Umbrels

Now with umbrels!  I'm still thinking about how I want to incorporate the indigo dyed silk organza net into this piece.

WIP - Queen Anne's Birds

Some detail shots of the stitching thus far.

Queen Anne's Birds!

Now with some stitching, I used a varigated thread in blues.

I have yet to decide if I want to include the indigo silk organza net layer.

Corn No. 51 - On it's Way

Corn. No. 51
Matted and Framed. Finished to 11x14x2 inches.

WIP - Untitled Corn

Experimenting with different thread colors and thicknesses.
4x6ish inches. Natural dyed cotton fabric.

My Creative Process: Decisions, Decisions

A few blocks of digitally printed silk organza layered over the digital image.

Medium value of indigo dyed silk organza net.

A very light value of indigo dyed silk organza net. 

I haven't made a final decision yet on the ove rall directioni of the piece.  I have, however, toyed with the idea of playing off the Queen Anne's Lace that's part of the digital collage.

Indigo and Rust

New Work Coming Soon!

Digitally printed silk organza overlaying a piece of logwood purple dyed silk organza, the small red strip of fabric on top is madder lac dyed silk organza net.

Clematis

My clematis, it's a bit thin this year due to lack of rain.

My Creative Process Part 3 of 4

The more I think about my creative process, the more I don't want to think about the it!  While I'm a process oriented artist, I'd rather be "doing" the process than simply writing about it.  So today, in pictures, this part of the process of writing about my creative process is all about auditioning a piece in progress.  And I'll probably post more photos in the next day or so as I work towards completing this piece.

Digital printed cotton fabric, printed from one of my photo collages, layered atop a piece of painted timtex.

I've been having a very hard time bringing myself to cut up, stitch, or otherwise use this piece of fabric.  And that is odd.  Odd in that I could easily print a hundred more of this collage onto fabric, paper, or whatever, so why not???

A digital piece of fabric that I printed from one of my photo collages, layered atop a piece of painted timtex.

And now with a digtially printed sheer silk organza fabric layed atop the other two layers.

And now with a layer of osage orange dyed silk organza layerd atop the previous two layers.

This piece will go through many auditions, layers, etc. before the first stitches take place, and once I start stitching I will then start auditioning more layers once again.

My Process Update

I'm behind the 8 ball, actually the truth is closer to I'm behind the 95F and I have NO central air or air conditioning 8 ball and in reality just didn't feel like posting an update today.  See everyone tomorrow!

Sample

Silk crepe de chine with screen and mono printed with natural dye extracts.

WIP - Untitled

Work In Progress from sometime around 2002. 
Natural Dyed Silk and Cotton Fabrics.  Natural Dyed Silk Cocoons.  Indigo Dyed Cotton Fabric. Machine and Hand Stitched.

Sketch and Note Books



Sketchbooks and notebooks all a part of my creative process, even for natural dyeing.  I keep swatches of fabrics in the notebooks with notes on how I acquired the color.

Inspiration 061512

Area Show:43

Corn No. 51 was accepted into the MacNider's Area Show: 43, now to pack it up and ship it off!

8.5x11 inches matted and framed to 11x14 inches.
Natural dyed and compost dyed cotton fabrics, digitally printed cotton fabric, machine stitched.

My Creative Process Part 2 of 4

Stage 2 of my creative process is to take notes, if I haven’t been doing so already, and to start auditioning my materials for the new work/series.   

My drawing desk on which I keep a piece of white butcher paper.  I like the white paper as it allows me to draw on it, take notes, and audition darkers objects such as these letter press blocks.

For those of you following my blogs you know that I have a large inventory of supplies to work with: these supplies range from naturally dyed fabrics, to handmade papers (many I made myself), inks, paint, threads, beads, shells, rocks, etc.  Actually, what I have are collections.  Collections that I have been creating and adding too since I was about nine years of age.

Some natural dye materials for dyeing fabric and fibers.

Rusty objects for dyeing fabrics and papers as well as for inspiration.

 

Shell bits and rocks from one of my collections, these live on my desk.

As part of the creative process I audition many of the objects in my collections, and image library, sometimes it's a series of phrases I've read in a book that inspire a piece.

WIP - Big Blue Stem

Here it is hanging vertically, I started this piece many moons ago, as in like sometime around 1999 many moons ago! 

This piece has always bothered me, there's a thread over on the Quilt Art list about cutting up a piece.  Well I've been tempted to cut the dark side of this quilt off for some 12 years now!  Now that I have Adobe CS 6 I've started experimenting with this piece

Here it is without the marks, I'm thinking some additional stitching and or embellishment is needed to make this piece really sing.

Quartz

My Creative Process Part 1 of 4

I recieved an email from a follower earlier in the week asking me about my creative process, how do I get started, etc.  The email contained all sorts of questions, images of her very lovely work, etc., but the gist of the story is how to start the creative process for a piece.  The more I thought about it, and wrote to her, the more I realized that I there was a blog post(s) in the anwser.

For my latest series of stitched stories, Corn, I started out by looking at images in my photo library.

And I start thinking about the theme, what in the photos captures my eye design wise?

I also spend thousands of hours staring at fields, ditches, corn plants, grain bins, silos, etc., in varying light and seasons studying how the light moves and bounces across the objects, studying how they change shape and form in different lighting.

The next thing I do, and this can be days, weeks, months, or even years later, is decide if I want to work in fabric/fiber, encaustic, or with paint.  I admit sometimes I work in all of those mediums just to see how it'll turn out in the end, what I thought might be a great idea for fabric bombs and turns out to be exquisite when worked up in wax!

 More tomorrow!

Red Winged Black Bird taken at Cooper's Marsh, Story County, Iowa.

Inspiration 061212

Found in the parking lot at Cooper's Marsh, Story County, Iowa.

Natural Dyed Fabrics

Screen printed natural dye extracts onto cutch dyed silk dupioni.

Screen printed osage orange onto cochineal and lac dyed silk crepe de chine fabric.

I've been looking for a piece of natural dyed, compost dyed, mono and screen printed silk fabric I surfaced back around 2006, I'm finding everything but that particular piece of fabric!!!

Experimenting 061112

Experimenting with some digitally printed silk and cotton overlays over natural dyed fabrics.

Future Art Cloth

A large tub filled with muslin that overwintered in the tomato garden.  Will be washing this batch tomorrow, about 30 yards worth, and then putting it through the paces for bundles and immersion dye baths.

Corn No. 40

Corn No. 40 all spiffed up and ready for a new home! 
Matted and Framed 8x8x2 inches.

Garden Update 060912

Praying for rain!  Just finished watering the garden, by the time I was done it looked as if I hadn't even watered.  Tomorrow I'm putting down the final layer of heavy mulch along with the seaper hoses!

My grapevine has grapes on it for the first time in 8 years, mainly because the neighborhood thief didn't shear it off to the quick this past winter!!!  Yes I actually have someone who has been coming into my yard and cutting back my vines, and then stealing them!!! 

Anyway, we'll be putting netting on the arbor this coming week to keep the cardinals, and other birds, from stealing my grapes.  Mainly it's the cardinals that have been causing problems, they did a pretty good job of stripping the cherry tree that's just behind the grape vine, and the cherries hadn't even turned red yet.

WIP's - Corn Series

New Raised Bed

I need to edit the photos and post them here for this particular bed.  John has been experimenting with several approaches to the whole sustainable garden, one of those is the back to eden method.  In this new bed we layered composted wood chips and leaves on the bottom and then some good soil on the top.  I've planted lettuce in this bed and then once it's up I'll layer in leaves atop the soil in between the rows.

John will build the lid for it tomorrow, this will ensure that the rabbits don't eat my baby lettuce plants and the neighbors cat cannot use it as it's litterbox.

Corn No. 54 in Progress

Corn No. 54 in progress, before stitching to show the patterning of the compost dyed fabric.

Corn No. 53

Corn No. 53 - Madder Root dyed cotton fabric, cochineal dyed silk organza net. Machine stitched.