Nature Boy

Just made this guy this week out of a bunch of natural items I've collected, a broken pair of glasses and a cool piece of weathered painted wood I bought at least a year or so ago in Mt. Dora. He's now living happily on my bookshelf and inspiring me to create more stuff.

New projects

Since the summer, I have been working a lot with fiber and cloth, and enjoying myself very much.  I've made a few small art quilts and played with gelatin printing, silk painting and more.  I just completed a piece involving sewn and painted wool roving and hope to submit it -- and another one, still to be made -- to one of my favorite magazines, along with a how-to article.  My goal is to get published in a magazine as an innovator of some type of technique, and I may have found something different.

I'm also intrigued by the finishing/framing/displaying process.  Seems that I can't just finish a piece and hang it on the wall.  Everything I make has weird dimensions that don't fit standard framing/mounting materials.  And "custom-made" doesn't fit my budget.  So, with the completion of my wool roving piece, I am now in the midst of creating my own sort of shadow box from a stretched canvas (reversed), a piece of glass and a handmade wood frame.  I will be photographing the process as I go and hope to share this in an article, too.

Seth Apter has an awesome blog that is inviting artists from everywhere to submit works that answer one to three questions. The finished piece(s) should illustrate somehow a fear, a secret, or the innermost "me."  I've been thinking a lot about the challenge and am working to get something done and submitted by Dec. 31, the deadline.  Hope I can make it!  (In both senses of the term!) 

New work

So much has happened since I posted in March!  In June, Delia and I took a wonderful class at Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. We learned all about silkscreening and silk painting, and came back totally energized and excited about new possibilities.

I am really enjoying working with fabric these days.  I love the way it lays in your hand, the way it feels when you stitch by hand or machine, and the endless things you can do with it.  Add to that the opportunity to create your own cloth effects with paint and dye, plus the fact that many fabric-related projects are portable... and all I can say is WOW!

Another strong inspiration for me has been the large number of blogs I subscribe to.  One of my all-time favorites is by Teesha Moore, whom I first "met" through her involvement in the fabulous True Colors book.  At first, her color palette was way outside my own comfort zone, but, boy, that woman is creative!  I have been a loyal fan and follower of Teesha for years, and recently watched her outstanding videos on making fabric journals.  I was intrigued by the flexibility of the projects -- especially when Teesha shows the adorable purse she made -- and decided to try my hand at making one myself. 

It was love at first stitch!  I had a blast making one brightly colored purse for myself (I eventually moved into the "Teesha" part of the color wheel)...

and then launched into making a more neutral one for my mom's birthday. 

Now I'm at work on my third purse, and the color wheels are spinning in my head!

At the same time, I am exploring many new techniques with fabric painting.  A couple of weekends ago, Jordan and I had fun making sun prints with Dye-Na-Flow on muslin, and last weekend, I tried using Elmer's Washable Glue as a resist, along with my Lumiere and Dye-Na-Flow paints.  I finished painting last night and then worked with Golden's Fine Bronze Paint, which produces a really cool green patina when you add water to it.  I had seen a demo with the bronze paint on paper, and wondered if I could achieve a similar result on muslin.  Well, I'm happy to report... it works!  I'll post photos of that experiment soon!