June 29, 2009

Please Vote For Me

I have five art quilts in the on-line exhibition "2009 International Art Show - Abstract" If you deem my work worthy, I would love your vote. Go here to view the exhibit. The voting closes on July 20, 2009. There is a lot of wonderful artwork in this exhibit. I know you will enjoy it!


There's a Bug In my Garden


Op-Art Circles


Mood Swings


Looking Up the Down Staircase


In the Beginning

June 26, 2009

I Love Making Dolls

Making dolls gives me a lot of pleasure. I makes these little girls from scrap fabrics. I started a tradition about 10 years ago making a doll for my granddaughters to celebrate their birthdays and Christmas. Now, my friends have namesake dolls which can be seen on my website.
"Ariel," a mermaid is holding a shell I found on the beach containing other beach finds. Her bodice is made up of my screen dyed fabric. (I am a self-taught doll artist. Learning how to needle sculpt the face, hands and feet has been a challenge.)
I built an armature out of tin foil and masking tape to construct "Barefoot and Pregnant." The clothing is made of dumptser finds. The vintage measuring tape and sewing machine bobbins are the perfect accessories. The heads, hands (boy) and feet are made of painted paper clay. Mama's hands are made of shaped wire covered with ribbon.
"Breaking Free" is my latest doll. The legs are made of vintage thread spools which I painted and aged. Her feet are from my collection of wooden shoe forms. The wings are made of copper sheeting; hands are Shinky Dink, shoulders a vintage Japanese ruler and arms are chopsticks. Her face is needle sculpted and, of course, she's wearing a tiara! She hangs on the wall in my studio.

June 22, 2009

Screen Printing with MX Reactive Dyes

I've been screen printing with MX reactive dyes and love the organic look achieved with this technique. I limit myself to a small color palette - black, turquoise, blue, yellow, mixing red and fuschia. I use many screens and cover an entire length of cloth at one time. This pieces measures about 5 feet long.
On this piece, wax was applied to the screen to act as as a resist. I screen print silk, organza and cotton.
I was invited to participate in a fund raiser for The Naples Museum of Art. 42 artists were given small items of furniture to decorate. Being a fiber artist, I thought it appropriate to cover this slick Italian-made leather chair with my dyed pima cotton. After machine stitching the fabric, I designed a slipcover for the seat and had to hand sew the back section to the chair using a circular needle. I found some marvelous flat bottom glass stones in colors matching the fabric and glued these on the chair.
The raffle fund raiser was a huge success. Myra Janco Daniels, CEO of The Phil, selected "my" chair - quite a thrill for me!

June 18, 2009

My Studio

I love my studio space and thought I'd share it with you. The studio is approximately 9.5' wide by 17' long with 10' ceilings. I have a nice walk in closet - but would love more storage space, of course!

Since this is a relatively small space, it's necessary for me to be organized. I have labeled all the drawers so I know exactly where everything is. I do not work well in chaos and always clean up the debris of one project before starting anew.

My walk in closet has shelving and drawers. The fabric is sorted by color for the most part. I keep silks, organzas and my hand dyed fabrics on separate shelves. The shelving and drawers on the left side (which you cannot see here) hold paints, glues, embroidery threads, batts, silkscreens, etc.

I bought two cabinets from Home Depot (garage storage department). The drawers are very sturdy and came with the drawer pulls. I needed only to add the labels. My husband and I put these together. It took about 2 days. A piece 3/4" finished plywood was painted and sits on top of the cabinets and extends back to the wall and is supported with a ledge. A large self-healing cutting mat covers the plywood.

Cone threads hang on the right wall. A neat peg board above the cutting table is handy too.

Most of my threads are in drawers on either side of the sewing machine cabinet. I found these drawers at IKEA. I love them! My Janome 6600 just fits into the sewing cabinet. I found an acrylic fabricator in town and had an acrylic surround made for the machine. This surround works great, is much stronger and less expensive than the type one can order on line.

The blank wall space in my home is limited. I take pictures of all my work. Framed pictures of my work hang over the cutting table and on the other walls in the studio. I also make dolls. Some of these also hang on the walls.

The design wall folds in half and is covered with flannel. It sits on a ledge and is held in place with mirror clips. I've placed portable spotlights over top.








My husband built all of the bookcases for me. The largest measures about 8.25' high.

I dye some fabrics in the microwave. The cart also holds my serger and toaster oven for polymer clay projects.





I have 4 printers 2 of which are shown here. I use the Epson Pro 3800 strictly for fabric. The CX4600 is used for fabric and paper. My Epson R280 is strictly for paper and the Brother laser only for junk and black and white copies.


I hope you enjoyed the tour. Let me know what you think.

June 15, 2009

Texture





Being a fiber artist, I love texture. I have my camera with me at all times and take pictures of things I find interesting. It's amazing to me the variety of texture nature provides.

Can you guess what the first picture is? Surprise - lobsters!

June 12, 2009

Fun in the Sun


My granddaughters Emily and Abby are here for a visit. We watched the sunset on the beach. It was a beautiful evening.