Ups and Downs

Today I had my heart set on seeing the red and white quilt show at the NY Armory after work. I scooted out the door at 5 sharp, having checked online for the hours of the exhibit, which was scheduled to be open until 7 pm. Well, apparently the online hours and the real hours were not the same; it closed at 5. I was allowed to peek in the door but not enter the exhibit room. It looked just like the photos I saw online, but darker. I did see a surprise exhibit: giant tulip sculptures up and down the center strip of park avenue. Here is the one right near the armory.

Organic Cave Hunters

For Lisa Lisa Lou's March ATC swap on Facebook, the theme was 'organic.' That covers a lot of bases, so I couldn't decide what to do...natural fabrics? earthy colors? collect wrappers from organic food and collage them? use flowing, gentle organic shapes? paint with natural dye, like beet juice?

Finally I decided to go the earth theme, earth route: I took an old fabric design that I made years ago of cave hunters and cattle. I printed it from my computer on a homespun type ecru rough-hewn cotton [I ironed freezer paper to the back of the fabric and cut it 8.5 x 11], added hand needlefelting in earth/rust colors at the top and bottom, and a small feather. I left the side edges rough [seemed more rustic] and did the stitching by hand.

Deco Blues

I made ATCs using one of the photos I snapped in the graybar building last week. I used a filter in photoshop to change the color, bumped up the contrast, and viola, an indigo deco image. I used torn strips of cotton indigo colors, arranged from light to dark, then put a little snippet of the indigo deco in the center.

Check out my group blog, artsinthecards.blogspot.com, for more indigo ATCs from a really great group of creative women.

Deco Bumblings

The other day I took a wrong turn coming out of the Grand Central subway station. I ended up in the basement corridors of some nearby building. I think it was the Graybar building, but am not entirely sure. I stood mesmerized by the deco artwork, snapping photos like a tourist with my iPhone. I haven't decided how to work these designs into my own artwork, but I am sure I will.

Little Bunny Artist

I cut up the needlefelting that I posted last week; here are the ATCs for my spring themed Roses on my Table groups trade. I hand blanket-stitched the edges and tacked the bunny on with tiny aqua seed beed. The center design is a vintage image...Mr. Bunny is busy painting his egg if you look closely.

Pretty Pretty Pretty

Maybe its that I am anxious for spring. Maybe I'm feeling my girly side. Whatever the reason, I've been using lots of pink lately. My two latest projects are for the groups Roses On My Table. I made a pinkish hand needlefelted piece, about 9"x12", then stitched over it in springy shades of lilac, aqua, pink and lime. I later cut it up into atcs and added a small vintage illustration of a bunny painting an egg. Really cute and sweet; I embellished it with little turquoise beads and hand blanket stitched the edges.

The pink floral pieces are art tags. The theme was floral for this trade, and what could be better for a textile designer than flowers? I used some of my own fabric, New York Roses. I underprinted a floral on cardstock, then modge-podged sections of my own rose print (available at spoonflower.com under edzellinni). I accented the floral with squiggles of gold dimensional paint, punched in pink grommets, and added pink satin ribbon and fuzzy fiber. I finished it with my own hand-rolled tyvek beads. [made from used fedex envelopes]

Weekend ATC Work

ATCs were on the agenda this weekend. I made three batches: first, I altered a Ralph Lauren cologne ad, along with a Marc Jacobs cologne ad, and made a dozen ATCs for my ArtsInTheCards group. Next, I made some ATCs about love for Lisa Fulmer's facebook ATC trade using coffee-dyed waxed rice paper embedded with Hawaiian floral matter [thanks Sonja]. Last, but surely not least, I made some reiki healing ATCs. I incorporated the antahkarana (probably spelling it wrong...I should know by now but still mess it up) and the healing color purple. I used 3 purple fabrics: a)a piece of soft purple corduroy from my daughter Amanda's old favorite shirt b)some purple soy batik I made a few years ago that I was saving for a special project and c)purple fabric that I printed at spoonflower as part of my Visioning project. I designed the fabric using 12 major world religious symbols in a circle around my personal symbol, a leaf, an image that I constantly doodle and shows up in much of my work.

Sweet ATC Valentine Triptych

A while back I posted a photo of a Bloomingdale's Christmas catalogue that I distressed in places using NevrDull. I cut shapes out of removable floppy diskette labels and removed them after I distressed the paper...some of the shapes were hearts, and the artwork was red, orange and pink, so I decided to cut it into pieces that were ATC sized for one of my Valentine's trades. The ATCs were a little dull, so I decided to put 3 together into a triptych. That was not bad, but still dull, so I added stitching and a couple of grommets that I threaded pink satin ribbon through. Now it definitely says sweetness, love and romance to me. They are going to a small trade group, and should arrive just in time for Valentine's Day.

Sweet and Feminine ATCs

I recently joined a few new ATC trade groups that are more mixed-media than fabricky, which is a direction I want to go in. I kind of walk with one leg in the painting world and one in the sewing/quilting one; I have been missing the smell and texture of paint and the feel of good paper. These ATCs might be surprising to people who are used to seeing bold, bright stuff from me, especially my self portraits. These are from my soft side.

I started with a doodle from my journal. Back in the fall there was a terrible storm in NY, and it took me about 5 hours to get [via bus] from the city to the tip of Long Island. I was in my world of iPod and journal, so it wasn't so bad [until the power ran out on my iPod!]. I did the doodle for these cards somewhere in Queens, surrounded by uprooted trees and downed power lines.

I scanned the doodle, reduced it and printed it on Japanese rag paper that I cut down to 8.5x11. I dyed the paper with coffee after printing--should have done it first since it made the ink run a little, but it added a softness so it was okay. I painted each a little differently, using watercolors, watersoluble oil pastels, touches of marker and edged it with pink acrylic.

Mad White Dog Blogs!

Please visit my new favorite blogsite, madwhitedog.blogspot.com to read all about the crazy adventures of Coconut J. Wyatt. He doesn't really quilt, can't be trusted with a pair of scissors or with glue, but he sure can write.

Hearts in Space

I can't stop playing with NevrDull. This time I took a National Geographic photo of outer space that had red tones, and cut some heart shapes from old removable floppy diskette labels. I had visions of doing something Valentine's-ish with it, but am not sure whether to chop it up for ATCs or reprint the scanned art and work from that. Or maybe I should make it into a giant card for my husband...but then, he would probably think it smells funny, which it does. Seems the best art supplies have the worst fumes.

Thinking Small in 2011

For 2011 I decided to embrace my love of small works. Not everyone is meant to do huge murals and giant artquilts that take up a whole wall. And I certainly don't have the time or patience for that anyway. So, I am going forward with my ATC addiction and will maybe do some small art quilts and even look for shows and/or galleries that specialize in small work. And of course keep up with my art-o-mat work.

At the end of 2010 I got some new thermofax screens from Lynn K. aka Fibraartysta. I had an ATC group challenge that involved felt and gold paint, so I printed them of several shades of felt and also on some purple crushed velvet. These are the early results. The multicolored ATCs are from some painting on fabric that I did with markers and alcohol, and for another ATC challenge involving markers and cotton.

Country French Trash

Country French Trash...now doesn't that sound like an oxymoron? Well, I had a catalogue from Pottery Barn that I had been saving for a while. It was full of a line of Pierre Deux-inspired country french prints on towels, sheets, beach umbrellas and bedspreads. I am crazy about that particular style of fabric design, so I saved the catalogue.

When I was cleaning, I discovered the catalogue that I had squirreled away a few summers ago, and decided to take the prettiest items and cut them into strips. I glued the strips to heavy paper. [The whole collage process was verrrry therapuetic.] It looked boring, and not at all country french any more, so I printed one of my hand-carved stamps in black on it. Still boring, so I painted gold in the middle of the flower leaves. Not so boring any more, but I added touches of green, white and gold squeeze on dimensional paint for some extra zip.

Even though I always think I am more a mixed-media artist than an art quilter, the ATCs looked naked without some stitiching, so I added some simple criss-cross lines and machine blanket stitched the edges. They remind me of poinsettas a little, but maybe that's just because I finished them Christmas eve after all the presents were wrapped.

Christmas Cleverness

Feeling terribly clever tonight--I managed to make beach-inspired ornaments for my friend Jeanne who is having a mini-holiday gathering around her tree tomorrow night. She looooves the beach, so I bought some starfish from a Hamptons shop and managed to turn them into ornaments. I gently hammered a sewing machine needle through one of the five points, wiggled it around to enlarge the hole, and squished a gossamer silky wire-edged aqua ribbon through the wee hole. I tied it in a bow, nipped the ends, attached an ornament hanging gizmo, put some faux turquoise beads on the hanger, and viola, instant beach ornament. But then I had no box, no wrapping paper. I grabbed an old shoe box and covered the top of it with a sheet of heat-distressed painted tyvek. Funny, when I was a kid and throwing together homemade gifts, it was because I couldn't afford to buy them. Now handmade is in...lucky for me!

So, I don't have a photo of the ornaments and fancy box, but look what I did with the Bloomingdale's holiday catalogue I got in the mail: I cut hearts and Matisse inspired shapes out of old removable floppy disc labels, rubbed some NevrDull on the whole thing, peeled off the labels, and the look went from Christmas to Valentine's Day in a very short period of time.

Goofing Off

I have been working nonstop lately, scarfing down a quick lunch while I work at my paying job, staying up late and working weekends for my husband for my non-paying job.

So, I finally have time to rest, maybe do some artwork, putter around. And how do I spend my time? Changing my facebook photo. I changed it 4 times...tried different self-portrats. And no, I am not going to use a real photo. They don't look any more like me than the self-portraits. Well, maybe a little more.

Anyway, I settled on this picture, a self portrait that I did from a photo at my niece's wedding a few years ago. I printed the photo [enlarged and kind of blurry] that my brother Kenny took and printed it on fabric, then overpainted it with water soluble oil pastels. I am wearing a black velvet coat that my mother made in the 1940s that has a really cool high collar [in the back] and my dangly old favorite fancy pearl earrings from the Metropolitan Museum of Art's gift shop.

NevrDull Moment

I'm really never going to have a dull moment any more...I just discovered a new art technique (thank you, Karen Musgrave)! I took some random photos from a magazine, blocked off sections with removable floppy diskette labels [dating myself that I even have a stash of these ancient things] and rubbed them with a cleaning product called NevrDull. It removed much of the ink from the page and made it soft and magical. I peeled away the labels to reveal the untouched portions. Verrrry cool results!

Crazy?

Have I gone crazy? I spent about an hour tonight hand needlefelting the beginnings of a winter coat for my dog. Well, it was my daughter's idea. After all, I spend hours needlefelting pieces for ATCs and postcards and bracelets, so she thought, in the vernacular of my mother, that it would be keeno if I did a soft, wooly felting for the skinny, badly behaved but adorable four legged member of the family. Since he is so pretty and strangers think he is a girl, I did it in earth tones with a little indigo blue thrown in...hopefully it will say: "I am a macho boy dog, and I protect my family and home; I am the official Wyatt guard dog." Of course I don't have a working scanner handy or a digital camera nearby, so you have to wait to see a picture of it. With any luck, Coco will pose wearing it. But you can see my latest self portrait sketch, me at 55, looking crazy indeed.

Tradition, for a change

I have made a lot of samples of my own fabric designs and printed them through Spoonflower....the question is: what the heck should I do with them? Not enough to make something to wear, they don't work together for an art quilt. I matched them up to some solids and solidish batiks. My orange/pink/yellow paisley worked well with an orange batik, and also with a thermofax screenprint of a tulip, orange on yellow. Here are pix of my recent experiments. (color is a little off, thanks to my tempermental scanner and lack of finess in photoshop)

Typography, Calligraphy and Fonts

I chose the theme of Typography for my atc group exchange this month since I love fonts, calligraphy and graphic design. I used famous signatures/symbols (John Hancock, Ben Franklin, Gandhi and Vermeer) along with part of the font from Tazo Tea. I created an aged look with watercolor in shades of ochre and brown, then added gold paint and Pearlex Powder, with a gloss finish.

Thermofax Prints and Marker Watercolor

My last few art days have been experimental: testing the colors and designs on my newly arrived thermofax screens (designed by me and made by FibraArtysta at Esty)Screens worked well, any problems were due to me being sloppy and rushing or being stingy with the paint.

I plan to try printing on gingham and maybe stripes...something more interesting than white broadcloth, but they came out pretty well for a first try.

My second experiment was with Sharpie Markers directly on cotton. I drew flowers and abstract shapes, then added alcohol and let it bleed. Kind of like doing watercolor, but the bleeding takes longer. Colors dried nice and bright though, unlike watercolor which usually dries softer. And thank you to Janice Paine-Dawes who introduced me to this technique!

Painted Peltex Experiments

This is a piece I have been puttering with...I finally got sick of it and decided to call it done. I painted directly on Peltex with water soluble oil pastels, a very wet and messy process that took forever to dry. I decided to enhance some of the lines with stitching, but my rotator cuff gave out, so I couldn't do the needlework I envisioned. It was drawn freehand, with no plan, just a random design that came out of my head. Pretty much typical of what I doodle, but bigger and in color. It is about 20" wide x 10" high.

About to Thermofax!

I have been dying to try thermofax printing on fabric ever since I read about it a couple years ago. I bumbled onto a woman who makes and sells the screens, thanks to a facebook post by Patty VanHuis Cox. Through the Esty shops, FibraArtysta sells affordable screens and paints. I just sent a few of my designs, and can't wait to see how they print.

These are the black & white images that the screens will be created from. I ordered some bright, punchy colors to try them in.

October Puttering

I have been puttering around, finishing little projects, using up scraps and basically goofing off. I made another scrappy bracelet, this time I tried a different closure...well, it was too short to use velcro, so I improvised with a colorful eyelet, a loop of round elastic thread and a vintage button. I also lined this one with purple satin. I discovered that mine itched a little, so this should cure that problem.

I have also become fascinated with manholes and utility markings in and around the city. On my block there is one that always catches my eye: a white cover with a black cross next to an orange cover. I am going to play with the design and see if I can come up with either a quilt pattern or a fabric design.

Oh, I also made some postcards out of leftover needlefelting. I put them together in a kind of Mondrian-inspired design.

Halloween ATCs

I seem to be becoming addicted to hand needlefelting. I drew a complete blank on the Halloween theme for my ATC group's October exchange, so I puttered with fall-colored roving (unspun wool) until the lightbulb of inspiration went off in my brain. After sewing over the felted piece with various colors and styles of stitch, I chopped it up into little 2.5" x3.5" pieces. I found a vintage illustration and made tiny reproductions of it, which I hand-sewed to the center.

Scrappy & Tyvek Bracelets

I love to putter with recycled elements. Two of my favorite therapies are making scrappy fabric from bits of leftover cloth, yarn and ribbon. Another favorite thing is making beads from old USPS and FedEx tyvek mailers. So, I put the two together for a recent art challenge and made bracelets for my Kokoma group.

I sewed a little piece of velcro onto them for the closure, edged them with a contrasting blanket stitch, and decorated with tyvek beads. The four pieces are scattered around the globe: NY (me), Greece (Jo), Hawaii (Sonja) and Texas (Kate).

A group called Threads of Sanity spun out of Art for Mail 17, then we lost members and four of us formed Kokoma. [Kokoma stands for keep on keeping on making art...after the old 60s expression keep on keeping on]. The three other Kokoma women taught me much of what I know and helped me grow tremendously as a fiber artist, and the bracelets are my way of saying thank you.

Tyvek Beaded Necklaces

Last week I took a 'stay-cation' and stayed home to putter with my art supplies, sleep late and go to the beach. I finished 4 artquilts that I had started before I started my no longer 'new' job, almost two years ago.

I also finished up some jewelry I had half done. I tried to use up my abundance of tyvek beads (see my tutorial on artsinthecards.blogspot.com if you don't know how to make tyvek beads) and my odd assortment of semi-precious gem chips and mismatched silver findings.

I also discovered that I could make some really delicate necklaces with silk cord and little crystals...my husband got my daughter Amanda a gorgeous necklace for her recent birthday. (I loved it and was tempted to keep it for myself.)After inspecting it, I discovered that it was not gemstones floating on a delicate silver chain, but grey silk cording with the gems, along with tiny glass beads. So, I have been puttering and tying tiny knot after tiny knot. I think I have finally gotten the hang of it. I inherited a bunch of crystal beads from my sister in law, Carol (thanks Carol!)and didn't quite know what to do with them, but I do now.