Peace Out

This peace has been worked on over a period of many months. I would do a little bit and then leave it to manifest in my brain until the next step would come. As usual the steps would come to me slowly through my dreams. Then I would get the idea and rush to the studio to do that step before it got lost in the abyss of daily life. Over the months I had it on the corner of my table, as it patiently waited...putting beads on it...laying similar colours on it until something would click. Now I'm still waiting for a hanging idea. I've played with wood and antler but everything just seems a little too heavy. So I'll have to wait until the perfect item arrives in my studio. But for now that's all it's waiting for.

I began with a piece of cotton batting and started layering wool rovings to it.

As you can see, it's nothing at this point but a dogs breakfast.

Then I took some yarn that's in my stash and started layering it.

I had selected yarns that I though would look good together and I would add them by twisting and bunching them together so that I would get a very raised nobly effect. At this point, I'm still not sure this is working.

This is the stage that I stopped in order to get a true feeling for it. I knew that it needed more but I just had to let it manifest before moving on.

Unfortunately I didn't continue to take pictures of the next stages. I decided that I would add some hand stitched elements to it but because of the nobly effect, anything too small would have gotten lost in the yarn.

This is a more detail shot of the hand stitching. After the hand stitching step, once again the piece was laid to rest until the next step arrived. During that time I was reading a book called "Hot Textiles" and decided that I needed to have some Xpandaprint. When the Xpandaprint came in it sat on the shelf waiting for me to be brave enough to try it. Then one night the next step came & I was in the studio. I got the felting machine back out and felted some areas more deeply in order to have a place to add the Xpandaprint. Xpandaprint is a type of puff medium. When you heat it, it puffs up. So I heated the areas, then painted over it. Then, I added Dorlands wax medium on top of the painted medium, added beads and suddenly "Peace Out" was born.

This is just a another detailed shot.

This piece is called "Peace Out" because of a very good friend of mine. Most families go through very tough times in their lives with their children...some are worse than others...but it's a time when all we pray for is peace. One time, this friend, signed off her email to me as "peace out" and I thought it was just so funny...so raw...and this piece just seemed to name itself as it developed. Some symbols just seem to evoke a sense of peace and for me it's Buddha...don't know why...can't explain it...I have one in my garden as a meditation, reflective spot and I also have one in my home.

Art Cloth ATC

This is another try at the Quilting Arts Magazine article on Art Cloth. The Surface Design Tribe had an open studio where we could work on whatever we wanted and see what everyone else was working on at the same time. I made a couple of pieces of art cloth but I must admit that once again...I was not happy with the results. So I brought my pieces home and stacked them with the others until I decide if I'm painting the whole damn thing a solid colour again. It's been a very busy few weeks for me and I haven't completed anything to post except a surface design block...that I forgot to take pictures of. So last night it's crunch time and I need an ATC (Artist Trading Card) for the Group of Eight exchange tonight. So I was rummaging through my stack with my little ATC frame and I really liked this little section of the cloth. So I cut it up, stitched the edges, covered it in Dorland's encaustic wax and added the pen nib. Appleman...my husband...would be proud.

 So this once again started with the article...piece number 4...and once again it looks nothing like the picture offered in the article....which is extremely frustrating to me. I started with canvas that I randomly painted blue & a brownish mix. Then I added the Japanese newspaper that I picked up in Hong Kong...so maybe it's Chinese...not sure. Then I added the stressed cheese cloth and painted the whole piece with watered down white glue. I added molding paste and painted it with a bronze Lumiere paint. Added a little bit of rusted orange Lumiere and put it aside because it looked like crap. I just love the texture but I just can't seem to get the colouring the way I want it. I like this little section and the pen nib added better interest than beads in this case...at least I thought so. So I guess I'm destined to try art cloth #5...I'll keep you posted. Oh and I should mention that one of the GOE (Group of Eight) members told me to keep a little rubbing alcohol in my studio to take some of the extra paint away...I still don't have the alcohol but I will definitely give it a try when I have some...just a thought.

Quilting Arts inspiration

Recently there was a free download from Quilting Arts, "Essential Embroidery Stitches" and section #4 was particularly interesting for me. Section #4 'Reverse Applique & Bobbin Embroidery with a twist' by Yvonne Brown. She uses tissue and cloth to get the most amazing texture as a backdrop to reverse applique. I didn't have all the supplies in order to do the applique but I knew I had the materials to do the background. I had an afternoon of play and created one sample and one piece that I'm still thinking of adding a little bit of red to...I'm still contemplating where to add the red...so it's possibly unfinished.

In the first sample I took canvas and painted both sides with simple, watered down white glue.
Then I added the white tissue paper and painted it down with more of the watered down glue. While it was still wet, I painted it with Lumiere Halo blue gold paint. According to the article I was supposed to let it dry for 24 hours...but I'm really impatient and wanted to take it that night to one of my quilting groups...so I put it in my food dehydrator and voila it was dry very quickly.



Sample #2 was started with canvas. I painted both sides with the watered down glue and then I inked it. Once the ink was desirable, I added dried flowers from my garden and seeds that were no longer germinating. Then the tissue layer was added, painted with the watered down glue. I then put it in the food dehydrator for it to dry. I didn't like the tissue being too white so I rubbed ink over the tissue where I thought it was too white. I then burnt the edges and painted Dorland's wax medium over the tissue. Dorland's is a wax, like encaustic, that can be used cold and then heated.