Busy in the studio

I've been busy at the studio, busy at my "real" job, busy at home--just plain busy. Everybody's got the same story. It's good to be busy. It takes my mind off of the fact that I lost more money in my 401K this year than I made in my entire first year out of school.

I've been pushing myself to work on some larger pieces of art cloth--around 2 yards. There are lots of advantages to working big: large composition space, room to move, etc. The downside is that if you make a technical mistake the you make it in a big way. I'm working to finish a piece that I started out loving but has since become a bit of a problem child. This is what it looked like in it's first state, still wet (I posted this picture a couple weeks ago). I wish I could have just frozen it that way.

Several layers of dye resulted in some really subtle colors that don't show up here, but are (or were) nice. So the problem is that I had a little discharging mishap. I used Sunlight Dishwasher Gel, which is really great stuff. It takes color out very well. The new version (sorry no pic yet) has a better value range (light to dark). Unfortunately, I now realize that I only hand washed the cloth between dying sessions and did not neutralize the bleach. That probably left residual bleach in the cloth. When I steamed and washed today I lost lots of red and blue.

So you see, big cloth means big success or big failure. Right now I'm doing a little pouting.

My first Open Studio

Last Sunday was my first open studio. What fun, but what a lot of work. All of the Artists in Residence at the Community Center participate in an open studio on the first Sunday of every month. I missed last month because I was away. I hung up a few things and sold one scarf (my very first sale!!!).

This month, because I was actually going to be there, I decided to put in a bit more effort. I sent out e-mail announcements as shown below.

I went in on Saturday and spruce things up a little. In this shot you can see the series of scarves that I've been working on for fun.

I was really delighted by how well they were received. I ended up with a steady stream of visitors, many of whom got a jump on their holiday gift purchasing How very nice for them and for me! It was a real pleasure to watch people enjoy looking, trying, and selecting. Making these scarves was great fun for me. On some level I thought that was it. I wasn't entirely prepared for the added pleasure of sending them out into the world to be a part of other people's lives.

And finally, here are a few shots of individual scarves just to give you and idea of what I'm up to.

If I remember correctly, this was soy wax on white cloth, low water immersion, overdye, discharge, and black extruded dye.

One of my first rust prints. The photo does not do justice to the golden glow this produced on the 8mm habotai fabric. My old wrenches are almost re-rusted and ready for another batch!

One of a number of really great results from the "scrunch and pour" method that I learned from Carol Soderlund. To the left you can see part of another batik piece.

SAQA show + recent work

Busy weekend--no, busy month.

Dan and I did an overnight trip to Staunton, VA last weekend to see the SAQA Amazing Art Quilts show. It was rather unreal seeing a piece of mine hanging in a gallery. It's strange even to write those words. I hope that the photo below shows how wonderfully well the show is presented (mine is 2nd from the left). Staunton's a lovely little town and the R.R. Smith Center was a great venue to host the show.

While we were there I also had a chance to reconnect with some very good friends from college. We weren't exactly disconnected, but we handn't spoken in a while and hadn't seen eachother in too many years. Meeting my friend Stacey's 12-year old daughter Zoe sort of underscored the fact that we need to get together more often.

With all of the travel (and more to come), I've been struggling to get in my studio hours. I've definitely made some progress though. The quilt below (draped over the work table in the studio) is finished. In the photo the binding hasn't been completely turned, but it is really done and it's on the bed. I started this two years ago as the back of our wedding quilt. It got too good to be a back and turned into a quilt top in its own right. Who says work doesn't take on a life of its own?

Here's the latest evolutionary stage in the "Seeds of Change" quilt. I overdyed the whole thing with sun yellow before I heat set the stenciled paint. So, the colors pop a little more, the purple is mostly subdued to brown, the paint softened in both texture and intensity and bits of color have emerged where the brighter dye colors were covered with fabric medium and resisted the yellow dye. Much improved, I think. In the photo it's on the studio table getting pinned for quilting.

I need to try using fusible batting. It would certainly make the quilting prep easier. The safety pins are just such a hassle. Anybody have any good advice in that department? (this is also a test to see who's listening--ha ha).

I've also got about a dozen silk scarves in various stages of completion. I'm trying to build up a little inventory for open studio days. I'll try to remember to take some pictures the next time I get the studio all "dressed up". The next Artrul Afternoon at the Greenbelt Community Center is Sunday October 7, 1-5 pm. Stop by if you're in the area.

Recent Internet appearances

I'm surprised (and I suppose sufficiently immodest) to report that I've received some delightful recent Internet "coverage". Thanks all around.

Kerr Grabowski used a picture of me from a workshop as part of her course description for the workshop that she's teaching in Spring 2009 at the Nancy Crow Timber Frame Barn. Kerr's a great teacher, Nancy is a gracious and generous host, and the Barn is a wonderful place to study. You should go to this place and take this class. I can't say that enough.

Susan Brubaker Knapp did an excellent post on her blog about the "Amazing Art Quilts" show in Staunton. She even included a photo of my piece. I was so thrilled to receive her e-mail letting me know. Check out the post on her very cool blog, Blue Moon River.

And finally, Rayna Gillman recently redesigned her website, Studio 78, and included a photo of me from her soy wax batik workshop at Peters Valley last summer. Rayna's another great teacher well worth seeking out. Check out the new book on her website as well. If you ever wanted to try creating your own cloth, but didn't know where or how to start, then buy this book. If you're already making your own cloth and want a creative boost, then buy this book. You get the idea.

High-fiber turned out to be a good description

My first Art Cloth Network meeting was great. Like most self-governing groups, there's a certain amount of time that needs to be devoted to governance, management, planning--all of my regular 9-5 activities. But, there was also time to see a lot of really good art and time to play. These are some talented folks and I feel not just like the new kid on the block, but the younger brother trying to keep up with the big kids. I guess everyone feels that way from time to time. It's in the nature of making and sharing our art that we sometimes compare what we do to the work of others. It can't be helped. In this case though, I felt very welcomed and came away with a strong sense of both acceptance and validation as an artist.

On Saturday we ventured into Manhattan en masse then split up into smaller groups. Some went shopping, some to museums, and some exploring. I would like to have done it all, but chose instead to go the the garment district for a bit of shopping. This is not really Dan's favorite thing to do, so I figured that since I was surrounded by folks who almost can get enough of fabric stores it made sense to indulge. What fun. For my little group of 6 it ended up being a 12 hour day door-to-door. I came home with a few bargains, including several yards of assorted wool that I'm going to "transform" into scarves. Stay tuned for that one.

I wish that I could post pictures of all of the great work that I saw from fellow members, but we agreed for very good reasons not to post pictures without permission. I'm going to err on the side of caution and share just these two that seem to capture the mood for the Manhattan field trip: Great fun and good company.

Here's Rayna as we're about to leave the famous (but rather pricey) Mood. I think that we all concluded that Metro Textile is a far better bet if your looking for a great bargain. Go to Mood if you need something specific and nothing else will do--and expect to pay for being that picky.

The shop below shows Joy, Wrenn, and Janet looking very happy and chic. It was a beautiful day on the street but the subway was like a steam bath. The ladies wore it gracefully. I wish I could say the same.

Perhaps in another post I tell the story of the restaurant that we went to on Saturday night for our group dinner. I use the term "restaurant" lightly. It was one of the stranger customer service experience of my life. More later...perhaps.

It promises to be a high-fiber weekend

This weekend--actually starting today (Thursday)--I'm in New Jersey on the campus of Rutgers University for the fall meeting of the Art Cloth Network. This is my first meeting. The folks I've met so far all seem very friendly. It sounds like the schedule's already been rearranged a bit. Saturday was supposed to be a play day in Manhattan. I think that's moving it to tomorrow to avoid the bad weather forecast for Saturday. I can't even remember which hurricane is headed our way. I think it's the "H" one--maybe the "I".

So, anyway, I'm looking forward to a bit of exploration in the garment district. I brought an empty backpack, just in case! I hope that I have the presence of mind to remember the 4 meters of fabric that Dan & I bought in Paris many years ago then schlepped all over the city. It weighted a ton. Dan probably did most of the carrying--and he's not with me this time.

No apologies

No apologies for the lack of postings. I've been busy. (That's an excuse, not an apology).

I've been spending some good time in the studio, but trying not to be too frenzied about cranking out fabric. I've got a couple of pretty pieces and one that I can't figure out. It's either dead ugly or it's going to turn into something. I just don't know. Let's start with the good looking stuff.

This is nice.

Overprinting with a mask made it better, and I think that some embellishment and quilting might finish it.

This is from early this week. It's 2 yards long! I never print this size at home because it's hard to move around the table. At the studio I'm using the same print board, but there's so much room! It washed out very well and, with luck, will get another layer today.

So now for the problem child. It started out pretty good. It was done with a polychromatic screen released wet (i.e., not deconstructed).

Did it get better? Perhaps.

The red was a bit if an F#$% up if you ask me.After steaming and washing out the orange lost some of its strength. We're not going in the right direction.

Scissor are the answer, right? And how about some charcoal drawing? The color palette is wrong to my eye. It's weak. It looks like somebody had a terrible accident with a sorbet dessert tray.

Green circles, darkening from top to bottom Humm.

I just don't know. The working title that came out during the process of making this monster is "Seeds of Change". I think it has something to do with too many political speeches about "Change". I wanted Hillary. I got Obama. After the speech last night I feel better about that than I did before.

Well this cloth is like a mosquito bite right now: every time I scratch it, it seems to get worse. I think it needs to rest for a while.

Now I'm going to go stretch a couple of new silk screens then off to the studio. I made 6 new frames last night. One of the advantages of getting the print table out of the basement is that I now have no reservations about making a mess with the table saw. My woodworking shop has come back to life!

Studio pictures as promised

Here's a panoramic view of my new studio. It's huge--really huge! I moved in today with help from Dan and our friend Mary Frances. It was a long tiring day but with three people we really seemed to make quick work of it. I went back this evening for a couple of hours and got dye concentrate mixed so I should be in business tomorrow.

I continue to be surprised that this day actually came.

Moving day

The lease for the studio is signed and today's the day I pick up the keys and move in. Wow. I'm very excited but still have a little bit of that going-over-a-waterfall kind of feeling. I hope I'll have pictures to post later today. For now I suppose I should start packing up. This seems less intimidating that packing for a workshop. There should be fewer weighty decisions about what to pack.

But, the most pressing immediate need is coffee...

More later.

Getting organized

I know I'm not alone in this. My life seems to be an ongoing cycle of organization and disarray. I clean up and them I mess up. The railing at the top of our stairs at home is a collecting point for work in progress that's too big to leave anywhere else (and other stuff).

Here's the sad state of affairs today.

There's a queen-size quilt for our bed that's waiting to be bound. The purple thing is something that I'm just starting. And the bits of silk are part of a series of 10 scarves that I'm doing so that I have something to sell in the new studio (Move in day is this coming Friday!). Bottom line is this: I have got to get this stuff done so that it can go where ever it is that it's supposed to go. It just can't spend it's entire life in the hallway.

As I said, the studio is about to take off. I've got the contract in hand, the insurance is paid for, and I pick up the keys this Friday. I'm very excited, but I still have occasional hyperventilating moments. Am I making a commitment that's bigger than I can live up too? Those moments seem to pass quickly and I keep moving (or floating) forward.

There's so much to do. I've got to do some packing and figure out how much is going to the studio and how much is staying home. I think it's going to take awhile to work out the balance. One of my big questions is what to do about dye. I've switched over to working exclusively with dye concentrates. I mix known concentrates of primary colors then mix everything else from those. I've found that the shelf life of the concentrates is greatly extended by refrigerating them. The same holds true for sodium alginate pint paste (NB: adding 1 tsp of denatured alcohol per quart to the alginate mixture helps too). So, do I buy a little dorm fridge for the studio? Do I just let the stuff go bad faster at room temperature? Or do I schlep it back and forth (not likely!)? This is the stuff I can't figure out. Since my studio time is going to be a little spotty, I'm leaning toward the fridge. Opening up a container of spoiled alginate and getting a face full of the disgusting ammonia smell is just about enough to ruin my day!

A final note on color. I snapped this photo last week in the Bishop's Garden on a visit to the National Cathedral. What amazing colors. I need to do something with this.