Friday, December 10, 2010

I want to introduce you to Cindy Shake

from Anchorage, Alaska. Cindy is an artist and designer currently working in metal sculpture and fiber art design.

Cindy and I became blog friends a year or two ago after she revealed herself to be another lover of squid, while she was working on these gorgeous wall sculptures combining her metal and clay work.


Don't you love this flock of "Steel Wool" sheep!


The Raven, a symbol of creator and trickster in the mythology of the native Americans from the Pacific Northwest, pops up on occasion in Cindy's work.  I think these carved clay images are so beautiful.

Cindy also works in fabric, designing and making bold and graphic art quilts and she has recently created a new line of art quilt patterns called Raven & Friends.

If you would like a chance to get a couple of Cindy's new patterns, leave a comment and next Monday I’ll let a random number generator choose two lucky winners. 


Visit Cindy's blog and see all the amazing projects she's working on.

Wednesday, December 08, 2010

Laura models my tree skirt


Today was the PAQA (Professional Art Quilters Association) meeting where art quilters from all over the midwest meet to share info on exhibition opportunities, classes, accomplishments and their latest work. During our show and tell portion of the meeting Laura Wasilowski, ever the comedienne, modeled the Christmas tree skirt I designed for this years Quilting Arts Gifts magazine, who knew it could double as a wearable garment.

Check out this mixing gradations of paint tutorial Cloth Paper Scissors editor Jenn Mason put together based on one of my paint mixing techniques from my new dvd Design Paint & Stitich.

Tuesday, December 07, 2010

Try your hand at the first Rit Creative Challenge!

1. Share Your Creativity
The first Rit Creative Challenge is themed around UPCYCLING, which is defined as:

Laying hands on potential throwaways and
breathing new life, quality and value into the result.


All you need to do is upload a do-it-yourself upcycling project to the community — a project that showcases some creative way you transformed a potential disposable to make it cool and new and useful, with at least the partial help of Rit Dye. Share “before” and “after” pictures of the project, the steps you took along the way, and the Rit Dye colors you used.

Indicate that you want your project to be entered in the contest, confirm that you’re at least 18 years of age, and you’re entered. Simple.

Share as many examples as you wish with the community: your fabulous fashions, your brilliant crafts, your crafty brilliance. If the panel of judges finds a project of yours is truly inspired — based on originality, creativity, and color sensibility — you could win $250 worth of DIY supplies. Not to mention some well-deserved exposure within the community and on our site.

(A tip: take inspiration from the Color Stories section of the RIT blog, where Team Rit points you to online dye ideas from creative colorists across the globe.)

Ready to roll up your sleeves?
 
2. Join The Community
The Rit Color Community is open to anyone interested in joining. They make colorful things with their hands, and they often share those things online at RitDye.com — in hopes of inspiring other folks to do the same.

The contest begins 12/6/10 and runs though 1/28/11. Official rules are here.

Friday, December 03, 2010

One of a Kind show 2010


Yesterday, Nina and I went to the One of a Kind show at the merchandise mart in downtown Chicago with this dynamic duo. I feel so bad about not taking many photos, I snapped this one of Frieda and Laura in the elevator of my building on our way out.


There were lots of beautiful things as always. If I could have bought anything there, it would have been a silky soft sheepskin coat, but it was way out of my budget ;-(  so I settled for some caramels from my favorite local truffle and caramel maker Katherine-Anne. I bought a box of rosemary and sea salt caramels that are just to die for, they are new this season and aren't listed on her website, but I bet she would send some to you if you asked.


We ended our day with a lovely meal at the french restaurant La Sardine, downstairs in my building.


Laura's husband also joined us for dinner, he happens to work for an architect a couple blocks away from me.


Nina never goes anywhere with out a sketch pad.


It was a lovely day and a fantastic meal with good friends and my daughter Nina, doesn't get much better than that.

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

House contruction complete


These are the finished stitched panels, before I stitched them into a house form.


I decided my house would be a bird house and sewed and stuffed a bird to paint and put inside.



I can't show a finished photo of the whole house until the project gets submitted, but here's a little detail.

Thursday, November 25, 2010

Happy thanksgiving!

As I sit here with a cup of hot tea, I give thanks to making it through another rough year in this economy and still having a roof over our heads, for all the fantastic opportunities I have had traveling to new places and old while teaching and making new friends in the process. I am blessed to have so many wonderful and supportive friends all over the country and a few places beyond, I love ya!


Today I am also grateful that I finished knitting my handwarmers because they are keeping me toasty on this cold overcast morning. The problem with living in 100 year old brick buildings with big windows and high ceilings on overcast days is it can be pretty chilly inside.


These are knit from possum wool that I bought in New Zealand in April. They are fuzzy, soft and warm, the pattern is free on Ravelry.

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

My other love... pottery

In my conversation with Lesley I mentioned that I used to do pottery when I lived in Austin. I love working in ceramics, making the basic form and then carving the surface. Much like when I make an art quilt, I paint the fabric and then quilt the surface. I love that extra layer of visual texture. I found that each art form often influenced the other. Lesley asked me to post some pics on my blog, so here goes...

 

I eventually stopped making pottery, as much as I loved it, I had to make a choice, art quilts or pottery, there just wasn't enough time in the day to do both.

Sunday, November 21, 2010

Catch me on Art & Soul Radio

Monday night, I am going to be on Lesley Riley's blog talk radio program. It airs 7 pm eastern. If you don't catch it monday, you can also listen to it anytime after that by visiting the website. Or after it airs download the podcast on itunes at Art & Soul radio.

Friday, November 19, 2010

Stepping into the slow lane


Well I havent fallen off the earth, but it has sort of felt that way. I came back from Houston and promptly got sick. I know a lot of us are dealing with this cold. I keep thinking I am going to be over it in another day and yet it lingers. Ugh. I have too much to do.

I am tackling a project that is long over due, my friend Kathy York is curating a village of artist houses for an exhibit. I have known about this project for over 6 months and am only now getting around to starting it and the deadline is just a couple weeks away, with Thanksgiving next week, sigh.


I am trying something a little new for making my house. I found out that abaca paper is often used to make tea bags (and money). Abaca is also used to make unryu tissue which I have used in my collages before. Unryu is the tissue paper that has little fibers visible in it. You can buy plain abaca here or here.

I created several black and white collages, combining text and imagery in photoshop, cut some heavier weight abaca paper to 8 1/2" x 11" and stuck it in my toner printer and printed out the collages. Next I painted the paper with textile paints and fused it to Peltex (heavy weight interfacing). Although the fuse did not stick that great, it did hold well enough for stitching.

I have more stitching to do and then pieces to cut and assemble. This is as far as I have gotten so you will have to stay tuned for what comes next.

Sunday, November 14, 2010

Thanks everyone for another great year at festival!

A few random photos

Melly, Lindsey, Jane, Me, Leslie, Jamie and Pokey

Jane and Me

Robbi and Laura

Leslie

Pokey and Me

Melly

Pokey

Frances, Robbi and Rachel

Nina

Leslie

 Salvador Melly

 Me

 Leslie, Melly, Jane, Helen, Pokey, Lindsey, Me and Jamie in the 
Quilting Arts booth

Thanks Houston! See you next fall.

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