Yesterday we began the task of photographing Nana’s (Victor’s Grandmother) paintings. I knew there were a lot of paintings. I heard stories of ‘the closet of paintings’ yet in the ten plus years I’ve been around the family, I had never seen this closet. Then there are more paintings on the office shelves and in almost every room of the house, the walls are filled her paintings. They have never been cataloged. But when I finally got going on this and started to see the amount of paintings we had to go through I realized that whatever I got done this first day was just a drop in a very big bucket. With that being said I love this project. I love seeing all these paintings that span most of her life and all the different subjects she explored. I find it all fascinating. The goal is to eventually have some shows displaying her work, but we have a ways to go before we can talk about that.
So I worked all afternoon and got nine done. Yup, 9. I knew there would be some trial and error, learning curves and all that, so I kept my expectations low. The last one, I took it totally crooked and didn’t even notice until I had on the computer. Next session I’ll bring a pot of coffee.
The other thing on my mind of late has been setting up an Etsy shop. The graphic design business did well last year but not so much this year. I know this year is still getting going but getting clients to pay has become a giant issue. These are good clients that I have worked with for several years and have just hit hard times. So I can’t really be mad, just very frustrated. It has made it impossible for me to keep up with some of my stuff. I can’t continue to supplement my fiber art (and other hobbies) needs from our regular income. Usually the graphic design would keep that afloat. So I need to at least try to sell some of my stuff. I don’t know if it will work, but I have to try. So I’ve been reading lots on the Etsy community, learning all I can. With my experience in marketing, I want to have some things thought out -packaging, labels, cards, logos and so on. But I have to careful not to get hung up on it all, because that is something I would do. Sometimes I’m just a little too cautious. I’m working on that.
I pulled out some items this weekend to add to my box. These were pieces of craft metal that I embossed with use of a stamp and clay tools. I then painted them with some glass paint, added the embossing powder and got the heat gun out.
Now I need to go finish my journal page. The due date is quickly approaching and I keep getting distracted with things like laundry and dinner for the family. Details, details.
I would prefer to post my projects when they are done but that won’t be for probably another two weeks and that would not help my goal of posting more on the blog. So in the spirit of all that I’m working on three projects, two of which I actually have photos of.
First is the art journal exchange I’m doing with my art group. Each person picks their own theme for their journal and each person will make page spread for that theme. This particular journal is about books. I had to think about this for a little while. Came up with retro cover art. Being a graphic artist and having designed a few covers, I love a good design. So with a little Adobe help I put together this and did an image transfer:
It has already been cut down to page size since I took this as well as had some interfacing stuck to the back. I’ve started markering the pages and we’ll see what else soon enough.
Then there is the fabric box challenge also with my art group. First time around with a fabric box project. I tried to keep it simple and use what I have in the stash. I knew I was going to do a lot of hand stitching so I had to get the foundation built. Here’s the beginning assembly.
All hand dyed fabrics from last summer. Stamp pad and Shiva stenciling. I’m getting to know my sewing machine a little better. Thank you Mary.
And here’s the box looking like a box. I know I should have waited sew the sides together but I was quickly getting board with it’s flat shape and needed to see it in box form. It needs more work and a lid (challenge requirement). But it looks like a box and that helps.
This weekend is the first photo shoot of the cataloging project. I got the photo umbrellas yesterday. Little nervous about getting it all done correctly but I’ve been reading up on my camera operation. The darn thing even tells me when my manual settings are going to take a bad photo and how to fix it. Yup, love my camera.
My favorite early sign of spring is in full bloom in back of my house. They pop early. They pop really early next to the dryer vent. I don’t care, I’ll take it. The little weather bug icon on my laptop screen says it’s 54 degrees. That is so wonderfully close to 60 that I am almost giddy. Then add in that the three year old decided to fully get on the potty train today, well darn it, it’s a good day!
Been working on several things in the midst of all the excitement. I don’t have photos of everything yet but here’s what I do have. The new theme for the online quilt challenge group is passage. I knew right away what I wanted to do. I dyed an old map last summer with the MSU project. It was cool enough to be a project all on it’s own. Here’s a sneak peak close up:
I want to incorporate an image of a compass onto it. I haven’t figured out how I am going to do that yet.
Also preparing to help my in-laws photograph and catalog the many, many paintings that Victor’s grandmother created a long time ago. So this means some new lighting equipment and really learning how to use all the advanced features of my camera. I had to do some research on the best ways to photograph oil paintings in order to not have giant glares on everything. She didn’t paint them with oils but egg tempera, which makes the paintings very reflective. I think I got some good ideas but it will take some trial and error for the most part. But afterward I will have all the makings for taking some awesome pics of my own pieces!
Yup, the fourth completed project this year. This is a record for me! Stop laughing. This one has been hanging on the wall for the past year for two reasons: it needed something and I didn’t know what that was and the dear lady kept bubbling up. It gave her a bad complexion and a bumpy kimono, so not flattering. But with a little sashiko stitch inspiration for the finishing and matte medium for the bubbling lady, I got past my creative blocks with this piece in a day. I also realized this idea would work great for the art journal exchange I’m involved with.
This is called Lost in Another World.
So I finished up the 3 Creative Studios Quilt Challenge today. It’s about 12″ x16″, deconstructed rubbing on black fabric, lots of hand stitching with hand-dyed threads. I found that the stitching worked well with the print texture of the puzzle pieces. The whole process was largely about experimentation. With the theme of puzzle I decided to just go literal and pull out some actual puzzle pieces. I just figured out what to do as I went along. It is a departure from other work I’ve done and for that I like this.
My art group is doing a round robin art journal exchange. I’ve done round robins before but never built an art journal. So I did lots of reading and surfing around online, looking how other people construct these things. I absorbed the gist of how it all works and went about doing it my own way. It was a lot of work, but fun. Aside from a little Peltex, some eyelits, eyelit tool and cording I used materials I already had. All hand-dyed fabrics and paper. The paper was packing paper I dyed last summer during the MSU project. I really had no idea how it would look but figured it couldn’t hurt. It turned out pretty cool. I used this book as a reference. I read through various sections several times to figure out my best course of action. I went with the ‘Coptic binding’ for my journal because it seemed to be the best way to deal with all the thick page spreads. I’ll admit that I got myself a little worried at first because this binding sat under the heading of ‘advanced bindings’. Well, my worry was really for nothing. The binding was the easiest part of the project.
The theme of the book is modeled after the ‘books of hours’ from the middle ages. The idea is to have each person create a page around one routine in their lives. Seeing the beautiful in the mundane. So I worked to make the book look like something old, used, somewhat worn and imperfect. Everything is machine stitched, then painted, glued and so on.
I really like the results. Definitely something I will explore again, but maybe a few less page signatures. Now onto my other deadlines!
I finished one piece I was working on. Not crazy about it. It’s not bad, but it’s not great either. And fitting it into the theme of ‘puzzle’ was weak. Here it is:
So I decided to tackle this challenge again with an idea I had been thinking about for a few weeks. How well would black fabric work with the deconstructed rubbings technique? So I borrowed some puzzle pieces from my kids and built this:
and what I got was this:
Pretty cool! Kind of reminds me of art from the 80’s. I then used some Shiva sticks to the edges with some more puzzle pieces. Fused it to some felt and then turned on the sewing machine. After some calm negotiations, the machine agreed to work. I’m not the most skilled at using sewing machines and it sometimes it takes me a little bit of time to get it working smoothly. So last night, on commercial breaks of Dr. Who on BBC, I got some free motion stitches in place.
Part of this challenge for myself is to see how quickly can I pull this piece together, without ditching the quality. I have some other things I’m going to attempt to do to this today. Stay tuned.
Whenever I start a new fiber art project, a graphic design job arrives on my doorstep. Victor’s comment was ‘well, keep starting new projects!’ And yes, I suppose he is right. When I keep both the graphic design and fiber going, both seem to do well. My fear has always been that I wouldn’t do well on either. Key word in that previous sentence is fear. Dangerous little word. It can keep me tied up for crazy amounts of time, more time than I want to admit. But recognizing it is a big part of the battle, right? So with lots of prayer and determination I am working through that scary little word and good things are happening. Never as fast as I want them to, but they are happening.
And I know, I know! I started the new year off with a bang on the blog and then disappeared. I was working on a volunteer design job for my church. I made several great new contacts, and possible future design jobs with this project. So all in all, not a bad deal. But it also deals with an area of the Catholic Church that has bugged me to no end, the graphic design, marketing and anything artistic for that matter has been visually pathetic for years. This person sums it up very well in his blog entry. So I am always happy to lend my skills to this area. Here’s a picture of what I developed for the religious ed department.
Then over in the fiber arena I’ve been brainstorming on how to produce more than one piece at a time. Maybe for an Etsy store, maybe a future art bizarre. Here I’ve set out several hand-dyed doilies on black fabric.
I then cut the fabric and I am working on embellishing the black fabric before I adhere the doilies. Eventually there will be six different pieces. We’ll see how that goes.
But in the meantime, I’ve got a book challenge to prepare for, a group challenge, a puzzle theme challenge from the 3 Creative Studios, plus a stack of my own ideas. And with all that I just got a new design job this morning. So if I disappear, don’t worry, I will return. But I will try not to disappear.
Our seven year old turned eight this week. So I’ve busy all week with birthday planning and celebrating. Then throw in buying a new dishwasher, delivery and install with the other usual weekly activities and it doesn’t leave much extra room for art or blogs.
But I have been working some art things a little bit. I joined a quilt challenge on the 3 Creative Studios site. I joined a little while ago and had neglected the blog aspect of it. I had to think on it first. The theme right now is ‘Puzzle’ and I’ve been working my current piece around that idea. I’m working off the first definition they posted: “problem, or other contrivance designed to amuse by presenting difficulties to be solved by ingenuity or patient effort.” The problem is how do I get these random objects I placed together and made a print out of to work together and form cohesive piece. There was no rhyme or reason when I put these things together, just curiosity.
I did some markers and pens on the piece a few days ago. Last night I stitched.
I’m pleased so far. We’ll see what happens next.
As part of my goal to use what I have, I pulled out my roving stash last night. This is just two of several lovely fiber bunches I’ve been holding onto for the last 3 or 4 years. Time to bring them out of the darkness.
I was not sure what direction I was going with the project, so I just started playing around with the stuff. Ended up pulling out this soft black fibers from the first mix and creating lines to play off the lines of the print. I’m far from done with this but I think it came out as good second layer. Adding some color the images is next. Stay tuned!
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