Wax and Collage

No name for these yet….Paper collaged on cradled wood, then coated with beeswax/damar resin mix, then I “drew” in the wax and colored with paintstiks.  Then I used a tracing paper to make marks.  Love this whole process.

What I’ve Been Doing…

Last week, inspired to play…I got out some watercolor ATC cards and began to re-create some of my doodles from the past year with ink and then to color them with gouache watercolors.  I had sketches of apples falling into a bucket or a basket, bird families on an outing and even some on a “picnic”.  My mood and aim is playful, whimsical, something I don’t usually engage in in my fiber work.  I think I will reserve that for my watercolor sketches.

Bucket of Apples

Bird Family Picnic

 

Bird Family Outing

Paducah

So I went to Paducah this week.  I changed things up a bit this year.  I only went for one day and it was Tuesday! (The quilt show starts on Wednesday.) But Tuesday is the day to go downtown and see Fantastic Fibers at the Yeiser Art Center….and visit the downtown stores and see friends…

That looks like a realty sign up there on the roof of the gray building.  I wonder who that is up there for?  People flying overhead?

I recently made a new online friend named Deborah Bein who somehow managed to get three pieces of her fiber work juried into Fantastic Fibers.  Three is quite an accomplishment for this show!  She asked me to take some photos of her work for her, and I don’t think she would mind if I shared one here.

"Broken Promises" by Deborah Bein

I took photos for a Facebook friend, Marijke van Welzen, of her artwork that was in the show too.

"Green" by Marijke van Welzen, Netherlands

Isn’t this gorgeous?!

I don’t usually visit the quilt museum when I go to Paducah, but this year, there was an exhibit from the U.K. called ACCENT that I wanted to see especially since I wasn’t staying for the quilt show.  I made notes of ideas and compositions that I liked.  I like to study the pieces that interest me and jot down things I like about them.  Get information and see photos of the exhibit here.  ACCENT is on display until June 12.

My friend Julia went with me.  We had a wonderful Mexican lunch at Los Amigos and in the afternoon spent time drinking iced coffee at McDonald’s while we critiqued all the quilts in a book that Julia bought.  Fun day and I didn’t spend too much!

Quilt Festival

Yeh, I know it’s two weeks after the fact.  I do have a few photos of our trip to Ohio.  We went to the spring quilt festival on Friday, April 13.

The entrance to Duke Energy Convention Center.

The aisles.

Show goers learning something new at a class.

A 3-D village in fiber.

Fellow bus travelers.

And the twins.

Review: The Natural World – By Martha Sielman

Graced by the cover art of Barbara Barrick McKie,  Art Quilt Portfolio: The Natural World titles this latest work by Martha Sielman and delights us with 192 pages of eye candy.  Included are 19 featured artists with “photos of their quilts as well as essays about their creative process and signature techniques”. These artists each receive 4-6 pages dedicated to their work and processes. Featured artists are:  Katherine K. Allen, Melanie Kane Brewer, Betty Busby, Paula Chung, Nancy G. Cook, Sally Dillon, Ginny Eckley, Patricia Gould, Annie Helmericks-Louder, Ruth B. McDowell, Barbara Barrick McKie, Annemieke Mein, Karen Illman Miller, Dottie Moore, Dominie Nash, Elaine Quehl, Ginny Smith, Judith Trager, and Cassandra Williams.  Special gallery sections spotlight images of work from other talented members of the art quilt community.  A collection of work around the theme of “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird”, a poem by Wallace Stevens of the same name, is featured.  I found the work inspired by this poem to be  interesting commentary on the theme as some of the pieces did not feature black birds or any birds at all!

One of the featured artists is Katherine K. Allen from Florida.  I  was able to see her “Eventide”  in person in January as that particular work was accepted into Form Not Function 2012.  Her process is very unique and aims to capture the essence of the natural world as she uses collected live grasses, and leaves, etc. as stencils.  Dominie Nash is another artist I admire  and I have particularly enjoyed her abstract still life work.  This book includes her recent series based on leaves.

I do love the depth of exploration that Martha does of each  artists’ working process and thoughts.  I  wish some of the other works could have been featured in a larger format, but evidently this book was not aimed at full size presentation.

I don’t know how others go about it, but whenever I get a new book or magazine, I go through all the pictures first.  Later, I will start to read the articles and biographies.  This one is no different as I am now starting to carefully read and take notes from each artist.

Purchase Art Quilt Portfolio: The Natural World here  at the SAQA website.

Catching Up Part 2

I am working on setting up new web pages to list The Crafter’s Workshop stencils on.  If you haven’t seen these yet, these are some of the newest hottest selling products on the market.  I started working on new pages last year and now am back at it.   I am selling them quite well out of my etsy shop.

Julie Fei-Fan Balzer is a new designer with her own designs for The Crafter’s Workshop.  Her is her Henna Hands and Punchinella.

Another designer is Victoria Case.  This is her Aspen Trees and Bamboo stencils.

And more Julie Balzer designs with Flower Frame and Leaf Frame.  I am looking into carrying more of her designs.  With designers coming on board to create the designs, let’s hope  The Crafter’s Workshop can keep up with making all the orders!  Until I get my web pages up, see my etsy shop for these stencils.

Catching Up

Here are photos of my booth in Bloomington, IN along with my friend Cynthia who was my helper for  2 days.  I think she enjoyed getting out with people for awhile.

We demo-ed painting with Tsukineko inks in the bottle.  They are wonderful to paint with!  They don’t change the hand of the fabric like acrylic fabric paints do.  If you mix them with aloe vera gel to paint with like we do, you have the ability to spread them and blend them.