Trying to make art

I am trying to make art on a regular basis. Maybe not daily, but as close to that as possible. However, I have worked everyday this week, including today and tomorrow plus teaching two evening classes this week. As I am so tired, I am trying to just "doodle" in the evening. This is two of my pieces. I only work half day tomorrow so hopefully will get some time in my studio.

doodling

I have started doodling instead of "drawing". Drawing was getting "the image right". What was coming out was nice, but not creative. Now I spend most of my time doodling and I am having more fun, wanting to do it more, and I think getting better images. Here is a page from my sketchbook.

Amy's Scarf

This beautiful scarf was given to me by Amy from my bead group. Isn't it cool. Thank you Amy for such a great gift!

Stitch Explorer - First Try

I am participating in Sharon Boggin's Stitch Explorer 2009. The stitches on the far left is called Chicken Scratching. This is the more traditional way to stitch it. I had never done it so that is where I wanted to start. I have also painted some fabric making checks. I hope to stitch on this next.

Magic Carpet

Here is the second large piece from my class. It really isn't finished. I want to integrate the areas a little better. I will have to see what happens??? The background is kunin felt with painted wonderunder and tulle. The black is velvet. The inner background is wool roving between netting; I then used my embellisher to make it solid.

Celebration Clothe

This time, Jan and Jean, wanted us to work an idea through more completely. It was a great exercise; usually in a class, you might get a great idea, but you only work it half way. This time,. we went through the process from gathering ideas, making samples and then developing a "resolved" piece. We had two larger assignments and this was Jan's challenge for us: to make a celebration cloth. It is created using water solubles and was meant to be very light and dimensional. It is a mandala representing me.

Callaway School of NeedleArts

I just got back from two amazing weeks at Callaway Gardens' School of NeedleArts. Although most of the classes are extremely traditional, every other year they bring two of the best fiber artists in the whole world, Jan Beaney and Jean Littlejohn, right here to little old Georgia for two amazing weeks. This is actually one of my small samples that I did. I will upload the two larger pieces this weekend. The class was a design class using patterns from the past to help germinate new ideas for the present. It was wonderful!

Chaos

I leave in a few days for a two week class with Jan Beaney and Jean Littlejohn at Calloway School of Needle Arts! I can't wait! They come over every two years to teach this class and it is truly one of the most creative experiences ever! I started packing up my supplies for the class and you can see from the picture that chaos reigns!!!

Studio Journal with Sharon Boggins

I signed up for Sharon Boggins' Studio Journal class this past November through Joggles. I don't know what I was thinking as I had my surgery at the beginning of November, but I LOVE her online classes and as working in an artist journal is one of the areas that I really want to make a habit, I did. Well, for the most part I did the first two weeks and then checked out with only printing out the weekly lessons. I finally got around to looking at the material this weekend and loved it. Here are some doodles that I did. One of the assignments was creating paper-cut piece. I ended up making it into a stamp. Here are some additional images from my sketchbook.

Shisha mirror embroidery

Okay, so this is my third post for the day, put my holiday ends tomorrow and I have been working feverishly to get some ideas and plans out of my head! One of the things that I wanted to do is spend more time doing hand work. Sharon Boggins' is one of my heroes! I signed up for her Stitch Explorer for this coming year. I sure hope I can keep up with it.

Triangle Box

I have been playing with Maggie Grey's "Textile Translations" lately and have several fiber "papers". I really liked this one, but it wasn't big enough for a large project, so I decided to make it into a three dimensional container. I like how it turned out. The surface was created by fusing torn tissue paper on to areas of "deco-bond" (I didn't want it to get too heavy too fast.) Then areas that weren't covered with paper were covered with gesso. After that dried, i painted it with Stewart Gill paints, Glimmer mist, and then added to embossing powder to areas of the wet paint. After all of the that was dry and heated, I machine stitched through the surface.

Finished Angelina vessel with Tiger

I decided to post the finished bowl with the angelina tiger added. It is kind of cool. I will play with making more.