Findings #3

The whole page of stitched live oak leaves, with its watercolor ground.

And another gorgeous sea grape leaf, with very different colors from the first two I chose. Part of the leaf tore as it dried; I clipped it away with scissors.

Findings #2

 Leaves from a walk at Lake Seminole Park, with their watercolor and thread embellishments.

Some of the nine live oak leaves on one page. My mom asked me why I was sewing all these leaves onto my journal pages. I had to think about how to answer that. I realized there are three reasons.
1. I enjoy  looking closely at these lovely objects.
2. I love doing this kind of embroidery.
3. I want a daily practice and trust that it will lead me somewhere if I just keep doing it.

Daily Practice Redux

I'm back to a Daily Practice (How do I let that slide? So important!!), using the exercises and gorgeous images from Jean Wells' book Journey to Inspired Art Quilting as my initial guide. The photo above of the orange peppers and knife with a Japanese dish was already in my journal. I drew some of my ideas on how I would turn the photo into a fiber piece, using Jean's exercise on Journaling to get me started.

Lots of other projects happening now as well, which I will include here in bits and pieces. Below is a fabric and digital photo collage I completed last week, now framed under glass and hanging in our gallery, NorthWind Fine Arts. The beginning of this piece - the torn-and-sewn pond lily photos on fabric - began as one of my Daily Practice experiments last March.

My Process

Today I was viewing the blog of a quilter and saw that she had taken the "Process Pledge." I'm all about the process and love to see the processes of other artists of all kinds, so I took the pledge too. I hope you'll enjoy hearing about what I do to get me going, keep me going, and what happens as a result.

And I am continuing in my current process of making a daily art practice a real habit. I missed a day - last Sunday - when we went out in the morning, took a long walk, and had guests while whirling around getting the house in order after a crazy week. I didn't feel too awful about it, as the previous several days were filled with art projects, plans, and commitments.

Wild grape drawing

April 6

I attended a print making class, using Silk Cut Lino sheets at Bluseed Studios in Saranac Lake taught by Robynn Smith. This material was lovely to work with, although still hard to find in  the U.S. (made in Australia). Several of my arty friends attended too and it was great fun. I carved two plates, both from drawings I did awhile ago of wild grape. I need more practice, but here is the result.

Our instructor, Robynn, is a wonderful teacher and an impressive artist. Brave too, coming from California to the slush-embedded Far North of her own free will!

Two finished prints

I plan to use these plates to print on fabric soon.

April 8

Red-eyed Owl

April 9

Detail of small quilt "Ice Moons"

I have been playing with this photo printed on cotton for awhile. It was taken in early winter when the pools of water at a marsh edge were beginning to freeze, trapping lots of air bubbles near the ice surface. This little piece is finished now.






April 10

This morning, I pulled out this tiny watercolor. It was a student's practice sheet from a few semesters ago, and it looks like a landscape with an arc or rainbow moving across it. It is a lovely little "accident" that gave me another way of working toward a piece I am planning. I used it on a journal spread that I played on to make a similar landscape (not as graceful as the original, I think) and to do some other "designed accidents" - all tiny - that apply to the project.

Landscape with arc and rocks

Watercolor print with a photo fragment

Fiber Collage from Fragments

March 28, 2013

A new fabric paper collage, made with scraps of paper from past projects. I love these bean seedling printed on sumi paper from an old botany book. All stuck together with matte medium on another fragment of the old handkerchief.
















March 29, 2013

Stitching added to the collage. The woven lines on the handkerchief edge make a wonderful border.

Making and Stitching Fabric Paper

March 26, 2013

Using my waterbrush to prepare paper for tearing

Papers layered and collaged to fabric

Today, I made some fabric paper by attaching sumi-e paper and colored Canson paper to a well-worn  handkerchief with acrylic matte medium.

March 27, 2013

I am remembering that stitching mistakes on paper are very conspicous! The needle makes an irreversible hole.

 The curvy lines I added were made with my little old Singer, in free-motion mode. I left the feed dogs exposed (they won't lower) and loosened the presser foot pressure as much as possible. I didn't think it would work so well!

Next Steps

March 21, 2013

Today I assembled a white cotton backing, thin cotton batting, a layer of MistyFuse, and - one-by-one - the strips of the pond lily fabric. I covered the fabric with baking parchment as I ironed and fused the strips, overlapping one edge of the strips.

fabric strips laid over backings

fusing the fabric strips

lifting parchment paper from fused fabric strips

Back to the Daily Practice

March 20, 2013

October Pond Lily Leaves printed on muslin

October Pond Lily Leaves in slivers

Since we moved into our new home in June, I haven't had a good place to play with my art the minute (almost) I wake up. So I haven't returned to my rewarding Daily Practice that took me so far a few other times in the recent past.

Enough excuses! I receive regular posts from the blog "Zen Habits" by Leo Barbauta. Always interesting, but the one that came yesterday really grabbed my attention. It was all about making changes, a.k.a. changing habits, and I wrote out the most important change I want to make Right Now and how I plan to do it. That would be "making more and better art, especially more and better fiber art." And that means a Daily Practice. And showing you makes me accountable to you. I hope you will let me know what you think and keep me going!

The list of options is long, but I was interested in a technique I read about in the April/May issue of Quilting Arts magazine - tearing fabric into strips that are then fused to a backing and stitched along the tears. I spent about 10 minutes tearing this piece I fabric I printed from my photo awhile ago. Tomorrow I'll fuse it. And onward.

Thank you, Leo and Quilting Arts. And thank YOU!