So, when I went to Jennie's house last Thursday, she introduced to me to her trick to make her precise work - Lutradur and her secret weapon!  Though Jennie's work often uses Lutradur as one of it's many elements, and though I had a chance to work with a bit of it as part of the challenge when I made "Ontology of A Rabbit", I didn't realize how amazin' the stuff is!


She had asked me to come prepared with my sketch of Travyon blown up for our experiments (here, it's about 14 inches x 10).  We taped the image to the table and then put it under a piece of glass, and then put a piece of Lutradur on top...



And then she introduced me to her secret weapon! A burning tool from Margaret Beal - with whom she'd taken a class a few years ago. Now since the tool is from the UK, we had to use it with both a converter (so it could be used in North American outlets) AND a booster so it would get hot enough, and it sure did.  "Cuz check it out!



Just from tracing the image through the glass with the tool!

I gave Jennie a big kiss and a hug, 'cuz she's totally brilliant!

Of course, IIII don't have any Lutradur, and I haven't been able to source any here in the past - not to mention - I don't have this handy burning tool, and also - the Lutradur is white.  So stay tuned for more problem solving...

Okay, this post could not be me MORE unrelated to anything that I do, or possibly, anything that you're interested in, but, BUT - I  had to share these with all of you.

You know, like when you get an earworm and the only way to get rid of it is to sing it someone else? Like that.


You see, I'm terrified (TERRIFIED) of ventriloquist's dummies.  I once ran wildly into four lanes of traffic in order to escape two women who were walking down the street, in the business section of our fair city...


(not in some hidden-from-view-secret-place-where-scary-people-and-their-toys live), walking along, like, having a conversation between themselves and the entity-of-evil one of them was holding. 

Walking along, like their behaviour, was normal, like the terrifying thing with them was normal, like THEY (supposedly) were normal.


Anyway, I too was walking along, enjoying the sunny day, glanced over, and promptly ran into six lanes of traffic to get away from them. The only reason I survived, I'm sure, is because I didn't actually run but rather, flew across that street.

I was still shaking by the time I got back to the office.

And NOW do you see why they're so terrifying? THESE ARE THEIR TRUE FACES.

Let's all send collective blessings to my "friend", who thought it would be funny to garner these vintage images from the shadowy recesses of the interwebs and send them to me!

And believe it or not, I may have to do a quilt series on these in order to exorcize the fear. (Some day, when I'm brave enough to be alone with these images!)

In the meantime, have a nice weekend!

(Back to normal posting on Monday, promise, promise!)

I am having  ISSUES.  lol


I continue to work on enlarging "Walking While Black" for the looming exhbition date, and because I did the original piece with encaustic and can't for this show, after spending 26 (yes, TWENTY-SIX) hours  making the background and handstitching down all the letters (because I am afeared that the fused letters will not stay on what with being packed and shipped and unpacked and hung and packed and shipped and unpacked and hung and... etc. for two years)...

I have spent a further 22 hours (so far!) trying and failing at different methods to a: enlarge his face and b: give it the distressed look of the original.  So far, no joy.  I haven't been photographing the process because I have (wrongly) assumed each time that it would work. 

So unfortunately, you can't learn from the carnage.  That said, I brought it to last night's Drunken Quilters meeting and Jennie Wood had some GREAT ideas which we're going to try out at her place tomorrow night.

I promise to photograph that process. 

And then, the large new piece that I was working on has ALSO gone awry. I'll show you pics of that tomorrow... haven't had a chance to upload.

Aiyee!

I  wasn't going to join the festival this year as I have wandered away from making bed quilts for awhile, but happily for me, Amy has an art quilt category this year, so here I am!

This little art quilt came about as a result of a challenge set by my contemporary quiltart group (The Drunken Quilter's Society - so called because our meetings occur over cocktails and dinner) - the challenge was to use the contents of a bag of scraps and embellishments given go us by another member; and to use something in it that we had never used before.



I lucked out on my bag with a beautiful rust-printed fabric and a stunning snow dyed poly-silk. The challenge part of the bag for me were the beads! Those who read my blog regularly know that beads are my Waterloo.  I am never able to use them in a way that pleases me, and inevitably, even if I spend hours and days applying them, I end up removing them in the end.

This time, I loved the beads, and so they stayed.


Some background quilting and a a few of my own scraps from my stash, and I was done.


This little rabbit is very much outside of my oeuvre and unlike anything I've made before (or am likely to make again) but I'm very happy I did!

Thanks so much for stopping by, and do check out the other work submitted in the festival. Thanks so much to Amy for hosting again!



P.S. - Previous entries from newest to oldest are here here, here, here, and here

Now that the weather's getting warmer, dyeing season will begin for me - but these pieces were done during a oddly warm patch a little while ago.





and a nice pale, greeny blue discharged piece...


For some reason, this one made me think of sharkskin, so I ever make a shark, I'll have the fabric!


What had started the whole thing was I had tried (and failed) at making some deconstructed screen prints - but I used the leftovers to try some arashi shibori (I think it's called that - too lazy to look it up - the pole wrapping kind of shibori)


These pieces are huge - 4 1/2 feet by 2 1/2 or so - and I think I'm going to make a skirt out of that green/pink version for summer.


I loved this piece too - this one is quite large as well - though not large enough for a skirt (!)- and it was just made by folding the piece of fabric various ways and then painting it with the leftovers.

Summers here are short and HOT and I must prepare my "nest" for the winter.  I have to make hay while the sun shines as they say, so I'll be doing a lot of dyeing over the next couple of months - however, I won't be showing it to you (I intend to do a lot of plain solids) unless something interesting happens.

In the meantime, (in real time, I mean) I am continuing the Whitewashed series - and I hope to be able to show you some progress on the next piece on Friday - right now all I've got done is piecing, gesso-ing, painting, and background quilting on the next piece and you've already seen all those steps on Walking While Black".

If not, I'll show you some shots of a quilt show I went to!

'Til then.

Concurrent to working on my whitewashed series, I've also been working on a little something else  - more thread painting experiments!


I've chosen as my topic for these experiments a little harvest mouse - whom I've named Zachary.

I'm sure he'll pop up again.

See you Wednesday!