Spray Time on Off the Wall Friday

Finally ready to Quilt!

How in the world are we looking at March already?  I mean you wouldn't know it since we are

expecting 6" of snow tonight...but still!  I look at my "Things to Do" list on my studio wall and thought I better start getting back after it!   One project I left on the back burner is the Cherrywood Challenge.  When I say on the back burner, I really mean, it's been ruminating around in my snow-covered mind, but I haven't actually done anything yet.   Back in October, it seemed like I had so much time to get this 20" square done!

So tonight, I  took the plunge and finally broke out my new toy, the  Crayola Air Marker Sprayer.  (see it really is a toy!!)  

The rule of the challenge is that you
can only use the fabric in the kit, but they encourage you to manipulate that fabric in any way your heart desires.  Of course, my heart desires all things Crayola (show of hands.... whose with me on this?? )  Isn't one of the best things about being an adult is that you can buy anything in the Crayola aisle that you want??  In my initial research, I discovered that Crayola makes this nifty marker sprayer which is geared toward kids 7-10, so I thought - Perfect - I can do this!

I discovered tonight that yes....I....can.  It was indeed as easy as it looked!  You just choose a color marker, screw it into the end of the gun, point and pull the trigger.  Easy-Peasy!!  You don't even have to clean it between colors.  The kit comes with paper, little markers, and stencils but who needs those when you can buy a monster 40 marker set from Crayola.  I'm thinkin' that I should be able to find the colors I need in there. 

 

As you can see there obviously is a learning curve but I literally only played with it for about 15 minutes.  It works just as nice on fabric as it does on paper.  I really could have played with it longer but ..ya know... I have a post to write!  

Muslin

The plan is to use the sprayer to give some real-life dimension to the graffiti.  How??? I haven't quite worked out but at least I'm on the right path.  I'll keep you posted!

Under things I Like....

Today was a good mail day!  Don't you love a good mail day?!   My eBay package of Tim Holtz's  Eclectic Elements fat quarters came in.  You see I've been hoarding my bonus points at work to buy myself something I totally didn't need but really, really wanted.  I finally cashed them in for an eBay gift card to buy these amazing fabrics.  When they came today, I was so excited knowing they didn't cost me a dime and I could buy them ... just to buy them!!  I personally think that Tim Holtz and his marketing team are brilliant to finally bringing his designs into fabric.  So many mixed media uses!  

Of course, I don't have anything specific planned yet.  I think I'll just fondle them for a while!

So What Have You Been Up to Creatively?

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The Cherrywood Challenge on Off the Wall Friday

 

Grafitti in Erie, Pennsylvania

 So I have a secret.  Well to be honest, it's not really a secret to anybody who knows me....I'm a bit competitive.  In fact, I'm so competitive that it could get completely out of hand.  About 10 years ago, I decided that I would no longer compete in anything...at all. That said, I do allow myself to compete

against myself which is still fun but a lot less destructive to my psyche.  With all the other issues in the last two years, I haven't even done that really...until now.  

I decided to do the Cherrywood Challenge this year.  Even though I dye my own fabric, I absolutely LOVE their work! Their fabric has a super soft suede hand with gorgeous saturated colors.  Really, it's like nothing I've ever seen before.  For the last 7 years, they have been hosting a challenge all centered around a central theme.  The rules are pretty easy.  You buy the kit of fat quarters and design a 20" square using only those fabrics featuring the theme. Past themes included Prince, Princess Diana, the Lion King, and Bob Ross.  I've found all the past themes intriguing but never enough for me to make the plunge. (Well, I would have done the van Gogh, but I found out about it too late - aduh on me!)

 That is until now.  This year's theme is Graffiti.  I absolutely love street art.  Maybe it's because I've lived most of my life in a rural town or maybe it's the bold colors or maybe it's just the idea of outlaw art but I honestly am fascinated by it.  That all said, I've never taken time to research and study the evolution of street art.

The Cherrywood Challenge gives me the perfect excuse without making a huge project commitment.  I mean anybody can finish a 20" square right?  Plus OMG  the colors are bold and gorgeous with a nice few pieces of grey neutrals.  Plus a yard of mistyfuse is included which is good because I really should get used to using this light weight fusible more.  The best part of the challenge is that you are only allowed to use the fabrics

included in the kit BUT you are encourage to use any other kind of art supply to embellish your creation.  So that means get out your paints, dyes, inks, beads etc!!

With my kit in hand, I'm really excited to begin.  The first thing I have to do is research and I want to play with lettering.  I'll keep you apprise of my progress!!  Please let me know if you decide to join in!

So What Have You've Been Up to Creatively?

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

My OPEN ACCESS Challenge - Off the Wall Friday

Let me just tell you ....  don't start browsing  a museum's open access collection unless you pack a lunch!!!  After many....many....many hours, I finally decided on a piece by the Expressionist Emil Nolde (1876-1956).  I was first introduced to the art of Nolde when I saw the amazing exhibition Monet to Matisse: Painting the Modern Garden.  When I saw his pieces in the exhibit, I was so struck by the use of bold color it made me gasp!

That's why it surprised to find out that he was an accomplished print maker.....yes prints that were just black and white.  Once I started browsing them, it made me think, WOW what would be like in color....and then it went onto many other "What If" questions!!

So I picked a print to play with .....Tanzerinnen (Dancers), 1917.

The description from CMA says

These two swooning female dancers in long, elegant robes express themselves in dramatic but graceful curves, which are matched by Nolde’s vigorous gouging of the block. He combined a richly inked block with embossing, created by printing the block without ink (especially evident on the dancers’ white dresses). Throughout his career, Nolde returned to the theme of the dancer as the embodiment of freedom and expressivity. He knew several renowned avant-garde dancers whose form of modern dance involved elemental poses and free movements, often accompanied only by a drumbeat.

Of course, I'm intrigued by dancers too for pretty much the same reason Nolde was .... the curves of the body, the natural rhythm they bring to a piece ....the freedom the spirit.

So tomorrow on my Creative Day off, I'm going to attempt my first original piece in FOREVER!!  So excited!!  I'm going to use Nolde's print as a jumping point and see where it takes me.  I can tell you right now....it WON'T be black and white!

So What Have You Been Up to Creatively?

The Open Access CHALLENGE on Off the Wall Friday

The Digital Wall At CMA where you can look at images right there

Have you ever heard of the Open Access Movement?  Yeah, me either.  Well at least that was true till my last visit to the Cleveland Museum of Art.  In its simplest definition the Open Access means that academic research (but for my purposes art work) is distributed to the public free of charge and copy right licensing.  With a little bit of research you will find that this movement has its cheerleaders and naysayers (as you can imagine - but really in today's climate what doesn't?)

The Red Kerchief, Claude Monet (CMA)

And why is this important?  Because museums are giving the public free access to their extensive digital collections to use as they may.  The Cleveland Museum of Art  announced last January that  the public now has the ability to  share, collaborate, remix, and reuse images of many as 30,000 public- domain artworks from the CMA’s world-renowned collection of art for commercial and non-commercial purposes. In addition, portions of collections information for more than 61,000 artworks, both in the public domain and those works with copyright or other restrictions, works are now available. 

And CMA is not the only one!!  The National Gallery, Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Art Institute of Chicago all have open their images free to the public. 

So I have a challenge!  I challenge YOU to browse through the museums' collections  - pick some picture that inspires you and let it jump start you onto a new path in your creative journey.  Now this doesn't have to be anything formal. It can be sketches, digital or ..... gasp.....actual fabric!!!  But let your imagination run wild and take the plunge into these collections.

I will be sharing mine over the next few weeks and I would love it if you would too.  Anybody who does please link back to this original post so that maybe it will inspire someone else to take the plunge into Open Access!

So What Have You Been Up to Creatively?

Mirror, Mirror. . . . Off the Wall Friday

Now, anybody who knows me, knows that I don't like change.  I mean, I find "Sameness" very comforting.  My 20 year love affair with cotton is a case in point.  When I was a traditional quilter, I had a perfectly legit excuse to keep to the confines of commercial cotton.  Even when I did finally start dyeing my own, it was always still cotton and more cotton.  The whole art quilt world has been experiementing with all sorts of new and interesting products.  But I - alas - have not.



That's why I broke my "No-New Challenges" rule to try out this Evolon for C&T Publishing.  Evolon is a new interfacing they are carrying that is a microfiber with a hand like suede.  It stitches and paints up wonderfully.  They sent me a half yard to play with  and after a bit of brainstorming I decided to make a mirror frame. 

Today I spent most of my studio time practicing with different design ideas.  Since I only had a half yard of the Evolon, I used felt to work out some ideas.  Finally, I came back to flowers and leaves and curves which is a long time doodle theme of mine.  I did end up layering it with a cotton batt  - mostly for stabilization.

The Colors are a bit off - its a bit more blue and purple then the magenta this reads!

Once the stitching was done, I used my sample set of jacard textiles to paint the white interfacing.  I picked a palette of cool colors mixing the paints 2 parts water to one part paint.  The interfacing seem to paint up best dry.  With it painted, I could easily cut away where I wanted the round mirror to sit.



Looking at it though - it seemed like it was missing something.  The microfiber works up nicely but doesn't have the texture that an organic fiber has - so I thought I would add some hand stitching.  I first wanted to use my 12 wt Aurifil wool but couldn't find a needle that had a big enough eye for the wool and a sharp enough point to get through the Evolon.  So went back to a 40 wt King Tut  - doubling it up to give it a little beef.

I need to finish this up tomorrow so I can get it into the mail tomorrow.  Its due to C&T by next week and I don't want it to be late!  I'll post the finished piece on Monday!





So what have you been up to creatively?

All Mojo-ed Up - Off the Wall Friday

Anybody who knows me, knows I really am not good at night.  I mean - really not good.  I am and will always be an extreme early bird.  That's why me being out  of the house 12 hours of the day has not been good for my creative life.  Luckily our fall rush is almost over at work and I should be getting back to just a 40 hr week with a few vacation days coming up.

That said, that doesn't mean I haven't been thinking of my next challenge.  This week my sample of  Evolon Interfacing arrived from C&T Publishing.  Tristan Gallagher of C&T asked us to show him our "best creative mojo". Well, I don't know about you but now that I'm looking at 50, I can't even believe I just used the word Mojo in a complete sentence  - more less - tied it to my creative self.

Still, I did get his meaning.  He sent a few pages of examples that included mix media art pieces to jewelry to a very cool netted tote bag.  I mean, really, we can take this stuff and create whatever we want as long as we don't actually use it as it was meant to be - interfacing! 

Luckily I have a great idea which shouldn't be too hard to execute.  But first I still needed to find out how this suede like microfiber  material performed when I put it under the normal rigors of my studio. 

First I tested how it free motioned quilted using various threads.  The metro was a very light look while the Sulky 12 wt  free motioned nicely and gave that beefy look a 12 wt should.  The 40 wt quilting cottons of King Tut and Iris fell in the middle.  Interesting how the different threads  look so differently.

Then I tried painting it - I tested Dye na  flow  with the Evolon being damp. It gave this pretty water color effect.  I could use it full strength or watered down.  Then I tried transparent Setacolor on it at half water half paint strength and it was way too heavy.  It tended not to blend well and showed up rather opaque. 

With all my experimenting done all I have to do is execute my idea!  Tristan asked me to use my creative mojo.  I'm thinkin' be careful what you asked for! 

What have you been up to Creatively?