Yellow Bag Challenge

Yay!  For once I have finished a project ahead of time!  This bag was made in response to a challenge that a group of friends are participating in.  The challenge is to use a piece of yellow boiled wool in a bag and it has to show at least 10% of the wool and is not due until June. 

A few weeks ago I was working on a project that suddenly went wrong.  I was happily moving along on Chinaberry Dream II when I realized that there was an ugly area that could be improved by adding some screen printing to break up the solid mass of paint and fabric that was bugging me.  Unfortunately, I used an old screen that had some of the emulsion washed away and the paint was a touch too thin and ended up making the ugly area uglier.  So, I painted and marked all over it with paint sticks.  And then spent a couple of weeks looking at and wondering what in the world I could do with it.

Then it suddenly occurred to me that it would be perfect cut up and used in the yellow bag challenge. So, something good came out of what felt like a disaster at the time. Still have a little of it left, too.  There must be something else I can do with it ...

Working In A Series

I have always heard artists being encouraged to work in a series, to explore a particular inspiration until it has finished speaking.  And I've always thought that sounded like a good idea, but never felt any piece I made was anything more than a one off, complete on its own.

A couple of years ago I took a class from fiber artist Barbara Olson in which she asked us to bring objects from nature for inspiration.  So, this is where I started:

We spent some time sketching, given various instructions as to orientation, size, etc., and were finally told to just draw however it came to us in the last exercise.  I was pleased with the last drawing and knew I would develop it into a fabric piece.

The interesting thing about this piece is that as soon as I began working on it I began to get ideas for two or three more possibilities.  So far there are two pieces in the Pod series.  Pod I on the left is probably the closest any piece in the series will be to the drawing and Pod II, on the right, is probably the most abstract.  

I've got some ideas brewing for Pod III, and it will be interesting to see if it falls somewhere in the middle despite being the last piece in the series.

One Thing Finished Today

I had lots of good intentions today, but the only thing I actually finished was this postcard.  It goes off in the mail tomorrow as congratulations to Sojourner Kincaid Rolle who has been selected as Poet Laureate for Santa Barbara.

Pod - Exhibited at C Gallery, Los Alamos, CA in December 2014 19"x19"

Days For Girls

Well, I certainly have been MIA for a long Won't promise to post more often, but I might....  

Finally ready to pack up this colorful project and send it off to do good in the world! The fiber arts group, Fibervision, decided to support the work of DaysForGirls.org by making 28 drawstring bags, 56 shields, and 224 liners to help girls and women who are otherwise stopping their lives for a week to ten days every month during their menstrual cycles. It is impossible for women to get a full education or hold a job to improve the life of their impoverished communities when they have to hide themselves away on a regular basis. The stated goal of DaysForGirls.org is: "Empower girls and women worldwide with more dignity, health and safety through quality sustainable menstrual management. Every woman by 2022." If you have high quality cotton and flannel fabrics, basic sewing skills, and the inclination, all instructions for making these kits is at DaysforGirls.org. Even if you don't have those fabrics and those skills, check out the organization. There is surely something you can contribute, even if it simply best wishes.

Merry Christmas 2012

Happy winter holidays to everyone and may 2013 bless us all with peace and joy.

Get Your Art On - Day Twenty-One

So, apparently I'm not so good at this making art on a regular basis thing.  I have completely lost track of the days and have definitely not gotten my art on everyday.  Today I met with some friends who are knitters and did some beading on the embellishment piece while they clickity-clacked away.  At the end of the afternoon, they had made some progress while I decided I hated the beads and took them all off.  Going to do some hand stitching and then re-evaluate the bead situation.

Last weekend I went to Pacific International Quilt Festival in Santa Clara and, among other things, took a class with Janice Gunner. It was a free form piecing class and I brought a picture of an autumn forest in Virginia for inspiration.  This is as far as I got so far, will be adding something to represent birch trees soon. I've got a great piece of Mickey Lawler fabric that I have been saving for years that should just do the trick.  So, something else to work on this month. I'll try to post a better picture for the next step. And, by the way, Janice Gunner is a great teacher, lots of fun and very encouraging.  She demonstrated the technique and then let us all loose and no two students had pieces that looked anything alike.  As far as I'm concerned, the best measurement of a good teacher.