Category Archives: Awakened by Black Birds

Awakened by Black Birds, Coastal Color, Felt Work, Label Blocks

Reworking

December 8, 2016 admin 1 Comment

Hello- I am getting ready for my solo show that I will hang on Jan 4. I am not a person who puts things off and being a quilter I know the value of doing lots of small things completes a task with a lot more success then tackling the whole thing. So I have started pulling pieces for the show and looking with care at them to make sure they are ready for the public eye. Big Blue( 36” X 24” X 2”) is one of the works I needed to add to. I had not added a label so that was one of the little finish up projects I took on this week. That just meant that I had to stitch a white square of fabric to the back of the stretched workand write the label infoirmation on it. This process of pulling out work for the show also revealed a work that I really liked, but it was badly warped. It was one of the early works in my wool based projects and I had just added batting and a black back to the wool felted quilt like project. I took the time to take the project apart and stretched it over a canvas based set of stretcher bars. Coastal Color 1 ( 20” X 16”) looks a lot better now and I am happy with it. It will now go into the show if there is space. This rework is a much better solution than the process I had used with it before. Time and pashents really worked together to make this new treatment a much more successful piece then it was before.

The fist Tues of the month was this week so I had meetingsof both the QuEG’s and Diva’s. Corrine did this wonderful piece of jewelry that she shared with us at the QuEG’s meeting . Sally had a whole pile of Christmas projects that she had completed, but I love the Snow Man the best. Even the the hat has thread work all over its surface. Angela is in the middle of a on line class on three dimensional wool works. I really love this one she did withits wool units about 2” tall sticking up from the surface. She sure had become a major felter.

I then went off to the Diva meeting. It was a very small group of us – only six, with not a lot of work to share. But I do enjoy seeing folks.

Anne has created a wonderful top with a very limited pallet. She has gotten very good at inserting those points too.

Noel is working on a small Van Goth landscape. It is inspired from a card she received.

Ruth took an indigo class. She had some real beauties from that experience. This is her sampler of different stitches. She was also in the Open Wet studio at the Schweinfurth early in Nov. She did some specular dye pieces. This one is my favorite. Both meeting got me all excited again as they usually do.

Progress Report: Awakened by Black Birds This work is 19.5” X 19.5 “. This felt based pieceinspired by my experience at the Open Wet studio weekend is complete now. I used the fly stitch to add the feeling of birds in flight in the sky as well as the cut ones. I also did a lot of machine drawing to create the limbs on the tree.

In the ground trees I added just little strait stitches to indicate the birds.

Spot On I am still doing the free motion machine drawing on this work. I only have the big white areas and the yellow ones to fill now so I am sure it will be done by next week.

Wild Patch I am trying a new approach with this work. I laid down a solid base and drew with a white pencil the areas I wanted broken up on the surface. The I proceeded to place fabric on top in those shapes. Sometimes I stitched the adjacent pieces together with the raw edges out and sometime I did it in the regular manner. In other areas I just left raw edges with the background showing through. Most of this is not sewn to the back ground yet – but that is the next step I plan to take. When everything is attached to the background I will wash it to make the raw edges fray. This is unchartered- so I do not know if it will be successful or not. It is a true “what if” project.

Label Blocks # 96 and # 97

I did finish two this week to make up for not finishing any the week before.

Keep Creating

Carol

Awakened by Black Birds

New York City

December 2, 2016 admin

Hello-

I am just home form a three day trip to the big Apple. Nancy, Patti and had a grand time. (yes the sculpture is made of Lego’s.) We spent a day shopping in the Garment District. The array of wonderful fabrics was a bit overwhelming. I did come home with a wonderful piece from Mood and lots of samples that I am sure I will use in a rock piece at some time. I learned that Mood runs a sewing school in the store too. Open sewing class was just starting when I looked in.

We went to The Museum of Arts and Design yesterday. What a great space. It is always full of exciting stuff. I was most taken by the Crochet Coral Reef Toxic Seas show by Margaret and Chrustine Wertheim. The sisters took crochet to a whole new level with this one. Their piece on coral bleaching was made primarily out of recycled plastics. Some of the beautiful little works made from beads were displayed on “plastic sands collected from Hawaii. There was lots of vidio tap used to create the crochet work on some of the parts.

I found myself looking very closely at the works and trying to see what plastic objects they used to create the wonderful works. The ear phones here look like some sort of strange sea growth. I had wanted to see this work sense I had read about it in the American Craft Magazine several years ago. It was wonderful! I came away all excited to try some sea life of my own.

The jewelry display was wild. The gold leaves- about the size of ones hands- were so powerful the jewelry was almost lost.

I took about six photos of just the light on those leaves that I think will be great jumping off places for new work.

New Your City was all decked out for Christmas- even the Lego store. There were lights and trees every where. We had a great time and walked over 9,900 steps two of the three days. I wore a whole in the bottom of my shoes too. ( they were older- but supportive)

Progress Report; Awakened by Black Birds Being away for three days cut down on work time so I made little progress. I am adding birds in flight to this work at this point.

Collage based work The work is all pinned and I have started the free motion work on it.

Wool #1 I am still building on this work, but I have stitched down all the darks that I had added last week.

Label Block No blocks got completed this week. I thought I could work on it on the bus coming home from NYC. But the lights on the bus did not function. I will finish two this week.

Keep Creating

Carol

Approach, Awakened by Black Birds, Circle Challenge, First Fall, Label Blocks

Systems Failure

November 25, 2016 admin

Hello-

I hope everyone enjoyed their Thanksgiving. I am thankful for my family, friends and health. This week I had a little bit of a break down with my projects system. I try to keep the fabric for each project in a separate little plastic bin. There is a bookshelf on in the corner were they are stacked. Well I have been so harried these last few weeks I had not been using my system- hurrying too much meant I did not put things back and sometimes threw things in the wrong bin. The bins themselves were piled up on the cutting table instead of the shelves so it was a real mess. I was spending far too much time looking for what I needed and I was frustrated. I had to stop work for a morning and put everything to writes again. It was worth it as I was so very relived the next day when I walked back into the studio and things were tidy again. I hope I have learned my lesson and will do a better job of taking the time at the end of each work period to do the clean up correctly. Last Saturday was the first year anniversary of the mixed group meetings. ( all the gals pictured are from that meeting) It was good to get together again and talk even thought there were only 8 of us.

Progress report: Approach This piece is 18 ” high by 13″ wide. I do so enjoy doing these free motion drawing works. This one like many is based on a rock image that I shot. I try to sty true to the lights and darks on the rocks surfaces but I do not feel I must stay with the colors that I see in my photo. I enjoy building up the textures.

First Fall This work too is based on a rock shot. It is 26″ long by 20″ wide. It was formerly referred to as Wool 2. I added the single maple leaf to the surface to give the work a focus. Building the veins added more to this part of the image too. Again my love of texture is a strong part of this work.

Awakened by Black Birds This project grew out of my experience at the dye workshop the weekend before. Sense our room was on the third floor we were even with the tops of the trees and the crows roosting there. They awakened us early in the morning and flew off as the sun came up. I want to remember the wonder I felt as we watched them. There where so many! I need to darken the bottom section of the work and add more birds to the sky and it will be complete.

New Work This is a work based on a drawing I did based on a dream image. I have changed it and modified it as I enlarged it. There is some of the dyed fabric ( the yellow ) that I did at the dye workshop.

Wool 1 I am to the fabric addition stage with this work. No machine work yet. It still needs more fabric on top too.

Circle Challenge 1 I have added the extra circles to the surface and I am now ready to do the quilting step on this project. There are beads in the upper left hand corner that I plan to add by hand.

Label Block #95 I just keep at it one little square at a time.

Keep Creating

Carol

PS: There will be no blog post until Friday next week as well as I will be away in NYC until Thursday evening.

Cre-8

Category Archives: Awakened by Black Birds

Reworking

New York City

Systems Failure

Creative Fiber Collage Artist Carol Boyer