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!

favorite tool week 2

MY SEWING MACHINE IN ITS NEW HOME.

week 2 sewing paper

sewing paper has been interesting. scrapbooking weight paper is not ideal nor fun to sew. it's better to glue! sewing with a thinner weight paper, tissue, or rice paper is so much easier and hangs better due to its suppleness. also, it's not a battle getting the needle through the paper! i do really like the look of the paper sewn to fabric and then quilted with a layer of batting. great soft sculptural look and feel.

i have also loved using just one color family together. i tend to sort my collections of stuff by color. hmmmmm... i have another paper/fabric collage started: it is being sewn by machine and then quilted.

i did not accomplish a lot of projects this week, however, i did manage to find a spot for my sewing machine in the studio and arranged my fabrics all in one location. this is also part of my year long project: to adapt my studio to my art needs.

for week three, i will finish my green collage and make a collection of atcs sewn by hand and/or machine. i also hope to do more fabric/paper monochromatic collages or projects.

purple paper sewing - week 2

this is the first of the projects for this week: sewing paper! i sewed the papers onto a rectangular piece of fabric by hand, added the batting (sp?) layer, and another fabric on the back. folded over frayed edges onto front and sewed with machine, then did a bit of machine quilting to create more texture and cohesiveness. it is approximately 6" x 12".

sewing regular scrapbooking type papers is not fun and they get creased and really show the mistakes! the paste paper and tissue paper i used was fun to sew, although i get very impatient: i want to go faster! i must remind myself to take a deep breathe and relax.

i spent several hours this morning cleaning out a corner of the studio to create a sewing area. found a spot for fabric, a sewing table (had to move my stamping and embossing stuff to the big desk). this is the second part of my 52 weeks: further organizing my studio, refining material selection (throwing stuff away!), making the space more user friendly. after all, the studio space is filled with many years (34?) of accumulated materials of all sorts. i can't use materials if i cannot find them! so i did my final machine sewing in the studio.

i have some fabric and paper cut out for a green mixed sewing piece. will start tomorrow as i must get ready to go to sacramento in an hour.

yes it is week 2!

i have decided to pursue some more paper projects and techniques: weaving and sewing.
the first project which i have started is a monocolor paper on fabric strip collage. i have several purple patterned papers, tissue paper, and some paste paper from another time. i have torn and "glue basted" in place the paper onto the fabric. i will be sewing this piece by hand. off to work!

end of week 1

my "tortured" book became a "deconstructed" book. i was happy with the results after i let go of expectations of what the finished book "should" or "could" look like. the key is enjoying and getting into the creating process. there were techniques i didn't utilize while manipulating my paper without paint or additional images. i did use glue, acrylic medium, string, a button, and a bit of charcoal (on the embossed ship page to reveal the image and age the frame).

this was a good warm up project/week. i have fallen in love with pockets. the book project is complete without pockets, so i did a couple of sample ATCs with paper pockets. (thanks Trish)


as i worked this week, i realized some important things:

• it helps to give myself an assignment with limitations. i tend to be indecisive about which direction(s) to go when i am working. it is wonderful to say, "this is your challenge... you may only use the textbook (printed paper) with no additional images or color or objects." i did mostly follow the rules, but since i made the rules i can also break them when i have good reason to! getting focused!
  

• i am so happy to be sharing my project with other artists. thank you so much.

• i will be making ATCs to save as samples of the week's work. they are small; easily created and saved due to size (2.5" x 3.5") . this will be a good way for me to document what i have been doing and learning in addition to other projects.
  

• i like pockets and putting things in them.

just about finished -deconstructed book

i love it! i pulled it apart, glued it back together, wove pages, tied, wrapped, and now i believe it's finished. it has a nautical, explorer feel to it. "a journey into the wilderness" is one of the quotes.
i believe that i need to add a detail on the front (a button or such), but haven't found it yet. it was indeed a journey, or perhaps the prelude to the larger journey....
some more pictures...

book progressing...

,

i do like what is becoming of the tortured book. it has become a de-contructed book. all the folding and tying, etc, that i did at first in the beginning of the book was all crowded and made no sense. so i ripped it out, a piece at a time, and added it somewhere else. i am glad that i stuck with the book, even though i wasn't really liking it too much. after a couple of days not working on it, some ideas popped into my head and renewed my interest in continuing to work on it. i also just kept telling myself that i was not doing this necessarily to achieve a certain finished product, which i think was in the back of my mind when i began.
i said (to myself) "just enjoy the process. try new things, don't think about what you are doing too much. just work as the creative self guides you."

it does help me to talk to talk to myself. how about you?

i do like it

i do like the tortured book. i decided to accept it for what it is....

i am trying to mold some of the paper in the cut out frame. it's a plastic raised image of a ship, but it may not be raised enough to really impress the heavy book pages. i may need to do some rubbing over the template.

it is going to be difficult to do a project in one medium at a time. i usually like to work on something until i am stuck (sometimes that doesn't take long) and then work on something else. i need time for what i see to sink in and until i can see something i want to do or feel the inspiration to proceed. truly a challenge to push to continue to work!

on a path

well, i have decided to create a year long project for myself to find a direction! i find myself wandering around different materials and dabbling, but it all feels so disconnected and purposeless. i don't usually have a problem playing in the studio, but i am in need of structure! i will be experimenting and learning about new techniques using paper, fabric, felting, metal, yarn, string, clay... one new technique a week. i will create materials for use in other projects and create small projects each week. i am hoping to have fun and to also have some sort of artistic epiphanies! i must keep my work; well, at least, show it.

i began with an altered book: it is a book from 1898- a textbook. i had mixed feelings about cutting, tearing, etc. this lovely old book, however, it has just been on a shelf and of no interest to anyone. So, i fearfully began to fold, cut, rip, tie pages at random. i just wanted to manipulate the pages without adding color or outside images. it is a bit strange, but a new thing for me. i still have some additions to make.

my altered book in progress...
it looks so tortured, folded , cut, tied....