New projects

I've had an idea in my head for awhile and have made some samples, this week I jumped in and started a big project. The first three images are of my samples. I'm collaging fabric onto batting, heavily stitching it, washing it and then putting a big circle of paint on top. The first picture is a close up of the white sample.



The next is the black sample.



This is the two samples, both are about 16" square.



My plan is to make a white background about 80" square. I've decided to do it in quarters and then before washing, stitch the quarters together. I'm working on the first quarter and have already gone thru about a thousand yards of thread, and I think it still needs more stitching. It's a good thing that Joann's has thread 50% off - I'm stocking up! This is part of what I'm currently stitching.



My other project will start January 9, but I'm getting everything together so I'll be ready. I'm going to be 65 on the 14th of March, so I'm doing an appliqued and/or embroidered circle for the 65 days leading up to my birthday. This is the start of my collection of materials to use.



I'll be cutting out squares in three different sizes, 9",6" and 3", and each day I will do a circle on one of the squares. Then at the end I will assemble them into a quilt. Today I was noticing my bead collection so I may be adding beads also. I'm only using materials that I already have and I plan on each circle being different. I also plan on posting each one here as I do them. So look forward to Sixty five days to 65.

I'd like to wish everyone a very Happy New Year and thanks for stopping by.

A new camera

This is the camera that I've been using for the past 5 years, daily for the past 2+ years.



It has been a wonderful camera, small so that I can carry it everywhere and until a few days before Christmas, very reliable. But it's getting a bit worn from being carried around all the time(the bottom left corner should read Stylus 740) and I wanted more zoom. So I asked for a new one for Christmas, one with more zoom but still small enough to carry around. My little Olympus must have sensed it was being replaced because a few days before Christmas it started taking psychedelic pictures.




While I loved the special effects I got - even my office looks good under a psychedelic influence, I really need a camera to take ordinary pictures. After I got my new one, the old one settled down and is now taking normal pictures. It even took a picture of it's replacement. Meet my new Nikon coolpix s9100.



It's still small enough to carry around and has lots of zoom - I'm in love. Santa did very well.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone!

Rubbing Plate Roundup

Earlier this year Shelley Stokes, purveyor of all things paintstik related, asked if anyone had an unusual use for rubbing plates. She was writing a book about using rubbing plates which are normally used with paintstiks to create rubbings on fabric. I've used rubbing plates to add texture to a screen full of thickened dye when I do deconstructive/breakdown screen printing. I did some samples for her, took a few pictures, wrote up how I did it and sent it off to her. She included it in the book along with several other very interesting techniques. There are twelve different techniques included in the book, some of the others uses are, texturing clay, foil applications, embossing metal, flexible acrylic sculptures gelatin prints and paper castings.

My copy of the book arrived a few days ago, along with some goodies that Shelly very generously provided to the contributors of the book. I spent an evening reading through all the different ways to use the rubbing plates and now I'm ready to play!
Shelley has a talent for writing and illustrating very clear directions. I always recommended her first book "Paintstiks on Fabric" when I was vending and doing demos, it was how I learned to use paintstiks. I highly recommend this book also, not because I'm a contributer, but because it shows so many great ways to use those rubbing plates that I have stacked up!



You can get the book here.

My wrist and shoulder are healing, I'm no longer wearing the brace, but still have to be careful of what I do. I did get my Christmas postcards made. I did a very simple wreath using a thermofax screen of circles, stitching and then an added stamp of a bow.

A creative repurpose

I found out yesterday that I've also done a bit of muscle and ligament damage to my left shoulder when I fell. Apparently since I was walking very fast when I fell the velocity of the fall jammed my arm bone and shoulder causing the damage. I was given some exercises to do to regain full motion of the arm. One of the exercises uses a 5 lb. weight, I don't have any weights so went looking thru the house to find a substitute. The perfect substitute was in my studio on a windowsill.



I bought this iron at a yard sale a few years ago. The ball holds kerosine and there is a burner in the body of the iron to heat the sole plate. It's very rusted and unusable until now! The handle is easy for me to grip with the brace on my wrist and it weighs 4.75 lbs. , close enough for me.

A slight bump in my plans

Thats my left wrist in that big black contraption. Yesterday I fell while taking my morning walk, tripping over the sidewalk in the dark. The wrist is not broken just bent, bruised, swollen and sprained. Luckily it was very cold out and I had on several layers of clothes to pad my fall. I was more concerned about my knee and right hand as I walked home, but knew I had a problem when I got home and couldn't open the door with my left hand. The rest of me is a bit sore today but okay.

I'm discovering all the things I can't do, like finish the fingerless gloves I was knitting for the texting teenagers on my Christmas list. Oh well, they may get them late. I have been able to do a bit of hand stitching and a whole lot of reading.