Permutations in Fiber

Nuno Felted Book Cover

2012-01-27T16:18:00.000-08:00

This is a book cover that I made last summer but never finished. It was a practice piece for another project and it just happened to fit my paper stitch book perfectly. The purple portion of the flower is felted to the cover and was a pre-felt. The cover was made with merino and cotton 'harem' cloth. The cloth was covered on both sides with wool and a resist was used to make the pocket that the front cover of the book slides into.

I added hand stitching, mainly button hole and chain stitch. But there are also a few straight stitches and some french knots. The leaves are done with chain stitch used as a filling stitch. It's still pretty plain and I may add other flowers and leaves at a later date but right now I'm happy with it.

I added a hook and eye type closure, the kind that is made to go on trousers.

Here's the inside showing the first page of my stitch book. It's a little wonky in places but it helps to keep the book closed as it tends to bulge open a bit with all the stitching on the pages.

Cottage Garden

2012-01-20T10:09:00.000-08:00

This is a photo of a needle point piece that my mother made in 1988. It hangs with a companion piece made by my father over our bed. I have always loved this look into a cottage garden. I needed to do another distorted cross stitch piece for my home work for Level II stitch class so I chose this needle point piece as my inspiration. The original needle point is 11" x 15" and the cross stitch piece was to be 3" x 3.75" so I decided to make the garden a bit simper and leave out all the buildings.

Here is what I started with as a background. I fused these pieces down to the background.

Here's the end result. I used distorted cross stitch throughout except on the wall and the cobblestone path. I used straight stitch for those. I didn't like the color of the wall after I got finished so I darkened it up a bit with Inktense pencils. I'm pleased with the results and actually liked doing this one better than the first because I had an inspiration to follow. Does it look like a garden to you?

Printing with Veggies

2012-01-13T17:26:00.000-08:00

Our local surface design group met today and we printed with veggies and fruit on to fabric and paper. We used mainly textile paints. This first one is a tomato print by Jan.

This is by Louise and I think is spinach leaves and some type of frond that Jan brought from a flower arrangement she was going to throw away.

This is also Louise's and is a cabbage print surrounded by spinach leaves.

Here is the cabbage with paint on it. This was one of our favorite veggies to use as a stamp.

Here Carole used the cabbage to print a silk scarf. She is going to over dye this and then may do more printing on top of that.

This is a pear print that Carole did on a piece of rusted paper.

Here is a cabbage print that I did. I hope to add some hand stitch to all of my pieces if I have time.

This is a celery rose. The rose buds are printed with dates and the stalk with green beans!

This piece has cabbage, pepper, plum, apple, pomegranate and onion prints.

This one is pear prints covered with cabbage prints. We had a great time!

These next photos are of a round robin project we have been working on for the last 4-5 months. Each of us took a piece of canvas and painted the background. Then it was passed on to the next person and each member added to the piece. This was supposed to be the last go round but mine didn't get finished. This one is Bunny's. She started with a yellow ochre background and then drew the flower shape on with a Sharpie. Louise used Dye-na-Flow paint and painted the flower. I added all the rest. Carole didn't work on this but did the "other half" which you'll see later. I added many layers of thinned acrylic paints, a poem to make the stamens on the flower and lots of alcohol ink.

This one is Carole's piece. She painted the purple and green background. Louise added the gold fern leaves with a stencil. I added the other leaves with alcohol ink and Bunny added the butterflies.

This is the other half of Bunny's. Carole did the background and then Louise added stenciled leaves and the gold grid.

This is Louise's piece. She did the grey background. I added the rust and black color in swirls. Bunny added the leaves with oil paint sticks and Carole added the branches. Doesn't it look like a windy fall day?

This is my piece. I used black gesso and then added hand made paper scraps with a bit of white paint over some of them. Carole added the swirly lines. Louise said she could figure out what to do with it and Bunny skipped a month so didn't do anything on mine. I told Louise to add color so she is going to work on it and then give it to Bunny. I'll show you the finished piece when it gets completed.

The round robin was really fun and I think the finished pieces turned out well. It was hard to work on someone elses piece of "art" but it certainly was a learning experience!

Resist for the Tangerine Hat

2012-01-12T18:47:00.000-08:00

I had a question about the resist shape that I used to make the tangerine hat in my last post about the felting class I will be teaching. Here's a photo of the actual resist. The yellow hat form in the center of the resist gives you an idea of how big it is. The hat is sitting on this form in the photo in the last post. I always find that making a resist very simple and then adding structure to the hat with shaping is the easiest way to go. If you'd like to learn more about hat making and you'll be in the Kalispell area, sign up for my class at Camas Creek Yarns.

Felt Hat Class

2012-01-10T13:03:00.000-08:00

I am going to be teaching felting classes at Camas Creek Yarns in Kalispell, MT. The first class is scheduled for February 10th and will be about hat making.

You'll learn how to make a pattern and design your own hat. We'll be using short fiber merino batt so it will felt quickly and easily. That way we can spend more time on developing your own unique hat and shaping it to fit. If you're in the area and would like to learn about hat making, here's the link where you can sign up. Just look down the list, find my class and click on the Register Now button.

Fiber Give Away at the Felting and Fiber Studio

2012-01-08T17:12:00.000-08:00

Karen is doing our first give away at The Felting and Fiber Studio. All you have to do to enter is to leave a comment on her post. Go check it out!

Edited to fix link - it works now :)

Friday's Dyeing Session

2012-01-07T19:49:00.000-08:00

For my stitch class, I needed to do a dyeing session at home. I usually only use acid dyes since I mainly dye wool and silk. For the assignment I needed to use Procion MX Dyes. So I mixed up a set of dyes and here I am about to start. You can see my color notebook on the left where I was working out different color combinations.

I dyed a bunch more cotton threads and here they are all rolled up in plastic batching. I did try dyeing some wool thread and using vinegar to soak instead of the soda ash. Ann (Shepherdess) had suggested it. I've tried the wool thread with Procion MX before but soaked in soda ash and they don't turn out very well. But this worked, they aren't quite as bright as they would be with acid dyes but they still have a lot of color left. Before, I always ended up with very pale colors.

Here are some of the fabrics that I painted. These will be used for our stitch samples. I dyed linen, muslin, cheesecloth, commercial felt, silk organza, burlap and cotton organdy.

Here are the threads after rinsing and drying. I wanted more purples and greens to round out my colors of thread that I now have.

Don't you just love the colors? The turquoise one at the bottom left is the wool thread. Now I just need to iron all the fabric and wind all the thread into balls.

Focus in 2012

2012-01-02T15:30:00.000-08:00

Last year, instead of making goals, I chose a word for the year. I saw this first on Christine Kane's blog and she explains about choosing a word in her post Resolution Revolution. I like that the word you choose is related to everything in your life as it is about "being" instead of "doing". Keeping one word in the forefront of your thoughts is much easier than trying to remember a list of resolutions. Last year, my word was "choose". I did get a lot done last year in relation to my fiber arts, I was happy with the choices I made and I want to keep moving forward in that same vein. While I was looking at the list of possible words that I might choose for 2012 on Christine's blog, I came across several that spoke to me. I wrote those words down and my list included clarity, focus, mastery and discipline. After I looked at these words for a few minutes, it seemed to me that all four of the words fit under the word focus. Focus has several meanings including the center of interest, to adapt to the prevailing light and become able to see clearly, to concentrate or to think about closely. So for the coming year, I will be thinking about focus and how that relates to fiber art.

I also have a list of intentions that I want to accomplish during the year. I'm not sure how I'll get them all done but I'm sure if I focus...

Continue the Level II Hand and Machine Stitch course
Promote my book when it comes out in August
Begin teaching felting classes at a local yarn store
Investigate future teaching possibilities (felting/fiber art) at the local community college
Mentor artists through the Montana Arts Council program at the store about the business of art
Participate fully in our new virtual studio The Felting and Fiber Studio
Continue exploring the combination of hand and machine stitching with felting
Begin making video fiber art tutorials (which I'm sure will involve more than I think it will)
Learn more about Photoshop and use it more frequently
Continue to explore surface design including more eco-printing with leaves with my local group
Begin researching and planning for The Yurt Project

Now if you were paying attention, you might be saying "What yurt project?" I have really wanted to make a yurt in the traditional way with a felt covering for a long time. It will be a ton of work and I'm sure I won't get it all done this year. But I'm going to start working on it this year. I have already gotten some books from the library and my hubby is going to help with the frame construction. I may see if I can involve some school groups or civic organizations and teach more people about felting. The idea is still brewing but I'm excited about moving forward with the idea.

What are your plans for 2012? I'd love to hear about them.

Thank You's

2011-12-29T10:54:00.000-08:00

I received this lovely felted index card holder from Zed before Christmas. Isn't it gorgeous? She used a variety of fibers and parts of it have a wonderful sheen.

This is the back side and the colors are so yummy.

She has used blanket stitch around all the edges. I am using it for keeping all my notes from my hand and stitch course. Perhaps I'll be able to stay more organized now. Thanks Zed, I love it!

Then I got two skeins of merino yarn from Nanci, my co-worker. The yarn is absolutely gorgeous.

She put on the container, future rock, trees, bark and leaves. She knows what I like! Thanks Nanci!

I got another fiber related gift but I didn't get a photo of it yet, it just arrived last night. So that will have to wait until a later post. Happy New Year!

Reflections

2011-12-27T08:30:00.000-08:00

As the year winds down, I have been reflecting on what I have accomplished in the last year. At the first of the year I had decided my word for the year was "choose" and that I wanted to make decisions with intention. I actually did most of the things that I had planned on doing and then did several more "big" things that I had no idea I would choose to do. It was a pretty exciting year. Here's my round up of the fiber art related things that I completed in 2011.

The Design Focus Friday series of blog posts was completed. I really think that writing about design has helped me think about how to design a piece with a better focus on the principles and elements.
Continued exploration into surface design including making my own silk screens, screen printing with oatmeal, torn paper and water soluble glue, gelatin printing, Eco printing with leaves and fabric painting.
I played with encaustics and even though I probably won't do any more, it was fun.
The fabric book page swap came to an end and I fabricated my "tree" book.
I did attempt to get my work into another gallery in Missoula and sent entries to two fiber art competitions. None of my work was accepted but that's OK, at least I tried.
Completed two rice paper and watercolor collages in my studio journal.
Dyed a variety of scarves and made tons of cat toys to sell in the store.
Completed Level I Hand Stitch at the Gail Harker Creative Studies Center.
Began Level II Hand and Machine Stitch with Gail which will continue until February 2013.
Carded half of a fleece of merino wool (still have the other half to finish).
Felted three bird houses for Felt United Day.
Felted a mobius scarf for the "twisted" challenge.
Felted and direct dyed a bag for my husband's new tablet.
Made a felt scrap bowl and Christmas tree ornaments with a step by step photo tutorial.
Mentored another artist in nuno felting.
Wrote the book 'The Complete Photo Guide to Felting' which is being published by Creative Publishing International. This was 6 months out of the year of very hard work. I felted tons of samples and projects for the book but wasn't able to show anyone any of it. The book is still in the editing process and I still have to work with the editor on making sure everything is in the right place and it says what I meant it to say. The publish date will be August 1, 2012. It will be so exciting to see it completed.
One of the most fun things I did this year was to get together with a group of three other felters from all over the world and develop our own virtual studio and forum. I have so enjoyed interacting with my felting friends in creating the website and I look forward to our work together over the coming year.

So, for me working a full time job, that's a pretty impressive list. The next time I 'choose' to write a book, I think I will have to quit my other job. Writing a book is a full time job in itself. But there are no plans for another book at this point and the next year and a half, I will be concentrating on my Level II stitch class. I am going to be considering what my word for next year will be and what my other plans will be. Once I've decided, I'll write another post to let you know. What are your plans for the coming year? I'd love to hear what you want to accomplish in the coming year.

Happy Holidays!

2011-12-22T11:14:00.000-08:00

These are a couple of felt scrap ornaments that I made at the last minute. I did add a little loop of ribbon at the top for hanging. They use the same technique as the Felt Scrap Bowl Tutorial that I posted on the Fiber and Felting Studio. Please do check out our new virtual studio and if you'd like to join our forum, just click on the forum button in the sidebar. We welcome anyone interested in any kind of fiber arts as we just aren't limiting members to felting.

Thanks for stopping by my blog this year, I appreciate all your kind comments. I hope that you have a wonderful holiday season.

Color Mixing with Distorted Cross Stitch

2011-12-16T14:21:00.000-08:00

Here's one of the samples that I did for Level 2 Stitch. We started with cut up bits of fabric and then added distorted cross stitch over the fabric. This is the base which was the starting point.

And this is the end result. About halfway through, I thought it looked like a big mess. But I persevered and it did finally look a bit like what I had imagined when I started. The point was to use the stitching to mix the colors and achieve a look of foliage. I need to do another sample for homework and I'm thinking I'll do one based on a garden against a rock wall. I considered doing a winter scene but I don't really have the threads needed for that one. But I am going to dye more so... I'm sure I'll make up my mind soon.

Level II Hand and Machine Stitch Class and a Surprise

2011-12-14T11:14:00.000-08:00

I started the Level II Hand and Machine Stitch class at Gail Harker's last week. The first two and a half days was spent in the dyeing studio. Gail has just moved recently from Oak Harbor to LaConner, Washington. Her new studio is wonderful and we had a great time. I won't discuss the10 hour drive from Montana to Washington with two Yorkies who both had Giardia. The less said about that the better!

Here are some other class members hanging up their dyed fabric and threads to dry. It looked like colorful prayer flags all around the room.

Here are some of the threads I dyed after they were dried. They were waiting to be wound up with a thread winder. Normally, we wind the thread on half of a toilet paper tube but they didn't have many so I only got two in class.

Here we are at the table discussing something. We worked on hand stitch this session and I have lots of homework to do. We'll be working on Kantha stitch on our next session in February.

Here are some photos of my dyed fabrics. We will be using these over the entire course of the class. This is silk organza. We used Procion MX dyes. I usually use acid dyes at home but I'll be ordering some Procion MX as it is part of the homework to have another dye session.

This is cheesecloth - #50 and #90 weights. A lot heavier cheesecloth than the kind you buy in the grocery store around here which is #10.

This is linen.

And muslin.

And then white burlap.

Here are all the threads I dyed on their cardboard tubes. I finished winding them at home. We used all cotton threads in a variety of weights.

Don't they look yummy?

I need to dye some deep purples and perhaps some more greens. So more thread to come!

When I got home I found a package from the UK. Zed had sent me samples of nylon and plastic fiber to experiment and add to felt. Thanks Zed - it was a wonderful surprise to find this package waiting for me when I got home.

And look at these wonderful buttons she makes out of polymer clay. I can't wait to add them to something.

Playing with Encaustics

2011-12-02T20:03:00.001-08:00

I met with my local fiber group today and we played with beeswax and encaustic techniques. I had never tried this before and it was pretty interesting how the layers of wax and oil paint work together.

The first step is to paint a layer of beeswax on a board. You can then mark the beeswax and apply oil paint into the marks.

Once the oil paint works into the cracks, you wipe the surface of the wax with a canola oil on a paper towel.

It then leaves the paint in the cracks. This is one of Jan's pieces.

You can then heat the wax again with a heat gun or a blow torch to move the wax and paint around. You keep adding layers of wax and paint. You can also collage in a variety of things such as papers. We used yellow beeswax so the results are on the yellow to orange side.

These are the ones that I made. I had a hard time getting a good photo. This one has a piece of dyed paper towel on the first layer.

This one has wool added to the first layer. The wool made the wax very bubbly and dimensional.

This one has another dyed paper towel as the base.

I can't remember all the layers on this but it's mainly paint.

This has pieces of "leather" paper I made several years ago with beeswax and paint. It's hard to get the wax to react as you think it should look. I was just experimenting to see what would happen. This isn't something I think I'll do all the time but it was fun trying out the process.

Quick and Easy Note Cards

2011-11-27T14:04:00.001-08:00

I cut up my painted fabric into approximately 4"x6" rectangles and I now have a big stack to use to make note cards. I already had the white note cards and since the fabric is so colorful, it's simple to add a bit of machine stitching and sew it to the card.

I just looked at the piece to find a place to start. The green paint on the left looked like leaves so I thread sketched those in and sketched in longer leaves on the right. I used stitch and tear to stabilize the fabric. I found it worked best if I fused the stitch and tear and the fabric before stitching. I then fused the stitched fabric to the card before sewing around the edge.

For this card, I used automatic machine stitches to make a pattern. I tried using a glue stick to baste this in place before stitching to the card. It didn't hold very well and shifted a bit with stitching.

I saw a butterfly in this piece of painted fabric. He's a bit wonky but still looks like some sort of flying insect. Each card only takes about 10 minutes or so. I'm going to try and stitch a few every day so I have cards to use when I need them.

Carole's Bag

2011-11-23T09:00:00.000-08:00

Look what Carole made from the fabric that we all painted. Isn't it gorgeous?

She said she highlighted the designs in the material, quilted and then painted over the quilted areas. I haven't done anything with my painted fabric yet but this is really inspiring me.

Another Exciting Announcement!

2011-11-22T10:36:00.001-08:00

After six months of hard work, sending off 12 boxes of equipment, samples and felting supplies, there is a cover for my book. The book, published by Creative Publishing int'l, will be available in August of 2012 and it's already listed on Amazon. If you would like an autographed copy, I am making a list so I know approximately how many books I will need to order. There is no obligation to buy, but if you're interested, please e-mail me at info(at)purplepomegranate(dot)com. Include CPG Felting in the subject line of your e-mail.

It is really exciting seeing the book come together. Having never been through the process before, it has been an eye opener. Thanks to everyone who helped out with the book, I really appreciate all your assistance.

Announcements, announcements, announcements...

2011-11-21T11:01:00.001-08:00

Three of my online friends and I have started a new website that is all about felting and fiber. Ann, Karen, Zed and I have begun a new venture together. There is lots of information on the site already and we'll be adding loads more. We'd love to have you check it out and let us know what you think.

I'll still be posting here but we'll be holding fun challenges and giving away free stuff and having fun fiber parties at The Felting and Fiber Studio so don't miss it! Just click on the button above and it will take you right to the new site. Come join in all the fun :)

Felted Bag for New Tablet

2011-11-18T18:08:00.001-08:00

Here's the finished bag that I started with my local fiber art group last Friday. I used Merino and hand dyed silk habotai. I had also put some silk under the flap but pulled it off as I didn't like it. The bag started out white but I had a request to dye it dark green.

Here's a close up of the silk nuno felted on the front flap. It is more green than this photo shows.

And here's the tablet that's going to be in the bag. We'll just mainly use it for traveling. The others in the group haven't finished their bags yet but I'll show you photos of those next month.

Squirrel Update

2011-11-15T10:40:00.001-08:00

I posted earlier about the squirrel attacking my felt bird house. I took the bird house down and finally got around to repairing it. This is what was left of the hanging strap. It was double thickness felt made around a resist and you can see how the squirrel had almost chewed through completely.

I cut off the strap and then sewed a very small loop back to the bird house. Then I hung it back up on a metal hook. It's been up for several days now and it doesn't appear to have been attacked again. Hopefully, it will make it through the winter. I have my doubts that any birds will nest in these but I thought I would give them a try and see what happens. I'll let you know if any birds take up residence.

We have a forecast for another La Nina winter which means a long, cold, snowy winter is upon us. We have had a few days with a skiff of snow but nothing heavy yet.

It is supposed to snow this weekend with valley accumulations. So we've got the snow shovels ready. I think I need to go visit Karen in Australia :0)

November Felting Party

2011-11-11T18:14:00.001-08:00

We had another felting party today. The photo above is from October's felting party and Paula was making a scarf with pencil roving and winding it around the bubble wrap. She said it took her between 6-8 hours to lay out. She then covered the pencil roving and bubble wrap with plastic and rolled it. Since it was so long, she could only roll one half of it at a time.

But look at the result! Isn't it gorgeous? I really like the result but I don't think I have the patience to make one. Perhaps a smaller one to add to the front of a bag or notebook cover...

The project we worked on today was an idea I had about making nuno felted flowers. I have made lots of felted flowers before but thought it would be interesting to use the wool to hold numerous layers of silk petals together. I made the bottom left, top center and bottom right ones. Paula made the other two. They are really quite easy to make. We used prefelt cut in small circles layered between the petals of the flowers that include a variety of silks as well as some netting. Now to add a pin back and I'll have several quick and easy nuno felted flower pins.

Dyed Scarf Photos

2011-11-07T08:30:00.000-08:00

I promised better photos of the scarves that I dyed.

Here they are all after ironing and

straightening out the tassels. I always find that to be a pain.

But I do like the colors. I think the deepest red one in the second photo is my favorite. What's your favorite? I'm putting these up for sale in my store for $45 each. Send me an e-mail if you would like to purchase one.

Nuno Felting and Dyeing

2011-11-06T07:50:00.000-08:00

I met with my local group on Friday and we started a nuno felted bag. We didn't manage to get them completed as we ran out of time.

Here's Louise straightening out some fiber. The piece with the scraps of silk in the foreground is my bag. Because I went to the Grizzly football game yesterday, my bag is still in the bathtub waiting to be finished.

Here's Carole using the sander. She's trying to hide her face with her camera, what a bad girl you are Carole :)

This is Bunny's bag. she used silk gauze over the surface of the bag. We all used white merino and we're perhaps going to overdye these after they're completed. I will have to show you the completed bags at a later date. Next month, we are going to try encaustic techniques. I'm looking forward to that.

I also dyed some scarves to sell at the store. This is just a few of them and sorry for the lousy photos. I took these photos this morning and the light wasn't the best. I still haven't ironed these so I'll try and take some better photos after they are ironed.

Here's two that just would not rinse out. Red/magenta dye just kept coming out. So I let them soak overnight and then rinsed them again this morning. They are drying in the bathroom. I used these pre-mixed dyes I bought at Wally world and the process was really simple. I usually use acid dyes for these but since they have so much rayon in them, the colors always turn out pretty pale and anemic. These dyes provided a much richer color. I like them much better.

The publishers have finished taking all the beauty photos for my book. The manuscript is at the editor and I should be getting proofs to look at sometime in December. It's really exciting.

I signed up to take Level II Hand and Machine Stitch with Gail Harker and the first session starts December 7th. I finally got word that the class is a go and I'm really excited about going over to LaConner, WA and seeing Gail's new studio. I'll let you know how it goes.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you had a great weekend!

Mobius Scarf

2011-10-28T08:07:00.000-07:00

So how many of you remember what a Mobius strip is? The definition on Wikipedia says that it is a surface with only one side and only one boundary component. Essentially is is a circle of something flat with a twist in it. I had seen Mobius knitted scarves but when Zed challenged us to make something with a twist, curls or swirls, I thought I should try a felted Mobius scarf. Sorry that it isn't the best of photos. I took it last night and photos of white felt objects are really hard for me. I started this scarf at our felting party and finished it at home. I wasn't sure it was going to work out but I actually like it and I may even wear it. I hardly ever wear anything that I make so that would be a change. It is made from the local merino I bought and is really fairly light and airy. I can't decide whether I should dye it or leave it white. What do you think?

Leaf Prints Revealed

2011-10-24T16:27:00.000-07:00

I opened the leaf print bundles yesterday afternoon. This is the sunflower prints on a silk/wool blend scarf.

You can see that I did get a bit of color from the leaf but it wasn't as strong as I had hoped. I think I should have kept the bundles wet. They sat outside but had dried out.

Here's another area of the scarf. It just looks dirty in some places.

Here's the lupines on the felted scarf. You can see I got good transfer from the string that had dye in it. The strings are all white now.

Here are the leaf prints. Very light and hard to see.

Here are the two scarfs from a distance. Not too impressive.

Here's the sunflower scarf after ironing. I'm not sure where those white dots came from. Something blocked the dye there.

Here's the end with the blue from the strings. It is the most interesting part of the scarf.

Here's the lupine one after ironing. I think I need to add another layer on these as I'm not really happy with how they turned out. I'll leave them for a bit and then decide what to do. Any suggestions?

Friday's Felting Party

2011-10-23T07:30:00.000-07:00

Paula, Shelley and I got together yesterday and had a felting party. First we had a little lunch and chit chat and then we got down to some serious felting. We were working in the new felting studio in the basement of Camas Creek Yarns. Paula teaches felting classes here. They have two great big tables, a double sink and the shop is now selling roving, batts and even prefelt. This first photo shows a scarf that Paula is making with instructions from Chad Hagen's new scarf book. The process is to use pencil roving and wrap it around the bubbles in the bubble wrap, wetting down as you go. Paula had already worked for 3-4 hours to get this far.

Here's Paula still working four hours later. She had the first layer down and was adding the second layer in another color. Talk about tedious layout! I'm not sure I want to try one of those.

Here's what Shelley was working on. She made some little felted birds which were originally going to be brooches/pins but she decided they she was going to incorporate them into a small bag that she is planning on making.

Here's my project. It is a scarf made from merino with only one thin layer of batting in the layout. There is a surprise to this scarf that you can't see at this point. I didn't get it finished so you'll have to wait for the result.

I'll be unveiling the leaf prints later today. It won't be until the afternoon because I have to go and count inventory for the store tomorrow. Have a great weekend and thanks for stopping by.

Felted Bird House Adventures

2011-10-22T10:18:00.000-07:00

If you remember, I made three felted bird houses for Felt United Day. This dark purple one got put in the back of the house. Yesterday morning while eating breakfast, I looked up and the bird house was moving! It was jumping around and I thought a bird was inside and couldn't get out. But after watching a bit longer, I saw a different culprit.

It was my friendly neighborhood squirrel. (click on the photo for a closer view) He is tearing it apart to get the wool. He has almost chewed completely through the felted loop. I wondered why it was looking so lumpy and out of shape.

Here he is with his stolen fiber. If you look at the lower right hand corner of the photo, you can see where he has almost chewed through four layers of felt! I'm going to get another metal hook and shorten the loop. I'll keep you posted. I guess I need to put out another fiber/nester for him.

Itching To Open Those Bundles

2011-10-16T16:49:00.000-07:00

This is what the bundles looked like last week right after they were steamed. They've been sitting outside on the bench all week. It has gotten below freezing several times so they are getting both the hot and cold techniques. It's kind of like Christmas as a kid and all those tantalizing packages were under the tree. You want to sneak down late at night when everyone else is asleep and open all your packages to see what's inside. Did you ever do that? It's been so tempting to peak and unroll these bundles.

Here they are after one week. I'm not sure they've changed much. The one on the right certainly looks more promising. Another week to go. I'm not sure I can stand it.

Steamed Leaves Anyone?

2011-10-09T17:54:00.000-07:00

I got the book Eco Colour by India Flint recently. So today when I was cleaning out the planting beds for winter, I gathered a bunch of leaves to try a little printing with leaves and steam. This is lupine leaves on a merino felted scarf.

Here is the bundle all rolled up on a stick. Then you wrap the bundle tightly with string.

Here is the second scarf. This is one I got from Dharma Trading that is a silk and wool blend. I covered the scarf with sunflower petals and leaves. I did not use any type of mordant with these just to see how they would work without anything extra. I did wet the scarves down first.

Here it is all rolled up and wrapped with string. I didn't think very clearly with the string because it has been used before for shibori dyeing and it had blue dye in the string. We'll see the effect of that later, I'm sure.

Here are the bundles steaming on the stove top. I think I will definitely have to cut the sticks a little shorter if I am going to be doing much of this type of dyeing. We'll see how it comes out.

Here are the bundles after steaming for two hours. The one on the left is the lupine leaves and felted scarf. There is transfer of the blue dye for sure. The one on the right looks more promising and is the sunflower one. Now the really hard part. I have to wait to open these for a couple of weeks. I put them outside so hopefully I will forget about them and not try and peak too early in the process. I will post the results when I just can't stand waiting any longer.

Painting Fabric

2011-10-08T19:11:00.000-07:00

Our surface design group met yesterday. We started with white fabric and used paint sticks over texture sheets to start. Then we added Dye-na-Flow paint.

Here is Bunny adding some color. We kept adding layers.

This is my paintbrush. I didn't wash the paint out when I changed colors.

We added some details with pens.

We used some stamps for rubbing with paint sticks.

Here is a little closer look.

This is the final outcome. It is drying and then I'm going to iron it. We are going to cut it into quarters and each use it to make something. I think I will use it to make some note cards. We had a great time. We hadn't been able to meet all summer and I had really missed the group. Next month we're doing nuno felting.

The stack is growing...

2011-10-07T11:05:00.000-07:00

I've been working all week, teasing out Merino fiber and then carding it. I still have at least 3 times more fiber than what's shown left to card. Luckily, I get to keep the borrowed drum carder longer. Thanks Bunny! So I will keep carding a batt or two every day and hopefully will get all the wool carded before the end of the year.

Our surface design group is meeting this afternoon. We haven't met since June due to scheduling difficulties so I'm excited to get back to it again. We are going to paint a 6 foot stretch of cotton fabric today. So more photos to come. Have a great Friday!

Felt United 2011

2011-10-01T08:00:00.000-07:00

In celebration of Felt United, I hung the three felt bird houses in front of the house on my found metal sculpture.

Most likely though, the bird houses will hang in the back with the bird feeders so I can see them from the kitchen window. Hope you have a wonderful day and that if you like to felt, that you are able to celebrate Felt United.

2011-09-29T17:50:00.000-07:00

I washed this fleece today. It's Merino from a local sheep breeder.

Here it is in the first wash. I then rinsed it two times.

Then I drained out the excess water in the spin cycle of the washing machine and put it out to dry on my improvised drying rack. It was a beautiful day today so I got to do this all outside. Makes it nice as although hubby is supportive, he doesn't care for Eau de Sheep Poop all over the house.

In between washing fleece, I decided that I needed to make something for Felt United which I've always meant to do but never have. This year's colors are from red to blue. So here is what I had in those colors.

So I made up three bird houses. Another thing on my list of to do's. So here are the birdhouses, partly laid out. I didn't get finished but will finish them up tomorrow. Then I'm going to hang them out in front of the house. So stay tuned and I'll show the finished bird houses tomorrow.

New Journal

2011-09-25T15:24:00.000-07:00

When the local Borders store went out of business, I bought several books for half price including Journal Spilling by Diana Trout. I also found a journal for 60% off. I glued two pages together to make the paper thicker and then added a coat of gesso. I think I'll do a bunch of pages so that they are all ready to go.

This is a page that I cut out of the journal to give a bit more room. I colored it with watercolor pencils and then wet it down just to get some color on the page. I will tear this up to use as collage bits to paste into the journal.

This was the sunrise by my house a couple of weeks ago. The air was smokey because of forest fires so it makes the sun really red when it rises. There isn't much good about forest fires and smokiness in the air but it does make for spectacular sunrises and sunsets.

Design Focus Friday - Rhythm

2011-09-23T08:29:00.000-07:00

Do you listen to music while you create? Does that change the rhythm in your work. The marbling above has a nice flowing rhythm with a little excitement added in with the red dots.

This postcard is repetitious and has more of a staccato type of rhythm as the eye jumps around more.

And this is also very repetitive but flows better as your eye has a tendency to move up or downward.

This is probably the last of the Design Focus Friday posts. It has been a year since I started this journey and I feel it has really helped me with thinking about design a bit before jumping right into a piece. I hope you have enjoyed the series of posts and thanks for stopping by.

In another note, my big project is almost complete. I just have a bit of mopping up to do and then it will be off to the publisher. Yes - I wrote a book about felting. I will soon have a bit more information for you. I'm very excited that it is finished and there will be more details to follow. So I will be around the blogs more, leaving comments and showing you some actual new work in the near future. WooHoo!

Design Focus Friday - Rhythm

2011-09-16T08:14:00.000-07:00

The use of chain stitch as a filler in this piece gives a very flowing rhythm to the end result.

The use of dots could seem more disjointed in rhythm but because they are spaced close together, the eye sees the entire shape instead of just the dots. So it ends up being more sinuous than spotty.

The rhythmic repetition of squares by themselves creates a choppier rhythm than the two pieces above.

How do you use elements in your work to create rhythm? Leave a comment and a link so we can all take a look! Thanks for stopping by and I will soon be back to normal operations as my big project is almost complete. WooHoo!!

Design Focus Friday - Rhythm

2011-09-02T08:40:00.000-07:00

Rhythm in art refers to the movement of the viewer’s eye, amovement across recurrent motifs providing the repetition inherent in the ideaof rhythm. It is based on repetition and involves a clear repetition ofelements that are the same or slightly modified. Most often we think of rhythmin the context of shapes and their arrangement.

Flowing horizontal curves give a feeling of relaxation andcalm or connecting and slowing. The rhythmic pattern chosen will quicklyestablish an emotional response to a piece. If the shapes are rigidly definedwith sudden and startling value changes, you will achieve a feeling ofabruptness and dynamic contrast. If the rhythm is consistent or regularthroughout the composition, the mood will also be consistent. However, if therhythm is in an irregular pattern, it may be unsettling to the eye.

Alternating rhythm consists of successive patterns in whichthe same elements reappear in a regular order. This is seen many times in thenatural world. Alternating rhythms and rhythmic variety can relievepredictability in a design.

Progressive rhythm gives a feeling of a sequential patternand is achieved with a progressive variation of the size of a shape. This isseen in perspective changes when we look at buildings from an angle. Theperspective changes the horizontals and verticals in to a converging patternthat creates a regular sequence of shapes gradually diminishing in size.

Questions to get you started:

Rhythm is usually associated with music. Can you make acomposition that is based on your favorite piece of music? How does therepetition of the shapes you are using remind you of the music? How can you usethe various elements i.e. line, shape, color, value, texture to form the rhythmand feeling of the music?

Can you use rhythmic repetitions in your work to showmovement? How can you depict sequential patterns? Or alternating rhythms?

Design Focus Friday - Proportion and Scale

2011-08-26T08:14:00.000-07:00

As I was thinking about proportion and scale, I started thinking about three dimensional work and the importance of getting the scale correct in a sculptural piece. One of the hardest things when I first started needle felting was getting the scale correct in a figure.

This is from the class that I took over a year ago and you can see that the proportions of a figure make a difference on the outcome. What size is the head as compared to the body? Are both arms or legs the same size. It is fairly easy for us to see if something is out of proportion because we compare it in our minds to the human figure.

Even if you don't do three dimensional work, you can still compare what you are representing in your work to the human scale. If there is a very large person in the foreground and the landscape in the distance is small, then the scale of the human figure will indicate how far distant the landscape is in comparison.

Thanks for stopping by. Come back in September when I start discussing Rhythm. September will be the last month in the Design Focus Friday series. I can't believe it's been a year since I started Design Focus Fridays. I hope you've enjoyed the discussions and learned a bit about design.

Design Focus Friday - Scale and Proportion

2011-08-20T19:15:00.000-07:00

Whoops! It isn't Friday, I seem to have missed that but here's a short post about scale and proportion. Both of the pieces that I show here are based on leaves. The one above has a different scale than the one below. What do you think the difference in scale in the two pieces makes?

Both pieces have multiple leaves, but the top piece is completely covered with "large" leaves in comparison to the size of the work. This second piece to me is more about the placement of the leaves and is entitled "Balance". Do you use different proportions in your work? I'd love to hear about it.

Design Focus Friday - Scale/Proportion

2011-08-12T08:48:00.000-07:00

I was thinking about the size of work that I usually produce in relation to scale. Probably the smallest pieces I do are postcard (4"x 6") size. Smaller scale pieces have to be designed carefully so that the small piece isn't overwhelmed by too many elements.

I have found that the concept of "keep it simple" works best for me. Every time that I try something elaborate in a small scale piece, it ends up being very difficult to get all that detail in such a small space. I haven't really done any of the "inchies" but those are definitely small enough that they really only need one element to fill up an inch of space.

How do you approach working in a small scale? Do you do any miniature type of work? Do you think working small helps to refine your design skills? How does working small affect how you then approach a large piece? Leave a comment and let me know how you approach working small. Thanks for stopping by!

Design Focus Friday - Scale/Proportion

2011-08-05T08:06:00.000-07:00

Scale and proportion basically refer to size. Scale means size i.e. large scale means big. However, unless you have a standard of reference, the term “big” is meaningless. Proportion means relative size as in size measured against other elements or against some mental norm or standard.

Scale and proportion are closely tied to emphasis and focal point. Large scale makes for an obvious emphasis especially in proportion to other elements of the composition.

The scale of art can be considered in several ways:

• Human scale – consider the scale of the work itself in relation to human size; Unusual or unexpected scale is attention getting. Sheer size does impress us.

• Context – consider the surroundings and the circumstances in which the art is displayed – does the scale of the work affect the meaning in that particular context?

• Internal proportions – scale and size are relative to the overall area of the format of the work; changes in scale within a design change the total effect of the design. The choice of scale and proportion should help to achieve the artist’s intentions.

• Contrast of scale – scale can be used to draw our notice to the unexpected or exaggerated, as when small objects are magnified or large ones reduced. A sudden change in scale draws attention.

• Scale confusion – deliberate change of natural scale to intrigue or mystify the viewer rather than to clarify the focal point – surrealism often uses this technique.

Proportion is linked to ratio. The proportion is judged to be correct if the ratio of one element to another is correct. The ancient Greeks sought to discover perfect proportion and developed the golden rectangle. This has influenced art and design throughout history and is found in growth patterns in nature. (click on the illustration above to enlarge)

Questions to get you started:

Do you usually make pieces that are small or do you always work in a large format? How does switching to a different size format affect your work? Can you make three separate works about the same subject but vary the scale and proportion in the work? How do you think the viewer will feel about the change in scale/proportion and it’s affect on the meaning of the work?

Can you use contrast of scale or scale confusion in your composition? How does this exaggeration make you see your work differently? Do you use the “golden rectangle” in your proportions? What happens if you deliberately make a piece based on the “golden rectangle”?

Design Focus Friday - Radial Balance

2011-07-29T08:03:00.000-07:00

Another type of balance is radial balance. Radial balance is based on a circular shape with the elements radiating out from the center of the shape. Kaleidoscopes are perfect examples of radial balance.

Many things in nature have radial balance such as a variety of flowers or even tree stumps. How often do you use radial balance in a piece you are creating?

I didn't find too many examples in my work. I did a series on tree stumps which I then added to a piece but the overall piece didn't have radial balance. Have you done anything with radial balance? Leave a note and leave a link to show us how you use radial balance.

Design Focus Friday - Asymmetrical Balance

2011-07-22T07:43:00.000-07:00

With asymmetrical balance, the design is typically off center and most likely the elements are not the same on each side of the central line. There is usually a feeling of greater tension when a piece is asymmetrical as opposed to a symmetrical piece.

Most of everything I do is asymmetrical. It seems that most people are either one way or the other and prefer working symmetrically or asymmetrically.

If the left side is not exactly equal to the right side, is it unbalanced? Or do certain elements, even if they are different, balance one another? Play with the balance and stretch your boundaries. If you like to work symmetrically, try an asymmetrical piece or vice versa. Thanks for stopping by!

Design Focus Friday - Symmetrical Balance

2011-07-15T07:33:00.000-07:00

Symmetrical balance really isn't my thing. This is the closest I could find to symmetrical in my work. I am much more of an asymmetrical kind of girl! I find that symmetrical balance feels confining.

Traditional quilts, like this one from the LaConner Quilt Museum, use symmetrical balance so that each side mirrors the other side. Do you use symmetrical balance in your work? Leave a comment and let me know.

Wooly Goodness

2011-07-08T17:15:00.000-07:00

Finally, something that I've been working on that I can show you. I dyed wool all day Thursday. This is from a merino fleece that I got locally. I washed it last weekend.

Then today, I spent all day carding. I have borrowed a drum carder from my friend Bunny and boy is it fun. It makes beautiful batts and you can mix all kinds of fiber together. I want one of my own now.

This is the same batts without the gray and black ones. It just looks so colorful. Hope you all are having a great day and have a wonderful weekend.

Design Focus Friday - Balance

2011-07-08T08:17:00.000-07:00

Balance is the visual distribution of weight in your composition. A sense of balance is innate in humans; lack of balance disturbs us and we feel more comfortable with a balanced pattern.

Pictorial balance usually refers to horizontal balance, the right and left sides of the image. Vertical balance is also a consideration with a horizontal mid line dividing top and bottom. Due to our sense of gravity, we are accustomed to seeing more weight toward the bottom, giving us a sense of stability and calm. The farther up in the format the weight is distributed, the more unstable and dynamic it seems.

Types of balance:

• Symmetrical – shapes are repeated in the same positions on either side of a vertical axis; this type of balance seems more formal.

• Asymmetrical – achieved with dissimilar objects that have equal visual weight or equal eye attraction; this is informal balance and appears casual and less planned.

• Radial – all elements radiate or circle out from a common central point; this type of balance is common in the natural world.

• Crystallographic – an equal emphasis over the whole format with an all over pattern; the constant repetition of the same quality everywhere on the surface.

Ways to achieve asymmetrical balance:

• Value difference – black against white gives a stronger contrast than gray against white, therefore a smaller amount of black is needed to visually balance a larger amount of gray. Balance by value or color is a great tool, allowing a great difference of shapes on either side of the center axis and still achieving equal eye attraction.

• Shape and Texture – Differences in shape when value and color are the same, can achieve balance. A small irregular shape can balance a large even shape. Texture can achieve the same effect. A small textured shape can balance a larger plain shape.

• Position and Eye Direction – a large item placed closer to the center can be balanced by a smaller item placed out toward the edge. This effect appears casual and unplanned. Eye direction can assist in balancing a composition and should be carefully planned.

• These techniques are rarely used in isolation and many times all are used in a composition to achieve balance.

Questions to get you started:
What type of balance do you usually use in your compositions? Try one of the other types of balance and see how that affects your design style. Can you use all types of balance listed above and work in a theme? How does the type of balance used affect what you are trying to say in your theme?

Using your geometrical shapes, can you make a piece balanced by just using value differences alone? Shape and texture? Position and eye direction?

Sorry I missed posting last week. Things just seemed to get away from me. Been busy, busy, busy with my project. Hopefully, I'll be able to announce soon what I've been doing! Thanks for stopping by.

Design Focus Friday - Harmony and Unity

2011-06-24T08:00:00.000-07:00

Using continuation of an element to create harmony and unity in a piece many times uses line as that element. Drawing a line through various elements on a page as shown here in cut paper helps to unify the elements and draw the eye from place to place in the design.

Some styles tend to use continuity as part of the style itself. Art Nouveau and Celtic designs have flowing, curving lines that tend to curve back on themselves. This gives a sense of harmony in the overall design.

One way to use line in a piece to create harmony and unity is through quilting or free machine stitching over the entire piece. Many times, this draws diverse elements together and puts the finishing touch to unify the piece.

Hand Stitch Course

2011-06-21T08:42:00.000-07:00

Finally, a post that isn't about design! I got my notebook back from Gail Harker after it was graded for the Level One Hand Stitch course. She made some very nice comments and seemed pleased with my work. I know there were several pieces that I didn't show you because I forgot to take photos before I sent the notebook off. The piece above is my fly stitch sample. Not my usual color selection but I like how it turned out.

This is chain stitch used as a filler. This one took a while. I followed the lines of the dyed material to achieve an organic design.

Here's a little closer view. I used mostly hand dyed threads but some were ones I purchased. It is hard to find a good gradation of colors in this subdued color palette. I enjoyed this class and I hope that I can take level 2 hand and machine embroidery the next time it's available.

Design Focus Friday - Harmony and Unity

2011-06-17T07:43:00.000-07:00

Using repetition to create harmony and unity is often seen in traditional quilt patterns. Shapes are repeated and colors are repeated to give a pleasing unity to the quilt. I don't make many quilts and the piece above is made from selvages that are repeated. Often the quilting is repeated over the quilt's surface and that may create a unifying factor.

Any of the design elements that I have discussed before can be repeated. This is a simple pattern of repeating lines based on frost. Think about how to use the different elements in your composition and how you can repeat them to create harmony. Should you use repetition of line, shape, color?

And the shapes or lines that are repeated do not have to be the same. Similar shapes and lines that are related still give repetition and a feeling of unity without being too boring. Do you use repetition in your work? Let me know and leave a comment.

Design Focus Friday - Harmony and Unity

2011-06-10T06:33:00.000-07:00

To use proximity to increase the harmony and unity of a piece, you need to keep the elements clustered together. If the elements are just scattered over the surface, the piece will look very random and chaotic.

Instead, keep all the elements close together. The piece above made with all French knots is an extreme example of clustering the elements together. This piece has the stitches crammed together with only a few scattered down from the right corner.

How do you use proximity of the elements in your work? Leave a comment, I love to hear what you are doing.

Design Focus Friday - Harmony and Unity

2011-06-03T06:29:00.000-07:00

This month on Design Focus Fridays I will be discussing the principles of harmony and unity.

Unity is the presentation of an image that is integrated; an agreement exists between the various elements and they look as if they belong together. Another term for this is harmony. If the various elements are not harmonious, if they appear separate or unrelated, your design is not cohesive and lacks unity. An important aspect of unity is that the whole of the design should be dominant – you should see the whole before seeing the individual parts. Creating visual unity is made easier by the fact that the viewer is looking for some sort of organization, something to relate the elements. Viewers tend to group objects that are close into one unit; negative spaces will also be organized. Objects of similar shapes will be grouped together by the viewer’s brain. Our brain looks for similar elements, and when these elements are recognized, we will see a cohesive design.

Unity can be achieved by the following methods:

Proximity – put the elements close together
Repetition – repeat various parts of the design to relate the parts to each other
Continuation – continue an element from one form or another to draw the eye
Continuity – the planned arrangement of various forms so that their edges are lined up i.e. using a grid to create serial designs

However, you don’t want too much unity as it can be boring. Thus you must consider adding variety. Shapes may repeat, but perhaps in different sizes; colors may repeat, but in different values.

Questions to get you started:

Can you produce a design that is only of one subject repeated many times? How do you keep this design from becoming boring?

Practice making small compositions with a variety of geometrical shapes. How do the elements look scattered randomly across the surface? What happens when you move the items into groups that are close together or overlapping? What does your design look like with similar shapes repeating in a pattern? How can you move the viewer’s eye from one shape to the next? If you use a grid as your format, how does this affect the design?

I'd love to hear how you are using the principles of harmony and unity in your work. Leave a comment or a link and thanks for visiting!

Design Focus Friday - Emphasis on Focal Point by Placement

2011-05-27T08:26:00.000-07:00

I found a few examples of my own work for this weeks examples. To emphasize your focal point by placement, you need to have elements that point the way to the focal area. In the piece above, the rocks are all pointing in towards the rush of water. I didn't really do that on purpose though, it just came out that way. This piece was done as an experiment and has multiple layers of paint and paper and the focal point developed with the layers.

In this felted piece entitled "Half way?", the trail and several wedges of darker color point towards the focal area.

The last example is showing a focal point that is a bit too close to the center for me. I should have put the moon off to the left or right a bit more. All the branches are pointing towards the moon and keep your eyes traveling back to the focal area.

I hope everyone in the US has a wonderful Memorial Day and thanks for stopping by!

Design Focus Friday - Focal Point Using Isolation

2011-05-20T08:39:00.000-07:00

After searching through my photos and artwork, I realize that I rarely use isolation to emphasize my focal point. The illustration above from Bonnie Skaalid shows a still life set up. Because the rest of the pieces are grouped together and the glass is separated from the main group, it becomes the focal point.

Here's another piece by Quilter Beth in which she demonstrates using isolation to emphasize the focal point. The triangular piece at the bottom looks as if it is falling away from the rest of the group and your eye is therefore drawn to that piece.

Do you use isolation for emphasis? Look through your recent work and see if you find any focal points that are emphasized with isolation. Do leave a comment and let us take a look!

Design Focus Friday - Focal Point Through Contrast

2011-05-13T09:53:00.000-07:00

I think the easiest way to emphasize the focal point or area is by using contrast. In the picture above (source unknown), The cardinal is contrasted not only by color but by shape. Even if the cardinal had been in black and white, it's shape would still be the focal point because it is different from the leafy background.

In this painting by Karen Tarlton called aptly Red Umbrella, the use of color contrast is aptly used to emphasize the focal point. I love the wet, rainy feel of this painting.

This quilted piece by Quilter Beth uses a contrasting shape and value changes for the focal area. Beth is working through Lyric Kinard's design book and she has several other examples of using different methods to develop a focal point.

Have you been thinking about how to emphasize the focal point in your work? Do let me know and leave a link so we can see the examples. Have a great weekend!

Design Focus Friday - Center of Interest or Focal Point

2011-05-06T07:56:00.000-07:00

We've made it through all of the elements of design and today we start with the first principle of design, the focal point. How do you get someone’s attention with your work? Without an audience’s attention, any message or artistic value is lost. To attract the viewer’s eye, a center of interest or focal point is needed. This emphasized element can attract the eye and encourage the viewer to look further.

Ways to achieve emphasis:

1. By contrast – one element in the design differs from the others – can be contrasting values, contrasting styles within the composition, contrasting shapes or sizes, contrast in color, hard edges vs. soft edges, the actual size of the work itself may draw the eye. This is called emphasis by contrast. The element that contrasts with, rather than continues, the prevailing design scheme becomes the focal point.

2. By isolation – one element by being alone, by itself, gets our attention. The contrast is achieved by placement of the focal point in an isolated manner.

3. By placement – If many elements in a design point to one item, our attention is directed there, and a focal point results.

4. By content – a human form or any living thing draws the eye, letters or words can give emphasis, the meaning or story behind your work may be the emphasis.

5. Absence of focal point – A focal point is not always necessary. You may wish to emphasize the entire surface over individual elements i.e. Andy Warhol or traditional quilts.

illustration from about.com

The focal Area is roughly 25% of a work of art and should overlap the center of the piece. The placement of this area should be one of the first things you think about when beginning your creation. The rule of thirds says that most designs can be made more interesting by visually dividing the page into thirds vertically and/or horizontally and placing our most important elements within those thirds. Take this concept a step further, especially in photographic composition, by dividing the page into thirds both vertically and horizontally and placing your most important elements at one or more of the four intersections of those lines.

Questions to get you started:

1. How can I use each of the elements of design to create a focal point? Line? Shape? Form? Texture? Color? Value?

2. What happens if the focal point is in the center of the piece? Does this make the piece stronger or weaker? What happens if you crop the piece to move the focal point to a different area?

3. After you’ve put in your focal point, stand back and look to see if it catches your eye. Are there other contrasting elements that could enhance your focal point/area?

4. Looking at other art, ask, where is my eye attracted? What draws it there? What elements did the artist use to develop the focal point?

5. Can you create a focal point in a composition by contrasting realistic and abstract elements?

Design Focus Friday - Value Scales

2011-04-22T08:43:00.000-07:00

Have you used a value scale when you work? It's a tool that shows the range of values from white to black. It can help you see the values more easily in your work. There are lots of value scales online that you can print and use to help clarify values. Or you can draw your own. Hold the value scale in front of your work, squint your eyes and match the values in your work to the values on the scale. On what part of the scale are most of your values located? Are they all towards the center? Do you need to add values from either end of the scale?

Another useful tool is the value finder. It is a square of mid value grey with a hole in the middle. Hold it over your work over different colors. Is the color lighter or darker than the grey? The white value finder works the same but can be used for seeing and understanding lighter values.

Have you tried either of these tools? Do have trouble sorting out the value of colors in your work? If so, try one of these to see if it helps. Leave me a comment and let me know what tools you use to determine values.

Value scale and finder from toadhollowstudio.com

Design Focus Friday - Value

2011-04-15T06:39:00.000-07:00

How do you use value in highlighting the center of interest in your work? Value changes draw the eye. So
if you have a very dark area adjacent to a very light area, that contrast will become a focal point. Squint your eyes when looking at your work and see where the highest contrast in value is in the piece. Is that the focal point? Or do you need to change the values so that the higher contrast area is at the focal point?

Is there an overall feeling of harmony and balance when looking at the value changes? Is there a place in the work that your eye is drawn to that it shouldn't be? Look at that area closely and see if a value is too dark or light in that area and taking away from the center of interest or focal point.

Do the values provide a smooth visual flow through the piece? Is your eye stopped by a big block of a darker value? Is the value pattern causing your eye to be drawn off to the side away from the center of interest? How can you change the value pattern to present a suggestion of motion in the design?

Take a look at what you're working on now and ask yourself about the value pattern and how it is affecting the design. Leave a comment and tell us your conclusions.

Playing with Gelatin Printing

2011-04-10T08:29:00.000-07:00

When my local surface design group met last month, we played with gelatin printing. It was messy but fun. Louise made up the gelatin plates ahead of time and we used printing inks to print.

Here's one of the plates after I tore it up a bit. I like the organic lines that you get after the plate starts to deteriorate.

Here's Bunny adding some ink to the plate.

Here are a few of our prints. I'm not sure what I'll do with these but I can always make postcards out of them if nothing else comes to mind.

The other project we tried was screen printing a color grid. You just set up your screen with a 2" rectangle to be screened and then you screen the various colors on top of one another to see how they mix. We goofed up at the beginning putting the yellow in the wrong places but figured it out eventually.

Here's Carole putting paper over the wet parts and getting ready to screen a horizontal line across.

Here's the outcome. The paper covers seem to soak up some of the colors but it was a fun experiment.

Design Focus Friday - Value

2011-04-08T08:21:00.000-07:00

Last week at my local surface design group meeting, we took a variety of photos and looked at the value patterns. This is a photo from Glacier National Park. To me, it looks a little bland. There are not many really dark values in the photo. It has quite a few mid tone values but if I was going to use this as an inspirational source, I would add some darker values especially to the left hand side.

This photo has some interested value changes and shapes. The center of attention, the chipmunk is a bit too centered but I like how the shadows make the photo more interesting.

If you're having trouble distinguishing the values in your work or in a photo source, then use a photo editing software and switch your photo to black and white. Don't you think more value changes would improve this photo?

You can really see the values much easier this way. By eliminating color, you see only the values and you can tell if changes in value need to be made before beginning a piece from the inspirational photo source.
Do you pay attention to the values in your work? Do you have any tips or tricks that work for you? Leave a comment and let me know how value affects your work.

Design Focus Friday - Value

2011-04-01T06:19:00.000-07:00

Value is the range of lightness and darkness within a picture. Value is created by a light source that shines on an object creating highlights and shadows. It also illuminates the local or actual color of the subject. Value creates depth within a picture making an object look three dimensional with highlights and cast shadows, or in a landscape where it gets lighter in value as it recedes to the background giving the illusion of depth. Contrast of value separates objects in space, while gradation of value suggests mass and contour of a contiguous surface. If values are close, shapes will seem to flatten out, and seem closely connected in space; none will stand out from the others. If values contrast, shapes will appear to separate in space and some will stand out from the others.

Categories of Values

• Tint is adding white to color paint to create lighter values such as light blue or pink.

• Shade is adding black to paint to create dark values such as dark blue or dark red.

• High-Key is where the picture is all light values.

• Low-Key is where the picture is all dark values.

• Value Contrast is where light values are placed next to dark values to create contrast or strong differences.

• Value Scale is a scale that shows the gradual change in value from its lightest value, white to its darkest value black.

Value Patterns/Sketches

A value pattern is the key to creating a pleasing visual path for the eye to follow as it views a composition. The value pattern is the careful choice of arrangement of all the values of a piece of artwork by an artist in order to guide the eye and unify all the objects/figures in the piece.

When organizing your composition it is important that you spend some time before beginning to think about the arrangement of the lights, darks and mid-tones in your composition. This planning stage will give you a better chance of making a focused and entertaining composition. To avoid having to rework you composition, it is important that we do not begin without some understanding of where we are going. It is much easier to change the value pattern than to change the piece once we are already in the midst of working. Most good artists do not overlook the planning stage and it is the fastest and most effective way to move past strictly replicating photographs.

Start with a drawn format box that has a shape and dimension that comes close to the actual paper you are using. A value pattern is not a drawing or a finished sketch. It is simply an organization of the lights, darks and mid-tones of the planned painting. The major shapes of the painting are put in but details are kept to a minimum. Look at the reference sketch, photograph, or nature scene and put all the values into only three categories. The lights will be everything that is the lightest values you are looking at, but they are not exclusively white objects. An objects local color does not matter in its' lightness or darkness. Depending on the mood, time of day or effect you are trying to create the lights can be any value as long as it is lighter than the mid-tones and darks. Normally the mid-tones are the values that fall in the middle of the value scale again remember that these will be relative to the desired effect or lightness or darkness of the source material. The darks are the darkest objects in the painting. For designing purposes, you should merge your values into only three ranges. This helps to clarify the value arrangement, and simplify the designing process. Once the painting begins the nuances of value will interpreted within the value pattern, but the goal is to keep the integrity of the pattern. At this point in the process color is not the major consideration, remember that each color has a complete range of value. Keep your concerns to the relative value of the major shapes and choose your colors later.

Use a soft pencil to cover all areas of the format box that are going to be the mid-tones leaving the lights as white paper. Remember to leave the white paper or white area as a well placed, well designed shape. It is at this point that you begin to think in terms of the quality of the shapes of your painting. Does each major shape conform to the definition of a good shape? Next you must consider the placement of the dark areas. As a good starting point you should make sure that the majority of your lights and darks are in close proximity where the center of interest in your painting is going to be. Again the dark shape needs to be analyzed for its quality as a shape or shapes. A key element in the arrangement of values in the painting is that all of the three values should be unequal in size. I think to begin with it is best for you to keep the mid-tones the greatest portion of the painting with the lights and darks splitting the remaining portions of the painting into unequal pieces. Make sure that you assign each shape in the value pattern a value. This is important because areas that are not resolved now will definitely be a problem later.

After you have made the value pattern you can look at it to see if it reads well and has a good design. Are the major shapes interesting? A good shape has a different dimension in length and width, has movement, has a variety of edges, is attached to the surrounding shapes in the composition and has a slight gradation of color or value from one edge to the next. Is the center of interest in a good location? Is the movement of the composition headed where you want the viewer to look? Does the space division complement your compositions intention? Are the value areas too equal in size, shape, and direction? Is the center of interest where most of the main activity of the composition is going to happen? Is the value arrangement appropriate for the mood, time of day or type lighting you are looking for? This type of analysis of the value pattern will give you the needed feedback for design modifications. If you need to make changes then go ahead. It is easy to make the changes now and not so easy once started.

Once you get comfortable with using value patterns you can begin to design compositions based on what you want to compose not what you see. By learning to reverse the values of the major shapes and changing their proportions you can create works of artistic expression and free yourself from the total dependence on the scene you are looking at. You can change the mood or feeling of your composition by adjusting the values of the major shapes in the work. The process of learning to invent and rearrange value patterns will take some work and initial struggle but the rewards will be fantastic. Soon you will be inventing your own shapes, taking more chances and creating better and more satisfying works. Although the process seems like it will create overly tight compositions in fact the opposite is true. By having a familiarity with the subject and a solid plan for the composition you can approach the work with a more loose and free attitude.

Questions to get you started:

• How many value patterns can you make based on one scene? How does the value pattern affect the mood of the composition?

• Can you take a UFO and change the value pattern? Does this improve your composition?

• What happens if you reverse the values in your composition?

• Of your value patterns created, which is the most interesting? Why?

• How can you use value patterns in an abstract composition? Does this strengthen your abstract composition?

• Can you find value patterns in other’s compositions that you really like? Where are your eyes drawn to? Is this because of value changes?

• How does the percentage used of each value affect your composition? Do you prefer lighter or darker value patterns? Why?

Design Focus Friday - Color

2011-03-25T06:23:00.000-07:00

This is one of my favorite color schemes. I love the rich jewel tones and the way the yellow pops against the red and the purple. Do you have a favorite color scheme that you like to use in your work? What do you like about it? Where do you get your inspiration for your color choices?

I get most of my inspiration from nature. I love to take photos in the garden, on my walks in the woods and when we visit the beautiful places in Northwest Montana like Glacier National Park.

You can always find wonderful colors if you look closely. It always amazes the number of colors you see in tree bark. I have so many photos of tree bark that I have found with different color palettes. I could work from those photos as sources of inspiration for years to come. Where do you find your color inspirations? I'd love to see some of your favorite color choices. Leave a comment and share your favorite color palettes.

Next month we'll be talking about value!

End of the Quarter

2011-03-23T19:53:00.000-07:00

It's hard to believe but we're already a quarter of the way through the year. I thought I would do a little update on my fiber art plan for 2011. I am pleased with the amount that I have accomplished.

I took the Hand Stitch Level I class in February.
I have sent in my work for consideration to a gallery in Missoula and will hear back from them by April 1.
I entered a fiber art piece in two exhibitions. I have heard back from one and was not accepted. I will hear back from the other at the end of March.
I have been blogging more frequently and have continued with the Design Focus Friday series. I have also done a couple more tutorials which were well received.
I have been thinking frequently about my word for the year "choice" and have tried to make conscious decisions that take me in the direction I want to go on my fiber art path.

I made a decision recently that is going to change my plan for the year considerably. I am not at liberty to discuss the details but it will involve lots more felting activities and a 6 month deadline. I'm going to be very busy over the next 6 months and as soon as I can, I will let you in on the details. I won't have a lot of extra time on my hands so I will have to cut down on my blog reading, commenting on others' blog posts and even posting to my own blog. I will finish out the Design Focus Fridays but I'm not sure I'll get much else accomplished on the blog. I hope you all won't desert me. I'm really excited about this project and in a couple of months, I'll be able to tell you all about it. So stay tuned!

Design Focus Friday - Color

2011-03-18T06:14:00.000-07:00

Playing with Dye-na-flow paints again, I made the color study above. I mixed each of the colors that I had with all of the other colors. I also started mixing some complementary colors together to see what kind of greys I could achieve. I will be keeping this chart for reference so when I use Dye-na-flow again, I'll be able to mix together with confidence.

Here are the two I did when I had my local group over. I used the differing primaries for each sheet. And I added some black and white for shades and tints. There is so much experimentation you can do with color, isn't there?

I thought I'd also show you what else I've been doing with color lately. Here is the scarf that I screen printed over oatmeal. I really like how this one turned out. It's a deep orange over a "fall" multicolored scarf which was mainly yellow but also had reds, browns and oranges. This one is going into the shop.

Here is the screen print through the blue school glue screen. This is after the screen had already been used about 8-9 times. Do you like the mix of colors?

I probably wouldn't have chosen these colors but Louise was mixing so she picked the colors. This is the screen that was done over loose shredded paper. It is interesting how the colors moved around as I kept moving the screen and adding different colors at different points. I'm not sure what I'll do with this fabric but I'm sure something will come up.

This is my monochromatic hand stitch homework for my recent class. These are all actually green threads although the color is slightly off. I am using chain stitch as a filler. I still have the upper right hand corner to complete. I've been following some of the dye lines on the fabric so it gives it a very organic feel. I'm not sure in which direction this piece will end up. I'll have to decide once it's finished.

That's what I've been doing with color this week. How about you?

Screen Printing Party

2011-03-14T16:10:00.000-07:00

We had a screen printing party at my house last Friday. I always get so busy I forget to take photos but luckily Carole remembered. Thanks Carole! Here is one of my scarves that I had already discharged some circles. I added a deconstructed break down screen that I made from an embroidery hoop. It worked fairly well but the resulting print didn't end up dark enough for my taste once rinsed out. I'm on the left and Louise is on the right.

We also tried writing on the screen with thickened dyes. This is supposed to say "Dear John" but somehow spelling escaped me. We also tried using blue school glue on a screen, screen printing over oatmeal (every one's personal favorite), screen printing over shredded paper and deconstructed breakdown printing.

Here we are printing the Dear John screen. This was my least favorite fabric. The writing needed to be much smaller. The syringe I used had quite a big hole so you got big squirts of dye. But it was an interesting process.

Here are a few pieces drying. Most of the screens shown here came from the blue school glue screen except the one in the lower left corner. That was done with oatmeal. The oatmeal was done on a piece of fabric that Carole brought and it all washed out (which is really sad as it turned out beautifully). I also screen printed again on Saturday with a member of the group that couldn't make it on Friday. But alas, no photos. I'll show more of the results in a later post. We had a great time and we're going to come up with more ideas for screen printing experiments.

The Story of the Traveling Pages Tree Book

2011-03-12T09:39:00.000-08:00

It's finally complete! I finished construction on my tree book for the The Story of the Traveling Pages Swap. I was still missing two pages but thought there was little chance I would receive them. I guess if I do I can decide at that point what to do.

I am pleased with the results. It was a bit of a pain sewing the sticks on but once I figured out what I was doing it worked out pretty well.

I used a button thread to give strength. I sewed a few stitches on the edge of two pages to hold the pages together and then I added the stick and did a sort of lasing technique (ala Girl Scouts).

And I really think it's amazing how different the pages all are but how well they went together. I put them in chronological order by month.

I went a little overboard on the front and back twigs but I really liked the "twigginess" of it.

Here's a photo of the book nearly closed.

So what do you think? Didn't it turn out great? Go check out the Traveling Pages Book Swap blog to see how everyone's books are turning out.

Design Focus Friday - Color Studies

2011-03-11T06:02:00.000-08:00

This week I've been working on my thread color studies for my hand stitch class homework. I've tried some thread color studies in a previous class I took as well. The threads on the top are some of the ones that I dyed in the class as well and are an analogous color scheme. I am using these same threads in the homework assignment of chain stitch as a filler stitch. I will show that to you later. The second thread set down is the same color scheme but add two complementary thread. This is an excellent way to try out different color schemes and it only takes a small amount of thread.

The second part of the homework is to find an inspirational photo and amazingly enough I chose bark. Then I found threads in similar colors and put them on the card in similar proportion to the photo. I had a bit of difficulty finding very many greyed down browns. Most of the brown threads I have are tending toward red. I do love the orange coming out in this bark photo. It sets off the browns so nicely.

Here's my second sheet of threads. This one, I did a fringed sample of threads to go with this photo of lichen on a very orange/red rock. I have to say I liked doing the wrapped samples better than the fringed samples but they do look more impressive on the page. The last part of the homework was to do a couple of woven samples with your threads. You can't see these very well (you can double click the photo to enlarge) but I thought this method was really helpful. It gives a much better idea of how the colors will blend together when close together. Colors do change when viewed together and many times a thread that you thought might really pop, blends in too much. The weaving samples only took a few minutes and it really shows you how the colors work with each other.

Here is the full page spread how it will be in my notebook that I turn back in for my grade. One of the things that I tried to do in this class was to use colors that I wouldn't normally use as much. Of course I use green a lot but the orange was definitely a change for me. I have to say that after working with the orange in several samples and using it in my color studies that it's beginning to grow on me. Are there certain colors that you use all the time? How about colors that you avoid? Maybe you could try a few color studies either with thread, paints, paper or fabric (whatever you have handy) of colors that you don't normally use. Spread your wings and try a different section of the color wheel, it's fun!

I also painted a few color wheels today in preparation for my local group meeting tomorrow at my house. We are going to paint color wheels using the Dye-na-flow paints I got for Christmas. I purposely got two of each of the primaries so that I could see the difference when mixing the paints. The example above shows the difference between using yellow, magenta and turquoise as compared to yellow, scarlet and ultramarine. Sorry that the photo isn't the best but you can definitely tell a difference in the purples and the greens. I don't see as much difference in the orange section but it is slightly different. These samples were painted with Caran D'Ache Neocolor II's. I really think it's beneficial to paint a color wheel with the various paints you have. If you put it on a nice piece of paper (these are done on watercolor pager) or in your journal, you'll have it for future reference when you're using your paints.

Next week, I'm going to be doing more paint mixing, checking out tints, shades and tones. What have you been doing with color? Do leave a comment and let me know.

Fabric Book Update

2011-03-07T16:09:00.000-08:00

I have been working out the logistics for putting my fabric book pages together from the Traveling Pages Swap. I am going to make an accordion style book. Right now I have the pages pinned together and this shows the backs of the pages.

Here's the fronts. It's not very sturdy with just the pins holding it. I am planning on adding twigs for legs at all the page junctures.

Here it is all folded up with the bark covers that I wet felted and then hand stitched with stem stitch.

I think it kind of looks like a burger with little lettuce bits sticking out. I've got to cut the sticks to size and then start assembling. It should be a bit fiddly so I'm not really looking forward to the process. Hopefully, it will go more smoothly than anticipated!

Design Focus Friday - Color

2011-03-04T06:17:00.000-08:00

This month we're going to focus on color. Don't you just love to play with color? I think though that sometimes you might shy away from learning about color theory. It just sounds too technical and too much work. Many artists have spent a lifetime learning about color theory but you don't need to get overwhelmed. Just jump in and start trying some of the ideas suggested here. It will be fun - I promise!

Color occurs when light in different wavelengths strikes our eyes. Objects have no color of their own, only the ability to reflect a certain wavelength of light back to our eyes. As you know, color can vary in differing circumstances. For example, grass can appear gray in the morning or evening or bright green at noon. Colors appear different depending on whether you view them under incandescent, florescent or natural sunlight. Colors also change according to their surroundings.

There are three properties of color which are hue, value and intensity. Hue refers to the color itself. Each different hue is a different reflected wavelength of light. White light broken in a prism has seven hues: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet. Remember Roy G. Biv? White light occurs when all the wavelengths are reflected back to your eye, and black light occurs when no light is reflected to your eye. This is the physics of light.

Color value refers to the lightness or darkness of the hue. Adding white to a hue produces a high-value color, often called a tint. Adding black to a hue produces a low-value color, often called a shade. Value can be used for emphasis. Variations in value are used to create a focal point for the design of a piece.

Intensity, also called chroma or saturation, refers to the brightness of a color. A color is at full intensity when not mixed with black or white - a pure hue. You can change the intensity of a color, making it duller or more neutral by adding gray to the color. You can also change the intensity of a color by adding its complement (this is the color found directly opposite on the traditional color wheel). When changing colors this way, the color produced is called a tone.

Certain colors have an advancing or receding quality, based on how our eye has to adjust to see them. Warm colors such as red, orange or yellow seem to come forward while cool colors such as blue and green seem to recede slightly. In the atmosphere, distant objects appear bluish and the further away an object appears, the less colorful and distinct it becomes. You can use this tendency to give an illusion of depth, by using more neutral and grayish colors in the background.

Various color schemes can be used in your work. A monochromatic color scheme involves the use of only one hue. The hue can vary in value, and black or white may be added to create various shades or tints.

An analogous color scheme involves the use of colors that are located adjacent on the color wheel. The hues may vary in value.

A complementary color scheme involves the use of colors that are located opposite on the color wheel such as red and green, yellow and purple, or orange and blue. Complementary colors produce a very exciting, dynamic pattern.

Or how about triadic? This color scheme involves the use of colors that are equally spaced on the color wheel. The primary colors of yellow, red and blue could be used together in a color scheme to produce a lively result.

I am certainly not a color expert. (Most of this information came from this website.) That's one of the reasons I'm doing these design focused posts, to help me learn more about color as well as design. One of the things I try to do is when I get new painting/color supplies, is to make a color wheel and mix the different colors together. I am always surprised by what comes out. One yellow is not the same as another yellow. One yellow may tend more toward the orange/red side of the color wheel, while another may tend toward green/blue. These different yellows will yield absolutely different results when mixed with other colors. I recently got some Golden acrylics. I mixed green and red and got purple. It wasn't the color I was expecting. Try mixing your colors beforehand and making a sample of each mixture in your journal. If you don't keep a journal, just use a sheet of paper and keep it with your paints.

I found an excellent resource about color, books about color and just why it is important to learn more about color. Check out Roz Wound Up in this post. Here's another one that has tons of information and links about color. There's enough information there to keep you busy for a while.

When you're thinking about color this month, ask yourself a few of these questions:

• How can you use color to evoke different emotions? Do you connect certain emotions to certain colors?

• What does using a monochromatic color scheme do to your composition? Complementary? Analogous? Or Triadic?

• How do you choose your color scheme? Is it affected by the subject of your composition? The mood you want to achieve? What is the impact of choosing a color scheme that is the opposite of your normal choice?

• What would your composition look like with all the same values? How can you use value changes to improve your focal point?

• Have you tried mixing various fabric paints to see what colors you can achieve? What colors do you achieve when you mix two colors together? What happens if you add black to your colors?

I'd love to hear what you're working on and how you use color theory in your work. Leave a comment and give us a link to your favorite colors. Next week, I'll hopefully have some thread color studies completed to show you.

Silk Screens

2011-02-27T06:09:00.000-08:00

When my local surface design group got together, we made silk screens. We used a combination of methods but it worked really well. We used PhotoEZ and a Yudu machine. We tried to use the supplies that came with the Yudu machine but it didn't work and took a really long time. With the PhotoEZ, you just need your design on a transparency, you put both on the Yudu machine and 'burn' the screen for 4 1/2 minutes. We used the high resolution screens. Then you soak them in the sink for 5-10 minutes and gently rub away the part that wasn't exposed to light. And look at the screens I made! It was really exciting to see my designs become a silk screen. Today, I used duct tape to put around the edges so I would have a well space to put thickened dye.

Here's one screen with the duct tape around it.

Then I got busy using my new print table and my new silk screens. I used thickened acid dyes with presoaked (in acetic acid and water) scarves. I did both of my flour paste resist scarves. One I used brown and the other I used ecru.

This is the brown one. I thought that I had made the brown a bit too red at this point.

But once dry, the color works fairly well. The scarf on the right is the one with the ecru screen printing. It is really subtle, that is to say, you can hardly see the silk screening. But I actually like it that way.

Here's a close up of the brown silk screens.

My fossil fish.

This is the trilobite screen on the right side. Can you see it?

Here's an ammonite

Then I used the silk screens to do some discharge on this brown scarf. I always forget to test ahead of time and I always get a surprise as to what color remains after discharging.

These turned orange. Here's a better photo of the trilobite. I had a blast and I really liked doing the silk screening with the PhotoEZ screens. It was simple and fairly quick. I will definitely have to order more of these. The only problem is how expensive they are, nearly $10 per sheet. The lower resolution ones are less expensive but we thought with the complexity of the designs we were using that the higher resolution would be better. If you haven't tried these, you don't need a Yudu to burn the screens. You just need a light source. It takes a bit longer but if you have a sunny day, it works in the sun as well. So give it a try, it's great fun.

Design Focus Friday - Texture

2011-02-25T08:47:00.000-08:00

When my local group met last Friday, we tried a texture exercise that I read about in Creative Embroidery by Jan Beaney and Jean Littlejohn. You take white paper and make different textures by various methods such as twisting, crumpling, cutting tearing, curling, braiding etc. Each of us made lots of different textures and then we added them all to the same page. The photo above is a sample I made because I unfortunately forgot to get any photos of the group's page. The reason that you use white paper is you want to think about texture and not about color. Once color becomes involved, you have a tendency to concentrate on color.

Once you've completed your texture sheet, you can scan it into the computer as a grey scale photo. I put this into Photoshop Elements and increased the contrast and decreased the brightness. Now you could take this and look at small portions of the page with a frame, picking out a portion that interested you. Then do sketches from that framed portion using the sketches as a basis for new work. Or you could find one of the textured papers that you really liked and think about making that texture into fabric. How would you get the same texture in fabric? How would you stabilize the texture and attach it to a base? Or do certain of the textures remind you of stitching? How could you stitch to achieve a similar texture and add it to your work? Really quite a simple exercise but one that has many possibilities that could lead you in different directions.

Next Friday, we'll begin working with the element of color. That should be fun! Please let me know if you have been working with texture in your work, I'd love to hear what you're doing.

Hand Stitch Sketch Book

2011-02-23T15:05:00.000-08:00

I seem to have run out of "free" space on Blogger. So I deleted some old photos, hopefully that won't be a problem but I guess I'll have to work out how much I should pay for space per year. I have definitely been using more photos this past year. These are photos of my hand stitch sketch book that I started in my Level 1 Hand Stitch Class. We painted the first 10 pages with Procion MX dyes and then I painted more with Dye-na-flow paints when I got home. I really like this concept of keeping a record of various stitches in this book. I have added other stitches that we didn't do in class. The page on the right above is one of my takes on fly stitch. I worked it in a circle. These could be snowflakes or flowers. The most tedious part of this is poking the holes and figuring out where the holes should go.

This is the back of the page above. I haven't done any stitching on the purple side yet.

Here's a few more pages that have just been painted

We also made a color chart with the Procion MX dyes as you can see on the right hand page.

The page on the left is the back side of the page that I already showed in previous posts. The front of that page is black with red chain stitch. The right page is couched yarns.

Here's the back of the couched yarn page on the left. I threaded another novelty yarn through the stitching on the back. It was quite painful to do due to the thickness of the novelty yarn. The partial page on the right was cut down and then stitched with button hole stitch around the edge. This was then covered with raised chain band stitch. The small dark edge is more button hole stitch done with a thinner thread.

Here's the back of the button hole page and then on the right is feather stitch.

The back of the feather stitch on the left and then back stitch with various lacing options.

The left is the reverse side of the back stitch and on the right is another page of fly stitch. Looks very different from the circular variety above.

The back of the fly stitch is on the left and the chevron stitch is on the right.

I did a lacing of the back of the chevron stitch so it looks very similar to the front side. The right is just painted with no stitching.

More painted pages.

The page on the right has herringbone stitch. I still have to do a "knotted" page for homework. I think I will be using one of the black/grey backgrounds with some of my orange hand dyed threads to resemble a lichen photo that I have. There are still 8 pages that are blank so if you have a suggestion for a stitch that I haven't done and would work well through punched holes, let me know.

Level 1 Hand Stitch Class

2011-02-20T06:08:00.000-08:00

I had a wonderful time at the Level 1 Hand Stitch course that I took at the Gail Harker Creative Studies Center. The first day we dyed threads and fabrics with Procion MX dyes. I hadn't used this type of dye before since I usually use acid dye, so I was glad to get this experience.

Here are a few of my threads hanging on the line drying.

Here is my work station on the second day. It looks fairly neat but you should have seen it by the 5th day. I had threads, projects and stuff strewn everywhere.

Here is our first project in our sketchbooks. It is chain stitch. I have been doing chain stitch for years and learned that I had been doing it incorrectly all this time. Who knew?

Here is another chain stitch sample on felt.

Here is a collection of the work that I did during the five day course. I had many unfinished samples at this point.

This is Bobbi's work. Wonderful colors!

Here is Nancy's work. I love that page in the middle with bright yellow and deep blue.

This is Marie's work. Here colors are wonderful as well. I really liked her feather stitch sample, the one on the bottom left.

This is Sarah's work. She used quite a few pale backgrounds because she wanted her stitches to show up more.

This is the one sample that was fully complete at the end of the course. It is a couched thread sample. The oranges are really not a color I am comfortable using so I was trying to stretch my color horizons a bit. When I started this piece, I thought it was going to be hideously ugly. But I am really pleased with the result. It was good to try a different color combination and work through the design process becoming more comfortable with the color choice as I went along. I need to take a closer photo of the stitches as you can't see them all that well. But you can click on the photo to make it larger.

Here's Gail taking photos of all our work at the end of the class. The thing I like about Gail's classes is that she really works to teach you design as you learn about stitching (or whatever you're doing). I always learn so much from her and she really encourages everyone to go their own direction. If you are in the northwest, I would strongly recommend taking her classes. And she is also going to start having online classes, so if you aren't close, you can take classes online soon. Click on the link in the first paragraph to take a look at the class offerings. They are well worth the investment.

I still have quite a bit of homework to complete to get my certificate for this course. I will show you all the samples once I've got everything completed.

Design Focus Friday - Texture

2011-02-18T07:47:00.000-08:00

Last week we talked about visual texture and using pattern in your work to achieve texture on a 2D surface. Today we're going to talk about tactile texture. This is what I love in fiber art. All that fiber and woolie goodness. This is a French Knot sample that I did for my Level 1 Hand Stitch class. We were supposed to do a square that was 1 1/2" x 1 1/2" filled with French knots and "messy" French knots. Mine overflowed a bit. But I had the best time making some of the biggest French knots I've ever made from yarn. You can see from this shot that it looks almost like the stitches have been padded underneath. They haven't. It's all knots. Now this is my kind of texture.

The background piece is hand painted felt with sheers, netting and tulle fused on top. I used a variety of yarns, threads and floss to make my knots from tiny ones up to humongous ones. And I love the texture. What do you think? Did I go overboard?

Here's another sample from class. It's satin stitch done with a variety of weight cotton threads as well as some wool threads. Look at how the stitches themselves lend texture to the piece. The different weight fibers also tend to lead your eye through the piece. I hadn't really thought about using threads in this way before. This is another small piece less than 2 inches square. The design is based on wood grain. I have such a hard time just drawing a design out of my head. We were asked to sit down and draw four different designs and then choose your favorite. I didn't like any of mine but luckily we had a break after that. I went to break and saw the wood grain design on the break table and oi la! It always helps me to design from an inspirational source. How about you?

This is one of my pages from our stitch sketchbook. I had never hand stitched on paper before and sometimes felt like I was in Occupational Therapy but I found it enjoyable. Don't you like the texture of the chain stitch sitting on the surface of the paper? I'm working on more stitches to go into the book and I'll show you the entire book later when it's finished. The page is painted with Procion MX dyes. We painted the pages with the same dyes that we used to dye our threads.

When I think of visual texture and patterns, I usually think of commercial fabrics similar to the ones I mentioned in last weeks post. But when I was thinking about what I do with texture, I realized that the flour paste resist technique on this scarf is visual texture. It is not a repeating pattern but is a pattern and it does give texture to the scarf visually. These natural and organic patterns are my favorites.

The other thing I have a tendency to forget is that texture doesn't always mean woolie (felting on the brain) but can be smooth. Do you prefer a certain texture in your work? Do you use mainly visual or tactile texture? What could you do differently with texture in your next piece? Let me know what you like about texture. I'd love to hear how you use texture in your work.

Hand Stitch Class

2011-02-16T20:24:00.000-08:00

I've been busy trying to catch up after being gone for 10 days. I had great fun at my Level 1 Hand Stitch Course at the Gail Harker Creative Studies Center. I'm the tall one. I will be showing you what we did in the next several posts so stay tuned!
If you want to see a sneak preview, take a look at Gail's post on her blog.

Design Focus Friday - Texture

2011-02-11T10:31:00.000-08:00

I rarely use pattern in my work to create texture but I think my friend Vicki does a brilliant job of using pattern in her kaleidoscope quilts. With just solid pieces of fabric, these quilts would still be a kaleidoscope but I think that the choice of patterned fabric really makes the piece sing.

If you look at Vicki's quilts from a distance, the kaleidoscopes do have texture from the patterns in the fabric. On closer inspection, you can see the individual motifs in the fabric.

I am not planning on making this kind of quilt but I do love the result of Vicki's hard work. Do you use patterned fabrics in your work? If so, do you think about how this adds visual texture to your pieces? If you don't use patterned fabrics in your work, can you think of a way to add these in? How would that change your working method? Or how your piece looks when created?

Let me know how you use visual texture in your work and leave a link so we all can see.

Photos used with permission of Vicki Welsh.

Flour Paste Resist Tutorial

2011-02-09T08:15:00.000-08:00

Here's the promised flour paste tutorial. Put plastic over your surface on which you will be working. This is very messy so lots of plastic, much wider than your fabric. Pin the top edge of the fabric. You can see it in this photo but I have pinned the edge that is closest to the bucket of flour paste. Mix 1 cup cold water and 1 cup flour in a tub. Use cold water as to make the paste a better consistency. For this silk scarf, I used two recipes of flour paste. I forgot to take a photo before I put flour paste on but you get the idea.

I just pour the paste straight out of the container on to the fabric. Pour along the top edge where you pinned the fabric down. It takes quite a bit so pour generously (more than this photo).

Then use a squeegee or some flat tool to scrape a layer of flour paste over the entire piece of fabric. This process stretches the fabric and is why you only pin the top edge.

Here's better photo of a generous pour of flour paste.

Once you have your entire surface covered with flour paste, pin the bottom edge and ends of fabric. Make sure you have covered all your edges well. I have this on my "new" print table that I made by stapling a large piece of black felt to the table. Therefore, I can pin right through the plastic and into the felt.

If your table is too low, just add four pieces of PVC pipe. Works a charm to prevent your back from bothering when working.

Then let the piece dry for at least 24 hours. I had the fan going on this and it only took 12 hours to dry. It should all be the same color with no translucent looking spots when it is dry. If you look closely, you can see that almost all the pins have been pulled up due to shrinkage. If you don't pin it down, the entire piece will curl up and be a big mess. Ask me how I know!!

This is how stiff it is when the flour paste is dry. This is an 8mm silk scarf - now turned into a flour paste plank.

Here I am holding the end of the scarf. If you haven't tried this technique, it seems really bizarre.

Next, you need to crack the flour paste. The more you bend, roll or push on the fabric, the more cracking you will get.

These are just a few photos showing the cracked flour paste.

Then you can either use fabric paint or thickened dye. I used Jacquard Textile paint mixed with half water and half paint. Paint over the entire surface making sure that your paint is covering all the flour paste resist.

Here's a peak on the back after painting. This is about how it will look when you wash it out. If that isn't enough crackling, carefully (you'll get paint all over yourself) crack it some more and add more paint. Let paint dry for 24 hours. Most textile paints are supposed to be heat set but it doesn't work to iron this mess. You could try it on the back but both times I've tried it, the paint was pretty well set after 24 hours dry time. If you're using dye, batch like you normally do.

Then fill a bucket with cold water. You don't want to put the water directly in the sink because you won't want this flour paste/paint gunk going down your sink. I just rolled the scarf up into a roll and dunked it in the water. It starts loosening almost immediately and you can peel it right off. Just let the gunk settle to the bottom of the bucket.

Can you see the black stuff peeling off in pieces?

Here's what it looks like.

Once you've got as much gunk off as possible, wash with mild detergent in the washing machine. Then iron and you'll have a lovely crackled effect. I just love the look of these. I have to try some more with different colored paint. Don't forget to pour the water and flour paste gunk outside. Do not pour it down your sink unless you have a crush on your plumber!

Here's a few close ups. Can you see the discharged ammonite?

Here's another look.

I get carried away.

Because I really like this effect. I certainly did not come up with this idea and I got all instructions from Jane Dunnewold's latest book. If you give it a try, let me know and show us some photos. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask.

Finished UFO

2011-02-07T06:55:00.000-08:00

I have had this water/sea themed piece around for over a year and it might be two. I finally got around to making it into a notebook cover. This was spurred on because I'm going to try and get some of my work on consignment in a shop in Missoula. I needed a sample notebook cover so here it is. This is the front.

And here's the back. I just bought a school type notebook from Wally World. It can be easily replaced.

Here's the inside. I decided for a pop of complementary color. Plus the orange fabric had purple in it and the lining is purple.

Here's the inside of the cover without the book in place. That's the only time you can see the purple which this photo made a bit more blue than it is in real life. I am also working on finishing up more barrettes, scarves and perhaps a felted vase. If I do get accepted, I'll have to be very busy when I get back from my class and get pieces done to sell.

Design Focus Friday - Texture

2011-02-04T08:09:00.000-08:00

Textures range from the smoothest polished mirror to the roughest mountain range as seen from an airplane. The term is often misused to refer only to rough surfaces but this is not correct. All surfaces have texture. You as a designer recognize that different textures can affect interest in different ways. Some surfaces are inviting and some are repellent and so are the textures that suggest those surfaces. Using different textures can increase interest in a composition by adding variety without changing color or value relationships.

Visual texture refers to the illusion of the surface's texture. It is what tactile texture looks like (on a 2D surface). The textures you see in a photograph are visual textures. No matter how rough objects in the photograph look, the surface of the photograph is smooth and flat. Most textures have a naturalistic quality; they repeat a motif in a random way. A motif is any recurring thematic element or repeated figure in design. It could be an object, shape, color, direction, etc. With a texture you may be aware of the repeating motif but you are more aware of the surface.

Tactile means touch. Tactile texture is the actual (3D) feel of a surface. This is of paramount importance to three-dimensional design but of only moderate interest in two-dimensional design. The actual surface texture needs to either be felt, or seen with light raking across its surface to make the texture visible.

A recognizable motif regularly repeated produces a pattern. Pattern requires repetition -- in design as in life (a pattern of behavior). The more regular the repetition, the stronger the pattern will be. The most noticeable patterns occur when you see the group before the individuals -- notice the organization first (the checker board). All of the motifs in a pattern have surfaces, so there is always texture. But there is not always pattern -- only when you notice it. Texture and pattern are related. When you look closely at a tree you can see the pattern of leaves that make its surface. When you back away you lose awareness of the leaves and notice the texture the leaves make on the tree. Farther away still and you can see the pattern of the trees making up the forest and finally the texture of the forest. In this way pattern changes to texture as you loose sight of the individual motifs. This is easy to do with natural patterns, but you have to get quite far away from a checker board grid to see it as texture. Patterns are generally more noticeable than textures. This makes them a stronger visual element for controlling attention.

· How could you use tactile texture in a traditional quilt design to enhance the composition? Visual texture?

· If you switch to black and white, how different do the various textures look?

· How can you use tactile associations to communicate with the viewer of your work? How many memories can you remember of touch such as warmth, softness, bristly etc.?

• How do different types of fibers or fabrics affect your composition? Do different textures of fabric make you relate to the work in a different manner?

• Can you create depth using a visually patterned cloth? Motion? Focal point?

• How can you depict different textures from your home environment?

• What methods do you use that increase texture in your work? Can you think of other methods that would increase the tactile or visual textures in your work?

Let me know how you use texture in your work. I'd love to see photos so leave me a link in the comments!

Discharging Scarves

2011-02-02T08:22:00.000-08:00

I am working on the next layer of complexity on my recently dyed scarves. This one was the walnut ink one so I used Jacquard Discharge paste through my ammonites stencil. It worked great.

I took Jane Dunnewold's advice in her most recent book and ironed the discharge paste when wet. The instructions say to let it dry. But it worked fine and took less time that way. These look like watermarks. This scarf is currently getting the flour paste treatment. Since I got quite a few questions on that technique, I am working on a tutorial on how for that. Hope to have it completed soon.

This one I discharge some circles through a cardboard stencil that was part of some packaging.

Here's a close up. The red only discharges part way especially if it is really dark red.

This one I used three different leaf stencils to discharge. Again, they look like watermarks and are pretty subtle. But that was just the effect I wanted.

Here is a close up of one of the leaves. These will be getting more layers and I have a bunch more scarves to discharge. More later!

Future Silk Screens

2011-01-29T08:22:00.000-08:00

I worked this week on finishing up my fossil sketches.

This one will be for a background type of silk screen for an all over pattern effect.

These two were a bit tedious to draw and get all the black filled in but I think they will make good silk screens.

I then scanned the sketches into the computer as black and white photos. Then I put them into PSE (Photoshop Elements) and cleaned them up a bit. Do you think my fossil fish looks mean?

This one I reversed the colors in Photoshop. You an do this by opening your photo, clicking on filter, then adjustments and then click invert. Worked like a charm! Any stray bits of black I painted over with the paintbrush tool using white.

I couldn't decide if I liked the positive or negative so I think I will make a screen both ways.

Here's the all over fossil pattern. I cleaned up stray bits of black with the paintbrush again on this one.

Here's my trilobite. I really like how this turned out. I can't wait to make the silk screens and try them out on my scarves. I ordered some PhotoEZ sheets but I won't get time to finish these until I get back from my hand embroidery class. Our next meeting with my local surface design group we are going to make silk screens and try out a Yudu machine. I'm getting prepared for that get together. I have to print these on to transparencies and then I'll be all set. Hope you have a good weekend and thanks for stopping by!

Design Focus Friday - Form

2011-01-28T07:40:00.000-08:00

The latest book I am reading to continue my learning journey into design is Dynamic Color Painting for the Beginner by Diane Edison. As I was trying to come up with something else to say about form, I was struck by what she wrote about making a preparatory sketch for a painting. She suggests that to make a three dimensional drawing that you draw the value patterns. When you look at your subject you need to look at the shapes that the values make. You need to notice every tone and shadow and what shape each makes and draw those. She says that as you draw the shapes you will see that the patches of color follow the contour of the object, and so including them in your sketch will help you create the illusion of three dimensions.

But what really struck me was her use of the term "visual trust". Diane states that "Drawing in this way, following the shape of the colors as well as the outline of the object, is much like a puzzle requiring visual trust. I describe this the term 'visual trust' as accepting what you see, without question. By this I mean that sometimes the first thing you see without question is most likely correct."

Diane reveals that many times our brains tend to name things in a sort of intellectual interference and we tend to disregard what we really see and instead try to self correct as we draw. But this isn't the way you should draw. To draw well you need to rely on what you see, not what you think you see or expect to see.

Diane infers that to paint or draw from observation demands a willingness to believe the unbelievable. This means that you are seeing a different point of view, one that you can not easily imagine.

Do you trust what you see when you draw? I find it really takes practice to see those small value changes as shapes and to draw those shapes. You can't think your drawing into existence, you have to look closely and trust your pencil or paintbrush to draw or paint what you really see.

What do you think? Do you have "visual trust" when you draw? How does that apply to your fiber art?

Coming up in February, we'll be talking about texture. Yippee! This is one of my favorite elements of design and it's why I love fiber. So let me know what you think about "visual trust" and how that affects form in your work and I'll see you next week.

Mama Grizzly for Gayle

2011-01-25T13:00:00.000-08:00

This is the beginnings of the page I made for Gayle. Her theme is All Creatures Great and Small. I wanted to do an animal that is native to Montana so I chose the grizzly bear. I had a photo from a calendar that I used as inspiration. I thought just the face coming out of the page would give a bigger impact and give a sense of the size of grizzlies. I painted this with a combination of walnut ink and Jacquard paint.

Then I thread sketched the bear. I used about ten different shades of brown for this. Even with two stitch and tear sheets behind the page, it still distorted quite a bit. But except for a few wrinkles here and there, I got it flattened back out again. The shape of the page makes her look a little like a cone head, don't you think?

Here's a close up of the eye. I left the white part of the eye unstitched so that caused a bit of distortion.

Here's another close up.

And here's the back. I hope you like it, Gayle. This is the last page I have to do for this swap. Next, after I get my last two pages, I'll be putting the book together.

Design Focus Friday - Form

2011-01-21T08:36:00.000-08:00

Last week we talked about form as it relates to a two dimensional work and how to imply form on your picture plane. Usually, I work in 2D more than 3D but I would like to do more 3D work. The sketch above shows what I plan to do with my Traveling Pages to make all 13 pages into a book form. As my theme is trees, the covers will resemble bark and the "posts" on the book will be red twig dogwood branches.

When you're thinking about form in three dimensional work, sometimes it helps to make a model. I used some leftover heavy interfacing, chopsticks and duct tape. All things I had around the house. The model is about half the size of the actual pages. The photo above shows how the book will look when closed. I'll have to make sure that the red twig dogwood branches aren't too "bushy" on top or it won't close well. Although I will probably always display it open. I won't be using duct tape to secure the real book together (although it has a certain chic). I plan on using a heavy thread (like button thread) to attach all the pages to the posts as shown in my sketch in the first photo.

Here is it standing up. All the front side of the pages will be on one side and then when you turn the book around, all the back pages will be on the opposite side.

Here's a view from the top. I think this form will be perfect for my pages. I still have two pages to receive and I need to finish up my covers but I plan on finishing the book by the end of February. This model is so cute that I want to cover the pages and make a smaller book too. Hopefully, I'll have time to do that.

Have you worked in 3D? What have you made? How did you determine your pattern and if it would work? Did you have to think about stability? How did you merge the need for stability and structure with the aesthetic? Leave me a comment and let me know, as I'd love to hear how you are using form in your work.

Another Watercolor and Rice Paper Collage

2011-01-20T15:22:00.000-08:00

Here's another rice paper collage with watercolor similar to last Friday's post. But this time I pasted down the rice paper first with no paint underneath. I then just added watercolor on top with my Neocolor II crayons and then added water. I really love the textures that develop with the base of rice paper. This one is much more subtle as I used less rice paper. This is based on a photo I took, can't remember when I took it but it was probably at Glacier National Park. Another one of my favorite surfaces - bark (again, I know!).

Here's a close up. I could keep adding more to this painting as there are so many little details when you look closely at bark. But I decided I like it the way it is so I stopped. I love the organic lines and the diagonals of the various bark pieces on the tree. I am doing a series of these surfaces in paint first as inspirations for embroideries after my hand embroidery class. What are your inspirations? Do leave a comment and let me know.

Studio Journal Work

2011-01-19T10:24:00.000-08:00

Do you have a sketchbook or studio journal? I prefer to call mine a studio journal as I keep everything that relates to fiber in it. It has lists of things to do, inspirational photos, sketches, collages etc. Here's a piece that I started with line and I showed you the background before. It didn't seem finished so I added some flowers and a quote. This is really not my usual style or color combination but I am trying to play with more colors some of which I rarely use in my work. It's good to try to "paint outside the lines" and try something different.

This is a sketch that I am working on to develop stencils and screen prints of fossils. These are ammonites. I do have one stencil of an ammonite but it is a bit precise and straight edged for me. I like the more natural look in this sketch.

And more fossils. This page is just barely started. I want to fill the entire page and then make a screen for screen printing. It will be more of a background texture than anything I think.

Have you been following the Sketchbook Challenge? It is a great resource if you want to try and work in your sketchbook or journal more often. Or if you just want to see what everyone else is doing, check out the Flickr page.

Hand Dyed Wool Embroidery Floss and Dyed Felt

2011-01-18T08:20:00.000-08:00

I've been working on getting all my embroidery supplies ready for my Level 1 Hand Embroidery class in February. This is lace weight wool that I made into skeins and dyed. I was trying for some earth tones, greens and a variety of rusty reds. Except for the reds, I got what I intended. I did make one bright orange for some lichen that I'm planning on embroidering. I have also ordered some supplies that I will show you after they arrive.

I also dyed the piece that I made in the sander tutorial. It is going to be used for the book covers for my Traveling Pages. I'm going to work this week on the mechanics of how I'm putting the book together. So more on that later in the week. I have finished my last page to be sent off to Gayle. I'll show you that as soon as she receives it.

Thanks for all your comments on the sander tutorial. I'm glad you enjoyed it.

Fiber Nester Disappearance

2011-01-16T17:17:00.000-08:00

You may remember in December I made a Fiber Nester for birds to take fibers and make their nests. It was hanging up for several weeks and then last week I noticed it was gone. I thought the wind blew it down so I was looking around on the ground for it. I couldn't find it. Finally, I went out to have a better look.

And this is what I found. This is a branch from the same tree that it was hanging on. It is torn open with lots of fibers missing and draped over the branch. I thought maybe it was squirrels. They got cold and needed some extra insulation. My husband thinks it was a pack rat. What do you think?

I'm going to make some more and put them out closer to spring. I am going to make one with neutral, natural fibers and one with colored fibers. It will be experiment to see which the birds prefer. When I originally posted this, someone suggested they wouldn't take the colored fibers as it would draw predators to their nests. So we'll see. More later...

Dyed Scarves

2011-01-15T07:26:00.000-08:00

These are scarves that I dyed a few weeks ago but hadn't gotten a chance to post about.

I did a variety of colors and they are all done with low immersion dyeing with acid dyes.

I am planning on using these as base for more surface design.

I plan on using a combination of techniques including discharge, stamping, stenciling, screen printing etc.

This one has both black and brown in it.

This one is brown and is pretty boring but that's OK since I'm planning on adding more complexity.

I don't usually like blues too much but this one turned out nicely.

And my favorite autumn combinations.

This is larger than the others and is really black and red but the lighting was pretty poor when I was taking these photos.

This one was dyed with walnut ink.

This one was also dyed with walnut ink as the first layer. I then used flour paste as a resist on the entire scarf. If you haven't tried flour paste, it is really quite messy. I forgot one step but it still worked out. I didn't pin the scarf down and left it to dry on a piece of plastic. The flour paste contracted and rolled up the edges of the scarf. It was quite a sight. But I flattened it out after it was dry (24 hours) and cracked the paste. I then thinned black textile paint with water and covered the pasted side completely with black paint. It was really ugly then.

After the black paint dried (another 24 hours), I rolled up the pasted and painted scarf and put it in a bucket of cold water. The paste peeled right off and I was left with this wondrous texture.

I love it! I washed the scarf to make sure all the paste came out. The black lightened a bit after washing but I really like the soft look.

I am planning on adding fossil motifs as another layer. I have a bit of practicing to do before I add them to the scarf as I don't want to "ruin" it. I'm planning on using thickened dyes in shades of ecru and browns. I have the other walnut dyed scarf so I'm planning on trying the flour paste again. I may try them on some of the acid dyed scarves as well. More on these later after they have more surface design applied.

Design Focus Friday - Form

2011-01-14T08:00:00.000-08:00

I've shown you this photo before. It is the start of an exercise from the book Watercolor and Collage Workshop by Gerald Brommer. The exercise is to work from abstraction to representation. So you start with abstract shapes as above. I was thinking about making rocks so I chose the browns and blacks. I added the blues at the end because I felt it needed a little contrasting color.

The next step is to tear up pieces of rice paper with fibers embedded and glue it over your dry watercolor abstract painting. You can cover the whole surface or part of the surface. I covered most of the surface except for some of the edges. You use half glue and half water to glue the paper down. The pieces of paper were generally less than an inch square and were very irregular in shape.

Here's a closer view so you can see the fibers in the paper.

You then let that dry and start adding paint again. I forgot to take a photo of the in between stage but I have to tell you it was really ugly. Could that be why I forgot to take a photo? I added lots more paint and made some rock shapes. But they were very flat and ugly looking. But I persevered and kept adding more paint, small shapes and line. Then you turn your piece in all different directions and look to see what is the best orientation to finish out your piece. So it ended up with the rings of the notebook on the bottom of the painting.

Then add more paper if you aren't satisfied with your piece. So that's what I did. I decided to make it look like a river with rocks. So here's the added paper. I then added more paint on top of the paper once it was dry. I did scrub off some of the paint on the tops of the rocks as I felt they were too dark. I was trying to make the rocks have form and the painting to have some depth. I also added more shading to the rocks with black and grey paint. I worked on the water with white and turquoise blue. I spattered some paint and also drew some more line.

And this is the result. I decided it looked more like the ocean with water pouring in at high tide over the rocks. I did use the photos from the book for a resource of what rocks look like and how the water flows but otherwise, this scene doesn't represent any particular place.

How do you think I did? Did I achieve believable rocks with implied form on the 2 dimensional surface? Do you feel the depth in the subject?

Actually, I am amazed that I painted this. The collage process really adds depth and different colors underneath the water that I never would have thought to paint myself if I was trying to paint this type of scene. One of the things I learned with this process is not to give up when it is looking really ugly. Keep pressing forward adding more paint and more rice paper. You might amaze yourself as I did! Do leave me a comment if you are working on form in your work. I'd love to see what you're doing.

Tree Page from Mandy

2011-01-11T16:14:00.000-08:00

I love getting these packages in the mail. I've only got a couple more left to receive. Mandy sent me a wonderful tree page plus some brochures about the hiking trails near her home and some beads.

The page she made is beautiful. She hand painted the background and then machine stitched the branches against the sky. I love the simplicity.

Here's a closer view.

And here's the back. Thanks so much Mandy - I love it!