Mail Art Project - Week Twenty Two

Fossils

Hand dyed cotton, screen printed, some have fused screen prints added, some have couched hand dyed yarns. Machine quilted.

3D Leaves on Spiral Tree

As I mentioned in my previous post, I have not been satisfied with the lack of contrast between the leaves and sky in this piece. So how about adding some 3D silk leaves as embellishment?
I have had these hand dyed hand sewn silk leaves laying around my studio for years. They were made for another project - a garment - that never happened. I like the way they bring this piece to life.

Now I am not sure I like the white lines left behind by the glue gel. They are kind of distracting. I am thinking maybe they need to go. Filled in with a black or gray fabric marker, perhaps?
After that, some wool felt flowers blooming down on the ground?

Can you tell I am color deprived this winter? I always do my brightest work in the winter, and hey, it has been a long white one for us this year.

Quilting the Block Printed Leaves

I've done the quilting of the leaves on my Spiral Tree. I ended up using a bright multi-color thread, since I want the leaves to show up a bit more.

I am still not really happy with the way the leaves sort of disappear in this quilt. The blue of the sky and the green of the leaves - well - just not enough contrast - especially since I used such contrasting colors elsewhere.

Painted Felt Balls for Embellishment

From the very beginning, I planned to embellish my Spiral Tree Quilt with felted wool balls.
My daughter, Michelle is into wool felting and I commissioned her to do about 100 felted wool balls for me to sew onto the Spiral Tree. She used white wool - and I thought I wanted to add white felted balls to the tree (for blossoms), but now I have started thinking the blossoms need to be a color rather than white.
I did a little experiment with my Colorhue dye and Setasilk paint to see if either of them would effectively color the wool. I am happy to report that both products did a very nice job of coloring the wool without spoiling the texture of the felted ball.

The fuchsia is actually a felted ball that I cut in half - to see if it would stay together. I think I prefer the look of the half ball. I am thinking these will be centers for flowers in the foreground as well as blossoms in the tree.

Quilting Thread Auditions

How does one decide what thread to use for quilting?
Well, auditions, of course!
I usually start by gazing at the area to be quilted until I have an idea of how I am going to go about it. Then I gaze at my thread racks and start pulling all the spools that I think might work.

I unwind a bit from each spool into a puddle in the area to be quilted.
Then, I start removing the ones I don't like.

It is often quite surprising to see what ends up being the final selection.

For this "sun" area - I am going with a Superior Rainbows Polyester variegated thread. I like the sheen of this thread, and the color variation is perfect for this area.

Volusia Wrapped in Fabric Show

This piece, "Les Veloures IV" is making it's debut appearance as part of the Volusia Wrapped in Fiber Show at the Gateway Center for the Arts in DeBary, Florida. This piece is very LONG - measuring 87 inches by 25 inches.

The inspiration for this piece came from the late works of Henri Matisse. I liked his bold collages cut from painted paper, and I cut a series of printing blocks with similar loopy shapes.
I actually did a whole series of pieces in this style - which I really love.

When it is done traveling to shows, it will hang on a very long wall in my foyer (unless it sells, of course!)

Scotch Bonnet - Travel Log Tuesday

Here are some September views of Scotch Bonnet Mountain.

See how the road cuts across near the top of the mountain? This goes to LuLu Pass, then on to Daisy Pass. The road is navigable with a 4x4. We have driven it twice with our Honda Pilot.

Mail Art Project - Week Twenty One

Bluebird of Happiness

Hand dyed cotton, block printed, machine quilted.

Today's quote:

"Happiness is a by-product of an effort to make someone else happy."
-Greta Broker Palmer-

Extra cards are going out this week to Gladys in Bainbridge Island, Washington;
Lynn in Woodstock, Illinois; Sheila in Sandpoint, Idaho; and Sandra in Payson, Arizona.

If you have not already done so, please send me an email containing your mailing address (you can find my email address on my Blogger profile) and I will add you to my weekly drawing to receive one of my Mail Art postcards. Please put Mail Art in the subject line.

Volusia Wrapped in Fabric Show

Ancient Graffiti is debuting at Gateway Center for the Arts in DeBary, Florida.
The show opened February 15 and runs through April 6.

Volusia Wrapped in Fiber is a SAQA juried exhibition.

Ancient Graffiti techniques include: glue gel resist, painting with fabric paints, screen printing, machine quilting, hand embroidery, and machine stitched copper and aluminum pieces.

Spiral Tree Washout

I try to do something in the studio every day even though we are working hard on our home renovation. Last week, I washed out the glue gel in the Spiral Tree.

I submerged the whole piece in warm water and left it there for about an hour.
Then, I checked it for any areas with glue still remaining - those areas I rubbed gently with my hand to remove the softened glue. After that, I put it in my front load washer on delicate cycle (delicate cycle to avoid abrasion, which will fade the fabric paint.)

Finally, I hung the piece to dry. It doesn't go in the dryer because abrasion from the tumbling will fade the paint.
Now, I've got to get it set up for machine quilting - a deadline looms next month!

Pillow Screen Prints

Here are a few more of the Thermofax screen prints I did for pillows I am making for our family room. The picture above is a cottonwood tree I photographed at Barber, Montana.
The image below was taken at Bear Canyon in the Pryor Mountains.

The scraggly cottonwood above is also from Barber, Montana
The image below is from a hedge in Harlotown, Montana that I photographed a few years ago.

Screen Printing for Pillows

A few weeks ago, I painted some fabric to coordinate with the sage green I painted in our family room walls. Now, I am screen printing that fabric with images of trees and shrubs. I decided to create a custom color by mixing brown, metallic gold, and black Speedball fabric inks.

I pulled some of my favorite screens of branches. The image above is a Thermofax screen adapted from a photo of a patch of chokecherry shrubs right outside our family room window.
The image below is adapted from a photo I took on a hike to Glacier Lake in the Beartooth Mountains. A forest fire burned through the area 20 years ago or so, leaving these ghostly trunks.

One Cause Online Art Auction Today!

ONE!

One Cause, One Wednesday, One Hundred Collages
(click the link above to visit the auction)
Today is the One Cause Art Auction! It begins at 10 Central time and ends at 4.
This is your opportunity to contribute to the American Cancer Society, while also adding to your art collection.

These are my contributions.

Long Lake - Travel Log Tuesday

Long Lake is about 3 miles up the Goose Lake Jeep Trail. In the picture above you can get a good idea of the condition of the "trail". Wide, but rocky and rough.

Long Lake is quite pretty, but wow the road runs right along the shore!

Today is the preview for the "ONE" online art auction fundraiser for the American Cancer Society. Preview my donations by clicking here.

Mail Art Project - Week Twenty

Penny Rug

Hand embroidered felt circles, buttons.

The quote on the back of today's Mail Art:

"Housework can't kill you, but why take a chance?"
-Phyllis Diller-

Hardwood Delivery

It was a cold winter day when our hardwood order was delivered.

Nearly 5000 lb of hardwood on two pallets.
The delivery crew had trouble getting the pallet moved onto the ramp, so they ended up hauling it all off box by box.

Here you can see all of the hardwood stacked in my studio.

Winter Sunset

The other evening as we drove to town for the Art Auction Opening at Yellowstone Art Museum, we basked in the glorious colors of a winter sunset.

These pictures were taken just down the road from our house.

Yellowstone Art Museum - Annual Auction

Last week, we attended the opening of the annual fundraiser for Yellowstone Art Museum.
I like to attend on opening night - a chance to visit my donation!

Here is a closer image of my work that was juried into the Art Auction - another from the Legend Rock series.
It has been mounted onto a painted and printed canvas 20 x 16".
Hand sewn lichen rocks are attached.

I noticed a lot of smaller, lower priced works at the auction this year.
For more information about the auction, visit the YAM Website.

Sage Green Fabric Swatch

I rummaged around and found some hand dyed fabric that also blends well with the paint. These will be printed. I am thinking about using tree and rock images since that is what we see out our windows from the room these will be in.

One Cause Interview

I am so honored to be one of the artists invited to contribute artwork to the One Cause Art Auction coming up on Wednesday, February 16. All proceeds will be donated to the American Cancer Society.

You can view my artist interview here.

For more details about this upcoming event, visit the One Cause Webpage.

Sage Green Handpainted Fabric

Here is the full view of the sage green fabric I painted last week.
I am planning to make pillows for my Family Room, and I used the paint chip as a guide as I mixed colors. Now that it is dry, it is possible to see the interesting textures and details.

It is nice having a lot of different possibilities as I plan my pillow construction. The sofas are brown leather. I think I need to do some brown fabric next.