Just because I can...

... don't mean I should. At the office,I have been teaching myself the basics of a nine-thousand dollar sewing/embroidery machine. In the user's manual I could find no chapter heading that says "Remember good design principals" Go figger.

nothing like a timely Repost::::

There are two apple pies in the oven tonight so there will be no mid-oven collisions tomorrow morning. While the turkey is cooking, I will try to get some studio time in and do that "mounting small works on canvas" documentary. Until then, this blast from the past:

Wednesday, November 23, 2005

Thanksgiving Crack

My husband just called with the good news that he had tracked down a store that carries Bell's Seasoning, without which it just ain't Thanksgiving. I should have done this weeks ago. Once again, Jimmy saves the day. He bought five boxes and I bet I could stand out on the corner of Gloster & Highway 29 and sell it for 10 bucks a box to the rest of the Yankee slackers living in this neck of the woods but in my pity over their weeping gratitude, I would give it away.

meme resistance

I've been tagged with a meme.

You know, the one where you are supposed to reveal seven little known things about yourself.

These memes have always made me uncomfortable for a variety of reasons. Who cares and if they do, why? These questions niggle. Who wants read that I was a dancing duck in a third grade ballet? Who cares that I pick up hitchhiking turtles if the traffic will permit.

And then, there is the writer in me squealing to rise to the writer's challenge which is (in my opinion) the challenge to lie compellingly, provocatively, and spectacularly.

Hard to resist that challenge especially when the thing many people already know about me is that I am easily amused. I have told myself jokes in my sleep and woken up laughing, tears streaming from the corners of my sleepy eyes. My Goodman will attest to this.

That's three things already and two too many.

leaving well enough alone

"Jellies Matriculating" 2008 12"x12" Hand dyed silks, cotton damasks and flannels machine stitched with silk, cotton and rayon threads.

in the morning, it's all potential

The morning sun gets into my studio first thing. Everything is dazzled with potential. Strewing stuff around is enough to get things perking. As fabric and ideas fall into place, it's time to nail things down and the work starts to bristle and balk. The background for this piece started out a dark grey, then I transferred it all over to a piece of plain muslin. Still no satisfaction. More rummaging in the stash for the stage. Because the color and energy of the elements of this piece it became clear that the background was going to have to step up and have something to say also. More stitching is on the agenda but "Jellies Matriculating" is solving it's own riddle nicely as I go along for the ride.

brewing

Here I am with a pile of potential art in front of me and, for the moment, it's just too much. I should probably put 90% of it back in the bag but that leaves which 10%? When I first started to use crayons I always had to use every single color in the box every time I colored. Something about not wanting to let anyone feel left out (or they would get out of the box at night and Get me while I was sleeping. Another reason I never slept much as a child) I also got sucked back into 4"x6" postcard country yesterday thinking I could whip up some holiday cards while here at work but what normally took me 15 minutes on my machine at home took over an hour on an unfamiliar machine who did not much care for silk. update - it never fails. Set me parameters and I start grinding my gears. I made a 14 inch square design boundary to complete a fifth piece for the show and how those fences are chafing!

Gonzo Glass

Since I've gotten nothing exciting in the works at the moment, take a look at what my buddy Jan Thompson has been up to.

A while back she abandoned fiberworld for the Hot Glass Darkside and has become a total convert to glass bead making. Check out her work here.

One day soon I expect she will pull up to my house with a large dumptruck full of her fabric and make a deposit on my front lawn so she can move her glass studio out of her cold basement into her cobweb strung former sewing room!

more creature gestures

I've been researching and documenting (in my mind) gestures for years. Fancy myself pretty adept at reading body language which gets pretty interesting when there's no body. "Waltzing Asses" takes shape and when it's done I'm going to do a step-by-step of securing this one to a stretched canvas. I won't call it a tutorial because that seems to indicate I know what I am doing. That remains to be seen. When I started this piece I made the base sandwich about 15 inches square and basted a 12"x12" boundary inside to contain the design elements.

As you can see by the overlay of my trusty 12x12 studio assistant, I came pretty close to staying "in bounds" so there will be a little design dribbling off the sides of the canvas once this one gets stretched.

Charming, ain't he? He looks like my brother-in-law the Hunyak.

new presentations

I've just finished my first attempt at wrapping one of my finished pieces around a pre-made canvas and am quite pleased at the way it turned out. The best part is cropping by positioning the image to fit the canvas, in this case a 12"x12". This one and four others are destined for the "World of Imagination #2" at the APW Gallery in Queens, NYC, NY. The second best part is getting the canvases one by one with 40% off coupons at JoAnns.

Computerized Embroidery

This is my first attempt on one of our computerized embroidery machines, the Viking-Husqvarna Topaz 30, to be exact.

Now that I have the process down and know what the machines require of me (change the thread color and push the start button) I plan on investigating the limits of the software package that comes free with this model.

The software is supposed to be able import almost any digital image and convert it to a design that the machine can then stitch out...now, that intrigues me as much as duplicating the pre-set designs leaves me yawning.

Of course I tinkered with the color scheme offered with this hummingbird and you have the ability to mirror or flip the image but that's it.

When I go back to work on Tuesday I plan on seeing what the Topaz30 will make of my "Waltzing Asses"