Foiling & Sun Prints

I devoted yesterday to some trial runs of foiling and tissue paper sun prints. First, the foiling. Above you see my usual collection of resources and supplies before tackling a new technique: two magazine articles and a book, various adhesives, rubber stamps, and of course, my foil.


I've seen this demonstrated, in person no less, but it did not go as smoothly as I anticipated. Honestly, it was a huge struggle to get the foil to transfer onto anything. The glue did not go onto the fabric cleanly and didn't transfer well at all from stamps. Mrs. Glue for Glitter worked the best of the glues. Fusible web did not capture it without a bit of a fight, but I think it would be my choice were I to do more of this. The Misty Fuse was interesting because it is more web-like than Wonder Under or Steam a Seam 2, so the foiling had a lacy effect. I'm up for any suggestions here - I followed the general directions, but it just wasn't working like they said it would.


So I moved on to tissue paper sun printing. Sun Printing is not new to me, but this technique of adding tissue paper is. I used the directions in Karen Eckmeier's article "Sun Prints with Tissue Paper" in the summer 2006 issue of Quilting Arts Magazine. Although I was a bit hazy on what effect the tissue paper would, have the directions were clear and gave some truly interesting results. To begin, you test various tissue paper for bleeding. You want the bleeding kind, although the non-bleeding kind has its use as well. She suggested tearing the tissue paper into strips no wider than 2 inches.


Then it's time to paint your fabric. I used fat quarters of white muslin, wetting it thoroughly before painting it with Setacolor paints diluted about 50/50. Karen suggests painting blocks of colors and I chose a red with some yellow added to it, a yellow and a green.


Next, start laying strips of tissue paper on the wet fabric. Press well into the surface. This was where I was fuzzy about the outcome. I didn't want to cover up my colors too much, yet just how were these papers going to effect what was underneath? I was soon to find out.


Here is the piece after sitting in the sun for a few hours, then removing the tissue paper (it sticks pretty well to the paint even after drying).


The purple and blue tissue paper transferred quite a a bit of color. The green transferred some and there was a non-bleeding green that merely sun printed - leaving the fabric underneath it lighter than the surrounding fabric. There's a blending to form another color where the blue bled across the yellow. This is very cool!


I did a second piece very similarly. I think I meant to do something a little different with it as a control but in essence, it's pretty much the same. Perhaps it was more use of the non-bleeding tissue paper.


Here it is dry and unveiled.


A detail showing how the bleeding from the tissue paper creates additional color as the underlying paint shows through.


I really like the yellow and green swaths before I added the red, so I did a fat quarter that way and didn't add tissue paper. I also thought using the yellow and red together might give me something with more orange in it. My cardboard base wasn't big enough for both fat quarters, but I had an idea. I was curious about what would happen if I painted half of the fabric, then folded the other half over onto it and pressed so that the unpainted portion would pick up paint off the painted portion. That's what's going on on the right.


It came out lighter than expected but I like this piece.


I sprinkled a little sea salt on it while wet and wish I hadn't. It created circles and bulls eyes instead of the usual more oblong drawn effect. Oh well. Still a usable piece.


Back to the half painted, then pressed together piece. I unfolded it and added tissue paper, but this time in the opposite direction from my paint swaths. In the foreground is a smaller piece of fabric that I dipped in waste water to tint and one that I wiped my brushes on to use up every bit of paint.


I couldn't wait to see what the tissue paper was doing, so when this one was pretty much dry, I pulled up a piece to check. Sun printing!


Checking some more - here you can see the slight tint of blue left by the bleeding tissue paper.


Here's the final product. The part that was folded over to blot up paint is running along the bottom in this view.


This closeup shows again how the blue interacts with the yellow paint to make a green area.


I still had some paint left so tried one more thing on a strip of unbleached muslin. That's a feather in the middle and macaroni arranged on the red parts. More tints in the tray above.


The feather did not sun print as I had hoped. But the macaroni did. Plus that bottom section was draped over grass so wasn't getting the direct hit from the sun, so it came out quite a bit lighter than the top portion. It's a really nice sherbet.

I give a big thumbs up to this tissue paper sun printing business. Think of the variety of images from torn or cut-to-shape pieces applied to backgrounds painted in their own variety of ways. It allows for a lot of control as well as just being surprised at the outcome.

Edward Gorey

Me thinks my niece (who sent me this Edward Gorey postcard) has my number...

Heat & smoke...

...but no fire yet. My Portland/Seattle friends have graciously sent their heatwave my direction. I think we may have hit 100 over the weekend - anything in the high 90's gets uncomfortable for me. Fortunately, we cool down at night so if you can just make it through the afternoon, (perchance with a dip in the lake), chances are the house will cool down by bedtime for a decent night's sleep. I found a cool spot on the front porch yesterday to finish my latest Picasso copy, "Portrait of Jaime Sebartes". I thought his glum listless look might be echoed by many in this heat, but I'm not beaten down yet.


I noticed how hazy it was all day - thick enough to think it might be smoke from a fire. - it's very dry and red flag warnings are out everywhere. Although a few small fires had popped up around nearby Spokane, the real culprit for our current smokiness is the Terrace Mountain fire in British Columbia that's been burning for 3 weeks now. The latest news says it was nearly contained but broke out of its corral when high winds kicked up, and several thousand people have been evacuated. I believe I heard something like 17,000 acres have burned. This area is Northwest of us - not close in terms of the fire moving in on us, but downwind as it were as the weather usually travels. As the sun went down and the moon came up over the lake yesterday, I tried to capture the intensity of the haze. Doesn't show well, but the moon was picking up an orange tint from it. Looks like we'll be living with this for awhile, which is nothing compared to what the people living in the path of the fire are living with right now.

More on Copying

With the big push for ArtWalk II over, I plan to spend August in a more relaxed mode. I'd call it "on vacation" except that implies I don't plan to do anything except sit around enjoying the weather and taking dips in the lake. Yes, there will be lots of that, but I also want to spend time on odd projects in the studio, some experimenting with surface design techniques, and working on my drawing.

I started another copy of a Picasso work this morning - my back deck is shaded until about 11:00 and it is the perfect place to take my drawing materials and work uninterrupted while enjoying the all too brief summer weather. I think my eye is improving - my many sight checks against the grid showed that my lines were more often correct than not. As I did while copying The Absinthe Drinker , I had a little "aha" moment, this time as I worked on the nose. I swooped the angle a little too long, and suddenly I saw the beginnings of Picasso's later work where he essentially pulled apart body parts and reassembled them, often with front, side, and back perspectives all on the same plane. Facial features are often stretched. Now I see how that must have developed and the effectiveness of it. However, on this copy, I shortened the nose back up where it belonged.

Since directing you to Margaret Ramsey's post on Replicating Paintings I've come across some terminology that I think better expresses what it is we are doing when we reference other artists' work in our own. Picasso based so many of his paintings on classic master works, yet he was not just copying these ideas. In "Picasso and His Art," the author, Denis Thomas describes what Picasso did as borrowing images from earlier masters. There's no escaping the impact a piece of art can have on another artist, as well as that artist's desire to interpret the theme or image in his or her own unique way. How can artists escape working with universal themes, and why should they? It is in the interpretation that an artist moves from mere copying to original work, with inspiration sometimes quite obvious, and other time more obscure.

In relating a period in Picasso's career "when he found a new challenge in re-interpreting works by some of the painters he most admired," Thomas calls these works paraphrases. Ah - what a lovely term. We paraphrase what others say every day, and it is totally acceptable as long as we acknowledge that these thoughts are not our own, though we may wish they were. We can build on those original thoughts, adding our own experience to bolster or refute them. We can make them our own without having to repeat the original verbatim. We can take them further or in another direction altogether.

So what do you think? Does the addition of these two terms, borrowing and paraphrases, help bring any clarity to the discussion as posed by Margaret's post?

ArtWalk II Opening Reception

Here I am at ArtWalk opening reception last night. Tango Cafe put out really yummy hors d'oeuvres and killer lemonade which really hit the spot on such a warm evening (although inside the building it was quite comfortable). I received lots of compliments on my work, with remarks both overheard and direct including references to the colors, detail and the patience I must have to create such work. I loved watching the men in particular, most of whom whipped off their glasses (if wearing some) and leaned in for a closer look, then back out again with words of admiration. I expect women to be savvy about textiles and continue to be surprised that so many of the men who attend these exhibits are just as savvy and curious.


Some of my church friends showed up, and one asked which quilt was my favorite. Oh, my - that's a bit like asking which child is your favorite. I like them all for different reasons, and I suppose some more than others, but a favorite? I settled on Azalea Garden 3: In the Garden (on the right in the top picture, detail above) and then went to analyzing why. I decided it was because of the spontaneous way it evolved, the first use of leftovers that was merely going to be a sample. Instead, it turned into a delightful little piece that deserved its own place in my inventory. The machine embroidery vines worked just as I'd hoped, climbing up and over the tiles as one viewer noted. I love the green that serves as matting and I particularly like its long narrow landscape orientation. Yes, it just pleases me so much when I gaze upon it. As the evening wore on, I realized that it was getting the most comments - if I were taking votes on viewers' choice, I think it would have won hands down, totally unanticipated.

We weren't inundated with people - partly because the building is so huge with 7 artists represented on 3 levels so attendees quickly dispersed, some preferring to start at the top and others at the bottom. Anyway, it allowed some time for me to chat with the other art quilter at this venue, Marty Bowne. Her current work showcases hand stitching on her hand-dyed fabrics, which she then mounts and frames. She was in awe of my machine quilting, saying I had certainly mastered it. Have I? I certainly wouldn't call it mastery, but I do a good enough job now not to be embarrassed by it! In my book, Diane Gaudynski is still the gold standard for free motion machine quilting on a domestic sewing machine. Everything I know about machine quilting I've learned from Diane, and I don't begin to quilt like she can. Still, it's always nice to get a compliment like that from another quilter.

A little work, a little play

I finished my row for the row robin challenge today. As I've noted before, there's something comforting and secure in working traditionally, if for no other reason than a session at it usually results in quantifiable results. The sense of really accomplishing something (as opposed to staring and pondering and auditioning and rearranging) gave me such a lift.

Since I can't show it to you, I instead am sharing a graphic produced by Wordie which produces "word clouds" based on supplied text (in this case, a post from my blog on how I see). Words used more frequently get greater prominence. It's great fun as it allows you to do a little tweaking afterwords of background color, font & orientation.

It's about time for the ArtWalk II reception so I'd better get ready. I wisely dealt with the inevitable wardrobe crisis yesterday, which was like my own version of What Not To Wear's 360 degree mirror room. I just need to change into the outfit I decided on at the end of many surprising rejections.

One thought before I go. I am always surprised by how differently I perceive my work when I see it hanging outside the work room. I know that I've been purposely working small for quite awhile - citing logistics and physical limitations as part of the reason. Everything in this exhibit is under 30 inches, most under 17. Lined up on the long walls, they look much smaller that they do here at home. Not that it is a bad thing, just making an observation. All are very suitable for the average home. However, I found myself thinking that I want to break out, now that I see how small they really are, and work more expansively. I think part of that feeling comes from a confidence I did not have until recently. The designs rattling around in my head are definitely expanding, requesting that I please not confine them to 12 x 12 or 14 x 14 inches. We'll see how well I listen.

Another Row Robin

I worked today on my next row robin challenge assignment, sewing strip sets & triangle units for blocks. This one belongs to a friend who follows my blog faithfully and would rather not know what's happening to her quilt. So rather than have her quit reading, I won't be showing you my addition until the top is back in her hands.


I don't think I'm giving much away in sharing that I'm using some of her border fabric and seed packet panels. Her theme is "Sewing the Seeds of Friendship," and I am very impressed with what people have added so far - not at all what one might think that theme would suggest. It is going to be a lovely quilt.

ArtWalk II Exhibit Up

Done & dusted, as they say - my art quilts are hung at Panhandle State Bank and they look terrific. My area does not have a special hanging system and they would not allow any nail holes, so a variety of these nifty 3m Command adhesive hooks did the trick.

This is the water feature that is the centerpiece of the building's 3 story atrium. On the right is a community room for banquets and meetings and a small cafe called Tango. They will be catering our reception. On the left is the entry from the parking lot, and I'm tucked in the back corner. A great spot.

I consider my Azalea 2 Garden Path the centerpiece of this collection so placed it such that anyone walking in the door would immediately see it as they looked to their left. This is also the way to the elevator.

That post between the wall and water feature is a bit of an annoyance - but someone passing by can still see there's something on that back wall.

This back wall is about 11 ft long and holds these four pieces nicely. The light from the sconce really accentuates the quilting on the blue piece, Flow. It looked so good hanging there that it took me a bit to remember all its shortcomings that I felt it had when I finished it over a year ago. I guess quilts really do age in the closet - it looks just fine to me now. Maybe it helped that a passerby stopped to admire it, a man who exuded about how it looked like lily pads in water, no - like a Japanese garden. I loved what he saw in it and had to share that in fact, it was my interpretation of telephone rotary dials drifting off into space! Another man commented that Jungle looked almost iridescent, like it was an oil slick. And that was with no use of iridescent threads! This is one of the things I love about exhibiting - discovering what others see in your work. There's definitely no wrong answers here.

Here's where the display turns the corner onto the longer 20 ft wall. I'm pleased with the gradual color shifts from piece to piece so that the more purple ones don't clash distractingly with the more vibrant oranges of the Azalea Mosaics. Nearly everyone who stopped to look today commented on the wonderful bright colors, so I guess that was a good direction to go. The fact that there were offshoots to the main piece was not immediately obvious which I was glad for. As Picasso said, "...to copy oneself is pathetic." People were not thinking, Oh, there's another one.

Here's the rest of that wall as it nears the entry from the parking lot, 13 pieces in all, the majority completed in the last 14 months. I'm pleased with myself

This shot is taken from the back wall looking across the atrium to the other levels where art will be displayed.

The 2nd level is photography -- part of their permanent collection I believe. My apologies that I don't have the artist's name. Above are Acrylics by Brett Rennison.

These oils by Suzanne Jewell are tucked into this corner on the second level.

These painting are waiting to be hung. Some walls on the upper level have a special hanging system that prevents having to use hangers nailed into the wall.

If you click on the picture, you may be able to see the wires dropping down from the metal track at the top of the wall. I think the watercolors above belong to Barbara Janusz..

And more watercolors to be hung, this time on the 3rd level. I just love these sailboats by Karen Robinson. See more (with much truer colors) here.

As a reminder, the opening reception is this Friday, July 31 from 5:30 to 8:00 p.m. at Panhandle State Bank in Sandpoint, Idaho. The exhibit runs through September 13, 2009.

Family Treasure

When I visited Maryhill Art Museum last month, I was excited to study their expansive native American exhibit. I have questions about some Oglala Sioux hand-made items belonging to my family. I found partial answers starting with the Plains Indian moccasin display above. The card notes that some have been found with beading on the sole, and were assumed to be funeral moccasins...except some showed wear on those soles. Well, maybe the spirits of the dead needed to walk around a bit before wafting off into the ether.


Here's my collection, and as you can see, I too have moccasins beaded on the bottom. (click on this or any picture for a larger view.) No funeral moccasins these - they were made for my mother who was born on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. My grandparents, Anna and Waine Whitlock, successfully applied to the Office of Indian Affairs for appointment to the Indian School there - he as teacher ($720 per annum) with "wife as housekeeper" (at $300 per annum). The documents of the provisional appointment are dated September & October of 1909 and my mother was born in January of 1911. Also in the picture you can see a rattle, a long braided bead necklace and women's leather gauntlets.


The family story handed down is that the Sioux loved my grandparents and were particularly excited when Anna became pregnant. They doted on both of them, making the moccasins and toys for my mother, beaded items for my grandmother. This is Anna modeling an authentic Oglala Sioux outfit, allegedly one made just for her. The dress has long since disappeared, making me wonder if the story got skewed along the way. I can't imagine a treasure like this getting lost when these other items survived. I also wonder about the part of the family story concerning the Indians' feelings for my grandparents. So many horror stories have surfaced about how the Indians were treated on these reservations and how the children were forced in essence to become white children. I'd like to think my grandparents were exceptions to those truths and were more sensitive to their plight. If nothing else, I know my grandfather worked to make a written record of some of the native words and I have his pictures of some of the Indian families in their native garb.


I've not really studied these items in depth, but this time out I began noticing the details in construction. On the underside of the rattle you can see the diagonal opening for stuffing which is then expertly sewn shut. No idea what's in there but it is nice and firm. By modern standards, this rattle is anything but child safe! The metal tubes dangle by a few threads and once held red feathers. It's a wonder that the beads are still intact.

The larger of the two pair of moccasins has this beautiful beading top and bottom making them surprisingly heavy. The designs on each shoe matches perfectly. The pattern isn't like any in the Maryhill display but I can see a general similarity.

The "cuff" is stitched on separately with this once indigo cotton twill tape as support. It also helps support the leather lace for snugging up the moccasin.

The smaller pair of moccasins has a strip of green felt at the join of the cuff and no beading on the soles. The beading pattern is simpler.


The design is an identical mirror image from one shoe to the other, except one toe has blue beads while the other has green. As a quilter, I've got to wonder if the maker ran out of one color or the other, or is this just a sign of a renegade creative spirit?


As for the gauntlets, I've always suspected they were trade goods that the Indians then decorated with beading. They have cotton lining and that's definitely machine decorative stitching along the cuff. I found mention of this in the exhibit to confirm that during the time these were made, the Indians were indeed getting "blanks" as it were to decorate and sell. I love that diamond beading pattern.


Oddly enough, I haven't run across any pictures of my mother as a baby on the reservation, with or without the moccasins. Ditto for Grandma wearing the gauntlets or bead necklace. I did find this circa 1910 picture showing how she got around on the reservation .


And this is Day School # 3 where Grandpa taught. My understanding is that he took and developed his own pictures, including this one. Many were made into postcards and sent to relatives. Apparently, teaching didn't settled well with Grandpa (Mom remembered being told that he became depressed and nervous from it) and by 1913 he moved his family from the reservation to a Homestead claim near Bellefourche, South Dakota.