More 'Carding'

I have been making little pieces and cards to sell at the Victoria College of Art's upcoming exhibition and sale next weekend. Part of the class I'm taking involves preparation of something to sell, as well as tracking our time and exploring different ways of pricing. While I've sold a few items before and had larger pieces for sale in shows, this experience has been interesting because I am making multiples of the same item ( although each is unique) - but it's a concerted effort to have a number available at the same time. This one is in a matte board - new to me and I'm doing it as an experiment although I usually prefer raw edges and the softness being fully available to hold and touch.I have made cards for friends and loved ones ever since I took up sewing, but these will be for sale and were made without a specific person in mind - so - a different approach. Here are some of them:

And I have a few more started and I have ideas for other items to make for sale, but the trees on my cards are the only ones decorated at our house so far, and it's soon time to change that, so I'll see how much more I get done before the exhibiton!

From Carding to Felt

Yesterday in class I used a carder for the first time - what fun to mix colours of roving this way! Here's what my piece looked like after wet felting it.

The stitch on the left was done before felting and blends more with the ground than the one on the right, which was done afterwards.

I knew when I was doing the felting that I would just have to do a little more at home...

We also did some handstitching on water soluable plastic, made fabric beads and saw felted work and passementerie made by some of the talented women in our class - what a visual feast!

Makeovers

Meet 'Lolla Lee Lou', so called after the Dr. Seuss bird, because of the feathery finery and saucy feel of those plumes. She is needlewoven onto an abalone shell and is my project for the class I'm taking. Other students had a whole range of different ideas for their needleweavings and I am looking forward to seeing some of them tomorrow. I also completed this piece today,

and enjoyed drawing with thread and needle here and there.

I'm calling this 'Ephemeral and Eternal' - for the process of change that is life.

Gift From The Sea

While walking on the beach, I had this urge to check out a spot up against the rocks at the base of a cliff, so I went over for a look. For our class tomorrow, we are supposed to bring a grid of some sort to use as a resist when painting fabric. I have learned over time to listen as much as possible to that inner direction, and now I have my needed grid!When I saw this, I thought of doing

this needleweaving sampler - not great to look at, but some of the stitches I did involved similiar loops before I pulled them tighter. It's part of the raised stitches unit we are working on.

The warps are awaiting me...

Shape Shifting

This organza loves to move and is so responsive to furrowing. I can imagine how silk velvet might pool and spill its soft weight just as exquisitely. But for now, I'm moving to something else...

Making Tracks

The stitches are slowly securing more items down and tracks are appearing in the snow here and there... although I lost half a day to work on this because of a migraine. I was careful around these sharp points:

And this heart nest is not entirely secure yet:

I was thinking about decomposition as part of the life and death process - the running stitches seemed like they might be leaf bits or a leaf ghost echoing the shape that was once fuller.

I also stitched down driftwood, the large feather, a stick and an arbutus leaf. I'm about half way done.

Knotty and Nice

Yesterday I laid out the leaves, feathers, pinecones and other things I found on my walk onto a rectangular linen piece with a handstitched edge - a garage sale find from awhile back. I am thinking about the tradition of stitch and the women who passed their handmade treasures to their daughters and granddaughters. Since it is a feminine art, it seems appropriate that offerings from mother earth join with this cloth to continue their life and the cloth's in a new form. It is snowy white like the snow I walked through. And here the stitching has begun - you could miss noticing if you only saw what you expected to...

And this morning on the beach, I again saw a mirror of what I had stitched - seaweed thread through sandcloth to secure down a log.

Ever since I saw this chartreuse silk in the class scrap box, it was flirting with me so I added felted wool, silk gauze and french knots to make a Christmas card.

Quite a bit more stitching ahead this weekend...

A Walk on the White Side

A few days ago I had stitched some objects onto a painted and fused canvas ground I'd made, when I decided to go to the beach for a walk as part of an assignment where we were to observe our external and internal environments enroute, as well as collecting objects to become part of a piece arising from the journey. Look what caught my eye - rather synchronous, I think! The snow was wondrous, and I saw many animal tracks:

And altered shapes and colours.

Here is some of what I collected, including a huge feather gift that I think is from our local heron:

Next came choosing a ground...

Counting Snowflakes and Stitches

While our class was inside exploring stitches on different guages of painted canvas yesterday, the environment outside began to change colour...

With the strong wind painting the asphalt

and tires creating a line design.

Staying within the little boxes of the canvas feels restrictive, even as I know the value of trying new things and am learning how the technique might be used in novel ways.

Maybe I'm going inside the box to get out of the box?

Not Finished Yet

Due to a series of synchronicities including the recent beast in progress - which is a deer/goat/antelopish sort of yet unnamed species - and this deer photo that came out with glowing green eyes - the colour I'm working with and deepening my seeing of - I added more to this piece, moving it towards a talisman:

I stitched the large foreleg and small creature without prior drawing of them onto the fabric and was more interested in the energy and feel of that, than anatomical accuracy.

Runaway

My eyelet piece is ready for class tomorrow. While I've backed it with silk and cotton, it's not meant to be a finished piece, but will go in my stitch dictionary - unless I take it further in the future. I cleaned the studio this morning and spent the afternoon following this beast, who is in motion so I only captured it's tail end :) The piece is ready for basting if I can pin it down...

More Openings

Small experiments to add to my stitch dictionary: For some reason, this reminds me of a magic lamp.

Two thread colours through my double eyed needle - although putting both threads through one of the eyes worked just as well.

Exploring Eyelet

Today's stitching...

Opening

A little door opened for me today. Do you remember when you stitched your first french knot? I did mine today, after first making a series of loops (interesting but not what I was after) and then Lesley showed me a few and my little baby was born in the far left corner :)

We are also exploring some open stitches:

I am enjoying seeing all the ideas of my classmates and am appreciating the wealth of knowledge they bring, in additon to all the rest of the learning!

Show Day

I had fun at the opening of my art quilt group's show at Satin Moon Quilt Shop today, which is where I saw these flowers with their incredible colour. It was great to see everyone's work! And I've got my stitched fibre piece ready for class tomorrow, when we will post them up, to see and discuss each other's work.

Here is a back view, which has its own appeal.

Tomorrow we will be learning more stitches.

Seeing Green

Lots of learning today! We spent some time with colour contrast, and here's a bit of frosty contrast I saw this morning, before class - I must have guessed we'd be discussing temperature :)I made various colour scales exploring green - the colour I've chosen to work with - to deepen my understanding of its value, intensity and temperature. I'm appreciating the learning, which is amplified by seeing and hearing about the colour explorations other students are doing.

And I've begun stitching a design focusing on contrasts of value and intensity. Some of the fibres are strips of silk and I'm delighting in combining various kinds of 'threads', because of all the delicious textures.

The colour green suits this class - Lesley uses a timer to keep us on track and growing!