Blooming Wylde Iris

White Tara Speaks to My Soul

2012-02-01T07:00:00.000-05:00

A friend of mine is quite ill and needs some TLC from his friends while he remains in hospice. His wife has asked many of his friends to send Valentines day cards to him. White Tara is a Buddist manifestation of compassion and healing. Birds have been a symbol for the soul for a very long time. I hope he enjoys the card. The inside says, You are Loved.

And Now For a Magic Trick: The Disappearing Nine Patch

2012-01-17T15:00:00.000-05:00

Now that I have mastered a simple quilt style I have decided to move on to something more complicated, the Disappearing Nine Patch. (Thanks to my friend Beth for mentioning this pattern to me) A very good tutorial for this quilt style is found here.
This is a small quilt (54 x 54 in) for my little daughter. I have selected from my stash of Asian fabrics and picked out some Kawaii inspired animal prints from Spoonflower designers and, of course, added one of my designs. Like Allison mentions in her tutorial, I eyeballed the middle cuts for the nine patch. I really recommend measuring it---if you look, you can see where some of my seams are off. I actually quilted this one since it was so small but will hiring someone with a longarm machine when I sew larger blankets.
Spoonflower designs in my quilt:

A. Protea Petals Pink by bloomingwyldeiris
B. Cute Creatures by indescribble
C. Cherry Blossom Bambi Pink Aqua by zesti
D. Super Cute Kawaii by marcelinesmith
E. Run Bumbi Run by killer_tomato

The next quilt top will likely be for Margaret for all of her help cutting out squares. I will begin cutting my younger son's material as well. He is going for a watery theme.

Four Mediums For Merbabies

2012-01-02T15:57:00.000-05:00

A couple of posts ago I mentioned hosting a ATC exchange on Swap-bot. Here are the results of my work. From the many ideas I initially sketched, I decided to create my cards experimenting with different materials. The first card completed was the colored pencil and ink drawing of the merbaby playing with his tail on the lower left. The second one is the merbaby hiding behind her mommy (upper left.) This is done in oil pastel and I like the pastel's watery effect. The third, in the lower right corner) is a cut paper and ink merbaby playing with a starfish. I was going for a Charlie Harper feel, reminiscent of his piece, Otter Delight. (Browse this commercial site for more of his work) The forth, upper right, is an ink and watercolor drawing inspired by Disney's Silly Symphonies-cartoon shorts created between 1929 and 1939. Check out the cute video.

Binding, the First Time

2011-12-28T15:10:00.001-05:00

Woohoo, the quilt is finished at last (OK, with the exception of a few threads to clip and the embroidered dedication)! I have layed it out on my bed because my son's is too hard to photograph. The most intimidating part of this process for me was the binding. I have placed some kind of 'binding' around my art quilts before, however, I invented my technique up as I went along. I did not want to ruin my son's quilt after sooo much work, so I decided to sew an official binding and so looked into a couple techniques.

The first one I explored I sewed on this practice quilt my little girl's doll. (This doll belonged to my sister when she was a little girl.) I tried to follow the Missouri Quilt Company's binding instructions, changing 1/4 inch seam to 1/2 inch, but frankly I was too impatient to hand sew the back and figured there was no way I would hand sew my son's giant quilt. And look at those corner--sheesh. I'm not too happy with how it turned out but at least it is just a doll quilt--not too much at stake here.

I ended up using a suggestion from Inge, the woman who's longarm quilted my son's quilt together. The binding is made from 3 inch strips of my chosen border materials (two different fabrics.) I ironed the material in half length wise, then opened it up and folded the sides toward the middle leaving a small gap. I then ironed the folds down, I closed the folds and ironed the fabric down the middle again. I then capped that folded fabric over the edge of the quilt and could sew both sides of the binding on in one go. The other piece of valuable advice I received from Inge was to sew the binding beginning along the side rather than at one of the corners. That certainly made piecing the binding tails together easier. I used Missouri Quilt Company's corner technique.
I have promised each of my children a quilt. An have begun working on my daughter's already. I am sewing them in order who's birthday is coming next.

First Quilt Top Complete!

2011-12-01T02:25:00.000-05:00

My oldest son has an ancient blanket that he has had since he was a toddler. This blanket is now threadbear and the binding is coming off. I spoke with him and he agreed to replace the blanket with a new quilt. This a big step for him since he doesn't like to get rid of anything. It is also a big step for me since have never made a traditional quilt. I decided to do a simple color block design. I made a 7 1/2 inch square cardboard template and calculated how many squares I would need for a quilt top. My son went through my fabric stash and picked out his favorite fabrics. I also let him select 5 fabrics from Spoonflower (who is having a sale this week-2 fat quarters for the price of one!) and added 2 of my own design. He choose a zoo/safari theme.

Our Spoonflower fabrics are labeled on the picture : A. Jungle Love by Amel24 B. Animalia by Woo C. Wild Animals by Oksansia D. Ferocious Jungle 2 by Emrick123 E. Big 5 Dots by Wyldeiris F. Cute Creatures by Indescribble G. Big 5 Babies on the Clothesline by Wyldeiris

When I measured the top, bottom and middle of the finished squares to calculate my border, I was very pleased that there was less than an 1/2 inch difference from top to bottom. I plan on sending the layers out to get quilted--I don't think I am ready for that step yet.

I had big help from my housekeeper, Margaret, who washed and ironed fabric and traced out some of the squares. I found the videos by Missouri Star Quilt Co very helpful for a beginner like myself.

Tie Dye Party

2011-11-22T05:46:00.002-05:00

I enjoy doing all kinds of fabric arts and I really enjoy sharing them when I can. Last weekend we invited several families over and had a tie dye party. As has been said many times before by other people, when you teach something, you also learn. For the party, I looked at several Youtube videos to broaden my tie dye design skills. I can recommend videos by colorfulsteve such as this one on how to tie dye a heart design. If you try to dye a shape, be very careful to fold your fabric in a straight line. This is easier if your shape is large and bold. Steve suggests outlining your shape with a dark color. This suggestion helps your shape have definition.
To the right is my oldest and youngest in thier tie dyes.

Merbaby ATC swap

2011-11-07T05:56:00.000-05:00

I am hosting a Merbaby swap on Swap-bot. The sign-up is until December 9th and the last date to mail the cards is January 9th. The swap entails creating two ATCs, one for each of your two partners. I am not fussy about which technique you use but I do expect people to make the best cards they can. This is a great swap to participate in if you need a quick craft to do during the holiday season when you are at home. Hope you join me! For more information on Artist Trading Cards and what they are go here.

The Message 2

2011-10-30T05:57:00.000-04:00

I really enjoyed making the last ATC and felt that there was more to the image in my mind. I have changed the format from the standard ATC size to allow more complexity. This piece does not have the Swap-bot mascot since it is not for the official swap-although I think I may send it to my partner. Like the last card, it is a combination of hand painted and commercial papers, cut collage style.

The Message & Curiosity

2011-10-28T01:42:00.001-04:00

I am not doing too many swaps these days but I could not resist the 100,000th swap on Swap-bot. It has over 600 participants all over the world. The only real requirement is that your handmade piece of swapable art must have Ernie, the swapbot mascot it it. I hope my partner likes her ATC. I call it The Message. Below is a card I made a while back for a Steampunk swap, I call it Steampunk Curiosity. Sadly, it never reached it's intended recipient. Darn South African mail!

Fabric Yardage

2011-10-18T07:18:00.000-04:00

I am very excited to share my fabrics finally printed on a yard. The yellow, Big Five Dots, and the green, Big Five Babies on Clothesline were created to coordinate. I orginally created Big Five Babies for the Project Selvage competion. The pink design, Protea Petals Pink, is one of the ideas I have for floral based patterns. I will be using this fabric to test some diaper cover designs. I also will be adding some fabric squares to a quilt.

New Napkins

2011-10-10T09:00:00.002-04:00

I have been using cloth menstrual pads for a while now. They are more comfortable, environmentally friendlier and more economical in the long run that disposable. The ones I own are great but I was still relying on disposable for overnight because I had not yet purchased any of that size. Well, instead of buying, I decided to make my own.
I looked at flannel at the store but realized I already have plenty at home. I have some old flannel receiving blankets that even my baby girl has outgrown. The great thing about using these is that I would have probably thrown them away thinking no one would likely want old spit-up stained blankets. Additionally, they are very soft from use and washing. My inserts are made of old toweling and even my template is cut from recycled cardboard. (The cardboard was narrow and that's why the 'wing's need to be extended out.)

For heavy overnight conditions, I drafted an extra long pad.  My template utilizes the 'wings' design to hold the pad in place. When I was satisfied with the dimensions, I traced template on the wrong side of folded flannel, taking care to extend and round out the 'wings' and cut out the pieces. ( I would recommend extending the 'wings' so they would cross the entire width of the pad.) The slit for the pad insert should only be traced on one of the 2 flannel pieces. I first sewed around the stuffing slit and then sewed the two pieces, wrong sides together using a zigzag stitch, although it might be easier to sew the pattern and then cut out the pieces. A serger would be very handing sewing these if you have one. I then used a straigh stitch on the wings. I used conventional snaps on the wings (not pictured.) I placed them by experimenting with the fabric in hand.
The insert is just toweling cut out in a square about an inch shorter than your pad.  I then folded the outsides right and left edges 1/2 way to the middle and then folded it in again making a long rectangle as seen above.  I then zigzag stitched around the open edges.
The free pattern is at the end of this blog entry.
If the idea is interesting but you are not ready to sew your own; Glad Rags is a fine company to purchase ready made napkins.

Life & Death

2011-10-01T09:15:00.000-04:00

Life and Death. OK, so really this post is not so dramatic as that, those just happen to be the themes of today's ATCs. The top card is "My Favorite Perfume" which is based on Garden Path with Chickens from The Salon, Exhibit II series of perfumes, which is my favorite BPAL (Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab) scent. I love their perfumes. Some of my favorite are Hetairae, Jezirat al Tennyn, and ITASÔ KANSEI NENKAN JORÔ NO FÛZOKU. They have many traditional kinds of perfume and many which are not. All of there perfumes have literary or artistic allusions. I also love their t-shirts. Back to the card, the base is commerially painted bronze paper that I painted metallic green leaves on to give depth. I then created a composition with paper flowers, focusing on the jewel tones. I drew and glued on a little sexy fairy to roll around in the garden. Garden Path with Chickens is a green, floral perfume with a salty, sexy smell. Mmmmmm.
The death images were created for a Day of the Dead swap. The skull on the black background was the original card I sent to my swap partners. Sadly, those cards were never received--true for about half of the items I mailed through the South African postal system. The cards with the red border were the replacements. The black original background and the new red border are both flocked (velvet) paper. The new card has a black commercial paper layered over. The skulls are hand drawn and cut out. I then stamped them and added further embellishments with rhinestones and colored pencils.

One Year Later

2011-09-14T09:08:00.000-04:00

View of downtown with Jacarundas in bloom

So, here we are, the first anniversary of my arrival in South Africa. It seems time to write down some of my observations about this country.

Pretoria (Tswane) is a town with many different peoples. There are the locals plus the very large diplomatic community. Still, Pretoria’s white population is largely Afrikaans. The Afrikaners have been very friendly to my husband and me. They are quite helpful and also very free with their opinions. It is always insightful to hear what they have to say.

My husband and I do not get much contact with black South Africans. Most of our interactions are formal and work related. I have found out that it is very important to spend a couple of minutes asking how the person is and about their family before conducting business. Even on the telephone with a customer service person. Anything else is considered rude. Aside from these pleasantries, in my experience, most black South Africans do not like to share. Other black Africans are talkative and tell me all about their culture, customs and opinions. I am wondering if this is one of the legacies of Apartheid.

American entertainment is worldwide. And people believe it is real. Hey, it must be true if it is on a reality program, right? How about those talk shows? Luckily, there are enough Americans here that I can point out that we are not all like that. Jersey Shore is very popular here; I get asked about it frequently. I hear Jerry Springer mentioned a lot too. And everyone believes Americans are all rich. I think that is a worldwide myth.

South Africans like babies. I realize a lot of the world does but my little girl gets fawned on everyday by all kinds of people. Many Americans act like they would rather not see or hear about your baby unless they have one themselves.

South Africans do not put up good signage. They seem to think everyone already knows where everything is. If you are going to an event you are lucky to get an address. Even festivals may not have signs—or if they do, it might not be near the entrance, turn-off, etc.

You can get most things here that are available in the States. You will pay, though. About twice as much for toys. Maybe 50% more for clothes. Cosmetics and toiletries are also almost double the price. Automobiles and gas are crazy expensive. Restaurants and services are generally cheaper. Private medical care is excellent and cheaper than what you would pay in America.

South Africans are proud. And they should be. They have accomplished a lot and they have a beautiful country with an excellent climate. They are beginning to be environmentally conscious. The wine here is very good. We have met many, many entrepreneurs. They are also realistic about their challenges. There is still incredibly high unemployment. Crime is violent. There is a lot of theft. But the mood of the country is mostly optimistic.

Speaking like a local:

American South African (English)

Trunk (of a car) Boot

Crazy Boss

Sweet or nice Lekker

Cart Trolley

Elevator Lift

Soccer Football

Aaaw! or Cute! Shame!

Really? Is it?

Gas Petrol

Truck Bakkie

Sneakers/Tennis Shoes Tekkies/Tackies

Sheesh! or Geez! Eish!

Barbeque Braai

Ganster or Hoodlum Tsotsi

In a while Just Now

In a minute/Soon Now Now

Traffic Light Robot

Jewelry Making with the kids

2011-09-06T07:26:00.000-04:00

My boys and I embarked on another art project. Most of the projects we do really have to take no more than a couple of hours or they loose interest. Jewelry making can be a very satisfying short term project. In this case we decided to make birthday presents for my sister. My seven year old boy came up with the idea. He loves any excuse to visit the bead shop.
At the bead shop, he and I collected our beads while my oldest ran interference with the baby. I was selecting beads to make a bracelet similar to one I 've made before that is much complimented. My boy just knew he wanted to make a long, blue necklace.
After dinner, we settled down to make the jewelry and my nine year old boy decides he wants to make something too. We dig around my stash and he decides to create earrings. (I have never made them before.) I am quite proud of the boys. Hope my sister enjoys her new jewelry.

Strength

2011-08-12T06:23:00.003-04:00

I have been working on two art dolls with polymer clay faces. The first of these dolls that I have completed is titled, ‘ Strength.’ I tried to approach the theme on many levels. Her torso is hand printed Kona cotton, from my gelatin printing session. I have embroidered the rune, strength, on her abdomen and have sewn garnet and agate beads, historically aligned with physical strength along the base of the torso. I speculate that garnet and agate were symbolic for physical strength based on their likeness to blood and bone. Her limbs are created from a stick pruned from one of the trees here. I used the tree to represent the rooted quality and flexibility of a tree despite strong winds and rains. The stick also doubles for her backbone. A strong backbone is crucial for any character of strength. I used a beaded fringe around her lower leg with green hearts for growth, love and compassion; all additional ingredients for strength.

The figure’s face and feet are sculpted of rose colored clay and painted with opaque and translucent acrylic paints. Her eyes and lips were then painted with high gloss varnish. I felt the feet were a very important feature, not only to serve as a base for the doll to stand by but also as an expression of strength. Feet are muscular, they connect directly to the earth and move us through life. Feet do a lot of work and so are very representational of strength to me. Strength’s hair is handspun wool that I picked up in Virginia at a fiber shop that is sadly now out of business.

I really enjoyed creating this figure. She is much more abstract than most of my art dolls.

Family Life Update

2011-08-10T06:23:00.000-04:00

I haven't posted for a long time because the neighborhood telephone cable was stolen. I had no local phone line and no Internet for two months. The timing was really unfortunate since it coincided with the end of the school year for the children. I had plans for them on the Internet! As people say, this is Africa and sometimes these things happen.

What has happened in the last two months? We went back to America and visited some of our cousins on my husband's side. We got to meet our newest baby cousin, who was only nine months old. We visited Cape Cod and hung out in Boston. There was a real heat wave with a heat index topping out at 105 F. In South Africa, it was topping out around 50 F. Even with the body melting weather, the cousins really loved seeing each other. I wish I could have seen my side of the family as well but they live no where near Massachusetts. Next year.

While in America we ate great volumes of junk food that we missed like: Chinese chicken nuggets (aka General Tso's chicken,) Dunkin Donuts Boston Creme donuts, bagels with cream cheese, Cape Cod fudge (from the Fudge Factory in Providence Town- best place on the Cape,) pizza, burritos, Tostitos and ice cream. I think we all gained a few pounds.

Back home in South Africa, the children and I kept ourselves busy at the zoo, playing, and visiting parks. One of our favorite parks here is Moreleta Kloof Nature Reserve. It is near our home and has a lot of wildlife. We usually see ostrich, zebra, blesbok and springbok strolling about every time we visit. You don't even have to go to a game park to get some great wildlife views here.

We are looking forward to spring and hopefully some visitors in October and December.

Women ATCs

2011-05-27T16:02:00.000-04:00

These ATCs were created for Swap-bot's Free Theme ATC. I started playing around with some cutouts from stencils that were painted with acrylic paints when I did the gelatin monoprints on a commercially printed floral-paisley print. Once I laid out the cutouts I selected some women's faces from Dover's Women in Illustrations Clipart book that I had previously colored and cut out of cardstock. I felt another element was still needed so I selected a bird themed stamp. Each card then got a couple of finishing touches. The top left is titled, 'North Africa', the top right, 'Pakistan' and the bottom, 'Leta and the Swan.' I hope my swap partners enjoy them.

Dragon Fairies and Dr Who

2011-05-10T06:12:00.001-04:00

What do they have in common? Not much, they are just the current subject matter of my most recent ATC's. The Dragon Fairies swap theme was just that but the the Dr Who card is for a steampunk swap. The dragon fairies are supposed to be a hybrid creature. I drew a few prototypes and realized they were all male. That is when the couple below evolved. The Dr Who card happened as I was looking around the Internet for some steampunk machines and found Alex Holden's Steampunk Dalek and thought it was perfect for my peering Victorian gentleman. My image is enchanced by minature brads. (And by the way, this season of Dr Who is one of the best so far, even if my heart still belongs to David Tennant. OK and this week's episode is written by my favorite writer, Neil Gaiman.)

Gelatin Printing On Fabric

2011-05-06T08:16:00.000-04:00

Today Beth (who wanted to remain faceless), Maureen, and Janalee came over to investigate gelatin printing with me. Beth and I prepared cookie sheets and pie tins of gelatin last night. This morning when we began we had some difficulties. While, it was not too hard to remove the gelatin from the pie tins, it was practically impossible to get it it out of the cookie sheets in one piece. We decided to leave the gelatin that was in the cookie sheets and work directly from the tray. We used foam brushes and brayers to apply water soluble fabric paint onto the gelatin's surface and then layered stencils, paper cutouts and plant materials over the paint layer.

We printed on prepared for dye cottons (fabric from Dharma.) Lay the fabric on the paint and press your hand or hard brayer over the fabric. The picture on the left shows two layers of paint and you can see the brush marks and stencils clearly.

This image is a 'ghost image'. That is, the paint that is left over after the first print and the stencils are moved. The stencils can be flipped, and repositioned.

When you are done with your original and ghost, just wipe the plate gently with a damp paper towel and on the the next image.

Here, Janalee used one of her stencils as a stamp. She painted it orange and then rolled the brayer over it.

Eventually, the plates fall apart. I had a lot of fun. The process is very tactile, a little messy but inexpensive and requires little special materials. I think I will try it with the kids when they come home.

Further resources: Pokey Bolton of Quilting Arts has a great 'how to' blog article. Linda Germain has very good video on Youtube on gelatin printing on paper below.

Tree Topper Doll

2011-05-02T10:08:00.000-04:00

This has been a good year for catch-up. I have been completing many projects that were put on the back burner last year because of moving and a new baby. The most recent project I have completed is Leta Benedict's Tree Topper. This doll is made with no legs but has a way to attach the doll to a tree or her stand.
I have significantly changed the costuming of the original pattern and added wings. Her costume is an amalgamation of Medieval and Renaissance elements made from silk, velvet and bits if lace and trim. I have also beaded a crown over hair made of soy roving. All of her costuming is hand sewn. I haven't decided what she will hold in her hands yet and welcome suggestions. I hope she will become and heirloom of our family's holiday decorations.

Mermaid ATC

2011-04-28T09:16:00.000-04:00

This Mermaid ATC is for a resend. All of the items I mailed that day through the South African post have disappeared. This mermaid is in colored pencil with glitter paint. She is based on a contortionist.

South African Fashion I

2011-04-18T09:16:00.000-04:00

South Africa is called the Rainbow Nation because of all of the different peoples that live here. This post highlights the fashions of a particular people, the Afrikaners. The Afrikaners are the descendants of primarily Dutch peoples who have lived in South Africa since 1652 but spread through-out South Africa in the early-mid 1800.

Women wear youthful, feminine, layered clothing. Skirts with leggings or a wide-leg pants are popular. Clothing materials feature a lot of flowing fabrics such as jersey and velvet. Sheers are very popular as well--lace, tulle and organza. The effect is very lovely. In the pictures above, women from the shop Signorina's exemplify the autumn version this style. As for shoes, ballet flats are quite common and until recently, Roman sandals were everywhere but the change of the season has brought out knee high boots in full force. Most women also are carrying very large baggy purses.

Men's clothing tend to be skinny pants, fitted shirts--jersey or button down and scarves are popular--even before the weather grew chilly.

Hair dye is very popular with both men and women. Bold black and blondes seem to be the most popular colors. Foiling is frequently seen. Women put a lot of thought into their hair whether short and asymmetrical or long and layered. Men's hair is short and spiky with a slight mohawk feel or cut close to the head. Click this link or this one to see some realistic hairstyles.

Snowy Owl ATCs

2011-04-15T17:30:00.001-04:00

The weather is getting cooler here in South Africa so I was inspired to do more wintry themed owls. These ATCs are drawn entirely in colored pencil. Both owls are North American species. The owl on the left is a Snowy Owl and is after Stow Wegenroth's Matriarch. The owl on the right is a Barred Owl.

You can see a copy of Wegenroth's print Matriarch at the Old Print Shop (bottom of the page.) As an aside, I was offered a job at their Georgetown location when I was working at Creighton Davis Gallery.

Weaver Bird & Nest

2011-04-10T15:32:00.001-04:00

This is second in the series of bird stamps I am creating. The first was the Scops Owl and this is the Weaver bird with its nest. I photographed this bird on my street when I just arrived in September (spring in South Africa.) The Weaver bird has a bright yellow mating plumage and this one was near its nest in a Fever tree. The artist trading card is the stamped image with color pencil.

On a bit of a roll

2011-04-06T17:36:00.000-04:00

Two more ATC's.

The top is colored pencil and ink on layered tissue paper over recycled junk mail. The recipient in interested in Ancient Egypt so this is Sehkmet breathing on a representation of Ib--one of the 5 parts of the soul representing the heart. The ATC on the right is based on a vintage artsy nude with collage, colored pencils and beads. The words on the card are Who is this flower before me? And what is the work of this God? It is taken from a prayer known as the HA prayer.

Owls & Project Selvage Update

2011-04-05T02:46:00.001-04:00

These are North American owls, the Eastern Screech owl, and the Northern Saw-whet owl. These ATCs (artist trading cards) are watercolor and pen drawings.
I didn't make it as a finalist in Project Selvage. It was not surprising to me once I looked at the body of 968 entries. I will keep on working on my fabric design to bring it up to the level of the finalists. Tami Levin of my online doll-making group, DollStreetDreamers, did make it as a finalist. I hope you take time to vote on the entries. Make sure you also check out her beautiful art on her blog.

If Venus of Willendorf were a paper doll

2011-03-29T11:26:00.001-04:00

I have joined another Swap-bot swap, this time, a paperdoll with the theme Earth! Immediately, I thought of Venus of Willendorf (see inset.) She epitomizes Earth for me, but then I thought what would she look if she were modern?
She is made of hand-made paper painted with copper paint which should develop a nice patina over time. I then added details with gel pens and acrylic paint.
As I was designing this doll I began to reminisce about my mom. Every year when I was a little girl and the Ms Universe pageant was on TV my mom would paint our nails and we would wear our best dresses. She also made my sister and I voluptuous paperdolls on cardboard and designed them dresses from flocked wallpaper. The dresses were gold, ruby red and sapphire blue. I decided that in honor of my mom, I would give my earth mama seasonal outfits. All of the outfits are made from commerical scrapbooking papers with additional details, like the faux fur trim on the winter snowsuit or the lace on the summer frock.

Market Finds

2011-03-27T06:13:00.002-04:00

This weekend my family went to the Irene Market rather than our usual trip to the closer Hazel Food Market. Irene is a larger market in the town of Irene similar to an art fair in the United States but with way more food vendors. I would definitely recommend paying a visit if you want to bring home some souvenirs from South Africa or are just looking for a great place to get gifts.

While there are several talented artists at Irene Market, the work of Michelle Penny of Gallery Seven caught my eye. Her painting, Endless Possibilities, used with permission, is a sample of her work. You can see Penny's palette is vibrant and her subject matter reminiscent of Marc Chagall. While his work was about love and longing, Penny's subject matter is a more humorous and theatrical take on intimacy. I will need to make a spot on my wall for one of her paintings.

Another item that really caught my eye was the super cute hand-made leather shoes of Suki Shoes. They make shoes for babies and toddlers and I had to get a pair for my little girl.
The ceramic tiles of Tiled Tapestries turned my head because they reminded me very much of a cheerfully colored version of my treasured Motawi tiles. The hand-made beads on the bracelets of Piccolo Jewellery & Glass were exquisite. I also found out they have beadmaking classes not too far from my house.
There are certainly other great finds at the Market I just wanted to share a few of my favorites.

Entering into Project Selvage

2011-03-14T08:26:00.000-04:00

As you know I am new to fabric design, however, I am going to take a big dive and enter into Project Selvage. It is a bit like Project Runway only this contest is for fabric designers. The competion is to design a fabric for baby boys and if selected for the voting, design 5 more coordinating fabrics. I hope to at least place in the finalists. I am so excited to try this out and of course, I will let you know when the voting is...

Night Owls

2011-02-24T15:04:00.000-05:00

Another quick project. I began with a Speedball Speedycut rubber sheet and drew a South African Scops Owl in pencil. My husband, last to use my carving tools, seems to have lost them during the move so I used a simple paring knife to cut away the rubber sheet. As I cut away from my design, I use a Sharpie to highlight the areas left behind would print as I intended. Once the stamp was complete I stamped it onto commercial scrapbooking paper with silver embossing powder. I have layered this image with other scrapbooking papers and then completed my ATC with a couple of sequins and did some detailing with colored pencils and pens.
The wonderful thing about carving this stamp is that I could work on it five minutes at a time until finished. A very handy aspect in a project when caring for a toddler!

Doll Project in Zimbabwe

2011-02-18T13:16:00.002-05:00

I belong to a piecemakers group here in South Africa. Many of the members are not quilters but we all do some kind of handwork and chat and have tea/coffee, etc. As we were sitting together sharing projects Irene brought out several dolls. She is an American who, together with several other expatriate volunteers, began working with a group called Batsiranai while she was living in Zimbabwe.
Batsiranai is a collaborative made up of mothers of disabled children who make embroidered handicrafts to raise money for food, housing and school fees for their children. Irene and her friend Ellen, both with backgrounds in maternal child health programming, joined the group in 2003 as volunteers. They developed a child health and stimulation program for the disabled children and their preschool siblings in order to compliment the handcraft business enterprise. Some of the mothers were trained to run the child center; the children began to repond to music and play activities and their mothers were amazed at the changes in their children. Ellen and Irene felt that the children could benefit from having some toys, so began experimenting with different doll designs including a doll with a knotted cloth body and head. In the end the women liked the design of the doll shown above the best and decided to add it to their list of crafts for sale. This doll has a Waldorf like head, an embroidered pocket on an African cloth (shweshwe) body and of course the pocket holds a baby. These dolls and the other work of Batsiranai have been Fair Trade certified and they can be purchased through the website. The dolls and other crafts would made a great addition to a Christmas bazaar.
Note: An interesting history of shweshwe can be found here.

Mermaid ATC

2011-02-10T14:56:00.000-05:00

I love doing the swaps at Swap-Bot. They give me incentive to create small pieces of artwork. Sometimes it just feels good to get a piece done. This Artist Trading Card (ATC) is a break from the collage oriented pieces in the past. The swap theme is mermaid and I decided to just draw what I had in mind. This mermaid was drawn in pencil and then I outlined the above water area in Pigma pen on teal linen cardstock. Oil pastels to give the watery, immpressionistic feel and then I have painted the 'wet' areas of the card with high gloss varnish.

South African Wine

2011-02-08T00:01:00.002-05:00

My US friends left behind suggested that I write a little about South Africa, so from time to time I will deviate from my arts related focus of the blog.
I want to state I am no wine expert. I just know what I like when I taste it. It has been fun to explore the local wines here with my husband. Wine is South Africa is much less expensive than at home and a decent bottle can be picked up for $7-10 (R49-70.) We have been warned not to buy wine from the supermarket but the selection is so vast I can't help picking up a bottle. Sure enough the best bottles have not come from the grocery store.
In the foreground of the picture are my two favorite so far, Alto Rouge and Barbarossa Maria Carbernet Sauvignon. The farmers markets here serve alcohol (including shots of tequila at one of them, but that's another story) and after buying one glass of Alto Rouge my husband and I had to buy a bottle. The Barbarossa was a gift from our sponsors when we arrived.
The bottle of Giant Mistake lying down in the photo I purchased totally for the label. The wine didn't live up to its name but it was not very good either. The other bottles have been lightweights but for the most part drinkable. I hope to visit some wineries when we travel down towards Cape Town in a few months.

More Experimentation with Fabric Design

2011-02-01T00:01:00.002-05:00

As I am exploring fabric design further, one of the first questions I come to is how to I get my design to repeat? I am very interested in creating a fluid design that does not look like little bricks stacked together (as my previous test piece would if printed.) When I'm looking for knowledge, I do what everyone does, I Google it. Here is an excellent tutorial on repeating designs. Creating repeating designs is not as difficult as I thought it would be however, without this tutorial, I would have ended up deconstructing a bit of fabric and probably arrived at the same information the hard way. Tip: cut your paper really straight when quartering it.

My design below is based on protea flower petals. Proteas are the national flower of South Africa, the country I am currently living in. The first photo is the sample and second the repeat.
As usual all of my designs are copy written, please contact me if you would like to use them.

Designing Fabric & Imaging Software

2011-01-18T15:24:00.007-05:00

I have done just about everything else with fabric so why not design my own patterns? Seriously, I have an idea that I am working out and would require designing my own fabric. I may or may not tell you the idea in the future but in the mean time, I will share two discoveries with you.
First, a friend of mine posted a picture on Facebook and mentioned that she used Paint.net to edit her picture. I was immediately intrigued. Since my computer was fried in a lightening storm, I have rebuilt it and considered purchasing Adobe Photoshop. I used Photoshop as my previous photo editor and have been happy with it. However, I am always interested in saving money where I can and thought I would check out the new program. It is terrific so far and is able to do all of the things I looked to Photoshop to do. I recommend looking into it for yourself.
Second, Spoonflower is a company that will print your fabric designs. You can also purchase stunning and unique fabrics designed by people who know way more about fabric design than myself. Fabrics created on the site can be sold to public and the creator earns a percentage of the selling price or the fabrics can remain private so that only the creator can print them. My design above evolved from a photo of a leaf in my back yard, edited with Paint.net and then again with Spoonflower's picture editing software Picnik and then edited once more with Paint.net. I don't claim it to be brilliant but the end result is interesting and I can see more experimentation is in order. Maybe I will even enter one of Spoonflower's fabric design competitions one of these days.

Willow Wisp 3, at last!

2011-01-09T07:05:00.004-05:00

Here she is, the third of the Willow Wisp dolls made from the Becky Holloway pattern, this time in peacock colors. I love the body on this doll. The pattern for the body is challenging but worth the effect. After the work on the body, clothing and beading the doll is pure joy. I have made some minor alterations to the pattern this time, particularly with the wings. Her 'hair' is made from feathers, as directed in the pattern, however, I have been using feathers from a trim rather than larger feathers. I used organza as well as tulle for her skirt and tulle for the bodice.

Here you can see the beading on the bodice. I did it free hand with no particular pattern, just a selection of colors. Her face is drawn in color pencil with some pigma pen accents. The wing shape is designed and painted the wings based on pictures of butterfly wings but not intending to mimic any particular insect.
Here is detail of the back of her wings. I tried to make them a little duller. I used Pebeo Setacolor acrylic fabric paints in translucent and iridescent colors. The doll has taken me about three years to finish, but at last she is done. Please go to my January 15th, 2009 and March 25th, 2008 entries to see the previous versions.

Blue Glue Take 2

2010-12-28T06:16:00.004-05:00

This is a picture from about two months ago. It features the same blue glue technique as described in the October blog entry. I found that I needed to enhance the resist effect on all of the pieces that I tie-dyed for the baby but one. In this case I outlined the trees drawn in the resist with permanent marker (Pigma Micron.) The shirt is wearing well. As I mentioned before, I do not recommend blue glue resist on knit fabrics, as it is so hard to get out. If anyone has a glue removal tip for me, please post it to the comments.

Been gone a long time

2010-12-27T09:13:00.002-05:00

Since arriving in South Africa and settling in, we had a lightening storm that destroyed my computer. The lightening came in through the phone line of the modem. My computer is protected by a powersurge protector and all electrical items not connected to the phoneline survived the storm. I plan on updating the blog more frequently, barring other catastrophies. The move, the baby and settling have been tough on my ability to do art but I am resolved to get back into it in 2011.

Hope you have a prosperous New Year!

Blue Glue Tie Dye

2010-10-17T15:29:00.007-04:00

I'm back after a couple of months break for a move to South Africa. I just got Internet---setting these things up can be rather slow here and so now I am posting an update to a summer project with the kids.

Every summer at our church we have done tie dye with the children. This summer, I decided, rather than the usual tie dye to give my kids a chance to work with an easy, non-toxic resist befor dyeing. I first had my boys use a pencil to draw their ideas on the t-shirt. The photo above is from my 6 year old's design and as you can see it was based on the alphabet. I told him we can not make the lines too thin, so he came up with the idea of drawing 'bubble' letters. I helped him fill in the shapes with the glue but it is really not too hard for kids to do it themselves. I love the urban decay look he got from the brown and purple dye used. The photos below are from my eight year old's design. You can see he went for a two sided design.

If you decide to do a project like this you may need the following tips. No line should be smaller than 1/4 inch. In order to see the lines you will need to really make sure there is a lot of dye around the resist area. It is really hard to get blue glue out of jersey knit. I suggest following the usual means of setting your dye (we left ours in the sun for a day, rinsed with cold water, washed with other dyed clothes and then dried) and then set your resist area in a bowl, cover with very hot (read boiling) water and let sit. The very hot water will soften the glue and you can then scratch it off.

Foil Experiment & Recycled ATCs

2010-07-16T11:50:00.000-04:00

A few posts ago I used an Easter Egg kit to put foil on a mermaid's tail. In the spirit of recycling, I decided I wanted to experiment with foil from chocolate wrappers to see if I could get the same effect. I knew I needed a really tacky, sticky glue so I tried Rubber Cement and Craft Bond.

First, I applied the glue to some pretty junk mail I collected.

Then I waited until the surface was partially dry and used a spoon to press the foil onto the paper.

Rubber Cement did not do very well. It was not tacky enough for the foil to stay attached. The Craft Bond was the definite winner of the two. The only problem with it is it did not create the texture I was looking for, see the mermaid paper doll entry for the weathered look I was going for. Instead it applied the foil on pretty evenly with just minor veining. I had to work at scratching it up to get some of the paper underneath to show through.

I completed the experiment by creating a recycled ATC with my foil and junk mail. I was inspired my son's experience in Art Ho's Mosaic Summer Camp. There are still two weeks left of this camp if you are in the DC area and want to check it out. It is very cool.

Environmentally Friendly Art

2010-07-15T11:26:00.000-04:00

Laura (mentioned in a previous post) and I once had a conversation about environmentalism and art. We feel some guilt about creating new things when there is already so much stuff out there in the world. Do you ever feel like this? At the same time, we feel such a strong pull to create. I do think there is a role for art for art's sake. However, I have been trying to use more of my creative energy for practical purposes. Upcycling, making new things from old things, preferably stuff you would have thrown away, is one way to keep the creative juices flowing while making less of an environmental impact.
Some ideas for creating while lessening your environmental impact:
1. When I lived in Ithaca, NY, I saw a raincoat made from juice pouches. You can learn how to make a similar raincoat.
2. Another sewing project is using old t-shirts to make cloth diapers. Or if you are a knitter, making a soaker (a breathable cover for cloth diapers) might be your thing.
3. Old wool sweaters can be felted and turned into toys, purses, needle cases, tons of things!
4. Artist Trading Cards are often made of recycled components. (Tomorrow see my experiment in this.)
5. Repurpose LED lights and other stuff from old computer equipent. Cool tutorial on how to scavenge from an old CD drive from Make magazine.

Most Recent ATC's

2010-06-14T09:52:00.004-04:00

Lately, there have been several pulls on my time; packing for our move to South Africa, baby, the boys, emergency gall bladder surgery. ATCs are so great in that they are tiny and I can feel like I got some 'art' done even though I have so little time. I accomplished the above in little bits of 5 minutes here and there over the course of a few weeks.

Wonder: A UFO swap

2010-05-17T06:59:00.003-04:00

My friend Laura and I decided to do a UFO experiement and this is the result. Am I talking about aliens? No, I am talking about unfinished objects. Every artist has them somewhere in the back of their closet. In the past I have participated in an art doll UFO and thought it would be a neat idea when Laura showed me her unfinished painting.

When I took this canvas home it was white with the black swirls and had the pink rectangles. Laura had explained that the pink rectangles were seeping into anything that she tried to add and she just didn't know what to do with the painting. I asked if I could give it a try. The pink rectangles reminded me of comic book panels and the black swirls reminded me of, well, bird poop. I thought it would be fun to work with that theme. I have to admit, I did not 'paint' much on this painting. I added most of the details with archival pens.

Laura has a painting of mine too. I will post it when it comes home.

Yipee, I won!

2010-05-10T10:22:00.004-04:00

I won one of the Green Bag Lady's Earth Day Giveaway bags. Here I am, using it to get some local produce at my favorite farm stand, Heysers. Heyser's is not only a great place to get local produce, plants, dairy and meat products but it is my favorite pace to get Thanksgiving turkey every year. Thanks Green Bag Lady for making my shopping a little greener.

Budding Artists?

2010-04-30T10:49:00.004-04:00

My boys have always liked making things and I thought I would showcase a couple of their recent projects that I thought were impressive. The top photo is my oldest son. He was inspired to make a tree house from an article in Family Fun magazine. He did a presentation on this tree house for his boy scout troupe and plans on making the structure even more elaborate so he can enter it into the Montgomery County Fair this summer, assuming we haven't moved yet. The second photo is of my younger son. He was inspired to do this mixed media work after watching The Art of Quilting video with me. The beads on the top portion represent a park and litter, recycling as well as natural objects, such as leaves and stones. The bottom is a close-up of a cut paper slug and leaves of grass.

Another Tree; Tree of Life ATC

2010-04-25T16:05:00.005-04:00

I just love creating art with trees as my focus. They are so figurative. The picture above is ink and colored pencil Tree of Life ATC for a swap on swap-bot. As I was working on the theme, I easily came up with a dozen ideas....my next theme for a series of art quilts? Hmmm.

Per usual I retain all rights to my images on this blog, copyright Penney Hughes

10 Earth Day Giveaways, Coupons & Freebies

2010-04-21T10:48:00.006-04:00

* The Green Bag Lady is doing a give away on her blog through Friday, April 23rd, for her handmade grocery bags and is willing to ship internationally to the winner. If you comment, say Wylde Iris sent you.
* Another green bag give away on Bag Snob, but hurry, you must post a comment of the worst ecological thing you have done by the end of Wednesday, April 21st.
* An eco-artist giant giveaway at Modish.
* Drugstore.com is giving up to 40% off of it's green products.
* Safeway also has coupons for some of their green products and a free reusable bag with $40 purchase.
* Reynolds Wrap has a $1.25 off coupon of their recycled aluminum foil.
* Get outside and see the earth up close at one of the National Parks with free admission all this week.
* Enter a chance to win a sun resistant, recycled shirt by 5pm ET, Earth Day.
* Enter the environmental books giveaway from Non-Toxic Kids.
* Free kid friendly compost gardening class on Earth Day at the Silver Spring, MD Whole Foods. While you are there you can check out the green kitchen exhibit.

Spring Goddess & Mermaid Paperdolls

2010-04-07T09:31:00.004-04:00

I am getting back into swapping with other artists on Swap-bot. I am participating to two paperdoll swaps using patterns from the beautiful Enchanted Gallery site. The link is for the paperdoll templates but you should really take a look around the site, the artist, Kimberly Crick's artwork is very lovely.
Now a couple of notes about my paperdolls. I pasted a cherry blossom fabric backing to the Spring Goddess paperdoll since the DC area in spring is all about cherry blossoms. Her head Botticelli's Flora from his painting Primavera. The blue sequins symbolize rain drops.
The mermaid's tail has purple and blue foil embellishment; the foil came from a Palmer Bright and Shiny Easter Egg kit. I love that stuff, if I can find some in the after Easter sales I think I will pick up another box. Her look is inspired by a picture of Crest o' the Wave from Loraine and the Little People by Penny Ross. Very Art Deco show girl kind of look, simplified.

Mail Art Affirmations

2010-02-24T11:41:00.006-05:00

My little one at home has been particularly restful today, so I decided, last minute to enter the Cloth Paper Scissors reader challenge called 'Pass it On: Mail Art Affirmations.' You can go here to view the entry guidelines. Basically you create a multimedia 4x6in postcard with an affirming art-related quote. You mail that postcard to CPS magazine and then they swap it out for you with a postcard from another reader. My quote was inspired my something my minister said on Sunday and then rephrased in my own words. I was also thinking about all of the broken limbs on the trees in my area of the world because of our recent record snowfall. There will need to be some creative pruning if many of these trees are to survive.
My postcard back is watercolor paper that I painted, I then added crumpled tissue paper and lightly couched on many threads, fibers and strips of fabric to make up the tree body. The lettering is done in archival pen and gel pen.

Quilts from the December / January Quilt Show

2010-02-14T14:17:00.006-05:00

The quilts above are the two I finished for the art quilt show. The top one is titled "Sycamore" and the bottom is "Tree of Life."
Sycamores have a bark that does not expand as it grows and so the bark splits open as the tree ages. This was the inspiration for my quilt. The Sycamore quilt is made from layered sheer fabrics in silks, polyesters, cottons and cheesecloth. While it is hard to see in the picture, the side panels are quilted Sycamore leaves. I used a colored pencil to color in the sky in areas where the leafs did not overlap. After layering and apliquing the quilt fabrics, I used a natural sponge to paint layers of textile fabric to simulate lichen. Lastly, I have added a couple of beads as accents.
The second quilt is an exploration of a traditional theme, the tree of life. I painted a commercial stamp with diamond shapes onto cotton I prepared. I then cut out and appliqued the tree onto blue-violet silk. The flowers are sequins and the leaves, hand-painted, cut-out cotton shapes sewn on. I then painted each of the animal shapes with fabric paint and again appliqued them to the silk.

ATCs on a snow day

2010-02-09T14:37:00.006-05:00

It has been snowing like crazy here in the DC area. What can a family do for a week indoors? The boys and I took advantage of Fallon's nap and whipped out some artist trading cards (ATCs.) I used quilts, insects and Asian art as my inspiration. A tip from my boys...acquire an old geology textbook for inspiration. We have completely cut up ours and will be seeking out a new one.

New Baby

2010-02-09T14:28:00.003-05:00

Finally, I am putting up a picture of my new baby, Fallon. She was born 9lb 6oz in mid January. I have to blame her for my lack of posts but I plan on making up for it, although my pace may be slow with three children to look after. I did get four art quilts done for the show (see previous post.) I will post those remaining quilts soon.
Welcome Fallon.

News & New Thread tree Art Quilt

2009-10-19T12:01:00.007-04:00

I mentioned a while back I am having a baby. According to the sonogram a few weeks ago, I am having a girl. I have two boys right now and am looking forward to experiencing a girl. We haven't decided on a name yet so suggestions are welcome.
My family will be moving, probably next summer, to the African country of Mali. I understand there to be a vibrant arts tradition in Mali and I am looking forward to exploring it. It will be exciting to share it with you.
Lastly, I have made some updates to my earlier Early Spring art quilt and have nearly completed another. The newer quilt is another thread tree quilt. I still have leaves to add, more rocks in the water and a bit more color in the right tree. I am still trying for the goal of six fiber arts pieces by December. I have two more art quilts in process. The new quilts are not thread tree quilts but different takes on the tree theme. Will I get six pieces done? We shall see.

Handicrafts Fair

2009-09-29T18:06:00.004-04:00

I have been asked by my talented friend, Laura Bergstresser, handcrafter, jewelry maker, printer, painter and proprieter of Antlered Rabbit, to assist her at the South Silver Spring Block Party this Saturday, October 3rd. You will find a map at the website. Come out and see us if you are in the area. We will have handmade semiprecious stone jewelry, hand dyed scarves, and handmade ornaments.

Thread Tree Art Quilt

2009-09-02T13:03:00.004-04:00

I have been working on this art quilt all summer. While that may be hard to believe, given the quilt's small size (aprox 18 x 15 inches), if you have seen my earlier post, you know why. Shown here is another art quilt in my thread tree series, this time depicting a foggy early spring morning in a forest. All of the quilt's elements are hand sewn and quited except the border and then I machine quilted many of the elments again. The background is a commerical batik and I have layered fine tulle to suggest fog and the light green dusting the ground has in early spring. The trees are made from threads as my title suggests and also yarn, archival markers, as well as strips of commerical and handpainted fabric. I am considering additonal quilting over the tulle and also beading small transparent beads to suggest dew.

Why I haven't been blogging lately...

2009-07-24T14:45:00.003-04:00

Above is a sonogram of baby #3 at 14 weeks and my excuse for not blogging much recently. I expect to resume more regular blogging soon on the theory that the 2nd trimester of pregnancy I will have more energy. This coincides nicely with the beginning of the school year for the boys and I hope that will help too. Never fear, despite the fatigue, I have been working on projects (albeit slowly), and I expect to have something to show for it soon. Happy Summer!

Children's ATC Swap

2009-04-20T11:33:00.004-04:00

My older son recently noticed my Artist Trading Card collection and thought they were neat. He asked if he could make a couple. These are the designs we came up with; the upper left card is my younger son's "The Space Alien A", upper right is my older son's "Falling Ball" and the bottom card was designed by me, "The Trip." Artist Trading Cards are little baseball (or Pokemon) card sized artworks that are created to be given away or exchanged with others. Many cards are made of collaged items or stamped but I have cards of almost every media that can be put on some kind of paper. If you are collaging materials, I suggest recylcling some of your more interesting looking junk mail. Mirkwood Designs has a really great ATC template to print out onto cardstock to get you started.

The kids were excited to trade their cards and see what came back in the mail. I am a member of Swap-bot, so I logged on to my account and have set up a swap for the kids. Please feel free to join our Kids ATC swap. The account is free and they have many fun activities to participate in.

New Silk Scarfs for Spring

2009-04-01T08:10:00.002-04:00

These are my newly dyed scarfs for spring. I intended the red be more pastel. Oh well, that is how tub dyeing goes. In fact, all my dyeing jobs have resulted in surprises with no two batches being alike. I can predict a little of how it will go, for example, I know that the first dye takes the best on the back ground and the overdyes will mostly take on the foreground. I am especially pleasedwith the color combination shown on the the lowest silk scarf--yellow, turquiose and azure blue.

Dotee Dolls

2009-03-20T14:40:00.005-04:00

I belong to an online doll making club know as Dollstreet Dreamers. The Street hosts a friendly and helpful list serve, doll competitions and sometimes swaps. The Dottee Dolls above are made for a swap coming up on Dollstreet. They basic idea for the doll was started by Dorothy Christian (Dot) and the dolls have really taken a life of thier own. A pattern to make the dolls can be found on eHow. Or you can watch a video on Youtube. If you want to take part in a swap check out swap-bot, last I looked, there were 16 Dotee Doll swaps.
I really enjoyed making my Dotee Dolls freehand. I took some fabric scraps and just began sewing a little shape. These quicky projects really make one feel good and are nice in betweens. I took mine to the doctors office and handsewed the bodies of three of them right there! I did the stuffing and beading at home. I predict more of these dolls in my future.
Congratulations to Donna, she won the blogiversary giveaway. My son drew her name randomly from the list of commenters from his lucky leprechaun hat.

My One Year Anniversary Give Away!

2009-03-11T08:05:00.002-04:00

Hey, I have been blogging for a whole year! To celebrate this milestone, I am doing a giveaway. That's right, post a comment on my blog in the next week if you would like to be considered for the book Cloth Dolls for Textile Artists by Ray Slater. This book is eye candy with beautiful photographs and simple patterns to get one started in dollmaking or just learn new fabric techniques. I will contact the winner for address information.

Mosiac with the Kids

2009-03-07T10:15:00.000-05:00

I have mentioned in an earlier post the Takoma Park Mosiac project. I did not find that I could work on this project during the times available due to conflicting family schedules, however it did inspire me to do a mosaic project with my children. I have wanted to create a permanent piece of art for the house with my children for some time. My youngest son is very good with color and I thought a mosaic would be a great way for him to use this skill. My oldest son is very interested in birds and when I asked the children what the theme for the mosiac should be, they said bluebirds.
As a first step we went to Color Me Mine and each painted bluebird on a 4 x 4 in tile. We then ordered virteous glass seconds and colorfusion crystal glass tiles from Maryland Mosaics. In the first picture, the children and I have each placed our 4 x4 tile and then selected the colors of tiles to place around that tile on the wedi board backing. My four year old did the area on the left and 6 year old the area on the right. I did the midle area and the adheasive and spacing. Placing the tiles down was a pretty long process and so I did not include the children. My youngest did help with the grouting once the adheasive was cured.
The second photo is the completed mosaic project mounted as the backsplash behind our kitchen stove and shows my children and a neighbor. Great Job kids!

Samples for Fabric Painting Class

2009-03-02T09:47:00.000-05:00

On Saturday I taught a fabric painting class. Above are several samples I made to illustrate techniques worked with in class. The second picture is a fabric painting my four year old son did. I just had to include it. My first exposure to many of these techniques was by June Silberman of the Ithaca Doll Club.
My class focused the techniques shown above: painting, scrunching, rock salt effects, heat effects, and gel glue resist (not shown, see Quilting Arts Feb/Mar 2009 for a sample.) The sun did not shine down on our group and we were unable to do a sun print. These techniques are all accomplished with Setacolor fabric paint by Pebeo. We painted on prepared for dye (unsized) Pimatex cotton. One doesn't need a class to purchase a couple bottles of Setacolor and do your own experiments.

A very good overview of many of these techniques on silk is found on the fascinating Canadian website Maiwa Handprints.

New Glass work

2009-02-18T09:36:00.003-05:00

Recently I took another class with the wonderful Tina Van Pelt of Artist on the Avenue. The photo above is what I brought home. On the top left piece is silver foil on white reactive glass. The yellow color in the pendant is all from the chemical reaction of the foil with the glass. The sea themed piece with the little seahorse is created from copper foil; the color of the copper deepens to the deep red in the kiln. The lower left piece is a simple piece of dichromatic glass fused with a red background. The lower left is another fused glass face. I am still working with a fused glass face from last year to make a embroidered, beaded stump doll which I hope to have done in the next month or so.

Becky Holloway's Willow WispTake 2

2009-01-15T10:26:00.004-05:00

It has taken me ages to complete my second doll from Becky Holloway's Willow Wisp pattern which I have been working on since the summer. I have plans to do a third as well. What I love about this pattern is the form of the body, beading and the chance to play with shear layers. It is such a romantic pattern; look how those legs peek out. I skipped some of the sculpting suggested in the pattern because I like to look she has with out the sculpting. I also changed the shape of the wings to more of a moth shape. She is an evening fairy after all. If you get inspired, the pattern can be picked up from Dollmaker's Journey.

Christmas Revels and Beautiful Calligraphy

2008-12-15T08:29:00.003-05:00

This weekend I went to the DC Christmas Revels. I love the Revels and have been going yearly, since I was introduced by my husband's Boston based family. For those who don't know, the Christmas Revels takes their theme from a culture, researches the cultural customs from the area, and then has a play based loosely on these songs, stories and dances. In addition to the cultural theme the Revels has several standards. There is always a variation on the play St George and the Dragon, Morris Dancers, the cast and audience singing and dancing to the Lord of the Dance at the intermission, an excerpt from a letter by Fra Giovanni and a poem written by Susan Cooper, The Shortest Day which is always followed by calling out "Welcome Yule!" and finishes with all singing the Hogsmead Carol together.
This years Revels was one of my favorites. The theme was French Canadian and I have to admit I do not have a connection to the culture and did not have any expectations outside of my usual good time. I was very impressed by the singing of Riki Schneyer. She has a beautiful, smoky, warm voice. I strongly encourage you to check out the Revels for next year.
During the intermission, I went down to the sales table and LOVED the calligraphy by the artist Cari Ferraro. One can see her work at her website www.proseandletters.com. The picture in today's post is from one of her beautiful holiday cards and is used by permission.

Rememberance of Grandma

2008-12-08T12:39:00.003-05:00

This is a picture of my Grandma in 2000 holding her great-grandson Aden. She died November 24th this year. She has an obituary at Pursel Davis. Grandma was a poet, defender of justice, and a lover of books. She taught me how to sew and I made my first doll clothes with her. I was very close to her; she will be missed.

Another set of scarves

2008-11-15T11:09:00.006-05:00

My time has been very limited lately so I have only been able to do a little art here and there. I did take the time to dye another batch of scarves. The first batch is mostly sold out (Artists on the Avenue). Hurray! Aside from these scarves, I have been participating in a round robin group for about two years. The face you see above is only the 2nd paperclay face I have tried to sculpt. I am not sure I like the medium...maybe I need more practice. The doll is a Trow or a kind of troll.

Happy Fall Mosaic

2008-10-21T13:06:00.004-04:00

This weekend I went to the Takoma Park Art and Humanities festival. I had a great time making this little mosaic card. An acquaintance of mine, Arturo Ho, is the lead artist of the Takoma Mosaic Project. This is going to be a great project involving the whole community to make community space more attractive. I hope to join them and am inspired to do some mosiac in my own house. Supplies can be found at Maryland Mosaics. Check out thier gallery for ideas.

Santa!

2008-10-08T10:29:00.006-04:00

I made this Santa while living in Ithaca, NY and have never posted a photo of it. This Santa is of my own design and his body is a modified stump, that is, a stump body with boots attached. His skin is dollskin (a kind of polyester knit) and his beard Tibetan lambs wool. His hat is an infant sock. Santa measures about 1ft tall. I may try to do another of these Santas soon. Or maybe a troll version? Photos taken by Annie Zygarowicz. Doll copywritten by Penney Hughes.

Scarf project

2008-10-01T08:38:00.003-04:00

September was a slow month for my art due to several changes in my life. I did get to do one significant project at the end of the month. A couple of friends and I got together, pooled our procion mx dyes and did tub dyeing as well as tie dying. This picture is a sample of the scarves I dyed. The scarves are velvet cut silk/rayon. We increased the temperature of the tub water for the silks and then added our cotton items when the water cooled down a bit. After I rinsed the scarves I then added another color from our squeeze bottles to give the scarves visual dimension. These will be for sell at the shop Artists on the Avenue.

Sad Times

2008-09-21T20:31:00.004-04:00

My very good fried, Mike York, died August 31st and my Grandfather, Zeb Burrell died September 20th. Here are the reprints from the obituaries.

Grandpa's obituary from Groce Funeral Home

Zeb Edward Burrell
Born in Buncombe County on Mar. 26, 1919 Died on Sep. 20, 2008 and resided in Candler, NC.

Zeb Edward Burrell, 89, of Candler, went to be with his Lord Saturday, September 20, 2008 at Memorial Mission Hospital.
A native of Buncombe County he was a son of the late Wint P. and Cora Honeycutt Burrell. He is also preceded in death by his three brothers.
Mr. Burrell was a veteran of the U.S. Army and served in WWII. He was a member of Pole Creek Baptist Church.
Surviving are his wife of 62 years, Helen Herren Burrell; a son, Ronald E. Hughes and wife Patricia of Marshalltown, IA; two daughters, Sandra Sprinkle and husband Charles of Candler and Pamela Kilpatrick and husband James of Castle Rock; seven grandchildren and eleven great-grandchildren.
A funeral service will be held at 3:00pm Wednesday at Pole Creek Baptist Church with Revs. Dennis Thurman and James Kilpatrick officiating. Interment will follow at the church cemetery and pallbearers will be Kelvin Sluder, Edward Sprinkle, Gary Widener, Colby Sluder, Christian Sluder, Rudy Herren and Zeb Sprinkle.
Military honors will be provided by Enka High ROTC.
The family will receive friends one hour prior to the service at the church.

FROM THE AMES TRIBUNE

Michael August York 1970 - 2008 Michael August York
Jan. 20, 1970-Aug. 31, 2008
Michael August York, 38, of Ames, died of septicemia at home on Sunday, Aug. 31, 2008. A memorial service will be at 2 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 6, at Unitarian Church, 1015 N. Hyland Ave., in Ames.
Instead of flowers, please make a donation in Mike’s name to the Arbor Day Foundation at www.arborday.org.

Here is what I read a Mike's funeral, more or less.

Thank you for allowing me to share with you a few observations and memories about Mike.

One of the most remarkable things about Mike was the extent of his love for family and friends. He showed his love through the generosity he extended to his friends, with his family and his animals. Early in our friendship, Mike learned that I had very little income, with just enough to cover rent. He took me grocery shopping. He took me to the movies and opened his house to me. His generosity was a very powerful show of love and friendship to me and I have never forgotten it.

There is no doubt that Mike loved his family. He often talked of his mothers and his sisters and the great sense of humor they displayed, even when fighting about something. And his nephews were like the children he had never had.

Mike was very perceptive about people and free with his advice if you were willing to take it. I personally benefited from it since I grew up in a very sheltered environment. With Mike’s encouragement, I grew into a woman who was able to stand up for myself. Mike was also free with his medical advice. He watched medical shows and read medical journals for fun. I used to teasingly call him Dr Mike when I had a cold and wanted to know what herb might be good to use.

He was not a snob, unless you were the kind of person who he described as ‘sucking the moisture from my soul’. He loved his clients he worked with for years who had developmental disabilities and got a lot of joy working with them.

Mike loved animals. During the time I have known him he has cared for ferrets, cats, dogs, macaws, sugar gliders, African pygmy hedgehogs, and potbelly pigs. Mike learned to do many of the veterinarian tasks to keep his animals healthy. He never did have a great deal of money; yet, he shared it with all of these creatures sometimes in menageries over 50 animals.

Mike’s love expanded to caring for the Earth. He recycled with a vengeance and got in trouble more than once for dumpster diving. His love for the Earth imbued his spirituality and informed most of his basic life decisions. He was very spiritual. He had a rare connection with owls. Once, when I was driving him home, he told me he had a dream that an owl died the night before. He had me drive a couple of turns out of our way and there we stood looking at a dead owl. He had an unusual relationship with computers and other electrical devices that seemed to go haywire around him.

Mike never met home improvement challenge he didn’t like; especially if it involved tearing something apart. I have helped him with tearing down walls, and roofing. I helped put in insulation, drywall, new cabinets and he was just getting started with the home repairs back in the days I was able to help.

Mike worked hard on his house but ultimately he was fun loving.

Mike wanted joy in his life and wanted you to laugh too. His sense of humor was silly and many times bawdy. To give you an example, I would like to close with Mike’s own words, a poem he wrote a few years ago:

Kissy pig, Kissy pig

Kiss pig ke-roo

If I were a pig, then you would be one pig too.

Seasons Thread Tree Art Quilt

2008-08-06T19:37:00.003-04:00

I mentioned in an earlier post working on an art quilt with the thread trees I have been making. I am going to only put up what I can scan because my camera is recharging and I am submitting this quilt to the county fair tomorrow. This will be my first submission! Try to imagine the pictures in the order of Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter and you will have the basic idea. Wish me luck.

Advice from a Tree

2008-08-03T16:35:00.004-04:00

This fall I did am edition of hand illustrated books to the beautiful poem Advice From a Tree. I used some of the thread trees on the cover that I mentioned in an earlier post. One of the things I am working on right now is an art quilt called 'Seasons' based on the thread tree idea. I hope to post it here soon.
I am also working on a doll of the night sky with actual lights incorporated in her design. More to come.

Terrific Quote

2008-07-29T17:12:00.002-04:00

My 4 1/2 yr old son today:
Mommy, if I saw God I would say "God, you make butterflies sooo cool!"

Earth Oven

2008-07-27T11:06:00.005-04:00

This week my youngest and myself went to my friend Tish's house and earned two of these shirts designed by Tish herself. Tish, along with many friends and family, is building an Earth Oven. This is an outside clay oven with a brick base. My son and I helped lay the outside cobb (a kind of clay and straw brick) and place the layer of insulation between outside and inside layer. Tish's son took a video of my son packing the cobb. Check it out below. One packs cobb by stomping on it. My son, who is four, danced and jumped with great enthusiasm to pack the cobb. I am certain this was his favorite part of the process. Many other people have been involved in this process and if you want more information, check out this bulletin board. Here is another blogger's more involved entry.

Egyptian Fairy Doll Finished!

2008-07-14T21:29:00.003-04:00

Finally, this weekend I was able to deliver the Egyptian Fairly that my young friend and I have been collaborating on. She was great to work with and came up with the design for the hair, features, belt, wings and jewelry. We used Barbara Graff's Woman pattern and I designed her shift (dress) after the Kris Waldherr picture I posted earlier. I also provided the technical expertise and materials. I am quite pleased with our collaboration!

Refinished Sewing Table

2008-07-06T13:11:00.003-04:00

I purchased this beautiful table at a yard sale a couple of years ago. This photo is how it looks refinished. Admittedly, I have been using it as a sewing table since it was purchased and it was flaking varnish, had all kinds of water stains and scratches. Ew.
This is my first refinishing job. It was pretty simple job which I did outside. I coated the table with a soy based paint/varnished remover recommended to me by a woodworker enthusiast friend and used the scraper to remove the varnish, then washed off the remover with the garden hose. I alternated painting the table with varnish and sanding it.
The table is not perfect but I am so pleased with how it turned out.

Sewing another Chuppa

2008-06-21T16:23:00.005-04:00

Site: Mayflower Hotel. Photo courtesy Steve Whysall Photography
I would love to say that I have been working on my art lately but the truth is I have been working on a new chuppa for my friends at Petal's Edge Floral Design. They really do beautiful work and I am glad to help them out. The photo above was one of the first chuppas I made for them. It is really beautifully photographed. When I do get back to work on the art, it will be to finally finish the Egyptian fairy I am working on with my young friend.

Strawberry Jam

2008-06-11T08:25:00.002-04:00

Friday my youngest and I went strawberry picking and yesterday, I went to a friend's house and she and my youngest helped me make jam for the first time. We had it this morning for breakfast. Yum.

Finished Ithaca Doll Artist Show Entry

2008-06-01T16:43:00.005-04:00

I have finished my entry for the Ithaca Doll Artists annual show at the Tompkins County Public library. While I no longer live in Ithaca, I am please to continue associating with the wonderful people in this club. http://www.ithacadollartists.com/About_IDA.html The challenge for the library show is to base a doll on a character from a children's book. I have chosen The Merbaby written by Teresa Bateman and illustrated by Patience Brewster. I used Arley Berryhill's Minerva Mermaid pattern for the doll. Her hair is mohair, her body craft velour and cotton painted with various acrylics, her face is colored pencil. I have also added wire, beads, and fibers to the ensemble. Her rock 'throne' I designed myself using floral foam, glue and paint. I have named the doll Vellamo after a Finnish Sea goddess.

Thread Tree

2008-05-18T22:14:00.003-04:00

We went to visit some friends today at House in the Woods, a CSA near Frederick, MD. I must have handwork to do in the car so I quickly grabbed some fibers to make one of my trees. This is about the 10th tree I have made. I use thread clippings, yarns, strips of material and whatever fibrous object might look good and loosely couch them down. This tree will probably be placed in a goodbye quilt for the ministers of my church, who are leaving for another position.

One of my favorite bloggers on Irises

2008-05-07T20:14:00.001-04:00

Check out what Beth Owl's Daughter has been saying about Irises these last few days. Boy do I love her blog, always something interesting to think about.
http://owlsdaughter.blogspot.com/

Ugly Fabric Swap Doll

2008-05-06T11:51:00.003-04:00

I have finished one of the three dolls I am working on. She is a doll for a ugly fabric swap hosted on the MSN group ClothDollsForFun. Today is the mail date, but my van broke down so she will have to wait until tomorrow when the van is fixed (hopefully). She is made from Arley Berryhill's Mermaid pattern that I adapted. I really love the head and hand of this pattern. Her body is made of the 'ugly' fabric sent by my partner Jerlyn and craft velour. I used markers and colored pencils on her face. Her hair is made from an idea I got from Barbara Graff's Kith and Kin pattern. I hope my partner likes her!

Working on and on and on

2008-04-21T17:56:00.004-04:00

I have been really busy lately working on several projects that I hope to show you all soon. One that is particularly exciting is a one-on-one workshop with a child of a friend. She came over with her mother and we began working on a doll based on an Egyptian with wings. Sort of an Isis doll. We are using Kris Waldherr's Isis painting for inspiration. I found the image below at http://www.epilogue.net/index.php.
I am also working on a doll for an ugly fabric doll exchange on the ClothDollsForFun MSN group, but I can't get into the details until the doll is sent.
I was asked to create a doll for the Ithaca Doll Artists show based on a character in a children's book...and I want to join the dark fairy challenge on Doll Street. I don't know if I can do all of this along with the volunteering, housework and other sewing projects I have committed too. Whew.

April Fool on Me? or A Project That Didn't Turn Out

2008-04-01T09:19:00.002-04:00

OK, so this is not one of my best pieces. I bartered with a friend of mine, a cooking lesson for my husband for an IPod cozy she can wear on a chain or with a pin. I used hand painted Pimatex cotton and made it reversible. The big problem in this project was I only had brief access to the IPod and did not find a good pattern online for her IPod size. My husband took a photo of it and I just looked at the photos today. Yikes. I think I am going to have to make her another.
BTW, the meal she taught my husband was very good and she even taught him what to do with the leftovers.

Becky Holloway's Willow Wisp

2008-03-25T08:40:00.005-04:00

Whew, I just finished a new doll. I started her the end of December. The torso has nine parts, so the body is much more tailored than with some patterns. I just love this pattern and may do another with purple and blue color scheme. Willow Wisp is not a good pattern for beginners but an intermediate dollmaker would find her a challenge.

I am donating Willow Wisp to a charity ball silent auction for Open Hearth Foundation. Per usual my images are copywritten.

Placed in online challenge!

2008-03-21T19:19:00.002-04:00

I am excited to report that I have won 3rd place in the online doll club, Doll Street Dreamers, Winter Blues challenge.

Instead of doing her projects, my doll is still in her nightgown and robe with her favorite romance pulp fiction in her hand. She is taking a break from reading and is just daydreaming right now. This doll has a wire armature, needlefelted stuffing and was 'skinned' with strech nylon. Her socks come from my boys toddler socks, her robe from an old towel.

Fused Glass Workshop

2008-03-20T13:54:00.004-04:00

Hi, I wanted to share a few pieces I made at my friend Tina's Fused Glass Workshop. http://www.profusionsofglass.com/ I was particularily excited about trying to make a couple of face masks or plates to sew on dolls. The faces are not quite what I envisioned but I am pleased. Fused glass is all about going with the flow.
I really like how the pieces with the copper foil turned out. The tree is a powerful personal symbol for me, the plant lover that I am. The heart is another powerful personal symbol. I really like the shape the pendant turned into. As usual my images are copywrited.

Noodling on Silk

2008-03-14T20:41:00.000-04:00

Like many, I think more about doing art than I actually get to do. Today, a friend came over because she wanted to take my silk suncatcher glass but had missed it the day I was offering it. I decided to noodle around as well. This is my underwater piece. This image is copywrited.

One of my favorite things

2008-03-11T20:12:00.000-04:00

I love making artdolls. I want to share a couple of my favorite online clubs to belong to. The first doll club I joined was Cloth Dolls For Fun: http://groups.msn.com/clothdollsforfun. They are a friendly bunch with a homey atmosphere. My other favorite online doll club is Dollstreet Dreamers. They are filled with fun and interesting challenges. It is also a good place to take classes: www.dollstreetdreamers.com
Both clubs are populated by helpful people and even being a lurker will help you learn more about the craft.
Blooming wishes!