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.

World of Whimsey Class

I am taking the best online class. It is from Tamara at World of Whimsey. I have taken many online classes but this is definitely the best. Quite often, I think that I am just buying a very expensive book with an email address to the author. This class is so much more. You get hours of video as well as a forum and 24/7 chat with other students.

This is my first try at lesson three - shading. Not that it is all that great, but it was a lot of fun. I definitely don't want to make "big eyed girls" that are so prevalent right now. This class I think will end up being so much more. It is about acceptance of yourself as an artist and dealing with our fears. Hopefully, I will get back into figure drawing in a more expressive manner and have a lot of fun in the process. She is doing an online art journal class in May or June. I can't wait.

Acrylic Painting, first stage

Here is one of the smaller canvasses that I am working on. I haven't decided where any of them are going but at I really like several of them.

Belle Epoche Necklace

I started this necklace in December, but just finished it. It so beautiful. It is a Cynthia Rutledge pattern. If you ever have a chance to take one of her classes definitely go for it. She comes to town once a year and I have taken her classes for years. Her projects are great for both advanced beginners to advanced beaders.

B&W for Screenprinting

I just bought a Yudu screenprinting system. I haven't even taken it out of the box because I want a full day to play with it when I do, but I am trying to develop some new images to use with it anyway. This one is inspired by an Erte painting.

Busy Week

I have been so crazy busy the past few weeks that I haven't done much art. I still make sure I have a daily trip to my studio, but really haven't "made" art. I finished a great necklace which I will post later this week. I gave a talk on 3D design in fiber. I teach twice next week. I worked at my job. I am trying to quilt a charity quilt, but the dumb quilting machine keeps breaking threads!
After work today, I started looking into what absorbent ground will do.

Garden Book Cover

I am doing a fabric book swap. The theme is Spring Flowers. My book is "Gardens at Midnight". I think this might be the cover, except I don't know how to put the title on it. Or does it need a title on the cover? Or is that the fun of being involved in something like this, working in parameters and problem solving?

Garden Book

This is a doodle that I created in a staff meeting. Last week's challenge for Art every Week is to doodle.
Here is the what the doodle inspired in stitch.

Trellis Stitch - Stitch Explorer

February's stitch from Sharon B. is the trellis stitch. I did it square first because I thought it would be easier. Also, the video tutorial did it square, which made it easier to follow. I started it earlier tonight while I sat in my car waiting for my son at soccer practice. After I did it square, I wanted to try circular. The first one is small but very messy. I switched threads and did the green one and it turned out a little more even. I am not sure if it was that I am getting the hang of it or if the thread made a difference!

Chicken Scratch Embroidery

I am TRYING to keep up with Sharon Boggins' Stitch Explorer 2009. This is my second playtime using this month's (actually now last month's) stitch, chicken scratch. I really do like it. It looks a lot better in person, as there is a variety of textures. I painted the fabric with Stewart Gill paints, and then bonded the fabric to deco bond, so that I wouldn't need to hoop it. I used gold tape for the double crosses, wool tapestry yarn for the running stitches and Carron's Watercolor cotton threads for the woven parts. I am doing a Spring flower swap at the end of the month and am trying to figure out how to incorporate this into it. I am thinking this might end up being a fence??? I hate that it will end up in the giant piles of fabric samples that sits in the every corner of my studio.

Paper Casting

I have been wanting to try paper casting for awhile. Michael's sells a kit but it is kind of pricey at $60+. For my birthday a few weeks ago, my sweet hubby bought me the kit and a book on paper casting. Here are a few of my first attempts. I love them. I still need to wait unitl they dry before paining them or trying to add them to other pieces.

Thead Painting Class Coming Up

This month in my art quilting class I am teaching "Thread Painting". This is my class sample. It is not my design but came from Elly Sienkiewicz's classic applique book, Spoken Without a Word. Thread painting is a form of free-motion machine embroidery. If you have any interest in the class you can call Tiny Stitches at 770-565-1113 or email me at sharonahmed2000@yahoo.com.

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.

Angelina Vessel

I went online to the Fiber Mixed Media Group and Connie V. had posted a question about making vessels with Angelina. I had never heard of the anyone trying to do this so, of course, needed to try. Here is my first attempt. I thought that using a glass jar as a mold would work best and used this unopened jar of spicy Sicilian spagetti sauce. I cheated a bit and used fantasy film as a base, but after making it, I don't think it was necesary. At first covering it with the parchment paper was tough while holding the iron but after a few attempts, I got the hang of it.

The photo on the left is the semi-finished product! It used an entire bag of angelina! I would like to add more now in different colors and add stamped images???

New little creatures

The butterfly is made using Art glitter on acetate and the other two are angelina.

Foil and Art glitter

On the left is a sample with Art Glitter; it is so much fun. At first I really poo-poo-ed it, but now love the stuff. It is so fine, like fairy dust and can handle the hot temps of irons and heat guns without burning. On the right are samples of using stamps with foils.

Angelina Samples

I am teaching a class this month on all things shiny. Well, I guess not EVERYTHING, but on angelina, foils, art glitter, and hot-fix crystals. I have spent the past couple of days making samples and here are just a fe

Art Academy Live

Okay, for those who know me, I sometimes have trouble focusing on one thing for long. Last night I was thinking that I needed to brush up on my basic drawing skills and searched the Internet for some drawing instruction DVDs. Instead I found the greatest website! It is artacademylive.com. For $10 a month, they have hundreds of small video instructions on areas such as drawing, watercolor, acrylic, oil, and pastel painting. They run the gamut from basic to advanced. It is wonderful. Instead of sitting down to an hour DVD and then not having time to really try anything it covered, the subjects are broken down to around 10 minute segments! Truly, Truly worth investigating!
Sharon

Acrylic Skins

My friend Rebecca and I sat in on some demos on using golden Digital Grounds recently. Patty Brady with the Golden educators program gave the talk and it was great. Although I made a few initial tries using them, I really couldn't "get" it. One of the cool ways that she showed us was making acrylic skins, coating them with the digital ground and sending it through the printer. Unfortunately, my first "great" idea was to try and send the skin through the printer on the freezer paper. I send crazy things through my printer all the time without much trouble; this time the waxiness of the freezer paper and the skin just couldn't seem to move through the printer without jamming. I thought I was saving myself a step but instead my skin just got twisted up; the good news is the image did transfer. I removed the paper and then the skin from the freezer paper. I flipped the image over, retaped the skin to a piece of typing paper and reprinted the image on the reverse side. It worked beautifully. I then fixed the image with Golden spray varnish twice. Here is the piece as printed.

I also turned the image over and using a Q-tip. I cleaned up some of the mucked ink from the jammed paper tries. It cleaned up pretty well. this is a small image from one of my sketchbooks. I will use the image to collage in another piece I am working on. Because it is clear, I assume it will be almost seamless in the final painting.

Here is a third skin I made with tar gel and Golden paints. I haven't a clue where this one will end up!