Soy Wax Film Set - Day Two

Just as we've been known to change our clothes to suit the occasion, so does the film set need to change based on what I might be demonstrating for the DVD.

In the course of one day, we had three 'wardrobe changes". This was for the Thickened Dyes segment, lots of rich colour and texture!

The next set was Soy Wax with DeColorant Plus, coloured discharge paste!

And the finally, Soy wax with Dye Na Flow and Setacolor paints and sunprinting!

More excitment coming tomorrow, stay tuned! Same Soy Wax time, same Soy Wax channel!

Soy Wax film Set - Day One

I'm am now totally in awe of film crews and their enormous amount of knowledge and experience! I'm sure I wouldn't know the difference between a blue or green shadow being cast onto a wall! I didn't know there were memory card specifically for film cameras! Wow, there is so much to learn and I'm having a blast.
If you didn't know already, Andrew Galli of www.gallifilms.com is in Victoria to film a DVD with me on Soy Wax Resists. Here's a sneak preview of the cover:

 

Isn't it beautiful?

 

My studio now resembles a movie set, cameras (two, one for the overall pictures and one for close-ups), computers, three large lights, wires and more wires, a green screen (actually, the back side of the green screen) and best of all: a clapper - more about that later!

Here's one shot of my studio and equipment:

 

 

Here's the set from another angle:

 



 

Here's the set, ready for one of the segments:

 

 

Now, here's the most fun of all:

 

Me, with the clapper! Scene One, Take One!

 

 



One Word Wednesday

Soft

Quilters Calendar - For Teachers and Students

I just listed my teaching schedule on The Quilter’s Calendar - a brand new site for quilters and guilds to find traveling quilt teachers on. By sharing my schedule on the searchable calendar increases my opportunities to receive “piggy back” bookings to my engagements. While you are there, submit your photo, bio and tags (free!) to make it easier for guilds and students to find you. Get Listed at www.quilters-calendar.com  

 

One Word Wednesday

Shredded

Books on Sunday

Following along with my Books on Sunday theme of colour, I pulled The Painted Quilt by Laura and Linda Kemshall from my book shelf. The Kemshalls are known for the online courses at Design Matters and a popular sereis of instructional DVD's.

The Painted Quilt is a blend of practical instruction and expert guidance to help the reader explore their creativity do design and produce unique painted quilts with confidence. We often think the quilting part to be a the last layer that we add to our work. Consider instead that colour and texture can be combined with paints, pens, pastels, dyes and more to produce intricate effects on the surface. these ideas give us much to think and experiment with.....
ISBN9870715324509

One Word Wednesday

Ochre

New Thermofax Screens

I've just uploaded two new Thermofax designs to my shop. I think they're just plain fun designs and would make awesome backgrounds for additional designs overlaid on top.
You can buy them in three sizes HERE

 

This one is called Circle Grid - you can guess why!

And this one is ET Script - where I imagined what ET's handwriting may have looked like if he had to write a letter home instead of phoning!
Don't forget that every screen also comes with its own little scraper. Ready for you to have fun!

Three More Great Blogs

Well, I moved my computer into my quilting studio and this may or may not be a good thing. sometimes it gives me a 'come thither' look and I just have to break away and check my email for the 12th time. But sometimes I find some really great things and if I'd waited another 10 minutes they might have disappeared!
So in no particular order I discovered three blogs that I'm sure you'll want to check out!
http://www.gericondesigns.com/weblog/ 
Gerrie Congdon and I are Facebook friends and I find her posts to be light an fun, just a little peek into her life and how her day is going. You'll want to check her blog out and then see where else her links might lead you!
http://thetextileblog.blogspot.ca/
This blog has some amazing historical information on textiles, embroidery and more. Its a rich resource and I am going to be ordering some of the ebooks for download. They are a bargain, especially since shipping from Britian can be a bit pricey! Have a look and tell me what you think.
http://andsewitgoes.blogspot.ca/
Terry Grant is another well known textile and quilt artist, currently living in Oregon. You've got to check out the pictures of her purpose built studio, its amazing and if I hadn't just done renovations of my own, I'd be borrowing some of ter ideas!

So thats it for another little while, I hope you ahve fun with these blogs, send me some links of others you've enjoyed......

More Shattered Angles

Last week I spent two lovely days on Mayne Island with the Quilt Guild. The weather was typical west coast (meaning it was raining with brief interruptions of raining really hard)! But there was lots of action in the Agriculture Hall when 16 dedicated quilters took my Shattered Angles class one day and my Give & Take Applique class the following day.
Great fun was had by all, especially me!

Quilters are gathered around the Shattered Angles blocks they made. Such a bright assortment of colours!

 

Creativity abounds when the quilters learn how to make Give & Take Applique blocks.

Thanks for such a wonderful trip!

One Word Wednesday

Knobbly

Free Ruler with My "Accent on Angles" Book

Just for the next two weeks, if you order my Accent on Angles, you can get a free 6 1/2" square ruler! That 6 1/2" size is perfect for making the Shattered Angles blocks in my book. Order now and get the ruler included in your order! Just mention the ruler when you place your order. How cool is that?

Plans for the Week

My daughter came to visit yesterday to help me move my computer into the studio. That is almost the last task before I can call the studio reno finally completed! On the way to the ferry (we live on an island, a large island but ferry travel is a way of life for us!) she stopped and picked up my order of 10 yards of Essex cloth.
If you are a fan of surface design/dyeing/ soy wax you may be familiar with Essex, but if not, its a wonderful blend of 55% linen and 45% cotton. I have found that this blend takes colour beautifully, linen has the wonderful ability of holding texture and depth when dyed. Perhaps you have noticed it was well?

So I'll be layering wax and dye onto my Essex cloth over the next few days. I'll be doing some colour trials to get one or two-colour solids on small (fat quarter) samples and then work towards a couple of larger pieces.

I don't have a large dye room so work mainly with 1/2 - 3/4 yard pieces at a time.
Here's a piece that I worked on over the last two days. I think I am very happy with it!

I figure if I set out the plan for the week, then I've committed in public what I'm going to do. That's the plan anyway.....

Books on Sunday

About 5 years ago I was fortunate to take part in a two year textile design programme with Ruth Issett at the Gail Harker Creative Studies Centre. I was in the last group that Ruth taught and for me it was a life changing experience. Ruth is the author of a number of books, mostly focused on colour and fabric. This book, Glorious Papers, is more about techniques for applying colour to paper. I'm not sure why, but Batsford Books, the publisher, always manages to put out books that are so rich in colour and photographs, that they truly become a visual feast!

The book begins with "Paper, Materials and Equipment" and then explores chapters such as "Painting Papers", "Resists and Inks", Texture Gels", and "Metallic Effects" The final section focuses on what one can do with all the papers that are created..... collage, cutting, layering and more.
If you like using colour (who doesn't) and want to explore all that you can do with paint and paper, then this book is for you.
ISBN9780713486698

Two Artists

I subscribe to Robert Genn's twice weekly newsletter and thought this lates issue would give you some thoughts about your work. Ask yourself: are you a Jack or a Jill??

"Jack" got a BFA and then an MFA from a Midwestern University. He's visited many of the major contemporary art museums and follows the work of several "important" contemporary painters. He's written articles on Philip Guston and others. He subscribes to several art magazines and is "the most knowledgeable art-guy in any discussion." After university he worked for a while in a commercial art gallery. He sometimes writes me long, well-informed letters. He's painted eleven large paintings (two unfinished) since leaving school. He's not represented by any gallery. He thinks you need to move to New York and "get lucky" with a dealer who "really represents you."

 
"Jill" took two years of art school and then quit. She pays little attention to other artists. She subscribes to no art magazines but has taken several workshops. Her hobbies include bowling and travelling. At one time she also worked in a commercial art gallery. On two or three occasions she's written to me. She's painted "approximately two thousand paintings" since leaving school. She's represented by four commercial galleries in four, well-separated mid-sized cities.

There's a great story in David Bayles and Ted Orland's Art and Fear. Here it is: 

"The ceramics teacher announced on opening day that he was dividing the class into two groups. All those on the left side of the studio, he said, would be graded solely on the quantity of the work they produced, all those on the right solely on its quality. His procedure was simple: On the final day of class he would bring in his bathroom scales and weigh the work in the "quantity" group: fifty pounds of pots rated an "A", forty pounds a "B" and so on. Those being graded on "quality," however, needed to produce only one pot--albeit a perfect one--to get an "A". Well, came grading time and a curious fact emerged: the works of the highest quality were all produced by the group being graded for quantity. It seems that while the "quantity" group was busy turning out piles of work--and learning from their mistakes--the "quality" group had sat theorizing about perfection, and in the end had little more to show for their efforts than grandiose theories and a pile of dead clay."

Best regards,

Robert

PS: "Artists get better by sharpening their skills or by acquiring new ones; they get better by learning to work, and by learning from their work." (David Bayles and Ted Orland)

 
Esoterica: Both subscribers Jack and Jill are thoughtful and enthusiastic artists. Art is central to their lives. And while success and "being able to function as a full time artist" may not be important to some of us, their current situations are quite different. Jack rents an apartment and makes $2150 per month (plus tips and benefits) as an airport porter. Jill works daily in her converted garage in a home she now owns. These days she's averaging $18,000 per month. She has "no benefits."

You can see more written by Robert Genn here: http://painterskeys.com/