Catching Up

I have been working at art, although I haven't posted much of it here yet.  Here's my attempt to catch up!

The Interpret This! group comes to an official close tomorrow.  We've been posting our favorite piece from the year, along with thoughts about the group and how it affected our own creative process. My piece posts tomorrow- I had a really hard time choosing one.  Some were easy to eliminate, but there were three that stood out for me- not because they were perfect pieces, but the learning that went with them.  Click here to see what everyone has to say and post.

Probably the one I had the most fun with is this one, because I learned I can do realistic!

This one still makes me smile, I love the colors.

I also thought a lot about choosing this one-

I loved how the hand dyes created a foggy, mysterious world behind the fence.  I think it evoked a mood, one of my criteria for my choice.  But in the end, the fact that I used my 'fall-back' of strip piecing made my decide against it.

Although this group is ending, four of us that participated and one other artist are working together in the coming year.  We will not be doing the same pieces, but rather critiquing and encouraging.  The blog is private, which we hope will foster honest communication.  We had our first work-in-progress weekend, and I am happy with how it is going.  I think it will help me with my biggest frustration from the past year- namely, developing my own voice!  My goals is to use my own hand dyed and printed fabric in wholecloth quilts, a specific size, exploring symbols within the context of an overarching theme- seasons of life.  I'm glad we are only looking to do four pieces over the year- I could not do a monthly piece again!  I'm hoping to be more disciplined in my approach, and try to use my sketchbook as a tool to develop the pieces.

That lime green fabric you saw on my last post ended up in a third dye pot.  The second dyeing helped, but it was still a kind of blah fabric.  So I swirled it (from Benn and Morgan's Tray Dyeing), and poured turquoise dye into the bottom of the container.  I'm happy with how it ended up--

I'll only be using part of this, so I think I'll make a 'frame' to audition and figure out what part I want to use.  Since I plan to make all my pieces the same size, I can use it all year.

I've also done some discharge samples, and figured out that discharging isn't an option with this piece thanks to the turquoise dye.  I think I will be using white paint greatly diluted with fabric medium to give me the ghost images I want to print on this.  Shiva paintstiks will also be part of it.

I tried to get this new book through inter-library loan recently.

It looked really interesting, and helpful if I'm exploring archetypal symbols in my work.  I was told I'd have to wait six weeks to request it again, since it is checked out.  So I went to Amazon, where I'd first seen it for about $25.  No any more!!  It's not available from Amazon, just from other sellers, starting at $30.  I looked around, and everyone else was the same or higher.  On a whim, I checked out Barnes and Noble's website, and found it there for $24.  I didn't hesitate, bought it right then.  I hope it's delivered this week.  If it turns out to be a dud, I guess I can re-sell it on Amazon- they had used copies starting at over $100!!!

I have some silk scarves that I've discharged with DeColourant in the washer right now.  Photos when they are done!