Studio Kit

When the little blue clock in the middle of his work
Sings a song to the moon up above
It is nature that's all
Simply telling us to fall in love....

And that's why birds do it,
bees do it,
even educated fleas do it,
Let's do it, let's fall in love!

When I was making this piece, for some reason, this Cole Porter lyric kept running through my head - so even though I was initially just making all those squiggly squares and circles,eventually I found myself making some flowers and leaves and insects, despite myself.

Although I had suggested in my last post that it probably would have made more sense to paint the stablizer/lutradur first and then cut it out, some of my little lines had gotten filled in with paint, and when I tried to re-cut them out with the heat tool, it worked, but...

all the paint got sticky and glommed up the tool - so... pick your evil. My preference would be to paint after. "Bees Do It" is 42" x 24, the bacground is scraps of black satin, wool, silk velvet, cotton and then quilted.

So, I'm done experimenting with the lutradur now, and will start actually working with it.... I actually have a piece done that I'm really excited to show you, but I can't until a MONTH from now (lol) so I'll have to maybe do some more thread work in the meantime, or start a new piece I have in mind about Angelique or another one I have in mind for a call for entry due in August.

Hmmmm...

Guess we'll all see on Monday! Have a great weekend, everyone!

A portion of the experiment.... not much to say about it (as this is, overall, a very simple, if large piece) - so it's stablizer, painted cream, and cut out with the heat tool...

But the finished piece will be available for your viewing pleasure on Friday. :)

Joining in with other Canadian Fiber people at The Needle and Thread Network.

More experiments with stabilizer...

This time I've fused it, cut out my shapes, and then Ive painted it with full strength acrylic paint. Here it is drying on my drying table ('cuz where else would I dry it?) *s*

Of course as I was laying them out to dry, I realized, it would have been much more clever of me to paint it first and then cut out my shapes. But you know, why make things easier?

Here's hoping I'm more clever about the rest of the process... which you'll grt a peek at on Wednesday!

Until then...

All done!!!

All in all, I'm really pleased with this technique and I'm sure you'll see more of it in the pieces to come. For the next little while, I think, I'll be concentrating on painting the stabilizer and using it in these kinds of applications.

However, to recap what happened - I started out with my clean up cloth, which I interspersed with my "grid" pattern - I wanted it to represent an abstract city landscape.

Here is a close up of the actual organ grinder, which I first painted and then outlined with the "anime" pen (it's an artist's pen that's marketed for use for anime artists, but I can't remember what it's called). And his little painted gourd and other decorative elements, and his key to lock it up at the end of the day.

His face has a little sadness in it - as it would be I think; he is such an anachronism in our time - perhaps even the last of his kind - playing his music amongst the glass and steel...

And I had to show you his pants because I was so proud of them when I made them. As a beginning painter and one who is flying completely by the seat of her pants - when I did them, I worked intuitively, and in the end, I thought they looked quite good. Almost like a real painter!

But what it's taught me once again, is what I said at the beginning of the year - I need to take a drawing class and a water colour class!

Anyway, experiment done and I think he turned out rather well. I'm very pleased.

Have a great weekend everyone!

P.S. - Process posts here and here, and linking up with M-R of Quilt Matters for TGIFF -go check out what everyone's got finished this week!

You see, even though I'm playing, I wanted to continue to experiment with the possibilities of the stabilizer.

Here, you see the man in his more or less finished state, but I began the same way as with Trayvon's face...

Having first ironed fusible web to the stabilizer, peeled off the backing and put it on my glass, I sketched out my man in pencil and then cut him out using the heat tool.

And then I started painting him - right on the glass.

I used acrylic paint, blending to get the colours I wanted, and after this base was dry, I used an artist's (anime) pen to fill in the details - and speaking of details, I used a gold leaf pen on the rungs of the organ as well as in the decorative stars on it.

And I quilted the background with this great varigated thread that I've had forever and hadn't had a chance to use.

To see how it all comes together, come back on Friday!

And I'm linking up with the Needle And Thread Network - go check out what Canadians who work in fibre are up to!

I'm taking a little break from some of my work for upcoming exhibitions - I need to be a little less "serious" for awhile (not only in subject matter, but in my work approach);