Frannies Felts and Fancies

A New Year!

2012-01-19T18:12:00.004-06:00

Hi all!
Sorry I haven't posted in an age. I took an intense workshop at the Felter's Fling at the end of the summer with Karoliina Arvilommi and Roderick Welch, and when I got back, it was work, work, work. Then I did a ton of craft fairs between the end of September and the end of December (which I should have advertised here but only managed to advertise on facebook). Basically, I was so busy it was a challenge to keep on track, and the blog got neglected. So, one of my New Years resolutions is to get back to blogging at least on a monthly basis (if not bi-monthly). Below are two pictures of wall hangings that resulted from the above workshop. The first one was done during the workshop and the second was done a couple of weeks after I got home.

If you have time you should check out the fabulous feltworks of Karoliina's at her website http://www.4felts.com/index1.htm as well as Rod's feltworks at his website http://www.rod.4felts.com/ .

Creation and Co-Existence: The Respectful Interdependence of All That Is

2011-06-28T01:20:00.005-05:00

Just making a quick entry to suggest that anyone who lives in the Chicago area go to see the exhibit titled "Creation and Co-Existence: The Respectful Interdependence of All That Is" at The Mary-Frances And Bill Veeck Gallery in Hyde Park Chicago (click on the above postcard to see a larger image with gallery and exhibit info). The exhibit features the work of Akemi Nakano Cohn and Lindsay Obermeyer. You can see a slightly longer post (with more pictures) written by me for the LillStreet Textile Department Blog here: http://lillstreettextiles.blogspot.com/ . I attended the exhibits opening reception and let me just say that the artwork by both artists blew me away. I hope you are all having a great summer. Sorry this is not a longer post (I will do something longer soon though)!

I am in the LillStreet Textile Sale Tonight & Tomorrow Afternoon

2011-06-03T12:56:00.005-05:00

(click on photo to see larger image)

Hi!
Sorry for the late notice. I am going to be in The Textile Sale on the Third floor of LillStreet tonight and tomorrow afternoon (and so is mom with her hats). Also, tonight is the First Friday event at LillStreet where the whole building is open including the private art studios for your perusal. If you decide to come out, after you check out LillStreet Art Center, you can walk down Ravenswood to the Art Lab at 1802 W. Berteau and check out their First Friday event.
LillStreet Art Center: http://www.lillstreet.com/
Art Lab: http://artlab123.com/

Check Out This Show Featuring The Fiber Work Of Artis Rebecca Ringquist

2011-06-01T00:36:00.003-05:00

Hello!
If you are in the Chicago area there is a fantastic show featuring artist Rebecca Ringquist's works in Fiber/Embroidery. I highly recommend the show. Rebecca's work features old vintage embroidered items that have been reworked with heavy machine embroidery and hand embroidery. Her work has incredible depth with lots of texture and color. The show is at the Packer Schopf Gallery at 942 W. Lake St. in Chicago. Their website is www.packergallery.com . The show runs till June 18th, 2011. Above and below are some pictures (taken with the artist's permission) I took at the reception. Her work is amazing (and I have been lucky enough to have her as a teacher too). :)

Guest blogger over at the LillStreet Textile Blog

2011-05-31T13:43:00.005-05:00

Hi,
I plan to write a more in depth blog entry later tonight, but till then, I wrote a little entry for the LillStreet Textile Blog on 'Inspiration' over here:

http://lillstreettextiles.blogspot.com/2011/05/inspiration.html
(for some reason blogger does not want to publish my links...I hit the link button and paste in the link but it doesn't work...I will have to investigate further)

What's New?

2011-04-30T15:36:00.010-05:00

I started taking a class on how to create Fabric Collage at LillStreet Art Center several weeks ago. It was a short five week session that ended just this past week. The new session starts this coming up week. It was an excellent class and I highly recommend it if you live in the Chicago area. More information can be found here http://www.lillstreet.com/class-detail/5774 .

Below is a picture of how far I have gotten. The next step is to embroider on it. I haven't decided whether I want to try machine embroidery on it or not. The class gives you a brief introduction to freehand machine embroidery but I think I need more practice before I actually use it on this piece.

The piece is a bit abstract, it is based on a drawing I did of the cracked and plastered sections of my bedroom ceiling (goes to show you, you can find inspiration in anything...lol). I used sheer silk over cotton in some places to illustrate where plastered portions had been replastered a couple times (plastered ceilings can be very interesting in the layers that can build up in touched up spots).

I also managed to get out and get some spring photos during the Easter weekend.

All in all it was a nice weekend. There was an Easter Egg Hunt at my husband's Aunt's house for my niece a and nephew on Saturday (my Husband and Mother-in-law were the bunny's hiding the eggs while I mostly took pictures). And, a Sunday brunch with the cousin's at my Aunt's house. The weather here in Chicago is finally getting spring like after a "mostly" cool start (there was one day a while back that we hit almost 80 degrees and then it promptly dropped back down into the 40's). We have actually been in the 50's and 60's since Easter weekend (and the trend is supposed to continue according to the weatherman). The downside is we have had a lot of rain (all kinds of flooding in the southern part of our state). Which of course it not as bad as the killer tornadoes that hit the southern part of our country. I feel so bad for those who lost their homes and/or loved ones. My thoughts and prayers are with them.

Wordless Wednesday...well, mostly wordless.

2011-04-06T21:30:00.006-05:00

I figure this is my last chance to put up a winter picture as it looks like spring is going to fully hit us this weekend. This [above] was actually taken just outside of South Haven Michigan just before Valentines Day.

And, below is a picture of me doing a snow angel in the street the day after the Chicago Blizzard of 2011 [just a couple of weeks before Valentines Day] taken by my wonderful husband [and published with his permission :)]

I guess I need to go out and catch some pictures of spring this weekend.

More Pink!

2011-03-31T20:51:00.005-05:00

I just wanted to put up a quick note that you can see my entry as well all the other artist's entries which were in the Ravenswood Pink Walk on House Beautiful's Flickr page (photos taken by a professional photographer...I had serious digital camera envy when I saw him taking photos...lol). Below is the link to their Flickr page:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/housebeautiful/sets/72157626113654489/
(For reasons unknown to me I can't seem to get blogger to put this in as a link so you will have to cut and paste...sorry!)

Been Awhile!

2011-03-24T22:37:00.008-05:00

Yikes! A whole month has gone by since my last post (actually , I think it has been two months....arghhh). Well I haven't just been sitting on my laurels. The project I began in my last post is finished as far as the felting goes (still needs to be embellished some more) although it got interrupted midstream and put aside so that I could do a last minute piece for an artwalk I got into (It was called The Ravenswood Pink Walk and was sponsored by House Beautiful Magazine and The Ravenswood Art Walk Organization). House Beautiful Magazine declared that the color for this year is pink. They did their whole March issue around the theme of pink.

Anyway, first up is the project I started at the last post.

The above picture is the culmination of the lace, vanilla & white & oatmeal merino wool, the natural colored blue face leicester wool, cotton doily, silk roving, and locks you saw in the picture of my last post. It took me quite a while to felt and the lace on the sides did not get as tacked down by the wool as I would have liked. The doily is tacked down nicely though (I wonder if it is because the lace trimming is synthetic...usually that is not a problem if the weave is loose enough...hmmm, I will have to ponder on that). Of course I am planning to do some embroidery on it and maybe even a little beading (not sure about the beading). Anyway, the wall hanging is my representation of the tree of life crossed with the idea of the hearth fire or the furnace of our being.

Next up is the wall hanging I made for the Ravenswood Pink Walk.

As I said the theme was pink and I only had two weeks to pull it together. It was February, the theme was pink, and the only thing that was coming to mind was hearts. Hearts...hearts...and more heart! I know it it cliche but my brain was fixated on it, so I tried to think about what hearts are associated with and just went with it. The title of the piece is "Three of Hearts" and it is made of various shades of pink, purple, and red merino wool and merino prefelt, lace inlay, and some violet merino tencel blend wool. It has some embroidery around the pink hearts (I did not do as much embroidery as I wanted because I ran out of time but I may revisit that now that the walk is over). Lastly it has an old time medical illustration that I silkscreened in each of the hearts. I had a lot of fun with it even though I felt a bit rushed. Below is a picture from the reception for the Pink Walk which was held at Architectural Artifacts (if you look close you can see my piece standing on an easel in the back).

Hopefully things will calm down for a while so I can continue to work on the first piece. I hope all of you who are reading this are safe and well.

Beginning a New Project

2011-01-21T23:59:00.007-06:00

Today Chicago is in the deep freeze. With wind chill we are presently at -2 degrees below zero and tonight we may drop down to -15 degrees below zero. There is frost on many of our windows (as you can see above) and the contrails of the airplanes flying overhead earlier today were hanging in the sky for quite a long time before dissipating (as seen below).

I am starting on a new felting project. I plan to make a felt wall hanging in shades of white, vanilla, buff, and light to medium brown wool with lace inlays. I will most likely also embroider it after felting it since I love the look of embroidery on felt. I also plan to use some silk roving, some angora, and some locks. Below is a picture of the supplies I have laid out to be worked with this weekend.

I don't have a clear design plan at the moment. It is kind of a nebulous idea floating around in my mind that I am trying to flesh out tonight. I am doing some sketching and hope to have a clear (or at least mostly clear) idea of what I want design wise by tomorrow afternoon. Well I am off to bed. I hope all of you are staying warm (unless you are in a part of the world where you would prefer to be cool...lol). Goodnight!

Starting the New Year off right

2011-01-01T23:09:00.003-06:00

...so, in the vein of starting the year as you wish it to proceed, I have been doing some blogging, some stitching on felt, some sorting of photos, some reading, some facebooking, some exercising (went swimming), some more blogging and facebooking, some rearranging, and finally some more stitching. All in all I think it has been a good start to the New Year. Next I plan to do some sketching.

Happy New Year!

2011-01-01T01:29:00.002-06:00

Well it is officially the first day of 2011. I decide to update the picture heading my blog since the flower was a little too early summer. And, although the snow has been washed away by the rain I am sure we will have snow again soon once the cool down comes this weekend (this is Chicago after all). My husband and I were supposed to be at a party tonight but he has been sick with a really nasty cold since the beginning of the week and still isn't better. From what I am hearing this really bad cold has been going around and takes a good ten days to clear...poor hubby! Anyway we toasted in the New Year with a glass of sparkling grape juice with my mom and then he went off to bed. Definitely hope 2011 brings good health to us all. I hope you all are having a safe and happy New Year!

The Eve of the New Year

2010-12-31T21:54:00.004-06:00

Hi!
For me, 2010 has been a year of many ups and downs. A memorable 'up' was having my first solo installation of my felt art (the nuno-felted flags that flew from the top of LillStreet Art Center in Chicago IL back in June). A memorable down (which I am still working on recovering from) was a number of health issues that popped up in Mid-September including a couple of trips to the E.R. for what turned out to be panic attacks though that was not officially diagnosed until a couple weeks later (took a while to rule out other things like problems with my heart or adrenal gland). Anxiety/Panic attacks are not something I would wish on anyone. At the time I thought there was something wrong with my lungs or that I was having a heart attack. Another 'up', I was in a number of art/craft shows this past year and scoped out a few more for possible entry next year. I have managed to keep up with my sketchbook/journal more often than not. I have also been experimenting with embroidering on felt quite a bit. Basically the first two quarters of the year were good, the third quarter was rough, and the final quarter has left me thoughtful. All in all it was not a bad year but I am hoping 2011 will be better (particularly health wise). I have a backlog of things I would like to blog about which I want to get to over the next couple weeks. One of my goals for 2011 is to try and blog once a week. For the most part over 2010 I managed to at least do one a month and sometimes more. But once a week is now my goal. Also a number of bloggers I read are choosing a word for the New Year. I have decided my word will be compose. I wish to be composed, calm and self-possessed. I also want to compose more experimental art work. I wish to compose a healthier, more joyful, and more artful life. So, yes, my word for 2011 is 'compose'. I will leave you with a few photos of the weird weather we have been having here over the last few weeks (which has been very up and down...lol).

The night of the first snow storm

After the second snow storm around Christmas

Over the course of today (We have had rain and thunderstorms going on since last night and now all that snow is almost gone...not to mention it was in the mid 50's in temp. both yesterday and today. Although, I understand we will be back to cold temps tomorrow and for the rest of next week)

Craft Fairs

2010-11-19T22:20:00.002-06:00

I know this is late but if you happen to be in Chicago my mom and I will be in two craft fairs this weekend. We will be in the Streeterville Artisan Market which is held in the Lurie Research Center downtown at 303 E. Superior (picture of poster above...and yes, that is my orange nuno-felt scarf pictured on it...happy, happy!)(Hours for Saturday the 20th are 10am to 3pm, and for Sunday the 21st 11am to 5pm). The Streeterville Artisan Market ran today, but, sorry to say, I didn't have my act together to blog about it in time (to busy trying to catch up with making stuff since I was sick with various problems for almost two months). The first day went well. If the whole weekend goes this well it will be a successful one.

We will also be at the DIY Trunk Show (well, I will be with both of our stuff while mom's remains at the Streeterville Artisan Market with the rest of our stuff) which is on Saturday November 20th only at the Pulaski Park Field House at 1419 W. Blackhawk in Chicago (hours are from 10am to 5pm)(sorry I have no electronic poster for the DIY but you can check out there website at http://www.diytrunkshow.com/ )

Hopefully I will be able to get on a more regular posting schedule now. I will post pictures sometime next week. Have a great weekend!

Illinois Chapter Meeting for the Surface Design Associaion

2010-10-29T16:04:00.002-05:00

Hi!
I just wanted to put a blurb here that the Illinois Chapter of the Surface Design Association will be meeting tomorrow (Saturday) October 30, 2010 here in Chicago at the LillStreet Art Center (which is located at 4401 N. Ravenswood which is the corner of Montrose and Ravenswood) up in the Textile Dept. at 10am. If you are a member or are interested in finding out about the Surface Design Association come out tomorrow to the LillStreet Art Center and check out the meeting. The first part of the meeting will be discussing Surface Design Association business and the second part will be discussing our work and doing some show and tell. If you are in the Chicago area come and check it out.

Today is 101010

2010-10-10T22:08:00.002-05:00

Just an odd bit of trivia for today. I thought it interesting that today's date 101010 is binary code for 42 which any reader of Douglas Adams knows is "the answer to life the universe and everything". 42 is also equally divisible by the days of the week. I also decided to blog this piece of trivia since it is also my age. Sorry, just had to get my geek on...LOL!

Bad Health

2010-10-05T20:31:00.003-05:00

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. I have been having some health issues and haven't had the energy for much. I have been through a battery of tests and I'm just waiting to see what the doctors think is wrong. It is scary when you lose your health. For the last couple weeks I have kind of withdrawn into myself and am just trying to take care of me for a little while. I have always been the one others depend on and I have been trying to fight the guilt for letting those others down. I need to take care of myself. There should be no guilt in that. There is a lesson here somewhere. Hopefully it won't be a hard one to learn. I actually have many things I want to post about, but I will leave those to another day. In the meantime here are some pictures for inspiration.

Been Working On Nuno Felt Scarves and on Taking Pictures of Them

2010-08-29T00:16:00.007-05:00

I have been working on making more nuno felt scarves and also on trying to take better pictures of them. I found a small mannequin bust (probably for children's wear) in an antique/resale shop and thought it might be the perfect display for taking photos of my scarves with (either nuno felted, dyed, and/or printed). So I tried taking pictures outside but the mosquitoes drove me inside (they are really nasty this year. I swear they are getting bigger and more aggressive as well as more abundant). The rest of the pictures were taken inside after I figured out a set-up.

I have also been working on my picture taking set-ups and skills because I have been applying for craft fairs and have not been happy with my past pictures. Plus it was time to show something newer. I have also been paying for an artfire online shop and should really start using it. So I have been working on photos as well as production.

Another thing I need to start thinking about is what I want to do for United Felt's International Day of Felt and where I want to display it. I could display it outside my house/studio or I could display it at a friend's Frame & Gallery Shop (or possibly LillStreet...I would have to talk to them about that). Yep, I have a few options as to where to display...but what to do? I think this week I am going to spend some quality time with my sketchbook and take some walks since I will be out and about.

Anyway, here is one last picture. There was this butterfly flitting around all over my backyard, and, being the crazy person that I am, I chased after it for a good hour snapping shots with my camera. Here is one of the better pictures (really hard to take pictures of a moving target...lol).

I hope you enjoyed the butterfly picture! Have a great weekend and enjoy the summer while it is still here.

The remaining Three Flags from LillStreet

2010-08-07T02:04:00.021-05:00

Ooops!
Sorry! It looks like I skipped a month in posting (you know what they say about "the best laid plans of mice and men..."). Anyway here are pictures of the remaining three flags during production.

You saw the Earth flag in my last entry and here is the finished Air Flag:

Just like the Earth flag I started with a design marked (with a sharpie) on the backside of a large (taped together) piece of heavy plastic. I used this as the template for laying out my wool. After laying out the first layer of wool I spread out a large sheet of hand-dyed silk on top of that first layer of wool. Then I followed the wool design that showed through the silk and laid out my second layer (so it was a sandwich of wool-silk-wool). Then I wetted and patted the whole thing down and then rolled it up. I rolled it in 15 minute intervals (I hate counting rolls so I go for time). I unrolled in between intervals to check on progress and then rerolled from the opposite direction. I did this for a few hours. After it was done I had the fun of rinsing out the soap. Then I set it to dry (which took a while). By the time I got to the Water flag I was very close to my deadline and didn't have a lot of time for drying. at this point I discovered that my washing machine did indeed have a way to just use the spin cycle. All I can say is I wish I had figured that out with the first three flags. Also, with all three of the remaining flags I corrected my mistake and made sure I dyed the canvas reinforcement to match the predominate color of the flags.
The Air Flag Production:

Here is the finished Fire Flag:

And, here are a couple production pictures (unfortunately by the time I got to the fire flag I was beginning to feel the pressure of my deadline so I took fewer pictures).

When I finally got to the water flag I realized that I did not like my sketch and started trying to come up with other design ideas. I finally hit on the idea of doing a visual representation of the water molecule 'H2O'. Unfortunately I took no production pictures of the water flag, so here it is finished. I will show you both sides since they are slightly different from each other (I was running out of wool in the colors I needed so I made do with what I had).

Finally all was done and all that remained was the clean up.

The flags flew until the end of the first full week of July. They weathered four major storms, several days of high winds, and many days of rain without ripping. I was extremely proud and consider the installation/experiment to be a success (I also got many compliments on my work which is always nice). My flags are down now. I just need to take pictures of how they look after Mother Nature had her turn with them. Then at some point I need to re-work them. Hopefully I will get back to a more regular posting schedule now that my social life has slowed down a bit. I hope you all are having a creative summer (and staying cool)! Ciao.

My Flags Are Done And Flying High Atop LillStreet Art Center

2010-06-07T22:46:00.010-05:00

Hi!
It has been a very busy month. I wasn't sure I would be able to get four nuno-felt flags done (from conception to design to final product to installation) in a little over a month but I did. It was a crazy ride and I am sorry I didn't find the time to blog as I went. So, I will put up as many in-process pictures as I have for each flag over the next few days. The theme for the flags was the four elements; Earth, Air, Water, and Fire. Let's start with the Earth flag.

These are some of the sketches I made and planned to follow (though I ended up changing my mind and going with something different on the water flag).

This is heavy plastic that I pieced together and drew the stencil I was going to follow on the backside in blue (didn't want sharpie coming off on my wool so that was why it was drawn on the underside).

The beginning of the layout process.

Further layout on side one.

Silk stretched out on first layer.

Second layer completed.

Flag after it has been rolled for a few hours and fulled.

Finished flag with canvas reinforcement and grommets...I should have dyed the canvas brown or green, but thought of it too late. The canvas on the other 3 flags is dyed appropriate colors.

Finished flag flying from flag pole.

That's it for now. Hopefully they weather well (since it is going to rain tomorrow). I am going to try and blog about at least one flag per day over the next few days. I also have an entry up on the LillStreet Textile Blog with pictures of all four flags at http://lillstreettextiles.blogspot.com/ . I hope you enjoy the pictures. I am off to make up some more of the sleep deficit I gained over the last couple weeks.
Thank you for reading!
Frances

I Have Been Very Busy!

2010-05-21T00:22:00.002-05:00

Hi!
I have been so very busy. I have been working a lot, taking a class, and working on my first installation project. I was asked back at the very end of April to make four flags to fly from the top of LillStreet Art Center in June. I decided after much thought and some sampling to do nuno-felt flags. I am not entirely sure how they will weather, but I am keen to find out. I have decided to consider this project (beside being an experiment) interactive art (or maybe collaborative art would be a better term) between me, my art, and Mother Nature. I have decided that once the flags come down (and have been worked over by Mother Nature) I will go in and rework what I am left with creating something similar but new. The theme for the flags are the four elements (Earth, Fire, Water, and Air). Each flag will represent one of the elements. I blogged a sneak peek of one of the flags in progress on the LillStreet blog http://lillstreettextiles.blogspot.com/ go over and take a look.

Here are a couple of pictures from my print and dye class.

Thank you for reading. I hope you all have a great weekend!

Just A quick Post

2010-04-21T23:54:00.003-05:00

This is just a quick post to let everyone know that I was a guest blogger over on the LillStreet blog again. Run over and take a quick look at: http://lillstreettextiles.blogspot.com/ .

And, just because I hate blogging without pictures here are a few spring pictures from around Chicago. Enjoy!

Painting On Silk With Thickened Dye

2010-04-15T12:46:00.002-05:00

Just tossing up a picture of one of the many things I have been working on. I had a lot of fun creating this in class. In this picture it is still unwashed and stiff with alginate. I have since washed it out and the color is still almost as vibrant (I need to take another picture of it washed out). I have more pictures to share later (once I get the pictures uploaded from my camera). I am off to enjoy the day. It is sunny and in the 70's here today. Beautiful, absolutely beautiful!

The Sun is Back!

2010-04-09T22:59:00.003-05:00

The sun came back out to play today. It is back to being very cool but as long as the sun is out I don't mind so much (it is spring after all). I have been making scarves this week. So far I have just been printing and dyeing scarves. I even did a couple pole wrapped shibori scarves. I haven't taken any pictures yet because they still need to be overdyed. I plan to get to that this weekend. I also really need to make some more nuno-felted scarves as my supply is really low at the moment. So I should have pictures up soon. In the meantime here is a picture of one of my kitties enjoying the sun.

"It has been a long and busy week" or "Work, 2 Classes, and a Funeral"

2010-04-02T22:38:00.010-05:00

This has been a very long week both physically and emotionally. I was signed up for a four day workshop in Natural Dyeing running Monday through Thursday mornings this week (which was fantastic by the way, even though I missed the second day). I also had my regular class on Wednesday nights. Plus I was scheduled to work four days out of the week (various client/jobs). In amongst all this I drove up to Michigan late Monday night and attended my friends funeral on Tuesday (which was a beautiful funeral, if you don't think it odd to say such a thing. The weather was sunny and mild and the spot for her grave was near the river. I missed her memorial service on Monday night but I heard there were some beautiful readings and stories told). Then I drove myself and my sister back to Chicago Tuesday afternoon. Above is a picture of a spring flower beginning to peak it's head up from Pat's yard, a hyacinth I believe. We will miss you Pat.

Below are some pictures from the classes this week.
This picture is of a shadow print made with lace and a blank silkscreen using thickened dye:

Here is a detail photo of the same print:

This photo is of a monoprint made from a silkscreen that was painted with dye mixed with soda ash and let to dry and then pulled with alginate thickener:

I managed to get a second image printed from that same screen, it is much lighter but still quite visible:

Below are a few pictures from the Natural Dye class. I will post more at another time since I am beginning to get sleepy.

New Thickened Dye Prints

2010-03-28T15:07:00.006-05:00

I started a 10 week class last week at LillStreet Art Center dealing with all kinds of printing with thickened dyes. The teacher is Rebecca Rinquist who I have had as a teacher before (she is fantastic!). I will Also be taking a four day Natural Dye workshop at LillStreet with Pamela Feldman. I hear she is extremely knowledgeable in her field and that she is an exceptional teacher. I am really looking forward to taking her class. Every time I have tried to take her class in the past there was always a scheduling problem (this time is no different, but I will only miss one day of her workshop, which is workable I think).

Anyway, in the first thickened dye class we worked with stamping. We stamped fabric with all kinds of things, from rubber stamps to fruit and vegetables. Of the fruits and vegetables we used there were potatoes, lemons, onions, radishes, endive, and mushrooms (I think that's it). We also carved up sponges into shapes and stamped with those. And, of course, there were rubber stamps. Rebecca also pulled out the syringes and we drew with syringes. I wish I had gotten a picture of the lab after the class was through. I don't think there was a space left on the clothes lines (and there are multiple clothes lines covering all the walls). At some point in the future we will be discharging over what we did and adding more.

So here are some pictures of the three pieces of fabric I printed. Some of them I am going to overdye before I get to the discharging phase.

And, here is a detail shot of the last photo above:

I will post regarding the Natural Dye workshop at some point in the next week. I also have to make some nuno-felted scarves in the next few days for the shop I sell at since they are actually running low, so I will post pictures of those too when I actually get to doing them. It is going to be a busy week.

Life, Death, Beginnings, Endings, & Beginning Again

2010-03-26T21:40:00.003-05:00

An old and very good friend of my family died this morning. Pat Shafer was a friend of my mother's. Her son played with me and my sister when we were kids and he went on to become a life long friend of my sisters. Pat had a great influence on me, particularly in the last 5 to 8 years. She was a very talented artist and very supportive of me when I was trying to find my way back towards a more creative life. She was one of the people who made me think that yes, I could be an artist. That it wasn't an outlandish idea and that maybe there was room in the art world for me. She lived in a lovely old house in a small town in Michigan. Although I visited her only a few times there in the last several years they are fond memories. We kept up mostly through email and internet communities such as Facebook and Artella. She encouraged my experimentation and I am very grateful to her for that. She taught a number of classes and workshops and if I go by my experience she made a greater impact than she probably knew. She will be sorely missed. I wish her well on her new journey.

This & That

2010-03-22T22:09:00.006-05:00

I have been sick on and off for the last couple weeks. This past weekend I was feeling fairly miserable. Today I am feeling somewhat better (knock on wood). For the most part the only thing I have really gotten accomplished is some reorganizing of my studio space (a constant job that...lol). I did wash out a scrap piece of vintage fabric that I dyed a while ago an painted recently with thickened dye. This is what it looks like now.

I am now going to embroider on it (maybe do some beading...not sure yet).

On another note this is an example of the weird weather fluctuations we have had over the last week. We went from this:

To this:

And then back to this:

The Garlic Chives do not seem the least bit upset by the snow we had on Saturday (which disappeared by Sunday evening). I suppose I should not be surprised. They are tenacious little buggers and have taken over a third of the yard over the last few years (much like the lemon balm). A good percentage of the Garlic Chives go to seed each year but I don't mind because the flowers are pretty and tasty in a salad.

Vernal Equinox

2010-03-20T00:25:00.008-05:00

Happy Spring!
All week the weather here in Chicago has been fantastic (of which, unfortunately, the weather report says is going to change at some point in the early morning hours today). In celebration of the Vernal Equinox I am posting some pictures that I took over the past week showing sections of my back yard and of the Lake Michigan & Montrose Harbor area. I hope you enjoy this taste of early spring!

Just a Quick Post

2010-03-15T23:16:00.004-05:00

Hi!
I am a guest blogger over at the LillStreet Textile blog again. Today I talked about my felting process briefly (with pictures). So hop over there and take a look http://lillstreettextiles.blogspot.com/ . All of the staff/monitors from the LillStreet Textile Lab will be blogging each day this week about what they are doing and/or showing their studios. It should be really interesting. And, since I hate doing a post without pictures here is a peak at my studio which is in the basement.

And, for a bit of uplifting in the spirit department (at least for those of us in the Midwestern part of the United States)...it looks like...it might be that...Spring is here (or almost)lol!

What I have been doing the last couple weeks.

2010-02-24T22:19:00.008-06:00

So, what have I been doing? Well, just before Valentines weekend I dyed some lace and vintage textiles found at one (or a couple) of the many local thrift stores. I was in a green mood so inspired by one of my fellow LillStreet monitors I mixed up an immersion bath of a sort of chartreuse color. I like how the color came out.

Then for Valentines weekend my husband and I got away for a romantic weekend in Saugatuck, Michigan. There is a lovely antique mall just outside of Saugatuck in Douglas, and of course I just had to stop by. I went a little bit nuts. It was a vintage-textile-and-textile-supply-palooza! They have these nice people who wander through the mall who's only goal is to help you or run your stuff up to the front to be put in a numbered cubby (this place is huge - it takes at least an hour to walk through it if you are hurrying). Needless to say you don't realize how much you have actually collected till you get up to the front...lol. Anyway this was my haul (not sure what I am going to do with it all yet, but I will think of something).

I bought tatted and crocheted lace, a tatting shuttle, lots of thread on wooden spools, two bags of edging and piping, a vintage heart pin cushion, thread on a wooden spindle, a vintage wood grainer, and a vintage mirror and brush set (I wanted the mirror to use at craft shows so people can look at themselves wearing my scarves or my mother's hats - the mirror we have is way too big).

I also have picked up my silkscreened-embroidered piece again and have been working on that (you can see some of the progress I have made on it below)

The last thing I think I will show you is a rough sketch that I am thinking of adapting for an embroidered piece.

I am thinking of embroidering it against a green cloth. It is really kind of an organic image and green make me think organic. Maybe I will use one of the ones above that I have already dyed. I will have to think more on that. Right now I am thinking that I am pretty tired. I woke up fairly early this morning for no reason. I didn't have to work until the afternoon I could have slept in, but nooooo, my brain wanted to wake up and be active. My body said "hey more sleep would be good", but my brain would have none of it and just had to have things its own way. The result being a nightowl who is tired early. So, I say unto you "Goodnight".

Texture Tuesday

2010-02-09T23:13:00.008-06:00

It is snowing here in Chicago. It has been snowing since last night and it is still snowing. It has not been a heavy snow but is has been fairly steady. We will supposedly have between 8 and 12 inches when all is said and done tomorrow (and I believe it). This was what it looked like looking out my back door earlier this afternoon:

I decided to venture out in the snow and see what the rest of the backyard looked like. I was fascinated by some of the textures I found in the snow.
Like footprints...

and curves created by opening the gate...

and water droplets dropping into the snow from the eves...

and lastly you can almost see individual snowflakes on these red berries (such a wonderful contrast)...

All this wonderful texture to think on. I wonder what tomorrow morning will bring?

Inspiration Monday

2010-02-08T18:14:00.005-06:00

I am looking for inspiration to get my buttocks moving. I have spent most of today surfing the net and only doing a little of the organizing I planned (and so far not even a lick of art making...maybe some art gestating...maybe). So I started organizing some photos and found this one. This is the poster child of industriousness. This will be my inspiration for the rest of the evening.

Oh and just for a little contrast in photos I guess we will be getting more of this tomorrow...snow...lots of snow (though not as much as the East Coast got). Maybe the weather is what has my motivation sluggish.

My Second On-going Embroidery Project

2010-01-28T00:53:00.006-06:00

Hi,
I thought I would toss up a picture of my other ongoing embroidery project. This one started as a practice sampler on a scrap of muslin, but I liked it, a lot. So, I put it against a background fabric and started to add bits here and there.

I still need to embroider over the roots (which are drawn in with a sharpie...hey it was what I had on hand when I started this: sketchbook, sharpies, embroidery floss, a hoop, some muslin, and a needle was all I had in my kit that day). I plan to have the roots go off the muslin and on to the background fabric and maybe even dangle off the background fabric. I am thinking of putting grass up on the soil line in Turkey Work/Stitch. I also plan to bring the sky up into the background fabric maybe weaving in between the blanket stitch (it's a thought). At this point that is as far as I have thought ahead. I am sure other things will appear as I go. The nice thing about this piece is that it was meant to be nothing but a sample, something to practice on and pass the time. That kind of gives me permission to do whatever I want to it without worrying that it be perfect. I can be as crazy or as laid back as I want to be. Below is a couple of detail pictures.

On another note, I was a guest blogger over at LillStreet Textiles at http://lillstreettextiles.blogspot.com/ . Hop over and take a look.

What I have been doing lately

2010-01-23T21:05:00.007-06:00

The last couple weeks I have not been in the mood to do any felting or printing (though I did print one apron for a display at Lill Street. I just don't have any pictures of it yet). When that happens I do embroidery. This is the piece I have been working on (when I had time) for the last week. I originally started this last spring as part of a silkscreen/embroidery class taught by Camille Canales at Lill Street Art Center. I silk screened the ovals and circles and then outlined them in split stitch. That was as far as I got in the class.

Then after looking at it I thought it needed something more. I had this image of vines running around the circles in my head and although I got a start on that last summer, I ended up putting the piece aside for a while. So now, I have dragged it back out and continued work on it. Along with the vines done in split stitch flower buds in various colors in satin stitch have appeared too.

Sooner or later I will finish this piece, though I imagine that there may be a few more twists added before it is done.

Pictures from classes that I took at Lill Street before the holidays

2010-01-07T17:31:00.006-06:00

The above picture is of my kitty cat screen printed on a couple scarves and a flour sack dishtowel.

The above picture is a silkscreen of a still life drawing done in class that was made into a stencil that was then used to silkscreen the image in a repeat pattern on a piece of cotton muslin cloth. Can you guess what it is? If not...it is an iron.

I took two classes at Lill Street Art Center in the fall and just before the holidays. I took the Advanced Screenprinting Class and the Easy Repeats Class both taught by Rachel Walker. If you have a chance to take one of Rachel's classes do so, she is a great teacher!

2009 Wrap-Up

2010-01-03T16:32:00.007-06:00

At the end of 2008 I attended as a vendor one craft fair (my first one). In 2009 I was a vendor at 3 Art & Craft Fairs and 1 other event. I am also still selling my scarves (in addition to my Nuno-Felt scarves I am also selling dyed and printed ones this year) at Painted Light Photos & Framing (and Mom is selling her hats there too). So I feel that I have made some progress as far as getting myself and my art out into the public eye.

I was in the Lill Street Member Sale (my first Art & Craft Sale on my own).

I was once again in the Streeterville Artisan Market with my mother (which is also the one we were at in 2008).

Mom and I also attended the Bucktown Bazaar as vendors.

Last of all my Aunt who owns Stern's Book Service (which is a psychology bookstore and service) asked my mother and I to include some of our work in with her books for a recovery conference put on by Hazelden in downtown Chicago. She figured that since it was so close to Christmas that some of the people would like to do some Christmas shopping while they did their book shopping. I was only there the first day of the conference (though our stuff was still their for the second day) but mom and I actually sold several items. I was very happy about this. It was a nice wrap up for the year. Unfortunately I did not take any pictures of the table at the conference. Although if I did, I think I would have skipped the pictures of the table and taken a picture of the salad bar the hotel put out for the conference goers. It had to be the fanciest salad bar I had ever seen (and so very, very tasty)!

Also, there was one last thing that put my work prominently out in the public eye and that was the Felt Hanging I did and showed on my front porch for UnitedFelt's First International Day of Felt back in early October. My pictures are not only on my blog and on the Lill Street Textile Department's blog but on the We United Felt website at
http://www.feltunited.com/
just scroll down to the bottom and click on "2009 exhibit online" which is in red and then choose the format that you want to see the pictures. I highly recommend taking a look at it as there were many, many excellent feltworks done for this event.

I also took various art classes at Lill Street Art Center(printing, embroidery, glass bead making) and attending one of the SDA's post-conference workshops in Kansas City. The post conference workshop was great not only because it dealt with felt but because I got a chance to study under and Internationally Renowned Felter, that being Jorie Johnson. I would recommend her classes to anyone.

I am still working on figuring out my resolutions as far as the direction I wish to take from here, so, that will have to be written up on another post. I hope everyone had a happy holiday and a great New Year!

Happy New year!

2009-12-31T18:47:00.001-06:00

I wish everybody a happy, healthy, and prosperous New Year!

Craft Fairs

2009-11-13T08:51:00.002-06:00

Hi!

Just adding a little self promotion. I promise a full post with pictures after the weekend. I am in two Art & Craft Fairs this holiday season. If you are out and about this weekend in downtown Chicago come by the Streeterville Artisan Market and say hello. It is located at Northwestern University Lurie Research Center at 303 E. Superior Street in the Lobby. My mom and I are in booth 15. If you are in the Bucktown area on the 28th and 29th of November then come see us at the Bucktown Bazaar at 2200 N. Oakley, Chicago IL. We don't have our booth placement for that one yet but I will blog about it when we do. Have a great weekend everybody!

Semi-New Felt Bag

2009-10-11T11:14:00.005-05:00

I meant to put this picture up a while ago. This is a felt bag that I made at the end of August. I had a lot of fun making it. The tassel at the bottom is a mixture of felt yarn and recycled sari-silk ribbon. It is presently hanging at the shop where I sell my scarves.

United Felt: International Day of Felt

2009-10-03T23:08:00.006-05:00

Today was the First Annual International Day of Felt. The theme was Yellow through Red a slice of the color wheel. Felters across the world made art made of felt in red, orange, and yellow, and displayed them for the world to see. I made a hanging of felt in those colors and hung it from my porch. It was an interesting experience. I had not previously made anything quite so large before (it is approximately 2.5 feet by 5 feet). I mostly stuck to scarves, shawls, bags, and the occasional sculptural piece in the past. I am usually very hands on with my felt making. I do a lot of patting, rubbing, kneading, scrubbing, and tossing. With such a big piece I had to get into more rolling. Anyway, if you are interested in seeing more information on this day you can go to the United Felt Website at http://www.feltunited.com/ . Below are a couple pictures of my work hanging from my porch. Happy International Day of Felt!

SDA Conference Part 2 - Pictures!

2009-09-12T12:13:00.005-05:00

So here are some pictures of the the three things that I finished from the SDA Conference (finally).

Lill Street Student & Member Sale

2009-08-31T23:49:00.003-05:00

This past weekend I was in the Lill Street Art Center's Member & Student Art & Craft Sale. I didn't sell lots; about a couple hundred dollars worth. But that is enough to buy some more wool and silk scarves in preparation for my next Craft fair coming up in November. Yes, once again I will be in The Streeterville Art fair. I am looking forward to it. There are a couple other fairs I am looking into also. Today I picked up my leftover stock. I will have to post some pictures tomorrow.

Belated SDA Post Workshop Report - Part One

2009-07-13T12:28:00.006-05:00

I really enjoyed the Surface Design Association Post Conference Workshop taught by Jorie Johnson. Next time I want to go to the conference as well. Mom and I arrive in Kansas City on the last day of the conference. We couldn't join in any of the conference events since we did not pay for the conference but we got to go to the vendor room. I of course found more wool to bring home. It was great to actually touch and see the wool before committing to buy. Although for the most part I have been really lucky with my online shopping and usually find the quality of my purchases to be above reproach. If you are into felting I highly recommend taking a class with Jorie Johnson. I found her to be a very good teacher. She has a couple of really good books out too (just toss her name up at Amazon.com for a look-see). I don't have a lot of time to get in depth today, but, so much time had passed I didn't want to let more time pass before posting. I have included a picture of my class in a round table discussion. Till later.

Getting Ready for My SDA Post-Confernece Workshop w/ Jorie Johnson in Kansas City MO

2009-05-27T23:50:00.005-05:00

Above is a picture of my workspace at Lill St. Art Center. I work there as a monitor once a week during their open lab time in the Textile Dept. Above is the table I usually snag for myself. I have been making pre-felt for the last couple weeks for my workshop at the Surface Design Association's post-conference felting workshop with Jorie Johnson. It is being held at the Kansas City Art Institute in Kansas City MO. Rebecca who is the director for the Textile Dept. at Lill St. is also going to be there at the same time but she will be there as a teacher (she is teaching the class titled "Fast Line, Slow Line"). I am really excited about this workshop. Not to sound too fan-girlish but I have all Jorie Johnson's books (the ones I could easily get in the U.S. at least). My mom will also be attending the Jorie Johnson workshop with me. We will be driving down with a ton of wool (yes sir, yes sir, three bags full...no joke, lol). I will be bringing my NEW digital point & shoot camera so I can get tons of photos. I probably won't have internet access but if I do I will be sure to blog as I can, otherwise I will blog about it afterward (it is a five day workshop). I hope all of you had a great holiday. Here in Chicago it has been cool and wet. It is my understanding that Kansas City has been hot and humid. I will have to remember to pack accordingly. Till later, ciao.

May Day

2009-05-01T00:05:00.008-05:00

Since it is now just past midnight it is officially May 1 or May Day. It is also my wedding anniversary. It's hard to believe that I have been married for sixteen years. It doesn't seem that long. Hubby and I are going away for the weekend to celebrate.

On the art front, I printed two scarves today with thickened dye. Soon as they are done batching and are washed I will put up a couple pictures. The circle embroidery project is coming along (but slowly). Maybe I will post some in progress pictures of that on Monday. In the meantime here are a couple pictures for your inspiration. They were taken in a park near Chinatown in Chicago last spring.

Not much exciting going on at the moment artwise

2009-04-22T22:51:00.004-05:00

Been working slowly on that embroidered and silk screened circle project. I still need to take a photo of it. Maybe when I get my camera back tomorrow or on Friday I will get around to it (loaned it to a friend for a bit who needed it to photograph her work). Also, at some point this week or next, I need to work on making some pre-felts for a felting class I am taking with Jorie Johnson come June at the SDA conference post-conference workshops. I am really looking forward to her class. I expect to learn a lot. I have her book. I wonder if it would be too fan-girlish if I asked her to autograph it? I also need to order some more Finn wool (from Misty Mountain Farm and maybe some dyed Finn wool from New England Felting Supply). Some Blue Faced Leicester from Marr Haven would be good too (and maybe some variegated Merino from them too). For Merino Wild Turkey Felt is a good supplier also. I think I have just listed most of my suppliers (I have also gotten carding combs for my mother from Pacific Wool and Fiber). As far as silk goes I order from either Thai Silks or Dharma. Although when I want silk immediately I go to Vogue Fabrics in Evanston. Dharma is also a good supplier for dyes and such. I have also heard good things about Pro-Chemical but have not ordered from them as of yet. Anyway, I am off to bed, so I am going to put an end to my ramblings. Oh, and one more picture for inspiration. Goodnight.

Embroidery, Life, etc.

2009-04-11T22:38:00.004-05:00

I have been working on embroidery lately. I have a piece that I silk-screened with four groupings of circles. I split stitch around all the screened in circles and plan to fill in the empty space around the circles with something viney (if that is a word). So, I have been practicing feather stitch. So far I don't think my efforts are too bad, but they still need a little more practice. Some of my stitches were either a tad loose or a tad too tight. I was also thinking of putting in a flower, but, I need to look into how I would stitch that. So below is a scan of my efforts with feather stitch.

When the project is finished I will post a picture of the embellished silk-screened piece. On a different note, I wish everybody a happy holiday (or at least a great weekend)!

Been A While

2009-04-04T15:00:00.007-05:00

It has been a while since I posted. It has just been so very busy. There was a lot of work at the beginning of the year because everyone wanted to get their stuff together for taxes. I was also taking a class titled 'Embellished Screen Printing' taught by a lady named Camille Canales at the LillStreet Art Center. You can check out her website here: http://camillecanales.com/home.html . She does really cool embroidery and bead work on fabric. Anyway, the class involved screen printing and then embellishing your screen printed item with embroidery and beading. It was a really enjoyable class. If you live in Chicago I highly recommend checking out the LillStreet Art Center. If you live in the northern suburbs of Chicago I highly recommend the Evanston Art Center. Although for fiber classes LillStreet offers more. I have taken a number of classes at both art centers and both have some really good instructors.
I need to get around to taking pictures of the pieces I produced in Camille's class. I also have been working on a huge felted and stuffed form that I need to take pictures of. I have really been lazy lately about taking pictures of my work. So, I think I will put up a couple of pictures just for inspiration (from a trip I took to Wetumpka AL and New Orleans LA a few years ago). Maybe it will inspire my lazy self to go take some pictures. For your viewing enjoyment:

I hope this provided inspiration.

Dyed Scarves

2008-12-15T21:39:00.010-06:00

I was going through my pictures and thought I would toss up a few pictures of two scarves that I dyed with thickened dyes. The picture to the left is a (almost) full length shot (don't mind the messy workroom behind the scarf).

The picture to the right is a detail shot of the scarf above.

The picture to the right is a detail shot of the scarf in the picture below.

This is the full length shot of the above detail.

Both scarves were dyed using thickened dye (fiber reactive dye with alginate). The scarves are silk charmeuse. I used a method called "canning" where by you take a small can the size of a small can of tomato paste and cut out both ends and put the can down on a piece of plastic and then pour the thickened dye into the top of the can. Then you drag the can onto your scarf and around your scarf in any manner you want and then drag it back onto the plastic (those are the thick lines you see). The dots on the second scarf were made with my finger dipped in thickened dye and rubbed in a circle on the scarf. I had a lot of fun making these scarves.

More Photos From Trunk Show

2008-12-14T21:33:00.017-06:00

The Picture to the right was my mom's display of felted bags, hats, cobweb lace felt scarves, and jewelery. Mom also had felted art bags (small bags meant for wall decorations) for sale against a window backdrop, but I manged to miss taking a photo of that. That is what happens when I let the photo's become an after-thought.

Above is a picture of the nuno-felt scarves I made that were displayed on an antique quilt rack. I also had scarves hanging from a wall hook display to the left of the quilt rack. But again, I wasn't thinking enough about a photographic record and didn't think to take a picture of the scarves on the wall. I most likely forgot about them because that is where they are always displayed at the shop. Although I like the antique quilt rack, I think I need to come up with a better way to display my scarves. The wall display isn't quite right either. Maybe suspend something from the ceiling so that the scarves are more up at eye level? Hmmmmm... I will have to think on this further.

This is a picture of my mom's felt hat with a vintage silk scarf twirled into a rosette surrounded by one of my nuno-felted silk scarves. That we had matching colors was an unplanned but pleasant surprise. They look good together don't they?

That is it for photos for the moment. My next project is actually not scarves. I am thinking about making a nuno-felted wall hanging. I have a couple yards of silk I shibori dyed yellow and green. Maybe I will make use of that for a backing. I will post photos as I work through the project. Right now it is just in the thought stage.

Trunk Show

2008-12-13T18:42:00.007-06:00

How did the Trunk Show go? Well, we didn't really sell anything, but we did get experience in giving short demos. We also got exposure through the shop's advertising. So, although it was not rewarding monetarily speaking, it was rewarding in other ways. We also got to meet some very interesting people (some of which we may have turned on to felting). And, we got some good feedback (feedback is always good to get, except when it's not...lol). Above is a picture of the shop we had the Trunk Show at. I will post some more pictures later.

Making Money To Continue Feeding My Fiber Art Addiction

2008-12-04T21:42:00.003-06:00

~ So, I have been selling my Nuno Felt Scarves at a small shop in my area on and off for almost a year. A little after I learned how to make Nuno Felt I got my mom interested in felting. She has gotten quite adept at it over the past year. She makes hats, bags, and jewelery. She found out about the Streeterville Artisan Market from a fellow class-mate towards the end of last summer and we decided to apply for it. We got accepted as a vendor. So on November 7th and 8th we did our first Art/Craft Fair. And, we did well! At least I think so. We manged to make enough that we paid for our table, materials, and time. I am sure other vendors probably made more of a profit, but, for our first Fair I think we did well. I have to admit it took a lot of organizing (more than one would think). It also took a lot longer than I thought it would to build up a decent amount of stock. Up until this point I was only making scarves when the shop sold one and the shop never kept more than six scarves at a time. So I really didn't have much in the way of stock built up. Good thing we had a couple months to get things together. After my experience with the Streeterville Artisan Market I have a lot of respect for people who do this sort of thing full time. It might be interesting to go that direction eventually myself. But, for the moment, I am not giving up my other job.
~ This coming Saturday December 6th my mom and I are having a Trunk Show at the shop I have been selling my scarves at. If you happen to live in Chicago, IL and want to check us out the shop's name is Painted Light Photos at 1742 W. Balmoral Avenue. We will be there from 11am to 5pm doing periodic demos and hopefully selling our wares. Above I included a quick snapshot of our booth at the Streeterville Artisan Market (took me awhile to figure out how to attach the picture and I am not sure how you make it show up on the bottom, oh well this works. LOL). I will try an put up a post soon after the Trunk Show.

The dreaded First Entry

2008-10-15T22:39:00.001-05:00

First entries in any kind of journal are always rough. You are breaking new ground. Possibly messing up that pristine page. But, if you don't take that chance nothing is accomplished. So, this is my blog. Here I will document my adventures with fiber and textile art (and maybe the occasional side-trip into the unknown, as I am known to steer off on tangents). The two main areas of fiber art I am exploring right now are felting and dying. I also do some collage work. I hope in the future to put up pictures. For right now it is enough for me that I finally got around to creating this blog.