I was afraid that an 8 hours beading class would be WAY to long. and on some level it was. By the end I was making lots of mistakes. But on the other hand the time flew by quickly and we learned a TON. The techniques for beading with Robin had the goal of making a little sampler. we were given a 3″x3″ piece of fabric, basted to (acid-free) paper! this was new to me but a technique she stands by and it did work well. Gave the fabric a little stiffness while working, but not too stiff. Plus as you punch it with a needle over and over, it becomes supple.

There were only 7 people in the class. The lady next to me came from Spokane and is a crazy quilter. Her work is wonderful and she is not a newbie to beading. We did have a couple VERY new beaders but the rest of us were experienced enough. Robin is a strict but patient teacher. “both eyes on me” meant you better be watching and not trying to sneak in a few stitches. But her directions are so clear and her drawings make something difficult to understand very easy to create. I love her drawings! There wasn’t much talking among the students. We were very focused. Beading take a lot of concentration. It is not a chatty type craft. You could hear our pins drop.

The conference provided each work station with an Ott light, which I now realize is a necessary item! The room was well lit, but freezing. Which can make it harder to bead!

We started with the basic stitches. seed stitch, then lazy stitch and it’s many vaiations, then a couching stitch and finally back stitch. I have done all of these. out of common sense and just figuring things out on my own. but the variations were mostly all new to me. All of them I have seen in RObin’s work and after we learned each one we were challenged to start identifying them in her work. For each stitch she brought around her work to show examples and variations. It was lovely to see all her work in person! Pictures online are interesting, becasue they can be in such high definition that you see them in more detail than you can in real life. but you can’t really see the texture unless you see them live.

We also learned edge stiches and dangling stitches. ALL of the work that we did is in her book that I already had. BUT it was opportunity to ASK questions while working through the stitches. and clear up some of the things that weren’t working for me as well as try ones I hadn’t been brave enough to explore yet. Learning the edge stitch and seeing her work in person to really examine HOW they were finished was the best part. It is where I have really been stuck with my own work so far. and now I have the solutions! I am excited to finish up my bead journal pieces from this year and move on to some new ones! So I have officially joined up again for Janurary. (Robin did sell us all on joining!)

She also talked about her process which helped me too. At first I used the printed fabric and beaded ON the pattern, following it like a paint by number. I love those pieces but I did move on to more solid colors and became more improvasational. As I gain more confidence I continue to get less literal. She talked about what she does when she gets stuck and how she starts out pieces. All this was very helpful.

It was a long but wonderful class and I am so glad I took it.

I  had quit on several months of my Beaded Journal Project pieces, leaving them semi-finished. I had not been able to figure out ways to make the backs look good, I had run out of steam and ideas on the beading on some of them and just called them finished. and I still have one month that has been sewn but not beaded yet.

BUT after this class I have been totally re inspired. I learned so many new techniques. and all the variations of them. I have been beading almost non-stop since I got back. After finishing the sampler, I revisited some of my journal pages that I had previously thought was done. I have been working on some wonderful additions to my December page. I feel like I see the fabric in a whole new way. Getting unstuck is just a bugel bead pathway away.

Also seeing her work in person turned on the light bulb for how to finish my own and ways to display them to really show them off. Now I just need to get some book board and foam core to get them done. I was also excited to share my work with Robin (which she seemed to enjoy!)

I got another one of her books (I own 3 now) and I highly recommend them!

So I signed up for another year of the beaded journal project. I plan to take on a smaller size this time! but thinking about going 3-D and making them dolls.

I am beginning to finish up some of the backs of my pages, while still working on new ones. I have ironed on some backing fabric with a stiff no-sew double-sided  interfacing and a back ribbon in the same way. This helps the pages to stand up. In my prototypes I sewed in some card stock, but I really didn’t like how that worked out. (too stiff)

I wrote up a little paragraph describing the feelings, reasons and thoughts behind each page. I printed the paragraphs onto some t-shirt transfers and then ironed on to white fabric. I can’t iron on these to my backing fabric because of the transfer surface and I can’t sew them on with the machine because of all the beads of course. So for now I am gluing them on with some tacky glue. (Wishing I had some of that great fabric glue)

So now I am trying to decide if I add the paint brushes to the fold points as stands (like in my prototype) or if the interfacing will be enough to help them stand, or if I even want them to stand. I like them each separately more than together.

Written on back

~September 2008~
Back to School
This month is about fresh starts. New school supplies, Back to school clothes, new ideas for lesson plans and a fresh group of kids. A sense of excitement and refreshment after a long break. But ready to get back in the swing of things. Ready to learn, ready to share, ready to teach, I am an art teacher and
Ready to Reach 

Written on back

~October 2008~
El Día de los Muertos
Halloween has always been a favorite holiday of mine. Throughout the years I have made many costumes, some simple some more elaborate. All with the desire to be someone else for a brief time. Now that I garden, and live in a more Hispanic area, Day of the Dead has a little more influence. I celebrate the end of the growing season. The little deaths in my life that will make way for new things to grow in the coming year. I love the imagery of this holiday and its spirit for honoring and remembering those that have passed on.
Remember the Dead

Written on back

~November 2008~
 CHARGER!
We adopted our dog in November, so this will always mark his “birthday” and entry into our family. He is one of the very best things in my life. I never knew you could love a dog so much. I love him more and more every year. He is often my muse, a friend to play with, someone who always listens to my stories, frequently my pillow and always
My Furry Child

I need to finish the backing for this one, but the beading, I have decided, is done! I was going to add more, but I realized that I wanted the page to be simple and quiet with an essence of snow and cold.
Written on back

~December 2008~
Quiet
December can be a hellishly hectic time of year. I used to work retail management and this was the most stressful time of year without a doubt. Now I get a break. This year it was a break filled with record breaking snow, impassible roads, and hours to snuggle in the quiet warmth of the house. All parties and gatherings were cancelled for safety. Most people probably don’t realize the introvert that lives inside of me. Parties are stressful and lots of work for me on a mental and emotional level. This low key, stay at home, forced seclusion was a
Winter Wonderland

This one is January’s page… still a work in progress. I just want to finish the other brown butterfly and the left blue spiral. This page is about new beginnings. January is a big month for goal setting and resolutions. Butterflies are a great symbol of rebirth. Spirals are a symbol of life. So this page is about making a commitment to myself to continue in my self-improvement and fitness. I haven’t written my paragraph for this one quite yet. But it will be something similar to the above. This one also still needs to have a backing finishing, after the beading is done.

This one is February’s page… still a work in progress.  This page was inspired by the landscape assignment in my Joggles mini art quilt class. Purple is my favorite color and I wanted to make a landscape that was based on a winter sunset. The heart fabric was completely accidental.  I am not a huge Valentine’s Day person so I was not trying to be sappy. Then I saw a great bead that my friend Pam created and I knew it was perfect for the focal piece. This one is more like January’s page, more abstract. While the other months so far have had a printed image that I have beaded on or around. It has been fun to bead in a less directed way, but it is harder to know when I am done.  This one also still needs to have a backing finishing, after the beading is done.

I guess it is about time to move on to March!

This little Tree Sprite is finally finished… let’s review her creation.

Originally created for the Mythology Show of December 2005! I started her body and had plans to make her a Medusa based doll. She sat HEADLESS for all these years, because frankly the heads are difficult in this medium and I got interested in other things and time moved on.

She has sat on the shelf by my sewing area, so it is not as if she hasn’t been staring at me, headlessly, pleading for me to finish her.

Then there was the WIP show from this same time last year. So I entered  her in that show  more as a guilt trip for myself to finish her. But it has taken a whole year for it to happen.

The wings were created this past Christmas as I made doll clothes for my nieces’ dolls. I wanted to make them both fairy costumes for their dolls, because they are really into fairies right now. I had some extra trial wings leftover so I decided this doll needed to be a fairy instead of a Medusa.

The reason it has finally happened, is that I made a goal for myself to finish up and clear out all of my half-started projects. I even made a calendar determining which ones I would finish when, and how they might apply to a show.

Now showing in the 3-D Figure show @ EBSQ

purple sunset WIP 0214, originally uploaded by Charger’s Mommy.

Happy Valentine’s Day…

Not a big holiday for me, but I am on Mid-winter break as well so celebrating with some art time, finally!

This is the first lesson from a joggles class I am taking.
Art Quilt Explorations with Jane LaFazio

My friend Diane was posting her work from the class and I was so impressed I decided to take the class too. This will be my first time taking an online class from Joggles, so I plan to post a lot of comments and progress throughout. I am currently waiting for my forum account to be approved so I can post there.

I decided instead of a traditional grass and dirt colored landscape, that I wanted to do a sunset style color theme. Mostly because I wanted to use purple!  So after grabbing a bunch of fabrics from my stash, I went on flickr to look for some purple sunset pictures for inspiration.

Here are a few that I found:

• http://www.flickr.com/photos/jakig/83831975
• http://www.flickr.com/photos/43057840@N00/133554091
• http://www.flickr.com/photos/43057840@N00/401737386
• http://www.flickr.com/photos/tampics/4636651

Then I went back to my ironed pile to place them in a fashion that looked good to me. Next I did some satin stitching and fancy styles to hold the layers together. Now I am going to go add trim and beads and embroidery floss.

I have several other projects on board for this 5 day ‘weekend’ mostly for EBSQ shows. So expect to see a lot from me in the coming days.

I still need to get a February page started for the beaded journal project. I am thinking of making a duplicate of this but in my alter shape… we shall see!

I started with this photo taken a couple of years ago.

Then I played with some filters in photoshop…
   

Then I layered some sheer white fabric over some printed white, along with some other sheer colored fabrics in places. I began the free-motion sewing to thread paint the lines.

This is what I have so far and I am not totally happy with it yet, so I will continue to play with it until I feel like it is done. Then add a border and backing.

It will also include my focus word of the year, which is ~drumroll please~

Vibrancy!

But for now, my doggie is upset that I have been in the studio for so long, so I must tend to him.

HAppy New Year!

The beginning of October’s Beaded Journal Project page. This has pieces from 5 different fabrics pieced together and using some cool decorative stitches on my machine. I like the eyelash type stitch that I did on the edge of the glow-in-the-dark eye fabric, which will also be the backing for this one. (Click to see a larger view, or make it a favorite at Flickr.) This is also my art for the day for ArtSoMoFo. I need to post my other work from this month so far as well. Now to select some beads and begin that phase.

So this is the first of my 12 alter/door style journal pages. I am still up in the air as to how I am going to finish/back them. If I will do the sculptural approach in which case I will need to do more work on this one.

So I am a teacher, a middle school art teacher. September always means fresh starts, new kids, new lessons. I like endings, but more I like fresh starts. that is why September is one of my favorite months EVER. perhaps this was wired into me at an early age, since we moved every 2-3 years and I had to start over, make new friends. I always thought I would reinvent myself and start over. becoming the me that for some reason I had not been in the place before. We always moved in the summer with September being that moment of the fresh beginning…

This piece is 11″W x 8″H at the peaks. It is made from a ‘novelty’ fabric (one with the teachers, combined with a separate one of the flowers and edged with a third of the measuringtape. I included the tape because I have been working hard and lost 13 pounds over the summer. Plus it looks like a school type thing.

The ‘crazy’ art teacher has red hair (like me) and I added a fuzzy yarn to give it dimension. She also wears funky shoes, apron and glasses…like me too now (the glasses are new)

Now to go figure out October’s page….

PS I would LOVE to hear feedback, as I am pretty much new to the beading thing…

CQR_sept, originally uploaded by Charger’s Mommy.

Crazy Quilts Revisited a new challenge started by Jude Hill at Spirit Cloth asks us to as “What if?”

So my first What if? Crazy Quilt piece came from:
What if I pieced together fabrics that are really different in texture? This has fun fur, Corduroy, silk, linen, taffeta, felt, and tulle combined. Then I asked, What if I made pockets in the tulle and sewed in beads? Only one pocket is filled so far, because this is still a work in progress. Finally I decided, What if I added a cut out window in the middle? Which is a new technique for me.

SO I will start by saying I don’t like it. It is all scraps so I haven’t lost anything by trying. It was hard to sew through the layers since I started with the thickest stuff towards the middle and used felt as a backing. I am not sure if this block will go any further. Or I might have to ask, What if I kept working on something I didn’t like and finished it anyways?

BJP_prototype with pages side by side and open, originally uploaded by Charger’s Mommy. Check out my flickr for more views of this project.

This is what I whipped up today to be my prototype for my bead journal project. I was having a hard time trying to explain what I wanted to do. Plus I thought I better make one to see if it really worked the way I wanted it to.

So These are some fabric and paper collages that have been sewn and embellished with ribbons and beads. They are cut in an alter book type shape. They have a layer of cardstock on the inside for support. They have 2 old paint brushes that slide into the back to support the book so it can stand. (will have to come up with a slightly better way to get them into the pages, as I just cut a hole in the fabic and shoved them in. the Ribbons are sewn to the back in such a way as to allow the different ‘chapters’ to be tied to each other. Another set of ribbons hold the front doors closed. in the final pages these will be little metal bead clasp things I found that have the letter S on them.

Since these are prototypes the edges are unfinished. and the outsides are fairly plain.

These are made from scraps in my studio.

In other news… my favorite online fabric store is now selling fabric for my favorite TV show.

Creating a gallery of my favorites has been quite fun. Looking through my own work over the years and fitting these themes has really shown me the diversity of my own work. Next up is Playing Favorites: fields of dreams, which I think can be translated to work that shows nature or landscapes of some type. Of course when he put together this series of posts, I think he gathered a lot of art from a lot of different people then put them into these catagories. I don’t think he expected to have an individual artist find art to fit each theme. But I like the challenge, so I plug along here.

Media:  Fabric Collage Dimensions:  14″ x 14″ Date of Work:  07/2006

Night Sky Wanderer is a RIP for the EBSQ 2006 Ripped Off Show. It is inspired by a pyrography called Workin’ On Wings to Fly by Lisa J. Rough. I was really drawn to the powerful woman and the birch trees. It has a sense of strength and peace. I tried to capture that same feeling in my version of it. This piece is all fabric collage using applique’ and quilting techniques. It is embellished with buttons, ribbon, trim, beads and handmade yarn.