Art in the Islands Retreat 2008

Kit here,
Click on the image above, to see a close up of each picture in the collage.
I have just finished processing some 96 pictures of our retreat at the Glenn House. This is a collage of some of them. Not very satisfying I know. I have been trying to upload the 96 pictures to an 'invitation only' website via Picassa. Picassa is a lot of fun but very frustrating to work with. It is currently uploading and re-organizing every single file I have ever owned on my hard drive. Less would do frankly - - as all I wanted were the 96 photos.
n the interim I offer up the collage. Pictures to come soon, hopefully with captions! Stay tuned...

More pics from the retreat

One of the best times for me at the retreat was being able to help a couple of free motion virgins. I love it when the light goes on and they realize that it can be done. This is the most gratifying for me as a teacher.

Below you will find samples from Pat's demo.

Don't you just love those shiva sticks.

This will be my last blog on this site as I am moving on to other things.

I would like to share what I learn, and give tuttorrials on what I discover on my personal blog catharinablog.blogspot .com . Presently I am playing with painting and stamping on fabric,bobbin work and making holes for washers in your work.

Come and see what I am up to there.

Batteries

Last weekend's retreat was a great get away and the weather was just spectacular too! One of the lesson's I learned, was check your batteries for your camera before you go on a trip. I took, what I thought was an extra set of charged up lithium batteries, those long life ones for cameras, but they did not work when I needed them to. I had to rely on others for photos and did not get some of the images I would have liked to have had.
My batteries were rechargable and have a shelf life, so I will have to see if they actually work. If not, the rechargable ones can be taken to places for recycling. W5 had an entire show about that several months ago. One town collected tons, and I mean tons, of batteries that would just end up in land fill sites if we don't recycle and they have harmful heavy metals which could be collected and used again. Every bit helps. Susan

After the retreat

Now that we have recovered from all of the artistic stimulation and we have time to think about all the fun we had, we can have a look at what we did.There was lots of play with colour.

We had lots of fun with felting. From playing with a felting machine ( I do need another machine) to making a new pet( dragon) for your sewing room, everyone stretched their limits.

It was fab!!!

More pics to come.

journals

I just love a pretty book to journal in and thought that a little piece of art for the cover would do nicely.

Sorting through my hand painted bits of fabric each piece took me in another direction. What fun!

Some fabrics were a bit too small but worked when one side was cut off rearranged and some interesting designs just happened.

Add to that ribbons,sequins trapped under netting and some hand beading and fabulous they are.

Colour in Action

Kit here...
This is a fresh batch of fabric that I am dyeing for our retreat next week.
What you see here are 9 dye pots of a 12 dye pot colour wheel with 1 metre of fabric in each pot. Six of these pots ( the white ones) were given to me by Mara Harrison last year. I wish I had 12 of these as they are a perfect size. They are also lightweight and stackable - perfect for Low water immersion dyeing. I know that Mara is coming to the retreat...maybe she will bring me six more:-)

So here is the jumble that comes out of the dryer, nicely ironed I might add and as you can see I have already cut into some of it. Here I have sorted some of these into colour combos using little swatches. I have started collecting colour swatches of hand dyed fabric as this helps me keep the whole mess organized and easier to repeat if I want to. I find the plastic sleeves for these at the dollar store -five sheets for a dollar - Sports cards, collectors album refills..
For years I have enjoyed the serendipity of surprises/accidents when working with colour but now I want more for my efforts - therefore swatches.

This combo below shows seven tone chord that provides three sets of complementary colours. So how come all these colours seem to work together?

Here is another seven tone chord. Tropical fruit comes to mind - yumm...

Art in the Islands Retreat -- we are almost there!

Two Fridays from now and we begin the 7 threads second ART IN THE ISLANDS RETREAT!!
Kit here...
As you can see I am building up a little excitement over in this corner...

Of all the activities we Threads engage in ... and believe me we are a pretty busy group, this is by far the most exciting event - - we get to spend a weekend talking and work shopping all things fibre-art in a beautiful resort on the St Lawrence river with 48 other fibre enthusiasts! Heaven...


I have been busy the last couple of days dyeing and assembling colourful fabric bundles for our merchant mall. This bunch reminds me of some of the colours I saw when walking through the depths of a sub-tropical forest on Saturna Island BC, when I visited last November. Lots of deeps shades with glimpses of intensely rich colours.
So, I have named this bundle Deep Saturna - how poetic!


I am really looking forward to this event and finally meeting the registrants I have been communicating with these last few months.

New York, almost spring

Just got back from a trip to New York and it was just what I needed. There is so much to see and the weather was great. A walk through Central Park revealed these wonderful sculptures of children's stories, such as the Three Bears. It was great to have no snow anywhere.
One of the highlights for me was to see five paintings by Vermeer. There are only 27 in existence that we know of. (Don't quote me on that number) I did not see one of them in Boston years ago, as it had been stolen the year before. Two of these paintings are shown here, photographed from a book I have. His paintings are not very big. Young Woman with a Water Pitcher is 16" X 18" and my favorite, Allegory of Faith is 45" X 35". To see original paintings is a privilege and I was able to just stand in front of them, for as long as my time would allow, with no one around. Often people do not know which paintings are the amazing ones, unless they have studied art or the gallery tells them. The colours, brush strokes and composition are right there in front of you, having been painted approximately 340 years ago. I could have spent all my time in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, but there were so many things to see in the city I had to limit my time. Oh well, something to go back for in the future. Susan

Visit to Renfrew and other things

This is not my work. Bernie a member of the Renfrew Guild stitched up this daisy, isn't it fabulous.
Despite the freezing rain, we had a lovely two days sewing our brains out. I do love to teach what I have discovered and pass it on to others.
My little Jem sewing machine is a treat. It behaves just like my big one and I was able to show everyone some bobbin work as well, even though I hadn't spent much time with this little "baby".
You can see more student work at www.catharinablog.blogspot.com
I am continuing to work on the retreat and it is really coming together. The participants are in for lots of fun and some surprises. Now to sew up a few more samples and I will be ready to go. Oh and I need some new clothes as well, as I am on the high end of my size of the month issues.
I have a lovely Lois Erikson kimono pattern and will definitely make one of those. I am planning to piece in some circles a la Lily Lam.
Thanks to Wendo fo mentioning our teaching at St.Lawrence College this summer. I will jot down more details later.
I am looking outside and the snow is going !!!!!
Talk more soon.

Tsukineko Ink trials

Kit here...
Jennifer asked me to try out these textile inks. She is carrying three set of these in her shop and given that they are relatively new technology for fibre art, I thought that I would give them a try from my end. That said, there's lots of talk on the web about these.

I suspect that these are not true inks but really a very fine grade of acrylic based paint - - much like pebeo's transparent seta color -- they are so fine that they don't change the hand of the fabric. The give-away is that these 'inks' set with a little heat from your iron, like all textile paints.

In short, I found the the colours to be intense, they mix well and behave a lot like ink!
All colours are transparent except for the white. On the down side, used alone the colours tend to bleed, even when using the colouring 'stixs' that come with the set. This can be a positive as with the blue gradations (see below), or if you are trying for a watercolour effect. Otherwise some sort of binder or resist is needed.

A quick search on the web brings up all sorts of solutions for this: everything from shaving cream to soy milk.

I have found that the easiest to use is Aloe Vera clear gel (emphasis on clear). Easiest for me because I was able to find it locally at our friendly Walmart store (smile). I have used the gel in two ways. One was to mix it with a colour 1:4 parts, any more gel than this and the colour begins to lighten -- that can be OK too.

But my preferred method is to stretch the fabric - - in this case a piece of 10 mm silk on a frame and paint the gel directly onto the fabric using a foam sponge. Let this surface dry to a damp state and then begin painting. Nice crisp lines result with a lot of control, whether you use the 'stix' that come with the set or a watercolour brush.

Here is a close up of this study. If you click on the 3rd image you can still see some bleeding where I have bushed one colour over another colour that is still wet. The little white dots are made with the white ink, added in at the end to show how well they cover up the underlying shades. BTW, the white can be mixed in with any of the colours to create opaque tints. Once the design is finished, I will iron this piece to set (as with any textile paint) and I will wash it in warm water with a little dish detergent or woolite to remove the aloe gel.

This is a high quality product that can be fun to use on all sorts of fabrics.

St. Lawrence College summer school

Hi all,

Even though we still seem to be in the grip of winter..that snow is slowly slowly melting away. I hope that the predicted rain we get this weekend will finally end winter. I've noticed a few curls of tulip leaves pushing their way up...it's only a matter of time.

To further banish winter from our hearts, I just received my St. Lawrence Summer School of the Arts brochure and I'm pleased to announce that Cathy and I will be teaching in the same week...July 7-11, 2008. I'll be taking participants step by step through the process of needle felting a pet portrait and Cathy will be teaching the fundamentals of creating your own quilt.

Check us out at the link below!

http://www.stlawrencecollege.ca/parttime/SummerArtsSchedule.htm

I look forward to the long hot days of summer!!

Cheers,

Wendo

Bob Adams at work -- catch this if you can...

Kit here...
This link below is circulating on the net. It shows Bob Adams, a retired US high school teacher demonstrating how he makes quilts today. He uses an interesting combination of discharged fabric (he removes the original fabric colour) and heavy heavy thread work.
check it out here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWY1t8V-SNQ


I met Bob at a QSDS junket back in 2005. As I recall he was not quite retired yet...or maybe he was about to retire. In any case it is inspirational to see Bob's new career take off. Way to go!

A fun week

First ,I bought a new small 12 pound machine,a Janome Jem Platinum 760 for classes from
Sew Crafty in Perth. After having some back issues and taking my heavier machine to class with difficulty I splurged and have added Matilda to my sewing machine family.This little baby can do everything my other machine can do without the obvious large hole for large quilts. It will be perfect for classes and doing demos.New equipment is always fun.
I am off to Refrew to teach tommorrow and she will be christened.
I also had a lovely time with Lily Lam from Montreal and we learned how to piece circles without pins. Now I can tackle my large Klimpt inspired piece. I will be making lots of circles inside circles. Will keep you posted.
We Seven Threads are busy preparing for the Art in the Islands Retreat. Can't wait as it promises to be an exciting event with lots of free goodies for the participants.There will be lots of sharing and the weekend inspires new work for me.
Because I have spent quite a few days on the couch with my sore back I have also discovered knitting again. Check out this company Berroco, the patterns are funky and off the wall. I love them.
As promised I have been posting on my personal blog this week. You can check it out at www.catharinablog.blogspot.com
Have a great weekend all, it promises to be a nice one.Finally I see a few tulips peeking up in my garden beside the snow.

A visit from Lily Lam

Kit here...
Jennifer, Pat and I caught up with Lily Lam for dins at the Brockberry and a follow up visit to my studio Wednesday evening.
Lily was in these regions at the invite of the Lanark County Quilters Guild in Perth Ontario. Details of Lily's workshop and a group picture can be seen on her blog here. I had previously met Lily on the occasion of her fibre art show in Montreal this past January. I saw then her exquisite and precise work.

So back at the studio, Lily pulls out of a tiny little bag, about the size of a 1 gal ziploc ...her new creation. As I recall, this fabric mobile literally popped out of this small enclosure.


Here, Lily discusses construction details with Jennifer

We had to see this piece in action so I did some climbing to get it up high and watch it spin. Given that there was no wind in the studio at that time it turned very slowly and gracefully.
This is a great example of Lily's curves in action - literally.
I now want to learn how to make these exquisitely precise curves....

As we watch it turn and admire the ingenuity I notice that my studio needs a clean up ...oh well, later.

I love that way it looks with light shining through as it turns.


Lily plans to attend our Retreat in April and I hope she brings this piece for all to see.

Looking Forward

Hi all,
I'm back from Cuba all tanned and happy. It always amazes me how quickly you can get from one climate to another. It's only been a few days and the beach is now soooo far away.

In looking ahead there is a bunch of fun stuff happening in my life and I will be travelling and teaching a bit. Here is what I'm up to.

1.Three Daisies workshop for the Renfrew Quilter's Guild, Renfrew- March 31st and April 1st

2.Art in the Islands Retreat with Seven Threads Studios, Glen House Resort, Gananoque- April18,19, and 20

3. Country Lanes Studio Tour, in my studio in Perth, may 17,18 and 19. There will be guest artists here as well, Wendo being one of them.

4.Lecture on "MY PROCESS" for the Out of the Box Group in Ottawa- May 19th at 7:30

5.Three Daisies workshop at Salon 2008, Montreal, Quebec- May 23

6." Tampered With Show" at Paper Images Gallery, Picton from June 1-16th

7. "Passages Show" with Seven Threads Studios at the Brittannia Gallery in Ottawa from June 4-29th

8. From Pic to Quilt class at the Country Quilter in Richmond-June 6,13, ans 20

9. Design class at the St. Lawrence College Summer School of the Arts from July 7-11

10.Every Wed. I have a group of students who are always willing to push their limits. Each one works on their own projects and my job is to teach them enough so that they will not need me anymore.

This will keep me out of mischief for awhile.

Another new venture is my personal blog. I really want to share what I learn and keep everyone up to date with what I am doing.I will be posting a couple of times a week and this time make it work.Check me out at www.Catharinablog.blogspot.com

finishing samples

I have been working on some of the samples for the retreat and had to figure out what to do. I have quilted on one of the single pear samples, with quilting that refects the fabric in the background and leaves the actual pear unquilted, for contrast. When I select my fabrics, I think about the pattern as well as the colour. I like to work with the pattern and not add a new one on top. In the photo you can see the random zigzag meandering I have used for the bottom portion and meandered the upper portion, following the subtle changes in the colours of the batik fabric. Both of these have been sewn with variagated thread, as the batiks have so many colours. The variagated threads blend better than solid coloured thread.
To mount one of my pieces, I wrapped it around a painter's canvas that is on a flat board, rather than a stetched canvas. I turned under the two vertical sides first and then the two horizontal sides. I hand stitched, the join on the back and the ends, so that it looks neat and tidy. I will sew on rings at the back and join them with a wire for hanging.
Presentation is important and sometimes takes alot of time, that is what makes your art look professional, Susan

Balloonwear

Check out these amazing balloon dresses!

http://www.secondose.com/twisted-balloons-fashion/

Cheers,
Wendo

fluidity in art

I've been enamoured with the art of motion for my whole adult life and now that I'm not literally making 'moving pictures' in animation I strive for movement and motion in my fibre art.

I met Olga Roehl at the CDAA conference in Ottawa last year. She's an incredible artist from Germany who came over and stole the show with her fabulous dolls. I've attached her website to show her watercolours of characters in motion...her dolls become incredibly detailed works of art but it's her 'pictures' that excite my desire to create motion in my work as well.

http://www.olga-roehl.de/pictures.htm

It's hard to believe but she's never heard of Cirque de Soleil...

Happy Easter everyone!

Wendo

CBS Sunday Morning video: Quilts for Sale

Kit here...
I was cleaning out my neglected Quiltart site this morning and came across this post about a broadcast on CBS last Sunday morning about the Houston show this year . Karey Bresenheim (AQS Houston) is quoted as saying that quilting is not a billion dollar business -- it is a 10 billion dollar business! That is so funny given that a lot of people still think that quilts are made from scraps.

I have copied the CBS link below. Try to catch the video before it disappears off the net.



CBS Sunday Morning Video -
Quilts for Sale
Quilting has been an American tradition for centuries,

URL
http://www.cbsnews.com/sections/i_video/main500251.shtml?id=3942008n
[CBS Sunday Morning Webpage says ]
Copy the link above to share this video.

MoMA Color Chart Exhibit - online

Kit Here,
This is too good to pass up...

I was directed to this exhibition online and have been busy with it for 2 hours now! It's a MoMA exhibit called Color Chart and you can follow the timeline of how color has been organized by different artists for practically a century.

Make sure and click on the sound where it shows up- you hear the explanations in the artist's own words. Also play around on the site because every little dot is a link to more information and more art!

http://www.moma.org/exhibitions/2008/colorchart/