Category Archives: Creative Assistants

Birds, Creative Assistants, FAD (Fiber Art Dames), Finger Lakes Fiber Artists, Xavier Wood Ice

Winter Return

March 2, 2017 admin

Hello,

We are experiencing a snow storm today with cold blowing winds. It’s a bit of a shock after three days of wonderful warm temperatures near 60. I do like the soft effect the snow creates on the the landscape however. It is just early March so one should expect a bit more winter. I guess I will be doing another batch of snow dyeing today.

I had two meeting this week. The first was the Finger Lakes Fiber Artists meeting and they meant on Sat. Priscilla had been to Guatemala and she had purchased some wonderful embroidery works that she shared with us. Bev and Mary had nice works to share too. I always get some much out of meeting with fellow creative folks. They helped me see a change I needed to make with one of my works too. It was great.

The “Both Ends of the Rainbow” show was up in the main gallery at the Schweinfurth. I checked it out after the meeting. The kids and the adults had grand works. I was really taken by this altered book.

The FAB group was my second meeting this week. Patti is weaving away with embroidery floss on this project. I like the way she is mixing her threads to avoid sharp color changes that would create strips. Nancy also brought some color from south of the border as she in now home from her trip to Peru. This work is from the natives who live on Lake Titikata. Wonderful work with the chain stitch here. The natives are working for the tourist’s dollar and they are using much brighter colors then when I was in Peru 8 years ago.

Progress Report: Creative Assistants I am working away on my little pins now. This batch of 34 is now complete. Or it will be when the Squeezie Paint is dry tomorrow morning. I think I am done making these for this year. I have over a hundred to give away and that it enough.

Branch I am about half done with this second branch. It is built out of a tweed jacket sleeve that is then build up with layers of yarns on top to give it more texture and to add interest. The water soluble is trimmed away from most of the left side at this time. This close up shows a section that is almost done.

Blossoming Branch I am ready to add this first branch to the new background. I’ll add flowers too as it is suppose to be a Cherry Blossom branch. It almost appears too light so I may have to build up some darks in the limb as I put it on the surface.

Summer Meadow This is the first assignment from Layer, Paint, Stitch. I am now doing the bobbin grasses. That process means that the bobbin in this case is loaded with crochet thread – it is too thick to go through the machine needle and that is why it is in the bobbin. Then one sews from the back side and the thread is couched down on top. This little trick is wonderful and I can see many ways to use it in my work. Learning new tricks and techniques is why I do these type of exercises. Paint will be added to this surface later and the grasses will show up.

Samurai Romance I have now finished the first panel of this project( on the left). I couched by hand some think yarn and leather strips to the build up the vertical lines. The two brown patches on the right are now ready for step two of there alteration for the project from the Stitch, Fiber, Metal and Mixed Media book. They are small wet felted wool pads. There will be lots of texture on this piece.

Xavier Ice I just keep working on getting every thing free motion attached to the surface of this work. The build up is moving forward.

Birds I thought I might make some little birds from the leftovers of the Pods Project. These are Ok, But I think I can do better. So I will keep thinking and make a second run at this idea with some of the other leftover felted fabric I created.

Label Block 109 Another one down and only 11 to go now.

Keep Creating

Carol

Circle Challenge VI, Circle Challenge VII, Creative Assistants, FAD (Fiber Art Dames), Fling, Label Blocks, Scrap Happy Quilts, Three Jacks

Working time

February 2, 2017 admin

Hello,

I feel good about the confines of winter as I seem to get a lot done. I am still feeling the energy of my show too. I will take it down tomorrow however. I have four works in the Cabin Fever Quilt show at Bette Branch Library here in town though. These four little works pictured here are my 6” X 6” pieces for the Rochester Art center. I mailed them off on Tuesday. They are all part of the felted work I was doing last week. I still have big chunks of the felting to use in the project when I get the final additional parts.

FAB meant this week and everyone had work to show and talk about. This is Patti’s new weaving project. The can at the bottom is full of her woof threads. Judy put aside her red sweater for the summer and has not pulled it out again. She is getting to the arm wholes near the top now.

Nancy got busy and finished off six new placemats for her home. They are spring like I think.

We had another snow storm last night so I am doing more snow dyeing. This is a shot of the top of the bucket shortly after I put the dye on top of the snow that is setting on top of the prepared fabric. Now to await the melting/dyeing.

Progress Report: Fling This work is 50” X 34”. It is based on a collage and has Ethel’s Marbleized fabric( the orange) and my hand dyed yellow and the light green and blue stuff. The quilting is done in two styles. For the orange and the white fabrics I followed the edges of the color changes. For the purples I did a pebble style.

Circle Challenge VI This work is 14” X 19” . It has a lot of movement in it. The quilting is reflective of the circles and done in quilting thread. I liked adding the beading at the end and I will do that again in number VII.

Circle Challenge VII I finished the quilting last eve. It is trimmed and ready for beads and facings so I will finish it quickly this week .

Three Jacks I put this work under glass this week- and that makes for awful reflections. Then before I sealed the back with brown paper I checked it and noticed that I had some how gotten a nail on the outside between the matt and the glass. So I will need to take it all apart and do it again before it is complete.

Scrap Happy I continue to work through Ethel’s scrap box. I need to complete a scrap happy quilt for the Prevention Network so I have been putting in an hour a day putting the scarps together. They are cheerful I think.

Scarf I have always enjoyed looking at a project and trying to figure out how it was done. So this week when I saw a wonderful image on Pinterest I thought- I will try to do something similar. First I pulled out a lot of green roving. After adding some leaves I cut from gold ribbon, I placed them on some wash away and drizzle some yarn on top of the whole thing. After placing a second bit of wash away on top to create a sandwich I started stitching everything together. This will take me a while to complete, but I am looking forward to this little challenge.

New Work I am all done with the assembly of the background for this project. But when I added the Tezel on top I did not quite work as I though it would. Then I looked at it in gray scale on my camera and realized the Tezel heads are too small and too close in value to the background. The opposite of what I did with the Jack in a Pulpit project. So I took the heads off and created new ones that are bigger and have a bit of orange in their color to create a contrast with the background. They work a lot better. Now I will need to create a new background for the first heads. I am going to test myself by creating it in the same size as the first and see if I can make it work with just a value changes.

Sharron’s Challenge Sharron and I purchased the same kimono( the stuff in the center) last year and have a challenge to created something with it. I pulled some fabrics that I think work well with this fabric and will start a project soon.

Creative Assistants I finished off a new batch of these little fellows this week. I need to really get going on them as I do not have much of a tribe yet this year. I want to be able to give them away at QBL this summer and not leave anyone out so I need to get going.

Label Block # 105 I think that I only need to do fifteen more and I will be done with this step of this project.

Keep Creating

Carol

Creative Assistants, Felt Work, Hand Bags, Hand work, Label Blocks, Pond Water

Falling Back

November 10, 2016 admin

Hello-

The winds of autumn are stripping the trees of their golden bounty now. I have been out raking for two days. It is cold and soon days will be spent inside. This last week has been a busy one out side the studio for me. I spent Friday mixing dye with my friend Liz. We will be a part of open studio at the Schweinfurth during the up coming weekend. Play is in my future.

Then this week end I was part of and Exhibition and Sale at John Doweling’s studio for two days. I sold three little framed works and I am very happy about that. The work is still hanging there although I am not in attendance. It will be there until the middle of Dec.

Progress Report: Hand Bag I did put together a hand bag this week so I guess I did finish one thing.

Pond Waters Because I was away so much there is not a lot of progress to report. I continue to work away on this project in the evenings and it is building. Hand work is just slowbut very calming.

Circle Play This is my self challenge to play with faced circles in a creative way. I have a lot to learn with this process. I have challenged myself to do seven works using this striped circle as the main unit.

Wool works 1 2 3 I started these works last week but did not put too much time into them yet. This work is # 2 only because I numbered my sketches as I did them. I am sure it will get a better name with time. This one is just about ready for some machine stitching.

#3 This one is ready for fabric and machine work. It really is not much different than last week.

#1 is still at the prep for wool stage.I have drawn the areas our for the color changes but that is all. I will get to that later today I hope as the felting machine is out on the desk and waiting.

Felted Landscape I did make progress on one wool piece though. This too is in an early stage. I will keep you posted.

New Work I did pull fabric for a new pieced work too. This one will be a lot simpler then the pieced work I have been doing of late. I hope I can stick with that attitude.

Label Blocks # 92 & # 93 I can see the end of this project. There are only 27 more blocks to complete.

Keep Creating

Carol

Blue Stone, Canyon de Chilly, Collage Based Work, Columbus Junction, Creative Assistants, Green Grass of Home, Ice on Vincent, Label Blocks, Memory Map Quilts

On Marks

April 21, 2016 admin 1 Comment

Hello,

The sky was so full of contrails – man made marks and I felt I must comment on my focus subject of this year. Marks seem to be every were when you start to look for them. There are marks left by animals like these deer and raccoon tracks are that show marks of passing. But there is a difference between the mark left behind by nature and the marks made by mankind. Man made marks are a conscious decision. There for my con trails are not really marks on the sky as I have defended it. Because I live in an urban setting I seem to find most marks on my walks. I saw these marks of love in the sand when I was visiting Susan in Florida. Then I found these marks scratched in cement on a sidewalk. I observe many spray painted marks. I talked with a man replacing a stop sign that had been grifittied spray painted yesterday on my walk. Then I found these two in the stair well of the art building. They all point to the fact that folks seem to be driven to make marks on surfaces when the opportunity arises. Think about all the silly doodles around the note pad by the telephone or look at a students note book at the end of the school year. Both are covered with marks. We all seem to have a driving need to leave evidence of our passing in the world. Even this strange sculpture is a mark of sorts of some folks existence. I can’t begin to explain why we leave behind the marks. I just know we do and I find it fascinating.

About a month ago I wrote about the “ surFACE” show where artists were given the plastic masks that Cancer patents used as a part of their treatment . I went to the opening/sale of the art works that came out of that Challenge and was amazed by the transformation that the artists did with the masks. This roman fighter was one. Some artists cut up and distorted the masks like this flat work that became and elegant type of painting. I was amazed by this wonderful grass hopper were the artist mixed the plastic with corrugated cardboard. There were several courageous lions. lots of butterflies and angles among the altered masks. Over 90 wonderful creations came out of this powerful challenge.

Progress Report: Green Grass of Home This quilt is 22.5” X 45” and a part of the self challenge project. The collage that I started this work with is in a whole different color pallet- and it morphed as it grew, but I am quilt happy with the final results. When one enlarges from 4” X 6” to a bigger size one does need to break up things a bit differently. I had a good time with the quilting on this work and it is very flat even though I did sew at 45 degree angles in some places.

Memory Map- Canyon De Chelly This quilt is 18 “ X 20”. It has been missing for several months. Some how in my frustration with what to do next it got buried in a pile of fabric and only surfaced this week when I was putting away fabric form my trip to Chicago. I am so glad it got lost because I was so frustrated with it I was ready to throw it away the last time I saw it. But with fresh eyes I saw what it needed and now I am pleased with the work. It mostly needed more definition and needle work. It got both this week.

Memory Map- Columbus Junction Finding Canyon De Chelly also got me going on this work that was at a stall too. I have added more detail to the map section and I am in the process of doing the drawing of the figure for this work now.

Creative Assistants I got busy and finished up 21 more of these little fellows this week. I was pushed forward on this project by unearthing a small box of necklaces with wonderful beads for face parts- but I told myself I could not begin to play with them until I had finished all the started pins. There will be more.

Ice on Vincent I am building up the texture on this work now. It is the slow step were it seems like not much is happening. But I love all the thread play and the tacking down of fabric bits and yarns.

Blue Rock This work is just a little behind the Ice piece. I am still filling in the base layer for it. I like selecting the fabrics and filling in the gaps .

Label Block # 48 The building of the blocks keeps on coming.

Keep Creating

Carol

Briar Patch, Creative Assistants, Label Blocks, Out the Window, Riverwood, Watakoo Wall

Green Day

March 17, 2016 admin 1 Comment

Happy St. Patrick’s Day. It is sunny and bright today and I am really feeling the wonders of spring. Notice the bee in the center of the wind flower on the left. So many trees have big fat buds I am sure they will open soon. I had no meetings this week so I got a lot done. I do have stuff coming up however. This Sat and Sunday I will be apart of the Spring Thing at the Turquoise Street Gallery. I will be there on Sunday afternoon from 1 to 4Come along and have so goodies if you can. My other news is I am off to visit Susan on Tues and I will not be back until the following Tuesday . So there will be no post next week. I am sure I will have lots to share when I get home as she already has lots of plans for activates for the two of us.

Progress Report: Briar Patch I have completed this work, but I do not feel like it is really done. It is OK- but it has no life for me. I will take it to the Associated Artists meeting this week end and get some feed from other artists on it. I do like all the textures and colors that the patch contains but it seems fall short .

Ribbon Rose Pillow When I went to visit Susan last spring I fell in love with a wonderful piece of red fabric that she had. It was topped with these wonderful ribbon patterns. It has taken me a year to study and then adapt the technique to my collection of techniques. I am quit pleased with this typeof embellishing. I will admit that it is not a surface that is comfortable to press against however. But the texture is wonderful!

Out the Window I have finished all the stitch in the ditch work on this piece. It is now stable enough to start the free motion drawing part. I Think I will make each block a different view. I plan to leave some of the “windows’ blank and all the white ones with purple blocks printed on them will be curtained windows. I am thinking that the deep purple blocks will be night scenes. This is a big challenge and I may change my mind as I go along. But that is my plan.

Riverwood This work fits all three of my monthly challenge criteria. It is based on a collage, has my altered fabric and some of Ethel’s fabric too. I changed the color when I went to fabric from red to oranges and from grays to browns. I am showing one of the early pin up steps of this work because I have realized that as I enlarge the work from the 4”X 6” collage to a larger size it takes on a life of its own and I alter the work accordingly. ( note the additional half circles. ) I have finished all the stitch in the ditch work on this piece too and I am now ready to add the free motion work. I am not sure what to do so I am living with it.

Watakoo Wall I started some new work based on photos of rock formations. This is the beginning. I always try to lay the wool out in a pattern that follows the lights and darks of the start, but it too takes on a life of its own when I change mediums. Is this what is meant by abstraction?

This is a second work from a different section of the same photo before I add any fabrics on top. It to has morphed from the photo to this point.

Creative Assistants I have been inspired again this week to get back into doing faces for my creative assistants. I have done about two dozen and I will keep at it for a bit longer. Then move on to the next step.

New work Here is another work that is fits the monthly challenge work. And it too seems to have pulled away from the collage with enlargement. I have broken things up and altered the sizes of color blocks as I have gone along. I guess I will just have to face that the changes are a natural part of my process. It is all a part of learning and creating as I go along. A natural part of the process for me.