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.

"Textile Translations"

I got Maggie Grey's new book "Textile Translations" for myself and then decided to get it from D4Daisy Books Limited along with Maggie Grey's "Embellish and Stitch" and Julia Caprara's "Exploring Color" for Friends Fabric Art. They are all wonderfully inspirational books! I read straight through "Textile Translations" and "Exploring Color" as well as studied the fabulous full page photos of artwork thoroughly. I have yet to read through "Embellish and Stitch" aside from a brief skim and some artwork photos perusing.


The extra special thing about "Textile Translations" is that Maggie Grey is doing a free on-line workshop for people who get the book. I've signed up for the the Yahoo workshop group and started Lesson One which became available on November 1. Below is what I have so far. It is going to be a vessel of sorts.

It didn't come out exactly like it was supposed to, but I didn't have all the right supplies yet. I'm definitely having fun though! So if you are a fan of Maggie Grey, this book is a must have! Join the on-line workshop, too. It's not too late. The second lesson won't go up until December so there is plenty of time to get the book and play with new techniques with us!

Here's a detail shot below. I scanned it and couldn't seem to capture the colors right, but you can get the idea. I did some spraying of color on it and it was only by some miracle that I didn't spray the bright, white scarf Mom was needle-felting into nearby. She moved further away from me after that. I'm a bit too reckless with messy stuff. There were always people in my art classes who could do drawings with charcoal or paintings with acrylic or something and never get themselves messy. I never could understand how they did it. I'd be walking across campus later with charcoal smudges on my face. Anyway, the next time I tried the spraying technique, I set up a cardboard barrier around my project.

I've been hoping to put a little needle-felting project here for a while now, but I just can't seem to get around to taking the photos necessary to complete the idea. Oh well. It will happen eventually.

O brave new world

"O wonder!
How many goodly creatures are there here!
How beauteous mankind is!
O brave new world
That hath such people in't!"

~Shakespeare's The Tempest

"Ann Lee's Walking Wearables"

You have to check out the video of Mom's jacket fashion show at WASAA.org! It's so much fun! Anna said that we'll get a copy of it. She had to compress to file so don't expect video quality isn't like Netflicks or something. I love Anna's title for the video, "Ann Lee's Walking Wearables."

I sent out my article for the next Fibre & Stitch issue last night. This one's about experimenting with needle-felting. I was looking through my pictures folder last night and realized that I'd totally forgotten about one of my first forays into incorporating needle-felting into my artwork. I used needle-felting for attaching the holographic Angelina fibers to a piece of black velvet that I had put lighter spots on with a bleach pen. Here is a detail that sort of shows the holographic Angelina fibers. They aren't easy to photograph.

The whole piece is sort of like a view of space at night. Again the combination of black velvet and holographic Angelina is not the easiest surface to photograph. Maybe someday I'll fork over the money for professional photography...
The article for Fibre & Stitch talks about needle-felting Angelina so you'll have to check that out for more details.

Yippee!!!

There are so many things to be excited about lately! The other night I got my log in info to access the new issue of "Fibre & Stitch." Guess who's art that is on the cover? Yup, that's one o' mine! It's too cool. Then of course you can turn to page 11 for "Needle-Felting, An Embellisher Alternative" by Sonja Lee-Austin and Ann Lee! http://www.fibreandstitch.com/

Other nifty news is that the Lowell Zoning Board approved the Live/Work space at Western Avenue Studios! This struggle to get approval was what the "Dirty, Smelly, Noisy" exhibit a while ago was about. Here's an article that was in the Lowell Sun about it: Cheers as Lowell ZBA approves artists' live-work units and here's the info about the artist's live/work space: http://www.liveatwas.com/

Mom and I are also still floating from having our exhibit, Fluid Blue - Fabric Art in the Loading Dock Gallery.

Photo by Sam Slike

Here are some images from the exhibit and the fashion show of Mom's jackets. You should also check out Liz's awesome photos and details about the fashion show at her blog: http://madeinlowell.blogspot.com/

Photo by Sam Slike

Photo by Sam Slike

Photo by Sam Slike