What's New?

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.

Starting the New Year off right

...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.

The remaining Three Flags from LillStreet

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

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!

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!

The Sun is Back!

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.

2009 Wrap-Up

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!

May Day

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.