Just Dreaming ~ Art to Wear

Mom (Ann Lee) is hosting yet another Art to Wear Jackets Fashion Show on Friday, December 4th at 6pm in the loading dock on the 2nd floor of the A-Mill at Western Avenue Studios. This show features Japanese kimono-like jackets. The basic form for many of the jackets is similar to a short Haori jacket which is a versatile, comfortable style. Mom pieces colorful and patterned fabrics in creative ways to give the jackets a unique, modern flair.



The artists' reception for the Winter Lights II exhibit follows the fashion show at the Loading Dock Gallery which is right near the fashion runway so be sure to stick around to see gorgeous jewelry from Heather Wang, Betsy Keeney, Barbara Frost, & Barbara Guilmet, glittering glasswork from Peter Zimmerman and Judith Copeland, and cozy scarves from Kristin Kelley.

Other exciting news is that our new, improved web shop is almost ready to go live. Yah! Soon I can return to expending energy on artistic endevours!

By the by for those who enjoyed my Artful Mindfulness article, check out Karen Wallace's blog: Art Therapy Reflections. For her post Reflecting on Burnout , I scored myself as "You are a candidate" on The Burnout Scale. Must remember to breathe and put my shoulders down.

We also have Holiday Open Studios upcoming at Western Ave Studios:
December 5th & 6th and December 12th & 13th from noon to 5pm

Lutradur

I’ve joined C & T Publishing’s Creative Troupe to help create samples for them with their products. I’ve been having fun with new Lutradur products: lightweight black and ultra-lightweight white Lutradur. I haven’t played with regular weight Lutradur much before, but I’ve read about other artists who use it.

I have played with Tyvek so I thought the Lutradur would be comparable. I was a bit surprised to find out that the Lutradur didn’t shrink and distress as much as Tyvek with a heat gun. I can get Tyvek to be quite dimensional with a heat gun, but the Lutradur only curled up towards the heat of the heat gun a little bit by comparison. The flower of this necklace is Tyvek with a freshwater pearl center.
I’ve gotten wary about melting things so I wore my respirator while zapping the Lutradur with a heat gun. I’m still afraid that I might not have the right type of respirator so I don’t think I’ll be doing much Lutradur or Tyvek melting. Some say there isn’t any harm in heating Tyvek and Lutradur, but I haven’t exactly seen any test results and MDS sheets are hard to figure out. The hard part is that Tyvek does such cool things when you heat it that makes it tempting to play with the heat gun and an iron with it. So use your own discretion about whether you want to try melting Lutradur or Tyvek.

Below is one piece of the ultra-lightweight Lutradur that I started. It was stitched with metallic blue thread and then zapped with a heat gun. It will probably end up in my stash of random test pieces that could be used some day in a piece of artwork. I may have to clean out my random test bits collection soon though since it’s getting out of control or maybe I just need to organize them into nice little IKEA organizer containers…Who knows when that would happen!
I’ve found a new solution to avoiding future web shop fiascos. It's a new webcart software that is fully supported so I’ll have help if I ever run into problems upgrading again! Open source software is wonderful, but sometimes you just want the instant help and not have to do all the troubleshooting yourself. Keep watch for our new improved web shop!

“Artists give you something you didn’t know you were missing.”
~ Daniel Pink A Whole New Mind

Uff da!

Uff da about explains how I've been feeling about our web shop lately. You may have noticed our message in red on our website main page about our web shop not working properly or the web shop site being "Down for Maintenance." This was the result of my attempt to update the web shop software and goofing it up big time so "Uff da!"

I hope to get the web shop up and running properly soon, but please bare with my PHP and MySQL ignorance for the time-being. I bought myself a lovely over 500 page book for future learning so this won't happen again if I can help it. (Web Shop is up and running again as of Sept. 13, but please let me or Mom (Ann) know if you run into anything not working right.)

Before I messed up the web shop, I added a nifty article that I just finished up to our website that I hope will be helpful to anyone experiencing artist block: Artful Mindfulness It's a diversion from some of the straight technique articles I've written. Western Avenue Studio's artist Glenn Szegedy was incredibly helpful with helping me figure out how to go about writing it. You should see his artwork: http://www.glennszegedy.com/ I especially love his Butterflies and Koi silk paintings: http://www.glennszegedy.com/silkpainting.html This is an image from the doing the exercise in "Artful Mindfulness:"

I also updated our Thermofax Silk-Screen Printing article recently. It has photos and more info than before.

Stitching Travel Tips

My how time flies. I'll be off and flying to Philadelphia again myself this weekend. Nick and I have another wedding to go to. His brother got married in San Diego in July. People seem to keep telling me that I'm at that age when you have a lot of weddings to go to.

Perhaps this time I'll actually do some stitching on the plane. I've discovered that if I keep my threads cut to a nice length I don't even need to worry about not being able to have scissors on the plane although nail clippers work pretty well. With most embroidery threads you can open the skein up and then snip one end for a perfect length. I read that tip somewhere. I thought it was a Rajmahal threads flier, but who knows since it was some time ago.

I have a travel stitching mesh bag that I bring with me almost daily in case I feel like stitching on the train to and from work. I have a set of DMC ziplock baggies connected by metal rings for my thread assortment. It makes it easy to flip through my threads, but then it isn't really possible to bring all the threads I have with me so I have to try to remember to pick out the threads that I want for a project ahead of time.

It would help if I could keep only one project at a time in my travel bag, but at the moment I have three - no wait that's four. I got bored with the first two so I had to start another one and then of course I had an idea for a new project which was more interesting. I can't quite commit to not-finishing the first three projects and I can't figure out what to do with them so they've been sitting in my bag for months now. I've thought about breaking out the beads to use on them, but I never remember when I'm at home and could take a look at my bead stash.

Here's project #1 - started several years ago as a color study during a Laura Cater-Woods workshop on a quilting cruise to Alaska:
and #2 - an experiment with gesso ala Maggie Grey's "Textile Translations" book:
and #3 - leaf gelatin prints on felt printed who knows when, at least a few years ago:

#4 is based on photos taken from the train of the Concord River in winter. I think I'll leave #s 1 through 3 home now and focus on the Concord River piece since that one seems to interest me most at the moment.

Recombobulation

Turns out it is a joke: http://www.jsonline.com/news/milwaukee/29452504.html This is the sign we saw at the Milwaukee Airport when we went out to visit relatives this May. It gave me a good case of the giggles which is something that probably doesn't happen a lot in airports. Don't try to find the word at Merriam-Webster's website though because it's not there. It's my kinda word!

Anywho... I've been using my sketches lately to create Thermofax Silk Screens so I thought I'd share my process here. Maybe then I'll get around to doing some sort of demo for printing with Thermofaxes to share on-line.

Here's a page from a sketchbook that I created a Thermofax from. Not sure when the image was drawn, but it was at least a few years ago.

I converted this to grayscale using Adobe Photoshop Elements which is what I use most for image editing, but most image editing programs will allow you to convert an image to grayscale and then play with the contrast.

For this I used the auto contrast feature, but sometimes I like to bump up the contrast manually to get more black than lighter grays. After increasing the contrast to bring out the details, I used the "stamp" filter to convert most of the grays into blacks. The Thermofax machine will only capture areas that are black or almost black so the stamp filter is a good one for creating images for Thermofax silk screens. It does have a bit of a stylistic "stamp-ish" look to it for some images and it won't always capture the detail that you want for an image even when you play with the options for "Light/Dark Balance" and "Smoothness," but it worked well for this sketch.

This image which I dubbed "Fleur 2" is now available as a Large Thermofax Silk Screen in the Friends Fabric Art webshop along with a bunch of other images that I've created. Some of them are from old sketches and some are new ones developed from Dover-type clip art images that either wouldn't work well as is for silk screens or needed some jazzing up anyway. (It also makes more sense in order prevent any sort of copyright issue.) So far most of the new ones are from old sketches, but other new ones will be arriving soon, because I'm addicted to drawing them. One of these days I'll have to do some actual screen-printing with the images myself.On a totally different note, fellow Loading Dock Gallery and Western Avenue Studio artists, Bill Tyers and Jack Holmes are having an art exhibit called "Wandering Feet" at the Loading Dock Gallery and I wrote a pretty nifty press release for them! Please check it out here: http://www.lowell.com/news/2009/wandering-feet-3948.php I rather like how it came out.

If you are local to the Lowell, MA area and can go, the exhibit is photography by Jack and pastels by Bill and runs May 27 to June 21. The press release and the Loading Dock Gallery website have all the details.

Tea time! Have a lovely weekend!

P.S. "Dirty, Smelly, Noisy" is back! Now we have Dirty Smelly Noisy Two - An Exhibition in Celebration of the Inspiration to Be Found in Industrial Spaces at Western Avenue Studios running for the month of June with opening potluck reception on Saturday June 6th from 5:30 to 9pm. You may be able to guess what I'll be doing this weekend when art for the exhibit is due on Monday! I'm excited about the piece that I'm working on. It's focus is on Dunkin Donuts Styrofoam cups that I see lying around on the ground breaking apart into bits that will never really go away as far as we know anyway. I'm thinking of calling it "Legacy" although I've been having fun thinking up names for it.

Lowell Waterways

Thanks so much for the comments! I plan to put the new pattern up on the web for the iPod Pouch one of these days. Who knows where it ended up in the studio moving process?!

It's official - my Lowell Waterways art quilt is getting a new home. It's going to a conference room of the new Jeanne D'Arc Credit Union headquarters building in Lowell! I'm quite tickled. It is so fitting that it has found a permanent home in Lowell since it is made up of photographs of Lowell canals and rivers.

I've been experimenting with Ink Jet Shrink Film and colored wire. My experiment evolved from yet another cool on-line class project from Maggie Grey. I made this funky, little box:

The white of the shrink film is a bit glaring, but since I didn't know how the experiment would work out, I didn't bother to color the back-side of the shrink film. I'll have to see if I can figure out how to color shrink film after it has shrunk. Here's another view:
The image that I printed on the Ink Jet Shrink Film is a photo of a sculpture that was in the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden. If I make a similar do-dad I'll try to remember to take step-by-step photos to share.

I kind of want to get a cheap toaster oven for shrinking shrink film, but all the reviews on-line for the cheap ones warned about problems with them catching fire. Maybe I just need to be extra careful with it... I'll stick with my craft heat gun for now.

New Space

I've been moving my art stuff from my condo into a new studio space at Western Avenue Studios the last few weekends. I have a lot of stuff! I don't know where it has all come from. I have been trying to organize it all for a while now, but never really made much of a dent. Having a new space to organize it in should help as well as the new shelves and containers from IKEA.
The new space is three doors down from the Friends Fabric Art space so I can easily run back and forth between the two spaces.

I haven't gotten much artsy stuff done lately, but I did do this watercolor based on a William Morris pattern on the Victoria & Albert website. I did it to fit in a travel coffee mug designed to hold photos.

I also finished a fancy, new pattern of iPod Pouch to use. I may still have to add a tassel or beads dangling at the bottom.

Whatnot

My doesn't time fly once again. I had such good intentions of putting up a nice felted pin project for the holidays and it's still not ready... Ah me. Must let go. I'm still playing with Maggie Grey's projects and techniques for her Textile Translations book. I was having fun decorating my Moleskine calendar and sketchbooks one day. My calendar one has my usual swirl in the usual blue color. Here's a sketchbook that I had all ready started the inside with a water theme so it needed an appropriate cover.

We have also been doing an altered book project for Maggie Grey's workshop. Below is one page. I may add more to it. I almost totally freaked the first time I saw someone rip pages out of a book. It was an old art history textbook that the person was using the pages of to decorate the walls of a dorm lounge area. It wasn't even what I would call a boring book! This book was of no use to anyone anymore and donated to the cause of art by my friend Catherine. Altering books is fun once you get over the initial shock of cutting book pages (assuming this would bother you in the first place).

Before I sign off, I wanted to remember to say...if you have checked out my iPod Pouches project available at the Fibre & Stitch Free Projects section of their website and you have an iPod that is not the same Shuffle that I have, let me know what your iPod measurements are (including the size for the controls with their distance from the edges and the same for the screen if your has one) and I'd be happy to make a pattern for you.

I started to get patterns ready for other size iPods, but I wasn't able to get all the measurements that I need just from what is available on the web. You'll have to give me a week or two to do the pattern just in case life gets in the way of doing it right away. Please e-mail the measurements and type of iPod.
ttfn

Sculpted Tid Bits

I said a few blogs ago that I was doing an on-line workshop with Maggie Grey that is free with her new book "Textile Translations" and I showed the beginning stages of one of the projects. Well now, I'm thrilled to say that Maggie chose my "wigwam book" to show on her blog: http://magstitch.blogspot.com/2008/12/secret-revealed.html It's too exciting! Below are two other views. Unfortunately the second one is fuzzy because I was taking photos late at night with a bad cold and I haven't had a chance to re-photograph that view. The wigwam name for these creations came out of the Yahoo group chatting, but I don't remember who "christened" them. Mine is a bit less like a wigwam than a jester hat or something. If you are in Lowell this coming weekend, December 13 & 14, stop by our studio (#304) at Western Avenue Studios to see it in person. We are having a second weekend of Holiday Open Studios. More details at: http://www.westernavenuestudios.com/
Here is another vessel that was created with some of the techniques in the "Textile Translations" book. I don't think it is done yet, but I haven't figured out what it needs next. I also decorated my composition notebook cover. It started out using one of Maggie's techniques, but then it needed more color (blue of course!) so I painted it with some blue acrylics and Golden interference oxide green paint (lovely stuff). It is much more fun to carry around in my backpack now.

I suppose that's all for now!
Happy Holidays!

Pod Pouches & VNA Quilt

My iPod Pouches are on the Fibre & Stitch Free Projects page! This one is the first one I made for my iPod Shuffle. It is getting pretty worn out now. I can't even remember when I made it. I put my iPod in it and wear it like a necklace on the train and subway to work. I think it's pretty snazzy.I had trouble with my iPod getting unclipped from my jacket or shirt with getting squished into a subway car with lots of other people. Somehow this led to the development of the pod pouch (as I call it when I'm being less specific than iPod pouch). The material on this one is thin enough that I could operate the controls for the on/off switch without having to pop the iPod out of the pouch.


Since this one has been used so much and is made out of doupioni silk, I had to go in and do a bit of repair work by reinforcing the fabric by fusing on a second layer of fabric on the inside. It's now a bit stiff, but it still works great.

Another project that Mom and I have finished lately is a panel of the "Healing Pieces" quilt for the Lowell Visiting Nurses Association's 100th birthday. We worked together on one out of five panels of the quilt based on a Louis Comfort Tiffany stained glass window. The other panels were made by teams of two members each of the Lowell Fiber Studio. The quilt progresses from nighttime to daytime. Mom and I worked on the sunset/sunrise panel.
Last Thursday we went to a reception for the quilt's hanging. A fantastic flower arrangement was made to completement the quilt. I love the way the flowers chosen mimic the night to day colors in the quilt.

This is the panel that Mom and I worked on. The photos of houses are actual Lowell houses that Sharon and Gwen, members of the Lowell Fiber Studio, photographed and then the photos were printed on fabric.

Coming soon...instructions & photos to easily create your own needle felted and embroidered pins.