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…
March 17, 2009 by 10 Comments
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
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…
Sometimes The Back is Best….
August 2, 2008 by Leave a Comment
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.
Monday Ramblings…
April 1, 2008 by Leave a Comment
I am back from the Decatur show, my head is full…of thoughts and things to do this week. There is the possibility of some workshops with the quilt guilds ahead. And now I am the proud inheritor of my grandmother’s Singer Featherweight sewing machine! I spent some time with my mother this weekend and she gave me grandma’s machine. I am excited about that. It’s good to be home and today is a “tired” day. I am resting.
Monday ramblings has turned into…Tuesday Ramblings
I did some demos of stenciling with paintstiks at the show which sold my new stencils very well. I oversold the leaves stencil, don’t ya’ know! I have plenty more on order and will be putting them up on my website soon.
Using the 1/2 inch paintstik brush with short bristles made specifically for use with paintstiks, I stenciled these leaves onto a light gray hand dye. After applying one color and leaving the stencil in place, I applied a second color in various places to provide shading and dimension. People were quite impressed with them. Paintstiks are wonderful for stencils and rubbings. The only downside I can see about them is that you can’t be in a hurry with them. They do take some time to dry. After all, it is oil paint. But it doesn’t take the drying time of an oil painting.
Here is what a section of the Southwest stencil looks like. I did repeats of the design. Again, I used more than one color for dimension.
These are available for $3 each plus shipping.
I see several possibilities with these designs. They can be applied to a border and then used as the quilting design; just quilt around them as it’s already marked. One could apply fusible to the back and cut them out to make applique. You could also do some thread painting on them to fill in the vein and stem areas, then cut them out for applique.
