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!