Quilt to Jacket to Beads.

Ok, I know that sounds odd, but I am an artist and I follow where my muse leads me most times.  So, let me explain, please.  I bought a box at an auction for a $1 in the early 1990's.  In the bottom of the box among now other un-recalled things was this unfinished but beautiful crazy quilt made of silk pieces and embroidered with silk floss.  I have loved this quilt and it has always hung on an old auction found oak rocker back, because it is so beautiful.    Here is a couple of scans of the quilt so you can see what a beauty it is.

You can just tell someone loved this quilt and put lots of love into making it, highlighting pieces with beautiful hand work.

Well, I have thought for ever that I would finish the quilt.  But, I had to gather some silk pieces to do that.  I have been gathering pieces of silk here and there to make the quilt pieces-sometimes pieces at yard sales, sometimes garments at yard sales and thrift shops.  One piece I found is this nubby silk cream colored tailored jacket.

Love the feel of this piece.  It had a cream colored lining and a label marked 100% silk!

But as I was deconstructing the jacket I became mentally involved in whether the lining was actually silk or not.  At some time in my life, I read somewhere that you can tell the difference between synthetics and  natural fibers with heat.  Synthetics will melt, naturals will burn... or so the theory goes.  I decided to give this a test.  But, I like to make tests that give me something useful, so, I gathered up my bead making knitting needles, lol.  

I think they are like size 5 and 3 there about.  I don't knit, but I bought a bundle of metal and a few plastics of these needles at the yard sale mall... cheap, of course, since I had no idea what I would do with them, (then.)  Since I have discovered they are wonderful tools for making beads from paper and, yep, especially synthetic fibers!

Here is the process:  I cut a long triangle of paper, or fabric in this case, or I could use synthetic yarns to wrap around my needle.

I wind my chosen material up on a dowel or in my case a metal knitting needles..

So, I wound a piece of the lining from the jacket on the needle with the expectations that if it was synthetic I would have beads, and if not... well, I would know for sure, ya know?  lol

Once you get the synthetic on the needle, then you have to apply heat... I used my trusty adjustable heat gun set on high and and at highest temp.  cuz I want this stuff to melt fast if it is going to melt. The metal knitting helps with this as it is a great conductor of heat.

And the results?  This lining fabric is.... synthetic.. it melts onto itself and it gave me some beads... which I will use to tie onto a neck scarf I am making.. They should make a fun and light weight fringe, don't you think?  Some embellishing with shiney glittery paint here and there will be in order too.

So, thank you my muse, for leading me from a quilt, to a jacket, to beads.... and I guess eventually to a scarf, he he.

What Have I Been So Busy Doing?

I don't know.  I really don't have much to post today as far as pictures go.  But, this is what I have been doing:
About two weeks ago, HRH and I bought a new travel trailer as he is going to retire soon and we expect to go out into the world traveling a bit.  We like having our house with us when we do this.  The travel trailer we has was just a bit small to "snow bird" in.  This new one seems to have much more room.  So, I have been busy transferring all the stuff from one house to another.  And I made HRH a new quilt and pillow sham since he has COPD and is eternally cold.  I finished up a paper swap over in blissfully art journaling group.  I put some hangers on some wood batiks I made last fall/winter.  Isn't that fun to be able to say fall/winter as in the past!  I did try some grid drawings which I will post below.  I am not really sold on the grid drawing techniques yet.  I think it would be a good thing if you wanted to reproduce something exactly.  I kinda like things to be a bit skeewampus though.  Makes things look a bit more artsy to me.  I have been to four or so yardsales and found some fun tags with ribbons, new and in package.  They seem to be made out of maybe heavy watercolor paper, so I will have fun playing with those.   So, I haven't really been doing much of anything as far as things I can show you here.  I have things rolling around in my head of stuff I might try, but just haven't gotten into anything worth showing.  I am wanting to buy a flip video camera so I can make some tute videos.  Has anyone used them for this?

The process is to make a grid on a transparency with a permanent marker.  Then hole the grid up and closing one eye make a contour drawing with a wipe off pen.  I used a transparency pen.

Then you can trace light grid lines on your paper and transfer the drawing.  It is supposed to make your drawings more accurate.  I was not concentrating here, I guess.

My second effort was of a cute coffee mug (or in my case tea mug) and candy flower suckers a sweet friend gave me, because she said the mug fit me since I am always creating, lol.  Much better drawing this second time around... I used copic markers and brushes.

Mandala Swap

We are swapping mandalas over in the sketchbookproject group.  We send off our mandalas, and the hostess is making us a small mandala book.  These are the mandalas I made for the swap.  The thing is, have been doing zendoodles for quite some time.  I love the black and white eye boggling look to them.  But, we had to do the mandalas in color.  This cause me to have to stretch myself somewhat.  I started out doing the doodling with copic markers... lucious colors, aren't they?  But, I am not one to do the same thing over and over, so I decided to try a permenent black marker, then water color.  I used a little water color set that was in a water color or possibly calligraphic instruction book from one of the big book stores... but I actually bought it looking like brand new at a yard sale.  The water colors worked okay, but they seem more on the gouache side... I had to go back and touch them up with the copic brushes and some more markers.  Live and learn....

Copic markers used to doodle with.

Bird brained on this one!, LOL

I like this one lots, even though it is rather simple in design.

And this one.... my fave!

And as for putting April on the cards... well... I am right brained you know!

Swapping Spools

Some one in the sketchbookproject group found a post about Kelli Perkins and her Poetry Spools and so many of us (of course) wanted to try to make some.  And then, (of course) a swap was on the table and off we go.  These are the ones I made to swap.  These are really cute, really fun, and easy to make.  I hope I am not stepping on Kelli's toes by posting these!  If I am, I apologize Kelli!  I used some hand dyed fabric which was supposed to be black, but turned out this yummy green color (you all know I love green, don't you?)  cut to fit the spools.  Added some found poetry... have you tried that?  I just cut up a bunch of words into a bowl and blindly drew out words.  Manipulated them for a bit, and got the poetry to the point I could live with it, glued it on the muslin strip, glued the strip to the spool, added some embroidery stitches, a button, and some ribbon for a closure.  I love these little, easy, delightful, gifty, things!

If you make some of these, let me know if you show them on your blog.  I would love to see what you come up with and how you do it.

Practice

Over in the A.R.T. group we are just finishing up a book study.  These are the last of my assignments...

The first two are practice using "attachments"

And the last three are making a journal page using cards, fold-outs or pop-ups.  I chose an accordian style card with insert cards because it was one I made several years ago, blank, and ready to use.

New Katie Kendricks Inspired Paintings

These I started in Vegas!  It is easier to work at home with your "stuff" available.  lol

A page in my journal to use up some small scraps and to use a "word" card.

And a journal page using the techniques of photo copy, adding color, adding words, embellishing with markers.

Finishing Up Vegas Art

I don't know about you but when I come home from an art retreat, I always have projects I need to finish.  Here are some I worked on the last week.

In Katie Kendrick's really fun and informative class... she had us work on five diffferent paintings so we always had one we could work on if we got stuck on one.  This is the first one I feel I could call "finished."  I think I have figured out the focal and background parts she tried to tell us about in class.

I took this painting a bit further and actually painted in the tree closest to the lady.  Now, I have three more paintings to complete.

In Thomas Ashman's really fun but challenging class, we started two of these little copper and glass journals.  I struggled with all the nuts and bolts... a bit difficult with my stiff hands and fingers.  But the final products are fabulous.  I still have to put the paper and the embellishing on the second one.

The front and back of the journal.  This glass made me want to start making journals out of other unusual materials.

I still have to take photos of the crow sculpture I made in class and the one I am making here, from the class by the Shultz' called Something to Crow About.  Sculpture has always had a spot in my heart and I haven't done much in many years.  Now, I am thinking seriously about doing a few more.  It is really a fun activity.