Feathers and Fern

Today was a glorious day for sun printing.  Bright sun, little wind and even a bit cooler, not so humid.

This one will become a journal cover.

These others will be cut up for collage quilts.

I am really happy with the feathers!!It always amazes me how much detail one can pick up with this technique!!!

I hope that the sun is shining in your part of the world. We are expecting rain, remnants of TS Issac I think, so I will be working on some of these sun prints with some new projects.  Pictures soon!

Fiber Arts at the Fredericksburg Museum

Remember to click on each picture to see a close up!

Last Friday I accompanied my fiber artist friends Barbara Posey and Stephanie Woolsey to the Fredericksburg Museum , in Fredericksburg VA, to drop off our work to be included in the First Fiber Arts Exhibit ever held at this venue!  The piece that you see above is a brand new piece titled Autumn Daisy.  I created this art quilt using all of my own hand dyed and sun printed fabrics.  The title references the glorious yellow daisy type flowers that bloom all over the place here in Virginia, starting at the end of August.  The wild small bushes bloom like crazy and are butterfly magnets.  We often see many Monarch butterflies swarming these bushes as they store up food to make their long migrations south.

I have been invited to join 6 other local fiber artists in this exhibit.  The exhibit at the museum will coincide with a large invitational exhibit, Contemporary Work in Fiber, that will be taking place at the University of Mary Washington just up the street.  You can check out that exhibit and all the particulars about it here.

Autumn Daisy hanging at Artful Dimensions Gallery in Fredericksburg along with Piece of the Rainbow, a mosaic work by Cathy Ambrose-Smith.

Every stitch on this piece was done by hand.

You can see a faint yellowing in the center of each daisy flower.  That yellow stain is left behind by the pollen from each blossom,  when the flowers are applied to the wet fabric and pressed into place the pollen comes in firm contact with the fabric and leaves it's mark.  I love that about these flowers.  the shape of their leaves is wonderful for sun printing as well, with the serrated edge to give extra interest.  It is almost time for the flowers to start blooming in the ditches and along the road sides again!! I will be doing many more sun prints and offering them for sale in my Etsy Shop!

My second submission is titled New Again.  This piece began as a needle felted piece combining wool roving with silk fibers and fabrics.  Then I added all sorts of vintage laces, trims and beads.  I crafted a puffed heart covered with a silk brocade from a vintage scarf and beaded the heart. I added many vintage mother of pearl buttons , some crystals, fresh water pearls and many tiny seed beads in all sorts of shades of pearl and white.  In other words the old became New Again as part of a New whole.

Here you can see some of the wonderful edging lace and vintage tatting that I stitched on and then embellished further with beads.  I made the frame myself using foam core collaged with brown paper, then painted and varnished the entire piece. 

If you click on this photo you can see a close up of the puffed heart and the surrounding area.

My last submission absolutely had to be my underwater tapestry titled Coral Cacophony.  If you would like to read the specifics of the creation of this piece you can click here.

The exhibit opens in early September, so check back to see pictures of my co-exhibitors work as well as the opening event!  you are in for a real treat!!! You can be sure that I will be sharing it here!!

"Red All Over"

I have gotten word that my dear friend Judy ,of Judy in the Dyes, has received her commissioned Corded Cuff. Now I feel free to post my latest creation. Judy requested a cuff in red. I made the cording using seam allowances from a red cashmere sweater and some special yarns and shining threads and gathered all of the beads with red included, as well as things that spoke of Judy, her interests and passions.

I adore creating special pieces for people who i know well or for whom I have a good idea of their likes and special interests.  I can really personalize each piece with charms and special focal beads and even bits of jewelry that may have seen better days.  I also include vintage bits- buttons especially, and I prefer using a vintage button with a shank for the loop closure. As you can see above, I work among a pile of possibilities that i have culled from my stash as I am never quite sure where the spirit of the project will take me nor what pice will be the perfect fit for a specific spot.

Each piece is completely hand stitched and lined with lovely soft Ultra Suede.

Here you can see the shank button and corded loop closure along with the vintage Czech red glass flower bead and the vintage Lucite lime green flower bead nearby. Judy is an avid gardener and I knew that I had to include lots of floral and leaf elements.

                                     
Judy also requested some turquoise to accompany the red. (Easy Easy- that just happens to be one of my current favorite color combinations as well!!) Nest to the Peace symbol above you can see a tiny millifiore face bead and just to the right of that tiny face, is a vintage red a black glass bead (Victorian I think.) there is also a deep blue and gold Victorian glass button just to the lower left of the Peace symbol.  I love finding tiny treasures to fit in to these very personal pieces!

I am thrilled to report that Judy is thrilled with her commission and it is also a perfect fit.   I hope that she gets many years of pleasure from her piece and that she is always reminded of the special friendship that we share.  ( Did I mention that we have never met?  We found each other through the blogging world and then Face Book and one of these days we are determined to meet in her lovely textile studio in Georgia for some serious textile/dye pots play time!!!)

Linen Jacket Rescue

I have been finding many wonderful items for re-purposing of late , at local thrift shops and the Goodwill.

I found this great 100% linen jacket recently but inn my opinion it had very "unfortunate pockets."  Sometimes I just have to wonder," What were the designers thinking ????"

This jacket has great simple lines and a timeless style. Why, oh why would one consider plopping a country themed print on the pockets???No matter, my treasure now!!!  I paid 3.49 for it and came back home to plan  a re-make, rescue!!

Very unfortunate pockets don't you think????

So I set to work using strips and scraps of my hand dyed fabrics and many of my sun printed bits to create this strip pieced fabric a la Rayna Gillman !  Her wonderful book Create Your Own Free Form Quilts: A Stress Free Journey to Original Design has been such an inspiration to me and I can't recommend the book and her wonderful methods highly enough!!

I did add a few batiks form my scrap bin and a few Black and White prints to make all the colors pop, but the rest are my won hand dyed and sun printed fabrics.  Then I had to cut the piece up!!  Not easy, but I steeled myself  and cut away, to create pockets and two decorative accent panels for the jacket front and back.

The jacket front!

The jacket back! 

 After a good press and a few photos , I packed the rescued piece up and sent it off to my mom in MA.  She is recovering from a heart attack and hopefully this will put a bit of a spring in her step as she returns to her beloved Knitting group and volunteer endeavors.  Everyone loves to sport a new original piece of arty clothing don't you think!  I know that this will look smashing on her and she will be so jazzed about the fact that it is a recycled remake!!

Purple Royalty- A gift.

 I have just completed this bracelet that I call Purple Royalty for my wonderful sister in law,

Elise Jensen.  Elise has just returned home to her family from 2 years spent in Afghanistan working on women's education and health issues for USAID.

 This piece has many fresh water pearls, amethyst stones and vintage Czech glass beads.

 The toggle closure was made using a vintage gold tone metal button with a beaded loop.

 In August the family will be moving to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where Elise will continue to work with the US State Department and USAID on women's health and education issues.  My niece Kate, will attend school in the 10th grade and my brother Peter will continue his work with Peace Corps and teaching intensive gardening techniques. I have written several posts about my brothers wonderful work and you can learn more, if you are interested, here and here.

I am so very blessed to have such an amazing family. I hope that when Elise wears this piece, she will know of my admiration , love and profound respect!!

Busy and Hot!!!

Life has been a whirlwind lately!! I have been teaching and creating and planning for more teaching!!  recently I have finished this White Free Form bracelet that I am calling "Something New".  It has such a strong Bridal look , the title seemed to be a perfect fit!!

This piece is loaded with pearls and vintage crystals, Opalite stones and Czech floral beads. I am hoping that a customer at Artful Dimensions Gallery will love it as much as I !

Working with summer colors and ocean colors in mind, I have also created these three new Sea Glass Pendants.  I collected these pieces of sea glass last summer on Cape Cod and now each is cradled in a unique strapping of beads, pearls and hand cut vintage crystals!

I just noticed that the temp in DC today has hit 102 degrees!!  After gardening this morning in the relative cool, I set up some sun prints.  One of the few things that a hot sunny oppressive day is good for is Sun Printing!!!  I am working on a very large collage quilt piece that will be comprised of layers of these sun prints.  I have to get three pieces ready to go to the Fredericksburg Museum for a Textile Arts Exhibit that will open in September!!

I hope that all can keep cool !! I am off to set up some more Sun Prints!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Got Me Again!!! Hooked on a New technique!!

I had the opportunity to take a Thermofax screen printing class yesterday with two delightful gals, Susan Price and Elizabeth Gibson.  The class was held at one of my alternate homes, Artistic Artifacts Annex. For those who are not aware of what Thermofax Screen printing is, here is a quick description.  Someone made the discovery that old Thermofax machines (once used for creating transparencies in schools and such) could be used to burn screens to be used in artwork.  The production of the screens requires 1. a Thermofax  machine ( folks are busy refurbishing old machines for just this purpose) 2. the special coated screen material  3. a black and white toner copy image .  When placed against the screen, the toner image (that contains carbon)  will be burned into the screen material removing the coating in the carbon area- where ever the image is back.
These machines are EXPENSIVE and there is quite a steep learning curve for getting things all worked out and set up.  Elizabeth and Susan have invested in a machine and are working on their own Small business to create screens for other artists who want to print with their own images.  This is the point where my own photography and artwork comes on the scene!!  Their business is call PG Fiber to Art and I will be sure to let you all know when they are up and running for making screens for the public.
In the meantime they taught the class yesterday at Artistic Artifacts Annex ( one of my alternate homes) to teach us how to work with the screens .  We got to print with a wonderful stash of their own screens  and to learn how to best work with the paint on our own fabrics.

I did not do any printing on plain fabrics!  No, not me!! I took along pieces of fabric that had already been manipulated with color. Above is a gelatin mono printed piece of muslin that was done with large bubble wrap then i practiced with the small flower screen using a mixture of yellow and a strong orange paint to WAKE Up this background.

This is one of my favorite pieces. This is a piece of my hand dyed muslin that a printed with several different Queen Anne's Lace screens using several different colors of paint with several different opacity levels.  I love the depth in this piece.

This small bit is a used tea bag that i took apart after the tea had dried out a bit and then printed with another small flower screen!!  Love this!! Save your tea bags!!!

Here is another fabulous Queen Anne's Lace screen printed on one of my sun prints.  I used a mixture of white and purple paints to get the color shift effects.  ( I am not one to keep it simple with just one color of paint, once I got the printing technique down, playtime and experimentation definitely took over!!!)

This is another favorite piece!  This began as a vintage doily that i rust dyed.  the rust dying was less than exciting so it went into the low immersion dye pile and came out quite well.  Not done yet- more Queen Anne's Lace screens and now it is FABULOUS!!!( If I do say so myself!!)

This fabric was created using large bubble bubble wrap on a gelatin plate and then the butterfly screens were added yesterday!!  Much better!! LOVE THIS !!

This piece began life as a large piece of plain muslin.  I wet the fabric and sprinkled it with instant coffee granules and let it dry in the sun.  After heat setting the stains with an iron- REALLY hot- it got screen printed with my favorite Queen Anne's Lace Screens.  O LA LA!!!

Today I am going to be working on my own photographs and then going on a walk to collect some Queen Anne's lace to make my own screens!!

I am hooked again - like a junkie on crack!!! I rushed home and started going thru my photos to find special shots that would work best for this technique.  Now I have yet another layer of my personal images to add to my textile and paper projects. 

It does not get much better than this- let me tell you!!!