Flowers and urban decay

I'm toying with words for my current piece. I am using another texture photo from pixmaniaque, this time a bit larger. I spent all of the last two days painting some fabric with many layers of colours of both paint and textile ink. The ink is much gloopier, and I need to thin it for this project. I've learnt a bit about colour mixing - how potent any touch of red is, and how adding light olive green on top of other colours is not very successful - it just blends into the other colours. Some were transparent and some were metallic as well as opaque ones. The metallic needs to go on last, in future, as it shows through all the others.

Now that I have the piece on the design wall, I can see it has a much spottier effect than the original, which has vertical strokes. I may put some wool roving on to simulate those strokes, but the embellisher makes quite a lot of holes through the fabric, so I will experiment on other samples first.

I bought some embroidery threads for it today - didn't have anything in lilac or butter yellow to make the daisy-like encrustrations on the wall or ship or whatever the photo is of. Would also like to add beads, but only have one packet that would tone in - can't believe that, after all the beads I bought last month, I still don't have the colours I want!

Here it is, as it was this morning. I have added more blue ink to the top since.

On/off weather

The last few days have been alternately gorgeous and dismal. The days are starting to get the autumn feel, from cold nights and fresher air. The light when it's sunny is so clear and makes everything look in focus, even several kilometres away. I love it! It's always a struggle to adjust to the haziness of light in Europe, and the distant views are all in a blue-grey mist. Not just pollution, but the humidity as well. I'm a person who needs lots of light. Not for me the candle glow or the dimmer switch. Often in the daytime I have the lights on over my machine. That reminds me, one of the spotlights has gone and I have to get a huge ladder so I can reach the 3 metre high ceiling to replace the bulb.

Judy in Edmonton has been sending me more poppy pictures, so I spent a while yesterday trying to reduce one poppy flower to a line drawing. It is kind of frustrating how slowly I find my way round Photoshop Elements. I tried to watch a few YouTube videos of various functions, but couldn't get any sound. Then I got distracted trying to find sound switches on my computer, only to discover later in the day that it was a YouTube problem and my computer was fine! They were helpful up to a point, but often the one step I needed in close-up whizzed by and the speaker swallowed their words and I couldn't find which menu the drop-down option was linked to. Eventually I discovered the Magic Extractor option, but couldn't easily drag the poppy into a blank document. 3 hours later, I finally got where I wanted to get, but not sure if I could remember all the steps for another time. I would love to do a proper Elements Course. I did a weekend at the university last year, which was good as an introduction, but I want MORE!

Lyn called round with some more organza scraps for my poppies. I must try both fabric medium and dissolved solvy as methods for stiffening the organza. Also various finishing methods - stitching, burning, double layer bonded with Misty Fuse. Maybe later today when I get back from work.

Class work

It's been a few days since I have been able to do much in the way of stitching. Very busy time at work, and then had friends for the long weekend. Then it was 35 degrees, and today it is 15, but that's Canterbury weather for you!

On Wednesday I was able to collect my sewing machine from the dealer, where it was having a service. I also got the guy to wind back the top tension so that I wasn't always trying to FMQ on 1 or less. I have never had the tension over its normal place, which is 4, so it seemed a waste of adjustment.

On the way back from town I stopped at a cheap stationery warehouse to look for some washable glue gel, so I could try the technique outlined by Cynthia St Charles in QA magazine. The store was having a 2 days 25% off sale, so I got a whole bunch of stuff. Some, like printer ink and recordable CDs and DVDs, were utilitarian. I also bought some textile ink suitable for screen printing, which I want to try. Some oil pastels, some foam board (for printing onto), a sketchpad and some paintbushes. All in all it came to $247 but at least I got the glue gel I went for! I tried the resist technique, and think it would work fine with a bit of practice to get the lines even.

Yesterday two quilt artist friends came for a playdate. Shirley Goodwin wanted to play with a burning tool and organza. Lyn Winter had brought a big stash of organza bits and acrylic felt for us to raid. Both of them are tutors at Wellington this Easter. Lyn is working on a fabulous quilt for a NANZ competition. It uses illuminated letters and an aged paper look. Shirley is working on a political quilt. I am still gestating my current two ideas, but meanwhile I am doing classwork.

I did another piece for the embellisher class with coiled roving on Kunin felt. This was then zapped with a heat gun. I did a bit of knitting in a variegated mohair and felted that under the first piece onto a second piece of felt. I don't like the melted plastic feel of the zapped kunin, but I like the other two techniques.

In the evening I did a bit of work for the Colour and Composition study group that I am part of, through Studio Quilts. Got a bit confused about left brain/right brain and which should be the one to start. Of the 4 pieces I quickly fused, there is one I really like and the other 3 are OK.

This was a week for parcels arriving - wool roving, silk noil and copper knitting from Texere yarns, and my beads from Craft4me that was going out of beads. Now I really must start using some this new stuff while I can remember what I got and where I put it!

Embellisher piece for class

The sari ribbon is about an inch wide, and mostly comes in those
cerise and emerald colours with a few dull or bright reds. Some has
metallic stripes. That is what I punched onto the black batting in
stripes, then I cut it and rotated to form a kind of 4 patch. After that I
added the wool roving in a diagonal grid, using the chiffon to hold it
down, which is when I burnt back the chiffon. At that point I hated it.
I started with some fine green wool yarn doing detached fly stitch, then
some feather stitch in a variegated perle cotton. Then the ladder
stitch (which is just a kind of chain stitch). It needed some pizzazz,
so I added the coiled pink chenille for flowers. Then I crocheted the
green chenille just with my fingers and made it into stems, which
looked like snakes to go with the ladders. Oh, and there was some
royal blue foil added under the sari ribbon. The painted wonder under
wasn't really visible in the end, though I painted with dynaflow. It
did hold the sari ribbon in place for embellishing, but black misty
fuse would have been better, especially now we know that fragment-for-tacking technique from Judy and Esterita.

In retrospect the batting has got quite lumpy with distortion from the
stitches. It doesn't bother me here, but black felt would be a better
backing.

February and trying to think

My goals were to spend at least 2 hours clearing rubbish from my office or the garage on the last day of the month. Well, I managed 1 and a half hours, and 2 bins of rubbish. Still masses to go, but it felt good. The next goal was to spend 2 hours on reflection on the first day of the month. Total failure, but I still have it in my sights. I do understand that you need to be steering a course to get anywhere, but I don't enjoy meditation in any way.

But at least I can reflect on how January went. Artistically there were some positives, negatives and some learning, all of which are good for development. I tried the shaving foam painting with feezer paper stencils, and that is a technique I could use again. The embellisher has been mostly unsatifying. Despite the fact that I love looking at textured pieces, like Sandra Meech, Maggie Grey etc., and even Jane vk's, I do not feel it is my medium. It may be that my fear or negativity holds me back, but I don't think so. There is definitely a left brain/right brain fight going on with it, though. It seems a jumbly way to work and the result looks like a jumble. I have downloaded a couple of the texture photos from flickr. One is a machine stitching sample, but the other could be embellisher plus hand stitching, or painted lutradur or transfer. That excites me in a way the burning of chiffon layers does not (in fact it annoys me because the chiffon is quite expensive and then you throw it away in effect).

Once I have experimented with some of the things I bought at Hands last week, I will make a plan to dye or paint my own stuff for bigger projects. I still haven't got to grips fully with colour mixing, especially for muted browns and khakis. The embellisher class has 2 more weeks, and after that I will stop work on the experiments and get back to something more focused.

My work life has been getting busier, working up to the climax of this week, when all the new kids start and need a lot of attention. While it is not a career job, it does have the benefit of a small income and a small contact with a bunch of mainly nice people.

Socially, there have been some fun times at the beach with both Kevin and also Tarnya and the girls. A lot of movies, some time with Fei, also fun. I have some friends from England coming next weekend, so that will have the effect of making me tidy the house at least once in the month. It doesn't bother me most of the time, until it does - a bit like when your fingernails suddenly need cutting.

The goal setting will wait till later.