SUMMER DREAMINGS - July

Summer ?  NO,not really so far.

Dreaming? YES, about sunshine !!

Carla

Whenever it is a dry evening we like to play 9 holes of golf at our club,which is situated in beautiful natural scenery (aren't they all ?)
We hear all kinds of birds,see awesome skies, wild  flowers, hares and squirrels.
It feels so good to be outside and enjoy the fresh air and long evenings.

I drew and  cut out a stencil of birds and one of cow parsley and stenciled  them on home dyed fabric with acrylic paint ,added machine- and hand stitching and some fun yarn.


Vivian

One of my favorite spots for ‘Summer Dreaming’ is to sit outside in my garden courtyard and watch the soft rain falling on flowers.

My friends and I explored using crayons on fabric.

The method was to heat a piece of parchment with an iron and rub the crayon on the hot paper to create a ‘puddle’ of hot wax. With a brush you pick up the hot wax and paint it onto paper (see pink-purple flowers). You then transfer that by flipping it on fabric and pressing.

 It seemed like a complicated method to create colour on fabric and I found that I got bits of crayon built up to make it uneven.

I used a piece of blue hand dye for the background.

Then, I added fusible to the back of the purple petals and pressed them in place.

For the green grass and leaves, I drew directly on the fabric with crayon and it was much less fuss and cleaner, without dark bits. I was easily able to vary the depth of colour by pressing more or less on the crayon.

That was followed by stitching of grass, flowers, dragonfly and rain.

OVERLOAD - May

Carla

 Is this  a bad case of 'overload ' or what ? 

So much going on mentally and  physically.

Stresssssss !

It is important to stay balanced and lift the weight and burden from your shoulders.

Hand and machine stitching on stenciled and painted fabric.

detail

Vivian

My Brain on Overload

I do this to myself ... I thrive on being active in all parts of my life. Unfortunately, sometimes I get overloaded when several  projects overlap and reach the crisis point in the same time frame. At this point, my brain has random thoughts about everything and has difficulty focussing on any one task. It then becomes necessary for ME, MYSELF and I to sit down and discuss priorities within a plan.

Some people call it multitasking ... I think it my norm.

Techniques: the fabric is my monoprint. I free motion stitched patterns in relation to the paint patterns. The paint did cause some problems with shredding of thread (small crisis).

Colours: the red parts are the crisis lines from various projects, the blue with the random stitch patterns is the norm and the yellow is me trying to keep my sense of humour through it all!

NAVIGATING - June

Carla

Figuratively: navigating though a career by networking and seeing opportunities , making the right decisions.

Literally : navigating through  a complex business building,finding your way around,hurrying to a meeting.

No fabric this time,but a photo collage.

The pictures were taken in Munich,Germany, at the BMW museum and  were made into a collage in Picasa.

Vivian    Navigating through the obstacles of life.

We navigate through our personal pathway in life.

Obstacles can be:

- the result of a decision we made ... or someone else made

- by chance or deliberately placed

- a clearly visible physical object or a nebulous fear in our minds

- simple with no problems or complicated with consequences

- our health: we are able to cope or it is beyond our physical abilities

- needed skills that we have developed or have you to learn

Life is a project in process ... every obstacle teaches us something about ourselves or others!

Techniques:

Monoprint from a rubber stamp in colours varying from yellow (my path) and littered with orange and red obstacles that I need to navigate around.

BOUNDARIES - March

Carla.

NO BOUNDARIES but...Personal Freedom:

The luxury of being able to make your own choices:

                                  to decide where to go, how to live, to say no. 

Vivian

For this month I wanted to work with text,which is one of my goals for 2012.

Thermofax screen print of a dear and personal letter

 my father wrote to me when he worked in Zimbabwe when I was a teenager.

Handprinted whole-cloth in reverse machine  appliqué and -stitching

Paper strips with text in a cocoon of organza.

IMPRESSIONS OF WINTER - January

Carla

WINTER SCENE

Bare trees you can see through with or without snow falling.

I love the view through the tree silhouettes not hindered by  any  foliage.

Painted and printed whole cloth,machine appliquéd and stitched.

Vivian

It is sad to be a winter tree!

I stand alone, the birds have left,

The wind has taken my leaves

The farmer is gone.

But, Spring will come

I will grow leaves and shelter nests,

The farmer will rest in my shade ...

I will survive!

Armed with a sketchbook, I traveled from my home in British Columbia, Canada to La Conner in Washington, USA. As we passed through the farmland, I was impressed with the trees that stood strong, tall and alone. The day was misty blue.

NEW BEGINNINGS - February

CARLA

Monoprints in watercolor on paper with accents in pencil.
I tried to work spontaneously and I am happy about the way it turned out.

At the time I made this our granddaughter was about to be born.

TEXTILE TRANSLATION:

I managed to construct a semi-transparent convex shape from plastic on which I stitched square scraps:

The womb in which my first  grandchild grew and developed into a beautiful baby girl.

From here she experienced the first the sounds and light coming from the world she is about to enter.

Vivian

Happy

I made this little multimedia piece as a demo for my friends ... I wasn’t thinking about anything more than showing them the method.

When I was putting away the pieces, I realized that it fit the challenge of ‘New Beginnings’. My state of mind was ‘Happy’. I have a great family, wonderful friends,  I get to play in my studio to produce art and I’m healthy ... a great way to start my 7^th decade!

The initial piece was layered with gesso. So, I layered the piece with batting & backing, sewed around the edge of the cheesecloth and hand couched a decorative thread.

STRUCTURES - April

Carla

I was fascinated by the Clematis flowers that popped open in our garden in spring.

The combination of the flowers with the trellis that supports them is what I wanted to show:

the beautiful and delicate structure of the flowers and...

 also the contrast structured vs unstructured. 

The background is painted whole-cloth 

on which I did some free machine stitching, adding circles of organza and beads.

The trellis is stiffened cotton thread and was added in an attempt to create some depth.

Vivian

Glass Structure - Transparency

I was experimenting with a technique: I painted on parchment with Jaquard Luminescent paints, added a layer of Misty Fuse, a layer of sheer and another layer of parchment. Then you flip over and press from the back. The paint transfers from the Misty Fuse to the layer of sheer. It may not transfer completely, but that gives a look of reflecting light.

I layered the sheer on hand dye and topped it with another sheer with large scale handwriting. A little machine stitching was added to emphasize the look of the glass.