Studio Kit

'Cuz check it out - it came out unscathed! *PHEW*

However, as you can see there was no depth at all, which meant I would need several layers to get the effect I wanted. And several layers of wax - no matter how translucent each layer was, would *not* create the effect I was looking for.

The wax also darkened the fabric (as you can see when you compare and contrast the original fabric and the "whitewash" cottage wall.) What you'll also be able to see when you click on the pic and look at it up close (I got rid of that stupid lightbox effect by the way - useless when you want to see detail!) is that it made the fabric semi-translucent so you can see the forest behind it. Oh noes! (next time, liners for all.)

So I did some research online about resin and decided that this product would be best for what I wanted to do.

(And there are a LOT of resins out there.) I figured glazing resin as opposed to other kinds would give me a nice skim coat without making it look like it was under glass.

So I made an enclosure for it out of an old cardboard box and masking tape, set it up on an old cutting mat, and poured the first layer of resin on.

So far, so good, right?

I'm hoping to show you the finished piece on Monday, at which time I'll also share with you the trials of the resin (and there were MANY); I'll also tell you my learnings and do a run-down of the costs, but it may not be ready as I still have two more layers of resin to do and holy cow, it takes 12 hours to dry for the FIRST layer. But as you build them up? Longer and longer drying times.

If it's not done, never fear. I'll still have something to talk about 'cuz I haven't been sitting on my hands during that drying time!

Hi all, today I'm being featured over at The Needle And Thread Networ (post it up now, sorry about the delay), and they've asked that in addition to a "Hi this is me" post over there, that I post a more comprehensive look at my body of work over here.

So, a la Billboard Magazine, welcome to The Hot 100!

I thought I'd start with an oldie, but a goodie - the second art quilt I ever made, called "Winter Moon" - inspired by the quilts of Naomi Wanjiku and St. Jean de Brebeuf's hymn called "Huron Carol". This was long before I knew anything about fusing, so every piece is sewn down and then, I quilted the dog out of them!

For a little book-end, here's my second to last art piece - made with my transfer painted fabrics and hand-dyed fabric from Vicki Welsh, it's pieced, fused, and then, you guessed it - I quilted the dog out of it. It was inspired by George R.R. Martin's book series, A Game of Thrones.

This quilt was my modern take on a crazy quilt - and is called "A Sparrow In The Rain" - silks, satins and Japanese cotton sateen (from the Textile Museum); it's an odd size, bigger than a twin, smaller than a double. But it was exactly the size it needed to be.

Called "Berkeley Square" - this quilt is made from wool, dupioni silk, random cotton floral and Ikea bird fabric. It was one of my "journeymen" quilts early in my quilt career - it's purpose was to hone my free motion quilting skills.

Called "Passage" this was one of the very early art quilts I made - that same string background and a pieced (and broken) Africa to which I am chained - by my ancestors, my lost history and their middle passage - more on this piece here.

"Stepping Stones", my modern mise en abyme quilt - made from the scraps of the very first quilt I ever made, which was made from the scraps of 30 years of sewing - it was my take on a "traditional" quilt.

The result of my first experiment with the fugitive medium of charcoal (which I then overlaid with water colour paint) back in the spring; I was pretty chuffed with it and intend to do more work in this vein in the future.

"Of The Moment" - a 100% silk oversized lap quilt inspired by an underwater scene painted by Geninne and the colour field painters of the early 20th century, I took her colour palette and their swaths of saturate colour and made it my own.

"Transracial Abduction" - my very first piece that explored fugitive media - the background consists of pieces of my hand-dyed cotton, the flower is made from petals cut out of fabric that I coloured with pastels and once cut, over-drew on with gel pens and a gilt fabric pen. I also included a poem I wrote several years ago about my experience of being an adoptee.

This quilt, called "Test Pattern" was inspired by the tv test patterns. Of course, after I'd done all those stripes, I needed a few dots to liven things up. :)

"By The Sea" was one of my early experiments with needle felting and painted fabric (I hand painted the background with acrylic paint).

This quilt, called "Off To Oz" was the result of a challenge - and as you can see - totally outside of my usual oeuvre. However, it was a lot of fun to design and whipped up in a flash!

This piece, called "Happy Wife, Happy Life" was part of my Charley Harper series - I was part of a challenge group who had to either copy or offer an interpretation of Charley Harper's work. I did three pieces - two "inspired by" and this one - a direct copy. The background and stripes are wool, the nest was a mix of hand dyed fabrics from Quilt Routes and my stash; all other bits and bobs were fabrics from my stash.

"Take A Winter Walk With Me"
Hand painted background, hand and machine quilted

This was my first piece using a hand-painted acrylic background. Up until recently, when I did this kind of work, I would randomly make pieces of fabric and then let the finished piece of fabric inspire the scene. Lately, I've been making fabric with something in mind - part of my new word of the year "Intention".

"Fractured" is a quilt in a new series I've been working on - about the various ways in which our lives are broken, shattered or otherwise fractured. All velvet - inset stripes are fluorescent green satin. More on this quilt, here.

"In Love and Hope" was the last piece I made in the style inspired by Naomi Wanjiku. I may revist this type of art-quilting at some point in the future, but it feels very far away from what I want to work on now - so this may be the last.

And lastly, this is a piece I made that helped cement my decision to begin art quilting for real. Called "Once I Was A Child" - the subject matter helped me realize that there were things I wanted to say to the world that were best expressed through art, and this particular expression of it helped me realize that I could do so.

"Wood Witch"

background of needlefelted hand painted fabrics, quilted, painted.

So, that's it - some of my work thus far. Not quite the top 100, but nearly 20. :)

Going forward, I intend to continue exploring fugitive media and transfer painting - and may incorporate those "base" methods with encaustic and resin as I am in the piece I'm currently working on - although it's my first kick at the can, and so I used more traditional art quilting in it.

This is only the first layer:

But if you have a look at where I'm going with this, perhaps you'd like to come back later today and see the next post in the series - or next Friday to see the finished product!

Tomorrow I am doing TWO posts.

I'm going to be featured at
The Needle and Thread Network
so I'll be doing a corresponding post here that's going to be an overview of some of my work (kind of like my year in review post) first thing in the morning; and I'll also be doing a post that will continue with the current series later on in the day.

See you then!

I picked up this $60 electric frying pan. Because I am going to fry my quilt. lol

Well, okay, not really. So, here's a question. Have you seen Riusuke Fukahori's work?

If not, you're probably saying to yourself "Why is she showing us a picture of some goldfish in a wooden tub?" And if you're saying that, you would be WRONG. Because that is a picture of a painting of goldfish in a tub.

And after you've thought about that for a second, you're probably saying "Wait. ... What?" (I know, right?)

So, what he does is he takes the tub see, and he pours some resin in it to where the bottom layer of the fish would start. Say, an inch and 1/2 of a resin.

And then, once the resin is dry, he paints the outline of some goldfish. And then, when that's dry, he paints a thin layer of resin over top of it all, waits until that dries, and then paints some of the filler of the goldfish body on top of the prior layers, and waits for them to dry. And then he paints another layer of resin over it all, and then another layer of goldfish body etc..; and he does this every day for like, a month (I assume, because a single layer of resin takes 12 hours to dry); and he continues to do this until he has what looks like a group of 3 dimensional goldfish swimming around in water. Except they're painted on resin in the tub. How cool is that?

Here's a video about him - there used to be one where he actually showed the process using time-lapse photograhpy, (which is the one I saw); but unfortunately, that one was taken down due to copyright violations.

So, I saw that video 3 months or so ago, and I thought it was really cool but had nothing to do with me. But the technique kept popping into my head at odd moments, and I wondered whether or not it could be done with fiber art. And whenever that question popped in to my head, I would say "no" to that question, and go on to other things, and several days later, this little voice would pipe up with a "Why not?"

Which is why...

Because I figured, encaustic wax and fiber art go together (at least in some circles); and it dries pretty translucent - and this particular encaustic wax says it dries clear. Pretty exciting, right?

So, here's my little cottage in the woods background, on a cookie tray from the dollar store lined with parchment paper, next to my brand new encaustic-melting-skillet and a cool new brush for encaustic wax, and here I go! (It's a nail-biter, I'm telling you!)

So, I melted the encaustic wax and painted a thin layer of it over my quilted back-ground, and waited anxiously for it to dry. And while I was waiting for it to dry, a blob of the melted wax that had been dropped on the paper next to it dried.

I know, I know!!!!!!!!!

It's so obvious, right?

Acccccck!!!!

See what happens next on Friday....

'cuz you know what a cottage in the woods needs (well, when your theme is the Musicians of Bremen, anyway)?

Musicians!

So, here is a lute-playing donkey, ready to be quilted.

And a fiddle-playing cat, in the same state.

A kettle-drum playing dog that's already been quilted,

And a rooster who does what else? Sing! Here he is on a four inch square ruler so you get the idea of the scale of this piece. It's tiny!

You know what else is tiny? All of those little fused and quilted stones, and those teeniest of tiniest leaves on those wee trees!

I wonder where all those musicians will go?

Never mind that - I'm askeered of the next part! So far, everything's been pretty normal, right? Right! Well, coming up is where I start to veer off track. It's a nail biter!

Oh, and about that winner - it's Elle! Elle, please contact me at kit.lang.ltd@gmail.com with your snail mail address!

Cheers,

Say that five times fast!!!

I'm doing Jodie Carleton's Rag-Rug-Along at Vintage Ric-Rac. Thank goodness she doesn't have any due dates, because I've been working on this thing for months, (well, an hour here and there) and it's only the size of a dinner plate. lol That said, if you're a joiner, you can still do so, 'cuz she's cool like that. :)

And also - I told my friends last week I was pregnant (and they all said "Ooooo0000ooo???? Because I'll be 50 and menopausal - lol); but my baby arrived last night. May I introduce you to Tyler Jackson Lang: