Quilt magic

Cut fabric apart then sew it back together. Repeat.

 
In the 1940's in the coal region of Pennsylvania, my mom's friend Sue made a number of cotton scrap quilts tops. Sometime in the 1980's she gave two of them to my mom. They had never been completed and were in a bin with a quilt top Mom appliqued for me, but didn't complete before her death.  I've been looking at these and visualizing them made whole and useful.  The 40's quilt top had many fabrics throughout that had not held up to the years and so the structure of the quilt top had failed.  I spent an afternoon cutting the squares apart, and then cutting the salvaged squares into four 2 inch pieces.  Now, I am sewing them together with solid colors as exclamations bisecting the 4 squares.  We'll see where this goes.  I'm thinking I will use a dark neutral as sashing between groups of blocks, but I may just work out the colors and values and join the blocks directly to each other.  My vision for this is still evolving, but I love the energy of the small prints, complex plaids and naive florals.

Presenting Scrappy Cat...

Scrappy Lamb has a new friend.  Another cuddly friend made of cotton boucle with bamboo rayon fiberfill, Scrappy Cat has features cut and sewn from felted wool scraps and has joined the lamb in his pen.

Sometimes a project just is too much fun to stop with one.  I love the feel of the cotton boucle in my fingers as I am stitching it, and the rich textures and colors found in my bag of wool felts and vintage button twist delight, too.  I hope these friends bring a smile to your life, as they have mine.
 

New babies and joy!

Good friends have a little baby (their first!) on the way.   Today I pulled some favorite bits and pieces out of my scrap bin, and 'Scrappy Lamb' was born.

Scrappy Lamb's body is cut from a vintage cotton boucle, and I used bits of wool felt for paws, ears, nose and pupils.  His tail is a triangle of pale blue shearling, with the leather pulled through a slit to the wrong side.  He's stuffed loosely with bamboo rayon fiberfill.  

Making him is how I spent my afternoon. I sat on the couch trying to keep cool, stitching all the detail features and appliques by hand, then ran the seam joining back to front on my machine. He has an oval base hand stitched around the circumference to allow him to stand.  

This was a fun project and I am always amazed by the way inspiration and ideas creep into my mind and life.

Working styles

For many years I had a decorative painting and costuming business.  I operated this out of a cathedral ceilinged 
600 square foot free-standing studio just a short walk across our yard.  One half of the space was kept clean for a sewing/fitting area and design/drawing area (no clay or wax there!) The other half (with the sink!) was where the messy stuff happened.  

After a fall left me with mild traumatic brain injury, I have had to change the way I approach my work.  I had the best occupational therapist in rehab (shout out to Olivia - I love you forever!) She helped me re-structure my creative life and put systems in place to manage the "stuff" of creativity.  With her guidance, I defined my two 'highest priority' mediums (encaustic painting and sewing.)  Everything else was donated to Lancaster Creative Reuse, family and friends. Now, I work on my dining room table in the center of my home, surrounded by my family.  I work intensely for short periods of time, and take many frequent breaks.  I keep my current projects in bins on a rolling cart so I can easily set up when I'm working, and put it away at the end of my session.

Such a simple solution to prevent being overwhelmed by the stuff of creativity...
Maybe it would work for someone else?

Here's a link to check out-
http://www.lancastercreativereuse.org/

Time flies...

Wish I could figure out where exactly the last 4 weeks have gone, and I extend my sincere apology to faithful visitors for the gap in posting.

I know that there was some travel across the state of Pennsylvania and to Maryland, and a few days spent quilting with beloved friends, and some family meals in there, too.  Oh, I worked in my square foot garden, too. The rest of the time I am not so sure about what I was doing or where the hours went.  I know not much creating got done.

 

Watercolor underpainting

This afternoon I am committed to returning to the encaustic project from my trip along the Susquehanna River back in April (already 3 months ago!) I am going to post the encaustic work in phases rather than waiting until I decide to stop working on a painting to post a photo.  It will be interesting for me to see it in a freeze-frame evolution.  This is painting number 1, after the first washes of paint and 'burn in.'  That term refers to applying heat either with hot tools in the wax or heating the air over the painting to bond the colors and layers of wax to each other and the wood support.  Some basic physics comes into play here since the darkest pigments absorb heat more quickly, and there can be some interesting and surprising outcomes because of this.

 

 Encaustic painting phase 1

 Check back soon for phase 2 of this encaustic painting...

creative organization...

Collecting images and saving scraps and bits of papers, tickets, ephemera of all sorts is a trait of us 'creative types.'

This evening I am working on some image farming - sorting out images and notes I have set aside thinking they may have a nugget of something I may want to revisit - a colorway, or lyrical line or historical context for a project.  I have a wonderful counter in my kitchen where I love to sit down with a cup of tea, my glue sticks and my box full of beauty!  Ah - life is good.

Along the Susquehanna in April

In April of this year I had several occasions to travel along the Susquehanna River in central Pennsylvania.  What a mighty and awesome river.  I made color notes and sketches and am now starting to work on a series of paintings from these April days.  

As I have posted before, I am working first in watercolor washes as underpaintings then will rework each painting in my custom manufactured encaustic paint.  These are the first 5 of what will be a 15 painting series capturing April days along the mighty Susquehanna from Milton, Pennsylvania south to Holtwood and Susquehannock.

 

Christmas in July is coming.

I'm in a Christmas sort of mind today.  Last winter I created a Victorian era candy box for a Valentine's Day gift.  It was a figure of St. Valentine holding a heart in his hand and a pair of lovebirds at his feet.  The torso lifted off the base to reveal a round container that could hold candy, or a trinket.  This week I am recreating that type of container, but featuring St. Nicholas and the symbols that surround his lore.  He may end up looking more like Father Christmas than a saint, but you'll have to check back to see just how he turns out.  Here are a few pictures of him as I build his arms, torso and the candy box base.

The tubular fabric which will become an arm is handstitched upside down and inside out to a groove on the wrist of the sculpted hand, then reversed, stuffed and stitched closed.  Ta da! You have an arm.

water and coffee are creative fuel for this artist...

 

And, this is the figure of St. Valentine...

Like him, the figure of St. Nicholas I am building will have head, hands, boots, and sculpted symbols made of Creative Paperclay.  The tubular candy box, legs and torso are made of a combination of wood, acid free paper, bamboo fiberfill and cotton textiles.  The clothing for St. Valentine is made entirely of vintage linens with wool embroidery, metallic embroidered ribbon and leather. St. Nicholas will be dressed in vintage textiles and trims, too. This makes for an art doll who is made entirely of archival materials. Maybe best of all is scouting for the textiles and jewels and materials that combined, become these figures. A wonderful joy and a gift of living the creative life.

Dressed to kill

Each of the girls these 5 dollies were being made for had requests to be met - favorite colors and hair styles and so on...

Now, the dollies for Vermont are completed and in the hands of 5 sweet and beloved girls. Here's their head shot.

Dew Drop Dollies

There's something wonderful about a doll made just for your little girl.  These dollies will be traveling north to Vermont once they are dressed.  Come back again to see them dressed and ready to travel.

 

Two more paintings

Here are the remainder of this week's encaustic paintings. They were shown in the underpainting phase on May 17, 2013. They're now posted in my shop at www.etsy.com/shop/composegrace

Snow Farm 2013

Winter Silos 2013

Put your passion on your purse

As I have been working on the grisaille wristlet, I thought I would show you the other 3 styles of handpainted, coated canvas purses I create,  The artwork on this line of purses features flora and insectia from the endangered species list. The canvas panels are joined with traditional leather lacing which is durable as well as beautiful.
  

These are available as a special order. Contact me at www.etsy.com/shop/composegrace   

Promises kept...

Here are three of the paintings I showed as underpaintings earlier this week.  I will be posting them to the etsy shop, if you see one and decide you can't live without it. 

The lighting was tricky today.  An overcast day with light from the north is ideal, but today was bright and sunny. I promised photos so I decided it would be better to get photos posted now, and retake them on a day with just the right lighting.  As always, your comments and feedback are coveted.  

Here's a link to the etsy shop.  Come and visit...www.etsy.com/shop/composegrace

Transformations

Here they are - my encaustic painting palettes.  Because the paint must be molten to work with it, I have discovered that buffet warming trays from the 1970's are the ideal work surface.  It took a little bit of experimentation with stainless steel cups and a thermometer to map out the various hot spots, and determine what the tempuratures were for the different settings on each model.  These are my two favorites because their heating elements are very reliable and consistent. 

Non-stick mini muffin pans work great to hold the paint and encaustic medium.  When I make the encaustic medium I dip it into clean tins, pop them in the freeze for an hour or so, and they come out in perfect little pastilles for use when I make more paint, or to melt in the working palette.  I keep the palette with the paints 'pure' and move color onto my working palette (the one with the brushes on it) to mix and work from.  This keeps the pigments pure, and allows me to start clean for each new painting.  I just wipe all the mixed colors off the working palette and begin anew. 

I had a good day of painting (as well as an awesome bike ride along the river...) and have nearly decided the work on the 5 I have been working on are at a good point to stop.  I will decide tomorrow if they're ready for signatures.  If so, by tomorrow evening they will be photographed and posted here and featured at my etsy shop.  Come back and see the transformation from underpainting to encaustic.

Portraits of road side trees

This is the palette I started with today for these 2 underpaintings. It's silly, but I think of these  2 seasonal studies as portraits of the tall thin trees along the roadsides of Pennsylvania.  I have the studio set up to begin the encaustic painting of the 5 underpaintings I have posted over this past week.  I'll take pictures of my studio set up, and the encaustic palette (it is unusual, and will surprise you!) when I start working tomorrow. 

I have reached the end of my energy and ability to think clearly, so it's time to bid you a good night.  I'll be back tomorrow and hope you will be, too.

Almost halfway

I had a nice day and spent some time on this little baby. The front panel of the wristlet is shaped and has a small change or lip balm pocket with a zipper closure across the front.  The next time I pick up this project I will cut and shape the back panel, create a lining out of the black sueded twill and assemble the purse with a top zipper and pull strap.  The trick with a wristlet is to attach one end of the pull strap to the zipper pull and stitch the other end in a side seam.

These are terrific little bags - you can carry it alone for errand or a date with your sweetie, or attach it to the inside of a larger purse, keeping your essentials handy. I'm even going to make card pockets in the inner liner to make it even more functional.  Nite nite for now...

  

Onto the next...

The process of creating is one of taking one step or process and continually building upon the preceding foundation until the desired result is achieved. It's never really complete because there's always more perfecting that could be done.  Rather, I choose a point in the process where I decide it tells my story well enough, and I move on. Today I have ended working on the drawings for this project in its 2 dimensional form.  It's likely I will do some fine tuning once I have cut it and basted it together but all the major shapes and value relationships have been worked out.  Tomorrow I cut it and sew it and make into a 3 dimensional purse...something to look forward to.

One of the best things about living a creative life is that every day there is something to look forward to and something to do.  Add in my many 'someones' to love and I count myself blessed.  That, my friends, is my recipe for a happy life.

Progress not perfection

This little purse is going to be lined with a beautiful sueded black cotton so I am going to leave the artwork in grisaille.  I have only a little bit of the front completed, and most of the back is done.  Tomorrow I hope to finish the drawing, then I will cut out the lining, interfacing and shell fabric and baste it together.  Once it is 3 dimensional, I can decide if the designs needs to be re-worked or more details added to complement the purse.  I love making something functional from a odd piece of fabric, a few zippers and an idea.  

Sometime the ideas are overwhelming, and I accomplish nothing because I am unable to narrow my focus.  I'm not the only creative person to struggle with this so I don't feel all alone.  When we moved into this home, I created a storage system that has worked well for me. Each project I'm currently working on is stored in its own bin. This makes it easy to move from one to another, and maintain order in my home studio.  Today, the wristlet is on the table.  When I finish up for the day it goes back in its bin.  Tomorrow, the encaustic paintings or dew drop dollies may make an appearance.  This system allows me to easily move from one project to the next and have a clean work space at the end of each day.

Time to call this day finished.  Thanks for stopping by.

Midstream changes

I
I shifted course today, and went to work on 3 paintings in my encaustic series of seasonal studies.  I thought it might me interesting to show how the paintings evolve from the hues and tones laid down in the underpainting, to the final color palette once the encaustic painting is completed. The underpainting on these 3 small works is done.  Working on unprimed hardwood panels (these are 3 by 5 inches) I build layers of watercolor washes. Once the underpainting is completely dry, the watercolor paint doesn't inhibit the encaustic paint from bonding to the panel in the final phase.  Working with an underpainting is a traditional painting technique and allows me to work out the value relationships and composition for the story I want to tell.   Next comes the fun part - heating up the beeswax medium and the palette of handmade encaustic paints. When the paintings are completed I'll post them to this blog, and on my etsy shop at www.etsy.com/shop/composegrace

I'll work some more on the wristlet drawings on cotton twill later tonight, and post the updates over the weekend.  

Bookmark me and check back to see these projects evolve.  Your comments or questions are welcomed! 

Progress follows persistence

Woke today with a list of tasks to accomplish.  I dressed and took care of family administrative duties, then saddled up on my 1978 Schwinn Suburban bicycle.  I road down along the river for a quarter mile, then crossed the bridge and road about 2 miles to do some shopping and banking.  Back across the river to the Post Office and grocery store, before heading for home.  1 1/2 hours later, I walk up the front steps with a clear mind, lifted spirits and energized body.  What a glorious day to be out with sun shining bright and a cool spring wind pushing me along, or giving me a challenge depending on my direction.

I came home ready to attack some business planning and goal setting, and take care of correspondence.  With that successfully completed, I sat down at the table to spend some time with my drawing project.  It seems like this floral motif is deciding to be in grisaille (a style of monochromatic painting in shades of gray.) I can always wash bright clear color over the underdrawing if I decide to later on.  I am digging the grays right now. I also drafted a pattern for turning this piece of fabric into a wristlet purse.

Thanks for visiting - see you tomorrow.

Beginnings

It has been awhile since I have created much more than meals for my family in this home and studio on a beautiful Pennsylvania river. Too many days pass without working, and it becomes more and more difficult to get back to it.

Today I began drawing on a remnant of ivory twill with a vision of making a small little purse - a wristlet or such.  I made a series of purses ten years ago with original paintings of flora and fauna on coated canvas.  This may be an updated revision of those bags, though I'm not sure about that just yet.

I am going to record each day's work on this project and see how that goes.  Check back and watch it unfold...