Stamping Monday

I found some small cuts of textured wallpaper at the local Home Depot a while back. Its the kind that has an embossed or raised surface to create a pattern, not the flocked kind (that's too 80's!). I think they are meant to be applied to the wall and then painted over.


I have some small wooden boards that DH cut and sanded for me and I covered one side with double sided carpet tape. If you don't have that kind of tape, run to your nearest hardware store and pick some up, its great for all kinds of uses and it really stays stuck.


I then stuck the wall paper on and trimmed around the edges. Two coats of matte varnish/medium to seal the paper means that I can wash the stamps afterwards and use them over and over again.



By having the stamp as a rectangle I can create multiple brick style patterns but the stamp could be any shape at all. I could also cut the wallpaper into shapes and stick it to a wooden board for more design possibilities. HMMMM.....
Maybe you can come up with some ideas too?

One Word Wednesday

Dripping!

Colour to Cloth Class

I spent two sessions teaching in Nanaimo with six very talented and kind ladies. Wecovered several different surface design techniques and I think they did some very interesting and exciting work!

We created some deconstructed printing with screens that I had prepared with thickened dyes. the resulting images will be very organic and textured. The picture at the top that Irene made shows the results when I added rick rack to the thickened dye while it was drying. I think I'll try that one again.

Mary made this piece by screening with discharge paste and the colour was removed. Then two more screens with white and gold were added on top. Great layering of images....

Linda began an underwater scene with brayer printing, stencils and writing with a fine point nib. Lots of possibilites here!

Autumn Sidewalk

Out for a walk yesterday we noticed interesting prints left behind by the leaves. its as though they wanted to leave one last impression before winter. Great texture...I wonder how I could use this?

Textile Artist Packs

I've just finished some new dye packs and have them listed at my Etsy Shop http://www.etsy.com/shop/susanpm
Its been fun to make the packs and there are so many different creative ideas for using the packs; making small quilts, journals, little purses, bags or put a couple together for even more creativity. Each one is slightly different but they all contain:
° 9” x 12” cotton
° vintage embroidered linen or cotton napkin
° 10” square cotton scrim
° cotton doily or lace piece
° cotton embroidery thread
° pack of colour coordinated beads

Here's sample of the packs:
Ocean Spray


Golden Sands

Fires Aglow

Earth Layers

Citrus Salad

Sunshine Smiles

Purple Haze

Ocean Spray

New Work-hurrah!

Its so great to be back in the studio and creating....it almost doesn't matter what! I got into the wet room and worked on some fabrics I had already dyed and played with my thermofax screens and some new fabric paints. I had ordered some new Jacquard Screen Printing paints. They are luscious and creamy, quite a treat to use and highly pigmented. They change the hand of the fabrics a bit, but not as much as I expected.
This week I'll be working on some new screen designs, I've sketched out the designs and just need to print them off, hurrah!
Here's some of the fabrics I created, three fat quarters and then some of my imagery packs that have one fat quarter and six 6" squares of cotton, linen and silks.
They'll be going up on Etsy over the next couple of days. Check them out at
http://www.etsy.com/shop/susanpm





These are my Imagery Packs:

Class in Edmonton

I taught at Lori's Country Cottage last Monday and had a great time with a lecture in the morning and then two classes combined in the afternoon. Some students worked on a project from my Simple Stained Glass book and other worked on my Shattered Angles design adapted from my Fat Quarter Frenzy Two book. They worked very hard and had stunning results, we were all thrilled!

This is a display in the store with the quilt underneath some lovely goodies!



Lori, the owner of the store, took time to work on her Shattered Angles quilt. Another student is working hard too!





Lori has an ingenious method for supplying power to her sewing table, from the ceiling! they retract when not in use!

Alberta Autumn

Some pictures of the views from my time in Alberta at the retreat. Everyone siad the colours weren't as good this year due to a cold snap at the beginning of October. but I found the views to be wonderful looking across the lake.
The gold band of trees are Tamarack, a species of needled tree thatdrops the needles each winter, a little bit like a cross between a deciduous and an evergreen.




I like the patterning of the leaves on a cement walkway, with a sprinkling of snow in the corner...not too much snow, just a little taste!

Catching Up!

I've been away most of the last three weeks, first to Ottawa and Toronto, then to my Art and Design programme at Gail Harkers Creative Studies Centre www.gailcreativestudiescenter.com http://gailcreativestudies.com/ and then to Edmonton for my Fibre Art Network Annual Retreat and AGM http://fibreartnetwork.com/
I also had a chance to teach at Lori's Country Cottage in Sherwood Park http://loriscountrycottage.com/
Each experience was wonderful and unique, so much learned, new and old friends to meet and visit!
Here are some pictures of work that I made during my Art and Design programme.



These a a couple of colour studies with painted papers, just a little play with some studies that I am considering.





These are texture exercises that I made working with fine point pens on some stamped images that I made. These are about creating value over colour. As I work through more designs I'll be posting them on my blog.