SDA Conference Part 2 - Pictures!

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

Lill Street Student & Member Sale

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

~ 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.