Santa was good to me!

Posted on December 26, 2010 by ruthlane under Uncategorized

Santa was very good to me this year. I got all of these art supplies and I get to go to the Level 1 Hand Embroidery class that I have wanted to go to with Gail Harker. The class is in February and I’m excited to go over to Washington again.

I tried out all my new pens, pencils and crayons in my studio journal. Such yummy colors and I really love the Caran d’Ache water soluble crayons.

So I did a little sketch today of a few items from my window sill collection. I used the black permanent ink pen for the outline and then I colored in with the water soluble crayons.

I did get the stencil I had drawn out burned out. I’ve decided it looks a bit uniform for me and I may change it up a bit if I get the chance so it doesn’t look so symmetrical. I hope you all had a wonderful holiday weekend.

Posted on December 25, 2010 by ruthlane under Uncategorized

Design Focus Friday – Shape – The Circle

Posted on December 24, 2010 by ruthlane under Design Focus Friday

Shapes are all around you and you can find thousands of ideas from almost anything. The circle is a simple shape found in nature. These are some of my favorite tree stump photos that I’ve taken over the last several years. I love the shape but also the line that draws your eye inside the shape.

And then there are circles everywhere you look. So get out your camera and pick a shape. What will you look for today? Circles? Squares? Triangles? Or maybe something a little tougher like a star.

Once you’ve found some photos for inspiration, what next? Perhaps you want to do a little research on the symbolic meaning of the shape you picked. The circle is an ancient symbol used throughout humanity. Because the circle is seen in the sun, the moon and even the earth, the circle represents wholeness, unity and infinity. It has represented a spiritualized Mother Earth and feminine power. Perhaps you can now take some of these ideas and begin thinking of ways to add circles to your work (or whatever shape you picked). Or perhaps you’ll want to research a few symbols first that relate to a topic that draws you. Then you can use that shape of the symbol and look for that shape in your world.

Let me know some of the shapes that you are drawn to. What inspires you about certain shapes? Do they show up in your work often? Can you find different shapes that inspire you now that you are looking for them?

Happy Solstice!

Posted on December 21, 2010 by ruthlane under Uncategorized

I thought since today marks the turning point in the year when we start having longer days and shorter nights that I would look at what I’ve accomplished for the year. I set goals at the end of last year and I plan to set some for 2011. Hopefully, I’ll do a little better at following through in the coming year. It’s not that I didn’t get anything done this year in the world of fiber art but due to a back injury, I have been a bit limited on sitting at the sewing machine and leaning over during felting. As this has still been an ongoing problem, I have had to learn to adapt.

My main goal for last year was to:
Develop my voice as an artist and begin to produce a consistent body of work in my own style.
I can’t say that I’ve really accomplished this.
I had established steps to accomplish my main goal which were:

spend more time in the studio making art
complete more sampling
practice art/design in my studio journal
develop more 3D artwork in combination with machine embroidery
Begin Level II Machine Embroidery course
no guilt about time spent in studio

I started off in January and February and really felt that I was doing well and focusing more on my fiber art. Then the back injury in mid March just through me for a loop and I haven’t gotten back on track again. But I did have some accomplishments in 2010 and although I didn’t manage to complete all of the steps above, I did the following:

Created 12 pages for the Traveling Pages Swap
Worked in my studio journal several times a month and started Design Focus Fridays
Started a local fiber art group that meets monthly
Made a variety of stamps and stencils with my own designs
Completed a mini-course on Photoshop Elements
Made several more tutorials for the blog
Made work to sell including cat toys, sweater flower pins, dyed scarves, nuno felted scarves and barrettes
Experimented with solar dyeing
Finished a very, very slow WIP (hopefully more on that soon)
Tried machine embroidery Carol Shinn style
Took a needle felting doll class from Kay Petal and completed a doll
Made several small felted, hand stitched pieces
Made a cobweb scarf
Made several 3D felt vases
Taught myself to spin with a hand spindle
Made felted slippers

That’s not too bad a list, do you think? Did you set any goals for 2010? Did you follow through with them? I’d love to hear how you did. I am working on a new set of goals for 2011 and steps to accomplish them. I’ll post them soon. In the meantime, I hope you are having a wonderful holiday season and not driving yourself crazy making last minute gifts!

December Page for Debi

Posted on December 20, 2010 by ruthlane under Uncategorized

Here is the shabby chic/vintage page I made for Debi. She likes pale colors or white. So I went for the white on white and the theme of snowflakes. I nuno felted the background with several different kinds of wool, silk noil, lace and several ribbons. I added machine and hand stitching.