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When it rains it pours - but I'm not complaining...it seems to be raining opportunities for me lately. So many things are happening, I'll have no chance for mischief for the foreseeable future.
Here's the scoop:
Friday I drop off 2 jackets for the next League of New Hampshire Craftsmen show--Continuing the TRADITION--at the Gallery at The Craft Center & Headquarters in Concord, NH. This show is billed as "A multi-media exhibition featuring the work of newly juried craftsmen." It runs from April 19 through June 19, 2013.
Also on Friday, I'll be submitting 6-7 free lace scarves to the League for jurying. I hope to be able to sell them in my booth at the League's craft fair in Sunapee, NH this August.
May 29 my joint show with Elaine Perra Reneault--Rhythm & Rhyme, Pattern & Texture--opens in the Loading Dock Gallery here at Western Avenue Studios. Mark your calendars. Our opening reception will be on June 1, 2013 5:00-7:00 pm. Elaine does gorgeous paintings on quilted fabric that grab you from a distance and draw you right in for her intricate detailing. I will be showing my newest jackets and free lace scarves.
Here's a preview of the jacket I finished most recently:
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| Just Fiddling Around |
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This one was created with another of Judy Robertson's hand-dyed fabrics, complemented by commercial batiks purchased at Portsmouth Fabric Company with my prize money from my 2012 Best in Fine Sewing Award at Craftwear last summer.
These were the opportunities that I knew of as of Saturday morning. Then, Saturday afternoon during our monthly open studios, two more came up. First I was approached by Elaine Wood who is starting a small artisan-made gift store in the Zeitgeist Gallery here in Lowell. She asked if I would be interested in selling my art cards there - starting in 4-6 weeks. That was an ego boost and a good reason to make more of those.
As if that were not enough, later in the afternoon the event planner for the Whistler House Museum of Art came in to our studio and asked if I would be willing to display several of my jackets during their June gala--The Art of Fashion. Needless to say I was flattered and did not hesitate to agree.
Luckily jacket ideas are backing up in my head, so I guess I'd better get back to the sewing machine...
Another jacket is finished...
One of my goals for each creation is build in a small surprise, something you may not see at first glance. This one has a couple of surprises, one planned and one unplanned.
Here is the front:
And the back:
If my design is working the way I think it does, you'll notice the diagonal stripes immediately. But what you may not notice immediately, unless you are a Music Lover, is the fabric inset to create the stripes is all music related prints. And it is not a fluke that there are 5 lines in each of the groups of added stitching, as there are in a staff of music. These are the planned surprises.
There is also a surprise inside that was not planned. When I'd nearly finished it - I just needed to stitch the hem lining to the jacket lining - I had an accident with it and ripped a good-sized hole in the lining near the hem. Needless to say it was a heart-stopping moment. Just replacing the lining was not a feasible option, the seams were all trimmed, graded and understitched - very difficult to redo neatly.
Happily with a little creativity and a helpful suggestion from Sonja, I was able to not only fix the problem but add a new design element. For that surprise you'll have to see the jacket up close and personal! My show at the Loading Dock Gallery is coming up in June.
In past musings I have often mentioned using fabrics created by my friend Judy Robertson of Just Imagination fabrics. We vended together at the Quilt Surface/Design Symposium in Columbus, Ohio for several years. Each year I bought a few yards of her fabrics to add to my stash. While I've never been afraid to cut them, I am very careful where I use them. (I've heard that some are unwilling to cut them- they are just that beautiful.) Except for our kimono project, I've used Judy's fabrics primarily for accent. But lately one of her "stripes" had been calling my name for a jacket project.
The patterning in this fabric is so striking that I knew it had to be the central element of the jacket, not just an accent. I had two yards in the same colors (Judy dyes each yard individually), but I really didn't want to "blow my wad" in just one project. My dilemma was how to get a striking jacket from just one yard of fabric so I could save the other yard for another project. Happily my fabric stash came to the rescue. I found several pieces of fabric in complementing colors, some of which had woven patterns that also seemed to echo the dyed patterns in Judy's fabric.
So here's the result.
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| Front |
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| Back |
I've called this one Added Imagination in honor of Judy and her beautiful fabric.
I knew I'd gotten behind on my blog posts, but I didn't realize just how far behind until I looked at my last one. Since that post I've finished both pieces that I referred to in it, finished another jacket and free lace scarf, and am well underway on another jacket. I guess I have some writing to do over the next few days.
February was the month for the joint show with my daughter, Sonja Lee-Austin, at the public library in Topsfield, Massachusetts. Our theme was Wabi Sabi ~ Marks of Time, Use, & Weather. It's a Japanese philosophy or way of life that encourages us to find beauty in things that are humble, time-worn, natural, and so on. It's hard to put into a few words, but much has been written about it. And we're finding that many other artists have been inspired by the concept.
Early on I knew that I wanted to do at least one piece for our show that incorporated the recycled sari ribbon that we've recently starting carrying in our shop. It is wonderfully colorful--made from torn strips of Indian sari fabrics chosen at random and held together by a bit of back-and-forth machine stitching. It took me a long time to decide just how I would use it, but the idea did not go away. Here are the two pieces that resulted from staring at the hank of ribbon for several months.
First is the jacket I call "Tattered Jewels." Squares and triangles of fabric created from the sari ribbon were reverse appliqued into the front back and sleeves. It is finished with collar and cuffs of a beautiful hand-dyed cotton sateen from my friend Judy Robertson. For the final touch I use some great hand-made triangular polymer clay buttons I found at the Quilt and Fiber Art Museum in Cedarburg, Wisconsin in January. (It's a delightful museum if you're in the area.)
Here's the jacket from the back:
After finishing the jacket, I still had leftover bits of the sari ribbon fabric I'd created. Needless to say I couldn't let them go to waste. These all went into a piece I called "Sari Ribbon Dance." I laid out the scraps on a background fabric and then went to town with embroider stitches and beading.
I know there are more sari ribbon projects in my future, but I don't know just what they'll be yet.
Earlier in the week I shared the start of my project using recycled sari ribbon. I created a piece of fabric by couching over the ribbons to attach them to a piece of silk organza. Over the last couple of days I've cut that piece of fabric up to use it in reverse applique in a jacket. Here's the beginning of that jacket.
The squares and triangles will float down the front, back and sleeves of the jacket. I'll be doing more couching to tie things together, but I haven't made a final decision on that design yet.
When I started working on the fabric, I knew that I also wanted to do something with the ribbon in a wall piece as well. My initial thought was to follow the same process for creating the fabric, but doing hand embroidery instead of machine couching. As I began to gather the scraps from the jacket piecing, I realized I needed to do something creative with them as well. They were too beautiful to discard, but too small to use on their own. I started laying them out on a background fabric to see if I could get a pleasing design. Here are a couple of my "test" pieces.
I'm not sure where I'm going from here, but I know it will involve hand embroidery - and likely something more. I know it will get tweaked along the way.
I've had a hank of recycled sari ribbon hanging from a hook on the wall of our studio for months now. As soon as we started carrying it in our web store, I knew I wanted to work with it. I had no idea what I would do with it. I just loved the vibrant colors. With all its frayed edges and the overall look of haphazardness, it seemed just perfect for our Wabi Sabi-themed show.
For months it has called my name, without telling me what to do with it. A friend crocheted it into fantastic coiled bowls. I love her bowls, but it wasn't what I wanted to do. I tried braiding it, but my braids disguised the frayed edges, transforming the wonderful messiness of it into something neat and somehow insipid. I tried weaving it, but it came out sort of checker-boardy. Again ho-hum.
Finally in the last couple of days I think I have found a way to use it that fits my vision and the wabi sabi concept. Here's my beginning:
I pinned the ribbon to a length of silk organza, folding it back and forth to cover the base. I took the colors just as they came; I didn't try to rearrange them at all. I didn't iron the ribbon before putting it down, I left it wrinkly. I tamed the wrinkles just enough to be sure that I covered the organza and that I could stitch over it. Then I started couching a thin fringed yarn over the ribbons in a wavy pattern. I worked in sections, putting in just enough stitching to hold the ribbon to the base without any pins. Then I ironed the whole thing to flatten down the wrinkles and continued adding wavy lines of couching till everything was secure.
When I first got going I wasn't sure that the result was going to be worth the effort. By the time I finished the first section, I liked it just enough to keep going. The second section was much easier due to the fact that I placed the pins lengthwise in the ribbons, not crosswise. It made it SO much easier to remove the pins as I sewed and I was still able to control the wrinkles the way I wanted to. By the time I finished stitching the section shown in my photo, I was happy and starting to think about another similar piece.
I think this one is destined for one of my jackets - perhaps cut in strips and inset somewhere. Then I think I'll do another similar piece but stitch down the ribbons by hand using a variety of embroidery stitches and fancy threads. I think that will be a wall piece. Stay tuned, there will be more to come...
One of my father's favorite sayings was "you learn something new every day." A typical dinnertime conversation consisted of his asking us in turn what new thing we had learned that day. Often we had to struggle to come up with something, but usually we could think of something. I reinforced the idea that learning was important and enjoyable - an idea that stays with me to this day.
With my latest free lace scarf, I learned that I should test the strength of all the threads and ribbons that I use. I've made many of these and never had any trouble with thread breakage, but with this last one I did. Not much, but enough that I couldn't ignore it.
The thread that broke was a decorative element, not structural so it wasn't necessarily a fatal flaw. But I liked what it added so I didn't want to just cut it out. I'd spent too much in time and materials on the scarf to just junk it, plus I really liked it. I'd had fun working with colors outside my usual set. What to do??? No ideas immediately came to mind.
I set it aside, tried not to think about it, and proceeded with all the other things I needed to do yesterday. Late in the afternoon a friend came by my studio and noticed it sitting on my table. I showed it to her, bemoaned the thread breaking problem, and set it aside again. Luckily though, showing it to Laura must have triggered something in the back of my mind because just after she left I had an idea for fixing it.
Here's the detail shot so you can see what I did.
I added in little "fringes" all over it. The fringes anchor the broken places as well as adding another decorative element.
The whole thing reinforces one of my favorite art-related sayings - "no mistakes, only opportunities."
