Dragonfly Postcard

My local fiber art group is having its holiday party and 5x7 exchange. This is the piece that I made. It is lots of different techniques mixed together.

Gate House

I was having difficulty uploading images from home last month! This piece opens to conceal "treasures' either house keys or jewelry. This is actually a birthday present for my sister (whose birthday was in SEPTEMBER!!!!

Garden House Open

I took a class this weekend at Rubber Stamp Fantasy with Beverly from BLine Designs. It was so much fun! Building on a wood House base, we used three small deep canvases which are painted and collaged and then attached to the house base. We then collaged inside the canvases/door nooks. I loved it.

Garden House Closed

Here is the Garden House Closed. I painted a garden scene on the front and then collaged more flowers on top.

Woven Scarf

I also took a class in weaving. This is a neck scarf that I did on the Continuous strand loom.

Needlefelting at Southeast Animal Fiber Festival

I went to Fletcher, N.C. last weekend to the Southeast Animal Fiber Festival. I love this event. They have the sheep, goat, and alpaca breeders selling and showing their animals' fleece as well as tons of vendors who deal with animal fleece. It is a place for felters (me), spinners, knitters, and weavers to get together. I took an all day class from Melissa Grey on needlefelting. Her work is truly amazing (search for it on Etsy). It is so detailed and realistic. Here is a little chipmunk that I made in class. It is not anything like her work, but she really went into how she approaches a project to make it so life-like.

Marvys on Canvas

After seeing the Marvy Metallic Markers on the gloss tag, I wondered how it would work with Acrylic paint on canvas. I had a small canvas already painted with a back ground and added the Marvys on top. I like what happened, but it took a lot longer for it to dry.

After it dried, I used embossing powders to add another layer. I am still thinking about going back with either more ink or paint to add strengthen a focal point.

Marvy Markers and Embossing Powder

Here are the two ATCs after embossing. I really like them both too.

Marvy Metallic Markers

In the picture to the left, are different card stocks with Marvy Metallic Markers. After class, Debbie, one of the owners of Rubber Stamp Fantasy, had an informal "class" on using these great pens. The tag to the far left is a semi-gloss tag (which works the best), the middle ATC is on white and the right is also an ATC, but black. The white ATC is actually a "mono-print", but there was still some white left so I sprayed it with glimmer mists.

This is the tag after embossing.

Class at Rubber Stamp Fantasy

I took a class at Rubber Stamp Fantasy today. I love that place. Although the class really focused on Glimmer Mist, we also used copic markers and their new air brush system. These two were done with purchased screens from Tattered Angel on an clear acrylic sheets which are pre-cut to use as a book cover. The class was taught by Sally Lynn MacDonald.

Frank Lloyd Wright Panel

This was another assingment for C&G. I needed to design a piece using bias tape, and as the module is on "line" as a design element, I searched the internet for some of Frank Lloyd Wright's stained glass panels to use as inspiration. I used some of my hand-dyed fabric for both the background and some of the inset pieces. For a few of them, I used Shiva Paintstiks to give a contrast of textures.

Monoprinting on fabric

The next assignment was to do monoprinting on fabric. These are not

great examples. I was having the a hard time keeping the thickened dyes from streaking. I think it had to do with the sodium algimate (spelling???).

AIDS Quilt Panel

Ginny Greaves, Hellenne Vermillion, and I worked on this panel for the AIDS Quilt program. It turned out amazing, even though Hellenne and Ginny did most of the hard work!

Monoprinting for C&G

For my City and Guilds course that I am taking with the Kemshall's, well really Marie Roper is my tutor, I needed to do some monoprinting. Here are some of my tries.
The module is "line" and all the goal of all of them is to work with line as a design element. These are done on paper with Golden's new Open Acrylics which have a much slower drying time. I hate that when I am painting on canvas, but it is perfect for monoprinting.






Needless to say, the inspiration for this piece was the bricks that make up the outside of my home. I thought it might be very boring but I actually like it.



















The inspiration for this was one of my son's bike wheel. I overprinted a yellow page.

Dyeing Assignment's Happy Accident

I didn't read the assignment well and these were mistakes! Aren't they beautiful dyeing mistakes though????

Dyeing Fabric

I spent the day dying fabric for one of my City and Guild course assigments (yes, I am trying to get back to that after a year and a half absence). The assigment was to dye a color wheel. I dyed two sets: a deeper, more saturated one and a mid-tone. I had so much fun that I decided to dye a third set of light tones to use to over-dye at a later time. I like them so much that I am not sure if I will do that or not!
Arent' they pretty????

Felted Vesel

I wasn't sure if I would be able to finish the other piece so I started a back up felted piece. I love this piece of felt. It is so beautiful in person, so I am glad that I figured out a way to display it.

Exploring Dimensions

My Fiber Art group is having a show this week at The Art Place at Mountain View. Of course, I finished my piece at the 11th hour. This is my piece. The month of August was even busier (in a non-art way) than July was! September will me much better - finally!

first Weaving

Here is the beginning of the sample. I decided to try and change colors to see what would happen. I need to go the library and see if they have any books on weaving to see how to carry the thread on the edges as well as how to take the piece off at the end????? The edges are very messy, but not too bad for a first try.

Here is a close-up.

Teaching myself to Weave

I have wanted to learn to weave for a few years now, but something always needed to get done and I never had the time. I was on ebay for some odd reason (I learned years ago, not to even look!), and saw a vintage rigid heddle loom for sale and the bidding was only in the $30's. Crazy me, bid on it at $38 never expecting to win, as most looms like this go for about $150. Well, I did but I didn't have a clue how to to actually use it. I am so trying to save money, so there is no way to take a class (if I had the time), so I turned to Youtube. I watched a few short videos and warped the loom Pretty cool, huh?

Kumihimo bead necklace

This weekend, at bead group, my friend Robin showed me how to do kumihimo braiding. It is easy and quick! On Tuesday, I had to stop by the bead store and buy some beads to do a full necklace!!!! I started it last night and finished it this afternoon. THANK YOU ROBIN!

Journal cover

I am taking another class from Tam. This one is working on Art Journals. It is a perfect time as I have really made a commitment to working in a sketchbook/journal regularly this year. So far, I have kept up with it and really happy with them. Tam is an amazing teacher and extremely giving in the amount of information that she shares. The other students are also great! If you would like to look at the site, here is the address: http://willowing.ning.com/group/awesomeartjournal This is the cover to my journal that I just started. It has embossed metal and a "self-portrait".

embossed metal pendants

These are some embossed pieces that I made. Now the challenge is finding ways to use them. I went to my favorite store on Friday, Rubber Stamp Fantasy, and talked to the owners, Deb and Gary about what I wanted and they suggested a resin enamel that works at 250 degrees. I used Ranger's frames and glass on the back and then used the enamel on the front. I really liked how they turned out. I did cloisenne for years and love the look but hate the time and money they it takes. This was so much easier and cheaper!

The "A" is for my big sis, Adrianne!!!

Metal Embossing Class

My metal embossing class began this week. This is my first piece. It was a lot harder than I thought it would be! I was working on getting a more finished result than the ones that I have done to this point. I am taking the class from Darlene www.articulations.blogspot.com. So far I have been very impressed with the level of instruction. The first video was almost an hour!

Sewing on Metal

Needless to say, I wanted to start stitching through the metal and including them on fiber. I didn't really put a lot of thought into the "design". These were just some of the scraps that hadn't really worked out and I started stitching them down on timtex which was covered with kunin felt and a painted dryer sheet. I did break a needle in the process, but it was alot of fun, except that the sun was shining in the window behind the sewing machine and was BLINDING against the metal. Honestly, I blame the glare on the needle breaking.

One more embossed piece

I did one more. This one is basically just a doodle on metal. I did add a embossed stencil butterfly and then some alcohol ink

Metal Embossing

Here is a dragonfly that I did last night. I actually had plans on taking step by step pictures and directions, but my camara was out of juice! Sorry, maybe next time. I think that this is going to be used as the cover for one of my art journals.

I was up until almost midnight watching the too cool videos from Ten Second Studios http://www.tensecondsstudio.com/ and having a great time. This morning as I was reading one of my yahoo art groups, one of the women mentioned she is going to teach an online class on metal embossing! Talk about coincidents! http://artticulation.blogspot. com/

I haven't taken the class yet, so really can't tell if it will be wonderful or not, but the her work is amazing.

Journal page with metal pieces

This is a page from my journal. I am still playing with the thin metal. These were cut with a large Fiskar paper punch. I then embossed by hand and painted them with adirondack alcohol ink and sharpie markers and alcohol in a mist bottle. I found that the smaller paper punch was not strong enough to cut the metal, or at least on my ONE try, it didn't.

Acrylic Painting, second stage

In an earlier post, I showed the background of this painting. I am finally moving forward with it. It took some time to work out a focal image. I am going to try and create a lot of small detail to make a paisley image.

AIDS Quilt

The fiber art group that I belong to is working on an AIDS quilt. We broke up into smaller groups (mine is 3 artists) to work on our individual person's panel, which is 3 feet by 6 feet. My friends Ginny Greaves http://www.virginiagreaves.com/blog/ and Hellenne Vermillion http://www.vermillionart.blogspot.com/ are working on this one for Ray Sharkey. He was an actor.

Another Doodle

Here is another fun doodle from my journal. The background was made with Glimmer Mist. When I really don't have any idea what I want to work on, or am trying to avoid a project, I will start doodling.

Metal and alcohol inks

I started playing with thin metals, sharpies, and alcohol inks. I had fun one afternoon at Rubber Stamp Fantasy. The owner, Debbie, showed me some cool tricks with embossed metal. Here are a few small pieces that I made. I am not sure what I will do with them. At the moment, I will probably just punch holes and put them in my journal. I have been spending most of my time working in my journal.

Here are a few more pages from my journal. This was another play day at the Rubber Stamp Fantasy. This stamp store is one of my favorite places. I can find tons of fun ways to use their stuff on fabric. These were tags I made using Vivid and adirondack inks and bleach. I was able to get some really cool effects. I have been doing more pages in my journal with bleach. It is a wonderful technique.

Bead Embroidery

I took three days of classes with Sheri Serafini this week. This is the bracelet that I am making. I still need to but it on the brass bracelet form, but I like to take a picture of them flat. Sheri is a wonderful bead artist. I also made a collar which isn't completed yet. I will post it when I get the chance.

Embellisher pattern

On this piece I was playing with pattern and recreating a pattern from another source. It was one of the exercises that I did with Jean Littlejohn. Now I have to go back into it and add handwork.

Handmade Stamps at Play

I am taking on online class from Traci Batista on monotypes. I had such a great time in Tam's class that I couldn't resist taking another and Traci is such a great artist! These are just two of the two dozen stamps that I have made so far this WEEK! I really like the idea of border patterns and of course, adding negative space to the pattern!!! I can't wait to really start using these in a painting.

Handmade Stamps

Here is another set of stamps, both the positive and negative! I like both.

handmade stamps

These are some of the stamps I created from on online class with Traci Batista. This is just one set.

Needlelace sampler

While visiting Molly, I worked on hand embroidery. It is an area where I could really use some help and Molly is an expert! I decided to work on Needlelace which I think is one of the greatest textures in fibers. This is one of the samples that I made. It also fits into the latest Stitch Explorer challenge. Instead of using the traditional stitches to create the stitch I used needlelace to work the negative areas.

Paper Casting with Molly

I spent the weekend up in North Carolina with my friend, Molly, who is an incredible fiber artist. We spent the weekend working on "artistic goals" and critiquing work. We also played with more paper casting. I did it a few weeks ago, but working alone I really didn't take it that far. Molly had great ideas to take it in new directions. We also have "challenged" each other come up with great ways to use it to stitch somehow.

World of Whimsey and the Yudu

Here is another picture. I do think that it is a little better than the first. I still want to work on bringing more of myself to this class and do think that it will come out slowly. Part of it is just getting the habit of drawing more and I am drawing daily again. I also have begun playing with my Yudu screenprinter! I used the pencil drawing of this picture to burn the screen. What fun! I did make a lot of mistakes, but it ended up working out fine. It really is a super easy system.