Art Journal—A Creative Journey

For some time now, I have been noticing how hand stitching with large threads like perle cotton can add so much texture to fiber art pieces.  I am always on the lookout for new ways to add texture.  It’s like…the texture is the thing I see first…that catches my eye.  So here is a little piece I did this week.

Paint rag, perle cottons #5 and #8, polyester quilting thread, Mykonos ceramic beads, paint, and seed beads.  I call it “Flow”.  6 3/4″ x 8 3/4″….too bad it couldn’t have just ended up at 7 x 9 but you have to trim. :=)  It will be for sale once I mount it.

I love texture.  I love it so much that I hunt around my house for things to slap onto a canvas and paint over.  Crumpled paper (brown and tissue), joint tape, onion and potato mesh bags, cheesecloth, heated tyvek, little micro beads…nothing is safe from me.  I like contrasting textures.

I love the textural markings I get in my hand dyed fabrics.  There is movement and pattern.  Some people like the flat colored hand dyes.  Not me…give me excitement and zing and movement! Here are a couple of collages on canvas that I have been working on.  These use all those things mentioned above.

…so I went to work yesterday making a postcard to trade with Susan Lenz.  Have you ever created something…and then, afterwards, you turned it a different way….and you like it better!?  That’s what happened here.  I created the postcard like this…

…but I like it much better like this…!

Since I am now a retailer of Fast2Fuse, I decided that I should try it out.  What great stuff…fusible on both sides…nice and stiff…great for postcards.

And one other thing…I like to use sheers for layering in my work.  I love using painted fusible web to add a bit of color with some transparency.  The other thing great about this is I put some loose threads on top of the postcard and the threads stick to the fusible web when heated.

I am working this week. I am preparing for a fabric dyeing class this weekend at the Rend Lake Visitor’s center. I have been studying and writing my handout and getting kits ready.

I have also been playing/working in my room. My new best friend is gesso. A friend of mine had given me several books of home dec samples. Being the little hoarding and can’t-waste-anything person that I am, I have found a use for some of these pieces. I usually work fairly small, so these do come in handy. (When, oh, when will I work larger?) I am taking the large florals and painting them with gesso, then painting over that with the Adirondack iridescent paints. I love the whitewashed feeling the gesso does to the fabric. The paint is not put on solid, but a bit randomly. You’ll see. I am using these pieces to frame other small pieces of art. I like the look. Now to find a way to mount them for hanging. I glued (PVA, acid free) the gessoed, painted home dec fabric to matboard, but have stopped there so far. These pieces are not stitched yet. The only problem I see so far, is that the lovely gessoed florals are mostly covered up, but I do like the “framing” look of it.

I am thinking “Fragments of a Life”. What do you think?

Again using scraps…home dec fabric, gesso, acrylics, stamping, dyed craft paper, torn paper from a photo, screening, painted dryer sheets, hand dyed fabric, calligraphy pen. This started with a georgous earthy hand dye I wish I could repeat.

I think I will be adding more to this one. I am thinking more background texture. The home dec fabric pieces have a lovely ragged edge on one side (shown here on the bottom), from cutting them out of the book. I would like to utitilize that.

I am looking forward to soon spending a few days dyeing, painting and screening with soy wax out in my patio…if this cold, rainy weather ever clears up!