New Follow Along: The Wall

Now that I have been laminating for a while I have been thinking about how to integrate that work into the rich stitching that I love to do. I have come upon the theme of walls for a variety of reasons. One is the way they break down, both literally and metaphorically. This provides the opportunity to go deeply into the surface to reveal underlying structure and the suggested passage of time (yea, big birthday coming up . . .). So I'm going to post the steps as they play out for what may be the first piece in a series. Enjoy!

Collagraph + Lamination = ???

Here's a piece I did from one of the collagraphs I made last week from a hodge podge plate I stuck washers and cardboard and other junk onto. The large black marks are all results of printing off that plate onto a white fabric (bamboo, as it happens). The softer black and colored areas are a result of laminating black and white plus some pastel-y papers to the piece. I then colored it all with water soluble paint and markers, and drew into it with pens. Any suggestions for naming the piece?

Play Date

My friends Susan Willen, Sharon Oblinger, Carol Churchill and I spent the day at FiberFly Studio making collagraphs. We built plates out of lots of stuff: corrugated cardboard, sticky foam, string, glue and even dried beans! Then we rolled on acrylic paint and pressed our fabric into the surface. The photo shows a few of the pieces drying in the sun (yea, January and it's 75 degrees!). For mine, the ones with just black paint, I am creating bases for lamination. Next week I will start to build up the layers so please check back!

More Laminated Pieces

I am entranced by the process of laminating paper to fabric and then integrating it into a cohesive design (I think I've said that before . . .). These are a couple more pieces which have been laminated. The aqua one has already been stitched while the warm colored one is awaiting the stitching. I will be offering a workshop on the process in late February or early March here at FiberFly Studios. Stay tuned for details as they develop!

Attributed to Wayne Thiebaud:

"If you sit around and wait for inspiration all you get is a sore ass."

Reminder to self - get back into the studio and work! I've been swamped seemingly for weeks and need to eliminate distractions and just make art.

Lamination

I have been working away to master the process of laminating paper to fabric with the goal of creating a well integrated design. Next week I will give more details about the process, but before I flee town for an extended weekend I wanted to post some examples. Enjoy!

Holidays are OVER!!

Enough of this romping about with friends, eating fine food and drinking sparkling wine - it's time to get back to work. Besides catching up with piles of paperwork, emails and submissions, I have been laminating paper to fabric. This is a very beginning stage of a piece which will get lots of ink and stitching. Explanation and follow up photos to come. New work for the New Year!

Now for Something Entirely Different . . .

I stitched lots of fabric bits onto a colorful cloth ground and then painted like a woman obsessed. Canvas textile? Canvas textile!

Sirocco DONE!

Though I have not yet put the backing and thin black border on the piece, it is done. There is now stitching throughout which unifies it visually and provides a slightly 3D effect especially visible in the small colorful circles. The Hot Wind Series now has five pieces which are all very colorful and have lively surfaces.

Day Three of the Follow Along

The piece now has a name - Sirocco, one of the winds that blows north out of the Sahara into Southern Europe, so this is another art quilt in my Hot Winds Series (who knew?). I have done a lot more to make the elements cohere: printed more circles and other forms from the original shapes in different sizes, added a fine layer of Angelina, then colored in and emphasized the fabric circles. I used a variety of media including Aquarelle crayons, markers and of course a lot of paint. It is beginning to look more refined but still high energy and playful. Now I'm off to layer and stitch.

Additions to the Follow Along

As you can see, there is a bit more connection between the collaged elements now. This is because of the addition of webs of Angelina and then some screen printing to repeat the circular and starburst motifs. It is a little over-blended for my taste so the next step will be to find some focus in the piece.

More Calendar Pix!

Here are several more of the featured works from the 2011 Calendar to whet your appetite. Just use the PayPal button in the right hand column or email me directly at FiberFly@cox.net to order. Make every month of the New Year an art experience!

New Follow Along

I started a new textile piece that I think will make an interesting one to watch develop. It has no title yet, but I have begun to layer fabric - many pieces of which I have already printed - onto a black ground cloth. My goal is to print, paint and then stitch until I get an appealing pattern. I seem to return to the black/gold combination about once/year; this seems to be that moment.

Collaboration

My nephew Alex Shirwo, an art student in Santa Cruz, California, was here for the Thanksgiving holiday, and we collaborated on this piece. It is textile and paint on board. Fun, fun, fun!

Shroud

At least until a more creative name comes to mind this will be called Shroud. I wove the white piece then buried it in the garden for a few weeks. Once dug up I ripped it up, rusted it, then added heirloom lace from my family's 19th century stash which I also rusted. I put some interesting old bits of metal into it and embroidered it all onto a hessian ground fabric. I'm waiting for my tussah silk to arrive from Thai Silks which I'll stitch the piece to, then off to Kathy's (the best frame shop anywhere!) where Colleen will stretch it.

More 2011 Calendar Images

Here are three more Calendar images. The first is the art quilt Green, Not Green; I figured the opposite of a "green" quilt is an orange one. Below that is a detail of Slag Heap II. It is a heavily collaged mixed media textile which has been dyed, printed and embellished with an array of detritus including rusty metal objects. Last is a bowl made from recycled plastic bags and bubble wrap. Enjoy!

Contemporary Embroidery Workshop at FiberFly Studio

Create your own free slideshow design

Harmattan 2

I wasn't planning to make this a follow along project but I am so taken with these colors that I just had to post these photos. I shibori dyed all these (and many more) fabrics in the intense red-oranges. I also dyed the green/blue ground fabric - it's bamboo. I'd done another, cotton, blue/green at the same time in the same dyes and preferred the way the bamboo takes the dye - it has a hand like a cross between really fine German rayon and pima cotton. These photos show the auditioning process during which I decide which to use and in what order. I am pleased with the sequence, after much fussing about, so labeled them in order. As you may notice, my design wall is OUTDOORS. Lucky me, I live in Southern California not far from the ocean, so there are very few days of the year when this is not the perfect place to have it.

Four images from the 2011 Calendar

These are Fractal #1, Red Embroidery, Blue Art Cloth and Big Sur Rusty Bus. I will post a few more in the next week or two.

Harmattan

Harmattan is the name of a hot wind that originates in the Sahara. It is the fourth piece in my Hot Winds series. I dyed all the fabrics then cut and pieced them together and added some stitching in a few places to tie it all together. Because the colors are complementaries, they pulsate suggesting heat rising from the desert floor. This piece is about two feet long and I have already got the new fabrics dyed for a second one about two and a half times the size. I don't usually work over about 40 inches, but I thought this would be stunning LARGE so I'm going to give it a try.

Rag Mama Rag

This is the piece of art cloth I did to meet the regional (Southern California/Hawaii) Surface Design Association Challenge which entailed making anything using one piano damper and one piano hammer. I took the photo after VERY carefully aligning the two items, tweaked like crazy in Photoshop to create three different patterns, and then sent it off to Spoonflower where the fabric was printed. I then dyed the gauzy one and pieced it all together.

BLOG Design

Well, you can see that I've been playing around with the design of the blog. I now have a piece of my art cloth as the border. Wish it could be loaded large enough not to have to tile, but Blogger limits the size of background images to pretty darned small. Oh well! Here's a photo of the whole piece (a couple of yards long).