A New Series in Progress...

I've started a new series of work which will be matted in 12" x 12" mats, with an 8" square 'window' in the mat, ready to be framed.  I've been playing with my Gelli plate to create some mono prints on pieces of an old denim shirt I inherited from my husband because the sleeve were too short for him.  I'm  adding various other elements, including rust dyed fabric, machine lace which I made using water soluable stabilizer, pieces of silk fusion and some batiks from my stash.  Here are a couple of them ready to be quilted and hand embroidered.  

Time to go listen to some TV...

WIP

 Here are a couple of close ups of this work in progress.  I had no idea how much embroidery floss you go through making French knots!  I've been separating the floss into 3 strands to get a nice big knot, and I've already gone through an entire skein of floss!  I'm not even half way through making all of the French knots I want on this piece, but  fortunately the variegated green is one I dyed myself, so I can make more.  

I'm off to get my hands green...I know I should wear gloves, but I just find them so awkward and hot!  Good thing I don't have to be anywhere in the next couple of days!

I'm Featured Today...

I've been featured on The Needle and Thread Network today.  Please visit their blog and while you're there you can learn about a lot of other fabulous Canadian fibre artists as well!

Taking Another Creative Jumpstart

I had a couple of minutes last night, so I took another look at one of Nat's Creative Jumpstart ideas.  She used gloss gel medium as a resist by using a stencil and then when the gloss medium was dry she sprayed it with some spray inks.

Although my stencil was giving me trouble (very flimsy plastic, not best suited for this), I quite like the end result.  Because the medium had leaked under the stencil, I used my Uniball Vision waterproof pen to outline the features of the stencil as well as the entire medium marks.  That's the only pen I found worked really well on the gloss medium.

With greater care and a better stencil, I think this technique is fabulous for some lovely texture and shine!

The Journey Continues...

A couple of weeks ago, I started a journal (you can see the first post here), and today I have finally finished the second spread.  The journey is all about thinking positive thoughts and moving forward on a healing journey.  I can't think of a better way to do that than through art!

You can see a couple of the stages the page went through as I worked on it.  I just love seeing the transformation as colour and shading is added to the page.

I use a 0.005 Micron to do the actually journalling on the page once the art is done.

My writing is super tiny, but it allows me to get a lot of thoughts onto the page and work through the many things I've been reading and thinking about.  I also like the added texture that the background text gives the page.  It's a great way to make a pretty looking spread (if I do say so myself) while keeping the 'heavier' underlying text from taking over the page.

Winston Churchill

A few weeks ago, while in Toronto, I took these shots of the Winston Churchill statue.  I love this quote by the great man!















Linking up with Our World Tuesday, Texture Tuesday, and Sweet Shot Tuesday.

"Beautiful Napkins" Swap

In a recent art journal spread, inspired by a class in 21 Secrets by Cathy Bluteau, I used some flowers in my collage which I had cut out of napkins.  You can see the original napkins in the photo to the right, and how they were used in the close up shots below. 

Although they are a wonderful source of lovely collage elements, it gets expensive to have to buy a whole package and only use one or two images in your arts, so...  

I've decided to hold a "Beautiful Napkin Swap" of napkins that have flowers or birds on them.  What I would ask everyone to do, is go out and buy a package of pretty napkins that have either birds or flowers (or both) on them.  Take one of the napkins out to keep for yourself, and then mail the rest of the package to me.  I will gather all of them up, divide them among all of the participants, and mail you a mixed package of assorted beautiful napkins.  If you're interested, please send me an email (click on 'view my complete profile' at the right, under my profile picture and then click on the email link under my picture on the next page that comes up).  Once I get your email I will send you all of the details, including where to send your napkins.

Machine Doodling on White...next steps...

I finished the next stage of this piece (you can see the first post about it here) so that I'd be able to take it with me and work on the hand stitching while sitting in the hospital with my aunt.  I used Tsukineko ink in black and spring green.  When using these inks on fabric, they need to be heat set with a hot dry iron!

The next step is to add lots of French knots in the green and then decide what to do with the white areas.

Doodling Your Way...

I'm really enjoying the online lessons in '21 Secrets'.  This journal spread was inspired by the lessons of Cathy Bluteau.  It involves using collage and doodle and it was a lot of fun to pull out some of the little stickers, homemade washi tape, etc. to add some extra layers.  Some of the flowers came from beautiful napkins I've collected over time, as well as a birthday card my Mom gave me this year.  I wish that you could buy those beautiful napkins individually instead of having to buy a whole pack.  They often have such pretty flowers on them and they're perfect for collage!  I've also started collecting interesting elements from flyers and magazines...so much easier than having to store the entire magazine!

Pick-Up Sticks

I was in the mood for some piecing so I pulled out the fabric I had dyed while doing my Easter eggs and I started cutting very thin strips.  I used the blue as my background and in addition to the other brights from my Egg colouring leftover dye, I pulled out other interesting brights, stripes, etc.

The strips were cut 5/8th of an inch wide, allowing for scant 1/4" seams as I pieced.  I started by randomly cutting the blue into two pieces and then inserting one of the narrow strips.  Because of how narrow the strips were, I found it necessary to press each seam before I could proceed.  After inserting the first strip, I randomly made another cut to the piece and added a second strip.  You want to start with a piece that's a bit wider than you hope to end with because each time you add a strip you are loosing almost 1/2 an inch and only gaining a very narrow strip (about 3/8th of an inch)

Here's what the piece looks like so far.  Now I'm going to add some machine quilting and maybe some hand stitch.  I have no idea where I'm going with this piece...just playing for now.