Hanging Fibre Art...

Yesterday my friend and I went to see the fibre art show, Edge of The Forest. If you get a chance to see the show, currently at Art Square Gallery in Toronto (until May 4th), it is certainly worthwhile! I was especially taken by the beautiful work of Sheila Thompson. Her stunning felt art pieces are incredible!

The show did leave me wondering about 'traditional galleries' hanging fibre art. As this image shows, the art is hung using the same system that probably works well for framed art, canvases, etc., but I felt it didn't showcase these pieces in the best way.

I know that when I was involved in hanging the Fibre Content shows, those of us hanging the shows were a group of fibre artists (and friends/family) who understood the work and used a variety of means to hang the pieces so that the method chosen suited the particular piece, rather than using one system and trying to make all of the pieces conform to that 'structure'.

I sometimes also notice that attempts are made to hang fibre art pieces using traditional quilt show hanging methods...again, not alway the best way to showcase the work.

What do you think?



As stated above, I think the show is worth seeing, but if you are unable to get out to one the venues, you can also see the work on their site.

I took a few detailed photos of some of the pieces since I was so taken by the beautiful work. No commentary...just enjoy...

Another Look at a Work in Progress...

A while ago I showed you a few shots of a new piece I'm working on. Life (and puppies) are keeping me busy, but I am still working away at it, so I thought I'd show you a few more images. Today I've been working on some machine stitching before I get back to the rest of the hand stitching and beading...

I should be able to show you the finished piece before too long!

DLP Week 15: Cry Me a River...

I just love how some art journal pages evolve, almost on their own.

For this week's Documented Life Project challenge, we were to use acrylic paint (a go to of mine when it comes to art journalling) and the quote "Cry me a river".

I started by tearing up some 'under paper' that I had on my desktop, and those colours led me to randomly paint the journal page using Key Lime and Teal Zircon Silks acrylic glaze. I love the intense colours and that subtle sparkle you get with Silks!

I collaged those torn bits of under paper onto the painted page, and in the process I discovered that the glue I was using, when dried and rubbed off with my finger caused an interesting lighter marked area on the page.

I liked that effect so I started making glue circles in a slight arc near the top of the page.

After the glue had some time to dry a bit, I wiped the excess off leaving the circles you see. I added a bunch of doodles to the collaged papers and circles and then I started searching on Pinterest for quotes that related to the challenge quote (I didn't want to use the quote given, but wanted to find something that related to it).

I found this quote:

Cry a river.
Build a bridge.
Get over it.

That immediately had me seeing the collaged papers as pillars and the circles as the linking bridge...

        ...a few more words and an arrow and I was done!

Another Sneak Peek...

Yesterday, while looking for something in my stash, I came across a wonderful piece of hand-dyed fabric I had dyed quite some time ago. And to quote my friend Leah..."SQUIRREL!"

Yup, that which I was working on was forgotten as I started on a completely new piece! The moment I saw that hand-dyed fabric, an idea for something came into mind and I just couldn't let it go.(Partly because Leah's voice was also in my head saying, "One month! One month!" LOL.

Here are a couple of sneak peek images I can share with you so far. I'm off to an encaustic workshop today, so I probably won't have time to work on this piece again this weekend, but hopefully I'll have more to show you soon.

I hope you have a fabulous weekend too...I know I will!

DLP Week 14: It's Water Under the Bridge...

This week's DLP challenge was to explore watercolours and the challenge quote was 'It's water under the bridge.' I decided to stay away from anything too literal but still wanted to keep to the theme of the challenge.  

As I do each week, I used washi tape and some collage components to create my calendar/journalling area. This way, even if I don't get to the art on the rest of the page right away, I can still record my daily entries at the end of each day.

I used additional washi tape to create a border around the remaining part of the page spread.

Searching the Internet, I found this wonderful butterfly that I was able to resize and print in a variety of sizes. I used Tombow markers and my waterbrush to colour them. I then layered the larger ones with a piece of old sheet music and a map page from an old atlas so that when I cut them out I'd have three layers.

 I had a lovely piece of tissue paper with script on it, so I stabilized it with some fusible interfacing, misted it with a spray bottle and then painted it with a variety of Winsor & Newton watercolour paints to create a beautiful, watery wash.


Once the background had dried, I took my layered butterflies and the background sheet over to the sewing machine-this is why I had to stabilize the tissue paper.
I machine stitched the butterflies to the background sheet by sewing over the body of the butterfly, leaving the wings free.

This was then glued into my journal, leaving the border to show around the edges of the 'water'.










I think this is a beautiful quote.

"Perhaps the butterfly is proof that you can go through a lot of darkness and yet become something beautiful."

To me it ties in to the idea of the past being water under the bridge...it doesn't have to undermine the beauty that we can still have within us.

DLP Week 13: My Unique Elements are Blooming...

So for this weeks DLP 2015 I decided to play around with marbling on paper using nail polish to create my unique 'custom elements'. Chalk that one up to experience...it's a first and a last. It turns out its a very stinky process (I guess I could have figured that out) and the results were not terribly satisfying! However, not wanting to waste anything, I went ahead and used the flower shaped post-it notes on which I had tried the technique and added lots of doodles with paint markers and black and white pens.

  

What's that...

...yup, I smell Spring in the air!

DLP Week 12: Inspired by a Friend's Silliness!

This week's DLP challenge was about focus, but all I could focus on was the silliness of a friends photos of his dogs. He's my stylist, and obviously has way too much fun on Sundays when he goes in to clean his salon. The 'girls', Sasha and Bella, play dress up and have photo shoots in the chair! Love these sweet dogs!

DLP Week 11: I Can't Stop...

Do you ever find yourself in a mood to doodle...always being able to add a little more detail...a few more marks to the page?

This week's Documented Life Project challenge was to use a border, so that's where I started. I randomly drew a border using the inspiration of lines from a French curve. I traced that line using a parallel pen to get thicker and thinner parts to it.

I always start the page by using washi tape to create the journalling part of my page, so using the washi tape for colour inspiration, I painted the outside of the border line in the pink. The inner area  was then randomly painted in patches of the other colours represented on the washi tape.

Again using the parallel pen, I did some marks along the border edge line and then added a few circles within the larger space.

Using a combination of black pen, white pen and paint markers I continued doodling and adding text around the border...Help me...I started doodling and I can't stop!

DLP Week 10: Make Your Mark

I've got no process or description this week, just the spread as it stands on it's own, intentionally 'scratchy' and quick. 

As always, it's not too late to join the FREE Documented Life Project fun!

DLP Week 9: Give Me A High Five

 This week's challenge for DLP was to use at least five layers...well, that's not really much of a challenge since I tend to build up many layers on each journal page.

I started by using some torn pieces of Gelli prints, collaged on the page. Theoretically I guess that's only one layer, yet the Gelli prints already have multiple layers of texture created with various found objects.

To give that wonderful pop of black and white that I love to include, I pulled out some washi tapes.

Then, using black and white Signo pens I added some doodles and drew a couple of silly characters.  In hindsight I should have drawn an odd number but, oh well ;o)

Finally I used some Copic markers to add some colour to the two 'ladies'.