\Art For Several Day, Nov 16, 17 &18,

Good Evening,

Here is the piece I made on Saturday, Nov 16th and got so busy I forgot to put up! It features a stamped flower design with really cool wavy lines surrounding the flower all in a dull black on white fabric.  I placed it on top of some really bold dye painted fabric that is filled with color and movement.

I quilted the flower lightly inside the petals with red thread and heavily around the outside edge with the same thread then added a think line of yellow quilting in the center.  The background around the flower is stitched with blue green in the white lines.  The white border around the flower is quilted with wavy yellow lines. The colorful background fabric is quilted in a pale yellow which surrounds the shapes and moves throughout the negative, white space.

I sort of like the piece,  but the quilting looks rushed and I wish I had taken more care when doing it.

 

This piece was done this morning as was the next piece.  It features a piece of silk that I mono-printed on glass plate using Silks acrylic glaze and Jacquard screen printing ink.  It is the ghost print from the original print used in the piece below.  I used a piece of plastic from a paper plate holder that one of the studio students, Rochelle, brought in for me as well as a comb.  

I cut the fabric into several pieces and added them to a piece of blue green/yellow green silk noil.  I heavily quilted the noil with three, fancy feathers.  Then  I quilted the hell out of all of the white negative space around the portions of blue wheels.  I kept the stitching about 1/8" apart to really push back the white and bring the wheels out which worked great.  The grid portion in the lower left is quilted following the light lines.

This piece is way better looking in person.  It's rather abstract and funky and I like it a lot. 

This piece is the original two layers of print from the glass plate.  It too is on silk.  I printed the light green portion first, painting a layer of green Silks acrylic glaze on the plate then pulling off some of the paint using a hand carved feather stamp.  Next, I painted the plate with a sparkly, dark blue green Jacquard silk screening ink and ran a comb through it several times.  Then I laid the spokey wheel down on the plate, laid down the fabric and pulled the print.

I like both the color combo and the imagery combo.  The movement of the combed lines really help to support the bold wheel.  I quilted the negative space between the spokes of the wheel about every 1/16" then quilted all of the negative space about every 1/4" in all of the light lines made by the comb.

I like this piece.  It's simple and straight forward yet interesting and such a luscious mix of colors.  

Well, hopefully I'll get another piece or two pumped out tomorrow.  

Till then,

Heather

 

Art Every Day, For Oct 16, 2013

Good Afternoon Again,

Here is another new piece.  I really enjoyed working with this big ass flower.  Here, I made the flower with solid black as the petals and white as the center and I laid it down on a busy dye painted background that features bold red, blue green and yellow on a white field.  The batting is green which is a color that is not in the multicolored print so it makes a nice contrasting edge.  

I kept the quilting in the flower rather simple but did it in a contrasting red thread.  Then I inlined the blue green swirls in the background with matching thread, stitched a tiny stipple in the red portions of the background then finished it off with loop d'loops in the yellow/white areas.  All in all, I really like it.  It feels so much different from the black and white flower from earlier today and I'm amazed how well the bold black flower is holding up against the very busy, brightly colored background.

Till tomorrow,

Heather

 

Art Every Day, For Oct 13, 2013

Hi Again,

Here is another piece that I did several days ago but didn't find the time to write up.  It's a weird one, a failure you might say.  I had this nice piece of discharged hand dye that I used in the background. with the wavy lines moving across the diagonal. I then added a large triangle of embroidered cotton in a yellow orange that repeated the color of the batting.  I topped that triangle with a portion of the background fabric that has the wavy lines moving in the opposite diagonal to how the lines are set in the background.  It was my home that off setting the wavy lines would look cool. But alas, it is not working very well.  I think the problem is that I don't have enough of the yellow orange fabric around three of the sides of the top most wavy line fabric.  If I had more of the yellow orange it would isolate the fabric more which would make it contrast better with it's self in the negative space.  Live and learn!

I do like how the tiny stippling in the red violet allows all of the dirty white lines to show up really well.  At least that portion was a success.

Till next time,

Heather

 

Art Every Day, Friday November 15, 2013,

Good Afternoon,

Here is another new piece.  With it I wanted to play with the strong contrast of light & dark by using black and white.  I added a deep yellow for the accent, using it as the flower center and batting.  I began with two pieces of white fabrics that I had been stamped with black designs.  I used the print that was mostly white in the larger left side background area and the print that was mostly black in the smaller right side background area.  Then I layered up some solid white and solid black and cut all six flower petals at the same time.  I then cut the flower center and set it where I wanted it and surrounded it with the petals, using the black petals on the whiter background and the white petals on the blacker background.

I then quilted the flower using a deep yellow thread.  After it was stitched then I heavily quilted the white background with a small stipple and the black background following the black lines in the wavy grid.

I like the piece well enough.  It was fun to do a little applique even if it was really simple.  What I like the most is the optical illusion of how much larger the white petals seem even though they are the exact same size as the black petals.

What fun it is to control color and value!

Till next time,

Heather

 

Art Every Day, Thursday, Nov 14, 2013
Good Afternoon,
Here is today's new work.  It began with a piece of dye painted fabric that features faded tones of yellow, red, orange and dark gray.  I laid it on top of red dye painted batting then quilted it heavily. I quilted big Black Eyed Susan like flowers using the dark gray circles in the background as the centers of the flowers.
Then, I laid out the four pieces of heavy canvas that I had dyed with a dark gray dye.  I left all the 'hairy' bits for added texture.  The gray strips are quilted with a pale yellow wavy line and straight lines and circles in a dusty red colored thread.
The canvas is so heavy that my camera wants to focus on it and push the other two layers; background and batting, into far negative space making it difficult to see the more decorative quilting there. 
As with yesterday's piece, I like this one quite a bit, mostly because of the high contrast.  It was a lot of fun to quilt too.
Till tomorrow,
Heather

 

Art Every Day, Wednesday, Nov 13, 2013,

Good Evening,

Here is my latest piece.  It began with a piece of fabric that was dyed using the deconstructed silk screening technique.  Once I ripped it to size I then stamped it with one of my bird stamps using bold, black paint.  I love the juxtaposition of the three birds and the high contrast of black on white with the cool greens and blues showing through in the background.

I kept the quilting simple, outlining and inlining the birds, quilting the grid design in the upper with straight lines and stippling around and between all of the colored bits in the lower right. I really, really like the piece.  It's simple yet complicated, mod with a vintage feel and bold but not in your face, everything I look for in a piece of art.

Till tomorrow,

Heather

 Art Every Day, Tuesday, Nov 12, 2013
Good Evening,
Finally here is a new piece.  After weeks of an overwhelming schedule, I feel like I can breath and create again.  This piece started with a piece of hand painted fabric.  The fabric is painted with "Silks" acrylic glazes and is done mostly free form with brush work along with using some found objects as resists a black fabric marker and a gold fabric marker. I love all of the bold lines made with the gold pen and the play of the blue fan shapes in each of the different design areas.  I recently cut a rubber stamp shaped like one of the jacks we used to play with when we were kids.  I love that shape so much that I used it here with the black pen. I find the whole piece very playful and quilted it to match, with lines separating out the squares in the checkerboard area, stipples between all of the gold lines in the large area on the lower left, and outlining of the blue fan blades and gold wisps in the top most area.  All of the quilting was done using a medium valued tone of blue which meshes quite well with all of the paint colors.
The piece is full of movement and joy and I quite like it.
Till tomorrow, I hope,
Heather