Saving the hopeless quilt: Part 2

Picking up where I left off with the last post...

I was able to piece together 2 curving lines in the same color combinations then spent some time looking at them on the design wall in a horizontal orientation. I felt good about where it was going, but I figured out early on that I wanted to rotate it to vertical. I also knew that I didn't have enough pieces to work with to create any sort of real composition. At the very least I needed another element--a 3rd line.

It also needed some variation. The center line below is built from the same original strip sets as the other two, with another one worked in. Here I aslo introduced other printed fabrics that related to colors in other parts of the composition.

There's a sort of rhythm, undulation to this that I like.

Checking the values with a grayscale photo (below) helped me workout some figure-ground problems. But, looking at this photo I realized that needed something else. I struggled to figure out how the join these 3 pieces into a whole. I considered several options for filling in the spaces between the irregularly shaped columns. In this photo you can see a trial strip between the 2nd and 3rd columns. It seemed like the start of something, but there were value and scale issues.

The question that I struggled with was how to unite these three columns in a way that maintained the three distinct entities in the final composition--not just the curved lines but the background of each line.

Over time I began to feel like that I needed to treat these three lines as distinct objects and not try to unite then, but rather to transition between them. I needed to interrupt the vertical flow with some horizontal lines. After a lot of rearranging and discussion with friends I started to assemble the first column.

The more I fiddled, the further the three lines move apart and asserted themselves as individuals. So I changed my approach. I would "unify" the whole quilt with a common light background.

It's a little hard to see here, but the background that's starting to come together is pieced from strip sets that were all white, or slightly red or yellow. There are also occasional bits of brown. The plan was to build the quilt from left to right.

Maybe you can figure out what comes next...and maybe you can't. More to come.

Saving the hopeless quilt: Part 1

Back in October I returned from two weeks of workshops in a sort of mixed up mood. One week produced some good samples and good ideas, the majority of which I've yet to explore. The other week produced bits and scraps of a failed design that quite frankly were just a nagging reminder of something that didn't quite turn out as expected. They can't all be home runs, right? Sometimes teacher, student, and the planets just don't align the right way at the right time. Learn what you can, remember the love, try to forget the angst, and move on.

So, moving on...

I've dug in my heels and I'm determined to make a difficult experience into something positive. The next few posts will show where I started with that failed design and where it's going.

The original composition started with strip sets, like the ones shown below.

We were given an assignment to create a strip quilt by restructuring these strip sets--really a very basic task. I got thoroughly bogged down in a the linear design and the "strips" and just couldn't seem to resolve any of the obvious design problems; like the fact that it's a BAD design. (You can read more about the experience in earlier posts).

I liked some of the restructuring that I'd done with the strip sets, but knew that the only way for me to get a fresh start with this quilt was to start breaking up some of those straight lines. Knowing that I had nothing to lose, I cut the long restructured sets into smaller pieces and started combining them with curved piecing.

That was interesting, but not enough on it's own to create much of an engaging design. The next step was to cut up and recombine these sets. Now things started getting interesting.

I hope that's enough of a teaser to get you to come back and see what happened next. I should have another post in a few days.

Recently finished

Just in time for Christmas, I finally finished a commission quilt that I started *months* ago. Thanks for being so patient Jennifer. Aaron, I hope you like it. By the time I was done I almost didn't want to let it go. That's a good sign.

Here's the full quilt...

and two detail shots.

Oh, I'm forgetting the title: "The Winding Path is Often the More Interesting Choice." A little something for him to reflect on later in life. :) His older brother's quilt is titled, "Don't be Afraid to Color Outside the Lines". It all seems very appropriate to me.

The business of the holidays

...and the busyness of course. Every year I say to myself, "Let's keep it simple." In many ways our holiday traditions have gotten simpler over the last 20 years. I've stopped printing the Christmas cards and I'm no longer wrapping the packages in brown paper then painting them (that was charming but a bit insane). Likewise I've reduced the holiday baking to a reasonable level--for weight control if nothing else.

So what has moved in to occupy all of this free space in my schedule? Quiet Advent contemplation? No, it's business that is now making the holidays bright with frenzy. I love my studio work and I have to say I'm finally in a place where I like selling what I make. It does however take up a bit of time. Just when the holiday selling should have been over and done with I decided that this was the perfect time to launch an online sales page on my website. (heavy sarcasm) I've been meaning to do it for a while. When a friend from NY asked for pictures of things he might buy for his wife I thought, "Can I use this as the motivator to get this done." Well, it's done. I'm pleased with the results. It was a nice little design and writing assignment with some programming on the back end to make the experience look a bit more professional. Three transactions, 6 items sold, and one more lead in the first week. I couldn't be more pleased. Maybe that's not entirely true. I'd be more pleased if I'd done this well in advance of the holidays. So now I'm set for next year. Right?!

Check out the new sales page at russlittlefiberartist.net.

Getting ready for a weekend of open studio

So much sewing and so much ironing, but it's worth it because I'm doing good work and that feels good. There's still a lot of cleaning to do in the studio before tomorrow night, but here are a few pieces hanging up. I'm really happy with my recent batik pieces. The 3 pieces hanging on the right are all silk habotai. They're beautiful in person. I priced them at the top end of my range, but that's probably still underpriced. The work is easy compared to trying to figure out how to price the end result.

More scarves.

And finally, here's my new rack (for scarves or yardage--currently scarves) made from $25 worth of PVC pipe. All of the arms are moveable. Thanks to Brian Murphy for the design. That man can make anything if you give him 20 minutes in Home Depot.

Open studio all weekend starting Friday night.

Lots of new work. I think it's some of my best ever.

Layers upon Layers: Day 5 and beyond

I've been home from Ohio for a week. I drove home last Saturday and I'm please to say that all went well with the trip. I've been having trouble with my eyes for the last year (since the surgery) and I was really concerned about managing a 6.5 hour car trip without any double vision or ocular migraines, both of which are triggered by stress, fatigue, and eye strain. It was smooth sailing. So anyway, the last day at the Barn was good. I did some tests with fabric paint using materials and methods that I hadn't used before. I've always screened, painted, or printed with fabric paint and other acrylics, but rollering/rubbing (which I've done successfully with dye) was new to me. I'm happy with the results and I think I've got some ideas for some new layering.

The first shot below shows a transparent paint (mixed from ProFab Extender and pigment). All 4 images were created from a simple collograph:

1. Upper left: rollering paint with a dense foam roller over fabric placed on top of the plate
2. Lower left: rollering paint onto the printing plate then hand rubbing a print with dry fabric
3. Lower right: same as #2 but with fabric lightly dampened with a spray bottle
4. Upper right: a sort of modified monotype print created by rollering paint onto plastic sheeting then stacking the printing plate, fabric and plastic sheeting (paint side down) and rubbing.

This second image is a set of similar prints made with opaque black ProFab paint.

1. Upper left: rollering paint with a dense foam roller over fabric placed on top of the plate
2. Upper right: rollering paint onto the printing plate then hand rubbing a print with slightly damp fabric
3. Lower left: a print taken by rollering over some yarn couched to a piece of fabric (instead of the collograph.
4. Lower right: the collograph plate after all was said and done.

Lessons

• There's layering potential here.
• The couched yarn is the most exciting image.
• The roller imparts a certain amount of texture on its own.
• A small roller creates marks that contribute to the overall story/feeling of the print. perhaps more than a wider roller would.
• I'm going to start mixing all of my paint from primary pigments instead of primary paints. There's more control and it makes more sense than holding an inventory of aging paint in colors that I might use infrequently.

Bottom line for the week

Carol's new class was great and I recommend it for anyone who is interested in exploring the concepts of layering line, shape, technique, texture, color, and meaning; all while playing with sequence of those things. I've taken both of Carol's color mixing classes and definitely benefited from that experience in this class because I had no anxiety about handing the dye primaries. That said, there were quite a few people in the class who did not have that experience and got along just fine with the hand outs and some direction from Carol. Basically it's a good class for any surface designer looking for a time and space to try new things and have their familiar ways of working shaken up a bit.

Layers Upon Layers: Day 4

It was a busy day. I spent some time documenting the work I've done this week and thought about some of the opportunities for moving forward. Tomorrow I might do a bit of piecing with what I've created. Most of my effort today went into discharging some solids that I have with me in preparation for further work--possible restructuring comes next--not sure.

Here are some pretty things drying on the clothes line.

This evening a bunch of us piled into 2 cars for a quick trip into Columbus for the gallery opening of Michelle Stitzlein's (http://www.artgrange.com/michellesculpture.html) new solo show--very cool assemblage art. The it was back to the Barn for another hour and a half of work.

Suddenly tomorrow's the last day.

Layers Upon Layers: Days 1-3

I think I'm getting some good work done this week. I'm still at the Barn, but this week taking Carol Soderlund's new class, "Layers Upon Layers." I'm glad that I've already taken Color Mixing I & II because I can focus the sequence of process and on color and zone out a little bit on the during some of the "How does this work?" question. Now, having said that I can also say that I've learned some new things about starch resists and fabric paint.

I decided before the class started that I would focus on a single motif for the entire week--circles and ovals. I'm seeing some interesting results from piecing before and/or after dyeing/overdyeing and from the interaction between soy wax and dye. For example, I'm getting a strong ghost image from activated strong black dye applied over soy wax, batched, dried, IRONED, and washed out. The expectation was that I'd get a strong resist. Instead I'm getting a fairly strong ghost image, which I like. The dye on top of the wax is being pushed down to the cloth when I'm ironing out the wax. And, it doesn't appear to be simply back staining, because I can't get it out. The dye paste should have been exhausted after 8 hours, but it was made with a mixed alkali so...keep experimenting.

OK, pictures.

Circles that were "drawn" by stitching strips of cloth to white fabric squares. These appliqued squares were subsequently cut in half and dropped into different low water dye pots. Here they are loosely reassembled on the design wall.

Greatly improved by overdyeing, but other colors are needed to be ready to make any sort of composition. And maybe some discharge?

An example of deconstructed printing on pieced fabric (a combination of muslin and pimatex.

If you click on this one and zoom in you might be able to see some of the soy wax/dye ghosting that I was talking about.

OK, out the door or I'll be late for class.

Back to the Barn

Yesterday I got a massage (truly wonderful and cheap compared to DC prices), had a little nosh, bought supplies for Carol's class (including dye studio clothes, which I didn't bring with me), watched a movie, napped, ate chinese takeout, and when to bed. After last week I was exhausted and a day of nothing was just what I needed.

Today I'm going to grab some lunch and head back to the Barn to clean up my work space and attack my design wall. No rules and no assignment. I'm going to make something out of that mess and exercise the last remnants of whatever black cloud seemed to be hovering over me last week. At some point I might even share pictures of all of this. Maybe.

The words of the day are "Fresh start".