The Bride Series - The Bride Painted

This is the last of this series of pieces - and this one is different to the other two in that it is a framed piece, rather than a 3D mask.

The inspiration came from a photo of a young South American girl, her face painted and her head part shaved, that I found on Pinterest.

I used the 'quilt as you go' method using my hand dyed fabrics to represent the painted markings on her face and the bluish shaved part of her head.  A mask shape made from painted and heat treated tyvek continued the Mask theme and a flutter of fabric leaf shapes decorated her hair.

This piece was framed to protect the fabrics.

Before it was framed - I couldn't get a decent shot after it was framed because the light kept reflecting off the glass.

The Bride 1 – Painted

Height:   85 cm

Width:    90 cm

Depth:    4 cm

Materials:             

·         Tyvek, painted with acrylic

·         Hand dyed cotton fabric

·         Cotton batting

·         Silk cord

·         Cotton threads

·         Perle embroidery threads

·         Linen threads

·         Silk threads

The Bride Series was my contribution to our first, 'real' exhibition - 'our' being my Textile Arts cohort, collectively known as Stitch Theorem.

It was a huge learning curve and the experience held us in good stead for our Graduate Exhibition - and what I'll be talking about from next week.

The Bride Series - The Bride Masked

Continuing with the theme, inspiration came from many women/girls who are masked or veiled for the ceremony - which also has comparisons to the veil worn at traditional western weddings....

Beaded, painted and adorned with precious threads and fabrics, all eyes are on her as she makes her way to her destiny.

Height:   69 cm

Width:    60 cm

Depth:    20.5 cm

Materials:             

·         Wood

·         Sun dyed cotton fabric

·         Cotton batting

·         Silk cord

·         Cotton threads

·         Perle embroidery threads

·         Linen threads

·         Silk threads

·         Steel

·         Corflute

·         Beads

·         Commercially printed fabric

·         Fencing wire

Textiles

We're getting to the tail end of the Diploma of Textile Arts; we've got an exhibition in January 2014 (that I haven't yet made anything for...) and our graduate exhibition in May ish (dates and venue hasn't been finalised yet).  We've learned many techniques and processes and some I've loved and some I'm not enjoyed so much.

Before today, I didn't enjoy felting at all - I thought it was all wet dog smells and strange results (well, mine were very strange) however, we had to make a 3D form today using the dry felting method and while I started the day thinking, "Hmmm, another process, wonder what crap result I can get today" and after many stabbed fingers with a cruel and unusual tool (it has a sharp point and barbs!!) I so love my 3D form.....meet Elvis the Alpaca..

before his nose was added

He actually started life as a sheep - but I made his neck too long so he became an alpaca - so much fun - so I'm thinking I might make one of my fat ladies in felt for the January exhibition.....best buy myself some leather finger protectors too.....

Quilt show bounty

Like many, many others, I joined the throngs at AQC in the beautiful Royal Exhibition Buildings to view quilts and NOT buy anything.

I actually drove a bus full of the wonderful ladies who come to my classes and we had a fabulous day - of course I forgot to get a photo of us all but I remembered the camera to take photos of the quilts...I especially enjoyed the twelveby12 exhibition - the artistry and work(wo)manship of the miniatures is very inspiring - I think I'd be breaching their copyright if I added photos of their quilts so I've linked to their website instead.  If you get a chance to view these beauties 'in the flesh', you should - photos really don't do them justice - especially not the way I take photos anyway :)

Another exhibition was from Korea - I had hoped to see a piece or 2 in the traditional pojagi style but unfortunately there wasn't one - but it didn't take away from the pieces on display.  I was particularly drawn to this next one...

It appears to be influenced by pojagi and the use of colour and the method of assembly is just brilliant - love it.

Given it's shaky beginning, AQC continues to get bigger and better and I really am glad I went - there was more quilts and they weren't limited to the 'traditional' - lots of 'art' quilts and different techniques displayed - something for everyone....here's a little montage of others that caught my eye...

I did take photos of the makers of these so if anyone wants info, please let me know :)

...and of course, best laid plans and all that......I bought stuff, including fabric (of which I have thousands of metres already....)

I bought fabric paint, gorgeous shot cotton applique pieces from Reece Scanell, English paper piecing templates, stamping foam, printable silk sheets, silk sari strips (to make cords from), aluminium for mixed media and some fat quarters: including Pure, Comma, Zen Chic, Urban Mod, a little Flea Market Fancy and a fabulous stencil of old London town.  I told myself that most of what I bought is for an upcoming exhibition piece, so I shouldn't feel so guilty.....

.....and now I have to go and get some work done - I've client quilts to quilt, some screen printing to do for my work-book as well as a portfolio cover to make, then after that some items for 2 upcoming markets........good job I like being busy :)

On the Friday night I attended a lecture by Judy Coates Perez, a mixed media artist from America who shared her inspirations and her works with us - lots of inspiration there - she also had a booth within the show so we could watch her work - and she is the reason I bought the aluminium sheets....

ps - Box Hill TAFE are advertising another Diploma of Textile Arts course to start mid-year - if you're interested, have a look at their website for more information.

getting busy with it....

...because getting jiggy with it sends out all the wrong messages and seems to invite offers of unwanted accoutrements from 'anonymous'........

anyhoo - have been busy stitching up a storm.....

I completed a client quilt today on the longarm - I used a pantograph pattern I haven't used before - half feathers and a leafy type of shape...

Anne pieced large stars in this gorgeous range of fabrics - Will and Lily or something - not that - but I can't remember the name, mixed with some self patterned whites and creams.  The quilt is really prettily sophisticated and the pantograph I used fits it perfectly...

I also got stuck into one of my assignments for school - we've been studying art history this semester and each of us had to give a presentation about a period in history to the rest of class.  After each class we had to update a timeline and then do a little representative free motion stitching piece......here's the Venus of Willendorf from the Prehistory presentation - noone is really sure what she represents - could be mother, grief or simply prehistoric porn......

For the final assignment, we had to create a stitched piece using mostly machine stitching.  Originally I was going to design something close to my presentation - the Vikings - but after reviewing my notes and sketches, I got thinking about women's hair-do's...

We'd been shown the Willendorf Venus' beanie style hairdo, the flowing locks of Botticelli's "The Birth of Venus" and the tightly wound curls of Queen Elizabeth I, amongst others......so I played around with that (and recording development of the piece in my visual diary, just like a good student would!) and came up with this...

Each of these ladies had red hair which is why I used orange silk for the background - and then I stitched and stitched and stitched.  I added hand made cord to represent ribbons or bands worn in the hair and a few beads.  The only casualty was my finger when I didn't get it out of the way of the needle fast enough - that was fun - not - especially when I had a splinter in the thumb of my other hand...oh well, done now....now to finish the time line...oh, and the community house banner....and the ironing......and a Kris Kringle gift for sunday for my sewing group.....you get the drift....

The Vikings are coming....

Not really - but I have been looking into their arts and crafts - let me explain.....

This semester, one of our units is 'Art History and Art Theory' and in the first week, we had to choose a period in history (on a time line given to us), research and give the class a 15 minute presentation on either an artist from the period, or failing that, the style of the period - we also had to include environmental influences, ie social, political, etc etc.  and discuss their arts and crafts.

I really do not know what drew me to the Vikings - apart from their pillage and plunder of my homeland a thousand or so years ago, I didn't have a great deal of knowledge about them - and the name of a Viking artist didn't really spring to mind.  I knew they wore horned helmets and were very violent.....

Well, they were violent - some of them anyway - and they didn't wear horned helmets - and surprisingly they were quite civilised.

In the course of my research, I came across a type of weaving that Viking women were very proficient at - it's called Tablet weaving - it produces a type of braid that they sewed onto their clothes etc - there is a lot of information about it on the net and  I picked up a fabulous old weaving book from the school library - and it's very easy to do at home - so I thought I'd have a crack.

First I had to make the 'tablets' - I made mine out of playing cards but Viking women would have made theirs out of leather, wood, stone or bone.  Next was the threading of the warps, followed by the actual weaving.....

the tablet - I made 8 of these

the first attempt at threading was a bit of a disaster

threading again

all threaded and looking a little more orderly

getting the hang of it - the tablets are rotated in 4 x 1/4 turns forward, then 4 backward (otherwise the warp threads start to weave themselves - ask me how I know!)

 Here's the braid so far..

I used some crappy cotton yarn I found that I think I bought in the 80's!

By threading up different colours in the holes, adding more tablets, turning the tablets in different directions and swapping the order of the tablets as you go along creates other patterns - you can even create the alphabet and make a name braid....

So I'm going to take this practice braid off the clamps and make some more tablets - I'm thinking lots more tablets because I want to use perle thread for the warps (so I'll need heaps otherwise it's going to look like a cord, rather than a braid!), because I've had an idea about what I want to produce for the textile piece we have to hand in at the end of the semester...oh, and my BFF found a Youtube vid that shows you how to do Viking knitting with metal (jewelers will know all about Viking chains) and I want to have a crack at that too....

Better off red..

I have been busy getting my folio together for school - this unit was all about colour theory, different dying techniques, samples and stitcheries;  We also had to create a folio cover based on 'The colours of our lives'......

It took me quite a while to work out what to do for this folio cover - I knew I wanted to use fabrics I'd dyed myself and I also knew I wanted to use the colour red...

After much faffing about and false starts..

false start no. 1

I thought about layers and how we choose to reveal only some parts of ourselves...and came up with this..



and promptly had an omg moment - it looks RUDE!!!!

So I cut away a few more layers, stitched a little more and roughed up the edges for texture...

this looks very orangey, but trust me, it's red! - the colours on the previous 'rude' picture are more true

Much more presentable!

I also finished all my stitcheries...

yellow and blanket/buttonhole stitch

orange and straight stitch

violet and chain stitch

green and satin stitch

red and fly / feather stitch

blue and colonial knots with rice/seed stitch

so, just have a few more things to do and it's presentation time on friday.......phew

Bee blocks.......and lots of other stuff....

It seems like forever that I posted - in reality, it's been a week, but not getting on the computer everyday makes such a difference - the 'To be read' list of posts from the uber talented I follow continue to circle the globe and I don't seem to be making any dent in it with the paltry time I'm 'allowing' myself - hopefully all will change next term (this term really has been very busy and I'm hoping it's not indicative of the rest of the course)

So, I got up early, read a couple of posts and thought I'd quickly add what's been happening around here....

A couple of Bee blocks, the first for the Australia Bee....

such a pretty block

The next couple are for do.good Stitches - Melissa sent the pink dot for the final round and the rest we contributed...

The final pink round on the second one actually matches the first for colour - so the saturation you see is a bit exagerated!

These blocks have been sent off to their respective bee mamas.

In other news, the ladies in my classes have been busily sewing away their projects of the month...

The gorgeous Barb - and it's the very first thing she has ever made - love that beaming 'I made it myself' smile..

This months project - a zipped, lined pouch - they did a fabulous job.....

A couple of days ago I dyed some fabric to use for the stitched piece for school - the brief is titled 'colours of our lives' and I'm going red....reddish.....what the??

Buster had to get himself in the photo again - this time his 'other' end

 

So, time to go......today I'm mounting samples of fabrics dyed with various dye mediums (sun dyes, RIT dyes and Landscape dyes) and I really must make a start on the reports.......arrivederci...

WIP Wednesday - well it would be, but now it's Thursday and the link is closed :(

omg - I knew it had been a while since linking up with WIP Wednesday at Lee's, but just saw that the last time was 9th Feb - definately a long time between drinks!

So obviously there's a little bit of creativity going on in the meantime - most of which relates to the Textiles course I'm doing, but I got a few things done outside of that too :)

I have a finish which started about here....

Totally inspired by this

Here's the back........

there's actual sunshine in Melbourne today!

I finished up another quilt...

I'm in the process of adding hand quilting to this next one...

Completed some farmers wife and projects for school, sewing bees and my teaching classes...

I also managed to complete a few quilting commissions on the long-arm too - I'm sure there's more but it's been so long I think I'd be here forever finding all the photos!

Anyway - pop on over to Lee's and check out everyone else's awesome WIP's - huge amount of inspiration out there :)

Images from School 3 - LUSCIOUS FRUIT

The last of this series for tonight..................

The brief for this assignment was to chose a fruit and portray its lusciousness using textiles.  We had to bring in an actual piece of fruit and explore its form.  Now, at considerable risk (because my teacher will likely read this) I completely forgot to get a piece of fruit ready for the initial class....so as I was running out of the house to jump into the car to go to school, I let the chooks out and spied the lemon tree....so I grabbed a lemon, thinking, "That'll do...."

Man, did I struggle with representing a luscious lemon (serves me right I guess!).......I played around with all sorts of stuff but nothing made me think, "Mmmmmmm, how luscious....."

So, I pondered, had a glass of wine, pondered a bit more and thought "What would make a lemon luscious?"  Lemon meringue pie? Lemon curd? Lemon cordial? Tequila?

Yep, Lick, Sip, Suck - works for me.......

So I created a Luscious Fruit Basket, with lemons, salt, a shot glass, instructions (on how to Lick, Sip, Suck like a pro!) and a bottle of Tequila.....

Lemons made from shaped and stuffed panne velvet and hand dyed fabric leaves - with a twig from the garden for the stalks.  A bag of 'salt' made from fabric I created with my printer espousing the virtues of the lemon.

Carol made a wallhanging from a stylised apple accompanied by shine and stitching - you can defo see why Eve had such a hard time (if you subscribe to that theory!)

Kristen created a gorgeous 3D fig, full of texture and colour

Margaret cleverly represented longans in this wall hanging

Many apologies to Carolyn, who created a couple of amazing cherries, and Sherryn who really thought outside the square to produce a handbag in the form of a dragon fruit - I didn't get a decent photo of these 2 pieces of work, so I can't show them tonight.

I'm in awe of the talent and skills of my classmates - I'm in splendiferously inspiring company.....

Images from school 2 - FOLIO COVER

The brief for this next piece, the Folio Cover, directed us to create a Folio Cover based on a drawing, or part thereof, we had completed in our Art Class.

I already blogged about mine here.

Here's a few more....

In one of our art classes, we covered a piece of paper with charcoal and then used a kneadable eraser to lift off the colour and reveal the highlights - which as we worked, revealed the form of the still life subject - Margaret used White King (a domestic household bleach) on black homespun in a similar way - you can see the shape of the bottles as well as a plant on the left. Brilliant

Sherryn cropped one of her charcoal drawings and the resultant image reminded her of a waterfall - so this is how she interpreted that - lots of FMQing and colour - my photography simply doesn't do it justice (sorry Sherryn!)

Kristen chose to use an image she created in relation to the 'Lucious Fruit' assignment.  The colours she used and the FMQ on the fig itself generated a vibrant cover

Carol also used a Lucious Fruit drawing, depicting a beautiful apple.  She cleverly used a serviette to create the background as well as various other stitching, fabric and buttons to introduce interest and texture.

Carolyn used one of her photos, rather than her drawings - *gasp* - and created this rather fabulous seagull (not 2 words I would ever expect to put together in one sentence!!).  The colours (silk, paint, thread) are beautifully vibrant and portrays the sea magnificently

.......and on to the last of this series in a day........