last night I finally finished this piece
it is titled "Party Line"
it has a very old school title, but it was created in a way that is very new for me
usually there are several drawings, then full size patterns when I do one of these, but the only thing I did for this one is a very rough pencil sketch on a sheet of notebook paper
all of the stitched grasses were free form cut and stitched, then the gold colored grass was added with stitching and Inktense pencils
and at the last minute I decided it needed a border that looks like a mat around a painting in the binding frame
I'm glad to have this one finished at last
and the verdict on the bracelet was that I really didn't like those small pieces of stone at the sides, so I pulled them off and went to a design that more closely matches the necklace this is to go with
and I am very pleased with how this is going
the stitching on this piece has begun --- concentric "circles" the basis of the whole design
I need to create 17 of these to cover the surface of the piece -- just 14 to go!
I thought this piece was done a while back
but it just begged for some little splash of color (one of the members of my on line critique group suggested a puddle of blood -- suggesting some murder mystery no doubt!)
after mulling on this I originally wanted to put in a yellow mitten (a yellow mitten being an important childhood memory), but it simply didn't show up well enough, looking instead like a dirty smug there in the snow, so I settled on a bright orange one instead (a pair of orange mittens being a much more recent and important memory to preserve)
NOW it's done
this piece is done too
I had thought that I was going to add some fringe, but in the end the fact that the bottom edge already has a matching "finish" all the way around, it just doesn't seem to need it
and having finished the necklace, I'm now working on a bracelet with a piece of the same stone
the verdict is out on how this will go -- I really like the center stone, still not as sure about the side stones
we'll see how it goes
now that the bracelet is done, I'm back to working on this piece
when I did the necklace part originally, it was the same width at the front ant the back
after I finished working the beading around the stone, I decided that I wanted the front of the necklace to be wider to fit along the sides of the stone
which meant I spent a couple of days tearing back part of the way and reworking it so it gradually gets wider
sort of a pain, but it looks SO much better
now I need to make a clasp and add some fringing
the hand stitching is complete -- time to make the quilt "sandwich" and take it to the sewing machine for quilting
after fiddling with color and doing a lot of measuring to figure out how big I want the circles to be, I have printed out the full size pattern
this piece will be 45 inches square when I get it done -- big enough to be seen from across the room in a fair grounds building
the deadline for this piece is July 18, when the quilt must be in their hands, so it's time to get to this!
today's chores include laundry and a trip to get groceries -- time to get to that!
the cuff bracelet is done!
it came out looking very much like the original drawing -- something that doesn't always happen
progress is being made on the hasp part
when I started doing the door I was concerned that the color of the fabric was too intense, but now that I've started putting on the hasp, I like it
I've been spending at least an hour every day working on packing boxes and getting rid of things into one of three containers -- a give away box, a recycle box or running papers through the shredder -- yesterday I shredded all of the tax documents for 2002 -- YIPPEE -- I'm hoping to start actually moving my beading supplies to the newly emptied cabinet in the basement this week -- eyes on the prize here!
the competition I created this piece for is being voted on
you can use this link
to go to the voting page and select your favorite piece from the group
the DH finished the refinishing project he's been working on while I've been reupholstering the chair
this table is old, he remembers it from his childhood, and over the years the top of it had been damaged and replaced and damaged again
he put down a whole new layer of walnut veneer on it, treated it with tung oil and waxed the whole piece
I think it's beautiful -- and it goes really well with that chair!
the bead work is finished and last night I coated the back with the fray check
today I hope to start putting together the bracelet
the more I do to this the more I like it!
at the current work rate this should be finished by the end of next week --- yippee!!
after a long hiatus, I finally got back to work on this piece
the top picture is where this was a couple of weeks ago, the bottom picture is where we are now
yesterday after I had done the stitching around the tall, golden looking grass, I decided that it needed some color (it originally was just stitching against the background) my solution was to pull out my newly acquired (as a Christmas gift) Inktense pencils and color inside the stitching
WOW! it really changed the look of that foliage, and it added exactly what I was looking for
now I need to figure out what gets done next
the stitching has begun on the horse shoe lock piece
unlike the first of these pieces which was against a very bland gray and white background, I've decided to do this piece against a much more intensely colored, wood grain patterned fabric
this may create challenges of it's own, but at least so far I like it
this is a sort of anatomy of the designing process
I started with little stick figure dancers, then went to some bigger dancers, but the idea lost it's charm as those figures got big enough to actually do the piece
since it is a piece that would make it's debut in a fair grounds building with not such great lighting, it needs to be bit enough and bold enough to make a statement in those conditions that can be seen from 15 feet away (ie: it needs to have that "come hither" something that will draw folks across a crowded room)
during the morphing of this design, I've been reading about the father of abstract art (Kandinsky) and thinking about this design in a more abstract way
which brings me to that bottom square -- thinking about those dancers and their partners from the point of view of the pinata hung above their heads -- all circles of swirling skirts and sombreros
I'm pleased enough with this to think about color and the real size of those pieces -- we'll see how that goes
this bead embroidery piece is coming along
it's not really like anything else I've created
I've finished to "pattern" and now I'm working on the background fill (the "boring" part?) I think I will be able to get this finished in time to enter it in the competition I designed it for
this is the second in the series I'm working on that features weathered sheds with unusual locks through the hasps
the one with the leaf is waiting for me to do some painting on it and then the quilting, so it was time to work on the drawings for the next one
I think this one will be fun
meantime the packing and cleaning continues -- I'm struggling with doing some of that physical work as my knees are hurting, but I'm trying to keep the end goal in mind
onward!
last week I was going full blast on this project
right now, however, it has been put on the back burner so that I can work on a piece for a competition
this is the piece I'm making for the competition
it is totally different from anything I've done before, and I'm enjoying both the process and the way it looks so far
then there is this piece
I had originally put three birds up there in the sky, but it just seemed like too much, so over the weekend I picked two of them off
I still need to make the small ones in the sky a bit darker (you can barely see those in the picture), but I'm a lot happier with the look of this now
just need to get back to the quilting part
and there is this
the photo and the beginning of the quilted piece
this piece is ready for some painting and then the quilting
coming along
since last Friday I've been busy working on a lot of things other than art -- like taxes and doing research into real estate and touring a facility to hang an art quilt show and cleaning out the space that will be my studio in the basement
hope to work in the studio today
