Tag Archives: challenge

June Challenge

Like Lab 555 from last year, Jen is again challenging her brave friends to pick one of those dusty art books and do EVERY PROJECT! in it this month. June is the month I start my vacation (June 20th to be exact) but all the kids… and teachers.. already have summer fever. So I usually start reamping up my summer art projects about this time anyways.

I want to work towards a cohesive body of work within my medium of choice, fabric. I have really only been dabbling in it for the past 4 years. a little of this and a project here. But if I am going to show again (and yes, I believe I have figured out that I do want to do so) then I need a body of work. I still have old windows and had plans/dreams of doing more in that medium, but I have just moved on. I need to face that fact and dig in.

So this book I picked is perfect for that goal. Now I don’t even plan to do the whole book, it is a TEXTBOOK full of techniques and methods. It has 2 main sections textures and color. I am most drawn to the texture catagory (texture is my favorite part about working in fabric) and there are a ton of techniques that are totally new to me. So my goal will be to work with these different techniques of texture INTO a new series of pieces.

I have a few prelim sketches that run along the self-portrait “journey” feeling. but then I am also drawn to doing my same style of nudes that I did in my window series paper collages. So I am not sure how this series will take shape. But it WILL have new texture techniques from this book!

Because if I don’t say it, I won’t do it… so here is my ~PLAN~
Texture Activities (from part one of the afore mentioned book) that I will TRY and SHARE (not necessarily in this order)
1~ Random-cut fabric weaving
2~ Pleated Effects
3~ Machine Open Work
4~ Trapunto
5~ Double needle stitching

Then in JULY I will move into the COLOR chapter

Stretch Your Triptych

triptych in progress

May’s Monthly Challenge from Jen is to make a Triptych. Although I am not quite done, the month almost is, so I wanted to show my progress thus far and hope to complete it this weekend. The challenge has 3 additional criteria…

  • it must have some tape > see my measuring tape?
  • a word > mine will be “measure up”
  • some random found object from a junk drawer > since I am using fabric I went into one of my “junk bags” to randomly select my iron-on transfer images of the 3-graces and the crows.

The background is from a very old piece I had started that was going to be a “Last Supper” with circus people for an EBSQ show. But I never liked how the people were coming together so I only had the room part. I sliced it into the 3 required parts for this project and added my tape and images. I still plan to add words, some hanging ribbon of sorts, some trim and beads to frame each piece and the required word. It will also get some additional quilting and needs to have a backing to finish it up. Sounds like a lot, but it is a fairly small piece. Each of the 3 pieces are about 8×9 inches. Since this is the first art I have done since ArtFest and I really only spent the last 2 days on it, I am fine with the progress.

I am struggling a bit right now with some creative self-doubts as the things I make pile up in my house with no one wanting to show or buy them. Part of that is the necessary footwork I haven’t done to get it out there, but part is some questioning of my artistic role and/or what kind of outcomes my creations ultimately need. Anyways, I will figure it out. Summer is around the corner for a few months to play and decide the next steps.

I will post again with the finished piece, but click on the picture to see the lareger views of this one!

 

Spring Rain

15. springy

This is for Jen’s Stetch Yourself Challenge #11.  The challenge for me on this one was getting the pictures downloaded.
I went on a couple of little day trips and got a bunch of great pictures, I filled my camera’s memory stick and couldn’t find my download cord, so I thought I would try out one of the card readers on my laptop! big mistake.. as it wasn’t the right size and I had to get the help desk to remove the card for me… thankfully they managed without damaging it or the laptop so I finally found the cord and got all the pictures uploaded to share.
This one was looking out the window at my NCCE Conference in Seattle.

Glossy Challenge

 
I wasn’t really sure I was going to like this weeks Challenge but I have to admit I am pleased with the results. I used a pretty thick layer of gesso so you can’t see anything through, then I scanned them in because I decided to play with some color in photoshop. Overall, it was intersting becasue I  don’t think of myself as a painter or having any painting skills… and this made me feel like, maybe I could paint!

colorchallenge

002

Thanks!

WOW, you are all fast to respond to my offer to adopt a R.I.P.!

I would like to thank Michelle, Marylin and Kath who were the first and certainly most worthy to accept the challenge of finishing my abandoned projects.

Stay tuned if you missed out, because I have a few more free things to purge from my studio this coming week!

RIP Purse #1 (taken)

WIP_UFO2008014.jpg

So this lovely little purse project is something that I actually inherited in its current unfinished state. In some grab bag of fabric from somewhere, there was some yardage of this vintage embroidered fabric. Part of the folds of fabric turned out to be this already started purse. It has pleats and a hemmed top that is perfectly suited for a wooden handle of some kind. There are several pins in it still, holding areas that need to be finished after a handle is added, but other than that it is finished. It could use a lining too. Again it seemed like a really great find at the time, but I wouldn’t even use this purse if I did finish it, not my style anymore. I think this item has only been sitting around since 2003. email me if you think this is your style! perhaps you even have a wooden handle lying around just waiting for a bag to attach to it. I would love to see it go to a good home!

Thanks to Michelle…who makes great aprons over at  rustedrhubarb this bag will get new life… maybe as an apron?

RIP Clothing Pattern #1 (taken)

Where I share more documentation of my abandoned projects…. These are the ones that I have decided need to Rest in Pieces.

WIP_UFO2008022.jpgThis is an outfit that I started, mostly only cut-out, back in 1999! It was going to be my special outfit for the big 1999/2000 New Year’s Eve party! I never even started to sew. I think my machine was on the fritz or something. I have moved 3 times since I cut this out and have never finished or even progressed on the project. The saddest part, and what makes it truly ridiculous for me to still be packing it around, is that it is a SIZE that I currently cannot even begin to wear. (3 sizes too small at best) 

It is really pretty silver fabric with a same color floral pattern for the pants, and a sheer silver fabric for the blouse. It is a Vogue Pattern #1290. There is realistically no way I am ever going to make or wear this outfit. Even if it did fit, it is not a color that I can or want to wear anymore.

I think about keeping the fabric and putting it in my scrap bins that I use for fabric collage. But the silver is a very slippery silk-like fabric (who knows it might even be silk, but so long now since I bought it I don’t remember.) and these types of fabric are hard to work with in collage. Besides that, I do have extra of the same fabric already that didn’t get cut into pattern pieces.

So do you wear a size 10/12 Vogue? Do you look good in silver? Would you like to finish and wear this great outfit? send me an email and it can be yours for the low price of FREE!

So let’s see what is next on the chopping block!

Jen’s Art Challenge #2

Jen Worden is one of my bloggy art friends that likes to challenge herself and others… she is offering up a new weekly Challenge and I felt like giving it a try this week.

So the challenge is “Grab one of your DIY books or magazines. Flip open to a random page and create the project. The FIRST. No flipping through to find something you WANT to do. This is an exercise in expanding your horizons coupled with making the project yours.”

This is MUCH harder than you might think… I started with an Expressions issue July/August 2005. I flipped to a random page, got an advertisement, flipped again and got a polymer clay project that requires supplies that I don’t have. I am on a supply diet, so I needed another idea. I ended up flipping through almost every project and not a one had supplies that matched my current stock. I thought, “Why the heck do I even have this magazine?” I promptly decided I need to purge my magazine and book collection to match my current focus!

So I looked in Cloth Paper Scissors fall 2005 and got some colorful pages on handmade books which reminded me of the funky signatures that are in Collage Unleashed that Eliza just finished doing. So I just decided to do that. It is actually a project that has been simmering in my mind for a while anyways. I have some much little scrappy stuff I thought I would make a bunch of little books to use as trades at artfest this year, and in the process try to purge and clean up my paper supplies. Mostly I just ended up with a ton of paper junk all over my floor! But I did locate a bunch of old tip-ins from a swap that I should get put into an altered book and more magazines that I am truely befuddled as to why they are in my studio.

So did I do some art? yes… kinda. Did I meet the challenge? me thinks not. I guess I will try again later this week after I do some more cleaning!