD
$9.00 USD
$68.00 USD
$21.00 USD
$55.00 USD
$3.95 USD
$85.00 USD
$55.00 USD
$20.00 USD
$18.00 USD
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Geometry is my friend
The last class that I took from Peg Gignoux was called "Finding Your Personal Geometry" and here is the result: my first all-but-finished wall hanging. I had so much fun 'working' on it, too. The only thing left to do is to put the finishing touches on the sides and back.
The best part of this class was discovering that I absolutely loved the design process and the meditative cutting and arranging and hand-stitching. I am newly encouraged to find my inner artist :).
cotton, linen, taffeta, organza, silk, pearl rayon cording, multiple colors of thread
Friday, July 9, 2010
Xylem Series - In the Beginning
I've been having fun in my studio for the last few weeks coming up with a new wall hanging to have for the Art Show I'll be doing starting in August (more on that later). My inspiration for this piece is an image magnified 2,000 times of conifer wood xylem cells*. It has a very uneven, repetitive geometry that looked interesting enough to springboard from. Using some of the techniques I learned in my last art textile class, I sewed and cut and sewed burlap, suedecloth, cotton and organza to make 4 long segments that will make up the background cloth. And now, I'm appliquing organza, cotton, suedecloth and felt in swirly dollops down each segment. The hours have gone by enjoyably with each stitch.
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