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....

Fiber Art, Texture, Leaves

Today I wanted to do a bit of looking at texture in fiber art. I have always loved being able to reproduce with a certain amount of ability realistic items in my fiber pieces. I use a lot of techniques and supplies. Some I may have posted before, but as a cohesive post, my outlook on the art in general may be a bit clearer.

My first photo is a sketch of pears, done with oil pastel and then stitched, fluid acrylic added for background (which the oil pastel resists), some quilting, then more acrylic paint. At the end, I have a small still life sketch, an exercise in materials.

The lily is a combination of realistic work and background abstraction. The leaves and flower are the centers of attention; I love dimension in leaves...these being two layers of cotton fabric sandwiched in felt, stitched and then a heat tool used to burn out most of the felt. The flower is on watercolor paper sent through the printer. The curve of the leaves adds a sense of the lily coming off the background, into the here and now.

These next two shots are of dimensional leaves and a flower, stitched with batting and a lining fabric, trimmed carefully, turned right side out and then stitched again to add realistic details such as leaf veins and the separation of the flower petals. Beads are added for stamens on the flowers, and set in a crystallized glue for water droplets on the leaves. They are to represent a loose form of a lily pad, set atop a quilt with silk pieced fish. Having the leaves loose above and not pieced into the surface provides another layer of visual depth.

I was experimenting with a fabric collage background when I did this small work. The butterfly and leaf skeletons are dimensional. The rest of the piece is quilted and has bobbin thread work to provide the proper texture for the fiddle head ferns. Layers of tulle build shadow and depth. The leaf skeletons hang over the edge of the background, adding a little motion to the whole...moving the view from the butterfly, to the ferns, and off the picture plane.

The next two photos are from a piece I did during the Summer Olympics held in Athens Greece. The victor's laurel wreath of tradition is pieced into the background, the freestanding leaves are a repetition of the pieced motif.

These were made from a textured silk fused to a cotton background and are quite sturdy.

The last piece is a landscape done from pieces of diverse cotton fabrics, with both print and stitch used to achieve a realistic view. It is a small piece and still holds much detail; worth a click to enlarge and see how it was put together.

I often have to educate people who have not had the opportunity to see fiber art on the difference between it and it's first cousin, traditional quilting. It is *ART*, just made with fabric rather than paint. Or it is art ON fabric, as the case of the pears, but using traditional quilting methods for texture. There are endless possibilities with these methods. I try to explore as many as possible and see what works best for whatever project it is I have at hand.

In today's fiber art world, there are so many options it is becoming hard to keep up with all of them! For those of us choosing fiber as a medium of expression--even for part of our work--we live in a time when it is exciting but also when we can get lost in too many things to try. Keeping balance and focus as to what our final outcome/goal is probably has become even more difficult.

I think there is a Chinese proverb, to paraphrase: "May you live in interesting times."

We certainly do! May your art show it!

I bid you....

Pax.

Another PT day....a little Art

"Turks Cap Lily"

....So you get a pretty photo from garden, from last year I believe, and I get to get worked out.

Hmmmmmmm..........somehow I think you are getting the better end of the deal!

I always shoot a lot of photos in my flowerbeds as the different flowers come into bloom. In the winter they are wonderful inspiration and frequently they get made into something. If I am not mistaken, this particular photo was used in a piece of fiber art that was part of one of the Co-Op theme challenges. I know I have the pic of the piece---I'll root about here and see if I can find it.

"Fire-Tiger"

Ah, I'm in luck. It was right where it was supposed to be! This was a fun piece to make as it is dimensional and the actual lily photo was printed out on watercolor paper, which sucked up ink at an unbelievable rate. The leaves were sandwiched with the featured fabric, then felt on both sides. I did the stitching for veins, then hit the felt with a heat gun. Most of the felt melted, leaving an interesting texture and pattern. The paper lily was set up from the background by stacking scraps of felt until it was the proper height to look like it was hanging from the stem. I am hoping the photo is clickable (just discovered it is NOT)......things have been peculiar on here of late.

Anyway, I'm off to prepare for my workout and you should be off to make something!

Have a creative blissful day!