Fiber Art Progress~~or~~She Actually Has ART On The Blog!!!

At last, I am able to post some progress of this on here. I had put the photos on FB first, but I can explain details here better. Work has been slow due to a number of things and I am frustrated from that aspect. On the other hand, the tree is developing in a rather amazing fashion, and for that I am very very happy! All of these are larger images, which should be able to be clicked on to see more detail.......should be......still don't like the new Blogger photo uploader AT ALL  ....grrrrrrr.....pfffffft......rant......

Due to where the piece is hanging in the studio, and the amount of *stuff* (and yes it is all vital! SNARF!) around it, my photo is sort of off kilter. The edge of the piece is actually quite square, but the tree is not distorted. That large piece of leafy section on the left is what has been giving me fits.

I start with the plain sections, which you can see on the brown paper. That is traced onto waxed paper, then from there I break it down into smaller subsections. This is tedious because every piece is a *puzzle piece* that must over or underlap the previous piece in the right direction. I also have to consider contrast, pattern, fall of the *leaves*......blah blah blah.

A LOT.

Just getting this front piece of the trunk/root section pinned in place, sewn to the trunk proper and  shaped took over an hour. The felt, after being decayed with a heat tool, is very difficult to stitch through (think melted plastic) and does not have the flexibility it had in it's original state.

However, the texture is simply to die for! I mean, it begs to be touched! That is good---worth the effort.

This side view also gives an indication of why this was such a pip to attach; there was padding behind it to bring the piece forward a bit. So while I was freemotion stitching, I was also pushing that puppy UP and trying to keep the digits free of the sewing machine needle. Oy. The two roots that are with this part had a heavy iron on under them, but the thickness of the fried felt made it extremely difficult to get it to fuse. It was a matter of heating the BG and then slapping the root down quickly, then holding the iron hard against the pin board. My upper body is in a state of revolt.

The worst part? I have to hand stitch the rest of the trunk down due to what overlaps where...pliers, big needle, heavy thread. Do four stitches and take a break. I am almost at the point of testing E-6000 on some of the felt scraps. I have this vision of it melting the pieces right on the wall! LOL!!!

And now to the section of leaves that has been occupying sooooo much of my time. As you can tell, there are numerous fabrics used in this. Every piece has a seperate waxed paper pattern made, it is moved around over the chosen fabric until the right elements are in place, to give visual texture and depth. And part of it was not too hard (other than the decisions of which should be lightest, medium, dark, etc) until I came to one leaf section that had to be subdivided again. The offender is below.

This was exactly what I wanted in terms of pattern, color, balance of light and dark.......
BUT!
All those leaves were going straight up and down on the fabric. Thus, another paper pattern was made, cut apart, the waxed paper was laid over each section, the plain paper piece slipped in, pinned, seam allowance added, then the whole was hand stitched together with paper pattern still in place, fitted under the large waxed paper pattern and finally, fused to the other pieces.
Kiddies, that was a full days work.
Still, I refer to the top photo and like it so much, a section of tree catching the light differently, leaves more distrinct........I think it was well worth the time!
Hopefully, you all can understand why I have been falling back on photos for the blog and have not visited as I should; this thing needs to be done, cannot be hurried, and my brain, well, it has been less than cooperative.
But, it is ART!  .........finally.........  LOL!
As this is further progressed, I'll do another post.
It will be a bit, so don't hold your collective breath.
I like blue, but not on my reader's faces!!!!

Pax....

Milo Helps On The Church Commission

After yesterday's great adventures with nature, I knew I had work to do, and it was in the studio. I wasn't sure how this was going to work with Milo due to the last adventures in the studio, and he had not been back.

But I just told him "Milo, we have to get to work, and if you're a good studio assistant, then I will pay you to help. Okay?"

Seemed to be the magic words. "What do I do?" he asked.

I reluctantly handed him a pair of very sharp scissors. "I need a rough cut on this tree pattern---you don't have to follow the lines---I just need the shape cut from the extra paper. Can you do that?"

He grabbed the scissors, plopped down on the table and started cutting. "Yep! I can DO this!"

And he cut and cut.........carefully around the design lines.......

.....In fact, he didn't stop. He kept right on going until the huge tree was almost released from the extra paper it was drawn on! A big tree for a little bug!

"Milo!" I said with a smile, "You did an excellent job! I'm so proud of you; you saved me a lot of time! Thanks!"
He just smiled that sweet smile. "It was fun! And I'm glad you let me help since I sort of messed things up yesterday........"

"Look Milo, we were both okay and so was the mower. We just won't try running anything with an engine. Can you get the Timtex for me? I need it unrolled......."

And he was off, struggling with the big roll......."Do you need help?" I asked.

"Nope! I'm done. It's ready for you to start marking." He eyed the wall where the major portion of the work was hanging. "You know, I've painted and drawn before. I can help put the finishing touches on some of that."

Hmmmm........he did good with the scissors, and handled the Timtex.....but paint? I waffled a bit......He didn't.

"You just load your brush halfway up the bristles, so it doesn't slop around."

And the next thing I knew he had suspended himself from the towels I had pinned to keep stray paint off the other portions.

When he finished touching up the edges of the sky, he hot footed it back to the paint and loaded up a brush full of green for the landscape......

"Just a little more up here......"

"....and I'll smooth this line too, to make it look nice."

"There!" he said with a bit of well earned pride. "I think it's a good start! Did I do okay?"

"You did much more than okay Milo---you did SUPER!!! You're very good at this. We had a productive time out here, and had fun too...yes?"

"Yep!" And his little bug-butt was heading for the house, where the cheesecake brownies were. It was a while before I got done for the day and went in to join him but when I did, I found him in the living room, contemplating one of my statues.

"Who is that?" he asked.

"That's a statue of Jesus, who is the Son of God. It's one of my favorites. It came from a church."

Milo sat for a minute rather quiet and I knew something was going on in his brain.

"You know," I continued, "The hanging you worked on today will be in a church too."

He still didn't say anything.

"Have you been to church Milo? Did Deb take you?"

He shook his head *no* very rapidly. "I did not leave the closet because I had heard what people thought of Millenium Bugs and it wasn't nice. I was afraid to come out. Everyone was afraid of us, but they never had met us. So I just stayed there till Mom decided I needed to see the world a bit." He looked at the statue again and then whispered to me, "Do you think HE likes me?"

I patted him on the back and smiled.

"Milo, He loves you, because He made you. And all of us. And everything on the earth and in the skies and beyond. Pretty cool, yes?"

Milo nodded yes as he was heading for his bed. It was early, but he had worked hard. "I think that is very nice," he said through a big bug yawn. And I knew those shiney little eyes would soon be closing for sleep, but his little bug-mind was going to be going a mile a minute.

I wonder what he will come up with tomorrow?

Yawn......

Fiber Moments~~or~~Yes, This Will Be A Church Hanging!

I worked in the studio yesterday until a thunderstorm from Monsoon Land blew through--and I do mean THROUGH! The water was coming through the ceiling, so I know what I will be doing on Saturday....crawling the roof with latex caulk.

But I digress.

As usual.

Below you see on the left the inside of a cleaned snack chip bag, on the right, the same bag after heat was applied and in the center, a piece with the first coat of acrylic color. That is what has been such a stinker about drying! Since the base is completely non-absorbent, it is taking forever to get these to dry. (the roof leak probably is not helping either.....grrrrrr....)

The pieces below are all different cuts or bags, and almost all of them have four coats of different colors, so that when I go to make the creek section on the hanging, I have this wonderful variety of *water texture* to put in atop painted areas and other fabrics, and lots of light reflection. I have also ordered some oddly shaped and colored pearls, which will be sewn into the creek bed as glowing, wet pebbles. Then the leaves I have whined incessantly about will be all along the edge of the creek, and maybe if it feels right/looks right/works right, I might *float* a leaf or two. I don't know. That's just me thinking out loud. (hear the grrrrrrrinding???)

The next thing I tackled was getting some small burn samples of the two felts I have purchased. I am still debating which to place on top as they melt under the heat gun completely differently and even the melt pattern is different. The pic below is strictly felt--colors reversed so I can think which is best for a bark texture.

Then I added one layer of felt over a selection of fabrics, did some stitching, and applied the heat gun to burn away parts of the felt. This is pretty light weight, and there is some merit to it for highlighted areas of bark, but there was a lot of curl as the felt shrunk, sooooo......

I moved to sample two, with the brown and black felt stacked over the woven fabric, and a piece of black felt on the back. This was quite substantial---in fact, I was not sure I could free-motion it through the machine, but it did okay.

On the far right, you can see just the stitching, then as you move left on the image, there are areas where the heat was applied for shorter and longer amounts of time. This is one of those things I wish I could  get a really good shot of for the *feel*. It is extremely textural.....which I like. I spent some time online researching walnut tree bark and found sufficient images that I should be able to get a decent stitch pattern in my head for the tree bark sections.

Sorry about this last photo but black thread on black felt does not show up AT ALL...

This is the back of the above fiber package, with some of the felt burned out, which allows the whole to lay a bit flatter. There is still a lot of *feel* to it but not the wobbles like the first piece. The other benefit of using the felt layer on the back is it makes excellent shaded area for the tree bark.

Now I am just waiting on the canvas to arrive (it was on back order--of course!) , the pearls, the fabric paint and I should be ready to get this puppy really in gear!

Of course, I have to get the roof fixed first, because the wall I work on is the one that had water running down it.

I just love multi-tasking.....don't you???  >:-[

LOL!!!

Now go get creative and make something wonderful! Or just have a wonderful day!

Pax....

My New Heart........♥♥♥

I hate admitting I cannot remember what day it was or what was going wrong when I decided to reward myself for not going completely nuclear with a bit of Etsy shopping. (on second thought, I think the day involved the throwing of the telephone.....let's stop THERE!)

Anyway, off I went to Marie Segal's Etsy store and what do I find but something that made my heart go completely pitter-patter; a Zippered Heart with a Sacred Heart inside!!!

I immediately heard the words "Take me home....." to which I replied, "Just let me get that wallet of mine!" and I ran as quick as I could.

Marie and I had e-mailed back and forth about ideas, finishes, projects we were working on, etc but I just had not made it over to her store. Boy, am I glad I did! Let me describe how this little gem came in the mail to me.

That black organza bag held a delightfully wrapped package, with a sacred heart sticker holding it shut. I opened it slowly (although every part of me wanted to rip it to pieces quickly!) and there inside was this amazing pendant. It is larger than what I expected, at approximately 2 1/2" long by 2" wide. But the detail in that little space! Please click the photo below......see what a gem this is.

I just sat, holding it and turning it over and over and then got on e-mail and demanded to know EVERYTHING about it! (poor Marie...having friends like me.....) It is just perfect.......perfect. So much care and skill and love in this!
For those of you who have not seen Marie's Blog, click HERE.
For her Etsy store, click HERE.
I can assure you, your time will not be wasted visiting one of the most talented clay artists I have had the pleasure of meeting!
Of course, it's also fun getting those lovely packages in the mail......  ;-)
As to my work, my leaf count for the large commission is up to 97 with the machine still running, if not groaning about it! And I went to order the canvas for the background and it is temporarily out of stock! HA! *Anne-Luck* strikes again! Oh well, I can start the other samples to see how they will work.......
And how has your day been???

Pax...