How Do You Start A Series?

     Have you ever decided to start a series of art quilts or other types of art media? I so much enjoyed making my last composition and was pleased with the result (even though I haven't yet finished it), that I've decided to try a series based on the images in it. Rather than just get going making one piece after another with those images, I decided to think about why I liked the composition so much.

The Puppeteer

     One of the reasons is that the images had deeper meaning to me. The fossil ammonite symbolizes several things. It stands for cycles, antiquity, and messages, just to name a few. And the image of the girl (besides being my dear niece) symbolizes one who is on a journey to discover, to make change, and to become changed. So I decided to focus first on the words and a good way to start my series would be to make a mind map of the words. Choose a word that is central to the theme and then start free associating words that branch off of that main word. Once I did that on a scrap piece of paper, I had the idea to make it more artistic to make it more inspiring to me.
     I got out my sketchbook and drew out a fossil ammonite in the center with a gel pen and wrote the main word with an Inktense pencil on top of it. Then I wrote out the other words in other colors with Inktense pencils. After I had that part finished, I decided to add the other image to the sketchbook page of my niece and add words that pertained to her and noticed that there is some overlap between ideas of the two images. As time goes on, I'll probably add more words and images.

mind map

     The plan is that the mind map will help me design my series and spark ideas to provide deeper meaning to each art quilt that I make in the series.
I'm linking this to Off The Wall Friday where you can find other art quilt blogs. Please make comments on their posts to let the artists know you stopped by. Thanks for visiting.

What Happens To You When You Clean Out Your Studio?

     Does anything happen when you clean out your studio other than it becomes more organized and better looking? Like a lot of us do in January, I decided to go through my studio and get rid of the clutter.  I started section by section and was determined to pick up all the little odds and ends that I had put in the nooks and crannies because I couldn't think of a place to put them. They either had to have a place or they had to go. I was also determined to file away all the papers and articles I had collected into folders and organize them so that I could find them later when I wanted them.
     Well, I did that and it actually only took one day. But one of the things I found on my craft desk in a basket was a set of small blank business cards that I had made into small art compositions many years ago. I remember how much fun I had making them on such a small scale. I used pieces of painted dryer sheets, threads, strips of fabrics, sequins, iron-on fusible to attach them to the cards and then colored netting fused on top to hold it all down. Here's one that I particularly liked.

blank business card designed

     When I saw this in the basket, I thought "Hmmm, I wonder if I could actually make an art quilt with this design?" It was 8:30 PM last night. The studio was just about spotless. I had just put away the vacuum cleaner. I was getting ready to sit down with a cup of tea and watch TV. But then I remembered my word for the year of 2015 is EXPLORE.  So I opened up my sketchbook and got out my Inktense pencils and painted what you see in the bottom book. The dark stripes are strips of fabric that I glued on top. The painting confirmed I could paint it. So I checked out my paint supply and I didn't have much on hand. Only some samples from workshops and a few real jars. Maybe enough for a quilt top. But that's what EXPLORE is about, isn't it? So the next step was to see what the samples of paint looked like on crinoline which is what I wanted to what paint on. That's my sample crinoline in the top book with the key on the right page.

sample book on top, sketchbook on bottom

Now it was about 10:00 PM and I was really excited about this. I cut a piece of crinoline that I had prewashed and dried to about 27 inches by 37 inches. I put plastic on my cutting table, a layer of white muslin on top of that and the crinoline on top of that.  I put all my paints that I wanted to use with a container of water and a spray bottle of water and a flat brush.  And of course, Opus, my ever present cat set himself up on table right next to the cutting table not wanting to miss a thing. As the brush moved across the length of the crinoline his head was like a spectator watching a tennis match watching the ball moving back and forth across the net.

supplies 

     I used the Jacquard paints as is. For the Golden paints, I mixed those with the GAC 900 fabric medium 1:1 since they aren't fabric paints. I watered down all the paints a lot as I used them. I painted very loosely and had a lot of fun. My feeling was that if it didn't work out, the fabric piece was so large that I would at least end up with smaller pieces that I would love and could cut up and use for something good. Here is how I ended the evening at about 11:30 PM.

Painted crinoline 27x37

     I'm planning to work more on this fabric today and add batting and fabric strips and stitching if all goes well. Cleaning out the studio accomplished more than I intended and EXPLORE is indeed off to a good start. I'm linking this to Off The Wall Friday where you can find other art quilt blogs. Please make comments on their posts to let the artists know you stopped by. Thanks for visiting.

A Little Something New

     I felt like making something small and quick.
     Most Tuesdays, I meet up with some friends downtown in a group we've formed called "Sketch Out". We just sit in a park and sketch. Lately, I've been bringing air plants from my yard at home and sketching those. I'm not good at drawing, which is why I like to go to Sketch Out. It forces me to practice regularly.

sketch book

     Well, I was sitting at home on Saturday morning and decided to quickly try to sew one of my sketches with black thread on white cloth. I thought I'd spend maybe 10 minutes or so. I cut up an old white sheet and put a small piece of it (about 12 x 12) on a piece of batting. I put my sketch book with the sketch of the air plants next to the sewing machine and set up the machine for free motion and just began to free-motion sew on the blank white cloth on the batting. I figured I had nothing to lose. I tried to "draw" a few air plants with the black thread.
     After I had it done (and it did only take about 10 minutes), I decided to take it another step. I got out my Derwent Inktense Pencils and I colored in the wood stick and the plants. I used a small paintbrush I had forgotten to clean one day and the bristles were all stuck together and it was perfect for the small spaces. For some of the spaces, I wet the brush with water and and then wiped it directly onto the pencil and then onto the cloth.
     Then, I thought I should keep going. So I got out acrylic paints and GAC 900 and painted the background light blues. That needed more texture so I dipped a toilet paper roll into white acrylic paint and stamped it here and there. Then I dipped a piece that came off a rattan furniture into some tan paint and stamped that spiral design here and there.

Supplies

     After it dried, I free-motion quilted the background with air plants using a variegated thread and couched a green yarn around the edge. I ended up spending several (maybe 6 or so) hours on it. So much for my 10 minutes. Not a great work of art, but fun and satisfying for a spur of the moment urge to create.

Air Plant Mini Quilt