Frottage

Here are a couple of photos of what we are working in the Studio Journals class by Sharon B.

TIF and Book Completed

I have finished my book (present for MIL). I have decided since I have run out of time to use the book for my June TIF challenge piece. It is made from my stash and as it is a book it is a story. The story includes my MIL's past (what is) and positive affirmations for her future (what is possible) so it works.

I started with a white piece of felt that was felted with merino wool to cheesecloth (scrim). I then dyed it with yellow and blue acid dyes which I just squirted on.

Then I embellished with small bits of wool and cut out felt flowers with the needle felt machine. I then did the leaves and stems etc. with FME. It was quite bright compared to my pages so I felt I needed to tone it down and antique it a bit.

So I dyed the whole thing in tea. The flowers were a bit dim due to the tea.

So I added a bit of Dye-na-Flow paints to the flowers. I trimmed the edges and the whole cover piece measures 11"x18". I added a lining and then satin stitched around the edges.

I added a "frog" type closure and here it is - the finished book, finally!

Here's the front edge with it standing up.

And here is the first page.

Here is a view showing it open between the first and second signature. So now I need to send it off for her birthday. I think she'll like it. It was an interesting process but took longer than planned. Isn't that always the way??

Too Busy to Blog???

It's been a while but it's not because I haven't been working on anything. I have been slaving away on the book I'm making. And finally, I have completed all the pages. These are samples of the pages - I haven't included photos of them all as there are a total of 48 and some have personal photos of my m-i-l's and so I didn't include all of them. This first page is a "double" page as it is in the middle of a signature. She grew up in California.

I like how this pear turned out. It is stenciled and then has details added with oil pastels. There's a quote at the top by A. Lincoln about pear trees and patience.

Here's another stenciled one.

Hmmm... I seem to like the stenciled ones best.

This is one of the signatures with eight pages total. I have three for the total


This one had a doodle that was supposed to be paisley but I hated it and so I just covered it with brown paint and used the stencil again.

Here's another double spread and this doodle looked alright.

I like the pages with the gold pen as it looks good on the dark backgrounds.

Another stenciled page.

This one uses a cut out form of a bird that I drew and then spray painted with black paint. I am really happy that these pages are now complete. It was a bit of a strain towards the end trying to think of what to put on all the pages. There are lots of quotes and inspirational words. Now on to making the cover.

I did start something for June TIF but now I think I'm going to use that for the cover of the book. Perhaps the book could be for June TIF as most of it came from my stash and it does tell a story. That's probably cheating but I think I may have to go that way as work is getting busy for the summer tourist season, I'm starting Sharon B's class on studio journals next week and my sister and her family are coming to stay for a month. So I'll be very busy. Excuses, excuses....

Yesterday, a friend and I went to a quilt show in Missoula which is a two hour drive away. It was fun and we went out for a nice lunch after the show. I was hoping that there would be more art quilts there as the quilt shows around here are very traditional. But I was a bit disappointed. Oh well, I spent most of the time looking at all the free motion quilting and getting ideas.

Further Book Page Progress

Here's the next step to complete the backgrounds for my book pages. I scraped various colors of paint on with a credit card. Very technical painting here =0)

Here's a close up after the paint is applied.

Next I covered this with a coat of stain. I was supposed to use walnut ink but didn't have any so I substituted walnut furniture stain. It worked fine. These are more brown in real life than the photo shows.

The next step was to add creme paint with grids and doilies.

Here's a closeup of one of the pages at this point. Several more steps to go before the backgrounds are complete. Then I'm going to add photos, words, doodles, and stuff from two old magazines that I bought a couple of weeks ago - one is the Saturday Evening Post from 1950 and the other is a woman's magazine from the 1930's.

Marcy's Teapot

Just a quick post to show you this sketch I did of my friend's teapot.

Book Progress, Pencil Holder and June TIF

Here is the next step on the pages for my mixed media book. I brushed a light coat of gesso over each page on both sides.

Then I added a wash of burnt umber acrylic.

Then I stamped all the pages with a variety of stamps and colors.

Here's a closeup of one page. More paint to follow.


Here's a pencil case that I made to carry with my workbook. I use an elastic hair band to use as a closure.

I made a flap at the top to keep the pencils from falling out if I turn it upside down (something I'm sure to do).

Here's the inside with my pencils. I forgot to put a place for my erasers. Oh well...

TIF in June has to do with "stories that are and stories that are possible". Sharon got this idea from thinking about her stash and the possibilities of what stash could become. After thinking about this for a bit, I decided that there are endless possibilities. It really depends on the choices that you make. Those choices direct you along a certain path. In regards to fiber art, those choices do seem to be endless. This got me thinking about last month's challenge where we were to decide what we called ourselves. I think that what you call yourself, directs your choices and the possibilities. Then I read through this month's Workshop on the Web. Two articles seemed to come together in my mind. One was about monochromatic landscapes and the other was about hand stitching with the darning stitch. The hand stitching article had samples of weavers "dressed" in darning stitch. So if I combine the monochromatic background with a shadow of a woman this will represent the past or stories that are. Then I will add women in color dressed in a variety of ways i.e. weaver, dyer, felter, embroiderer etc. to represent the stories that are possible. I think I will do a series of 4"x6" pieces with each fiber art category represented or as many as I can come up with. I hope this makes sense but you'll see more as I go along.

Here's a simple landscape that I drew. I think the backgrounds will look similar to this except done in fiber. Now I have to work out how to represent my "women" of the past. I have a fair idea of how to do my contemporary fiber artists.

Cyber Fyber And New Project

Here's the postcard that I received from Susan Lenz of Cyber Fyber
I love the tone on tone look of it and the image.

Here's the one that I sent in exchange. I hope she likes it.

This is the start of my newest project. It's going to be a book for Rita, my mother-in-law for her birthday. It has mixed media pages and a felted fabric collage cover. So I started with the pages and covered them with a mix of tissue papers, paper towels, threads and scrim.

Here's another one. I made 20 in all. They are 9"x12" but will be folded in half. Now I need to cover the other side since these are dry. Then I'm going to add paint, more images, ink, and whatever else I decide to throw on the page. I think this project is going to take me a while.

Sharon of In a Minute Ago has set another interesting challenge for Take It Further in June. This months idea to think about is stories that are and stories that are possible. Hmmm... I've put that in my brain and it is stewing around. Haven't come up with anything yet but I'll let you know. Happy June!