Studio Time

I love my new space…I love having the shop. People drop in just to chat, which is great, and to sign up for classes, which is great too! I love having the space for classes. Most days it looks like this:

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and this….

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Here’s what a happy class looks like!

Paper and Wax collage class 1-25-14

Paper and wax collage. In this class, everyone first made a paper collage on bristol board. None of these had ever made a collage, they told me. They used some of my own painted and dyed papers in their collages. I just put a pile of stuff out and let them go to town with it. Some brought in specific papers they wanted to work with too. After their collages were glued, they brushed a layer of encaustic medium (wax and resin) over the collage. Then they did some etching in the wax. After that we put some paint on the places where they had etched and put another layer of encaustic medium on.  Lana, Noah, Kate, Diane, Brittney and Whitley all did an awesome job!

Wax and Collage

No name for these yet….Paper collaged on cradled wood, then coated with beeswax/damar resin mix, then I “drew” in the wax and colored with paintstiks.  Then I used a tracing paper to make marks.  Love this whole process.

New Work…

Remember a very peaceful red/blue-green piece I was working on a few weeks ago?  Well, I  decided it was too one-dimensional… so I painted a very diluted layer of black paint on it.  I like layers.  It still wasn’t done, so I rolled some white gesso over the black paint.  Too much white streaks..still wasn’t done and didn’t have a name either.  I got out the paintstiks and brought some color back in over those two layers…AND got a name!  Now it’s finished and ready for the Arts Council exhibit.

weathered-places

Weathered Places

I have to say, after working on this piece, Linda and Laura Kemshall’s practice of working everything out on paper first makes a ton of sense.  It got pretty scary adding subsequent layers to this piece after all the quilting was done.  I knew it wasn’t done, so I took the plunge, but it did almost take my breath away and make my heart race.  I haven’t developed the practice of planning ahead of time…that just doesn’t seem to be the way I ‘m working right now, but sometimes I felt like I just had a very close call…

Friday This ‘N That…

There are not a lot of exciting things happening this week.  I am starting to think about what I need to have ready for a quilt show in Elizabethtown, KY.  It is the 19th and 20th, but I will leave on the 18th to go get set up.  The dyeing, painting and printing class that I have been doing SO much preparation for is cancelled at the Rend Lake facility.  I was so looking forward to teaching this class, but there will be another time, and I have a bunch of new cool fabrics!

I am working on a new sample.  The pattern is Kimonos by Betty Blais of Embellishment Village.  Most people would probably use oriental fabrics for this pattern, but I am using my hand dyed fabrics.  See…

I will probably make a couple of other blocks using different fabrics.  I am also planning on painting some sky fabrics to sell with patterns from the Accidental Landscapes series.  And there are probably a few other small samples to make.  I sell Angelina fibers and film, paintstiks and accessories, beads and beading supplies, surface design books, as well as patterns, kits and fabrics.  I plan my booth to offer items for the quilter interested in trying something new and, so that it will offer items other vendors might not have. I will be demo-ing paintstiks, Angelina products, and foiling with some new glue and foiling glue pen products.  I am really looking forward to this show.  Last year was the first year I vended and the reception from the quilters was very good.

It is cooling off here some this morning and I am thinking about getting outside and creating some more dye painted cloth.  I have some ideas I want to try.

Keep making art!

Sometimes The Back is Best….

Ever have a piece that you’ve designed and quilted, but it just doesn’t seem to be working.  Oh…you liked it at the time…it was fun…but as you learn more, you see it needs changing.  Flip it over and paint the back! This is just a section of it, but I thought it turned out pretty cool all by itself.

Muted red hand dye, iridescent light gold paintstik and black paintstik.