Metal Madness

The 4″ x 4″ collage houses were made for the Needle Thread Cloth challenge at my and Jan’s new blog.  Each month we throw out a challenge and display the results. Please visit the site and sign up to follow us if you are interested in embroidery. The challenge this month is House and Couch Stitch. My houses are on paper this time, painted with stencils and Lumiere Metallic Paints. The couching was done with Painter’s Thread Gimp. The challenges can be interpreted widely and it’s a lot of fun.

This group of ATC’s (Artist Trading Cards) was begun in a class taken at Artistic Artifacts given by Diane Hebort. Diane and Artistic Artifacts hosted a trade day where I received some great ATC’s in exchange for mine.

Blue Halloween is my July inspire piece for paperwhimsy. I used Inka Gold Cobalt Blue rub on pigment, which I love. You can read more about how I made it HERE.

This is not the end of metal madness. I’m enjoying the blatant shininess of it all.

On the work table, off the table and under the table.

On the work table now is a piece of free stitching in neutral tones with vintage off white thread and some metallic touches.

Piece In Progress

This is what it looks like when I’m working on it up close.

This is what it looks like overall. I will keep adding to this piece and have nowhere in particular that I want to take it. It is a wandering, freeform piece. I like the colors and the density of the stitches.

Piece In Progress

This angel is off the table now. It’s the latest paperwhimsy.com piece and you can read more about it here. It’s available on Etsy.

Angel in Gold

After working with muted tones, I craved a bit of color. Here is what I’ve gathered for a future piece. I’ve begun some stitching for what will be more of a collage piece than a wandering piece. The fabrics are hand dyed and I am using Painter’s Threads.

Color Way for Piece in Progress

I spotted him quietly keeping me company under the photography table. He looks like the first neutral toned piece above.

Paperwhimsy Glove Reliquaries

Glove Reliquaries

Fortune – Glove Reliquary

Fortune Detail

To read about the method of making the Glove Reliquaries, please visit the inspire blog post at paperwhimsy.com. There will be another $25.00 paperwhimsy gift certificate giveaway coming up later this week along with a chance to win coupons and collages so be sure to watch for the post and giveaway details.

Never again, although I’m glad I tried. A tale of embroidery, sheep and the search for texture.

An important element in my artwork is showing the sense of hand. Recently I’ve been working toward gaining skills to increase this aspect of my work. I was lucky to find an embroidery class at Artistic Artifacts  with Ruth Chandler of Textile Evolution  where I learned an incredible 18 embroidery stitches in one day. Last year I learned how to dye fabric and fiber at Artistic Artifacts. This all feeds my love for fiber, texture and color. I also love sheep, their wool, texture, and color and all were in abundance at The Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival, sponsored by the Maryland Sheep Breeders Association, Inc. and held at the Howard County Fairgrounds in Maryland last weekend.

There were over 1000 sheep and 40 different varieties.

Sheep

Hello Face

Such a sweet face

The following photos are some of the different types of fleece.

Curls

Waves

Curls and Waves

I absolutely LOVE the colorway of all the yarn that was available. The yearly show is a knitters paradise.

Yarn on top of Fleece

Magical skeins (because they remind me of the broom in Fantasia)

Vibrant Earth Tones

Rich Jewel Tones

It’s a fun filled weekend of live animals, arts, crafts, supplies and more. Vendors were selling food, sheep, yarn, and everything one would need to make yarn including….

Sheared

Bags of Fleece

…fleece straight from the backs of the sheep.

WHAT IS THE ARTIST’S EQUIVALENT OF EYES TOO BIG FOR STOMACH? This is! I purchased a small Teeswater X fleece and a Merino fleece with the idea I would make my own fiber for embroidery.

It’s an arduous process to wash and dry the fleece without ‘felting’ it. Apparently, any agitation during the washing process binds the fiber in a way that causes it to felt. The goal is to keep the strands separated so the wool can be spun or used as locks.

I worked a long time getting a small amount of clean fleece by hand washing and rinsing. Water must be kept to a certain temperature and agitation must be avoided. My fibers didn’t appear to bind into felt, even though, during the drying process, the washing machine spin cycle accidentally threw rinse water on the fleece. I stopped it quickly as I’d read that agitation of any kind was a big no no.

At the end, when I saw the clean fleece, I decided it was definitely worth it.

The never again part comes because this requires a better set up to do properly. I washed and rinsed the fleece in a small bucket which is not the best scenario for this type of intensive process.  I will send off the larger merino fleece to a mill to be washed and processed.

I gained a huge appreciation for the spinners and the dyers who make their own yarn.  I’ve been playing with new ideas, yarns and fibers and the direction is intriguing. I’ve tested the extreme end of trying to make my own yarn and I’m happy being somewhere between making my own yarn, dying fibers myself, hand stitching and using a sewing machine for stitching. It will be interesting to see where the new knowledge and skills takes me.

Experiment in hand stitching on hand dyed fabrics