More Exercises

Lesson 5 is complete! I made these little studies with one big thing in mind... keep it simple, stupid.
This piece deals with values. I used 5 different purples. I wanted to punch it up with the black and white. It looked so boring, I added the complementary yellow. What do you think?

The second piece is built to show rhythm and repition. This was also an experiment for me as I have never fused with commercial fabrics, I wasn't disappointed. Texturing with thread comes later.

Small stuff

Well, these pieces are some little pieces I designed for Liz Berg's online class. I had hoped to complete the exercises today, but alas, Oscar made me do it.

I'm a great film buff, so I'm usually glued to my seat for these awards.

The designer's dresses aren't too shabby. Although I didn't really like Daniel Day Lewis' partner's dress. Katherine Heigl... wow.
This last piece is the largest at 8 X 10. None have any thread texture as yet. I'll be working on that once I finish the class. I have a few more pieces to complete.

Liz Berg's Online Design Class

Just a glimpse of some of the exercises I've been working on in Liz's online class. The first is
an example of textured fabric, from highly textured to soft.
I didn't try to make compositions out of these exercises; just wanted to make sure I understood the concept.









Texture is so important. I added many images to my texture folder, including this of flour resist crunched on fabric. More to come...

Resist some more

This is one of the pieces I experimented on with flour resist. I originally used a very watered down black Seta color and let it sit for 3 days. Upon inspection, it didn't look dark enough so I added Versatex black to the mixture and overpainted it and let it sit a few more days and then rinsed it out. It is a little muddier than I expected, but thay may have been from the overpainting. The original piece was dyed with Procion MX dyes then discharged. Am I finished with it? Who knows. I'll have to let it simmer in this crazy brain of mine. I'll do some more of this. I still haven't done the potato resist yet. I will soon.

I completed Lesson 4 of Liz Berg's Better By Design online class and the homework for Lesson 5 gives me a chance to put what I've learned to work while making a couple of small pieces. Great teacher, great class.

Love Yourself

Valentine's Day makes me think that those of us without a spouse, partner or sig. other should do something nice for ourselves. I think I will sit in the sun and read a book for awhile. That's something I don't do very often. Then I will rinse out the flour resist I started last week. After that, I will finish my homework for Liz Berg's "Better By Design" online class. It is a great class. It makes me think more actively about the principles of design.
Today's picture is of Pima cotton stamped with Versatex fabric paint. The stamp was made with pre-cut foam pieces on foamcore board. Easy to do! I made postcards and sent them out for Valentine's day. Onward!

No Guests Please

Well, this is my guest bathroom, but I am using it for other purposes these days. We've had 15 or 16 straight days of rain here in sunny California and even tho I saw sun today, we still had rain. Yes, I have a clothes dryer but I got my utility bill last week. Yowser!
These are some hand dyes that I discharged. Tomorrow I'm going to try potato dextrin resist vs. flour resist to check out the differences, if any.
This is something I'm working on because I am procrastinating on my homework from Liz Berg's design class. But Liz, I'm working on movement here! It's a really good lesson and I'll have some fun with this one too. I'm off to bed early. It's freezing in here. Night all.

More Moons

October Moon is finally finished. This is the piece in which Wonder Under did not behave. I tried lots of things to fix it. Nothing seemed to work. So, I queried the Art Quilt list for advice and the very nice Iris Karp sent me some Misty Fuse, which did the trick. Thanks Iris.
I spent some of today discharging some hand-dyed fabric. I'd take a pic, but it is de-chlorinating at the moment. I also cut some fabric for a new project and downloaded Liz Berg's latest lesson in her design class. I now have to put away all the fabric I pulled for her color lesson. I'd rather have a glass of wine.