Encaustic Play day

I had the day off today and after having coffiee with my friend, Rebecca and her mom, I came home and played with my encaustic wax. I still am pretty bad at it but really like the possibilities (if I could just learn how to use it right). As the wax, has a shine to its surface, these pictures came out pretty bad. They are done on small panels that I bought at Michael's in their wood craft department. If I was planning a large piece, I would probably have to go to Home depo and get a good piece of wood, but these small pieces, this thin wood board worked great and was very cheap!

The close-up on the panel on the left is my favorite. I stamped the image of a fern leaf into the wet wax.

Sharon

Monoprinting: a little more successful

Last night I tried using Golden's OPEN acrylics again for monoprinting. I VERY quickly doodled a design (I didn't want to do anything requiring a lot of work as I wasn't sure if it would work out at all.) In the middle is my "design". I placed it under a piece of plexiglass and applied the paint. The example on the right is the first pull. The colors were strong but some areas didn't have great color transfer. I went back over it in areas with a wet brush and as the acrylics were still a little wet, I was able to blend colors a little more.

The image on the left is a second pull. This time I soaked the paper in a water bath as I would if I was monoprinting with inks. I bloated the paper dry between two paper towels and then layed it over the inked plate.

Two other things that I did was I used the back of a wooden spoon to burnish the images and really get a a good transfer of paints and I also used a different paper. The first examples a few days ago were made using a textured, thick watercolor paper. This was much thinner Japapese paper. I used my covered pallette and the paints are still wet and usable this morning.

Torn paper on lutrador

This sample is on lutrador. I used one of the inkAid prints which I tore apart added some dark green and blue tissue paper.


Hopefully the uncovered lutrador will act as highlights in the final image and I will paint it with both black and white gesso.







Here is the painted stage...
I did add some white gesso on parts of the brown fairies. This will give some luminosity to the finished image???



I think I will keep trying the monoprinting with OPEN next. I signed up for some lecture demos at Binders in November with Patti Brady (I think that is her name), the Golden's national educator on using both Open and Digital ground. Hopefully, I can ask her some questions too.

Torn paper on Ricky Tim's stabilizer

This is a thicker paper that I ironed down to some of Ricky Tims' stabilizer sheets. It is a nice thickness for this type of work (I hope). As the paper was white, I didn't bother photographing the paper before I painted it. I threw some brilliant red brusho dye into the gesso and painted a little. It was a little too pink so I added some Arzo Gold.

Playing with torn paper on deco bond

One of the first examples in Maggie's book is creating a textured base. Here are some of my experiments.

This is a piece of deco bond. I added an additional layer of wonder-under as I find deco bond doesn't hold well. I ripped up pieces of green tissue and brown bag and ironed them down.

The second image has been painted with white and black gesso. Some areas of the paper have been left blank, but all uncovered areas have been painted. I will keep building layers with gels, and paint tomorrow.

Organizing my paints

I spent most of my day organizing my painting/mark making "stuff". The my oils, inkAid, and misc large stuff is on the top shelf. Mediums, gels, glues and such are on the second, acrylics, lumiere, textile, dyna-a-flow, and brusho paints are on the second, and on down the line!!! They were spread out over 5 rooms so it was getting hard to stay in the "zone" when I needed to get another type of paint.

Tonight I was too busy watching Ugly Betty to work in my art studio, so instead of talking about what I have been working on, I will write about the book I just bought! It is Maggie Grey's new book, Textile Translations: Mixed Media. You can order it (from the U.K.) at http://www.d4daisy.com/. Take a look it is great!

first try at monoprinting with Open acrylics

As you can see, my first try with using the new Golden OPEN acrylics for monoprinting didn't work. I tried using about the consistancy of printing inks, but almost nothing transfered. Then I wet it and that just bled. I will keep trying.

This is what the package says...

However, when I got home...

I found this cute little sample set in my mailbox from Golden! They are small but they will give me a good idea of how well they will work. Maybe tomorrow? Oh yeah, I still am working on the digital images, too.

I went out today to buy...

This morning I taught a needle-felting class at The Art Place. As soon as class ended, I ran up to Dick Blick to buy Golden's other new product line, Open Acrylics. I really like Acrylics these days because they are so versatile. So far, the biggest drawback has been that they dry too fast to do monoprinting. With this new line, hopefully, I will be able to do this. I have to admit that I am a little scared that they will take TOO long to dry now. Needless to say, I will try to document my experiences.

Golden's Digital Ground Sample Set

inkAid

This is the inkAid products.

Digital ground White Matte

Big difference from the brown background. I wonder what would happen if I added some color to the ground. I might send the question to Golden's. They are usually great about answering technical questions.

Plain Brown bag paper

This sample was not coated with anything, just run through the printer. Tomorrow I thing my samples will be of something more vividly colored.

Sample with Golden's Digital Ground Clear (Gloss)

Shiny - that is both good and bad thing. To anyone who knows me, I like bling; however, sometimes that isn't a good thing. As you can see from the plain paper. This did come out with deeper colors then plain brown paper. Hint: make a small "x" on the side you paint. I couldn't tell which side had been painted on one of my samples.

Santa In Progress

This is another pattern by "Seams like Home". I am teaching him at the quilt store where I work part-time, Tiny Stitches at the end of November and again in December. Isn't he cute! He is completely raw-edge applique.

Paper bags before printing

Here are two of the cut pieces of the plain brown shopping bag. First I cut out the bottom of the bag and ironed it flat. I then cut them to fit on a regular letter size sheet of paper as I thought it would be easier to feed through the printer. I attach each piece to a carrier. I did this by using a glue stick around the edges and attaching them to regular printing paper. I did iron them flat after gluing. Last night, only one of the 5 prints got stuck in the printer. On the right is inkAid's white matte precoat. It seems to be similar to Golden's Digital Ground White matte. The big difference was the InkAid needed to be stirred REALLY REALLY well before using. It has this thick chalk-like substance in the bottom that needed to be remixed. Golden's didn't seem to need it as bad. I just shook the bottle for good measure. Another consideration is both matte products went on clear. The directions say to it will "probably" need a second coat. After the first coat had dried, I had horrible brush strokes. I actually added a third coat to minimize the streaks! Tomorrow I will paint up a few more samples and I will try to remember to take a picture of what just one coat looked like.

Image to Stitch

I received Maggie Grey's book, Image to Stitch, a few weeks ago. Very cool. I only began really playing with it this weekend. Maggie recommends InkAid products to treat surfaces before sending them through the printer. I actually found them locally and at 50% off. The downside of that is the store was not planning on carrying them anymore. I bought up large bottles of most of their products. One of the reasons they weren't going to carry them was that Golden has come out with a similar product line called "Digital Grounds". They only had a sample pack to sell me, but off course I bought it as well. My first experiments are with brown bag paper. Unfortunately, my digital camara is out of "juice". I will post the pictures tomorrow (hopefully).

Isn't she cute? I taught her as a class at Tiny Stitches. What fun we had! She is actually a pattern from "Seams like Home", so I really can't take much credit for her. I have been working on her "partner" Santa. He is darling! I will be teaching him in November and again in December.
For those who know about my "planned" surgery, it was cancelled the day before I was set to go in to the hospital. The surgeon herniated a disk. It has been two weeks without any real answers from the doctor until today. I meet the new surgeon on Friday and hopefully will be scheduled again soon. Truthfully, I am feeling a lot better, but trying to stay close to home and rest.

Log Cabin

This is my Swedish Log Cabin. Don't even ask what Sweden has to do with Log Cabins. I haven't made a log cabin quilt in over 20 years. Although these aren't my "usual" colors, I really like it. I actually posted these three quilts to give my sister, Marian, a choice for her birthday present. Yes, her birthday was over 2 weeks ago and if you notice none of the quilts are even quilted yet.

Mexican Fiesta

This is the International Mystery Quilt for Mexico. It was supposed to be Mexican Fiesta Stars. I can it Margaritas for its Lime and Strawberry look!

Indonesian quilt

I haven't posted for awhile. It isn't that I have been feeling bad; actually the opposite. However, I am not pushing myself to "produce" right now. Instead I have been just playing - learning new skills. I bought a wonderful new toy this summer, a Bernina 730 and have been busy learning all that it will do.

I also have continued to teach. These three quilts are from my International Mystery Quilt Series that I teach on the 3rd Friday of every month at Tiny Stitches. This was for Indonesia.

Jamie is graduating

My son, Jamie (on the right) is graduating from high school this week. I am very proud of him. He is graduating with over a 4 point average and headed to Georgia Tech! With him, on the far left is his friend Jeff, who is going to that other university in Athens, Georgia.. In the middle is his AP Econ teacher,Mr. Ravencroft, who is another wonderful teacher at Wheeler High School!

No Posts

There haven't been a lot of posts lately. There hasn't been a lot of work either. I haven't been feeling well.
Sharon

Upside Down

this is my submission to Stretching Art. It is a lot of surface design. the picture isn't very good.

More stamps with their fabric

Here are two more I did yesterday. The carved stamps on on the left and the stamped fabric is on the right. I really am enjoying them. These blocks are so much easier to carve than a lino block. It is almost like cutting through butter. I did two more a fern and a lotus flower. I will get those up later! I am actually sick again today. I am feeling a little better, but didn't sleep because of the coughing and stuffiness, so I actually took the day off work.

What to do when you aren't feeling well...

I was sick yesterday. It is my usual day off and Tuesdays are my play days so that was a really sad for me, but I just can't lay in bed all day, so I carved stamps. This one I call my swirly one. Great and imaginative name, right? What can I say my head hurts! This one is carved using the crumply ereaser material from Speedball. They have two different types of carving blocks, this one which isn' t the best, and another, which is great (it is pink). I will come back later and give the actual names for reference.

Stewart Gill Deep Etched Stamps

I have been playing with Stewart Gill paints since Christmas and love them. They also sell a "deeply etched" rubber stamp and I really wanted to try it. When stamping on fabric, it is hard to get a really detailed stamp to work on fabric, and they claimed that this one would. Well, being me, I wanted to see for myself, and I am so pleased with the results. It passed with flying colors. For those in the States who would like to check into this line of paints, try http://artistcellar.com/. Liz is very nice. I recommend the Byzantine line, metallica, and Pearlized ( get their whites - they are awesome). They are by far my favorite. Although there Colourize line is very nice, I have a large inventory of Golden Acrylics and don't see why I should buy two lines! I just ordered their embossing powders and flakes. This is painted and stamped directly onto timtex.

Plexiglass Etched Cat

Here is a cat that I etched. I do like it and would like to add different colors to it. My only problem is that I think it looks like the lady who does that cat fabric. I think her name was Lauren Burch. I will have to google her and see.

Etching on Plexiglass

I am taking another printmaking class. This was etched with a sharp object into plexiglass then printed. I didn't work from a sketch but just started doodling. My life drawing teacher would probably cringe at the out of proportion features - maybe it gives it character.

Vessel panel two

This is another side of the vessel.

Fiberella Workshop Vessel

This past Friday was my birthday. I gave myself a two day workshop with "Fiberella". It was wonderful. Here is one side. I wasn't too happy with the look but I do like the idea. I ended up using some Stewart Gill paints on it also. That was another birthday present. What great paints! I bought them from Liz at the Art Cellar.

Urchin Bead

I just spent the last three days at Beadazzles a bead store here in Atlanta taking classes with Marcia DeCoster. This is one of the components for the Urchin lariet. It was great fun. I also took her free-form bracelet. Marcia is an incredibly creative bead designer. Her designs are unique and her teaching inspiring! She is coming back next year and I can't wait! Take a look at her website www.marciadecoster.com.

Also in the class was one of my favorite people, Annie Hess. I met Annie a few years ago when I took her doll class, Twisted Sister. The great news is that Alice at Beadazzles is having her back to teach a mixed media necklace in October of this year. I will try to get a picture posted soon. I STRONGLY recommend this class, it will be wonderful!

Experiments with Golden Acrylic Gels and Mediums

Following are some experiments I am working through on combining acrylic collage techniques and fiber/art quilts. I have to run now, but will return this afternoon and put in "descriptions" of techniques. If you have ever tried anything similar, please email me. I would love to hear other people's experiences and do's/don'ts.

Thanks, Sharon

Experiment with Golden's metallic flake mediums

Experiment with gels and tissue paper collage

Using Fiber paste and then stitched

Using Embossing Powders

I Love To Sew at Atlanta Sewing Center

Next Saturday, January 12th, I am demonstrating fiber bowls at the Atlanta Sewing Center on Barrett Pkwy for their "I Love To Sew" program. The demo starts at 10 am. These are two of the samples that I made. It should be a lot of fun. They are super easy!

New Lino Block to Carve

In some cultures, there are deities that are kept around for protection. They are fierce looking beings to scare off bad things and "evil". I am creating my very own "Protector" for 2008. He is based on an Indian (as in India) deity. I haven't finished designing the rest of the background and as soon as I do, I will carve the lino block. When he is finished, I will have to find a name for him!

Finished print

I finished carving my block and pulled a few prints! It turned out much better than I thought it would. I have already started drawing on my next! Unfortunately, I do back to work tomorrow (oh, no) and will not have the time that I have had in the past two weeks to work. The good news is Utreck Art Supply is very close to my office and I can run out at lunch and get more printmaking paper as well as more Golden's Gel medium!

A second smaller acrylic painting

I started this much smaller canvas (5 x 5) at the same time as the larger one. I really like what is happening on it.

Same painting, Phase two

Okay, this is the same painting as in the last entry, but I have added a few more layers - maybe ten???!!! I haven't decided which end is up yet or what the focus point will be. I am thinking of adding some lutrador pieces to it as the focus, but not sure how that would work.

May Everyone have a wonderful 2008!

It is January 1st. 2007 wasn't the best year for me. I rarely go in to "life details" on my blog, but as this is the new year, I decided it was appropriate. I have been sooo sick this past year. I was diagnosed with Graves Disease two years ago and have been looking for a "natural" solution; unfortunately, I have only let it get much worse. I have zero energy and zero tolerance for B.S. I have gained almost 30 pounds (also not great for my health) and am just generally blue! I am not a blue person. At first I kept thinking it was just the universes way to bring balance. I needed to see this side of life to reach even greater happiness. Well, I am not buying that anymore. I am taking charge of my happiness again and will really spend 2008 on me! I am probably going to have my thyroid removed or "fried" permanently soon. I am going to focus on my needs and not worry about the "should's" of life. I am also going to try not to over commit my time (this is definitely the hardest for me). I am truly blessed with a wonderful husband who truly is filled with unconditional love and I am so grateful for him. I have two great boys 14 and 18; they are truly nice kids but still teenage boys and therefore a handful. Jamie just not his acceptance at University of Georgia and Georgia Tech. He hasn't applied anywhere else, but says he is still planning on it.

The picture is a canvas I am working on in acrylics. I have decided to spend more time on painting this year too (along with the printmaking). I am hoping that ideas will be able to flow more easily from the different mediums. This painting is being built up in layers. At the time this picture was taken it only has about three layers.

I made this piece last week. It is an example for a class that I am working up on Experimental Quilting techniques for Tiny Stitches. The class will be on ongoing class on "non-traditional stitching and surface design techniques. The one part that really didn't work out as well as I wanted is the word "Magic" that I stenciled. I really wanted it to be a more pronounced element.

I have enrolled in a printmaking class at Chastain Art Center starting next week. I haven't done any printmaking in a few years and am very excited. I took a few printmaking classes in college and have always loved it. In true "Sharon-ness", I couldn't wait to get started and free-hand drew this relief block print. I thought it was fun. Of course, drawing it is only part of it and now I have to carve it (which has where I make my mistakes) now. I took the picture just in case I really screw it up! Of course, the idea is bring the printmaking back to fiber. I have also spent the holidays working with acrylic paint on canvas. I will post some of those pictures later.

Journal Quilt 2007

This was my submission for the Journal Quilt Project 2007. It really doesn't photograph well as it is such a dark background. It is about renewal/rebirth. when I get it back I will post a close up of the background which was some "complex" imagery worked in.

Do You Believe?

One of the art groups that I belong to, Fiber Art Fusion, a contempary fiber art and quilting group, had a holiday exchange of a 5 x 7 piece of art. This was my piece. I had so much fun making it. The backgroup is painted lutrador which I burnt out the flower/star shape. Next, I fused angelina behind the lutrador to show through the holes. I spent the day at Rubber Stamp Fantasy on the Saturday before this was due. RubberStamp Fantasy is owned by one of our members Deb Taratoot (I think that is how you spell it) and her husband. Although they do have classes there, they will stop and give you a personal "lesson/demonstration" in almost any of their products. One of the things that he showed me that day was using this paste/sludge compound. It was wonderful as I love adding texture to my work. After it was dry, I colored it with soft pastels and then Shiva Paint sticks. The flowers were done using water soluable fabric and thread. The fairy is a little clay piece that I picked up years ago.

My inspiratation for this piece was my friend Rebecca's 7 year old daughter, Sarah, who is in reality a fairy princess! May her magic live on!