Silver Hills Detail

The picture below shows the silver splatters I added to the bottom third of the quilt after it was bound and finished (it needed a little something more).  Sorry I cannot share a full image of the finished piece until after the show opens.

Printed Silver

It looks kind of wonky here, but of course it will be trimmed after the quilting.  Everything is printed at this point and next it will be pinned to the backing fabric and quilted.

Printing the Mountain Map

 The final phase of printing is the mountain map that was drawn during the Hayden survey of 1862.   I have adapted it to a much larger size and multiple screens to be able to fit the size of this piece.  Above, I have the screens laid out to make sure they will fit and to make any adjustments necessary prior to the printing. 

 The mountain scene was printed with silver ink.

Celebrating Silver Progress Continues

 This quilt has three sections in various shades of gray.  The darkest is a strip about 7" high collaged of several different hand painted gray fabrics.  This was the last part to be printed, so I used masking tape and paper to protect the areas that were already done.  I used black ink for the text in this area.

Mixed Media Daily Postcards February 1 - 8

 I am working with RED quite a bit this month on my daily postcards,
since Valentine's Day is coming up.

I overpainted a lot of junk mail and old calendars with red and white paints....gold, too.  

Then, I did some primitive printing and am using markers and colored pencils.

I am finding it good practice to have to try for a good design on each 4 x 6" postcard.
I know I am not succeeding with all of them, but I am working at it and feel good about having the daily practice.  I don't mind that these are only intermittently successful because I have no plan for them other than to grow my own abilities.

It is possible that I might someday mail some of these out to people, 

but that is not in the current plan.

Screen Printing the Base

 I had to mix all the colors for the screen printing ink for this piece.  Below, is the base printing.  Note the collage that has been block printed, followed by screen printing of the text.

Silver Printing Progress

 Here are a couple of detail images of the work in progress on my print table.  I wanted this piece to be about the human experience of mining for silver and I researched the Montana state historical archives to find journals and documents from the early silver mining years in the state.  I found letters exchanged between a Chinese grocery store owner in Helena and his wife in China, the Vigilante pact signed in Virginia City, letters from a young woman in Bannack to her family back in Ohio, an early newspaper called Little Rockies Miner, and accounting records from a mine company.  All of these were available to use - no copyrights, and I used them to create Thermofax screens specifically for this piece.

I did the block printing first with silver paint on a pale gray collage, followed by Thermofax screen printing of the text using white to very lightly tinted gray fabric ink.

Celebrating Silver

SAQA (Studio Art Quilt Association)  is celebrating it's 25th Anniversary this year.

I was among the artists selected to create a commemorative piece for the special show entitled: "Celebrating Silver" curated by Nancy Bavor.

The show will not open for several months, but we had to have the pieces finished and photographed for the catalog by February 1.  I have been working away at my piece the past several months and managed to take a few images of the work in progress.  They do not want the artists to show too much of the piece before the opening, so I did not document my process nearly to the extent I normally would.

But here is a start...

I don't often show my sketchbook entries on my blog, but very often I do sketch something out before I start on a piece.  This is particularly true if I am making something with special dimensions (as in this case).

Here is my single page brainstorm for my Celebrating Silver piece:

I painted many gradations of gray / silver/ to charcoal fabric.  I knew I would be using a collage and print technique.  Here is one of the collaged areas that has been printed.

Mixed Media Daily Postcards January 26 - 31

By the end of the month, I have started mixing it up a bit more....a new stamp made of fun foam and I started using a vintage date stamp for the dates, although I am finding the stamp pad I got is not very permanent and seems to take a very long time to dry.  Guess I shouldn't have gone for the cheap ones on sale at Michaels.

I am loving this project at this point, but will try to post them in groups of 6, perhaps on a weekly basis rather than a whole month in a long series of posts.

Mixed Media Daily Postcards January 20 - 25

Mixed Media Daily Postcards January 13 - 18

 January 13 and 14

 January 15 & 16

January 17 & 18

Mixed Media Daily Postcards 2014 January 7 - 12

 January 7 & 8

 

January 9 & 10

 January 11 & 12

Mixed Media Daily Postcards January 1 - 6

I have decided to commit to a daily art project, 

and I have settled on working with mixed media in a 4 x 6" postcard size.  

Here are my first six.

 

January 1 and 2

 January 3 & 4

 January 5 & 6

 I am using a variety of techniques:  paint, print, photos, collage, markers, colored pencils, doodling, fabric, stitching, etc.  I don't have many rules for these other than the size.  I am sort of using them as an art journal of sorts - I hope they reflect what ever else may be going on in my life at the time.....I am using junk mail, scraps of lists and receipts, favorite photos, journaling a little bit on some of them.....I am recycling some of my failed artwork.......a lot of random stuff that I hope ends up being interesting as a whole once I have 365 of these done.  At this point, I have finished 31 of them for the month of January.  I am not sure I will post all of them on this blog.  I know some people create another separate blog for their daily art.  I don't think these are interesting enough to warrant their own blog at this point (and I feel like that might take the fun out of it for me - too much pressure to create something blog worthy)!  I will post the mixed media postcards I made for January over the next couple of days.  Let me know what you think! 

I will be taking supplies with me when I travel (to Mexico in a week or two) and I will be working on these every day.  This will be part of my "Morning Pages" - daily art meditation as I revisit "The Artist's Way" by Julia Cameron. 

Recipes In White

 I've proceeded with white printing of my grandmother's recipes.  I do think this is a significant improvement, but I am not sure I like it, really. 

 At this point, I could peel away all the colored squares.  Those places are not yet quilted.  

I am undecided about this one, also.  This has been really interesting - going back to work begun two years ago and trying to finish it now.  I had hoped for a better success rate, but I am learning as I go.  Abstract is challenging for me. 

Block Printing Over Color

Here is the full piece on the design wall after block printing with metallic paints.  I am feeling discouraged.  Not liking this much.  Not seeing it as any sort of improvement over what I had before.  I could give it up and toss it in the trash, but I rarely do such things.  I am thinking over my next step.  My choices are limited because it is already block printed and already quilted, too!

Muting with Metallic Block Printing

Many of the fabrics I fused on this piece are already block printed, but I feel like the colors are still too strong.  I want the added color squares to be a bit more muted and to coordinate better with the underlying neutral block printed collage of natural fabrics.  Block printing with metallic gold and silver paints seem like the thing to try to achieve that (these are the same metallic paints I used for printing the natural fabric collage two years ago - so this seems like the most sensible choice for pulling this together).

Evaluating the Fused Colors

It is up on the design wall now and I am trying to decide whether to rip all these fused color squares off or just go forward with it somehow.  If I am going forward - where am I going?  Not sure, actually, but I can fall back on my grandmother's recipes and see where that takes me.

Fusing Color Blocks

OK, I have fused a few color squares onto this piece and am stepping back for a look.....I realize the pieces will just peel away if I decide I don't like the way this is going, so I am playing fast and loose with the colors.

Design Gamble

This seems sort of insane, but I feel like I have nothing to lose with this gamble.  I am cutting the fused binding strips into squares and am fusing them onto this block printed and quilted fabric collage.  This piece has been sitting around for two years.  I always thought I might trim it down and use it for multiple 12" squares or something, but now I am thinking color.....too much white outside in January in Montana.  Color it is!

Sorting Fused Fabrics

I keep all the leftover strips from my fused bindings in a 2 gallon ziplock bag.  It is now so full I cannot zip it.  Time to do something with these.....and I am thinking maybe some of this color needs to go on my bland natural fabric collage that I showed you yesterday.