Today's word is "caring."
I made this inchie by cutting out a piece of fabric paper (using Beryl Taylor's technique of gluing a cocktail napkin and tissue paper to muslin) and sewing a heart shaped polymer button to it. I've been making a lot of heartshaped polymer buttons for some valentine projects.
I have been busy with a few projects and some real life tasks (don't ask me how long it took me to set the car clock after the time change) and have been remiss in blogging. Sorry.
I decided it was time to revisit metal embossing (a technique I learned years ago at Artiscape with Ten Seconds Studio) and make some birds.
I wanted to put these birds in some art quilts I am planning.
I sewed them to some fabric backed by heavy interfacing.
My next project was inspired by Beryl Taylor's new "Layer by Layer" DVD. I am particularly taken by her use of reverse applique. I love the texture involved in this technique. I am going to use it often. The two projects I am currently working on with it are a black and white art quilt/wall hanging and some Christmas banners (another banner swap; I love the idea of a series of seasonal wall banners; thank you, Kathy).
I'm still embellishing the art quilt, but I'm near finishing it. Below are some pictures. As you can see, I put my metallic birds in it.
Next project: Christmas banners. Instead of the squares demonstrated on the DVD, I just sewed 6 layers of Christmas fabric together to cut up into pennants.
I have the letter W for my banners in this swap. I free-handed the letters, just cutting them out of some green felt and then I added some glitter to sparklw them up for the holidays. None of them are the same; but I think they're all discernable Ws.
I'm at CREATE (yes, another art retreat!) in Chicago (well, Rosemont). I just had two days of classes with Beryl Taylor, an excellent artist and very generous and supportive teacher. Yesterday's class was in making fabric paper and today's class was in working with metal and the fabric paper (and alcohol inks, and gesso, and sand paper, and molding paste, and paints and sewing). What fun!
Here's a sheet of fabric paper I made.
sewing a stamped wing fabric paper onto a French text piece of fabric paper.
sewing bug stamp over text fabric paper over tissue paper fabric paper...
skeletal leaf fabric paper
embossed and alcohol ink dyed pieces of embossed metal
embossed metal piece from bug stamp
metalic bug sewn onto fabric leaf
metalic pieces sewn onto fabric paper
This past week-end, I worked on several projects. I actually finished a necklace a friend of mine had asked for; I made progress with making embellishments out of the fabric paper I had made with my friends Lori and Chris the week-end before; and I made progress on my 2-D canvas piece.
First, the piece I actually finished: a black and white beaded necklace.
Lori Hutchinson and Chris Gould came over to my house the week-end before last. We ate well (at Martini's, one of my favorite restaurants in Kalamazoo), shopped happily (at Stitching Memories, a great yarn shop in Portage) and played happily in my messy studio (we each made 7 sheets of fabric paper, the technique demonstrated by Beryl Taylor in her book, "Mixed Media Explorations").
This past week-end, I started making embellishments by cutting some of my fabric papers and sewing around them. Some, I will leave like this; some I will sew more on; and some I willfurther embellish with baubles and/or beads. Right now, I am just making a stash to use later.
And, I worked on a 2-D canvas that I am trying to get ready for a three person show at the Portage Library in late June and July. I'm putting in some pieces I've made in the last year or so, but I want to do an original canvas for the show, too. I want it to be a mixed-media 2-D piece and I have a lot more to do to it, but here it is (paint, mostly Color Mists by Aileen Roberts, still drying). I have a lot more to do on it.
I also worked on starting class kits for the Crowning Glory class I'm teaching at ArtUnraveled in August (it's a great art retreat and there's still time to register). I'm also working on things to sell there because I'm going to be one of the vendors at the Shopping Extravaganza (I've already posted about the cuffs I made, I'm currently working on some other things, which I will post when they're further along in production).
