Planned Play

Whenever I experiment with something new in the studio, I refer to it as playing. Today was open studio at USArtquest and I knew that it was going to be one big experiment for me, so definitely a play day. However, I had a plan for what I wanted to learn more about…paint on fabric.

Duplicating an earlier effort, just to see if I could!

Stencil, stamp and fine liner design–things that I don’t have much experience with and really wanted to explore in greater depth. But there are always so many distractions when working in a small space with lots of other artists…it’s hard to concentrate on your own work when you want to see what everyone else is doing. I’m feeling pretty proud of myself–I did a bit of all that I wanted, but look what else I  saw…

Kat Campau was one of the artists working today and she brought in black and white drawn and stitched funky animals and worked on painting them. They turned out so cool! It’s one of those ideas that you say, “I wish I had thought of that!”

Someone else was working with a Gelli Plate when Sue came bouncing in with some brand new, just-came-in-the-mail stamps! They put them to use right away and came up with some great prints, but of course I didn’t get pictures of those. However, I did manage to take pics of the stamps themselves and I really like them. Large, soft acrylic and interesting designs…

There are some pieces of fabric drying right now that I can’t wait to see. I did some more paint in a bag, lots of water and soft colors on most of them. Added some stamps to other previously painted fabrics and I’ll show you what I get tomorrow! Just the thought of two play days in a row is going to my head…hasn’t happened in way too long. Woooo-hooooo!

Playing with paint, again!

Solid color fabric in my stash? Not so much! So I turned to paint and played. I believe I mentioned this technique in an earlier post, but I did it a bit more today. And I love surprise results, so I don’t aim for anything specific.

Squirt a few drops of paint inside a plastic bag.

Add a damp, scrunched up piece of fabric. Squish around in the bag.

Remove the fabric and spread it out to dry. Voila!

If your fabric is quite wet, you get a much more blended, softer look.

You’ll never get the same results twice, even using the same paints as I did above. I had a couple of ideas immediately for how I want to use these.

Stamped leaves, appliqued onto a soft background..

Lovely fern on a bright colored background. However, I tried using this ‘vintage’ plastic fern as a stamp and was totally unsuccessful. Now I have some green blobs on the background, but I’ll have to find a better way to get the fern design on it. Maybe I’ll go look for a good stencil.

This piece started out as a plastic bag background, too. I stamped the pear design on it because the colors just seemed right.

Stitching around each stamped design was easy-peasy.

The shadows seemed to need a little emphasizing, so out came the paints again for a few shades of gray.

Now my only decision is whether or not this is done or if I’m going to add some shiny or some beads or some foo-foo.

I think I just want to keep it plain, mount it on this black and put it on a canvas. Opinions are always welcome, you know!

So now what? Go buy some solid color fabrics or dye a bunch in many colorways…I do have a couple of sets of graduated dyes already. I could always use those first, but I DO feel better when I have a full palette with which to work!!!! Hmmm…

I added this post to Nina-Marie’s Off the Wall Friday  so be sure to check out her blog and all the other links to so many great blogs!

New Beginnings

Since I have not been extremely active in my studio for soooooo long, I almost feel as though I am starting a whole new chapter in my life. I’m planning on exploring in two directions, that may overlap in many instances. Just sitting here typing up my intentions gets me itching to go!

Series are often talked about and definitions debated, but I’m of the opinion that a series is any body of work that you feel is connected! That’s what I’m planning…a series using more solids, my normal improv techniques and putting them together with traditional designs. The other direction is to explore more surface design, painting, stamping, inks, hand stitching and beads, of course.

Now, just talking about this isn’t getting it done! But it does help me to define what I need to do when I get off this computer and get down in the studio. Ready, set, go!!!!!!!

How disappointing…I went through my stash to get all my solids and start working with them. THIS is what I found, including a few tone-on-tones and barely there batiks and two sets of hand-dyed gradations.

I just don’t have solids. This either means a shopping trip or a dye day. Hmmm….so for today I worked with paint and I’ll tell you all about that in the next post.

Excuses? Or reasons?

Busy has been my middle name lately, and the ‘s’ does NOT stand for sewing! I’ve had houseguests, a wedding and a family gathering occupying my time. And yesterday was spent caring for a sick grandson. Soooo, I’ve had nothing to report on a creative front, and I think I may be suffering from withdrawal!

My grandson and I did have a fun day last week, though. He loves to paint, so I encourage that as much as possible. We use a variety of tools, including race cars, sponges and brayers.

When I’m doing this with him, I tend to forget the sewing!

There was a lot of painting clean up today, and a bit of tabletop clearing, but I am getting into the sewing mode again. And yet…my sewing has been starting with fabric painting lately! I’ve been creating my own fabric with painting, stamping and stenciling and I love it! I’ve found a paint that I love. It doesn’t make the fabric stiff, doesn’t flake off and doesn’t even need heat setting. I’ve tried a lot of paints and many are really good, but seem to be more ‘specialized’, not for general use. I believe USArtquest is my paint of choice from now on.

I have only started on this painting experiment since my friend introduced me to a scrapbooker who was venturing into fabric. It’s been an adventure for both of us and every time I try something new, it’s an exciting experiment. Planning on getting back to it more heavily in the next few weeks so hopefully I’ll have cool things to tell you about!

Daily pic (trees)

Even the trees down here grow differently. The branches are twisty and curvy and reaching for the sky. They lean and seem to be pulled from the earth into the clouds. I love them.

Planetary Forces

I have finally finished adding beads to this piece! It’s so easy to just keep adding and adding…and it’s only a 12″ square!

Planetary Forces

It did need more fringe to look finished along the bottom edge, and when that was done I declared the piece really FINISHED!

And then I took it to the quilt store to advertise my beading class–mostly so I wouldn’t be tempted to add anything more to it!

Now, what shall I tackle next? I need enough hand work to keep me busy on vacation, but most of my UFO’s need machine work. Wooo-hooo….er, I mean darn! That means I need to start something new before we leave. More time needs to be spent in the studio….I think I can get started right now!

My brain hurts…

I took a beading class today. I was asked why I was taking a beading class and my reply was simple–I don’t know enough and I want to learn more. I do know lots of basic beading stuff, but there is just so much more to learn and do with beads. In fact, I learned so much in this one day that my brain hurts!

We were taught by Linda Lindsey of Square Rose LLC and she was fabulous! Totally organized and presented the information in a very logical sequence. And fun things happened all along the way!

This is one of the sampler pieces that Linda brought us…and we marveled at it!

My tablemate got organized and ready to work right away!

We learned stacks–aren’t those cute mushrooms?

We learned lines and corners and curves and couching and lazy stitch and picot stitch and humps, bumps and globs! THEN we took a deep breath and learned a few more things! We embellished lines with picots, ruffles, zigzags, candy cane loops, and then more loops were mentioned! Whew!

We only had time to touch on a few other things, but we got homework! Homework! Can you believe it? We have one more class and I can’t wait. There is so much more to this beading stuff than I ever thought there was! I was addicted before this class but the possibilities that we were shown today just blew me away!

I’m so looking forward to this class and my brain is very full. I’m thinking it explode by the end of the next class, but it will be SOOOOOO worth it.

Feels like a new year…

I’m having some extra time this week since we are in a Christmas routine, not a regular routine. Getting out of the routine makes it feel like a brand new year already. It’s also enabled me to finish my little beading project that I fell in love with. Or is it finished? I’m never quite sure when to stop. I started out just wanting a few beads to use as a sample for a class.

The more I worked on it, the more I thought I could add. There were so many good places to put beads! Then I thought it would look better with some simple hand stitching. People are right when they say hand stitching adds something good to any piece. I liked it a lot better as I added the handwork.

At some point though, you just have to draw the line and call it done. But there is so much more room for beads, for hand stitching…

This part is pretty full, trying to be the focal point.

This part has room for lots more.

The whole thing is only 11″ square, and I had lots of time to work on it last week. That made me realize that it took that whole week to get it this far done and I was supposed to be working on a simple sample for a class. Whoa, Nellie!!! Time to put the brakes on and take a serious look at how long it takes to do beading.

All those samples that I got ready to work on when we’re on vacation…hmmm…maybe I shouldn’t wait ’till vacation to start working on them. It might take longer than I think, especially if I’m doing more on vacation than sitting around beading!!!

Maybe it’s just an excuse to start working on some just-for-fun projects instead of those things that I said yes to when I should have said no! Doing some ‘want to’ things instead of ‘have to’ things. That almost sounds like a new year’s resolution…

Life is short; follow your heart!

Wooo-hooo! More playing!

Time…precious time…and I got some! It was, of course, spent in the studio. I could have had a dedicated session on a project that has a deadline. But nooooooo–I’m dedicated to playing right now, and serious thought about a serious project just can’t find room in my brain.

So, here’s what I wasted devoted my time to…

The sun ray beading project is just destined to be my project that takes forever. I didn’t do any beading on it, but the edges were getting a little raggedy so I decided that I’d better finish them off. And no matter how many shots I took, following all those picture taking rules, or how many times I measured, it looks like the top is wider than the bottom. And it’s NOT. Not that it really matters here, but that little thing bugs me!

Facing the edge was my finish of choice, but it’s not a favorite choice. Once you get the facing on, you have to sew it down to the back, by hand. Yuck! That’s why I don’t do binding by hand…it seems like such a waste of time. But it is necessary sometimes to get the look you want.

Then I skipped over to the pink and gray batik project. Got borders on it and got some basic quilting done on it. There will be beading to come and I think some hand stitching of some kind. And…I got distracted!

Had to go to the fabric store for some thread…one little spool of thread. Well, wouldn’t you know it? They got in a new line of fabrics yesterday and I am in love with all of them! That rarely happens to me anymore and I certainly DO NOT NEED one piece more of fabric. Hmmm…It’s Christmas—time to ask for a big gift certificate. That’s a good justification, isn’t it?

But I did NEED to have one little fat quarter come home with me…can you see why?

(Well, everyone’s tastes are different!) And this is the little project for a beading class sample that I am going to do right now.

I don’t need any samples until February, so the plan was to take them on our trip to Florida later this winter. Unh-unh…this one is getting started today.

I think I may have sewing project ADD…but as long as I don’t have a taskmaster other than myself, it’s really okay. And I’m having fun, fun, fun! No holiday stress here, let me tell you. We’ll finish our shopping tomorrow (Right, Scarlett?). It’s not hard to buy some gift cards, and then I can come home and bead, bead, bead…fa la la la la, la la la la…

Does too easy make it less valuable?

Got some glorious studio time today…aaaaahh! Went right back to work playing with fabrics from which to make small beaded projects.

This is way too easy. I’m having way too much fun. Does this mean it can’t be real art? Do I really care about that? I make things that I like, just because I like them. If I happen to find a market for them or they are part of a class, that’s a bonus. So, here’s how you can join me in having fun, too!

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Using the commercial fabrics, planning on teaching simple beading, small, easy projects…can’t get much better!

I’m trying to get these all prepped so I can take them to Florida when we go and bead them there. I may not be able to wait! Maybe I can pick out just one to do now…Just plain fun and I’m smiling whenever I look at them. Try it yourself…you may like it!