Shock and amazement...

... I'm finished and it's days away from the deadline. When Heather posted her challenge colour my immediate response was 'I don't do green!' but looking back on my pieces for

12 By the Dozen it seems that I do, in small quantities:

      

Buzz Art Blocks

The blocks are 12 inch square and made of strips of plywood glued together, approx half inch in thickness. Very solid and quite weighty. This is because some may use mosaics or similar mediums.  This means that I will probably work on fabric and stretch it across like an artists canvas.  Still umming and aahing!!  

CHALLENGE REQUEST

During our National Quilt Festival which was held in July this year we had an incident and one of the husbands of one of our quilters went beyond the call of duty to assist. With this in mind the committee wanted to recognise and show appreciation for this act and asked that I make a 'Quilters Star' award.  I was asked to use a 4" square artists canvas and I had carte blanche!  Being caught in the moment I said yes!   

After much mulling around and going no where, I decided to work on two and they could take it from there.  They also were under no obligation to accept either.

These are the results.....

Ultimately I had great fun and have been inspired to do a small series (different theme) working on a slightly larger artists canvas. 4" is really very small but quirky.

Needless to say I have not started, however, I have just received an open request from one of our local galleries calling for 'local artists' to take part in their annual 'Buzz Art' exhibition.  You buy a canvas (or 2 or more) from them for a nominal fee, use any medium to create your piece of art and it goes on show and you may put it up for purchase if interested.

Closing date 17th November ...... so watch this space!

Renovated Marsala piece!

I have finally got round to adding more leaves to flow across the binding so it looks more natural.  I see I have left some marking lines on a couple of leaves which I will remove. Much happier now!

Happy Day

I am pleased to have sold this needle felted silkwork from the series seen below to one of my gardening clients, who is a retired prof from the art department of Concordia University in Montreal. It was very rewarding for me to see it hanging in her front hallway where she said that its placement was to compliment the colours of the Jack Bush on her landing (a print) and a small  Edouard Munch on the opposite wall. I was very tickled that she was so happy with her purchase and that she was so generous in her encouragement. Big smile all day!
Thanks also to Heather for taking this photo and for the offer to hang the series this summer at our local medical center where she curates a gallery for the pleasure of patients in the waiting room. It encouraged me to get them into some simple gold frames and to think in terms of a series.
 

 

New improved marsala

   I have added copper markal paintstik between the quilted lines on the black and I think it looks much better and far more cohesive, though there is still too much black. When I first made it, I tried to get around the problem of the piece of printed fabric being to small by photocopying it, cutting the copies in various ways and placing it on black paper to see what it would look like, but I could not find a way to do it without the quilt being smaller than it had to be. However it was a first try with my stencil and I am not  intending to leave it there and will definitely play around with it more. Up to now I have a small stash of fabrics that I have printed, plus some samples and several small pieces like this, but I think I need to start working on a larger scale to be able to make anything of it. In case you have not seen it the site http://www.culture.gouv.fr/fr/arcnat/megalithes/index.html gives a good brief introduction and has some lovely photos. I tried to give the link to the English page on Gavrinis, but it would not let me, so just change the language to English at the bottom of the page, and look at the page 'Megalisme in Morbihan' to find the information about Gavrinis. The other sites are fascinating too. I first became interested in the carvings twenty years ago when we were on holiday in the area, having seen photos of them. However I didn't get to see the real thing until three years ago, when we went on a trip to the island. The carvings were fantastic, but I was a little disappointed as we only got see them by the light of a single torch, so they weren't quite as amazing as they appear in the photos when they are so well lit!

Bye for now - Pamela

Pamela has decided to take a sabbatical from the group - for now.  Her life is rich and full but these last few months have left little room for making her little pieces in the various challenges.  She has been a member since the beginning when several of us met in our hotel rooms in Houston and the kernel of the idea was muted.

Thank you, Pamela, for your contributions.  You have shared so much with us over the years.  Enjoy your family and your various celebrations and we look forward to welcoming you back some time.

Stay well, stay in touch and stay creative,

Hilary

Marsala and me ...

I'm sorry for the late arrival. I cannot explain my decision to stitch this so intensively, there was no artistic motive it was just a one of those thoughts that came from nowhere. The glass rings are paint - I'm a lot more careful with my wine than this!

Hilary, our PC died this morning so the photo is an iPad shot - I'll mail you a better image once our PC has been to see his doctor.

Now I can go and see what everyone else has done, I've been holding off as my reward for finishing.

And the next challenge is...

... "Apple Green".

Actually, if you mix 50 parts warm yellow with 1 part black, you get something like this colour, which I have always found intriguing. Some of you may call this "puce green" but that's just opening up another can of mashed peas.

Marsala

   I thought I was on to a winner when this colour was announced, as one of the fabric paints (red ochre)  that I have been using seemed to be a good match and I wanted to use some of the imagery that I have been playing with. I made some stencils of the negative shapes of the Gavrinis prints that I had done and played around with them, but it wasn't very successful as the paint wicked into the fabric and made a bit of a mess. I overprinted with copper paint and managed to salvage enough, with the addition of some black fabric. However the black stripes are too wide and it just doesn't look right. I might try using some markal to fill in the quilted shapes on the black to make it a bit more cohesive, but on the whole I'm not very pleased with it and if I'd had the time I would have started all over again!

Dot maker tool

These are the little dot makers.  The trade name is 'Dot Easy' by W & M but that doesn't bring up anything on google.

Hilary

Marsala accents

 

Fields of Gold Series #4

 

This colour was quite challenging and I did produce a few pieces using it as a dominant colour but was never really happy with the result not having any lighter variations in my stash of silk. Therefore I will choose one that benefitted from this colour using a predominant opposite. Cheating I know! I look forward to seeing how those of you who do gradation dyeing found this much easier to resolve.

Materials include silk and cotton and technique is needlefelting.