Time to move on ...

This is the electronic equivalent of the note posted on the front door.

Please follow me to http://textisle.wordpress.com

I moved to take advantage of the extra features Wordpress has to offer, like the tag cloud and categories so readers can read what they want and skip over stuff that is less interesting to them.

Also I changed the name from Chameleon's Nest but to find out about that you'll need to check out the new blog. Hope to see you there!

Theme Thursday

In the Raw Art Yahoo Group, Quinn McDonald suggested posting links to sites that may be of interest to fellow artists in our blogs.

sewq.wordpress.com
and
islamic-homeschool.blogspot
are two blogs by a creative and entertaining crafter in the UK. I feel I have a lot in common with her and it's a joy to read what she has to say.

At
intothehermitage.blogspot.com
Rima, who is a nomad in Britain, blogs about her life on the road with wonderful illustrations. She and her partner have committed to living their dream in a courageous way.

Savanna Redman is one of us raw artists. Her website is at www.savanna-art.com
You also HAVE to read what she says here at the Dharma Trading website (if you're not a fibre artist, trust me on this one! Dharma is THE go-to store for fibre art supplies)
http://www.dharmatrading.com/autogen/featuredartists/html/401/?utm_source=newsletter_2009_05&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter

Fingers crossed that these turn into live links!

Memory, Family, History Opening, Plus a Detour

The Memory, Family, History art show opened at Coast Collective last Saturday afternoon. This was a great opportunity to meet other local artists and see what people are doing.
Only two fibre art pieces are in the show, my "Enuff on My Plate," and Laine Canivet's "Rock, Paper, Scissors." Laine wasn't in town, so I was the sole fibre artist in attendance.
I was amazed at how impressed everyone was with the idea of making art in fabric. One lady said "So you painted the chefs onto the fabric?" I had to tell her it was all in the shopping. Which is true, someone else might not buy that fabric, and another person might buy it and just make napkins and placemats.
The painting below my piece, "Womens' Work" by Suzanne Jensen, also deals with similar concerns. The painting is of a young woman in a construction site, but Suzanne gessoed doileys made by family members onto the canvas before she started painting, to reflect different types of womens' work. Several women said they could relate to my title!
One neat thing about this particular exhibition was that the artist statement prompted everyone to write a narrative explaining about their work and its significance to them personally. This added a lot to the show and encouraged lingering and paying more attention.
Artists who impressed me, in no particular order:
Imke Pearson, Kate Seymour, Sheryl Gusauskas, Robert Anderson, Vicki Postl, Karen Furey, Suzanne Jensen, Lorraine Thorainson Bettes, Deborah Czernecky, Radmila Gorjanovic Nunez, Rachel Windson Lawson-Gurevitch, Lisa Riehl, Linda Simrose, Marcela Strasdas, Rose-Anne Matte-Munro.
My contribution to the refreshments was applesauce gingerbread from Joy of Cooking. This was the first time I made it and it was all eaten up. At home we are seriously trying to cut back on refined sugar and starches, but as cakes go, I would think this is fairly healthy.
The afternoon was enjoyable and somewhat compensates for the disappointment that my piece for the Elements show was not hung. I need to make smaller pieces I guess. And that is a question of developing the techniques to be able to do that.
In a discussion on size with painters at the opening I pointed out that larger pieces are harder to sell because they are harder to display. It's not just a matter of price but of having a space that you want to transform with that particular piece. Both the artists said that had not occurred to them before! Maybe it's because quilting and fibre arts are so linked to decorating and home-making, that gives us that more practical perspective.
Of course no trip is complete without a detour and Saturday was no exception. My strategy was to go as far west as possible by bus and then take a cab. The bus stopped right by Cloth Castle and I was in TONS of time, so of course I got off to explore, YAY! This was my first time there, and I was pleased to see they have some items not available at other local stores, plus the bargain attic.
The fabric I bought is shown above. I've already used some of the blue and yellow stars in the baby quilt. It's a batik-style fabric. The multicoloured fabric has machine stitching on it, that is not printed loops. And I have in mind to use the top one for backing. I'm a big fan of unconventional stripes.

New Business Cards

Good news ~ my piece IS in the Memory, Family, History show at Coast Collective. So tomorrow afternoon, off I go to meet people! Realized that I need business cards for networking, so came up with this simple method of creating unique cards without getting too precious or spending inordinate amounts of time/money.

As you can see, each individual card is one of a kind. Hopefully this conveys fibre and a sense of playfulness combined with good taste (that would be the gray cardstock ~ I've always had gray business cards).

This is simple to do. You start with the sheets of cards that will go through the printer, set up the information in a Word document with two columns, making sure the blocks of text line up with each other in the two columns, test print (which may take a couple of attempts) and then run the card stock through the printer.

After that, I took watercolour ink from my EZ-Tintz on a q-tip and ran wiggly lines across the whole sheet of cards, then separated them.

The other advantage is you can have as many or few as you want, unlike with commercial printers who can only do small quantities for a high price. I understand why, but this is an ideal solution for me.

A Step Forward, hopefully

My "Enuff on My Plate" wall hanging has been accepted into the juried art show at Coast Collective, Memory, Family, History.

They do say that acceptance does not guarantee that the piece will actually be hung, which I can understand given that submission was via e-mail photos. But this is the first time I've tried to be in a juried show, so it's all pretty exciting.

It's especially exciting because this is an art show so most of the pieces will be paintings -- I feel like I'm on the cutting edge (make that the rotary cutting edge!) of working for acceptance of fibre art as "real serious" art.

HOURS/PRODUCTIVITY

Last week: 38.40 hours
week before: 34.40 hours

I don't expect anyone else to take much interest in that, but having it out there for all to see encourages me to keep making the effort, even on the days like yesterday when everyone's schedule went to #~!! in a handbasket!

Which End is Up??

They do say that the mark of a good composition is one that works in any orientation, so perhaps I've achieved that for once.



While in the workshop with Susan McGregor at Satin Moon last week, I felt that the piece would be turned this way (second photo). That was how her sample piece was displayed and I was not aiming for a landscape effect, just wanted to learn the technique and play with the subtle batik colors.
At the end of the day, Susan and I were looking at my work and she suggested turning it sideways, (third and fourth photos).

At home I thought about it some more, and discussed with a family member, and we decided that the third photo was most suggestive of a landscape. Based on that, I laid a piece of fusible embroidery thread across the bottom of the piece and fused it on to use as a cutting guide.

This piece is still not finished because as mentioned earlier it's to be embellished. While talking about the logistics of embellishment with fellow FAD members, people challenged me to hold it up in different orientations to rethink it, and I'm now leaning towards the last photo, with the curved edge at the top.

Who knows, perhaps in the course of embellishing some other epiphany will come? But I'm thinking to take that as the orientation for the embellishment.

In any case, this technique, which is topstitching the curves and matching the top thread to the fabric (in most cases) has many possibilities and I plan to play and experiment. Although my stash doesn't contain that much batik, I'm thinking paisley prints, commercial marbled fabric like Moda, and some of my hand dyed fabric. So I look on this piece as the first of many ~ this is a great technique to have in the repertoire.

A Star is Born

The Victoria Quilters Guild has launched a new challenge. To encourage the production of more baby quilts which go to babies and children at the local hospital, and to tie in with the theme of next year's quilt show, Quilting with the Stars, two challenge fabrics were chosen to be in a baby quilt top. This is a scan of the fat quarter I chose.

This is a teaser really because the rules are that our work must be kept secret from other Guild members until November!

Various ideas are flying around my head, but nothing will be online until after November. Math is involved in my thinking because we have a fairly tight size range and I don't want to design something using more than I have of this fabric.

Feel like I'm returning to square one in a way, there are many old sketches on graph paper where I would figure out how to use all of a certain fabric. And the graph paper is out again this morning. Even wished for a moment that I had a quilting software program but that is velleity rearing its seductive head!

So far, so good -- what next??

This is a scan of some silk cocoons I've had for a while. Now I actually have a wall hanging I might use them on, but does anyone have a clue as to what you actually DO with them?

I have looked online but have not seen anything with specific directions. The sites that sell them say things like "wonderful for embellishment" and leave it at that! Aaaaarrrrggh!

Appealing for your help here, folks!

Nothing is Wasted

This piece started life as a piece of plain white felt which I used during the Colour Hues session at Satin Moon to test the various colours before using them on fabric. On fabric they do not look at all the same as in the mixing bottle.

I read somewhere that the flower foot is easier to use on heavier fabrics. Having reached a point where I needed to see positive results I have been playing with different threads, including metallics, varying stitch width and length and trying out various stitches that my machine has. The very large circles and curves were done by tracing round plates. Once again I have to wait for the marker to vanish.

What to do with this next? I was contemplating using it for a book cover, but the book would need to be 7 inches high by 4-1/2 inches wide MAX. Maybe better to keep going with embroidery and perhaps beading and make a small wall hanging. Interesting, compared to many fibre artists I think I tend to underembellish, perhaps this is a new departure for me?

Am now kicking myself that I didn't get amethyst and malachite chip beads from Eileen Neill at the Symphony of Quilts. Oh well, maybe she would do mail order.

Heavy Metal Heaven

Here's a selection of metallic fabric scraps from MacPhee Workshops which I've been eagerly awaiting. There is more in the bag. All the pieces are big enough to be usable as accents or trim on a garment.

This serves as a reminder that I'm in dire need of two more plastic bins. My non-cotton fabrics need to be separated so that silk is in one bin and everything else is in another. And the second bin can be the home for a current project.

Test Piece for Latest Toy

The latest toy is the flower foot I bought at the Victoria sewing show. It has a ratchet on it that lets you sew flowers in a perfect circle using any zigzag stitch on your machine.

These flowers were sewn using rayon embroidery thread in one of my favourite colours, onto the sheer fabric I posted about earlier. The fabric was stabilized with newspaper. If you click on the image you can see much more detail. The scan doesn't really do it justice.

After removing the stablizer, I cut carefully around the motif and then fused it to commercial cotton background with Bo-Nash powder glue. This may become a tiny wall hanging, but if so it will be a byproduct of Shy Beast, because I want to put flowers on that piece too and I needed to test Bo-Nash first.

Blooming Marvelous!

As we were driving to the Coast Collective on Esquimalt Lagoon yesterday, my first impression was that someone had stuck little yellow plastic flags into the ground for some reason. Later Yvonne told me this is skunk cabbage. They are dramatic and we didn't get close enough to experience the skunk scent.

The Bloom exhibition at Coast Collective was inspiring and thoughtfully laid out in colour families. Seeing what the Victoria Flower Arrangers Guild had done with the pieces that inspired them was particularly interesting, and we commented that some of the flower arrangements could become the inspiration for yet another new artwork, either painted or in fibre. Hmm, that could be the basis for a new kind of round robin perhaps?


Being new to Victoria, I jotted down names of artists whose work particularly intrigues me: (these are in random order!)

Zara Lau - fusing

Beth Cruise - soft sculpture

Lynda Slater ("Bean") - fibre

Mary Giordano - foiling

Kathy Cameron - gold leaf

Sandra Fowler - glass fusion and other artwork

Barbara Giuliany - fibre

And a bouquet to Yvonne for the ride, and for wearing her new flower jacket too!

More Baraka

I'm sure I've seen this yardage at Ikea before now. The white is opaque and the brown is sheer with a slight golden glow to it. This is the kind of thing I want to buy but don't because I'm never sure what to do with it.

However two lengths of it materialized in the laundry room so now I'm thinking of various projects and ways to use it -- stay tuned!

We also found a treasure trove of scrapbooking supplies including some very nice rub-offs and chipboard and transparent letters. A family member finished embellishing a painted wooden tray and I've done a little journaling.

It really is so cool that people are sharing and repurposing more than before, especially since we live on an island! Whoever left all those goodies must have been moving somewhere far. I wonder who's enjoying the goodies I left at Goodwill before my move?

Progress Today on Shy Beast

The top photo shows the beginning of the layout for Shy Beast.

The lower photo shows its current state, with a strip of leafy treetops sewn across the top and a short tree in the foreground. So far everything in the piece was produced in one marbling session, which is one way to have a coordinated palette.

The piece is up on my wall right now so I can mull it over and wait for the marker lines to disappear. Had I stopped to think about it, all that marker was not really needed.

Better View of Beast

I fused the Shy Beast with Steam A Seam 2, then carefully cut around him. I wanted to emphasize the outline of the animal without making it too obvious or cartoonish. The photo is not as clear as the actual fabric.

Improved T-Shirt

No doubt if I were to design fabric, some of it would look much like this.

A simple concept, bright colours, and a little tasteful embellishment. This much-loved T was shedding seed beads here and there, so I've added a few flower beads in matching colours. These came from Eileen Neill, who was at the Westshore Symphony of Quilts last week, and was one of the stores people recommended going to!

The neat thing about this style is that I can add more beads on as the whim takes me, yet it is still wearable no matter where I leave off. Given my challenges with finishing projects, that's a Good Thing (as Martha would say).

The T was bought at Steinmart (a store I really miss!) and came with extra seed beads in a little baggie. I might dig them out since the flower beads are red, yellow, and blue, but not green.

Eileen also sold me some really cool black and gold sequins. I will have to think of something to put them on.

Brave Beast

When I moved to Victoria, I was intrigued to discover the world's first laundry soap made from the leftover soap in hotels. Having run a B&B for a while I know how fast it piles up! The artwork is by Jimmy Wright, a Victoria artist who has passed away. It reminds me of my Shy Beast except he's looking the other way and has more natural colours.

Fingers Crossed!

This is Enuff on my Plate, my response to the mandala challenge the Mavericks had. I've entered it in a juried art show at the Coast Collective. The theme of the show is Memory, Family, History, and this piece fits all three, so we'll see.

It's the first time I've entered a juried art show so who knows what will happen. I won't know until April 19th. I'm aware that my pieces are one-offs and distinctive looking, so it very much depends what the jury is looking for. It was exhibited already in Phoenix in 2007 in the Mavericks show.

Starting a New Piece

The provisional working title for this is Shy Beast, he is on the pale blue background. All of these fabrics were created in one session using the marbling technique taught by Susan Purney Mark. Have been mulling ideas over for a while and had him up on my wall so I could think about what needs to happen. Even pressing the fabrics to start auditioning and scanning helped me come up with more ideas of how to do this piece, which I want to keep to fairly small dimensions. Although the beast is 12 by 7 inches and there has to be significant surroundings or he won't look shy!

I have auditioned other fabric, both my own altered/hand dyed and some commercial, but at this point I feel the fabrics shown here are going to be the main parts. Plus scanning is time consuming and less fun than designing!

Colour Meanings

This is a fascinating study done at University of British Columbia about how red improves cognitive performance while blue improves creativity ...

www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-02/uobc-cbb020409.php