Fiber Arts Show

Last night I went to the opening of a fiber arts show called "The Uncommon Thread" at Vermont Institute of Contemporary Art.  It totally renewed my passion for fabric and stitch, which has been waning over the last few years.  I knew several of the artists represented in the show from an encaustic workshop I took last January through North Country Studio Workshops.  These included Sandy Gregg, Marilyn Gillis, and Wen Redmond.  Great to see Sandy and Marilyn there, and also to meet Elizabeth (Betsy) Fram, whose work was breathtaking.  I also particularly liked the work of Karen Kamenetzky.

Here are a few samples:

Betsy Fram

Karen Kamenetzky

Marilyn Gillis

Sandy Gregg

Wen Redmond

If you are anywhere near Chester, Vermont, check out the show.  It is up through October 21.

Advance Copy

I finally got my advance copy of Adventures in Mixed Media, and I am happy to report that it looks terrific. Nice color reproduction; the book design is awesome; I'm always impressed with the work of my photographers, John Polak and George Bouret. The official release date is April 26, but you can pre-order the book from Amazon if you like. I will bring copies to Art Unraveled in August, and Art and Soul in September to make them available as well. Here are a few sneak previews.

Making a simple pamphlet-stitch book:
Remember these paper bags?
I did a chapter that includes making these shrines from foam core. The gorgeous one on the right is Carol Owen's; she is the inspiration for this project.
This chapter on Fusion, Fabric, and Fiber opens with a photo of Sue Bleiweiss's fabulous tea pot:
A couple of my own fusion fabric pieces:
There is a chapter on Mixed Media Dolls. The doll in the upper right of the left page is by Ingrid Dijkers.
And here is some eye candy from the chapter on books and boxes: paper mosaic with paper gems and glue gems. All the sparkle and glitz you could stand.
Thanks for visiting! Don't forget to check out the Sketchbook Challenge blog.

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.

Collage Dolls

Here are a few of the dolls I made last week. I had loads of fun playing with all kinds of materials, ones that I've been using in other projects for my book. Tyvek, Angelina, fabrics, papers, paper clay, and so forth. Thank you Pamela Hastings for your encouragement!

Last weekend my Sweetie and I went to an opening of a show of quilts by Polly Stone. This is one of a series she did based on a trip to Machu Picchu. Beautiful textures, fine stitching, subtle colors... truly beautiful work.

I have been fooling around with layering fabrics, fibers, and papers with fusible web for a while, trying to create complex surfaces. I'm trying to incorporate more fabric-fiber-stitching kinds of techniques into my collage. I recently came across Sue Bleiweiss's web site. She is a master of this technique, and she has terrific tutorials available on her site. The pieces pictured here are my experiments in creating an overall surface. I did make a box out of the orange-pink piece using Sue's directions. I'll post a picture at a later date. In the meantime, check out her site and her blog, and have fun!