Prayer Flags

Back to some fabric and stitch. I was inspired to do a couple of Prayer Flags by Jane LaFazio, who told me and the other Sketchbook Challenge bloggers about a Prayer Flag Project initiated by Vivika DeNegre, a fabulous fiber artist. I love the idea of prayer flags as a format for artistic expression, as well as their original purpose - to spread blessings on the wind.

Here are my two prayer flags hanging over the brook that flows just behind my studio:


And here they are separately:




I used acrylic paint on muslin, and employed the "resist and water" techniques demonstrated here. I collage on the fabric with painted/textured deli paper, as demonstrated here. And, of course, used some of my scribble painted papers. I did some simple machine stitching, and sewed beads on by hand. Each flag is only 5"x8". Check out the Prayer Flag Project, and create your own!

FABRIC-PAPER WORKSHOP!!!

I am teaching a really fun workshop on Fabric-Paper at the Guilford Art Center on August 7 - 8. I can't wait for this workshop! Fabric-paper is such a rich, creative, messy medium, combining collage and art quilt techniques. On Saturday we'll paint our own tissue papers and create loads of fabric-paper-collagey materials, learning some basics of color, pattern, and image making. Sunday will be devoted to making a fabric-paper mini-quilt. We'll go over design basics, and learn techniques of enhancing your image with painting, stitching, and beading techniques. You will come away from this workshop with a renewed confidence in your use of color and composition, as well as a toolbox of techniques and ideas that can be applied to fabric paper, quilting, collage, and other mixed media projects.

Pizza Book

I am on what I hope is the home stretch of my mixed media book. I have all the final photographs and am busily writing captions for many of them. I want to share ALL the photos on my blog, but I don't think that would go over so well with the publisher. Here is one, though, which may or may not make it into the book. It is my "Pizza Book" for pizza recipes. The cover is made from a fused fiber sheet, fused to a stiff interfacing. The tomatoes and basil leaves are cut from fabric I designed for Free Spirit Fabrics several years ago. I just love these tomato slices! They are fused to the background and then stitched by machine. I added a few beads to the tomato seeds. This is a one-signature book sewn in a few places to the cover at the spine. Now I have to compile all my pizza recipes. Anyone want to send me a recipe? If anyone wants a few tomato slices I'd be happy to send them.

Speaking of foam core, here are a couple of jewelry items I made using paper-wrapped foam core as the base. They are embellished with fused Angelina fiber and film, wire, and beads. I would love to see what other mixed media and collage artists are doing with foam core. Please e-mail me and send photos! Thanks.

Collage from a Reader

I love to get e-mail feedback from people who have purchased Collage Journeys. Lately I've been asking readers to send me pictures of their own collages. These just came in this morning from Edwina Kinch. "Sunflower" and "Emerald" are based on my "Color Collage" project. The red collage ("Collage 1") is made from discarded artwork that Edwina cut and tore into pieces and reassembled. I'm a big fan of recycling artwork this way. I love Edwina's use of texture and her stitching and beading. Fun! Thanks, Edwina!