Do You Work Large or Do You Work Small?

     Do you have a favorite size range in creating art? I usually make pieces that are about 30 x 24 inches. I like the portrait format most. But the pieces I'm creating for my Art Cloth Mastery class are not like that. They are much larger and either more narrow in width compared to the height than I used to do and some are close to being square. None are the usual size or shape I've worked with in the past.
     And while I'm waiting for dye baths to batch or circulating ideas in my head, I've been working on a daily practice of making small fabric collages. Each is about 6 x 4 inches and felt backed. I'm using up pieces of cloth on which I had leftover from the larger artworks. Doing this has given me a better handle on composing better and faster. Also, they've given me the opportunity to audition what stitching I might want to include on the larger ones. Here are six of them. Some have stitching and some don't yet. I'm considering all of them works in progress.

Collage 1

Collage 2

Collage 3

Collage 4

Collage 5

Collage 6

     And while I was doing this, I decided to do the same thing for my auction piece for SAQA. It's 12x12 inches. This one is faced and is Ecofelt-backed with an aluminum slat with holes for hanging.

Across Time

     The leaf in each one is metaphor for change of all types. I dyed all the fabrics and printed on them with thermofax screens and stamps using fabric paints. The pieces are fused with Misty Fuse and then I hand-stitched. This auction piece will be available for purchase in the SAQA online auction  which begins September 15. The money earned goes to SAQA.
     So now, I find myself working large and small. Large to create the major works and small for practice and more immediate satisfaction. I'm finding both to be fulfilling in different ways. I'm linking this to Off The Wall Friday where you can find other art quilt blogs. Please make comments on the artists' posts so that they know you stopped by. Thanks for visiting.
          

Do You Have A Regular Art Routine?

     Do you get into your studio or your work space on a regular basis? I didn't used to. I would go into my studio on some days, but not on others. I would get so involved in everyday chores and social activities sometimes that several days would pass before I realized I hadn't done any art. Then I would immerse myself in my studio all day other times and create and create. Well, one of my homework assignments for my Art Cloth Mastery Class is to have a Daily Art Practice. It can be anything I find valuable.
     At first, I thought I would combine it with exercise to keep fit at the same time. I would go for a walk or ride my bike every day and on the walk or bike ride, I would stop and do a five-minute sketch of something close up. That would get me to notice things and patterns and keep improving my drawing skills. I decided to do the drawings on used envelopes I got in the mail so that I wouldn't waste any paper. But after a couple of weeks of doing that, I decided the sketches weren't really helping me with the series I was working on so I changed my plan.
     I collected some small pieces of dyed fabrics that didn't work out and some jars of fabric paint I had mixed up in colors that I wasn't using anymore and start a daily practice of mark-making. Each day I would choose or make a tool of some sort and start making marks on the fabric. I would make a set of marks one way and then change it up a little. Since I usually found I didn't like the first few sets of marks, I continued mark making and realized I needed to make about 8- 10 different sets before I would hit on something interesting to me.
     Right now, I just have a collection of swatches of these pieces of fabrics with marks. Eventually, I'll put them into a book somehow to store them. I'm hoping that in the future, when I'm creating art, I can flip through the book or booklet and look at the marks to find just what I need for extra texture or inspiration.
     Here is a sample of some of them:

Marks made with same tool

Top six made with one tool
Bottom two made with different tool

     So far, I'm just experimenting with printing on fabric for mark-making. In the future, I'll also experiment with other methods.
     But I'm finding that once I get going with this, and I'm geared up in the studio with my apron on and tools out I keep working in there and I get some art created everyday. This daily art practice is valuable homework assignment not just for where it, itself might lead, but mostly for just getting me in there and working. I'm linking this to Off The Wall Friday where you can find other art quilt blogs. Please make comments on the artists' posts so that they know you stopped by. Thanks for visiting.