


Small weaving placed on handmade felt. Materials: Felt, Ribbon, Beads
Available on ETSY
Blog displays most recent work by theresa mARTin
“What are you up to today?” friends often ask. I usually respond “not much”, or “nothing new” or “groundhog day”. For some odd reason, it feels like nothing. But it’s the tick tick tick of moments, a stitch by stitch process, a needle by needle momentum. This small purple piece was begun as my mother was dying. It was a tick, tick, of a heart. It was finished after she died. After her last tick. Tick. Tick. Time. Passing. Passing. Gone.
I started a series of small fiber collages on the Solstice. Two are now available in my Etsy Shop.
Dreaming All Shall Be Well:Available HERE
Stitch Rain: Available HERE
These small collages are stitched on top of my handmade felt. On Stitch Rain I love the way the stitches look like rain watering the flower. Dreaming that All Shall Be Well feels appropriate for Covid Times.
For a short time there are inspiration collage packs for sale at ETSY
These packs of silk paper, radiance paper and pressed Angelina Fiber will be on sale until my area goes back on lockdown, which may be soon. I will not be able to get to the post office once our Covid numbers increase as we move into January.
The packs are chock full of color and detail.
Cut them, sew them, add beads and embroidery to them, use them in your collage or fiber work. Keep them whole and enjoy them as works of art.
Radiance paper is a beautiful bubbled, iridescent colored plastic paper that can be cut or sewn to artwork.
Some of the silk papers are soft like fabric and some are stiffer.
Once a year during the monthly meeting at Artistic Artifacts in Alexandria, VA, people bring in their favorite books to share and this was my friend Sharon’s contribution. We all love the work of Angela Cartwright and Sarah Fishburn. A challenge was proposed for us to use the book and the template it provides to create our own houses. The challenge is due in June. We have discussed making a “fat book” (remember them from the 90″s?). Each person who makes a book can print out one of their pages several times to combine into one book. We may simply share what we’ve done in our usual SHOW AND TELL portion of the meeting. I enjoyed working on mine and look forward to seeing what others make. How I made the book is at the bottom of this post.
I cut out the shaped pages from 90 lb Arches Hot Press watercolor paper and painted them with ink. Next step was gelli printing, followed by spray painting with stencils. Images, some printed on transparencies, and collage papers finished the process. I bound the pages with eyelets and ribbons. Voilà! While that voilà expresses that I am satisfied with the project, it did take several days and sometimes it fought me. It took several hours a day over a week of time. Thanks for looking.
One day a large storm took down the old walnut tree. Neighbors knew it well. They loved its gnarled appearance.
Later the county removed most of the tree but left the stump to decay naturally.
The photo above was pinned to the stump so all could say Goodbye.
Lots of time has passed and recently neighborhood children built a fort with sticks, digging out the under growth and creating an entrance.
A neighborhood artist left an offering inside. I hope they find the leaf.
My leaf pins can also be found on Etsy HERE.
The Eye Contact Exhibit is going on the road. The curator, Barbara Hollinger, has engineered the Eye Contact exhibit into 11 double-sided panels that can be suspended from poles or from a ceiling. Here is a mock-up so you can see how it will look.
Gaithersburg Presbyterian Church, Gaithersburg, MD
March 2020
HeART Gallery, Toledo, OH
April 2020
White Memorial Presbyterian Church, Raleigh NC
May 2020 – June 2020
Virginia Quilt Museum, Harrisonburg, VA
July 2020 – August 2020
International Quilt Festival (IQF) – Houston
October 29 – November 1, 2020
AQS Quilt Week:
Feb 2021 – Daytona, FL
March 2021 – Lancaster, PA
April 2021 – Paducah, KY
Lavender Door Gallery, Stockbridge, MA
June 2021
My contribution to the exhibit