One of six children, I was raised by a busy mom, who instilled in me a love of fabric. Though I learned to sew and knit at a young age, it was the arrival of my first grandchild that pushed me into action. A long-time knitter, I am now ready to explore all things fiber.
Well, it seems I have become much slower at posting to this site during the past month. I have no thoughts on the cause of this, except to say that I stayed busy all month, just not on activities that fit into the Daily Fiber Fun theme.
To kickstart my blog for December, let me introduce my family’s newest artist.
Laura Lucille, Age 3
During our recent visit with the family, my daughter confided to me that Laura Lu would very much enjoy making art with her grammy.
It was true. I only got her started with a few techniques in drawing with crayon and painting with watercolor. After that she wanted to make art nearly every day.
The last day of our visit, she made this one.
According to the artist, this is a playground. Gramps and I liked it so much, we asked to keep it. That request gave the artist pause. Would she part with her work, or not? After a few moments of deliberation, she agreed that we could take it home.
What followed next was a small flood of playground drawings, all of which were given to us. According to her mother, when bedtime came, the artist insisted on taking crayons and paper to bed with her, because she didn’t want to stop drawing.
Have I actually become a role model for the next generation? It feels great.
It’s been about three weeks since my last post. I was surprised by how much time had elapsed. My time has been occupied working to repair one of our rental properties and knitting gifts for Christmas.
To make up for my absence, I want to share with you a painting based on a photograph from my recent trip to Belize and the story behind the photo.
I call it Red Dragonfly Waterfall.
The photo itself is not very good quality. Due to to location of the sun, all my shots have these solar flares in them. But it gives you the essence of the place.
This adventure began with a drive down a bumpy dirt road for several miles. After enduring a noisy greeting by a gang of howler monkeys (very loud!) we reached the entrance to Cockscomb Wildlife Sanctuary and Jaguar Preserve. Surrounded on three sides by Mayan mountains, this preserve is the only one of its kind specifically dedicated to saving jaguars. Our guide, Pablo, offered the group three options for hiking: easy, moderate, or difficult. We chose moderate. This one stretched about two miles through the forest, ending in a narrow descent to a waterfall.
After applying areas of masking fluid, I painted Initial washes, rainbow, sky and some foliage.
We could hear it long before the waterfall came into view. I would estimate that the water tumbled down about twenty feet into a modest pool that was about six feet deep in its center. One of our party shed most of his clothes, grabbed his waterproof camera and waded in to take some video. I cautiously splashed my feet, then rested on a bench thoughtfully placed at the water’s edge.
A bold red dragonfly was flying around the area, pausing from time to time on an upright twig. I tried to several times to take his picture, but was unable to get a decent shot. So I sat back to enjoy the environs.
Next came layers of glazing, some color and a little salt effect.
After the warm and sweaty walk, the cool dampness of the place revived us.
Then it was time to work our way up the switchbacks and return to park headquarters, where Pablo laid out a delicious lunch of chicken, rice and fruit.
We saw no jaguars that day, but I understand they are nocturnal animals. The birds, trees and flowers provided plenty of color and sound for our pleasure.
I was most grateful for the experience.
Masking fluid removed, details painted in.
Pigments include Winsor yellow, green gold, Thalo blue, quinacridone red, raw sienna, burnt sienna and payne’s gray. On 9 x 12 cold press Fabriano Studio paper.
Today I got out my lino-cutting tool to make another stamp based on a sketch. Last week I drew this monarch butterfly, referencing a free-use photograph from UnSplash.
Using tracing paper I transferred the drawing to a softcarve 4 x 6 block. It took me about an hour to carve out the image.
I did a few test prints and touched up the lines a bit. Here is the ink that I chose.
I find the types of stamping ink very confusing. Also, I paid $5 for this pad and there is hardly any ink in it. Eventually I got at least one decent print on a sheet of Canson Smooth Bristol paper.
While there are a few too many “echo lines” for my taste, I decided to carry on. Next came color. I was keen to see how easily paint would go over the permanent ink. I wasn’t terribly concerned that the black would be covered up, since watercolor paint is transparent.
I finished off by adding a little Micron pen – doing some stippling in black and drawing lines in yellow and orange to represent some of the details that I observed in the reference photograph.
I think this came out great. I will probably make several of these prints to use as greeting cards.
If any of you crafters out there in the blog-sphere have a recommendation for printing inks, please share.
Today I am posting again an object I created back in 2019. It is a weaving on a slightly unconventional fixed frame that I made from an old picture frame and some buttons.
I call it “Escape from the Tower.” Its inspiration resides in my departure from the world of Paid Employment. I suppose it is a bit of an allegory. It represents the feeling of freedom and relief as I gained complete control over my schedule.
When I thought up this piece 2019, I was teaching fiber arts to elementary students. One month we studied weaving. The assignment was to create a frame using a piece of cardboard and cotton yarn. Since I needed to make examples of each project that I taught, I had the opportunity to experiment with different ways of wrapping the weft yarns around the warp yarns.
Eventually I came up with a tapestry frame that was decorative, becoming a permanent part of the weaving.
You may have noticed that the Tower is on fire.
I guess the devil in me made up that part of the weaving. The golden rope stretching down through the smoke and flames delivers the Tower’s occupants to safety.
I’ve had this hanging in my studio since its creation. Our local art association is having a show and I decided to enter “Escape from the Tower.” Starting next week it will be on display at the town library along with works by other members of our group.
I will be curious to hear what viewers think of it.
Earlier this week, a friend of a friend asked me to help him mend the holes in his favorite jeans. He didn’t bring any patches along, so I just used needle and thread to weave across one of the holes as a demonstration. That got our conversation started about the concept of visible mending.
The artist I was thinking about is Celia Pym.
An article and some images of her work can be found here:
The conversation reminded me that I had set aside a pair of jeans of my own that were now holey at the knees.
Perhaps the universe is telling me it’s time to start this project. Despite having an abundance of UFFOs littering my studio, I began working on the jeans.
First of all, I wanted to incorporate patches over the weak-at-the-knees areas. Having been told in the past NOT to throw away fabric scraps, I was able to find some interesting scraps already coated with fusible glue.
It took me less than 30 minutes to fussy-cut some flowers that could cover the holes. I added even more patches just to create a colorful floral field on the denim.
Wow – shades of the sixties.
I do intend to embroider over the patches. This will serve to strengthen the patches and unify the design a little bit.
Getting started with embroidery – pearl cotton
It’ll take me a few evenings to get all the hand stitching done. But first, I wanted to address the torn logo on the back of the jeans.
These are Levis jeans but the leathery label on the waistband is nearly gone. I used a small pair of scissors with a sharp point to cut away the remaining bits and thread.
Next I made a label of my own and stitched it into place.
DAILY FIBER FUN – BY HAND
Yesterday I purchased a variety pack of pearl cotton thread in shades of pink, purple, aqua, blue and yellow. I’m really looking forward to jazzing up these tired old jeans.
Daily Fiber 