The Very Busy Month Of June

As you can see I haven’t blogged for some time.  June was a really busy time for me.  I was creating two brand new classes…and then trying them out on my “guinea pigs”!  Postcard Panache was the first class. I had the actual idea for this class last summer, but like anything else, if there is no demand for something, my ideas may remain just that…ideas.  But in March this year, two ladies from Louisville put a demand on me for this class, so I worked hard to get samples made and get it prepared so they could have a full day of learning.  These two ladies came to my house for the day and seemed to thoroughly enjoy it.  Now I just have to get it up on my Lectures/Workshops page.  There is always something to do!

Postcard Panache is a class geared to teaching people how to use all of the new artsy products that are  on the market.  I sell all these products at quilt shows, but demos are important because people don’t quite know what to do with Angelina fibers  and other items.  So, in postcard format, I showed these ladies a number of ways they could use bottled inks, Smooch Spritz, Angelina fibers and film, BoNash bonding powder, foiling glue, foil, stencils, etc.  They had quite a play day and were very complimentary, which makes me feel happy that they were so pleased.

The second class I created is a screen printing class.  I finally settled on a name for it no one else has used, at least not that I know of…Spontaneous Screen Printing.  Several gals from the St. Louis area and other friends of mine signed up and declared that they  had a great time and learned a great deal, so I feel I have done my job.  It is a lot of work creating and planning a brand new class, then packing everything for it.  At the same time I was planning a demo on Friday for the artisans center where the class would be taught the following day.  Due to the extreme messiness of using dye paints to demo I opted to do something totally different!  Which made me even more work…what was I thinking?  Again, it was a project that had been in the back of my mind for some time, so in a way, by demo-ing gelatin printing using paints, I got some “work” done for future artwork…AND I got a commission out of it too, which was very unexpected, but welcome.

This ‘N That…

What…my first post for March…I have been busy.  I would have posted last Monday but I was packing and getting ready to leave, and putting the final touches on a lecture and workshop.  I traveled to Greenwood, IN (outside Indianapolis) on Tuesday to visit my artist friend, Cynthia.  This is now a yearly trip.  Her quilt guild asked me to do a workshop with them and the program for their monthly meeting.  It was lots of work getting ready as I was preparing something new.

The workshop was on Dye Painting.  They did rubbings, stamping, monoprinting, gelatin printing and I had some screens made up for them to play with.  Here is Jo working on a stamped piece of cloth.

Here is a rubbing made by Cindy…

…a monoprint carefully planned and executed by Mary….

…another well executed piece by Phyllis…

…the gelatin after someone printed on it…believe it or not, there is no dye left on this to print…the gelatin has soaked it up or something…

…and Sandy’s 1 yard size clean up cloth.  I thought it was an awesome piece and urged her to save it for some special idea.

I think everyone said they had a good time and we didn’t make too big a mess.

On Thursday, Cynthia and I went to the Indiana Heritage Quilt show in Bloomington, IN to see vendors, friends and quilts.  That evening I gave a program on Journal Quilt Techniques for the guild, showing them some of the quirky things I do on small art pieces.  All in all, a fun and exhausting time…I drove home Friday morning after sleeping in.  Now…to get ready for whatever is next….

Falling in Love…

I am falling in love….with dye painting! I have been going out to my delightful patio and painting 2 to 3 mornings a week for the past couple of weeks. I am really enjoying this process. I painted more pieces yesterday and was going to go out this morning and hang everything on the clothesline to dry, but, good thing I didn’t as a small thunderstorm rolled through. What a mess that would have been. Thankfully, I have a nice warm garage to lay everything out to dry in. It got quite warm here yesterday, a change from all the nice mild weather we have been having. So here are a few of the better pieces from earlier in the week. I haven’t photographed yesterday’s work yet.

monoprint using leaves and other things from nature

monoprint

paint rag overprinted with soy wax screen design

More Painting….

I painted some more pieces yesterday. Experiments…these are still wet in the pictures. They may look quite different after being washed. I hope not!

Painted with a sea sponge and salted with rock salt.

Three different monoprints in three different colors…chartreuse, turquoise, and black.

1st layer: chartreuse paint dabbed on with brush; 2nd layer: turquoise stamped with commercial stamp; 3rd layer: black paint stamped with potato masher

Sttiched resist….it may be a few days before the finished product is ready, but I will post it.

Brush cleaning cloth.

What’s this?? A snake??? No, it’s another stitched resist. This was painted with turquoise, fuchsia, and yellow. I can’t wait to see what all of these look like when finished.