More CSA Artbox's in the works

The Artbox CSA has been such a cool project, that the group decided to invite a couple amazingly talented friends to join us this time around; Tracie Lyn Huskamp and Kelli Nina Perkins! 

We are going to offer 3 new artbox options: a six piece full box and 2 different four piece half boxes just in time for the holidays. 

Since I'm in the midst of moving, I decided to only contribute to a half box this time round. I wanted to try something a little different by creating some textile collages in the tea and ephemera style but in an aqua blue colorway.

The boxes will go on sale November 1st, so watch for announcements on our blogs, facebook or check the ArtBox CSA website.

ArtBox CSA artists:

Sue Bleiweiss

Deborah Boschert

Jamie Fingal

Desiree Habicht 

Tracie Lyn Huskamp

Leslie Tucker Jenison

Lyric Kinard

Kelli Nina Perkins

Judy Coates Perez

Kathy York

Gimme Shelter

The symbolism of home and shelter is very significant to me right now. I am on the cusp of a major life transition, and home, as I am sure I will have some form of shelter as I go through this, is a bit ambiguous right now.

My marriage of more than 20 years came to an end a few years ago and because of the bad economy I remained in Chicago with my (now adult) kids, unable to sell our loft. I am in the process of negotiating a short sale and crossing my fingers it all goes through, which will allow me to move back to California in the next month or two.

I made this house for Kathy York's curated exhibit the Artists Village about a year after my initial split. My house incorporates floral/plant imagery for growth, bees for hard work, a heart for healing and love, 

roots for staying grounded and figuring out where to plant myself and even a couple of female nudes to represent rediscovering what it meant to be a single woman again.

My finished house is about 10 inches tall.

This was the house that started it all, The Cicada House is about 20" tall and 6" wide. The fabric is layered with printed paper imagery and multiple layers of transparant and metallic textile paint, then fused to heavy weight interfacing and quilted. The panels were stitched together and the roof and windows were embellished with embossed metal trim.

I enjoyed making the cicada house so much I needed to explore the house construction further with a couple water themed houses which were featured in a two part tutorial in Cloth Paper Scissors magazine March and May 2008.

I've also done a series of houses with stitched painted imagery with embossed metal stitched to them that I like to think of as personal altars. Bees and hives are symbolic of industry and craft, so I like to have them in my work.

This house series was painted and quilted fabric stitched to painted and hand stitched lutradur with embossed metal stitched to it, sewn to copper screen.


I know there will be more symbolic houses incorporated into my art in the future as a I transition to a new life living in Northern California as a single woman, with kids embarking on adulthood while I explore new forms of shelter.

Start your fiber art collection now with a CSA ArtBox!

You've heard of buying a CSA farm box of veggies from a local grower and having it delivered to your door right? Well, ArtBox, CSA is a smilar concept that a group of well known and loved :-) textile artists are trying out. We have created a beautiful collection of unique artwork to be delivered and ready to hang in your home or office. 

Participating artists are: top row Jamie Fingal, me, Lyric Kinard, Deborah Boschert,  

bottom row Leslie Tucker Jenison, Desiree Habicht, Kathy York, and Sue Bleiweiss. 

Each unique piece is mounted on an
8"x 8"x 1 1/2" canvas that simply hangs 
on a nail. 

See the whole collection here.

Full Art Box 8 pieces of artwork - $640 

only 6 boxes available, US Shipping $30

Half Art Box 4 pieces of artwork - $375
only 6 boxes available, US Shipping $20 

Priced at less that $100 per art piece, this is a total steal. 


FYI, 3 full art boxes have already sold.

Combining images of nature and technology with paper and fabric, my series of quilted mixed media textile pieces incorporate vintage engravings printed on abaca paper, technical drawings from old text books and sewing pattern tissues collaged on painted fabric, then embellished with thermofax screened floral patterns, and stamped text and insect imagery. 

The focal point of each collage was painted with inks and enhanced with colored pencil. A free-motion machine stitched pattern based on gothic ironwork and accented with sheer color from paint sticks, brings cohesion to the overall design.

 

Check out ArtBox, CSA now.

Painted ipad Bag

I have been wanting to buy a case for my 'new' ipad, but have held off because I read the ipad 2 cases didn't work with the new ipads because they moved the magnet that puts it in sleep mode when you close the cover and there aren't that many options in covers for the new ipads yet, so in the mean time I've had nothing to protect it when I'm not using it and need to transport it.

I decided to sew a simple bag from canvas with a piece of thick wool felt sewn into it as a cushioned liner. I had no intentions of doing anything fancy, just a simple temporary bag that was purely utilitarian. This did the job and suited me just fine... for a few days.

But the lure of that blank canvas was too much.

I pulled out a few printed tea bags, abaca paper and matte gel medium and glued a few images down.

Then I painted a layer of clear gesso over the whole bag. Gesso is a way to prep the canvas for paint and clear gesso would not cover the printed images the way white gesso would.

Using acrylic inks, I brushed on some random color. When I build up layers of painted imagery, I like to start by putting down some primary colors, mainly warm yellows and cool red, because when I paint blues over them I'll get greens and purples. I especially like yellow as a base color because it is light, bright and transparant and I can always go darker with layers of color over the top.

With pencil I drew a few images on the canvas, white pencils are always nice if you can't see pencil lines very well.

Then I painted the background with deep blues and turquoise. You can see some of the colors are translucent letting the printed images and color from below show through and some of the colors, like the turquoise, are opaque.

 I used a black sharpie to give more definition to the simple graphic shapes

I still havent decided on what kind of closure if any I'm going to put on the bag, for now I just fold it over and that works fine.

Magical Metal Altars at Create

Thursday I taught Magical Metal Altars to a full class with 20 students. This is a new class, kind of a larger modified version of the popular Fiesta Ornaments. What fun this was! 

I gave the students a wide range of options to create their altar; from using a template with everything predesigned by me to simple templates with various door and window shapes and imagery that could be used for reference and inspiration, to completely open ended templates allowing for total creative expression of painted imagery and embossed metal work.

I was amazed by the number of incredibly beautiful pieces that were made in this class.

Fantastic work done by everyone!

I think Create is a perfect name for this retreat, there was a lot of incredible work being done in so many class rooms. How difficult it must have been for students to decide what class to take when there were so many great options.

I want to give an extra thank you to all my wonderful students who chose to spend the day in my class.

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