Studio Kit

I've been busy hand-painting and crush dyeing fabrics for the next big project!

Can you guess what these are going to be?

Two people. Ten hours.

What might two people, over the course of ten hours accomplish? Many things!

However, in this case - two people (myself and BSP), over the course of ten hours, managed to take a basket-full of seriously unruly embroidery floss - and turn it into the above. Approximately 120 little skeins of lovely, colour sorted embroidery floss - ready, at a moment's notice - to make (hopefully) beautiful things.

I can't believe it took us that long - and it's why I have nothing to show you today but this.

Not even a lovely, decorated cigar box - which started out at this:

A cigar box given to me by my friend, mixed media artist Linda Kittmer.

I could, but am not going to show you a lovely, decorated box, because I've done 3 versions and hate them all. lol Apparently, I suck at this part - and I think I'm just going to cover it all with fabric.

Some fiber work on Wednesday. Until then!

First up - this article inspired a lot of talk around the water cooler: phew! Talk about mixed media!

Artist Anna Dumitriu makes storytelling quilts - out of superbugs!

"The quilt squares are made using natural and clinical antibiotics on Chromogenic (pigment-generating) agar in which the fabric has been embedded and inoculating the squares with bacteria, creating patterns that reflect the interaction between bacteria and antibiotics. The quilts are embroidered with thread dyed with saffron as well as with the antibiotic Vancomycin."

Check out the article and a video of the artist talking about her work in her own words, HERE

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Next up, photographer Nicholas Alan Cope and creative director Dustin Edward Arnold have combined forces as well as painting, chemistry, sculpture, fashion and installation, to make extremely beautiful, thought-provoking art.

Gorgeous, decomposing still-lifes, discomfiting "fashion" shoots, abstracts that examine the internal world of an object, and a new, very unexpected twist on florals are just some of the series they explore. I am very grateful to yatzer.com for introducing me to these inspiring artists.

Check out their digital retrospective HERE. The article isn't new, but is one that is certainly timeless.

For this week's Material Matters link, here are "Three branding opportunities most artists miss" by Lezley Davidson.

In the "crazy-like-whoa" category - did you know that Francis Bacon's triptych of Lucien Freud studies broke the world record for art sold at auction a couple of weeks ago? Click HERE to find out the eye-watering price paid for Three Studies of Lucian Freud.

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And finally, Will Kemp writes an amusing article about a trip to see Cézanne's studio* in France that also gives you a bit more insight into the artist himself. Check that out HERE in Will's article entitled "How to paint, sleep and nearly die like Cézanne".

*By the way, have you actually ever seen pictures of it? I actually keep a picture of it in my "inspiration" folder on my desk top - it's my dream studio!

P.S. Remember a couple of weeks ago when I talked about re-arranging how I blog a bit? I think I've figured it out.

Life/health permitting, it will go as follows:

Monday will be a process and/or talky post;
Wednesday will be the WIP (wordless or otherwise - why break with tradition?); and
Fridays will be my Friday'S-linky post and the current week's finish of the lunchtime project.

That seems workable for me at the current time and I hope will be entertaining for you.

Have a great weekend and see you on Monday!

When I was trying to get "just the right effect" with my rust dyeing over the summer to make the fabric for Erosion; well, need I say more? lol

Those of you who have rust dyed, know that you have virtually no control over the finished product. Try as you may - things never turn out exactly how you had envisioned. So I had to rust dye a LOT of fabric - yards and yards - (about 7!) to get the piece I wanted for Erosion.

But then, what's a girl to do with 6 yards of rust-dyed fabric?

One of the ideas I came up with was the above. Each of those is a 6.5 inch square - very manageable as a piece of portable work, and if I get tired of it after these first 12 blocks, I can stop. But my intent is to make eight or twelve of these sections - so, 144 of those 6.5 inch squares (I know, right?), put them all together, and then use them as a background for a still larger piece. I imagine it will take approximately a year of lunches in total.

But who wants to think about that?! So, I'm starting with one six and 1/2 inch square.

Very manageable.

At long last, a finish! :)

This one is actually quite significant, not least because of the hours and hours of hand stitching in it. Observe:

I haven't been around for awhile - and this was one of the reasons. I gave myself a nasty steam burn, when the lid fell off of the tea kettle when I was making a pot of tea. Ouchie!

And then I had some really busy days (going in early and staying late) at my day job; and with my new limitations, I can't spend long days in the office and then also spend time in the studio - so the studio has had to wait.

And this calendar is already radically behind, as that first one "someone" which was supposed to be finished the first weekend is November, is still not finished now -pushing back everything else. *ahem*

However...

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