Making Art For Friends

Making art for friends is wonderful.  Before I moved to Washington I had to say goodbye to a very close friend who I knew I would not see for a long time, if ever again.  I made a special hand stitched ZEN cloth for her.   Here is an image of it:

Both hand stitching and machine stitching are combined.  Beads are hand stitched as well.

This piece was made with a side panel and wrapped around a stretcher bar.  The backing and batting provided a padding against the hard edge of the wood.  The bars were sealed prior to prevent acid damage.

Needless to say, my friend loved this piece.

Sabbatical

Since we moved in I have devoted my attention to the house, yard, family and enjoying the summer.  I decided to define the time between now and through autumn as an official sabbatical. My studio  is in progress; just like a work of art.  The new floor is almost finished.  Now the storage units need to be built.  This will happen soon.

In the meantime, we are involved in another art form, landscaping.  We have hired a very special person, Shelley Johansson to landscape our new garden.  What fun it has been to watch it evolve.  I am learning new ways to see things from the earth and surroundings.  Things grow here that I have never seen before.  And, thrive!

The first (major) detail is a fantastic water feature.  This is created with boulders from the mountains in the east near my daughters home in Snoqualmie.  The boulders fall and roll down the mountains naturally; with wonderful rich moss still growing on them.  These were drilled in the center and strategically placed in a prepared rock bed.  What a feat to witness.

See the video here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77mCw43kGA0

More on this as things continue to evolve.

Blown Away

Moving to the North West is like moving to another planet for us.  Each day we discover new things about the town, county, state and our new home.  We hear wonderful stories from people that love Indianola just like we do.

On the 4th of July we were literally “blown away” by the abundance of fireworks on the sand spit!  The rumor was that someone was going to put on a show nearby.  Well, we were shocked when the whole spit all the way around lit up.  Seems like everyone had a show.  And, I don’t mean backyard stuff…..NO! On the contrary…………..the professional stuff.  We stood on the balcony facing Seattle and all along the beach were bonfires and fireworks going off.  Right overhead.  From our bedroom we could see them on two sides……..for over an hour.

It was like each person was trying to out do the next.

We were like little kids running from window to window.

The Indian reservations are allowed to sell fireworks that are not usually permitted.  Thus, you can put on quite a show yourself, if you want to invest the money.  There was a lot of money spent by our neighbors this 4th of July.

We concluded that our arrival to the spit enhanced the enthusiasm this year.

We figured this out when

“WELCOME TO WASHINGTON DALE AND DEBBIE”

was spelled out in the sky.

and we screamed

“WE ARE THRILLED TO BE HERE!”

I hope they heard us.

In Black and White

I am settling into my new home now.  What fun!  There is SO much to do and see here in Washington state.  I am very happy to be here.

I make discoveries daily.  Today I found a fabulous yarn shop in an little town named Poulsbo.  Quite a unique selection there.

Here is what I bought:

This is Sari (silk) ribbon.  Slivers of many colors of silk Sari’s are stitched to make “yarn”.

The textures are fabulous!

I can’t wait to use this.

Interplay of colors

I never fear that someone will attempt to copy my work.  A friend of mine saw my first piece that I made for this blog: title SPECTRUM, and exclaimed, “that would look great in my house!”.  That is a great compliment.  She has been a God send to me helping with my relocation to Washington State.  She had a birthday recently and what better gift could I give to her than a piece with the same theme?  In my attempt to make one for her, I prove again to myself that it is impossible to repeat any one piece; to capture the essence.  Anytime I set out to make something new, I am filled with many ideas.  There is no way I could ever go down the same path again.  If I can’t repeat one of my own pieces, how would someone else?

Spectrum II is now in progress………

This piece has two small pieces of silk and one piece of dyed lace.

I plan to add some beads to highlight the lace.

All that is left is the stitching within the black border.

While I am in the creative process making art for someone, I think about that person the whole time; it is natural.  I like that.  Meditation of one thought pattern. I think she will like this piece just as much, if not more than the first.

Relocating to the North West

I have been absent.  My life has taken a huge turn. I am now packing and preparing to move to the North West to a little town called: Indianola (Kitsap County) in Washington State.

I am very excited!

The actual move will take place the end of May.

I have actually been able to do a bit of sewing; squeezed in between packing.

I will try to post some images this week.  In the meantime, I would love to know about the things happening in the Seattle area.

If you live in that area, please introduce yourself.

Debbie

Gallery Shop-Textile Art to Own

News:  Gallery Shop Added

Owning a piece of handmade art work is such a joy!  I know I love to own art as well as create.

I am delighted to announce the opening of my new shop:

Textile Art to Own

This is an opportunity for you to purchase pieces of mine that are “intimate”.

Qualities:

Intimate journeys-Pieces that have meaning and unique qualities.  Journeys are explorations with textiles and mixed media.  Intimate defines the size and scale.  Most are under 20 inches square.

You are invited to check out the Gallery Shop now.

Successful Transformation

The silk project has been successfully transformed.  There is a bit more hand stitching left to do.

Detail

Corner Detail

The first round of stitches show through the organza.  I wanted to enhance and integrate the composition without losing the effort I had put in already. I like the way the stitches have taken on a mysterious look.

Another Corner Detail

Silk Transformation

Progress Report on the Silk project:  After all of the hand piecing was complete I stood back and assessed the end result.  i concluded that the combination was not cohesive;  there was no harmony.  I walked away without a clue of what to do.  Much later I was in my studio sorting through some fabrics and came across some hand painted silk organza (which I love).  I use it quite often. I love the way colors and textures magically when the organza is layered. I have various color combination’s…………so, why not try these on the silk project?  Instantly I knew I had the solution.  The colors blended and the entire piece took on a wonderful ancient quality.

I realized when I stalled out that I was relying solely on fabric and stitching to bring it together; in this case, it wasn’t enough.  The silk organza diffused the colors and integrated them.  Before the center diamond was a bulls-eye instead of a focal point.

The beautiful hand stitching is now veiled and looks like a memory….of something that took place a long time ago.  This makes me look at it closer and examine the layers.  This is good.

The silk will be hand stitched.  I think this piece now has promise.

Hand Piecing Kimono Silks

I decided to switch channels and work with some treasured kimono silks from my vintage collection.  The silk was pure delight to work with.  I was amazed and enjoyed feeling the soft and luscious fabric respond to my hands. The diamond-shaped embroidery in the center is unique.  It was challenging to come up with a  suitable layout to compliment it.  I began by trying out other fabrics with similar muted tones and various colors and values.  I wanted to develop the palette to relate to the 50′s era.

Two accent pieces are appliquéd to corners to compliment the diamond.  Now additional fabrics are chosen for the surrounding border strips.

Hand piecing is new for me. I was delighted with the way the silks melded together as if they were meeting old friends.

The silks are pieced to a thin layer of muslin.  This kept the pieces from slipping around and easier to line up.  My goal was to allow the fabrics to respond rather than control them.  I was not concerned with alignment or the actual layout.  Amazingly though, the fabrics nestled together quite nicely.  The piecing went much faster than I expected.  It was a cold yet sunny winter day; with the fireplace on and my work in my lap, this stitching experience was glorious!

Next, more fabrics need to be added to the layout.   This was challenging because I didn’t have a lot of choices.  After about two hours of thinking and trying fabrics I settled upon this combination.

At this point the stitched fabrics needed to be pressed.

I cut out the strips to use and then headed back to my cozy spot by the sunny window to proceed with hand stitching.  

And so the process continued………

on…. and into the evening.

The following day, I decided that the design was complete and it was time to prepare the quilt sandwich.  The backing fabric is a nice soft cotton solid tan.  The batting is Warm and Natural.  I use basting spray to hold the layers together.

I decided to add an arc to repeat the appliquéd pieces and this kicked off the quilting.   I wanted to use colors of thread that looked faded and relate to the vintage theme so I searched my thread collection I came across some colors that were perfect.  Hand dyed cotton that is almost black with variations of mauve and rose.  Really cool colors!

The quilting is evolving and I am really happy with this so far.

More on this during the week.