Fossils #5 in "Evolutions" at Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum

 I am happy to announce the opening of  "Evolutions", a juried show at the Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum in Golden, Colorado.  My piece, "Fossils #5" has been awarded one of the top three prizes (they have not yet told me which prize it has won, that is to be announced at the opening reception on August 3. 

Hand dyed fabric has been screen printed, pieced, and hand formed polymer clay fossil replicas have been hand sewn in place.

Here is the link to Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum.

Mail Art Project Ninety Seven

Rainbow Trout

Shibori dyed background.  Fused applique fishes made of hand painted and printed cotton.

This week's quote:

"Chance is always powerful.

Let your hook always be cast;  

in the pool where you least expect it,

there will be fish."

-Ovid-

Foot Square #30

The background for this piece is a fingerpainted monoprint.  The crow is screen printed directly onto the fingerpainted fabric, so this is a whole cloth piece (as much of my work tends to be).

My Flagstone Patio

 This month, I was able to finish this landscaping project - a flagstone patio measuring about 20 x 12 feet.  I have been gradually (shovelful by shovelful) creating terraces on our very steep drop-off in the front of our house.  This area had no level space - just a steeply tapering drop down to the driveway.

The bench art is by Parks Reece, a Livingston area artist

I've tried something new this year - a small vegetable patch (shown below).

I've planted swiss chard, kale, daikon radish, and basil.

The chicken wire stretched over a 2 x 4 frame and elevated with rocks is working well to keep the deer from nibbling it all away.  There is a volunteer pumpkin plant (a seed that survived the composting process)  that may not survive the deer - no room for it under the cover.

 

Below, there are some better images of the stone retaining walls I have built.

The picture on the left shows a new bed I have prepared for the new iris rhizomes I will be planting soon, along with some deer resistant perennials.

 

Here is an old photo (from 2006) of the same area.  There was some weedy grass with a game trail through the middle of it.  The junipers had to be removed in the interest of fire safety (about 20 cedar and juniper trees were removed in 2009 following two wildfires in our neighborhood).

With our water issues (no well or city water - we haul our own water in our truck), we were not able to water the "lawn".  I am planting iris and other drought tolerant, deer resistant and fire resistant plants in this area now and am really happy to be able to look out and see something blooming in front of my house.

I really love sitting in my bench with my morning tea and watching the dragonflies and goldfinches!  In the evenings, it is a perfect place to enjoy the sunset.

International Quilt Festival - Long Beach "Rituals Debut"

 My piece "Sunset II" is on exhibit starting today at the Long Beach International Quilt Festival.

This is part of the "Rituals" exhibition curated by "Dinner at Eight" artists; Leslie Tucker Jenison and Jamie Fingal.

Silk Charmeuse in Turquoise and Gold

 This piece is overprinted multiple times with the same screen in various colors.

I started with clear and got some ugly pale purple gray spots - horrifying.

So, I added some blue and that was a great improvement.

 I

 I printed a lot of it in blue, then switched to using golden yellow.

 I ended up with some really interesting patterns and color splashes that really glow on the silk.

This is the full piece, which is about 36 x 45".

Red Spiral Breakdown Prints

 Details

 Details

 Details

This is the full piece of cotton broadcloth.  I actually printed this one before I did the silk that I showed you yesterday.  I had made the spirals with Elmers Glue gel and added some drips of thickened black dye.  I pulled red and yellow thickened dye to make the prints.  After I finished printing this one - I continued on - but switched to pulling blue and clear (for the silk I showed yesterday).

The glue gel did not break down easily.  I actually got sort of tired of the spirals and started peeling them off as they got slightly loose, which made my last piece (which I will show you tomorrow) one of the most interesting that I did (in my opinion) in this screen printing session.

Blue Spiral Resist Printed Silk Charmeuse

 For this piece, I drew swirls on the screen with Elmers Glue Gel.

Then, I added some drips of alginate thickened golden yellow MX dye.

This was overprinted with clear alginate, and diluted turquoise dye.

Mail Art Project - Ninety Six

"Summer Chickadee"

Gelatin plate printed cotton.  Screen printed chickadees (adapted from my photos of chickadees in my yard.)

This week's quote:

"No one is free, even the birds are chained to the sky."

-Bob Dylan-

Foot Square #29

This week's foot square is another Thermofax screen print based on my daughter Michelle's strips of negatives.  I like this one better than the one I showed last week.

Silk Charmeuse Printed with the Breakdown Screen Process

 

This is the whole piece of silk - probably about 36" x 45".

I think I used clear alginate.

The screen was built up with drips of red dye and blue dye.

Red Drips Overprinted with Deconstructed Screenprinting

 This is the full piece of cotton broadcloth - about 36" wide by 60" - all the above images are details.

Mulit-Layered Breakdown Prints on Fabric

 This large piece of cotton - probably 36" x 60" , has been printed and overprinted with the same screen.  I found I really liked my results when I just kept on printing to fill in any white spaces or areas I thought needed more detail.

 The piece is a lot more complex and interesting.