A Very Bracelet Day

Today was supposed to be an Art Day with some of my Art Friends, but two of them had to cancel out, so that left Sweet Patricia and me to have our little Bracelet Party all by ourselves. That's OK, that meant we had our guacamole salad, pinwheel sandwiches, fresh mangos & papayas, and oatmeal-raisin cookies all to ourselves! And luckily, Patricia was able to help me figure out the errors in my scribbled instructions for making these wire-wrapped silver-and-bead bracelets, so we had a ball making them. Since she doesn't care for the look of crystals, she used some gorgeous plum-colored matte beads in her bracelet, while I used moss-colored Swarovski crystals in mine.

I also got a lovely surprise ... a wonderful book on paper making ...

... thank you, Patricia, I love it!

Red Hot Alien Mamma

Here's another "thing" that started out as one thing and ended up as another. I was going to make a simple little cloth art doll with a few beads. It began with a wooden handle from a jump-rope as the body, covered with soft batting and a piece of scrap fabric, tied with twine. Then she needed a face, so I found one of my favorite raku beads for her. Several weeks later, she now has 3 beady eyes and a mouthful of scary teeth, a revealing-yet-tasteful garment, and an extremely bad hair day. (The hair alone is probably about 18 hours' worth of work.) At 9" tall, she's quite heavy, and her name, of course, is Red Hot Alien Mamma.

A bit of silk painting

Joan Radven of HAFA (Houston Area Fiber Artists) taught a lovely silk painting class today, and one of the new things I learned about was a water-based resist called Sabra Silk Resist. The nice thing about it is that you can apply it, then apply your dyes or paints while the resist is either wet or dry. The first test was on silk crepe, which I decided I really like ... but my resist lines were too thin, and the dye "jumped the bridge", as you can see from the first picture above. The second test was on silk habotai, and I was careful to leave a heavier trail of resist this time. Result ... no breakthroughs. Next time I'll try adding a pinch of dye powder to the resist before applying it, for a colored line instead of a white one.

Despite my failure with the first resist test, I find that I prefer that image to the second one, because of the softer color on the crepe vs. the harder line on the habotai. Joan made the class really fun and informative, in spite of fighting a cold and laryngitis ... thanks, Joan!

Wire Wrapping

Yesterday I took 3 separate classes with Royelle Giddings in Houston, all about making wire wrapped jewelry. We used sterling silver wire and Swarovski crystals for the bracelet, a small bead or stone for the ring (mine was a carved face bead), and a larger stone cabochon for the pendant. Above are the results ... better than I had hoped for, since I have no experience in jewelry making. Royelle made it seem easy.

Story in Stitch

From a recent workshop with Ilze Aviks, "Telling Your Story in Stitch", this was a 10-minute exercise in telling either a real story or an imaginary one, with fabric, stitch, and color. With an extremely limited palate in class, it was an interesting challenge. Commercial fabrics, hand-stitched, later enhanced with color-transfer crayons. (No, I'm not telling what the story is ... I think the mystery is better than the story!)

Blogger Image Problem Solved

AT LAST! Thanks to several members of my beloved QuiltArt group, I finally have an answer to why some of the posted images to my blog haven't been able to be enlarged. Evidently the filenames of the images had spaces in them, which Blogger sometimes doesn't recognize. The solution is to use underlines instead of spaces.

I've gone back and reposted the latest few images ... particularly the April 8 "A Beaded Postcard", which is much clearer in the enlarged (and the super-enlarged) versions.

What a relief to finally get this figured out (no thanks to Blogger, by the way ... as usual, I had to rely on "a little help from my friends" ... which is more fun anyway.)

A little collaboration

My good friend Gloria created this wonderful little collage (only 5" x 6") during our last Art Day, and was generous enough to give it to me when I admired it. I didn't want to just frame it, so I painted a 9" x 12" canvas to complement the collage, then stitched it on. I love the combination ... thank you Gloria!

Temple Book

My parents visited Bali several years ago, and when I recently became interested in hand-made books, they sent me this little book they had found there. At one time, these "temple books" were typically used as the only official record of the people in the area ... possibly birth/marriage/death records ... by the Temple Priests.

The "cover" is actually two separate carved wood blocks. The top cover, or lid, depicts a baby komodo dragon, a lotus blossom, a turtle, and a frog. It has 3 wooden pegs to pierce and hold the "pages", which appear to be made of some type of bark or papyrus, as it is thin and very brittle. Besides the pegs, the book is held together by an attached twine tie with a pierced coin at the end, which is wrapped around the book to keep it closed.

The writing appears, at first glance, to be etched into the pages, but I can't feel any ridges, so it may possibly be a (walnut?) ink of some kind.

This little book is tiny ... only 1-1/4" wide, 2-1/2" tall (including it's itty-bitty feet), and 5-1/2" long. I think it is absolutely beautiful, and wanted to share it with you.

A surprise in the mail

There's nothing better than to open a box in the mail and find a surprise treasure of beautiful new fabrics and beads. Here is what I received today from my dear friend Sherry, from her trip to the Chicago Quilt Festival. These are so scrumptious I could just eat them. Thank you Sherry!

Paper Fabric

The Art Girls met today (well, 3 of us anyway), and made 2 slightly different versions of paper fabric. One was made with sheer fabrics and tissue papers glued in layers on an acrylic board (no fabric base), and the other was made with a muslin base, with sturdier papers added, then painted while the glue was still wet. Both were an interesting experiment, and both are intended to be sturdy enough to be stitched through. Our goal is to complete a project with one or both of our hand-made fabrics before the next meeting.

Wire earrings

Here are some earrings I made from nickel silver, just to see if I could do it. I like them well enough that I may try them in sterling next time. They are made of 16 ga. wire, and did require some hand strength to make the coils and loops. I kind of like the duller appearance of the nickel silver, though.

A day of junqueing

Twice a year in the tiny town of Warrenton, Texas (pop. 50), the highway becomes a mass of tents, lean-to's, trailers, and jerry-rigged open booths, with antiques, crafts, and junk. This year I went with a friend, armed with my camera in an effort to curb my spending ... but still ended up with some gorgeous hand-made African beads, a wonderful handcrafted silver-and-stone pendant from a Santa Fe silversmith, and more than a little junque. Here are some of the sights ... be happy that you can't experience the smells!

A beaded postcard

A fabric postcard for my friend who was feeling down. Photoshopped image printed on silk and machine quilted, hand beaded, embellished with copper wire. I don't think all the beading shows up very well in the photo. The large center "doughnut" is a raku bead by Rory Ross, and unfortunately I could not get its subtle colors to photograph well.

Bubbles

These are what I call "bubbles", but what I believe are actually called "Amazing Circles" in Photoshop Elements. My dear friend and Photoshop guru Darleen taught me this technique, even though she had to translate "down" from her more advanced version of Photoshop. The square images above are photographs of architectural elements, which are then processed in Photoshop to create the bubbles. Thank you Eenie!

From the Heart & Hands

This is an Opportunity Quilt pieced by Ann Lockard that I quilted for Annie Copeland to auction as a fund raiser for her non-profit organization, Fiberarts Connection of Southern California. It was finished in December 2005, and won this week by Ann Pugh. (That's a lotta Anns!)

Changing Perspective

I barely entered my piece in time for the QuiltArt challenge, "Changing Perspective", and today the on-line exhibition catalog went "live" for public viewing. This partial image is just a teaser of what you will see in the exhibit. http://fiberartsconnsocal.org/exhibiton_catalogs/changingpercatalog.pdf
There are some wonderful pieces of fiber art here, meeting the challenge of taking the ordinary and seeing it from a new perspective; seeing everyday things in a new way. Please take a look. Thank you, Anne Copeland and Michelle Verbeeck of the Fiberarts Connection of Southern California.

My challenge piece is on page 42, for those of you who know me and are curious ... but please do give yourself a treat and take a "tour" of the entire exhibit!

Pointless Questions

1. Grab the book nearest to you, turn to page 18, and find line 4. What does it say?

He was murdered in a Burger Bonanza his second night at camp.
It's from The Accidental Tourist by Anne Tyler

2. Stretch your left arm out as far as you can, What can you touch?

Printed catalog from the "Changing Perspective" on-line exhibit of art quilts; also a bag of natural fibers I just bought at the Upstairs Gallery in LaPorte, Texas.

3. What was the last thing you watched on TV?

"Big Love", a new HBO series about a polygamist family in California.

4. When did you last step outside? What were you doing?

About an hour ago to pick up a package outside my door. It was from Fire Mountain Gems, with my tiny bit of silver art clay to experiment with, Yay!

5. What are you wearing?

Typical for me ... bluejeans, sweatshirt, cotton socks with Merrell sandals.

6. When did you last laugh?

This afternoon, with my friend Darleen.

7. What is on the walls of the room you are in?

Let’s see ... quite a few of my own finished wall quilts, numerous quilts-in-progress, family photos, a design wall that is totally covered with STUFF, some beautiful photography by a dear friend, including a framed bogus "Quilting Arts" magazine cover with my picture on the cover naming me as the hottest new fiber artist, many skeins of strange and unusual fibers, many cones of thread for my longarm quilting machine.

8. What is the last film you saw?

"Brokeback Mountain" It is still haunting me. So beautiful and heartbreaking. (Actually, the last film I saw was "Madea’s Family Reunion", but it was so trite that I had to quote Rachel Kitterman’s remarks about Brokeback Mountain, because she said it perfectly.)

9. Do you like to dance?

No! Never have, never will. I dance like Elaine on the Jerry Seinfeld Show ... or maybe not even that well!

10. What do you want God to say to you when you reach the pearly gates?

"Well, nobody’s perfect, but you did OK."

11. Your name spelled backwards?

Notnim Adnil

12. Last incoming call on your phone?

My sister, calling to vent about doctors and medicine.

13. What is the last thing you downloaded onto your computer?

The "Changing Perspective" exhibition catalog. http://fiberartsconnsocal.org/exhibiton_catalogs/changingpercatalog.pdf

14. Type of music you dislike most?

Rap tops the list, followed by anything that is played so loudly that I can’t hear the tune or the words, and anything violent or hateful.

15. Have you ever ridden on a motorbike?

Yes ... a dirt-bike.

16. What's your favorite comic strip?

I don’t read comic strips anymore, but I used to love Pogo Possum. He and his friend Albert the Alligator had a favorite Christmas carol that they called "Deck Us All with Boston Charlie", and here are some of the lyrics:

Deck us all with Boston Charlie,
Walla Walla, Wash, an' Kalamazoo!
Nora's freezin' on the trolley,
Swaller dollar cauliflower alley-garoo!

17. Have you ever won a trophy?

Ummm, does "Betty Crocker Homemaker of the Future" in 5th Grade count?

18. Are you a good cook?

Yes. But I don’t cook anymore.

19. Last thing you ate?

Fried green tomatoes.

20. Who was the last person you visited in the hospital?

My sweet mother-in-law.

21. Would you rather be famous by face or famous by name?

By name ... absolutely.

22. What was the name of your first pet?

Frisky. She was a weird little mixed breed with probably a lot of Scotty in her. Black with pointed ears. She had to go to the pound for biting somebody.

23. What do you think of the person that posted this before you?

Rachel ... I admire her very much!

Collage Art Pendant

Ann, Patricia, and I took a "Collage Art Pendant" class at a local bead shop ... mainly so we could learn how to solder! It was a ton of fun, and we even ended up with some neat pendants. Two cut-to-size microscope slides sandwiched with images captured inside, soldered together ... and we even made and soldered our own wire findings.

A little handmade book

3-1/2" x 5". Our friend Martha taught us another method of simple book-making, with two signatures sewn together with waxed linen and beads. Thank you Martha!

Fiber Art Postcards for the Tate Museum

I just recently heard from my local quilt art group, Beyond the Borders, that the Tate Museum in London had put out a call for mail art for the First International April Fool's Day Mail Art Exhibition http://www.gfxartist.com/general/general_news/114330. So naturally, I just had to hustle up and send a couple of postcards in. These were my two entries. The top one is called "Ophelia's Baby Rug", and the bottom one is "Horsehead Nebula". Although they are quilted silk on a cardboard backing, both of them were stamped, hand-cancelled, and sent through the postal system just as if they were regular postcards, with the time-honored epistle, "Wish you were here."

Paste Paper

Making paste paper with Martha and The Art Girls (sounds like a 1960's girl band, doesn't it?)

Caribbean Blue

This Beaded Thing started out to be just a sampler of different beading techniques I was trying, and "grew like Topsy" into a fantasy undersea garden which named itself "Caribbean Blue". (Yes, I'm an Enya fan.)

Several years ago I took a "beading on fabric" class with Larkin Van Horn, http://www.larkinart.com , and was so inspired by her gorgeous work that I've continued to play with the concept ever since.

Since this particular piece was never intended as a "project", I don't know how long it took ... but I know it "seeded" about 6 months ago, and branched out bit by bit during that time. I framed it in a shadow box to give the beads some measure of protection ... but no glass, to give the viewer free visual access. Now I realize that it needs a larger frame.

The full piece is about 7" x 7.5" (9"x11" framed), shown in the top picture. The second pic is a closeup, followed by 3 detail shots.