Photoshop Manipulation

These postcards were made from photos that were manipulated in Photoshop. I printed the tweaked photos using my inkjet printer and pre-treated cotton fabric from Jacquard. These are going to be traded with members of the Surface Design group. It's a lot of fun playing with Photoshop because you're never quite sure what your image will end up looking like. Hope they like them!

It was a Colorful Week

This week was both colorful and creative. First was my ATC exchange. Ever since our exhibit at AFS and newspaper article, this group has been growing steadily, and this month we had 20 artists trading. It's always fun to see what everyone comes up with. Here are some of the beautiful cards that I received.

Top row: Mary Stanley, Angela Moll, Syd McCutcheon Second Row: Colleen Darling, Lindsay C (she's 10 yrs old), Joan Dineberg

Top row: Angela Howard, Pierrette Bottom Row: Judy Nilsen

This is a beautiful hand-painted piece that I purchased from Terri Stegmiller. I loved everything about this piece as soon as I saw it and it's even more beautiful in person. Thanks Terri.

I took the day off from work (always good) and spent it beading with a several of my creative buddies, Oleta, Jeanne, Mary and Lora. Deana Hartman lead the "Need to Bead" workshop and showed us quite a few stitches ranging from simple scatter stitch to encrusted collage. I have a large collection of beads (what a surprise) and brought way more than I could possibly use, but I just wasn't sure which piece I was going to work on. It was a lot of fun and I still have a long way to go before my piece is worth showing.

ATC Trade

These are my offerings for the ATC trade tomorrow. If you are in Santa Barbara, stop by to meet a great group of artists at the Good Cup Cafe on the Mesa.

Some of the backgrounds have a bleached design, others have been monoprinted using Sherrill's Sorbet paint. I really love the great assortment of colors and the great coverage of this paint is truely amazing.I had lots of fun playing with the positive and negative shapes, circles punched from aluminum foil and recycled receipts.

Cyber Fiber Postcard Trade

If you haven't already heard about the online trade and upcoming exhibition organized by Susan Lenz, you really should visit her Cyber Fiber blog. Susan has a wonderful assortment of postcards and ATC's available for trading. Here is postcard #40 that I reserved.Here is the bottom layer of my postcard for Susan. It consists of silk, inkjet photo, painted baby wipe & commercial fabric scraps. I added a total of five layers of yarn, painted dryer sheets, thread ball bunches and stitched each layer down.And here's the final card all trimmed, stitched and ready to mail. I really like the idea of recycling materials and love the layers of texture that this technique creates.

Can Frogs Smile?

I've been so busy, the week just flew by. I finally took a little break today while the sun was shining and went to one of my favorite places, the zoo. As usual, I took a bunch of pictures, but I had to share this one with you. Can frogs really smile? Sure looks like this one can, that smile made my day. I'm going to make a large print of this one and post it in my studio.

Last weekend after our Fibervision meeting, Susan and I went to the Elverhoj Museum to see our show hanging for the last time. It was a great venue and I hope we can do it again in the future. One of my pieces sold, so I wanted to visit it for the last time. We exchanged UFO's for our second annual reVision challenge. I have documented all the before reVision tops and quilts. Stay tuned for the unveiling later in the year. The piece I have is a complete quilt about 48" square. I am having a little trouble cutting up a finished quilt, but I'm confident I will find a way to reVision this piece into something that will make Lorna proud!

Susan had a wonderful present for me, a beautiful rusty and overdyed piece of fabric. She has been rusting everything in sight with great success. I haven't had much luck, but I do have some old macrame rings rusting outside and will try again soon.

This last photo is a postcard that I received from Betyann. It is a Photoshop Manipulation PC trade from the Surface Design group. Betyann made a negative from an old family photo in Photoshop, printed it on Cynotype fabric and hand embroidered the flowers. Very pretty.

Imprint of the Soul

This is the quilt I've been working on for the last couple of weeks. It has a lot of stitching, both by hand and machine. I love the colors and the way the light hits the silk. It feels very rich and elegant.

The first source of inspiration came from a poem that my son Sean wrote called Couturier. Here is the first line: "The first things to notice are the sterile lights illuminating fabrics one dreams of but rarely visits with touch".

I've collected some silk fabrics, but never used them. After reading his poem, I couldn't find the silk fast enough. I was working on a series of line drawings that I felt would work well with the poem and the silk. I ended up doing a lot more hand stitching than I usually do but the texture the seed stitching was exactly what the piece needed.

Okay, enough already, here it is. Did you notice all the circles? I'm telling you, they keep showing up in my work.

With any luck, it will be on exhibit at the Architectural Foundation of Santa Barbara in March. It is a little bigger than the size specified, however, my Fibervision group is known for breaking the rules. We'll see if the rule breaking/bending applies to size!

More Paint, More Depth

A couple of weeks ago, I posted photos of the first pieces that I painted. I left the fabric to dry overnight and didn't realize that it would continue to change until the fabric was dry. Was I ever in for a surprise the next morning! Both pieces were very pastel, the salt had sucked a lot of color out and our tables were uneven, so a lot of color slid off. Live and learn! They were nice, but I knew they could be better. So, I decided to add a second layer of paint and here are the progress shots. I paint in my dining room now, so the dry time is much shorter and my tables are even!The colors are so rich and they have so much depth now. I feel like they are finally finished.

I LOVE Circles

Circles appear in my work more than any other shape. I'm not sure why, but it definitely seems to be my symbol. So when the challenge for my "Blockheads" mini group came due, I looked through my vast selection of photos for inspiration. This photo of circles spoke to me the loudest, so this is what I added to my envelope. The exchange was random, but Jean and I ended up choosing each others envelope. Jean's inspiration is beautiful lily pads (looks a lot like photos in my personal collection). Jean and I share the same birthday (except I'm 20 years older), we also share many of the same ideas and interests: quilting, photography & computers. The only rule for this challenge is no barbed wire! It's going to be fun to see what comes out of this.

The painted fabric from a couple of weeks ago finally cured, so I rinsed the salt out and dried it. I stretched two panels today and added another layer of paint. The paint is transparent, so it will add more color and depth. I'm taking photos of the progress and will post on Monday. Tomorrow, I going to Road to California quilt show in Ontario with some friends. I'm sure it's going to be a lot of fun.

My silk piece is almost done, I'll should finish it tomorrow. I'm loving it more with every stitch.

Work in Progress

I'm working on a new silk piece that was inspired by a poem my son, Sean, wrote. It is still in progress so I won't show the quilt yet, but I thought I would tease you a little with a close up of one small area. Lots of texture and stitching will be added. I really enjoy working with silk, I'm going to have to buy more when I go to the garment district!Here is a sampling of the January Artist Trading Cards. I am amazed that we used such similar colors. I swear it wasn't planned! My book of ATC's is very full, I really have to get a larger one.

More Painted Fabric

Here are the results of another painting session with Setacolor and salt. The first photo shows the newly painted surface, the second photo shows the dry fabric 4 hours later. I am still experimenting but really like what is happening so far. It's pretty amazing how much variety you can get from four colors of paint!This super bright combination uses Vermillon, Light Green and Buttercup. This piece is approximately 20 x 20".This combination is Light Green, Buttercup and Parma Violet. This measures 22 x 36".This combination is Cobalt Blue, Parma Violet and Vermillon. This piece also measures 22 x 36". My husband and I have designed a super quick and easy technique to stretch the fabric on frames (no more thumb tacks for me). So now I have 2 large frames and 2 small frames. That should keep me out of trouble for a while!

Make My Day Award

Vicki W gave me this You Make My Day Award. Thanks Vicki, it was quite a surprise. When I started my blog I thought it would be a good way to track my progress as an artist, a journal of sorts. I didn't realize how much I would enjoy the whole process and how many friends I would make throughout the world. It has been a great experience and I appreciate all my visitors and their notes. Keep them coming!

I am giving this award to ten blogs that inspire me and/or make me laugh. I hope you enjoy them as well. Ladies, it is up to you whether or not you would like to pass the award on.
Susan
Rayna
Elizabeth
Joanna
Elis
Liz
Dawn
Sue B
Val
Denise
Jeanne

Celebrate Your Wins

For the past year, I've been enjoying a newsletter from ArtBizCoach, Alyson Stanfield. Two newsletters ago, Alyson presented the questions below as a way to help you review your accomplishments. I won't bore you with my answers, but I feel that it was time well spent. It's way too easy to forget all the small accomplishments throughout the year!

How did you promote your art?
What did you do to enhance your online presence?
What technological skills did you learn or improve?
How many people did you add to your mailing list?
Who were the top ten cool or influential people you met?
Did you create a new business card, portfolio, or other marketing piece?
What medium or skill did you attempt or master?
What did you try that was completely new?
What did you try that was uncomfortable, but helped you grow?
What new art events, galleries, and museums did you visit?
What resources did you discover?
How did you improve your studio habits?
What books did you read to help your career?
What seminars/workshops/lectures did you attend?
What organizations were you involved with?
What grants/honors/awards did you receive?
What articles were written about your work?
What submissions did you make?
Where did you save a wad of money?
What was the single best thing that happened to your art career in 2007?

Jewelry Pouch
I gave my daughter some jewelry for Christmas and then realized that she was dumping it into a plastic bag. So the day after Christmas she picked out three different fabrics from my stash and I made her this jewelry pouch.I've made quite a few of these over the years, so it went together pretty quickly.Here you can see that there are eight individual spaces to keep your jewelry separate so you don't end up with a giant jewelry ball. You can also store larger pieces in the base of the pouch.