So after studying Doorway One on the wall for a while, and thinking I like those wonky beads, then I don't like those wbs, then I don't know about those wbs, I ended up realizing they were the wrong thing. So today I removed all the beads and replaced them with straighter lines of blue beads, and a nice copper ribbon ending with beads of some semi precious material whose name escapes me.
And I'm much happier with the whole thing. This piece is surprisingly heavy, what with all the brass chain and the two heavy beads. It feels good.
Last night at the embroiderers' stitch in I started on the next in the series, different color feeling, different sense of doorway.
This is another polaroid transfer image on nylon superimposed on a piece of knitted sparkly fabric I hand dyed in greens. So we'll see where this goes. The image looks big because it's in a very small hoop. But it's the same size as the Doorway One image up above.
I started with the usual snailtrail not much idea of where it's going yet, but that will unfold, I expect.
Current state of the unfinished doorway piece:
The pearls will be continued in a straight drop down, and the blue beads likewise. I'm looking at the irregular shapes and wondering, but won't know if they should stay like that until I do the drops.
At that point I think it will be done. I like the brass chain effect pretty much. But I welcome reaction and suggestion, too.
There will be a couple more doorway pieces, I think. This one's 12 inches high, 5.5 inches wide.
The beaded and woven and stitched piece continues, thanks to bitter cold and snow and being safer indoors.
At this point I can see how it will work.
Not framed after all, but once the rest of the beaded strings are done, it will come off the loom, hang on a dowel, and have some sort of beaded or tasseled features attached to all the bottom loops. Side loops will be stitched down at the back.
So, the Dollivers and Elton being a large part of the ongoing art work that is this life, they, along with Duncan the cat, took part in the Great Drawing this morning. Note the Tidepool piece in the background, to remind you what the award is.
I copied out the entrants' names and IDs onto a piece of paper, which I cut into slips, one slip per person, folded and crumpled them, put them in a dish, and invited Duncan to choose. As you see, he did.
The one he bit and tried to run away with was the winner, once I got it out of his mouth, a bit damp but still legible, note the toothmarks.
Elton agreed to hold it up for the camera. And it's, wait for it, it's...
Mary Ann!! of Magpie's Mumblings, beloved crazy quilting corner of the blogosphere. Send me your mailing address, MA, and I'll ship to you as soon as the PO opens after the holiday. Enjoy your Tidepool piece. And if you can send a pic of it with you once you receive it, that would be great. Especially if it also features your dragon..
And thank you everyone for taking part and signing up with such good humor, and inviting me to your corners, too. And to Vicki, for running this huge event again and inviting both my blogs to take part in it. My blog life has taken a great upward turn, and I now have a lot of new blogs to visit as well as people to welcome to mine.
Elton is playing us out with a selection of Ruffles and Flourishes, then There She Goes, Mi-hiss Canada, and Crazy. And he threw in Teddy Bears' Picnic because he's got the piano and his new sweater set, there's no holding him.
Here's the doorway piece, central motif stitched and beaded and cut out of surrounding fabric, then stitched down to protect the raw edge.
It's just set on top of the weaving for now, but will be secured there, and much more beading will happen around it, probably emphasizing the doorway motif. All this happens before I remove it from the loom. I'm thinking this might become the first of a series.
The Dollivers, the art dolls of my blogs, along with accompanist Elton, wish us all a Happy Val's Day tomorrow, and a reminder, that February 14th is also the last day to enter the Grow Your Blog Party giveaway.
To enter, if you haven't already, go here and make a comment. Remember to make sure I can get back in touch with you if you are the lucky recipient. I'll need to email you and get your mailing address from you. And I hope the winner enjoys her beaded and goldworked piece.
I'm back with my stitching, the doorway motif which was the polaroid transfer print, and with trapunto going on. Here you can see some couching and beading in progress, and the small purple weaving in the background might possibly go with this stitching.
Not sure yet, but I'll know more when I remove the stitching from the hoop and cut around it. The ragged edges of the transfer image won't be part of the finished work. I might be able to mount the stitched piece onto the weaving, then frame them together that way. The weaving will fit into an 8 x 8 box frame. Just a thought at this point.
I decided it didn't fit with the bigger work I originally had it in mind for, not right in spirit, so it will be a freestanding small work, possibly one of a series. The bigger work has suggested doorways, but the overall feeling of it is different.
You'll see my latest toy there, too, my LED portable worklight. It folds right down to the size of a fat wallet, easy to carry about and work in places where the light isn't quite good enough for stitching. It has three light levels, and I use it at the brightest setting. I'm an LED fan now!
And the dear little loom is another favorite tool, made in the US, yay, all metal, beautifully finished. Designed largely for potholders, but I use it for all kinds of artworks.
In the course of planning the paper jewelry workshop I'm teaching at the next general meeting of the EGA, the embroiderers, I thought it would be nice to find the bag of jewelry I made years ago and which was the reason I was asked to do the workshop. People saw them, liked them, wanted to learn.
And found it has completely vanished. This is a bag of about 30 necklaces and little bags of beads. Gone. An exhaustive search has not yielded anything. This was a blow, since it was the samples I was going to use for the workshop. Sooooooo, rather than waste even more time searching in the same places over and over, I figured I'd better make new ones.
This turns out to be a good idea, since I brushed up my skills, and I'll make a few new items to show and enjoy. Not such a deprivation, to be forced to play at jewelry making, after all.
Since my printer is being a bit miserly in how many good copies it will give at one time, I have to figure out if I can get a single good copy to xerox from, to show the bead template, a simple one once you've seen it. But I think I'll send out the workshop instructions as an email attachment. Art thrives on restrictions. At least I hope it will.
Here's the current state of the studio in mid workshop prep. where I'm making sample beads, assembling
papers to share, noting what to buy, what should go in the kits, who's
signed up already, who gets kits by mail. And on and on. You have to
do all this at once, really, since one thing suggests another, and you
might as well note it right away.
And here are the beads I made this morning. More to come.
After the excitement of the Grow Your Blog party yesterday, with new people greeting us in here, and visiting their blogs in turn and others too who had entered, today I'm back to the present! lovely to have new readers, too, joining the people who've been here before.
This is an artwork I found when I organized the studio, from when I did some Polaroid transfers before they "improved" the film so that you couldn't lift the image off. This I transferred onto sheer nylon.
To create a small artwork, I backed it with gauze, stitched a snailtrail of silk thread around, piercing both layers, then did trapunto work. If you're not familiar with trapunto, it's a kind of stuffing. You pierce the backing then stuff batting, in this case a nice roving, into the selected areas from the back. Deciding how to organize trapunto is an interesting phase of work.
It's a form of fabric sculpture, a bas relief in a way.
Then I started using goldwork, couched down with gold silk thread, and running round the contours of the raised sections. This is very engrossing work, figuring out how to get around the stitched lines interestingly.
I think I will probably put a curved doorway shape around three sides of this image, and I'll applique it to a larger work I have under way, if it works there. There's a larger curved doorway in that work that might be compatible. If not, it may be a freestanding artwork, one of a couple, since I have other transferred images similar to this one, to work on.
And there may be beading. Watch this space!
Today's the Annual Grow Your Blog day, organized and created by Vicki at Two Bags Full, much applause to her, and see the button on the right indicating this.
Welcome to new readers, and welcome back to current readers and followers. My screen name is Boud, by which I'm often referred to, but my real life name is Liz. This is my art blog (I also have a general purpose blog, Field and Fen here )
Art the Beautiful Metaphor, a joke relating to soccer, the beautiful game, is the blog where I show my current and past art in a range of media, monotypes
drawings
tapestry weaving
ink and wash watercolors
Portrait of the Artist
embroidery
knitting
sewing
artist's books
handmade paper
here with reverse drawing on glass
stick weaving
beadweaving
my exhibits
what's up in the studio
where I also review other people's exhibits
Homefront, a wonderful local organization helping with homeless emergencies and with people's need to restart their lives and whose artists show great work
Ellarslie, Museum of the City of Trenton
Mercer County College
and generally give an artist's eye view of the world and gladly welcome input from readers and observers, artists or not.
Sometimes I'm accompanied by my character dolls, the Dollivers, seen above modeling a handknit scarf I designed and made for a friend, five knitted creations with a large wardrobe each, to exhibits and to hindrance in the studio...they mainly live at Field and Fen, though, and if you like them, you can wander over there to see more of their exploits.
There will be a small giveaway to a random commenter on this blogpost, and to see it, scroll back a little way for a picture and description. No need to have a blog in order to enter, no need to do more than comment in here and you're in. I'll do the drawing on February 15 and announce the winner in here and get an address from him or her to ship the item to.
Meanwhile, browse enjoy, ask, comment, and thank you for being here.
Here's what the lucky random winner will receive, to be announced February 15th.
Image is titled Tidepool, in pearl and other beads, goldwork and other metallic threads, stitched on Belgian linen. Stitched area is 4 inches by 3 inches, and there's a margin of linen around to enable you to mat or to miter and hem.
Please note that all you need to do enter is comment on this blog on January 25th. No need to have a blog of your own, no need to sign up as a follower, unless you're dying to do that, just comment and you're in. If you're one of the followers who comment via email rather than onsite, I'll count you in anyway.
Mark your calendar, tell your friends! Some readers don't know how to comment, but do respond in email, via my mailing list, so I will include you.
So glad to report that my wrist is recovered enough to start thinking about stitching again! and that one reward of organizing the studio was that I found a couple of polaroid image transfers on nylon that I'd made years ago, set aside until I knew what to do next, then sort of forgot.
Here they are.
These are image transfers before they improved polaroid film to where you couldn't do this any more, where I used to soak the developed picture I'd taken, then remove the actual image from the paper! great excitement moving an image through the air to settle on whatever surface I wanted it on, here nylon, because I wanted the transparency of the picture and the fabric working together.
But now I realize these are stitched works waiting to happen. So today I'm hoping to set up and get to work on this.
They may be freestanding, or they may be part of a much bigger work I have under way. We'll see if they're compatible.
The other fabric you see is a piece of Thai silk, given to us all at the holiday party courtesy of Carol P., who visits Thai relatives and gave us the benefit of one of their gifts.
So this is good! new stitching adventures ahead. And I have a Jill Paton Walsh Peter Wimsey on CDs to listen to while I work. Spoken words keep the left brain occupied and the right brain can get on with its job.
The Grow Your Blog 2015 button up there is about an international blog party next week I'm taking part in. For more explanation about it, go here and meanwhile I will be thinking up a giveaway, for anyone who comes in here to comment. If you click on that link, you need to scroll down past the food, to the GYB explanation.
I have two blogs entered, Field and Fen and this one, so there will be two chances of a giveaway aren't you lucky. I have to look through my completed artworks and decide what will be nice to receive.
My other blog, Field and Fen, lurched into art territory today, in the midst of studio cleanup and gardening, but since there's art chat, too, you might want to check on it here
After a long hiatus, injured wrist put stitching out of the realm of the possible, I've tried a little simple knitting, partly to appease my Need to Make Stuff, partly to be a gentle exercise to improve my wrist. Both of which it has done.
Can't work for long, but anyway, one Dolliver will be getting a new dress as soon as it's seamed up, and there's another on the needles. Blondie Firstborn has one of these dresses and it's been a bone of contention among the other four that they don't have one, too.
These are from the Knitted Babes book by Claire Garland, from which the Dollivers came, though adapted from the originals in the book. I hugely recommend this book as fun as well as very simply presented. Makes you want to knit all the things.
And it's using yarn from friend Karen's stash, another cool point.
