Cellular Overprinting - Full View

Here we have the entire collage, which has now been printed twice.  I am not thrilled at this point, but I feel like I can proceed with what I have here.  I am still feeling like there is too much of a light horizontal band, so I may try to do something about that next.

Cellular Blue

 Here are some detail images of the cellular imagery I printed using blue and purple ink.

Tomorrow, a view of the full piece printed with cellular imagery.

Cellular Printing

I have decided the cellular printing will be done in shades of blue to navy to purple.  I contemplated dark green, but decided that would be too close to the background fabric color.  So, here goes.....

Red Recipes and Happy New Year

Stepping back to take a look . . . . I am satisfied so far. . . . I know this all seems a bit odd, but I do feel like I am heading in the right direction on this piece.

No particular plans for New Years Eve for us.  Just a quiet evening at home and early to bed.  We are hosting an open house here on New Year's Day - the first day of 2014 will be shared with friends and neighbors.  Hope you all have a great New Year - see you in 2014!

Red Recipes

 Red circles and now red printed recipes.  Grandma's recipes are going to cover the surface in red ink!

Adding Circles

While working on the addition of some darker fabrics to the left and right, my eye fell on a stack of red circles cut from deconstructed screenprinted fabric.  I decided to audition these, too.  Ultimately, I decided to go with them.  This shows the piece after the additional fabrics as well as the red circles have been fused in place. 

Screen Print Auditions for the Green Collage

 OK, so before I do anything with printing ink - I need to make a plan.  Here are a couple of my ideas for this piece.  I can't resist playing a bit with imagery I used for a lot of my pieces last year - cottonwood trees, and the moon.  I still love the landscapes I did on fabric collages........  The one below shows the addition of a screen printed "mountain" strip I tried for my last piece.  The strip was put aside, but I still really like it and I feel like it will show up someplace eventually....

 I have also been wanting to work with the cell imagery I started using last summer when I made my Zinc piece.  So, these images find their way onto the design wall for evaluation, also.

Filling out the Collage

One of the first things I decide to do is add some darker shades of green to the edges so the lighter colors are just in the center rather than going all the way across in a horizontal/diagonal line.  Here are a few of my auditions before I settled on a plan for adding more fabric.

Bronze / Green Collage Challenge

 Earlier this month, I showed my process for finishing up a fabric collage I started two years ago.  I added layers of printing and overprinting, then quilted it to bring it to closure.  I have a number of these unfinished fabric collages laying around the studio and I would love to get them finished.  I have decided I will use them to try developing my skills with abstract imagery.  I have also decided to use printing / surface design and the printing will include handwritten screen prints of recipes written by my grandmothers.

Here is my next challenge.  It is a very muted  pale yellow - green to bronze collage of hand dyed cotton.  The size is about 34 x 50.  Below is a detail showing how I have stitched the raw edged fabric pieces together using a free motion zig zag stitch.  In doing this stitching, I have included the batting and backing fabrics so it is essentially already basted together in layers.  I don't have to worry about anything other than getting the printing imagery and quilting right.

White Christmas

 

We are having a white Christmas here at our place this year!

I hope you all have a happy holiday!

Christmas Present to Myself!

My favorite local potter is Greg Jahn.  He lives right here in Billings and I have been collecting his work for about 10 years.  I started out going to his open studios in December with the idea I was buying Christmas gifts.  However, when it came down to it - I found I really could not part with them once I got them home.  At that point, I became a collector.  I continue to attend his open studio events and I always treat myself to some pottery.  Usually, I purchase some mugs because I drink tea every morning and it means a lot to me to have a wonderful mug to drink from each day.  I now have 28 mugs in my collection and I love using each one of them. 

I also collect his vases and bowls - oh - and teapots!

Merry Christmas to me!  A gift I can enjoy for many years to come.

http://gregjahn-nancyhalter.com/home.html

Winter Reading

I did a little research and placed some book orders online, buying as many used books as I could, although some of these are new.  I get so frustrated with what is available in the local stores and it is overwhelming making choices.  These books all have really good reviews.  I have already read "The Goldfinch" and am looking forward to my next book!

"Learning to Cook #1" Full view

Here is a full view of "Learning to Cook #2".  Trimmed and bound - it measures 29" wide by 53" high, vertical orientation.  

I am so happy with the way this turned out that I am going to use the same theme to tackle the rest of the unfinished fabric collages I have laying around the studio (there are four I can see right now).  I will use my grandmothers' recipes as the foundation printing as I build up the collage surface.  I plan to continue developing my skill with abstract imagery (a big challenge) through this process.

Here is what I started with:

Quilting - Learning to Cook

 The quilting helps pull everything together, and I feel this is the best choice I could have made and am happy with the results. 

 While I've been floundering along with design choices, I have also been mulling various titles.  I think I am going to call this piece "Learning to Cook".  The title exemplifies the challenges I faced picking up this collage that was started two years ago and bringing it to closure.  It also relates to the screen printed recipes in my grandmother's handwriting, and even to the random messy screen printed lines. 

Fused Additions

OK, so here we are with the collage pieces fused in place over the too-white horizontal strip of paper lamination.  Quilting is next.

Printing Collage Pieces

OK, well I have come back to the idea of collaging over the horizontal strip with fabrics that will blend with what is already there.  This means digging through the scrap drawer and printing those fabrics.  Here, I am printing the recipes with black.

Reworking the Black Strip

I don't really want this piece to be a landscape, so I trim the bottom edge in a jagged edge.  Does it work any better this way?

I think it does.....however....I am rethinking it.  Not sure if the black with just lettering is the right compliment to the background....Hmmmm......

Audition the Printed Black Strip

 Here is the printed strip - auditioning a couple of different placements....

Hmmm.....this really transforms the piece into a landscape -which I find a bit inconsistent with the rest of the piece.

More Auditions and Some Printing

 Another idea......a black strip with random cutting would cover the white strip and will create the contrast I am considering.  It can't be just a solid black, though.  After some consideration, I have decided to print the recipes I used on the quilt body onto the black strip using metallic paints.

Grandma's recipes again.

Fixes for the Horizontal Strip

 Contemplating my design options - I consider adding something to create more contrast and I audition this strip of block printed black

And I also audition more scraps that might blend in with the rest of the collage.