Window for Elizabeth

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 Here’s the page that I made for October. The theme is windows for Elizabeth. This is based on the stained glass windows at the Presbytarian Church in Whitefish. I painted two pieces of lutradur. I used one piece as the background and then cut the other piece up into small pieces. I then free motion stitched all the pieces down on to the background and applied commercial felt around the windows.

 This is the back. I had to put a piece of paper on the back because I didn’t get the front and back lined up well the first time around.

And  here it is in the sunshine so you can see that it is translucent. I wanted to  make it look like a real window and I’m pleased with how it turned out.

What I’ve been Dyeing

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 I spent all day on Friday with my dyes. These are the first of the lace weight wools that I’ve dyed. I will be doing a lot more of these. It was very easy. The part that took the longest was making the little skeins and tying them so they wouldn’t tangle. These are going to be perfect for adding hand embroidered accents to felt.

 This is silk noil. I had several other colors that I dyed but it was hard to get a decent photo. I’ll be adding these to my felt projects as well. It will add lovely texture and a bit of shine.

Here’s the first nuno felted scarf that I made last week. My favorite fall colors.

 Here’s the back side. I love the texture of the silk. Isn’t it yummy?

Here’s the second nuno felted scarf. I am very disappointed in this one. I put way too much black and it looks awful to me. Hopefully, someone else will like it.

I do like the little circles of unfelted silk. I will do more of those but just dye differently or use already dyed wool for the next one.

 This is one of the scarves that I dyed quite a while ago and took to the store to sell. It was a light blue with small spots of pink. I didn’t like it and I was tired of looking at it that way. So I over dyed and it looks much better.

 Here is one of the marbled scarves I made with our group at the first of the month. I over dyed it and again, in my favorite fall colors.

 This one didn’t work out as well. I over dyed these by soaking them in vinegar, letting them dry and then painting the dye on the back side. I used a watered down blue and it dyed very unevenly. The gold one above worked just fine with the same technique.

 And this is the last one. I dyed it a pale lavender. It still isn’t something I would wear but perhaps someone else will like that much pink.

And then I needed more wool for making cat toys. So here is a rainbow of wool. You can’t really see the difference between the purple one and the blue but there is a difference. Just poor lighting. I also dyed wool for a purple and green vase that I will make for my sister for Christmas but the photo didn’t turn out well. It was a busy day but now I’m ready to get working on a lot of projects. Happy Halloween!

Design Focus Friday

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I checked out another book from the library about design. I’ve only read half way through part 1, but it is quite interesting. It’s a book about painting but she used a very mixed media approach so it translates well to fabric or fiber.

Here’s one section I thought would help anyone. I’ve shortened and summarized a bit.

Thirteen Tips to Become a Better Artist

  1. Look at good art.
  2. Read other art books (library, bookstores that sell out of print books)
  3. Study and take classes in other art fields.
  4. Find a place to create where you won’t be worried about the furniture or the floor getting stained.
  5. Create! There is no substitute for actually doing the work and making something (many somethings).
  6. Make small studies. Working on many small samples at once can help if you get stuck on one piece. Just go on to the next one. These small pieces will teach you so much that can be applied to larger works.
  7. View your in-progress work in an upright position, from a distance and from every orientation.
  8. Take good photos for reference. In order to create abstraction from reality, you must know that reality. Also take good photos of your work, you never know when you’ll need them.
  9. Work in more than one genre as one enhances another.
  10. Enter shows. Start by entering local shows, you must view yourself as a professional if you want to be treated as one. It is good to see how your work holds up against others work. If you start to win prizes at every local show you enter, it is time to enter national shows.
  11. Sell your work. It’s wonderful when someone wants to own something you’ve created.
  12. Make the time. If you really want to create, do it now. Tomorrow may never come. If you want to create, you have to make it happen.
  13. Reward yourself. (she says to treat yourself to food – this is a bad idea for any of us trying to maintain our weight.) Pat yourself on the back, go out on a fun outing, go to a movie etc.

There are also some very interesting exercises in this book and I’ll get to those later in the Design Focus Friday series. Next Friday I’ll start a new subject – line. I will also be hosting my local fiber group at my house and we’ll be working on nuno felting. I can’t wait!

Page from Kathe in Greece

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 Here is the page I received this week from Kathe. It’s a Tree of Life based on Klimt. You can’t really see the iridescence of the background fabric. I love the leaves at the bottom as it reminds me of autumn, one of my favorite seasons.

 Here’s a blurry close up of the hand stitching. Sorry for the bad photo.

 Here’s the back.

And look what else she sent, a lovely card and a finger woven book mark. The book mark is made by a 94 year old Greek lady. Hope I’m still doing fiber art at 94!