When I was at AU, I took a class on fused glass inclusions with Peggy Krzyzewski. There was a kiln issue and she had to take our pieces home with her to fire. I just got my pieces back in the mail. I'm rather pleased with them.
As it happens, yesterday, I started a fingerweaving necklace project (which I learned from the C R Radding class I took at AU). Here is a photo of it in progress:
So, as you can see, I'm happily reliving parts of my AU adventure.
I spent the past week-end sewing and playing in the studio (which is getting messier and messier and really will have to be cleaned up at some point).
I made three hanging doll angel versions of my grandniece, Ayla; and I made four fabric hangings using resined photos and paper. I also watched most of a Firefly DVD set I bought, but that didn't produce anything but enjoyable dirversion.
Here is Renaissance Angel Ayla.
This is Antiqued Angel Ayla.
And, Royal Angel Ayla...if you look closely, you can see the beads on her full length vest.
I have some beautiful bits and bobbles of fabric and ribbons and pieces of resin paper I made last year; so, I decided to make some small fabric collage/wall hangings.
I am taking a 12 week pmc class at the Kalamazoo Institute of Art. It's proving to be very interesting. I'm learning some new techniques (made my first hinge and a box bead this week). It's also proving to be somewhat humbling. The other students all seem to know each other and be on the same wave length; they make very nicely finished, tidy pieces. Some sell their jewelry and use class time to make things for customers. They walk around during class and admire each others' work. Frankly, when they look at my pieces, they smile encouragingly (they are nice people) and walk on. No one seems to know what to say. My pieces are definitely different (I don't do tidy and I like rough finishes). I sort of feel like I'm swimming upstream while everyone else is swimming downstream. It's disconcerting (sometimes discouraging). But, I like the things I'm making. I write this, not to air my insecurities (I have a long list and no one has that much tolerance for that long a blog entry), but because I think there are a lot of us who feel the same way about our art. We're not in the mainstream, but we keep going in our own direction because it's who we are.
I brought my pieces home to finish them up and then made a few extra pieces this week-end (I have the luxary of having my own kiln). I'm both rather pleased about them AND needing a little external affirmation about them. I plan on making some jewelry with these and using the rest as embellishments on collages and dolls.
I recently discovered decorating matchboxes (who knew?), filling them with little treasures and sending them out for swaps. My friend Kathy organized a small valentine matchbox swap. I have sent mine off and am anxiously awaiting the returns to come. I painted the matchboxes red, inside and out, glued small sewn hearts on them, and filled them with small heart-shaped polymer buttons that I had made. I think I forgot to sign them (I'm really bad at remembering to sign my work). Oh well.
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
ArtUnraveled was a delightful event. Kudos to Linda and Chuck for their great organizational skills; I'm in awe. The good news is that I got together with a lot of friends; the bad news is that I was so busy enjoying people, I forgot to take many pictures. Jennifer and Martha and Maija made large deposits in my Memory Bank, but, sadly, not on my photo card.
Here is a photo of me and Lorri Scott. I am wearing the incredible duster she created for me (I had to provide the basic negligee for her to work from because she couldn't find one in my size). I told her to make something beautiful for me. She did more than that; she made me something that makes me feel beautiful. (In case you're wondering why I'm wearing a crown; I wore one almost every day to advertise my crown class. And, yes, I painted those shoes).
Here's a photo of Angie Platten at lunch at the Phoenix Art Museum (great Cezanne exhibit; and, just as important; great restaurant).
I include a photo of me because it looks like I have only two chins in this shot.
Friday night, Fran Saperstein helped me set up for the Shopping Extravaganza (Saturday from 10 to 4 - crowded enough that we forgot to take photos during it).
The very nice news is that I made more than my booth fee; so I'm in the black from my first big vending experience. Michael bought one of my crowns ("I wonder What the King Is Doing Tonight?") and I just had to take a photo of him in it.
Monday night was my crown class. I had four delightful students. One of them was Fran and she very nicely took some photos of my class.
Here's a shot of me demonstrating how to wrap fabric around the wire base.
Our class wan in a hotel suite (perfect size for a small class) and he're a shot Fran took of people working on their crown.
No crowns were finished during the class; but everyone got to the adding embellishments part, which is the last step and and I'm pretty sure they will be finishing (if they have not already finished) their crowns soon and will be making more.
Here's Marion in her crown of many colors.
Here's Andrea showing her intricate crown.
Louanne (sorry if I have the spelling wrong) made a beautifully multi-layered crown.
Here's a photo of Fran, taken on Wednesday, after she complete her crown.
My students were all jewels in my teaching crown and they made the class a delightful experience.
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).
