Fun Ways to Improve Your Art

3 Creative Studios Launch Party!

New website!

New Blog!

Flickr Albums!

Facebook Page!

Terri and Vicki Thank You for being a part of 3 Creative Studios. Look for the January newsletter (January 16) announcing our first Guest Artist and other new programs for 2011. Let’s celebrate with some prizes!

Here’s the first prize of our launch Party. It has 4 original prints and original fabric from Terri, a journal from Sue Bleiweiss, hand dyed and painted fabric and note cards from Vicki along with sequin waste and yarns.

The second prize package has a handmade purse from Terri, a journal from Sue Bleiweiss, hand dyed fabric and note cards from Vicki along with sequin waste, glitter, Angelina fibers and yarns.

The third prize package has Terri‘s book, Creative Paper Quilts, a journal from Sue Bleiweiss, hand dyed fabric, hand dyed scarf and note cards from Vicki along with a package of Texture Magic, buttons and yarns.

As the week goes by, each of these packages will have some additional surprise items added to fill the mailing box! We want to get the word out about our new presence on the web so we are offering you several opportunities to enter to win one of these great prize packages.

• One entry for just posting a comment on this post
• One entry for subscribing to the newsletter (or already being a subscriber) – leave a separate comment about your newsletter subscription
• One entry for “Liking” our Facebook Page – leave a separate comment about our FB “like”
• One entry for posting about this giveaway on your blog – leave a separate comment here with a link to your blog post

The drawing will occur Saturday, January 8 at midnight EST. Winners will be announced on the blog Sunday.

Good Luck!

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Shibori discharge day

I had an interesting day yesterday as my friend Leslie and I tried discharge dying on black silk. I've discharged fabric for years, but never done silk as it is not conducive to chlorine bleach discharge. I bit the bullet several months ago and purchased Thiox from Dharma Trading Company. I waited for a clear day as I heard that Thiox has a very unpleasant smell. Understatement!! We worked in my studio with the outside door open, but the fumes were still noxious. I heartily recommend a respirator if you try this method. It also took hours to achieve these results. I have a pole-wrapped piece drying that I used with diluted Jacquard discharge paste. I'm looking forward to see the results from that.


So here is the result. I'm especially pleased with the first piece on the line. I used rubber bands wrapped around a pencil head to create the resist. I had planned on over painting them all but I love the subtle green left in the piece. Some of the other pieces were clamped and others were twisted and pole wrapped.



I made little surface design rollers with miniature rolling pins and stick-ons. I purchased the little rolling pins from a teacher's product site online. Fun stuff. More discharging tomorrow using Rit Color Remover.

I find that I am much more motivated to create when I work with someone else. More fun!

Best wishes to Sandy for a full recovery from her breast cancer surgery. And wishing Maureen and her family well for Noel's stroke rehab.

Back in the Art World

Liz Berg

I am getting back in the fiber art world in a color and surface design workshop by Bay Area artist Liz Berg,who is shown strutting her stuff to interested students.

Two whole months since I've blogged!. But I really have an excuse this time. A couple of falls from my "Unbalanced" self left me with a broken collarbone and cracked head with another concussion. But I'm on the mend again and moving on.


Workshop students Selma, Lisel, Nancy, Pat, Eva, and Linda pay attention to the teacher.


Genie and Linda paint fabric

After a day of intensive color theory, we were ready to tackle surface design by painting their fabric. Some of us have used these techniques extensively, others tackled the fabric and Jacquard Dynaflo with a little trepidation.


Fabric drying

We were very lucky to have a gorgeous Sonoma County day after surviving multiple weeks of rain. Half yards of fabric were painted in different colorways and left to dry in the sun.
On to stamp carving, foiling, screen printing and various mark making techniques. What a way to jump back in.!

On the Wall

Wow, its been a busy month. I sent my largest piece so far, "A Few of my Favorite Things" off to Pacific International. And hung my "Undersea Symphony" at Gary Farell Winery in Healdsburg (Sonoma County wine country). Our Pointless Sisters show at the Sprint Center came down, but we are working on pieces for two upcoming shows. The photo above is just an idea not yet coming to fruition. The background is a piece I dyed some time ago and has been waiting for a design. I don't think this is it.

This is something I've had on my wall for a couple of months and still am not sure what to do with it. I love to discharge fabric and enjoy the surprise of the final colors. I've been spending several hours a day learning the Corel program in a class from Quilt University. I used to be a whiz at this stuff, but I'm really challenged learning this. I've had the program for several years and took a class with Caryl Fallert but then had the stroke that stopped everything for so long. It's slow going but I'm determined to learn it.

This photo is a peek at a corner of a piece that I finished painting tonight. I dyed the fabrics for the base colors I wanted and fused the pieces in place. Then I painted in some detail with Shiva oil paintstiks. It's mostly quilted, but I plan on adding a bit more surface design. If it is accepted in an upcoming SAQA show, I'll post a picture of it.
I'm also trying to keep up with my painting on canvas. I'm currently working on a good-sized acrylic and a small oil. I need more hours in the day. I promised myself I'd try to post something this week and I met that goal. I was really lucky that I had power all day. This storm really blew and thousands are without power all over the bay area. We really need the rain and we got it. Record amounts! Off to bed.

Dyed Paper Towels

I save not only my paper towels from dyeing, but I'm not too embarrased to ask fellow dyers for theirs, even at a Carol Soderland workshop as these were from. They are fused to Timtex.

I haven't had a lot of time to play with this as I'm working on my big wall art, but I can't wait. What fun!

Crime Scene

The back story:
Four local (SF Bay Area)police officers were shot and killed one day last month. It is a real tragedy and affected me personally because I have several family members in law enforcement and public service. A cousin is a police sargeant. My sister works
in the behavioral unit, my father was a deputy sheriff, a nephew is in the
police academy, and my brother is a firefighter. So this story made me think of the dangers public servants face every day.
I overdyed commercial fabric for the background. I then discharged the scope
sight in the center. I stamped the crime scene letters on hand-dyed fabric and
foiled the police badges. I then fused the black "grieving" strips over the
badges and printed the names (with paint pens)of the four officers after
stitching them down. I used Fabrico pens to write around the scope sight "I saw
the news today, Oh Boy."

I hope to complete this piece tomorrow. And as you can see, I am so encouraged by all your wonderful words. I'm also sending my congratulations to a fellow guild member Vicki David who got a second place on her first try at Padukah. Her piece is exquisite.

I entered an online challenge, which, if I'm juried in, will be exhibited in at least 4 locations over 2 years. These are just details of each. They really show nothing, bit I remembered to post a photo. I'm horrible at posting. I'm not sure why. I used to write for a living. Maybe it's the one-hand thing. Frustrating as.... you know what. I've been getting my studio back together. Finally! Pictures to come. I'm still working on my fine art painting as well as finishing up some fiber pieces I've been working on for what seems like forever. I never got my auction piece into SAQA. I found it yesterday almost complete. I'll try to remember it for next year. There are some fine small compositions in there. VP debate tomorrow nite. Can't wait. Tina Fey will have enough work for a year.

Breaking Traditions piece previewed

Check out the Breaking Traditions Blog for its preview of my Maya Angelou piece, "Still I Rise."

Or check it out here!

Vote 2008

So. When I go shopping, my public knows my politics. One of my Art quilt groups (Pointless Sisters) have a challenge going to make some kind of green shopping bag. So I decided to combine the challnge with my desire to have Obama elected. Someone on the Art Quilt list posted about a Move On challenge. Maybe I'll check it out. I stencilled the letters with Shiva paint sticks and painted the photo with Setacolor paints. I made extra long handles as I need to shlep things over my shoulder on my good arm, or else everything hits the floor.

I was extra lazy today and watched movies. I had lower intestinal ouchies which seem to have made their way out of my system. I plan to work on my Black and White challenge tomorrow. I'm supposed to be working on my Olympic challenge but the marathon is so boring, I'm bailing until something more exciting comes along.

An aside, the baby quilt above was delivered last night and was well received. Thank goodness! Ta ta till next time.

Another failed experiment

Caran d'ache neocolors on Lutrador doesn't work for me. I like the design, not the technique. I wonder what I'll do with it next?

I spent today trying to stay cool. The San Francisco Bay Area homes are not built for this kind of heat and many of us have no air conditioning. 104 degrees is just too much for me unless I'm in water and I can't swim anymore, so I stayed inside and melted. It's after 6pm now, I'm sitting here with a frozen ice block down the front of my shirt and it's still 99 degrees. I have several things I am working on, but unfortunatelty they are at a stage that needs ironing. NOT TODAY. So I printed out some images I'll be using in my Pointless Sisters shopping bag challenge. Enough for now.

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.

THE BIG CHILL

The big chill has hit California and my attempt to make a large scale stamp has left me cold. This is one of the better results. It is brown stamped on a green and black painted background. It might be a little interesting but is not what I wanted or expected.
This one printed on an ugly piece of fabric that I planned to overdye someday. It's ready for the rag bag. I'm going to try again (just one more time) using smaller blocks.
Even though the printing was a bust, I've been ultra busy taking Liz Berg's online design class. It is well organized and full of info. Back to it!

A new week

I'm trying new things. This is a piece of foamcore that I've dabbled with designs in paint. It is fairly large, 12" x 18" and I am going to try to print with it.
Another design, same size. I didn't get any work done today. I tried though. I was changing the bobbin on my Bernina. I had the embroidery casing loaded. And it somehow got caught on a spring inside the bobbin case area. I tried to get it loose but found I needed two hands for that so I had to wait for help. Luckily, my daughter came and was able to rescue it with no damage. I got lots of responses from the list about my fusing problem. Even Laura W. answered my query. I think I over-ironed it. Iris Karp is sending me some Misty Fuse. I've been wanting to try it since it first came out. I also gotsigned up for Liz Berg's Yahoo group and am looking forward to the class. If you have time, check out Tall Girl's blog for her new work. Inspiring!

HAVING TROUBLES...

Well, I tried to post pics last nite... couldn't find them. So tonight I started my blog by putting the pics on first. They uploaded to somewhere. I tried to edit the post to put in text and lost the pics! I'll remember how to do this eventually. I did some surface design with Shiva painsticks and quilted a piece using straight lines. That worked. I talked my abstract art teacher into letting me incorporate fabric in my independent paint project. Now to come up with a concept! Okay, I tried again and got some pics. The top left is my new splatter brush, top right some great letter stamps ( Beverly's), and a new quilt, which .should be oriented vertically, entitled "Red Moon Rising" in honor of our red moon last month. I hope some of you will keep commenting and critiquing my work. I'll get better with all your help. Thanks.

I'm on a roll

Today was definitely a work day. I had to complete 2006 taxes! Luckily I hired someone to help, but I still got a major headache. To cure it, I went shopping. I picked up some graphite paper for some future projects. I got a new set of micron pens, some "Simply Fabulous" font foam stamps that I will try on my surface design and a cool speckling brush, also for surface design. See the pics! Also, a new abstract. I think I'm working on a spiral series. Since a spiral is a form, is it still an abstract? I couldn't find my spiral, so this is a painting I did. What do you think? Oh well, unable to update pics. I'll try again tommorrow.