Silver Clay Beaded Necklace

Today I completed this necklace, gave it to my mom and felt wonderful to see how delighted she was with it. I had formed the pendant earlier from silver art clay, embossed the design and had it fired. Then I added it to a necklace I had beaded in some of her favorite colors.

This is a new addiction of mine - silver clay, that is. I've taken a couple of classes and intend to take more. My friend Andrea is a gem for exposing me to this and other new crafts. She's a great influence and a wonderful artisan. I have several talented friends whose work I am hoping to show on my blog in the near future.

Right now I am working on a paper quilt square which I'll soon have ready to post!

Cat Tale #2

Our Kristy is a good little cat. She weighs around 8 lbs. and looks like a young cat, although she is actually nearly 14 years old. Part of her tail had to be amputated, due to an infection, when she was a 'teenager', so that only adds to her petite image! When our family moved from Long Island, NY to Massachusetts, she traveled like a good little sailor on the ferry to Connecticut. This fabric picture shows her looking suspiciously like she just pulled a flower from the vase. (It could happen!)
She is a real 'talker', and always greets me with a little chirp when I come into the room. She's our 3rd cat. We've had a Frisky, another gray tabby, a Whisky (Whiskers), a calico, and now Kristy. The fact that all the names sound similar has definitely been confusing!

Landscape with Handpainted Fabric

I finally finished this picture! I added stitching and a bit of shading with Prismacolor pencils, and also deepened the colors of the front piece of grass. I used some freeform machine embroidery and added a few beads. Also decided not to add trees - just go with the fluid flow of the different levels of ground. It was a fun exercise and I'm happy with the result.

New Work

I am working on a landscape using all handpainted fabric. Our Fiber Art Network group had spent an afternoon two months ago painting fabric with transparent Pebeo Setacolor paints. Frankly, I was not that impressed with my own results! But later I started cutting into some of the fabrics after heat setting and was pleased to see a nice landscape taking shape. Then came a sense of pride in the fact that I had 'created' all of the fabrics myself.

Previously I had always used commercial fabrics with perhaps a handpainted fabric for the sky. The top photo was made with all commercial prints and machine appliqued with a zigzag stich. The bottom photo is my new effort with the handpainted fabric. I'm trying to decide whether to use straight or satin stitch, but so far I'm pleased with the progress of the piece. I may change out the two dark plum shapes for some slightly lighter colors, since I think they stand out a bit too much. Time to play, switch things around and live with the design a bit before stiching. I hope to have it done for my next post!

Home Sweet Home!

One of my favorite themes in fabric pictures or crafts is the home. For years I did commisioned fabric house portraits and I was always moved by the strong feelings my clients had for their homes. Several years ago my husband and I visited England and when we returned I made this little three dimensional cottage. It was constructed with matboard covered with appliqued fabric. Around the base I embroidered silk flowers. It is very simple, but looks sweet in a nook on my bookcase.

Printing With Textile Paints

A little over a year ago, a few fiber artist friends and I formed a group called Fiber Art Network. We meet once a month, share our current work, and bring each other up to date on news of any upcoming exhibits or classes. Once in a while, a member offers to conduct a workshop at the meeting. Today Diana led us in printing with gelatin plates. She was inspired by the book Making Monotypes Using a Gelatin Plate by Nancy Marculewicz.
We had prepared plates at home, using cookie sheets or aluminum trays. We determined how much water we would need to fill the tray to about 1/2 inch, than set aside enough unflavored gelatin to equal two tablespoons per cup of water. The water was divided in half, and to the cool half we added the unflavored gelatin, mixing well until it dissolved. The other half of the water was boiled and then added gradually to the gelatin mixture and mixed thoroughly. Finally, the mixture was poured into the tray and any little surface bubbles scooped away with a scrap of paper, then put in the fridge to set.

Because we were working with fabric, we used textile paints. Diana demonstrated different techniques, but basically we used foam brushes to paint on the hardened gelatin, then laid a piece of prewashed white or colored fabric on top, rolled a brayer over it or patted it with our hands, then lifted off the fabric and voila - a wonderful print!!

I'm anxious to experiment more with this process, because I'm finding it exciting to use my own painted and printed fabrics in my fabric applique pictures! But then again, I'll always love finding just the right commercial fabric to depict a vase, a sky or any element in a composition.

So many possibilities!!

Needlearts Challenge!

I belong to the needlearts guild of an arts and crafts society in a nearby town. We'll be having our guild show in May, and one of our members proposed a challenge for us. She purchased a quantity of this beautiful oriental fabric, and those who want to participate bought a yard from her. We are to use as little or as much of that yard as we choose, in addition to other fabrics or embellishments, to make whatever we want. We have some terrific sewers in the group, so there should be some great projects! I'm thinking - wall hanging, ornament, fabric covered box...? What I'm wondering is - will any of our knitters or crocheters take the challenge and what will they do? Should be interesting!