I have an idea.... actually several ideas. Whenever I make a blanket statement about what I'm going to do it gradually fades, or to put it more positively- evolves, into something else. So no, there will be no rash statement about posting a picture a day, or promises to blog every day or keep a diary of my life etc. After resurrecting my long lost Blogger password and username from the long buried secret paper filled with the myriad of passwords that accompany my cyberlife I am ready to blog.
Photography occupies a big chunk of my time and mental doodling. So here's few from this week. hmmmmm...... Now to remember how to upload images. Do I need to change the size and dpi as on flickr. I'm not sure. I'll try it both ways and see what happens.
Saturday, September 4, 2010
Monday, July 20, 2009
It's Time to Put My Feet Up!!!
I see this is my first post in over a year.
My excuse: My intention was to start taking photos to inspire my quilting. You will notice the previous posts are 100% quilting. I have completely fallen off the quilting bandwagon. Money (and time) that went into quilting has been diverted to photography. For those of you considering photography I have one warning - It's more expensive than quilting!!
When summer comes, time evaporates and I have precious little of it for anything except company, camping, BBQ's, swimming, mini-vacations to visit friends in various beautiful spots and frantically trying to squeeze work in between the cracks. I confess I look forward to September when the time crunch miraculously disappears.
Tomorrow I am going on a 3 day photo retreat/workshop to Cathedral Lakes with my friend Anita who has just returned from Saudi after a 3 year absence. We haven't had a chance to spend much time together since our last meeting in the Philippines. I think the instructor is focusing on nature photograpy. Secretly I am looking forward to the rocks and I think Anita is just looking forward to a kid free few days. My camera battery is charged and I have 2 empty 8GB memory cards to fill. But for today...work is calling.
Now that I've resurrected this blog maybe I'll start quilting again!!! Or...maybe I'll just post a few of my favourite pics when I don't have time to do the rounds on flickr.
Friday, April 11, 2008
#$%#&*
London Plane reflected in (on?) my kitchen counterRE: Last Post. The #$%#&* thing still isn't done. I have to believe "everything in its time". Right now I am thoroughly loving playing with my photographs and diddling around in Photoshop.
I love the dingle balls on London plane trees, the bark is amazing and I must admit the big muscular nature is very appealing. I took this picture (below) a while ago and tried a few fibre things out with it that just didn't move me. I loved the perspective but the dilemma was how to make this beauty queen sparkle.
And then a spark...Arlee's flickr comment on the 'kitchen counter reflection' (top photo), "This would make one hell of a gorgeous textile art piece!" http://flickr.com/photos/13025462@N08/2387974926/ Unbelievably, I had not been thinking fibre. But how perfect. Thank-you, Thank-you, Arlee!http://arleebarr.squarespace.com/ I asked for a rescue from the clutches of flickr and this may be it! I'm still not out of the water...but I'm being pulled back to the ship.
And then a spark...Arlee's flickr comment on the 'kitchen counter reflection' (top photo), "This would make one hell of a gorgeous textile art piece!" http://flickr.com/photos/13025462@N08/2387974926/ Unbelievably, I had not been thinking fibre. But how perfect. Thank-you, Thank-you, Arlee!http://arleebarr.squarespace.com/ I asked for a rescue from the clutches of flickr and this may be it! I'm still not out of the water...but I'm being pulled back to the ship.Sunday, March 30, 2008
Quilters' Block
I have been stuck on this module for months. I absolutely cannot find a way to enjoy doing it. What has to be done- hand quilting- is not fun on this piece and is extremely time consuming. Catherine, my tutor, has told me to get rid of some of the layers. But I have no vision for this.
I have cleaned my house numerous times and even choosen to go for runs rather than tackle this albatross. flickr and its instant gratification is not helping. I know I have to dig deep and do this but I have some ironing that needs doing.
I talked to my fibre friend Rhonda today who has re-inspired me to take needle to cloth and perservere through this obstacle. The next C&G module has some great looking activities that I can't wait to start but I'm holding myself back until this monster is quashed.
By Friday I pledge to have the quilting completed and posted or no more flickr for a week!
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Accepted Unexpected
Last week Helen received an e-mail saying her "Time to Resurface' piece had been accepted into the Canadian Quilters' Association national juried show in St. John's, Newfoundland. Helen's work is fantastic and this was great news for her especially since she is planning to attend the show. Not for me though. No news is bad news in this case. I started consoling myself on the virtue of digging deeper for the next time. I rationalized that I enjoy fibreart for the process and for my own pleasure not for the recognition of people I don't even know and...on and on in a depression inducing cheerleader manner.
Today, I received the two, official rejection letters in somewhat bulky envelopes. To my shock, since I had already reconciled rejection, both entries had been accepted!! My first time entering a juried show and twice lucky. It makes turning 50 tomorrow a little easier to bear. I posted this dancing anthirrium on flickr but it seems appropriate that it should do its dance in this post.
P.S. Will someone please rescue me from the clutches of flickr!!???
Monday, March 3, 2008
TIO's Santeria Dancer Done
Finally, I have paper pieced the bitty bits together. The whole time I'm thinking why wouldn't a person just do hand piecing. The template making and basting and whipstitching and removing basting and paper just seems like an excessive make work project.
"What ifs" crossed my mind. What if the back became the front and the papers were left in. I'm thinking love letters, photographs, painted paper..." What if"a dramatically contrasting thread was used as the whipstitch,it would show on the front leaving a subtle ciliated texture.
The use of many red/brown, green/browns and yellow/browns kept the skin tones vibrant. The batiks with light areas adds a bit of glow and depth to the abstract skin tones. The skin proved to be a challenging subject to abstract. I really had to look. Was it a shadow, highlight, contour? How did the seam lines contribute to controlling the viewers eye?
The colourful head scarf and clothing framed the face abstraction very well. TIO's photograph was a wonderful image to explore in such great detail. If you have a moment you will not be disappointed to see some of his other images. http://flickr.com/photos/66179962@N00/1840462551/
"What ifs" crossed my mind. What if the back became the front and the papers were left in. I'm thinking love letters, photographs, painted paper..." What if"a dramatically contrasting thread was used as the whipstitch,it would show on the front leaving a subtle ciliated texture.
The use of many red/brown, green/browns and yellow/browns kept the skin tones vibrant. The batiks with light areas adds a bit of glow and depth to the abstract skin tones. The skin proved to be a challenging subject to abstract. I really had to look. Was it a shadow, highlight, contour? How did the seam lines contribute to controlling the viewers eye?
The colourful head scarf and clothing framed the face abstraction very well. TIO's photograph was a wonderful image to explore in such great detail. If you have a moment you will not be disappointed to see some of his other images. http://flickr.com/photos/66179962@N00/1840462551/
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Colour Exploration
I was looking forward to doing the English Patchwork/Colour Exploration activity as soon as I saw it. I chose a photo by TIO, a New York photographer. He has kindly allowed me to use his vibrant image of a Santeria dancer. (I only know him as TIO.) This is the link to his picture. http://www.flickr.com/photos/66179962@N00/1840462551/
Objective: Observe and note colour gradations, patterns, textures, accent colours and proportions of colour in an image that has strong appeal.
Colour Observations: Yellow was predominantly warm (some red) with a small proportion of chartreuse (yellow with a smidge of its complement (violet). The chartreuse lifted the vibrant warm yellow even more. Blue-violet gradations are in the scarf. The head wrap was a mix of blues: blue tinted with white (highlights) and a lesser amount of blue shaded with black for the folds. The skin was where the challenge lay. Red/brown highlights. Green/brown shadows. Black brown heading to black in the darkest area.
Pattern: There are no strongly patterned areas. The texture relies on shadows and highlights. The skin has many nuances and colour changes in a small area.
Fabric Abstraction: Initially I followed the pencil crayon abstraction in selecting the fabric, but found I was loosing the life and vibrancy that attracted me to the image. The picture became my colour reference…for a while. At some point I abandoned the picture and responded to the dynamics of the fabric as more pieces were added. I tried adding the accent colours, the whites of the eyes, the lips, and the ear ring but found they were too representational for this abstract. I see in the picture that a few pieces are upstaging the others and the black is quite harsh in the corner. At this point I am leaving the pieces as is and starting in on the hand piecing.
Objective: Observe and note colour gradations, patterns, textures, accent colours and proportions of colour in an image that has strong appeal.
Colour Observations: Yellow was predominantly warm (some red) with a small proportion of chartreuse (yellow with a smidge of its complement (violet). The chartreuse lifted the vibrant warm yellow even more. Blue-violet gradations are in the scarf. The head wrap was a mix of blues: blue tinted with white (highlights) and a lesser amount of blue shaded with black for the folds. The skin was where the challenge lay. Red/brown highlights. Green/brown shadows. Black brown heading to black in the darkest area.
Pattern: There are no strongly patterned areas. The texture relies on shadows and highlights. The skin has many nuances and colour changes in a small area.
Fabric Abstraction: Initially I followed the pencil crayon abstraction in selecting the fabric, but found I was loosing the life and vibrancy that attracted me to the image. The picture became my colour reference…for a while. At some point I abandoned the picture and responded to the dynamics of the fabric as more pieces were added. I tried adding the accent colours, the whites of the eyes, the lips, and the ear ring but found they were too representational for this abstract. I see in the picture that a few pieces are upstaging the others and the black is quite harsh in the corner. At this point I am leaving the pieces as is and starting in on the hand piecing.
Saturday, February 2, 2008
CQA Cheques are in the Mail!
Reeds Reflect (closeup)
In the final minutes of our Fabricator meeting, there was a suggestion to submit our “Renditions of RE:” group challenge quilts to the 2008 CQA show in St. John’s NL. There are a few of us that have not put our toes into these waters (juried shows that is). There have been prods in the past to give life to our work by entering shows. I just haven’t. Until now. I started going through the motions of filling in forms, and writing Artist’s statements. The result is that I am submitting entry forms for 2 wall quilts: ‘Kiwi Jewel’ and ‘Reeds Reflect’. Full view, straight on photographs of true colour are elusive! Too say nothing of getting true blues on a print. Thank goodness for Photoshop and the ‘Correct Camera Distortion' feature!
Everything is ready to slip into the bubble wrap and mail today. It is out of my hands now. Will I cry if I’m rejected? Unlikely. I feel quite detached from the completed pieces. I will be annoyed that I threw $50.00 away. OK, OK... I'll admit to disappointment too!
Everything is ready to slip into the bubble wrap and mail today. It is out of my hands now. Will I cry if I’m rejected? Unlikely. I feel quite detached from the completed pieces. I will be annoyed that I threw $50.00 away. OK, OK... I'll admit to disappointment too!
Reeds Reflect 21"x27.5"
Silk scarf for the water. Velvet reeds. Foil meniscus. Satin leaves.
Inspired by 'Diamond Blue' a photo by Frank Weston. Used with permission.
Friday, January 25, 2008
Sashiko Fan?...Not Yet!
Fan Size: 7"X7"
Ages ago, I purchased some chartreuse sashiko thread and sashiko needles for this activity but not the kit containing the coarsely woven fabric. I soon learned the virtues of a looser weave when using thick thread! My first fabric selection was a ridiculously tightly woven navy blue plain fabric- not at all possible to pierce with a sashiko needle and thread. Instead of getting my pliers to pull the stitches through I switched to a more loosely woven black fabric. 'Coarse' fabric is very suitable for this thicker thread and stitch size.
I tried the chenille needle as suggested in the C&G manual but preferred the sturdier and longer sashiko needle. I did a little bit of googling and found this interesting site on Japanes textiles, including sashiko. I was introduced to other aspects of Japanese needlework and textiles. 12" looms! http://www.harding-giannini.com/index.php
I found the loosely twisted sashiko thread left a lot of fibre fluffs on the black fabric. Pearl cotton would be cleaner. Would I use sashiko in future work? Maybe. The geometric designs are appealing. The stitching goes quite quickly. However, the look screams 'I am Japanese'.
The thread colour in the photo is quite insipid compared to the chartreuse reality. Photographing colours is a challenge lately. I should check my settings and see what is going on.
Ages ago, I purchased some chartreuse sashiko thread and sashiko needles for this activity but not the kit containing the coarsely woven fabric. I soon learned the virtues of a looser weave when using thick thread! My first fabric selection was a ridiculously tightly woven navy blue plain fabric- not at all possible to pierce with a sashiko needle and thread. Instead of getting my pliers to pull the stitches through I switched to a more loosely woven black fabric. 'Coarse' fabric is very suitable for this thicker thread and stitch size.
I tried the chenille needle as suggested in the C&G manual but preferred the sturdier and longer sashiko needle. I did a little bit of googling and found this interesting site on Japanes textiles, including sashiko. I was introduced to other aspects of Japanese needlework and textiles. 12" looms! http://www.harding-giannini.com/index.php
I found the loosely twisted sashiko thread left a lot of fibre fluffs on the black fabric. Pearl cotton would be cleaner. Would I use sashiko in future work? Maybe. The geometric designs are appealing. The stitching goes quite quickly. However, the look screams 'I am Japanese'.
The thread colour in the photo is quite insipid compared to the chartreuse reality. Photographing colours is a challenge lately. I should check my settings and see what is going on.
Friday, January 18, 2008
Experiments with Dyeing
Doreen and Joan (fellow Fabricators) came over on Tuesday for an experimental dye session.Joan:
Joan tried out dye painting on a dry, soda ash treated, coarse canvas using a dye concentrate with sodium alginate (Kelgin) thickener. Her drawing of the Angkorwat ruins is wonderful.
Doreen:
Doreen painted dye on wet, soda ash treated cotton. Her soft colours blended beautifully. I was certain they would wash away when rinsed they were so subtle. I was shocked when almost no dye came out in the rinse or wash. She used 1 tbsp dye powder per 1/2 c. water, according to Betty Howe’s tried and true dye painting recipe.
Me:
I did a three way dye in 28 small plastic bags, a la Sophie in Australia. I was inspired by the gradation dye seen on Sophie’s flickr page http://www.flickr.com/photos/artstitches/1503393471/ . Her blog has dyeing information and photos http://essellesbabble.blogspot.com/
Fabric: The 28 chunks of fabric came from 7 cotton napkins and a table cloth from my great aunt’s cedar chest that I inherited in the 80’s. I’m not sure if you call the woven lilies of the valley damask or jacquard. But the pattern catches the light in a most wonderful way on each of the dyed pieces.
Dye Solution: 1 tsp dye powder/cup of water with no soda ash at this point. This is 6 times less dye powder than Doreen used! I used 3 tsp. total dye solution per bag (6 measures of ½ tsp.)
Dye Powder Used: ProChem.
Bottom left corner, Aqua #702,
Top left corner Plum #8153
Far right, ~60% Lemon Yellow #114:~ 40% Lime Green #730)
Method: One row at a time, I mixed the dye proportions according to Sophie’s photo, in little cups before adding to the bag. The fabric was soaked in soda ash before putting in the bag. I poured in more soda ash hoping for some pale colours. A little scrunching to minimize white patches finished the bagging procedure.
Labelling: Each bag had a number. I should have numbered each fabric chunk accordingly with permanent marker when it was dry to make sorting easier. Instead I attached fabric numbers with a safety pin.
The Results: Very interesting. Lots to observe and learn. Violet has red in it. The complement is green so I did get some lovely neutrals. The plum overpowered the aqua and green. Next time I will use ½ tsp of any colours that are strong or dark. The aqua has a weak voice. I should double the proportions of the shy dyes. The dyed fabric looks more like turquoise than the aqua on the dye chart. The plum is very similar to the chart colour.
Method: One row at a time, I mixed the dye proportions according to Sophie’s photo, in little cups before adding to the bag. The fabric was soaked in soda ash before putting in the bag. I poured in more soda ash hoping for some pale colours. A little scrunching to minimize white patches finished the bagging procedure.
Labelling: Each bag had a number. I should have numbered each fabric chunk accordingly with permanent marker when it was dry to make sorting easier. Instead I attached fabric numbers with a safety pin.
The Results: Very interesting. Lots to observe and learn. Violet has red in it. The complement is green so I did get some lovely neutrals. The plum overpowered the aqua and green. Next time I will use ½ tsp of any colours that are strong or dark. The aqua has a weak voice. I should double the proportions of the shy dyes. The dyed fabric looks more like turquoise than the aqua on the dye chart. The plum is very similar to the chart colour.
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