My art group got together this week, one last sharing between holidays and before the end of the year. I didn't have a great deal to share, just the Inktober Zentangles finished since the last meeting and this article from Smithsonian Magazine about a fascinating portrait technique by artist Kyle Meyer. If you can't read the text when clicking on the photo for a larger view, this link will take you to the article on the magazine's website. It is not only an interesting story of how he came to do these portraits, but what making them involves, a melding of photography and basket weaving. I think how he does it may surprise you.
You've already seen all my Inktober Zentangles but here are some that Terrie worked up. She was so intrigued by what I showed at the last meeting and that I learned from books I got at our library, that she went straight from meeting to library to check them out. It was fun for me to see how she interpreted the same lessons I had worked through and how she is trying out working some of the tangles into her quilting designs. Above are just a few of the pages she's filled in her sketchbook with this play.
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| Terrie's original design includes her hand-painted and hand-dyed fabric |
Terrie also shared a 24" x 30" "fabric design", quilted and stretched over canvas, that she is submitting to a call for artwork to be displayed on an old carousel purchased by a local couple and now under restoration. Read more about the Carousel project at https://thecarouselofsmiles.org/ This link will explain the Art Panel Project that Terrie is submitting to: https://thecarouselofsmiles.org/artist-participation/
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| 1 yard sample printing of Meg's original designs |
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| Watercolor sketches used to develop designs |
Meg was anxious to show us the results of her efforts to develop a fabric line. She's been working up her own designs and motifs with sketching and watercolor before bringing them into a program that lets her combine individual motifs, work out repeats and play with different colorways. Learning a lot, she says, but it's a beginning what she has put up on Spoonflower.com. She's had them printed out twice on a sort of swatch layout at full size to see how they read in real life. The first printing was on an inexpensive cloth much like muslin, and the second on a better quality Kona cotton which produced a sharper, more colorful image. This experience makes her think this is really what she wants to do, design fabric. You can take a look at her shop at:
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| Anne's resin pours |
Our newest member, Anne, brought examples of some trials she is running on resin pours, something the rest of us had not heard of. It started with a project her husband is working on that he wants protected with the resin. She couldn't resist trying out mixing it with paints and inks to see what would happen.
She also brought along another eco printed scarf (she'd brought a dozen or more to the first meeting she attended) as well as some pieces of regular cottons that had been eco printed with rusted objects for the mordant. And because we all love hand-dyes, she also brought a sample of some of hers. We just want to steal all her stuff when she's not looking! No need to steal though. She's opened an Etsy shop featuring her beautiful scarves, EmdaArt.
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| Meg's testing of Craft-Tex |
Finally, Meg proudly showed me the results of her putting the samples of Craft-Tex I'd given out at the last meeting to the test. First up, a square that she'd applied paint to, fused fabric to and stitched through. The second square is one she applied oil stick paint to, washed, crumpled, dried and ironed. At some point she handed it to her daughter who promptly put a big tear in it. Well, so much for the manufacturer's claims that it does not rip! However, the paint did not scrub off in the wash, but the wrinkles did not iron out (although it would flatten out - the piece here we all had balled up to feel how it changes the hand). She liked it enough though that she has ordered some for her own purposes, which made me very pleased I'd shared this, thinking she might be interested.
I'm still working off and on on my dragonfly-themed bookbinding project and to spur me on, Meg handed me this heavy wrapping paper with dragonflies printed on it! Yes, I was unduly excited and thankful, and now pretty much have no excuse for not finishing my book.
5 comments:
That was an interesting meeting! So many talented artists in your group! And, so nice that you got some new dragonflies to put to good use! Jan in WY
Sounds great to have a group which sparks each other as you obviously do. Thanks for the link to the paper weaving. Those heads remind me of some work I once saw done in the same way, but with one map as the warp, and a different one as the weft. It was compellingly attractive - as are these heads.
I was so happy for you as I read with awe the inspiring works shared at your recent meeting....this finally sounds like the group you've been wishing for. Yeah!!! Fiber friends are the best!!
Mary, it does feel like the best mix we've had so far. I always wanted to include artists working in various mediums, at different stages in their explorations and with varying focus. That's definitely the case now and I can see how that revs up each one of us when we meet.
Olga, you have followed me long enough that you can probably remember how I've struggled to see how to use photos transferred to fabric in a way that shows why print this on fabric rather than just print it on photo paper. It had never occurred to me that one could print out photos as we normally do, on some kind of paper, and then mix that with fabric as this artist has done here. I'm more open to this kind of marrying textiles with non-textiles these days as I work more with papers in multimedia play, and I think the weaving of paper strips with fabric ones to blue the portrait is brilliant. Those maps sound intriguing too.
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