yes, it is the end of week 3!

whoa! the last 2 weeks were spent struggling with the sewing of paper to fabric and to paper. paper to fabric is more difficult, unless of course the fabric is not too thick and is stiff. i discovered that machine sewing paper to paper can be fun and have wonderful results. i did have trouble with free form sewing on the machine.... i didn't drop my feed dogs! must try doing this today.

my project for week 4 will be the creation of a mask out of stitched paper affixed to a plaster life mask. i believe i now have a few skills to be able to accomplish this.

more machine sewn atcs

the first 2 cards were tacked onto parchment paper
with matte medium, then sewn when dry. the next atc was built from the top down: sewing 2 pieces together, then adding another piece below it, etc. this was a good way to sew together paper without having to tack or preplan design. it took shape more organically than the others.

the last atc shown here was built with 2 larger and sturdier pieces of paper - the green paper and the sheet of music. the other pieces were just sewn on top without a need to tack into place.

sewing small paper collages

i decided to scale back my sewing collage projects and worked on card size collages and atc collages. here are 2 of the atcs. the card collages on posted on my flickr.

i realized that is was so much easier to keep the small work organized for sewing by dabbing a bit of matte medium on each piece which i then attached to a piece of cooking parchment paper. this helped to give these small collages a bit of stability and so much easier to sew. today i will work on a few more small paper sewn pieces.

felting on the side

i have been felting the last month and cannot seem to stop. i ordered some wonderful felt from sara's texture crafts on etsy. the colors are amazing! i have become enamored of felt squares and circles. http://sarastexturecrafts.blogspot.com

i am attending 2 weddings in september and decided to make the gifts - felted wall hangings. i have made them both. i haven't decided how to frame them; but will take them in to be framed next week. perhaps in a double matted glassed frame. i am hesitant about leaving the felt open to the elements (dirt/dust in particular).

the felting itself is very calming. i love forming it with my hands. fiber sculpture, sort of...
and of course, i am continuing to make brooches and hair clips from felt. i am documenting all this here so i don't forget that i was busy with other projects beside the main 52 week projects. a little bit of this and a little bit of that.

i have a very clever friend, mira, who has reminded me that if i look back on what i have done, i will be able to see the common threads which run through my work and define me as an artist. one revelation i had this morning while driving in the car, is this: i work in bold strokes and am less interested in the details, than the whole. i have been looking at some beautifully detailed and crafted needle felting with embroidery. i love the hand sewing detail, but it is just not my thing! i become too impatient! i am more of an expressionist in my work. the process is my focus and what excites me most, especially when it expresses my vision.

thursday already?

i thought i had written in the blog in the last couple days, but i guess i just thought about it! i was very frustrated with my green fabric and paper stuffed collage project. i let it sit a day and then decided i could fix it by cutting off a piece. here is the unfinished, as yet green collage and 2 cut off pieces. i made atcs from the small cut offs. i am going to try to fix the filling and iron the piece to see if i can "straighten" it out.

monday afternoon

i did figure out the poor green paper/fabric collage. i cut off the end where the fabric seemed bunched, took out some stitching and re-stitched. am getting ready to iron and finish the sides and back. yay! it seems that i do best when really having to overcome a project that has gone awry. it certainly is a good way to push myself beyond my usual stuff and creating something new and exciting. if maybe not always fantastic, the process is transformative.

i have taken the smaller piece of this piece i cut off and cut it into 2 pieces, zig-zagged the edges and will mount them onto an atc blank. cool.

saw some fabulous fabric atc cards on sanna's blog: transferred photos on fabric, then embellished, felted, bejeweled. more inspiration! thanks, sanna. (sannasartmind.blogspot.com)

monday morning....

recovering from a really bad art day. i worked on my green paste paper on fabric with quilting wall hanging. i am not an experienced quilter, nor am i a patient and meticulous person. so i just tried to blaze away on my sewing machine (i did pin everything together!). alas, i used lots of stuffing and created a sort of a puckery piece. i just kept sewing away hoping to tame the folds, but gave up when i became totally frustrated. always a good idea to step away when things go bad...

this is a potential problem with this 52 weeks project: i tend to need to step away from projects for awhile when they don't go as planned, or the plan hasn't revealed itself to me. this is a good disciplin for me. so difficult to be consistent and keep it moving. today i will return to the scene of the crime and investigate.

after the green collage fiasco, i attempted some atcs and they just weren't coming together.
i decided to avoid the studio for the rest of the day!

today is going to be another scorcher - 100 degrees or so... so, i will take zoe (my dog) to the park to play, then head to the studio to work. i did receive an exceptionally inspirational set of atcs from my friend phyllis. on one she sewing a photo fragment "Papiers" (pictured to the right.) i like the idea of embellishing with sewing paper, photos, tags, etc. perhaps i will head in this direction. thanks phyllis! you rock!