Art at Work

Check this out!

2011-03-11T18:33:00.004-05:00

Lanark County Quilters Guild presents
"Quilts on the Tay"
August 12-14, 2011
St. John C. H. School
2066 Scotch Line Rd,
Perth, ON
Info: www.lanarkcountyquiltersguild.wordpress.com

Cloth and fantastic weather!

2009-09-07T20:38:00.002-04:00

What more can I say?

These pictures say it all…well most of it.

No rain predicted for another week. I can leave all this out overnight and not worry – day after day. Perfect art cloth weather. I feel so blessed!

This is my print table with silk screened images on a length of silk broadcloth.

Detail up close.

I checked out the new SDA workshop CD and had to try Kerr Grabowski ’s deconstructed technique. These are my dye painted screens drying in the sun. I found the technique was OK but I was disappointed with the few decent pulls I was able to get given all the up front work.

I do love the fine outline I got around each shape, I only wish I could get more…

I find that Jane Dunnewold’s improvisational silk screening gives me more consistent results. These are the painted interfacing stencils I used today, drying in the sun. What is so nice about this approach is that the stencils are reusable.

Dye paint mixed and ready to go.

This is a 10 foot length of broadcloth. Half is silk screened and the second half is ready to be screened.

Close up of dried cloth, ready for the steam pot.

I am having to steam my cloth this week as I forgot to refrigerate my dyes. Yes, I left them out over the weekend – ugh!

So I am having to use my pre-mixed concentrates as acid dyes so as not to waste them completely. This works pretty well as long as I can keep the hot steaming process outdoors!

Close up of a panel I painted today.

A new screen I made late this afternoon, air drying, ready for tomorrow’s screening.

More sun forecast, more shine and therefore more cloth! Wow.

I joined the MOB club!

2009-07-31T12:20:00.002-04:00

Technorati Tags: chagall,paint,stamps,mistyfuse,art cloth,wedding

Not that MOB…but the mother of the bride (MOB) club!

The big question is - how does one keep up an art practice when faced with one of these events?

In my case, being a doer and a crafter, I couldn’t resist volunteering for almost everything, and with a daughter who adores the DIY concept, specially for mom, I have been very busy. Thank goodness I can’t cook…

Here is what I came up with for 50+ invitations. Given that I love surface design I had to include some hand dyed cloth…. so I decided on a folio design that would fit in a legal sized envelope to keep postage at a minimum.

Our couple will be honeymooning in France and have adopted a ‘fin de sciècle’ theme for their wedding party. I thought of the painter Marc Chagall . He painted so many brides and grooms floating over French skies and many of them over Paris! I found this image, it is from his painting Les Fiancees de la Tour Eiffel- ‘The Bride of the Eiffel Tower’. It was painted around 1900, perfect!

I wanted to create a kind of folio that when open, would reveal a series of inserts, each with specific information pertaining to the ceremony and reception.

The the outer folio would be made with hand-dyed fabric. I chose a light green for this as the ceremony will take place in a fern-laced wooded area. The inside of the folio would reveal a detail of the selected image printed onto cardstock and fused to the cloth with Mistyfuse – it worked like a charm. Using a makeup sponge, I dabbed all card edges with Fray Check to keep any rogue threads ‘checked’ – this also worked well.

This image shows the inside of folio, completely open. The lower left section is then folded up to create a pouch for the card inserts. Using a #11 exacto, I made two small cuts just under the chicken. This is how I attached the ribbon that would keep the folio closed as seen in the picture (below right).

I wanted to add a fern image to the outer front of the folio and tried making my own stamp – bumpkus! Not enough time and not owning a thermofax, I capitulated and bought a readymade stamp. It worked great!

Below are two images showing the folio open. To the left is one printed insert and to the right all the inserts are in place. The inserts were printed with the help of the groom’s father, using a script that evoked an early 20th century ‘pen and ink’ look.

Below, on the left are a couple of early prototypes that didn’t quite make it…. I find that it always pays to make practice pieces – the end result is so much better. These now reside in my ‘salon des refusés’! On the right is a snap showing 50+ note cards that I stamped with the fern image. Once I start stamping it was hard to stop. The bride now has ready-made customized thank you notes.

This MOB likes to provide a full service. By mid-August I should be back to my regular activities.

Gotta Felt…

2009-07-25T13:07:00.001-04:00

I have been doing a lot of dyeing lately… and over-dyeing, and triple dyeing, and then discharging (removing the dye) and then re-dyeing….Enough already, I need a little break.

View Full Album

There are times when I feel the need for some needle work, back up in my studio, the one equipped with AC. I miss my machines and I have piles of colourful scraps of wool, silk and cotton awaiting mindless work – yeah!

The best (most fun) is my needle felting machine. It makes an awful punching, grinding sound as it pushes and pulls one fabric into the other.

This work only requires bits and scraps of cotton, silk, or wool, in fact any material that can withstand abuse and I have lots of that.

It is a lot less cerebral, more intuitive, relaxing and playful. I normally have a radio or TV on in the background, so I can tune in or out at will, and away I go with the needle felting machine: chung chung chung chung chung,….a lot of noise emanates from my studio during this process!

Meanwhile I pound one colour and texture into the other. Sometimes I will flip the piece over and pound some of the background back into the foreground.

I keep my sewing machine handy or embroidery floss and add some line work if needed.

If I don’t like the results, I simply apply another piece of fabric on top and pound that in. What is underneath disappears into the substrate and the piece is rescued again.

Oh, and for icing on the cake…I run a hot steam iron over the front and back. This not only blocks the piece but creates a gorgeously smooth felted surface that further bonds this new matrix together.

I love the resulting mix - the texture and sheen of this new matrix is almost like paint at times.

Technorati Tags: machine needle felting,colour work,thead,wool,roving,silk tops

The Heat is on…

2009-07-03T11:56:00.001-04:00

27C (81F) – perfect! My summer art cabin is in full production. No hot water, no AC but lots of cool breezes to keep this worker happy.

No phones, m0 computer, just a small radio with an antenna that manages to pick up NPR from across the river. Oh, and the sound of gulls - divine!

Black you say?

2009-06-25T13:20:00.006-04:00

Yes, indeed, Silk black in fact, Pro-Chem’s #610.

My favourite for silk cloth. Drop a little in a wet sink and look at all those colours! Add a bit more water and the colours merge into a rich black and all its various shades of gray, and best of all, they don’t split – no halos, no spotting, and no tell-tale under tones. Just black. This is specially important when I am over-dyeing a resisted item like the one below and I want a no nonsense black background.

Shows ,Shows, Shows…

2009-06-19T20:49:00.003-04:00

OK, the heat is on - -

1) Quiltfest this week in Brockville. They want photos of all the quilts in the show…170+. I offered, they accepted!! Ugh, but a great way to hone my Photoshop RAW skills – the lighting in the hall was awful. It’s win win all around.

2) Quilts on the Tay - Kamloops to Halifax, an exhibition of traditional and contemporary quilts and wall hangings sponsored by the Lanark county Quilters Guild in Perth, ON. They want my stuff by mid-July. OK, I can handle that.

3) Marianne van Silfhout Gallery at St. Lawrence College Intrigue into the 1000 Islands.– this show runs throughout July & August. My work is already on sight. Piece of cake!

4) Ahh, then there is the Mallory Coach House. TIA’s very own gallery opens with a Strawberry Social next week: June 28th from 1 to 4pm. Thousand Islands Arts (TIA) finally has its vey own gallery: the Coach House!

It is located in a very old but beautifully restored stone house in Mallorytown Ontario. We plan to showcase the work of TIA artists and artisans all summer! We hope to attract day trippers and road savvy art enthusiasts to this delightful little town on the shores of the St Lawrence River.

All this wonderful exposure, means that I am busy pulling work out of cupboards, drawers, and off of shelves for review, dispatching and and shipping. In short, all real art work comes to a grinding halt…sigh.

I dutifully check out my stockpile of ‘mostly finished’ work, looking for any tell-tale ‘unfinished bits’, threads, pins, etc. I then mop up, dust off, sew, bind, sign, photograph, record and occasionally even redesign some of these…not too often, but occasionally that will happen. What can I say? It is another way to work.

And then, I look forward to the openings and the odd occasion to be interviewed and represent some of these events on TV. As it happens, next week in fact -- I will polish my face, put on my Sunday smile and head on up to Ottawa, to the CTV studios on George street, with work in one hand and speaking notes in the other. Hopefully the airing will not take place at 3am – but then, who knows? Some collectors are insomniacs…you really never know.

Dockside surface design

2009-06-04T23:29:00.003-04:00

I love this time of the year. Warm sun, cool nights and ah yes, I get to open up my beloved little Art Shack. Every year, I happily lug several bags of dye & paint stuffs some 45 steps down a ragged cliff to what was once a garden shed, now a supreme surface design lab:

Normally I only venture down here when the temperature hovers around 20C (or 80F). MX dyes like a warm humid environment. Frankly its still a bit cold – but I am anxious to get this shop going as I have a lot of work to do, it’s like camping!

Before heading down, I like to mix up all the MX concentrates that I will need for the season, approx 20 weeks worth. I don’t have hot & cold running water, only a hose with freezing cold water, but I do have a fridge. Luckily, Ann Johnson’s Color By Design has the how to for all these concentrates.

I now colour code each 500cc bottle with its own colour and recipe # (I use them over and over). These ones are the best, they don’t leak! When I think of all the junk I had to drink to get this marvellous collection of leak free ½ litre bottles… it was worth it.

Because I plan to thicken these dye concentrates I throw in a tablespoon of urea and a couple of marbles. The marbles help create the friction necessary to keep the dye in solution every time I shake the bottles, and I do this often. I found this gem of a tip from Doug Wilson from the DyersLIST.

I have also learned to write everything down on each bottle. When I need more, the formula is right there. I picked this habit up the hard way from my own experience. I like to make 8% concentrate solutions (really really dark rich colours). For a 500cc solution, that means that I put 40gm of dye powder into each colour bottle. Here is what 40gm of Pro Chem grape 801 dye powder looks like. Seems like a lot, but it goes a long way.

More to come.

Up close and personal…

2009-05-26T09:51:00.002-04:00

The third week in May has finally arrived!

Upin the North this gives us the go ahead to start planting, and wouldn’t you know it we have a frost warning for tonight, not fair…

Most days I can be found on my hands and knees mucking about in rich soft earth. BTW, this is the only time that I actually enjoy any of this. Given my fickleness with gardening matters, I know that this enthusiasm won't last long. The intoxicating ‘garden high’ I feel will soon pass and my poor garden with so much promise will eventually take on the look of an abandoned child, probably by the first week of August.

But late in May I am completely intoxicated with the smells, the colour, the fresh earth the gentle breezes. Ah, and my garden plan…this is not unlike art, my canvas being the rich black earth. I will add colour, line, shape and texture. I pick plants and vegetables based on how they will contribute to the whole, the look -- certainly nothing practical.

Oh, and then there are visitors to the garden. In the Spring I love them all having been starved all winter. Some I manage to capture with a help of a borrowed lens... this image captured last August was languishing at the bottom of my blog images bin and demanded to be featured.

You have to admire the exquisite complexity of the bi-wing span of this magnificent little creature. If you click on the image you will see what I mean. I have seen many a dragonfly done with fabric and thread, but I wonder if it is at all possible to really capture this?

OK, back to my plantings…

Silk Garden Cloth

2009-05-14T14:15:00.008-04:00

All this cloth I have collected this year... these were made to test colour relationships, resists etc. They sit, piling up and they languish on top of my dryer.

I feel the need to put them to use, perhaps cut them up and have them work together somehow. This green one below involved several processes to achieve the texture and layers of colour. Maybe I won't cut it up so much.

This is a multi-colour silk screen process. I have tons of this stuff, so I will cut away with little fear.

Here is more of the green. I really love this piece. It reminds me of a Canadian garden at this time of the year - full of promise.

Ah, my dot cloth. This swatch makes me want to go back to the silk screen and dye pots to make more of this in different colour combos.

See you all later...

American Craft features the work of Andrée Fredette

2009-05-11T13:29:00.005-04:00

I am was so proud to discover Andrée Fredette's work featured in the most recent edition of American Craft Magazine.

Andrée's piece Tunicates no.1 was juried into this Quilt National '09, which opens next week. The image published in American Craft (seen below) doesn't do justice the extensive and beautiful machine embroidery that floats over these large colourful panels.

For those of you who are lucky enough to be in Athens Ohio next week, you will be able to see the real thing as well as all the other 'best of the best'. For the rest of us QN '09's full colour catalogue will be released any time now. I already have mine on order.

Congratulations Andrée!!

Calendar

Quilt National '09

Dairy Barn Arts Center
Quilt National '09
May. 23 — Sep. 7 2009
Athens, Ohio
http://www.dairybarn.org

The beauty of stitching stands on its own in 85 quilts running the gamut from traditional formats to 3-D textile sculpture, realism to abstraction.

The Art of Gardening

2009-05-08T10:51:00.021-04:00

At this time of the year, I like to escape the studio to spend time in my garden.

I love the smell of the warm earth after a long cold winter. As if reading my mind, my friend Gerry Glavin sent me this funny story.

An old man lived alone in nearby Kingston County. He wanted to plant his annual tomato garden, but it was very difficult work, as the ground was hard.

His only son, Vincent, who used to help him, was in prison. So he wrote a letter to his son and described his predicament:

Dear Vincent,
I am feeling pretty sad, because it looks like I won't be able to plant my tomato garden this year. I'm just getting too old to be digging up a garden plot. I know if you were here my troubles would be over. I know you would be happy to dig the plot for me, like in the old days. Love, Dad

A few days later he received a letter from his son.

Dear Dad,
Don't dig up that garden. That's where the bodies are buried.
Love, Vinnie

At 4 a.m. the next morning, the RCMP and local police arrived and dug up the entire area without finding any bodies. They apologized to the old man and left.

That same day the old man received another letter from his son.

Dear Dad,
Go ahead and plant the tomatoes now.
That's the best I could do under the circumstances.
Love you, Vinnie

Did You Know?

2009-05-03T17:25:00.006-04:00

I came across this video on Gloria Hansens blog.

I too do not know how accurate the data is (there are some credits at the end) but needless to say I am now very alert. Watching this video is like drinking a strong cup of coffee. In fact, you may just want to grab a cuppa while watching. It's about 4 minutes long.

I found it inspiring and energizing. What do you think? Too much info?

Visual Sketchbooks - cont'd

2009-04-28T13:31:00.021-04:00

OK now for Part 2,

But first - one more thing about the books. When assembling these, I like to use hard covers (usually heavy card stock or mat board) and I fuse hand dyed cloth to the front and back covers.

What you see in the next picture is a sketchbook open to the back page, showing the inside of the back cover.

This next picture is a page in the mid section of the same book showing the initial ink wash.

Next, I open the newly bound sketchbook either to the first page or last… not important which. Then, using a #11blade knife I cut out a shape (or two) from the page. Sometimes I use the imagery suggested by the black ink or I may have another specific shape in mind. I continue cutting out these shapes on several pages, focusing mostly on positive and negative shapes.

Using various black pens (from microns to fat markers) I add lines, textures and shapes at will to each page, going back and forth across the book. This process allows me to really develop a specific concept in much greater detail than ever before.

I end up with roughly four dozen drawings that are related in imagery, line, shape and texture. Sometimes I will fill up a book in one sitting but more often I will come back to the book several times to work a few sketches at a time. This is a very meditative process and provides rich thumbnails for future work.

Because of the way a book is structured, each cut out shape affects both sides of a page. As I turn to the next page, my cut out is still there but in a new context. This feeds the next cutout, inking and dare I say it even an occasional colour mark...

To keep things exiting, I have on occasion inserted a page or two of translucent organza or other textile into one of the signatures to allow for an occasional stitch mark to contrast with the paper drawings.

There are no end to the possibilities with this approach. Books can be made entirely of cloth and paper can be initially painted with coloured inks. I have been so busy just exploring the possibilities with black ink I haven’t yet been able to get around to colour – but it won’t be long!

My Take On Visual Sketchbooks

2009-04-26T14:18:00.034-04:00

Lately I have been following with interest Pam RuBert’s posts about keeping visual sketchbooks organized. She collected a great list from her readers on how they tackle this – check it out HERE.

I'm no different...I too struggle with organizing and collating my sketches for easy reference. Recently I found a solution that has worked for me. I now sketch, draw, stencil and mark as I make the sketchbook….Weird huh? But this works.

Each one of my books contains several drawings related to one theme. They are all bound together into one book that is dated and signed. I got this idea from Dorothy Caldwell, whose work I love.

Here's how it works:
I start by slathering (yes, almost sloshing) black India ink on a large sheet of really nice white paper and let it dry. I work pretty fast using a foam brush, or sometimes I even pour the ink directly on the paper, let it settle a bit, tilt the paper etc.

My aim is to produce a rich contrast between the black of the ink with the creamy white of the paper. Acid free card stock quality paper or similar is very satisfying…

Then I cut the large sheet of inked paper into several 4’’ x 8½’’ stacks.

I fold these in two and arrange them into signatures ready for sewing into a sketchbook.
There are several online tutorials on how to sew these little books together.
Pam has a link to THIS ONE on her site. My favourite is a Coptic stitch bookbinding technique I found HERE. It is fast and fun to do.

Normally this would be the end of a sketchbook making exercise, but for me this is only the beginning. In my next post I will describe how the bookbinding and sketching come together and feed off each other!

Some attention is needed here...

2009-04-22T12:50:00.010-04:00

When I decided to visit my blog earlier this week I saw a visually attractive site, but sadly one that has been neglected for a very long time. My choice was either to close it down or to breathe new life into it. I have chosen the latter option.

I am now committed to building this blog into a more vibrant site and have taken specific steps to help me do just that. So I signed up for a 4-week BlogTriage class with Cynthia Morris and Alyson Stanfield. This class began today and already they have given me lots to think about and write about.

For starters, I want to state up front that I want this site to reflect and be a record of what is happening in my studio both for me and my readers. I have discovered that it is great to go back over previous postings and see a chronological and visual record of my studio progress these last couple of years. I only wish I had more on record. I want to share this with my readers - students, collectors, gallerists and other artists - both regional and across the web. We are all neighbours through the internet! I hope that with regular practice I will be better connected with this community many of whom also work alone in their studios. I welcome feedback, enquiries

This said, I don't want my blogging practice to be some medicine I need to take daily... yikes! Instead I hope that regular blogging will allow me to share the exitement and discoveries that I experience daily in the studio. I want the blogging part to be a natural output of my daily studio practice. Let's see how it goes.

Swatch Art

2009-02-25T13:57:00.005-05:00

Lately I have been involved in producing a gazillion silk and cotton swatches using all manner of dyestuffs. That and fabric paint, as well as discharge agents etc. I thought I knew a LOT about this stuff - not the case.

Just take this intense blue above. When it is over dyed with complements like strong orange (left swatch) or burnt orange (middle swatch) I see with 'the whites of my eyes' that the blue indeed does NOT discharge when stamped with discharge paste.
But then, I always knew that... what I didn't know was how gorgeous the blue is when peering out from beneath these complementary mixes.

Another swatch with an elastic resist. This one shows what happens when burnt orange is over dyed with mixing blue. The diagonal lines are discharged - this blue discharges.

Another elastic resist swatch showing what happens when intense blue is over dyed with grape then discharged. The discharge takes where there is only grape.

Here is what happens when sun yellow is overdyed with grape. Love the brown.

More swatches...these are silk habotai.

January makeover

2009-01-14T12:09:00.007-05:00

The weather is frightful in this neck of the woods (-30C) and I miss my summer art shack.
So I decided to convert my smallish mudroom/laundry into a wet studio. The room is only 8' x 14' so it was a bit like organizing the inside of a boat - every square inch had to serve...

I work with largish lengths of cloth (2 metres on average ). In December I found a craft table at Joannes (in Og, NY) with drawers & shelves for $129. Collapsed, it's footprint is only 21''x 31'', but opened up it does the trick - see below.

Reorganizing the cupboards above the sinks took a lot of reconfiguration to make them really efficient. The one on the left stores auxiliary chemicals, discharge pastes and resists.

This is the MX dye cupboard - the pure dyes that I use most often are on the two bottom shelves with mixed dyes on the top shelf. Stacks of pre-washed fabric sit on top (every square inch...)

This is where I store all my fabric paints. I found this railing (above the sink) at Ikea. It saves my sanity as the myriad of utensils I need when gloved and masked are visible and easy to reach.

Oh, and even the door to the garage does double duty. It is metal! So, I bought a stack of magnets. Now whenever we enter or leave our home, we are greeted with my latest silk creation that billows in the cold air.

OK, here is a less than glamorous picture of this space in use, but it works, that what counts. It is also a snap to clean up. Its not as spacious as my shack, but its closer to the coffee maker in my kitchen:-)

Cheers all -- time to get back to work!

Hello blog...

2008-12-11T14:49:00.005-05:00

Oh my, it has been a long time.

The time has come to get back in the saddle and post again.
This past year I decided to undertake the Artcloth Mastery program offered by Jane Dunnewold in San Antonio, Texas. The program is wonderful, demanding (I have several assignments that are due). I have been learning a lot from a great teacher and my fellow art cloth companions.

Here is a shot of the Art Cloth Studio in San Antonio. It occupies the entire third floor of an old mission church and is therefore huge.

Here Jane is setting up a class meeting

Discharged silk fresh out of the dryer with someone's respirator.

Black rayon discharged with 1) chlorine - coppery area 2) RIT colour remover (sodium hypochlorite) white cloudy area and 3) discharge paste (Rongalit) - grey stamped area at top. All three agents affect the cloth in very different and interesting ways. More to come later.

New work

2008-09-17T16:29:00.007-04:00

Here is a peek at the stuff that currently moves from my wall to my table and back to my wall again. The top piece is finally quilted. It was designed with every shade of red that I could find in my stash. I must be anticipating a long, cold and colourless winter...

I have concluded that I don't have enough shades of red and I need to make more - a good project at this time.

This second piece was made with some hemp that I wanted hand dye.

It dyes OK, but doesn't hold a candle to pima cotton or silk broadcloth.

I joined it with a piece of burnt orange pima that I silk screened with a couple of motifs. It is now ready for quilting. I feel that this one will need about as much thread as the red one above.

Speaking of thread, I also have some hand stitching in the works.

I find that this is a great way to create a shibori resist for dyed fabric.
Here is an example of machine stitched resist underway,

And here is the result.

Not too bad. Next time I plan on using use a heavier thread to produce a bolder outline.

A Show at the Mississippi Valley Textile Museum Not to Miss

2008-09-12T11:31:00.004-04:00

''The Fall Fair'' P.Susan Clow Ottawa, ON www.artevolves.com The Mississippi Valley Textile Museum Almonte , ON 613-256-3754 Aug. 7th - Oct. 26th, 2008

Here's Looking at Ewe, 24'' x 24'' P. Susan Clow

Let me start by saying that Susan started this year as one of our 'Seven Threads'.

Back in April she quietly pulled away from the fray as she had 'work work work... to do '. She needed space and time, we understood. We have missed her these past few months, but...the result? A solo show at the Textile Museum in Almonte.Bravo Susan!!We are so proud!

The show opened at the Mississippi Valley Textile Museum in Almonte Ontario on August 7 and goes until October 26. You've gotta go check this out. Susan produces unique and whimsical works that combine the wonderful skills she developed as a medical illustrator with a lifelong love of sewing textiles. An added bonus is her sporadic injection of humour in this work.

''Material Matters Exibit'' at Columbus Museum of Art

2008-07-09T13:52:00.003-04:00

Material Matters Catalogue

A little bit of shameless promotion...
I have a piece in this exhibit that is currently on at the Museum of Art in Columbus Ohio, till August 31, 2008.

I just visited the site. Not only does it feature many of the pieces in the exhibit but also links up several U-tube videos of artists at work on their piece. Check it out at http://www.youtube.com/columbusmuseum.

More pictures to come, but first, here is an image of my piece in this show.

River's Edge 4 hand-dyed cotton 16x40.5''
©2006 Kit Vincent

Back from teaching at Haliburton!

2008-07-07T20:58:00.009-04:00

Here are some picks from this very productive week with very productive students at the last week 30 June to 4 July.
I was very impressed with what was accomplished by this first Quilting By Design group.
Haliburton School of the Arts
They handled a lot of challenges with interest, curiosity and good humour. Monday at noon, black & white designs show up on the wall.
Monday afternoon they worked their designs into more complex compositions.

Some turned their design into repeat blocks.

Tuesday was all about colour.
Below is a thumbnail sketch for a composition.

Tuesday afternoon they painted fabric as needed.

and that included marking fabric with coloured sticks.

Then, once coloured fabric was on the table there was no stopping the design action...

Smiles appeared. All this surface design aside, I believe that fabric artists are happiest when we are at the machine sewing! By Thursday sewing machines were whirring, some with the dogs down and some up.

Here is a shot of our room during the Thursday afternoon studio visits.

Above is a finished composition on the wall - binding on and signed by the artist.
It is seen here with it's original black and white studies.

Here is another finished quilt seen with original black & white sketches.

By Friday everyone in the group had an original quilt finished, some had two quilts and sketched ideas for more.

What a week... and what a terrific group!

Quilting by Design at Haliburton School of the Arts

2008-06-11T11:54:00.006-04:00

Ok, I have just heard from Sir Sanford Fleming college AND I am now in teaching mode.
I am readying up for a week-long teaching gig at the Haliburton School of the Arts.
June 30 to July 4 -
I am excited not only to be teaching, but this will be my first visit to Haliburton, Ontario. I hear that the school location is BEAUTIFUL and prime Toronto cottage country.
Bring camera...

The focus of this class will be on how to get an art quilt off the ground, out of our heads and onto the wall. I plan to serve up many many exercises to help kick-start a creative process that will produce results: we will play with positive & negative space, split shapes, paint fabric and paper, express mood, emphasis, depth and perspective with colour value and temperature, create texture with chalk, paint sticks and thread. All fibre... all week.

This should be fun for all.

midnight garden...sorta

2008-06-11T11:41:00.004-04:00

Well here they are -- altogether on a dark background (dark mulberry hand-dye) that lets their individual colour modulations peer through. This piece is off to the shop. Hopefully Jennifer can add some finishing touches. I think that it shows what can be done with Angelina fibres, which was the purpose of this piece in the first place.

I plan to pick more of this stuff as I am now addicted to the immediacy and forgiving nature of the 'hot press' process. I think that a lot more can be done with this stuff, but I have to stop. I have just received notice that my class at Haliburton is a go!!
Alright! Given that I love to teach almost as much as being in studio, I am looking forward to this week-long session later this month.
Gotta go dig up my class notes...

Glitter Wall

2008-06-10T12:52:00.004-04:00

I am progressing with these Angelina drawings and this stuff is really growing on me (pun intended). I have bits of shiny stuff clung to all manner of surfaces including me. I have used up three bags so far with one more to go. I only have blue left. The challenge will be to alter the shades with entrapped bits of fabric, wool etc. A nice discovery has been how amenable the stuff is to recycling. The cut out bit from the previous drawing can be included and pressed down with the next piece - nothing is wasted.

The spiral above is made with film.

What to do with dreaded Angelina??

2008-06-09T16:11:00.007-04:00

Some love this stuff, others hate it.

I know some even refuse to have it their studio. I have been among this crowd...as I am usually suspicious of sparkly stuff. So why am I wasting my time fiddling with this stuff? My friend Jennifer, who owns a quilt shop, tells me that up here in the Thousand Islands region, Angelina is hot- hot - hot. Many of her customers buy the stuff, want to use it but some run into difficulty trying to integrate it into their quilts. Others overuse it. She has asked me to try it out and ''...come up with something.''

Given that I am interested in exploring what this seduction with Angelina is all about and that I love a challenge, I have decided to take another look at a product that I have previously dismissed. So, I spent this past weekend fiddling with all kinds of Angelina, the shredded stuff the we all know and the newer film.

This is a pick of the shredded candy wrapping- paper like stuff that self-sticks when heated. And next shot is the newer film - same as the shredded angelina but not shredded. Hmm.

This was my first try. A real piece of Angelina GROT.

I think that as a base rule, ''when coming up with something...'' it is important that at a minimum, the effort MUST yield something that looks better than the original product!

Here is another example of Angelina GROT - Yuck!
From a process perspective, I can understand why this stuff tends to be overused as it is fast and easy to work with. It it sticks to itself yet is not sticky, it doesn't ravel and there are no fumes - but other than decorative applications I am having a difficult time finding a serious application.
More yuck - with this piece I entrapped yarn between two layers of the shredded stuff - e-gads!

It was time STOP and check out the garden.
I needed a little nature study to remind myself to stop what I was doing.

I discovered part of my problem... there was no way that Angelina with all its reflective surfaces, could come any way near with what is out there
Back in the studio I went for a different focus. Instead I put Angelina to the task of helping me to express something more personal, more abstract. So, I ironed several 8 x 10 sheets of Angelina, trapping bits of film, wool, roving etc. then I drew directly on these sheets with a marker. Better.

Here is another one.

I liked the drawings so I cut them out and pinned them up on the wall.

This is where I'm at with this. So far so good and I am not done yet wrestling with this stuff. :-))

A new header for the blog

2008-05-29T09:37:00.010-04:00

My my, it has been a stretch....
Activities occur but don't get recorded -- that's how it goes sometimes with a blog like this one. Perhaps this new look will inspire more posts.

On the other hand, a lot of activities have been recorded on my other blog. We have just wrapped up this year's Art in the Islands Retreat for Fibre Artists and we are gearing up for next year's event, it should be even more fun!

Now that I am back in studio, I still have a couple of quilts to ship off, and one more class to teach in Haliburton Ontario later in June, then some quiet time to work over the summer months. Here are a couple of items currently on my table:

This past winter I treated myself to a felting machine. This piece was done with craft felt and dyed cheese cloth needle punched from the front AND the back - very different effects. This machine is an amazing piece of technology that can transform all sorts of fabric - usually the ones that would not make it into the studio, in fact the slinkier and sleezier the fabric (ie. slinky glittery knits, lames etc) the more interesting the transformation. On a painted canvas base the effects can be are magical. I am not done yet with this new tool...

These sewn strips are samples of dark brown hand dyes and black cottons and rayons discharged with bleach (coppery red) and thiox (grey, yellow and green).

These are more samples that I discharged and timed - 5 to 15 minutes.

And here is what is on my desk! My ever cheerful finger puppets.
Did I make them myself? No- no-noo - - Bought them in a shop.

An old friend

2008-04-04T14:25:00.003-04:00

Lately I have been immersed in painting acrylic and textile colour studies. It has been a wonderful learning and discovery process but I yearn to sew. So, thanks to a short bout of spring cleaning I found this piece at the bottom of a drawer. This goes way back to my piecing days. I don't know why I turned away from it back then as it doesn't seem so bad now that I take another look at it. I think it deserves to be quilted.
It is snowing outside . I have decided to ignore the weather turn on some music and sew sew sew. But first I need to fix the perimeter...
See y'all later.

What's on my floor

2008-03-11T11:28:00.006-04:00

Many many colour wheels. These are colour intensity studies done with opaque fabric paint on black cotton cloth. They are drying under the supervision of my trusty lab assistant.

Lulubelle waits patiently for more wheels to arrive as I am also making a 2nd set with transparent fabric paint. She thinks that I am having an attack of OC. Far from the truth!

Here are the two sets moved off the floor. I have fused the sheets together in a fan-fold arrangement so they can all be viewed at the same time and shades can be compared.
Now that these are done, I am about to make another set - this time, colour value studies. This is positively addictive.

Yesterday's discharge

2008-02-13T15:19:00.002-05:00

Ok, so today I used the same thermofax motif, this time with some black textile paint. I usually shy away from textile paint as it tends to rubberize the fabric. I used Seta colour thinned way down with extender and water. Once the colours were out there was really no stopping. ...red, then blue and even some yellow. Not bad, I am somewhat pleased with this piece. If only it were not so small, only 28'' x 20''. No room left for stretching it. I don't really want to quilt it as there is too much going on already. Next time, 28'' x 40'' at a minimum.

What's on my Wall

2008-02-12T09:27:00.001-05:00

Black and white studies and small felted studies.

And...what's on my table
This is a piece of black viscose rayon with a motif discharged on it using thiox. I know that bleach is so frequently used for discharging i.e. removing colour from cloth, but nothing, I mean nothing can compare to thioIMHO.... all traces of black are GONE.

Here is the mix I used:
1 tsp thiox (Pro Chem) + 1 tsp soda ash (yes, the swimming pool stuff) with ½ cup of sodium alginate (thickener from Pro Chem) - gently stirred in a plastic picnic bowl and ready for action.

This is a Thermofax screen I made earlier in San Antonio with a little discharge paste ready for squeegeeing onto a length of black viscose rayon cloth from RG&S.

Voila! A crisp clean transfer of the motif yielding total removal of colour -- with the help of a little heat. N.B. I used a hot iron with a respirator mask.

Gorgeous! I am off to San Antonio this Saturday to learn a lot more about all this stuff.

Good News from the Ontario Crafts Council

2008-02-06T18:06:00.001-05:00

Just received a surprise check from the Ontario Crafts Council.
It seems that my quilt 'Wild' sold -- hot dog!

Back in November I submitted 'Wild' as part of the Ontario Craft 07, a biennial juried exhibition of works by members of the OCC. I've been a member for ages. I was delighted that they decided to reinstate this exhibit as it provides an excellent Canadian opportunity to show fine craft. Fine craft is the classification for what it is I do/make/produce...

This show was juried by Sandra Ainsley and David Kaye, two gallery owners based in Toronto and Lisa Pai of Lafreniere & Pai Gallery in Ottawa. Two hundred works were submitted and sixty-nine were selected in the media of ceramics, glass, wood, jewelry, metal, textiles and mixed media. The show ran from November 15 to December 31 at the new OCC Gallery at 900 Queen street West.

Here is one last shot of Wild - 128cm x 123 cm

Wild hand-dyed cotton & silk 128 x 123 cm
© 2007 Kit Vincent

Blue Plug 20'' x 20''

2008-01-20T18:35:00.000-05:00

There are times when I am faced with a very dry creative spell. These have been frequent lately. Wisdom has it that you just keep plugging...and this is just what I have been doing. This piece of canvas, has been needle punched (very satisfying process BTW) with fabric bits, throwster's waste (stuff silk spinners throw out -- or used to) and lots and lots of thread work.
I am not quite at the point where I would rather be vacuuming, but any day now.

Kelp motif

2008-01-15T19:32:00.000-05:00

Last November I had the opportunity to visit Saturna, one of Canada's beautiful gulf islands off the coast of BC. While beach coming (that's what people do in BC) I came across this most amazing entity, at first I thought it was a dead creature washed ashore - but it is only a plant washed ashore .
At the time I blogged about it here.

I have since spent a lot of time getting to know the Bull Kelp that is unique to the pacific west coast. Among biologists it is known as Nereocystis luetkeana. What look like long elegant leaves are blades and what looks like a root ball is really a bladder filled was gas that lifts the blades up from the bottom of the ocean to reach sunlight. The long pole like tube that extends from the bladder is called a stipe. It is attached to a net like extension that wraps itself around a rock on the ocean floor. These plants grow in abundance off shore and get washed up during storms.

So here is the first of a lot of bull kelp motifs that I will be exploring this new year. This one was done using a felting machine and different coloured cloths on a canvas ground. I am now ready to do some hand stitching.

Just in case....

2008-01-12T18:27:00.000-05:00

you ever wondered how your sewing machine really works...check out this link. My friend Mary Pal sent this to me and I was mesmerized. It's downright hypnotic.

holiday textures

2008-01-07T15:46:00.001-05:00

I have been playing a lot with my camera and Photoshop lately. I am looking for images that translate well into texture. These days I can look no further than to my floor to find the best stuff - falling off all those decorations. Every day I find new stuff to work with.

This clump of long needles produced this:

I used the pinch feature in the filter drop down to create the distortion in the centre.

A small handful of the same needles produced this.

Once the images are sharpened in layers, I use a lot of the filter tools: cut out, neon glow, find edges, and posterization. Not necessarily in that sequence and sometimes I uses them a couple of times depending on the image.

These branches denuded of their pine needles produced this:

And this:
The image was cropped, flipped, cut out, and posterized; also a few other processes but I don't always remember as I tend to experiment a lot while doing.

These pine needles produced this:

and... my New year's Rat.

Say goodby to Rizo Ratzo

2008-01-07T15:26:00.000-05:00

As much as I have enjoyed fooling around with pine needles this past week, the time has come for this little Rat to be on it's way - these pine needles can be a fire hazard after all.

Here is a view of his left side, before he goes the way of all pine needle rats.

Oh, oh - the vacuum is on...rats!

oooooh... nooooooo.........

and now, all that remains is a ghost of his former self. RIP.

Year of the RAT - Happy New year!

2008-01-05T19:45:00.000-05:00

Isn't he/she cute? This rat almost made itself from the pine needles of a Christmas wreath I made two weeks ago. These needles are everywhere and rather than vacuuming (bo-oring) I made a rat, much more fun.

So here is a challenge to anyone out there - make a new year's rat out of anything lying around -pine needles, pine cones, wrapping ribbon or other.

Now how do I to preserve this thing?

Black and White study

2007-12-07T14:45:00.001-05:00

There are times when I find that it is hard to get into the groove - or I should say back into the groove. This usually happens to me after a trip or the arrival of visitors (though I love the company and... the break), or even a bunch of TIA related meetings and administration. These all seem to sap any remnants of creative focus.

Luckily this time I came across a real old fashioned quilting challenge I bought into a couple of months ago. Normally I would lay this aside for a ''get-round'' to it day (smile). But this time it was just what the doctor ordered. The requirement is to design something using eight pre-ordained black and white fabric, plus one optional colour. This was brutal, as the eight fabrics swatches consisted of large graphic prints that needed taming somehow to work together.

I had forgotten how valuable a black and white exercise can be. This piece is roughly 26'' x 32'' and was made in two days. I am really pleased with it and I am now ready to work with colour.
Black & white Summer 2007 - 26'' x 32''
Here is a detail. I had to use a lot more white and black fabric to tame the bits - but it worked
This was a great exercise. I am now ready to plunge back into colour. Back in the groove!

BC on my mind

2007-11-25T19:17:00.000-05:00

I've been back from a trip to the Gulf Islands for a week now and I can't seem to get these images out of my head. So luckily I have a blog where I can post some of these images.
November is supposed to be off season out there - a dark, damp and rainy time.
I found that everything was just that much more intense (colour-wise), clean and fresh smelling. I had the opportunity to walk the woods for miles. I filled 2 gigs with digital images of what I came across. This is just a small sampling.

Majestic Douglas firs with the pacific ocean just on the other side of that ridge.

Forest floor with wild mushroom and arbutus berries

More forest colours

a deer skull

Weathered Douglas fir on the beach, or is it arbutus? not sure...

Forest mosses

This tree wears a moss sock

This is a growth bump on the trunk of an arbutus tree.

This is another arbutus 'bump'. Left to weather, it will eventually take on a more bark like surface, somewhat like this one below.

Arbutus trees continuously shed their bark. The forest floor is littered with coppery shavings of tree bark. This is stunning against the deep green of the mosses.

Here is a detail of a much older arbutus tree trunk

Beach wash up.

Wet Bull Kelp leaves held up to the sky.
When held up to the sky, this leaf reveals an amazing outline.

a section of this same bull kelp shown upside down - it's float bulb above and leaf branches below.

Closer inspection of this section shows the exquisite intertwining of leaf stands where they meet the float bulb.

Wet beach rocks. I could have spent all day arranging and re-arranging these...

Two eagles practising their manoeuvres.

This young eagle takes a breather.

This is a shot from on top of the island, overlooking the US Channel Islands.

Art in the Mail

2007-10-23T13:11:00.001-04:00

I don't consider myself a collector of art in the normal sense, preferring the doing part over the collecting. But, every once in a while I have to make an exception. Recently Lisa Call featured a miniature version of one of her larger quilts. She calls these miniatures Art Card Editions and Originals (ACEO) .

On her blog, Lisa defines them this way:
ACEO stands for “art cards, editions and originals”. Originally known as ATC, Artist Trading Card, and are traded between artists. When sold to the public they are referred to as ACEOs. The primary rule for an ACEO or ATC is they be 3 1/2″ x 2 1/2″ - the size of a trading card. They are created in many different mediums and are collectible, trade able and affordable art for everyone.

I have been a long-time admirer of Lisa's larger work and this is an exquisite miniature of a larger piece called Structures #48. The original quilt will be exhibited in NYC shortly at the Blogger Show. This art show is made up of 36 artists, 4 galleries and the blogosphere. All participating artists are serious bloggers.

Now back to my little ACEO. What to do with it I wondered?
Originally I thought about putting it into a float frame and I may still do this but in the interim, I found a perfect place - in my daytimer! Just above a lovely picture of my darling daughter and right next to my favourite finger puppet. Mini #48 has its own slot and looks quite comfortable.

Recent multi-media show activity

2007-10-21T12:06:00.001-04:00

My website refers briefly to some of this but I can expand on it here making it more tangible for readers with a couple of visuals.
In July my work appeared at the Sarah Sterkin Gallery in Gannanoque Ontario. This was a multi-media show that resulted in one major sale for me - Swept Up 31''x43''

Swept Up hand-dyed silks, quilted 43x31''
© 2006 Kit Vincent

I will miss it, but I know that it is in a good place in its new home.

In August, Wild 51''x 45'' was juried in to the Best of TIA and won the FABR award.

Wild hand-dyed cotton & silk, quilted 127 x 123cm
© 2007 Kit Vincent

In November, it travels to Toronto as it has been juried into Ontario Craft '07. This is an exhibition of works by members of the Ontario Crafts Council. Wild will be on display from November 15 to December 13, at the OCC Gallery, 990 Queen Street West, Toronto, Ontario.

In September, Paul and I mounted a two-person show at the Sandra Whitton Galley in Kingston Ontario, called - Two Studios: The work of Paul and Kit Vincent. No sales here, but it was our first experience in assembling what we had originally thought were disparate works into a cohesive whole. With Sandra's help we discovered these similarities. Below is a copy of the e-flyer that was distributed to targeted mailing lists.

Here is a picture of the front of the gallery on hanging-day; the only day I brought my camera... darn.

In October, Paul and I participated in an open studio tour Autumn Leaves which took place over two weekends. We both had a couple of modest sales and we met a lot of people, Canadians from Manitoba and Americans from NY and New Hamshire!

Currently, we are both participating in a multi-media show at the Chameleon Nation Creative Emporium (I absolutely just love that name!) a brand new gallery at 112 Princess Street in Kingston Ontario. The show is on till October 31 - so try and catch it if you are in the area.

Front of rack card
back of rack card.

Time to lower the temperature in my summer studio

2007-10-21T11:25:00.000-04:00

and get back in the swing of blogging...

This is a snap I took of Louise Bourgeois' magnificent sculpture Maman . It sits (or I should say hovers...) in front of our National Gallery on Sussex Avenue in Ottawa. I took this shot through a window so a lot of definition is lost, but Maman carries a full sac of eggs that are fun to look up at when standing directly underneath.

Ok to be frank, its more like 40 degrees in my summer studio now and somehow, my worktable has been pushed aside and a kayak and other dock debris have been moved in. The spiders and other little creepy crawlies will be sooo happy to cosy up to all this new stuff over the winter months. My summer studio is now officially closed for 2007. My dyes & paints have been moved back up to more temperate quarters for the winter months.

And, yes I have taken a little blog-break these past few weeks.
This is a behaviour pattern that has popped up on occasion ever since I began blogging. I have finally decided to stop fighting it and instead to go with it. I recognize that these temporary blips do fly in the face of blogging tenets, but I seem to need the break from time to time.
After a short spell, I always return with renewed vigour and lots to show.
This blogging activity has been a process of discovery for me. I admire fellow bloggers who can keep the monologue (and in some cases even a dialogue with readers) going without blips or gaps. What an art that is...
Anyways, for what its worth , I'm back!

Summer Studio at work

2007-08-30T16:59:00.001-04:00

It is ironic how it took me most of the Summer to set this spot up and run it efficiently, and here we are at the end of August. Soon, I will have to shut it down for the winter.

I can only count on a few more days of super warm temperatures - such as this for surface design to really cook.

Maybe if I am really lucky, this September might offer a couple of warm days, but the warm humid nights for curing are already gone.

Above, is a shot looking to the West with the pot belly stove - it currently serves as a drying rack for rubber gloves. On the North wall below, I have added one more shelf to the ones that were already there. This gives me an 8 foot work bench. I found a microwave at Zellers for $49. so it has a place of honour next to the bench.
The table that came with the shack is too small, so I have the padded work surface propped up on plastic storage bins as a temporary measure.

I have discovered that everything needs to be in sealed containers as there are a lot of lively little creatures roaming around at night looking for anything that looks like a nest. In the mornings, I am usually greeted with a bevy of spiders in mid construction mode.

These chairs take up too much room so I hung them on the wall. They make great 'occasional shelves' until someone comes to visit:-)

Now here is the beauty of this place, this piece was left like this uncovered overnight and was still damp in the morning - perfect!

Oh, a word about how I get water down here...here's how -
Here is my sink. This old picnic table has a new lease on life.

and here is the French drain I built with my own two hands. I got this idea from Marian Reid who offers marvelous posts on the Dyerslist. I dug a two-foot hole that leans away from the shack and filled it with three bags of gravel - I embellished it with a necklace of stones from the cliff. It is both beautiful and practical - thanks Marian!
These are yogurt cups with freshly mixed dye sitting in sodium alginate that will need a stir before dye painting. Below is a piece waiting to be placed on my new drying rack.

Here is my drying rack. I bought this at Zellers (same day as the microwave) also for $49. I thought I would need to build something expensive or elaborate. This wall came with its own racks, eight in total, and only needed to be bolted to the wall. I use eight insulation foam pieces 24'' x 48'', each to stretch the fabric - they are light weight and wipe down easily.

Not glamorous but these three dedicated electrical lines (got them for my birthday back in July) are what keep this place humming: the fridge, the microwave and all sorts of heating plates and irons.

Cool eh? Cool for real though, pretty soon.

Frontenac Arch Biosphere Reserve Award

2007-08-14T20:09:00.002-04:00

Wild hand-dyed cotton & silk 114 x 127cm
©2007 Kit Vincent

Yes, that is a mouthful...

I just received a phone call from Sheila Ballantine who is overseeing the jurying process for the Best of TIA art show in Gannanoque. My quilt, Wild has won the Frontenac Arch Biosphere Reserve Award - wowie!
I quickly had to check this out, so google to the rescue...

It turns out that the Arch Biosphere is an organization that is doing a lot of good for our environment. In short, I am very proud to have won this award.

The Biosphere Reserve in Eastern Ontario is one of 482 Reserves around the world as designated by UNESCO in 2002. BTW, the geographical area is huge and includes lots of lakes and parks. Some of their projects include identifying habitats for species at risk, concerns for best community planning and environmental practices, and promoting local economies by networking with farms and agricultural producers.

Below is some information on the Art Show in Gannanoque. I hope you can join us for opening night on Friday. I'll be there for sure -

The Best of TIA
Annual Juried Art Show & Sale 2007

A Kaleidoscope of colour, texture and form...

the artists of TIA proudly present our BEST to you.

Come see what makes us different!

400 Stone St. Gananoque
Opening Night & Awards Ceremony:
Friday August 17 – Time 6 pm to 10 pm
Show Dates:
Saturday August 18 & Sunday August 19

Time 10 am to 9 pm daily

TIA members will be presenting their BEST art work
including all aspects of two and three dimensional work.
To join TIA and be a participant at this show please
contact us through our "Contact" web page,
or call 613-342-7828.

River song

2007-08-11T18:09:00.001-04:00

I posted about this piece earlier, and I am still at it...eEight rows done, and it looks like four more are to come. It's getting bigger all the time. I guess the River has lots to say:-)
Here it is today -

Every once in a while I find that it is good to step away and look at the whole ensemble of individual modules. I still need to work out the the horizontal ribs separating these rows....

Midnight in the Garden of Good Motifs

2007-08-07T16:33:00.000-04:00

Every spring I am overtaken by a desire to garden.
In May I just love to muck around in warm topsoil after a long cold winter. This year was no exception. So again, I planted a small vegetable garden. In the past I only planted flowers but now I find vegetables so much more interesting.
And then for some reason by the time June rolls around, I tend to lose interest in gardening as I move on to other pursuits that come with long hot days and cool nights.

Last night though, I thought it would be wise to pay a courtesy call on my neglected garden. After all, August was here and perhaps I might try a little weeding as it looked a bit overgrown...
It was getting dark so instead of taking gloves (practical), I took my camera (still not in gardening mode).

First, I had to deal with some heavy duty weeding before I could see any evidence of planted vegetation. Plus it had been so long since my last visit I couldn't really remember exactly what it was that I had planted.
I removed about 50% of what I saw, all weeds including lots of stinging nettles.... my least favourite as I had no gloves with me. But at that point I was on a roll, looking forward to finding evidence of something, anything!

OK, here it is all weeded.
Underneath it all, I found a bumper crop of zucchinis and cucumbers and lo, three yellow peppers. Here they are all washed - a brief moment of glory.

The cukes look as if they have just returned from the Tour de France.

The tomatoes looked very small with only one plant beginning to ripen. Now that the weeds are gone this lot may improve with access to more sunlight...

This might have been rhubarb at some point - not sure. Those leaves are bigger than charger plates.

Here is a dramatic night shot of the one and only ripe tomato plant - well almost ripe.

Look at this shot of the zucchini leaves at night. This was the reason I brought my camera. These would make gorgeous leaf motifs.

Here is another night shot of some lilies in bloom. I can truly recommend a late night visit to your garden at this time. It is a magical experience and with a camera you can capture some of it for later.
It turns out I love my neglected garden after all. It still holds so many surprises.

Avalon Film

2007-08-01T17:24:00.000-04:00

Has anybody tried this stuff?
I picked some up the other day at my friend Jennifer's (Picket fence Fabrics), and I have not been able to stop playing with it. My other work has been set aside (alas!) temporarily until I can get this out of my system. Jennifer could only give me 6 feet as she has had a run on this stuff, no wonder - it is soooo much fun!

It consists of a transparent plastic film that is water soluble (don't even sneeze on it...). The idea is that you 'sandwich' bits and pieces of whatever (fabric, paper, thread etc.) between two layers of this Avalon stuff and then sew through all three layers at will. You then spritz the resulting fabric with water - voila - new fabric, held together by thread.

Above, a school of fish sandwich awaiting the sewing machine.

Surface Design Journal

2007-07-25T20:56:00.000-04:00

This is a favourite quarterly to reach my mailbox. Yum yum yum.
Oddly enough my copy comes in a white envelope with a very large array of Hong Kong stamps, a total of eleven. The red ones in the picture are worth $2.40 each (Hong Kong dollars), the blue ones $1.80 each, and the green ones are $1.40 each for a grand total of $21. That's odd, as one of my fiber friends who lives in NJ tells me that her copy was mailed to her from somewhere in the States.
The return address on my envelope is:
Silex Ent.& Printing Co.
24 Peacock road
North Point
Hong Kong
Ah, the mysteries of the publishing business!

Friday's Eye

2007-07-25T20:25:00.000-04:00

Here it is the 25th and I still haven't posted last Friday's acrylic exercise. OK, here is the eye the teacher painted in ten minutes to show us the way:
Wow this eye really stares at you. It did at us all day in class. Ted chose to demonstrate several facial features on separate little mini canvases (like fat eights). This eye was very intense. You can also appreciate the economy of his brush strokes as you can still see the green under-painting poking through the top layers of paint. All the colours are clear and work together as glazes - no mud.

and here is my little effort. Not bad for starters, but poor marks for glazing. I did a nice job on the eyebrow - little bit of green poking through. But the eye is muddy. I am proud of the eyeball and I notice that the pupil of my eye is not as dilated as Ted's. My eye has eaten her carrots. I need to make a few more of these so I can get it right. The power of clear glazes...

White Water Thursday

2007-07-19T17:38:00.001-04:00

Day four. Here is today's piece. I forgot to snap the original photo - darn. It makes it so much easier for you to relate to this process when you can see the original, sorry about that. The photo I was working from was shot in the rocky mountains looking down stream into a creek of white water. The whole picture was very dark with light hitting very little other than white water slapping against a few rocks. Ok, here is the original photo (retrofit post:-)

Again, another red rock treatment I'm afraid, but the real challenge today was how to convey running water over rock, oh and differentiate it from the snow sitting on the rock... another type of water. On my monitor this peg looks a very blue. The original has a lot more green, so when you see blue, think green. I spent all day on this one fat quarter of student grade primed canvas. The results are OK but I think that I could use another go at this motif.

Even though my results have been uneven, I have learned a lot of stuff this week that I have long wondered about. For instance, by using photography as a departure point (a black & white photo is ideal) I can take what I want from an original image and morph it into another design and colour combo representing what I feel like saying, conveying illustrating. The original image is that powerful when used this way. I have always known this , but for the first time I have actually done it "on command"and it works. On the technical side, I have also learned how to make shadows on snow that look real, made rock that looks real even if it is red, and water to look as if it is white or mirror clear.

Tomorrow is the last day of this class. For something completely different, Ted will demonstrate how to paint a nose, eyes, and lips. What fun. Who needs a face when you can get the nose right?!
Will post results tomorrow.

Red Rock Wednesday

2007-07-18T17:22:00.000-04:00

Talk about a painting a day!
I am on a week-long course in acrylic painting and I have already used up all my stretched canvases - it's only Wednesday. Unknowingly, last year I bought a roll of 60"wide primed canvas (I had no idea why at the time, it just seemed sensible) so now each morning, I simply tear off a length of this stuff and off I go. It gives me 3 canvases, each 20 x 15... albeit not stretched. I just tape it to the easel (looks like a fat quarter) and paint away. By noon I am ready for the second one, by two the third. With acrylics I need to work fast or the stuff dries up - turns into plastic before my eyes - I keep having to remember to spritz.

Today we were asked to pick from a bunch of black and white photos and convert the image into some sort of painting - landscape, abstract shapes, whatever we wanted. On day one, we were given a photo and told to paint it as is (no choice). Today, this is the picture I chose.

Ok, it's a picture of a rock. A big one, in a wooded setting with snow on the ground. Yawn... but there was something about the composition that was intriguing. I decided that this was indeed a big bold rock that needed a big bold treatment. Ted (our teacher) travelled across Canada a couple of years ago, photographing it along the way. I suspect that this shot shows a piece of the Canadian shield - big, bold, massive.
Not too much time to think about it, as we were told to hurry up and get our large dark masses sketched in (this reminds me of someone...). No pencils allowed, we sketch in with a #4 flat bristle brush and fill in larger areas using a #8. We then move to lighter and lighter values and finish off with highlights. We then move on to the next piece. Here is my result.

The two ugly green rectangles at the top are the masking tape bits holding up my "fat quarter" on the easel. Ted came by wanting to know about the material I was painting on. I explained that I had run out of stretched canvas and this was simply a piece of torn primed canvas. He suggested that I invest in Belgian linen and not waste my time with primed cotton canvas. OK, sure.
Here is Ted Zuber on the left, talking with Andrew, another student.

Tomorrow we focus on water, all kinds, clear, choppy, waves, white water and snow. BTW on the way home I caught an awesome sky.
Stormy weather ahead is announced on the radio but I don't really care. All I can think about is the piece I did on Monday. This is the inspiration I need to correct the sky, or perhaps just start another painting.

painting at St Lawrence college this week

2007-07-16T18:17:00.000-04:00

I signed up for a painting course at St Lawrence college this summer. The class is run by Ted Zuber who was Canada's one and only Gulf War artist back in 1990. Canada's new War Museum features Ted's work done when he was a 19 year old during the Korean war - he was not an official war artist back then, just a regular foot soldier. He had the urge to sketch everything he saw. Once home in the safety of his studio he turned some of these sketches into some amazing paintings. I had a chance to see his work at the museum a couple of weeks ago - that's when I decided to sign up for "field painting... being creative on command". Don't you just love that title!!
Today was day one and sure enough,we were put to work very quickly.

Here is my first effort. A barn. I know, not very original, but the B&W photo I was given was a winter scene cluttered with fences, trees and other distractions. These are my own colours and my own season. I now also realise that he barn has no windows or doors...hmm. but I painted it in 2.5 hours...on command too.
After lunch, I was given a second B&W photo of a very angry sky against a low horizon. This was more successful I think - less scumble-work with the brush and better use of colour values and texture to convey motion.

Tomorrow I'm back for day 2 of a very enjoyable week. I will keep you posted.

www.kitvincent.com Website Update

2007-07-16T17:56:00.000-04:00

Refuge 27.5 "x 28"

A new gallery has been added to my website to showcase some new work done this year.

Art Shack Underway...or

2007-07-10T10:56:00.000-04:00

How I spent Canada Day, Independance Day, and my Birthday week.
I have come across several posts recently from fellow surface designers about how dyeing in hot humid summer months produces superior results i.e. better dye exhaustion and deeper colours. MX procion dyes are cold water dyes in name only... what they really really really want to quote the Spice Girls is an ambient temperature between 70 and 90 degrees (20 -25 C). That translates well for southern Ontario's hot humid summer weather that we regularly try to escape from with modern air conditioning.
So I went dockside and took another look at our neglected storage shed. I saw its future as a hot wet studio for the summer months. It had 'Art Shack' written all over it!
In its glory days, this shed/shack was a pre-war cottage built on a narrow ledge giving out onto the St Lawrence River. It had a kitchen, a bathroom, electricity and running water. Sadly, all this was removed except for the structure when we built our home (zoning laws).

I started with an exterior paint job, and spruced up the windows and their screens.
Here is an interior shot. Some of these windows have screens that open up, letting in gentle breezes off the water. I know my fabric will be very happy, but some of this furniture has to go.

Meanwhile, I painted, painted, painted. The old fridge might have been useful for storing dyes but it is an energy guzzler (the door doesn't close all that well) so its gotta go too. The pot belly stove has been disconnected and is too heavy to move, so it stays...an elegant reminder of bygone times.
I removed huge amounts of red indoor-outdoor carpeting along with its rotten under-padding, yuck. The carpet had been glued to tintest (?) that had been nailed to a layer of battleship linoleum...nails spaced every 4 to 6 inches apart (ugh!). What lay underneath were beautiful pine floor boards, painted deep yellow and green - how eccentric. I wonder when it was that deep yellow floor paint was fashionable?

Given that this will be a working studio and I will be dripping fabric paint and dyes, I don't plan to do a major floor-sanding job. Just enough to keep the floor very clean and functional for the fabric. I really don't mind the distressed look.

That's it for now. I'll keep you posted on progress as the summer unfolds.

another River piece

2007-07-02T15:59:00.000-04:00

This is going to be a large one. I've only got 1/3 of it roughed in on the wall. I spend a lot of time staring out at the St Lawrence river. This has had an impact on the fabric that I dye, paint and print and the colour choices I have been making lately. These colour combinations are looking more and more like words to me - a watery alphabet of sorts.
My sense is that the St Lawrence has a lot to say these days.

My cutting table where this new 'watery vocabulary' is being cut and sorted.

Time is a ticking.

River swatches

2007-06-27T18:33:00.000-04:00

Last year I got up early one morning and snapped this shot of the sun rising over the St Lawrence river, then forgot about it.
Later on while playing around in Photoshop, I came across the picture and decided to use it. At the time I was trying to learn how to use the paint brush feature in this difficult and often frustrating colour software program.

I just came across the results of that work and realised what a powerful tool Photoshop can be for a colour hound. Those horizontal swatches you see are simply the result of selecting specific colour pixels in the original image combined with the brush feature. This extraction provides a fantastic colour palette for a composition.
On the down side... I have forgotten how I did this, and my Photoshop book is three inches thick! Ugh!

my solution to threads that hang loose

2007-06-26T12:19:00.000-04:00

I saw Lisa Call's picture on her blog of threads 'hanging loose' on the surface of a quilt.

I also read all the comments to the post and tried out a couple of suggestions. I too hate having to hand thread all those dangling threads by hand AND I hate even more the thread nests that occur when I use the automatic cutter on my Janome.
Oddly enough I saw this advice on another website and found it works well on either machine, both at the beginning and the end of a run - no nests, no dangling threads. Yay!!

Here's what I do - at the beginning of a quilting run, I take a couple of stitches before locking in the row (with lock or back-stitch) then stitch away. At the end of the run, I again lock the stitch, then lift the presser foot and move the fabric away from the needle about 3 or 4 inches and I grab the loose top-thread with my left hand. I then move the quilt back under the needle to the same hole I stopped at. I lower the needle and bring up the bobbin thread, pulling it up from under the quilt to the top surface. I then clip both threads. The results are invisible and the stitch is secure at both ends
Here is a top and bottom pic of this process, done with my Pfaff that doesn't have a locking stitch - so what you see are back-stitches:

TOP BOTTOM

Rubber "opera gloves" for the dye lab - finally!

2007-06-13T12:07:00.000-04:00

Look at these -- I finally found 23" long latex rubber gloves - long enough to reach the drain at the bottom of a laundry tub that is full of cold brackish dye water... they are called Elbow-length Mucking Gloves (they go past your elbow) and can be bought on-line from Lee Valley Tools for $7.95 Cdn.
Item no. BL650. BTW they will send you a wonderful gardening catalogue at the same time - free.

I finished up the 12 metres of tray dyed fabric. Honestly most of them needed a couple of tray treatments plus a third pass of LWI overdyeing before I was satisfied with them. Here are six lengths washed, ironed and ready to be cut up.

Here is one opened up. Yeah, I guess it's OK.

Tray Dye Results

2007-06-10T15:19:00.000-04:00

A couple of days ago I posted some shots of fabric in the tray. This is a technique described by Leslie Morgan and Claire Benn in their book on Tray Dyeing.
Here are a couple of shots of fabric lengths that are quite eye-popping.

I have 12 metres of tray dyed fabric so some of them need to be toned down with a LWI bath. This will murk up the colours and give me some deep down dark tones, the ones I love.

Will post results in a couple of days. great technique but somewhat time consuming - then again anything really worthwhile is time consuming (grin).

The stitched line

2007-06-10T10:36:00.000-04:00

I just had a message from a fellow quilter State side, Pam Rupert.
Pam is the creator of PaMdora whom you no doubt you have heard about and seen. Just in case you haven't, PaMdora (Pam's alter ego) resides on big supersized quilted cartoons depicting the perils she runs into as she makes her way through a funny series of circumstances. In case you haven't seen the latest, here is her QN entry for 2007,

Gee... quilted cartoons, who'd have thought....? Brilliant!

Anyways, these days Pam is also looking into Artist Statements, and has asked me to elaborate some more on what I said about the stitched line on my website and show some examples. Happy to do so Pam!

I find that the quilting world (industry?) is supplying us all with a LOT of embellishment gizmos, tools threads, ribbons etc. There is nothing wrong with this stuff but we may be in danger of losing our way with our work if we are not careful about looking beyond the glitz before incorporating these into our work. Remember tyvek...?

I buy this stuff as often as anybody else as I love to muck around with new goodies. They are fun to play with and I love to make small studies to explore their potential. But they get parked over in a corner of my studio where I can watch them until I am ready to 'press them into service'. By that I mean I have no intention of ever using them as embellishments.

I find that it is much more powerful to work with the expressive qualities of these items. That usually needs a bit of thinking before acting.

The stitched line, be it cotton thread, couched wool or silk floss does not appear on a piece unless it contributes to the overall design of my composition.

For me, the design rules what is used in a work not the ingredients.

Any thoughts?

New take on tray dyeing

2007-06-06T15:05:00.002-04:00

This pic to the left shows 4 metres of gorgeous PFD cotton that was tightly pleated against itself, liberally squirted with procion MX dyes and was left to cure overnight. The wait was worth it. Right now the length is slopping around in the washing machine with some synthrapol.

While in San Antonio last February, I came across Leslie Morgan and Claire Benn's book on Tray Dyeing. I thought that there was nothing new to learn about tray dyeing, but I was wrong.

To get really deep colours and rich textures, I had overlooked the importance of tightly pleating or scrunching the fabric in the tray; AND the importance of using salt (good ol' NaCl) and lots of it!
forget ludigol, urea or calgon...lots of salt.
Oh yeah, and generous portions of sodium carbonnate (ash) for the pre-soak.

To quote Leslie "we've tested dyeing with and without salt and in our minds, there's no question that salt makes a difference to getting a decent strike.
As salt is cheaper than dye, we choose to use it."

Needless to say, I am back on the salt bandwagon, specially for direct application techniques like tray dyeing. These results are gorgeous!

On a completely different topic, I just finished two weekends of open house studio tours. For the tour, I made up some 15+ small colour studies from bits and snippets of hand dyed fabric that were lying around. In many cases, I added a bit of hand stitching. This turned out to be a good idea as they were very popular, and most sold. These are the only four I have left. Worth repeating I think.

Britannia Gallery, Ottawa, ON

2007-05-05T14:47:00.000-04:00

The vernissage for our group show took place last Thursday. What a turnout - we even had two sales! After so much planning and work it was great to see our work up on the wall and under lights. Oh yeah, and it gets to stay there longer than a week...what a treat!
The owner of the gallery, David Meuser was a gracious host and very patient with the six of us and our many last minute requirements.
I have included a couple of snaps of the show and two of my ten works.

This is our e-mail invite that features our collective piece.
This piece entitled Beginnings consists of six panels, each 18"x 48". They hang together one inch apart. The panels represent a diversity of chosen media but are united thematically and therefore come together as a whole.

Starting from left to right is a panel by Jennifer Hodge, pieced and quilted, P. Susan Clow, appliquéed and quilted, Wendo Van Essen, needle felted, Pat Lemaire, commercial fabrics free motion quilted, Kit Vincent (me), raw edged appliqué and hand quilted, and lastly, Catharina Breedyk Law, appliqué and free motion quilted.

Here we are, waiting for the show to start, standing "in front" of our work, Jennifer, Susan, Wendolina, Pat, me, and Cathy.

This piece is hot off my wall. Wild measures 48.5"x 48". This snap is a bit dark and doesn't show the colours or the stitching all that well - I will go back, get another shot of it and re-post.

This small piece Rasberry Green is 13"x 15", raw edged appliqué, machine and hand quilted.
I have eight other pieces in the show - photos to come.

You can find a more detailed record of the entire show here.

more new work

2007-04-09T16:51:00.000-04:00

48"x 48" Ready for thread work.
This one is the reverse of the first one - oddly enough I like it better. I'm off to make more.

New work, ready for threadwork

2007-03-22T19:57:00.000-04:00

I am getting ready for a show at the Britannia Gallery in Ottawa ON. This piece is one of seven. It is 48" x 53". The image on the right shows a paper sketch with batting pinned over it. A the first couple of shapes fused to it.

Work Underway

2007-03-06T08:55:00.000-05:00

A sample of stitched resist done in San Antonio.

Here is what's on my front burner these days

1) Group show: Seven Threads Studios at the Britannia Gallery in Ottawa, ON - 1 -31 May, 2007
2) Open House Studio Tour as part of the Thousand Islands Arts (TIA) group, also in May

3) Fibre Art Retreat organized by the Seven Threads Studios at the Glen House Resort in the Thousand Islands, 20-22 April, 2007

Yikes!

Back in my dye lab, here is a shot of my new work surface.
A 4'x 6'piece of plywood, covered on both sides with polyester felt, stapled and duck taped around all four sides. This allows both sides to be used, and the top slides easily across its two supports - the sink counter edge and an old microwave cabinet on the other side that just happens to be the right height.
Even though this is a small space, I still have access to both sinks when needed.

N.B. I Still haven't painted the room yellow yet. black stain on door still there from my dye spill a while back.

I covered the felt with with poly cotton sheeting as it doesn'tbond well with dye but absorbs wet under the art work (plastic would cause puddling). The sheeting gets tossed into the wash regularly. This large surface allows me to work with larger pieces of wet cloth when stamping, silk screening, stencilling, or foiling, etc. - is much more efficient than what I had previously.
It can also be removed and stored vertically when I want it out of the way.

Small sample showing two dye baths, wrapped, scrunched, stamped, and thermofaxed.

Below is a larger piece 60"x 72" just out of its first bath. This is a 2 yard piece from a bolt of Hathaway shirting. The Hathaway Factory in Prescott ON was closed Christmas week three years ago putting 140 people out of work. I was lucky enough to come across a 100 metre bolt of 60" light blue shirting. I would have preferred white, but the light blue is almost as good. It has a satiny shine to one side and loves all kinds of MX dyes. More of this panel to come.

Complex Cloth Workshop in San Antonio

2007-03-02T15:50:00.000-05:00

I am just back from a week at Jane Dunnewold's studio in San Antonio. I have always held a fascination for the process as I love to muck around with dyes and paints in the studio. Prior to this workshop I had not really taken a hard look at Art Cloth other than drooling over images on the web.

Last week I was able to see first hand and up close how a simple length of cloth can be transformed into a work of art. I am now hooked.

These images show a couple of samples I made while there. As you can see I managed to layer as many techniques onto these two bits as I could possibly cram in. Each piece includes at least two dye baths, discharging, thermofax transfering and silk screening with fabric paints; oh, and and a bit of foil in the mix. Instead of yielding mud, the panels seem to glow.

I am now back in the studio making stamps with erasers and have a couple of yards in the dye bucket. A cup of coffee, NPR (or CBC...smile) a #11 exacto and a box of Dick Blick erasers spells heaven for me these days. Below is an image of a couple of eraser stamps on newsprint.
It is the part I like best.

January Sunrise

2007-01-28T12:34:00.000-05:00

Minus 20 celsius last night...brrrr.
It's very early as you can see. Looking South-East over NY, I catch steam rising over the water producing a peachy-pink fog, such an incongruent colour given the temperature. Sorta theatrical and magic. Both hot hot hot and very very cold all in one image.
Sunny day ahead no doubt.

Say hello to my little ol' iron

2007-01-25T16:36:00.000-05:00

Brand new stash for the new year, 120 metres freshly ironed -

BTW, this circa 1940 GE iron did all these lengths. It cost me $10 at a garage sale. It does not have any steamholes (great for fusing), is very heavy and very hot. Given its age, it may go at anytime, so I scan for these when I can and when I find one or two, I scoop them up.

River's Edge: Fastwater

2007-01-25T16:09:00.000-05:00

This piece has just been juried in to the Quilt Surface Design International (QSDI) show.
The exibit will take place in the Ross Wing of the Columbus Museum of Art in Columbus Ohio USA, from April to September in 2008. I have also been asked to submit additional work that is at least as large or even larger than this piece. I have several pieces underway from this series at various stages of completion.

There was a time when just about all my work was large. On reflection I note that I have gradually pulled away from doing large work. One reason has been that few galleries or group shows can accomodate large pieces. I have run into this locally, as 40"x 40" is considered a large piece. Fastwater is 60"x 40" and was refused by a local show in November because it was "way too large". I have also been noodling around with needlefelting and hand stitching (both of which I love doing) but this has resulted in a smaller product.

I now have the perfect opportunity to re-examine what I started with this series two years ago. I know that this will lead to larger and bolder work.

River's Edge

2007-01-24T16:56:00.000-05:00

This is a piece that was started a while back and finished recently. I am trying to tidy up all these unfinished works started but never resolved - just a new Year's Resolution underway - finally. One down, many more to go.

The last of the scarves...for a while

2007-01-23T14:33:00.000-05:00

At last, the last of the fringed scarves for the Tay Gallery in Perth, Ontario.
Each one required hours and hours of fringe detangling. I used EVERYTHING in the book. Swishing the fringe in softened water, hair conditioner, shampoo, milsoft, ironing, combing with wide toothed, mid and fine-toothed combs, and finally cutting the tangles off - reducing the fringe to half its original length.
Next time, the fringes will need to be sewn (basted) ahead of any surface design treatment. We live and learn.

Bad Day at Black Rock...

2007-01-17T13:53:00.000-05:00

I am in my lab thinking that I am so smart, so well organized, there are all my concentrates lined up , and ready to go. Fabric is scoured, labeled, and piled consecutively, ready to be dyed.

Measuring tools are at the ready...all is well.
Suddenly, all hell breaks loose.
A 3 quart bottle of black dye concentrate bumps into me, falls to the floor and splats everywhere. This is not black dye, but black dye CONCENTRATE. Everything in the lab is contaminated with black.

A moment of silence (aka contemplation) a deep breath, and on to mopping, mopping and more mopping...The door to the garage will need repainting. Somehow white enamel paint absorbs dye concentrate permanently.
Ugh! What a mess....
I am looking for a silver lining...so I have decided to repaint the laundry room walls a rich golden yellow.
This will NOT happen again:-)
I need a bigger room...

New stash for the New Year

2007-01-17T13:32:00.000-05:00

A delicious array of dyed fabric batching, resting, and soaking up the soda ash solution. What you see here are six complementary colour runs using 12 pre-mixed colours from three primaries - MX-8B, MX-G and MX-3RA (red, blue and yellow) - in this case.

These are some results.
I dyed Kaufman pimatex, RG&S broadcloth and cotton sateen. The pimatex is my favourite, with sateen a close second. I will not order anymore RG&S broadcloth.
120 metres!
Here is a purple to yellow complementary colour run using one set of primaries. My favourite ones are the middle shades that blend so perfectly with the two end colours
Another stack using a different set of three primaries.
Lots of rich oranges and browns resulted.

Off to the Tay River Gallery in Perth ON

2007-01-17T11:50:00.000-05:00

I just love velvet!
As velvet loves dye. It soaks up every molecule of colour - rich deep shades result. Recently I pole wrapped 20 of these scarves, each 15 x 72 inches. Some of are examples of bomaki shibori (bark-like marks), others are arashi shibori (rain-like marks) wrapped with twine at an angle on the pole.

This lot will be making its way to the Tay River Gallery in Perth Ontario

Snow Geese

2007-01-17T10:23:00.000-05:00

It's minus 22 out there and as I look South over the St Lawrence - upper NY state for those interested - I see a convention of geese. For the most part they appear to be soaking up some rays, some are snoozing, others fishing, and some are just chatting.
There is a thin layer of overnight ice that will soon disappear with today's sun.
What a sight!

T'is the season...almost

2006-11-22T17:52:00.000-05:00

I have been invited to participate in a local Open House featuring fiber arts and crafts. So I decided to try my hand at arashi shibori. I am a fan of Karen Britto's blog and I happen to have a carload of silk scarves left over from a workshop last summer.

Here they are all wrapped up waiting for a second round of colour.

Look at this one. I was wrapping it while listening to Micheal Richards appologize to the American people on Letterman... wow.
The interaction of the silk with the string has a sculptural quality that I really like. I am not looking forward to untying this one. It is beautiful the way it is.

This is the label I made for the scarves using store-bought business cards and MS word. Not too bad. I have ordered 3 dozen clear take out boxes - the labels go in the boxes. How cute is that!

Here are a few scarves out of the washing machine and freshly ironed. I love the way silk irons from wet to dry - gorgeous.

Needlefelting and a running stitch

2006-11-15T18:48:00.001-05:00

This little piece was done in the car earlier this week. Done with a barbed needle, an old car sponge, a piece of felt backing and a few bits of wool roving...
Then over to hand dyed silk thread, cotton floss etc for texture and optical mixes. Gotta work a bit more on the compoisition, but I love the way the wool and the silk threads glow.

Revisiting unfinished work

2006-11-15T18:38:00.000-05:00

This is a collage from a series of fourteen quilts I have been working on over the past couple of years. Most of these have not really seen the light of day until now. I recently submitted nine of these to a call put out by QSDS. Quilt Surface Design Symposium have invited former students to submit up to nine pieces for a series of four shows they are sponsoring in the new year and in 2008.

This was great motivation to haul these out of the cupboard and get to work finishing, binding, and photographing them. Finally! I am even beginning to like them again. Now, back to hand work...and needle felting, my new love.

Seven postcards

2006-10-31T20:36:00.000-05:00

I am participating in a postcard exchange with seven other fibre artists I met last summer at Quilting by the Lake. We were all taking a Dorothy Caldwell workshop. Carol Boyer organized this exchange before we left, to foster connections and encourage a creative exchange through out the year.

Sooo, I decided to work with letters and oddly enough 'November' was perfect as it has seven letters! Too easy - so here they are all together. They actually look better together than apart. I can only dream that in the far distant future people will travel far and wide to reunite the long lost seven...

In the interim, off they go in the mail tomorrow to Carol Boyer, Barb Melchiskey, Elin Noble, Judith Plows, Judy Rush, Bett Rogers, and Andi Stewart.

In turn, I will post what I receive in the next couple of months.

Threads...lots

2006-10-26T09:45:00.000-04:00

I have this terrific collection of DMC and hand-dyed cotton thread that has been waiting for an application. The light weight unprimed canvas is a wonderful ground for this type of work. I have used a running stitch exclusively here. It acts almost like a glaze that painters use to either bring elements together, tame some or help others pop forward.
It is a very meditative yet creative process - i had to remain alert to the effect the se stitches were having on the total design; requiring a couple of removals. It first I didn't think I would necessarily cover the whole thing! In the end I almost did.
On to my second painted piece.

new work...wierd

2006-10-23T20:52:00.000-04:00

Today I found some canvas from Fabricland. I had it labeled canvas from Fabricland $4.95/m less 50% - I love sales.

I cut the length into three pieces, each roughly 29"x26". So today, following a very long and dry artistic block that lasted most of the summer, I pulled out some fabric paint and painted all day. Little squares and triangles. I must have been channeling Paul Klee ( I am a fan of the Ragged Cloth cafe). At first I thought, gee these will be great pieced; I must remember to photograph them for references.

Now that they are photographed I like them the way they are. Whole cloth - I plan on overlaying a running stitch on these compositions to create more depth. I have already applied the batting. Wholecloth painting is a lot faster than piecing. Usually speed is not a factor in fact I like piecing because it slows me down, makes me think carefully about the next step, but todaqy was an exception.

Art Quilt Reviews

2006-09-29T10:57:00.000-04:00

There is a new blog for art quilt reviews.

The intent is to present an objective view of both the good and bad points of art quilt shows, to educate the public and show them that what quilters do can be cutting edge art.
The site is dedicated to the understanding of art quilts and their place in the general art community.

Be sure to check the About page, because the group of quilters who contribute to this site want input on exhibits from all over all over the US, and even the world.

Usually by the time we read a review about an exhibit in one of the magazines, months or even a year has gone by. This site hopes to have reviews up before shows even close, if at all possible.

Too often we all work at being too nice and don't want to say anything negative. That's a counterproductive attitude because how are we ever going to improve if we don't look at ourselves honestly? Check it out: Art Quilt Reviews

Changing the World One Thread at a Time

2006-09-29T10:36:00.000-04:00

Changing the World - European Edition took place at the Val d'Argent Expo, Ste Marie aux Mines, Haut-Rhin, France.

The show ran from September 14-17.
To the left is the cover to the catalog produced by Thelma Smith, the curator of Changing the World.
The image featured on the cover is called "Zeitgeist" by Jocelyn Bisgaard-Lawrence.
A CD version of the catalogue is available for $12 through this link .

Congratulations and thanks to Thelma for all her hard work in putting this international exhibit together and taking it to France.

My quilt "Lancaster Series: Harvest" was a part of this exhibit.

New Book by Sandra Meech

2006-09-29T09:36:00.000-04:00

UK Textile artist and author Sandra Meech has a new book out called Creative Quilts.

My piece entitled Reflections is pictured in the chapter called "Exploring Stitch", on page 101.

This book is a terrific guide for anyone who wants to try out new approaches in quilting. It shows how any needleworker can turn their work into art, using sketchbooks and journals, and taking inspiration from art, architecture, and textiles. She includes workshops on how to turn ideas into reality, and provides detailed instructions on surface embellishment, mixed-media, and three-dimensional looks.

Fall Garden Discoveries

2006-09-26T14:51:00.000-04:00

A message in a bottle

2006-09-26T14:33:00.000-04:00

Look what arrived by mail a couple of weeks ago. Last July I attended a Dorothy Caldwell workshop at QBL. My classmate Carol sent this postcard out to a group to encourage a creative exchange. Neet postcard. Next...

this drinking bottle arrived by mail today. Too funny.
I opened it up and this is what fell out.

I intend to use all this stuff somehow but not sure what the next step is.
I may even include the bottle. I will post the result.

simple colour gradation using MX

2006-09-22T11:54:00.000-04:00

If Nothing Else...

asked ..what is the best dye product to use when dyeing silk a solid color? Acid dyes require very hot water and I fear the silk will shrink or worse.

I replied in the comments section of my blog but wanted to post a picture showing my preferred technique as used on china silk to the left and pima cotton on the right.
there is a slight difference in depth of shade with the silk in this case as it is a much lighter fabric than pima - fewer dye receptor cells.

Turkey vultures I think...

2006-09-16T08:47:00.000-04:00

I have seen these big birds fly around all summer. They are beautiful in flight - eagle-like . They must have a nest nearby. I had never seen them up close before. So I caught one the other day with my telephoto lens. What can one say about that profile?? Uuuugly!
Talk about misery's mother! they should wear bags over their heads.

Their elegance returns as they take off together.

More Fabric...

2006-09-15T18:32:00.000-04:00

Fabric#5. this piece of pima was dyed (was a dog) I overdyed then discharged it - wow.
Fabric#6. china silk soy wax resisted and dye painted.
Fabric #7. same process as #6.
detail of #6.
Lo, some Newfoundland lichen - beauty!

Been dye-painting and discharging fabric

2006-09-15T18:18:00.000-04:00

fabric #1. This is an MX dye-paint discharged with thiox on a scrap of pima. I was really pleased with the results, but it needs a bit more paint.
Fabric #2. Cut up canvas painted with acrylic. I have begun the hand stitching in the lower left corner.

This is a detail of fabric #1. I really like this beet.
Fabric #3. china silk, dye-painted with MX, resisted with soy wax and discharged with thiox. That's a mouthful of techniques. I sense that it may need more.
Fabric #4. These three panels of acrylic-painted canvas have been rolled up and placed in a dark corner.

Hello blog - I'm back

2006-09-07T14:41:00.000-04:00

Been quiet, but been busy -

I stopped all communication back in July. I went underground where all is quiet and cool, but a little dark... I apologize for not posting for many many many weeks, but in this case it was unavoidable. I acknoledge that this is anathema to blog etiquette, and no doubt I will reap the consequences.

Nevertheless, time to get back into the groove and shed some light on recent activities -

I ran a silk dyeing workshop a couple of weekends ago. It was held outside on a gorgeous rock. day one - sun all day. day two - rain all day. It just made the fabric all that more beautiful. Below are some snaps showing this beautiful location in the Thousand Islands region of southern Ontario and the work of these very talented and hard working silk artists. Gee we had fun! Specially trying to resist silk with soy wax in the rain... it actually worked in a couple of cases.
next time we should think of putting up some kind of shelter.

I will run a cotton dyeing workshop on the same rock this weekend and will have more pics to show in a couple of days. Hopefully the weather will hold up.

Take a look at this!

2006-07-16T11:10:00.000-04:00

I love it! its a hummer cozy...
made by Adam Ellison as part of his MFA thesis last year. Believe it or not there's a real hummer under there...he had to talk a dealer into letting him borrow one for his show.
If you want to see more, there is a two-part video at :
www.redefiningcraft.com/?page_id=129
-- shows Adam making the quilt,

and at:
www.redefiningcraft.com/?page_id=130
-- Adam shows the quilt installed on the hummer and discusses the messages hidden into the free-motion quilting.

In the process of digging into this, I also came across this site:
http://wwwfiberscene.com/galleries/gallery31.html
-- showing the MFA Graduate Show, with lots of interesting new textile work from recent grads in the same program. You can also catch Adam's washer and dryer cozys, almost as impressive as the hummer piece.
This web site (fiberscene.com) is out of the San Francisca Bay area and is dedicated to art with a textile sensibility, showing established and emerging textitle art of all kinds - a definite bookmark.

South African mohair wool in July!

2006-07-05T16:32:00.000-04:00

OK, someone sold me a pound of RFD mohair for $10. How could I resist? So I asked my friend Marianne for some of her acid dyes and found that they are really easy to use.
I used slow heat, a bit of vinegar, very little stirring (so as not to felt), I rinsed and hung them out to dry. From a distance these hanks read as solid colours but when you get up close each colour is made with four separate hues.
I get asked a lot what I intend to do with them? Answer -- I have no idea and I am not keen on knitting anything practical like socks, mittens or a sweater. Perhaps in January I will feel differently. For now, I simply enjoy looking at them, specially when they are out in the sun!

art back at work

2006-06-18T16:19:00.000-04:00

Hello blog, I'm back! I know its been a while. I took a little break, about five weeks in all. Been travelling, but now I'm back to work. Lots to do. Two workshops to give this summer; they are going to be fun, but I need to order supplies soon. Then there is QBL - one week with Dorothy Caldwell - can't wait. I won a prize recently, so I bought a really nice camera. I have been a shutter bug ever since. Have a peek at what I see out there with my fancy new lens:
This little spider is enjoying new digs.

The complex architecture of a simple white poppy about to lose its petals

Here it is in profile

Here is a moss of some kind growing on the side of a rock - orange blooms against bright green growth. Wow!

That's it for now. Next post I will show what's up on the wall.

the cotton samples

2006-05-13T16:10:00.000-04:00

This is just a small sample of the dyed cotton bits. Cotton can be discharged using both household bleach and thiox. I always knew this, but wanted to see the difference side by side on different colours. I also wanted to see how different colours reacted to separate discharge processes. In this picture, the round splotches are household bleach at various concentrations. The smallest splotch is a chlorox pen, the mid-size splotch is Vim bleach gel, and the large round splotch is undiluted bleach. The thiox here is still wet (square splotch).
Wait till you see the next picture - thiox blows bleach out the window!

BTW, this exercise is outlined in Jane Dunnewold's latest edtition of Heartcloth Quarterly, issued a couple of weeks ago. This was something that I had planned to do for ages, but never got around to it. Perfect timing!

busy organizing 37 colours of dye

2006-05-13T16:00:00.000-04:00

A while back, ProChem had a great sale on MX dyes. I couldn't resist. I bought a box-load of colour. I have used most of these in the past, but never really took the time to have a really good look at each.

The first picture shows snippets of dyed china silk with a thick dab of thiox paste. I am waiting for the thiox to dry a bit before hitting the lot with a steam irom.

In the second picture you can see that the thiox is beginnig to react with the dye. the discharge process has begun without any heat at all.

This pic shows snippets of dyed silk/rayon velvet also curing with thix. The velvet is the most fun to watch - front and back. lots of surprises.

more colour

2006-05-10T20:25:00.000-04:00

couldn't resist this pix.

needs colour

2006-05-10T20:22:00.000-04:00

Threadwork underway. outline is mostly in. I plan to introduce a vertical wash of colour down through the centre.