Dispirited Restoration

Dispirited Restoration was made at the beginning of 2016. I was struggling to keep positive. It was all about feeling destroyed and I needed to focus on rebuilding. I came home from a particularly bad day at work. I went to my studio and just started cutting canvas. The first stroke with the razor blade and I drew blood on my thumb. That was a sign to continue...just cutting and tearing. Then I stitched it back together and dipped the whole canvas into Potassium Permanganate to antique the fabric. Once dry I added a layer of plaster, oil paint, ink, encaustic wax etc...until done.

This piece is very special to me. It helped me heal...

Detail picture of the stitching and skeletal bones.

Fiber Optics 24/7

I presented the Group of Eight challenge for the quarterly due date of November 2015. This challenge was to be art that could be viewed 24/7. It had to have built in lighting into the piece or be glow in dark...whatever it takes so that the art could be viewed day and night without exterior lighting. I had been dreaming of this challenge for years waiting for my turn and I was really excited about it. Not sure the group felt the same way but the results of this challenge were phenomenal.

I created this piece knowing that I wanted my 24/7 to incorporate fiber optics. This is the first piece I made with this technique and I will hopefully do more in the future. I started out with a machine embroidered tree that I made many many years ago in a workshop hosted by Sheree Schlote. I then created the cloth from a distressed canvas base, layering and painting as I went.  The fiber optics were hand stitched into place. It was then mounted on a wood art board and my husband cut the holes and he wired the fiber optics up to a battery. This piece lights up when switched on. The tree trunk bleeds yellow light and the tree tips and leaves light up red and yellow. I have not successfully been able to take a night shot of it.

Acceptance

My Istanbul piece has been accepted into this years Fibrations show in Burlington, Ontario. I actually thought it was bad luck when my submission came back as #001. That meant that I was the very first person to enter a piece. For once in my life I wasn't waiting until the last minute & it worked out for me.

I finally finished this piece on my bench & had enough time to clean up the studio. It's time to get into some fabric....

I haven't named it & not sure a name will be coming. I fell in love with this piece of bark with its wonderful moss & orange speckling. I actually think I collected it over the winter snow shoeing on Many-Hues badlands.
The cicada was given to me by a co-worker who actually doesn't like bugs at all. The wax worked wonderful & didn't damage the delicate wings when dipped.  A very impressive bug indeed.

On my table

This is a very busy time of year. Spring is here and there is much to do. Gardening has been on my mind which leaves me even less time in the studio. I haven't posted for a couple of weeks taking advantage of the nice weather for yard cleanup. 
After work I've been working slowly on another background for more of nature's offerings.

This time I was inspired by a book I was re-reading called "Bags with Paper and Stitch".  I started with canvas and I glued newsprint to it. Then I distressed the fabric and tore the newsprint away in sections that weren't glued. Then I applied plaster and paint.
 

There is still much to do but working slowly lets it progress over time and allows my mind to play with different ideas.
I'll have lots of time to ponder & collect more of nature's offerings in Ireland over the next couple of weeks.

Nature's Offering 2

Nature's Offering 2 is now complete...

With solid background it's not as delicate as my first piece. I'm really loving the effect of the plaster over canvas and the encaustic medium lets all the natural beauty show through.

I've attached dried poppy heads, bark, birch bark, antler buttons, porcupine quills & a pressed kale leaf from my veggie patch last year. As stated previously, the metal strip is the cutting edge from a cellophane box that's been taken out of the ashes of the wood stove.

I don't think I'm done with the bark collected from the property and I really love how the encaustic medium strengthens it without changing it's texture. This may just be my very first series of work.

Natures Offering

Natures Offering was inspired by an artist that I've been following, Bridgette Guerzon Mills. I'm drawn to encaustic painting because of its natural elements. It's the reason why I wanted to become a bee keeper...little did I know that the wax is the smallest portion of a bee harvest.

It took quite a while to complete because as usual my pieces develop over time. I almost never start out with a vision of a completed piece.

I started with canvas that I distressed using a razor blade & needle nose pliers. At first I was very delicate but as my confidence built I had a heaver hand with the razor. Then I added plasterwrap that is used in sculpting. The pieces were a little flimsy so I backed the canvas with more plaster. I added some oil painted accents along with some encaustic gesso & then I covered everything with encaustic wax.

I love anything rustic and raw looking. A couple of weeks ago my daughter came home for the weekend and we spent some time in the woods. She was able to 'shuck' the bark off of a dead tree and it worked perfectly for my hanger. The bark is very strange and spongy and I've been eying it for quite some time. I was so excited to have it and that weekend happened to be quite windy. I had quite a hard time getting my bark to the car without it blowing away in bits.

Special thanks to Jesika for shucking the bark and to Keith Stewart for saving me the hornets nest. I know he thinks I'm crazy but he's a fantastic enabler.

Acrylic Painting on Canvas

This past Saturday was spent with surface design friends at The Alton Mill

I had a fantastic day of musing around all the art studio's in the morning & taking in a beginner acrylic painting class in the afternoon. Our instructor was Mark Grice & it was a very enjoyable afternoon. I came home with my first acrylic painting.

Believe it or not it matches my kitchen perfectly.  The blue happens to match my cupboards & table & the purple matches the walls. You'd think I had planned it or something.

Shopping for MORE...

This past week was a beading break. I was in the studio & pricking my fingers endlessly until the air was blue...that's enough...time to clean up & just stop pricking my damn finger. I read articles from magazines that had been sitting in the book pile and I just enjoyed my time researching new products on-line. When I go through books & magazines I mark pages with tabs for future reference. I make notes in a little book I carry with me & when I have some time I go through the tabs & do in-depth research into the products & how they're used.Then it's all about shopping. Where can I buy some of these products... So that's what I've been doing...Shopping for future art paraphernalia. Hopefully I'll be able to show something I've done using TerraSkin paper or my new Ampersand Claybords...not today but hopefully soon.

Once again I used canvas that had been sealed with gesso. I then added molding paste using a stencil for texture. Painted with metallic paint & then I added another used, painted & melted dryer sheet. I really am addicted to dryer sheets and as much as I use them...the pile just never seems to go down. Every week I have another batch to add to the stack.

 

MIxed Media Journal Cover 2

 Here's another journal cover that I made using canvas. It started as plain canvas that I painted with gesso, copper metallic paint & then I added the design. The design is made from a used dryer sheet that was painted with alcohol inks & then I heat gunned it to melt parts away in order for the base colour to show through.

I attached the design using a gloss gel medium. It turned out to be a very sturdy journal cover.

Art Cloth Gift Boxes

 

 

 

These gift boxes were made using a pattern that was in a Quilting Arts issue. I can't remember which one as it was at least a year ago. I've made them in the past but this time I decided that I would make them with my art cloth technique...that's developed throughout my posts. It's was also a technique from QA. It's nothing like the original article but I've come to really love it and consider my rendition as my own. The technique that is, not the pattern.

I start off with canvas that I paint with gesso on both sides. This stops the canvas from fraying on the edges. I then lay cheese cloth over the canvas & adhere with either watered down PVA or a gel medium. Both work well. Then I add some added texture with molding paste and once dry,  I paint with a metalic and use my oil pastels for enhancing the raised portions. Then the whole thing is covered with a gloss gel medium. The resulting cloth is actually very leather like. It's very pliable, yet sturdy. I've really come to love it. I actually didn't have to stitch anything on these little boxes.

 

 

ATC

If you've been following my blog you'd notice that I've been working on art cloth. I took this ATC sized section from one of my art cloth experiments, hand stitched it, added beads along with a tyvek bead and copper wire. I thought that the texture was interesting. I'm really starting to like working with the tissue and cheese cloth. This particular sample was done with alcohol inks that I spritzed with water so that it ran down the length of the paper. It was quite stiff when complete and perfect for an ATC.

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.

Frankensteined

Well, I've been working for a week and getting nowhere. It started with an article from the Quilting Arts Magazine, February/March 2012 issue. The article is called Surfaces for Stitch in which this wonderful lady named Pauline Verrinder  gives directions on how to make art cloth from Gesso, cheesecloth & newspaper. I just loved this article and what she made was fabulous. The Group of Eight's (GOE), challenge for next quarter is to do something with an article in a newspaper. So naturally I though I had something that I could produce and be done my challenge way before the due date. Ha ha...that's not happening. I'm a very nervous person and always want to put my best effort on everything that I do and I was discussing this with the group and telling them how I really stress over the challenges. The group was very supportive and told me to just have fun and that I could make something as small as an ATC for submission. So I really thought I had this one in the bag. I started out so bloody positive but all I got was positively frustrated. I followed the directions but I guess I'm just not very intuitive when it comes to paints because you wouldn't believe how many layers I added to try and get the right combination. Then when all I got was a friggin mess...I'd paint over it with a solid colour in frustration. I couldn't get the layers to stay down like the article was describing. As soon as it dried the layers seemed loose...so out came the glue, more gesso or even molding paste was added. I ended up with nothing like the article. After my first try with nothing that resulted in anything like art cloth,  I asked my husband to read the article and see if I'm missing anything. He read the article and had a few suggestions. So on Friday night I came home again ready to adorn the apron and dig in again. I worked for over 3 hours and the next morning I went up to the studio and painted the whole dam thing metallic blue and started over. This article is going to do some traveling with me so that I can get some expert advice from my fibre friends. Maybe I'll have more to show but for now take a look at the below pictures. They are not in sequence so I've numbered them in the caption of where I started and what I ended up with.

This was my third piece that my husband says needs to be called "Frankenstein something" because of the stitching. The newspaper article is not recognizable at all. It was suduko puzzles and that's why they have numbers painted on the pieces.

This is a detailed shot. I think I'm going to frame this one anyways because it's growing on me a little. Maybe I just want to salvage something of my week.

This was my first try. Up close I really love the texture that I got...but it's nothing like the article. I wish I could show the article but I don't want to get in trouble with the copyright police.

This is the second one I did after my husband read the article and gave me his suggestions. We you can see some of the newspaper article in this one...but it just doesn't do anything for me at all. I even had the Golden glass bead medium out on this one. Up close you can see the beads and how they give it a little glitz. Again nothing like the original article from QA. You can see why I needed some help on it right. I was loosing sleep...and everything works in theory.

Out of the Bowels of the Unknown Basket

While I was cleaning up the studio after the last surface design submission, I found my sheet protector bits all over my desk. I just loved this long piece that wasn't painted but I didn't know what to do with it. So I gathered them all & put them all neat in a zipped baggie and dropped them into the unknown basket. This is where I keep every juicy little bit of want-a-Be's. I noticed a left over bit of tissue on canvas that had been painted with a rustic red and then it began. The sheet protector bit came out and was promptly painted metallic blue. I cut an ATC out of the tissue canvas and anchored the design with stitch for interest and finally a long awaited maiden try with the Angelina fibers for a backdrop. I was just chin wagging with a group of friends a few weeks ago about all this STUFF that we have in our studios that have never been used. We have to have them but they sit waiting for the day they will be honored. Well that's what was happening to my Angelina fibers. I have bags of the stuff. Not the little tiny bags that you buy now but the original large packages you could buy relatively cheap when it first came about. Now you just get what I call...teaser packs. Nothing you can do a grand amount of work with, just enough to have you needing to go back to the store. After the fiber, I mounted the sheet protector and scuffed it with some metallic gold off my finger.

Stitched to anchor the ATC

Added Angelina Fiber

Painted & melted sheet protector

Pyramid Gift Box

Nearing the Christmas season always has me on the lookout for new ways to package small gifts. I was inspired to create this little box after visiting Cambridge's Gallery M.
I started with one of my samples topped with my favorite multi-coloured chunky yarn. Painted the inside and stitched three sides together to form the pyramid shape. I then added a tiny string of seed beads to hold the trap door closed and 60's style buttons were used for the feet.

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.