Week 14 - in the Studio

This past week has been about finishing some work, I'm not sure why the latest in my Industrial shoreline series took so long to put the facings on...I just procrastinated too much!

It is smaller than recent work at 27" x 43", but the size seemed to work for the topic. It was a photo I had taken when we travelled to the north end of Vancouver Island and spent time around Port McNeill and Cormorant and Malcolm islands - a beautiful area I'd love to visit again. I was loving the linear aspects of a log booming area and took a few photos. 

The challenges of logging, clear cuts, forestry management and sustainable practises are part of my series - there are no right answers. I don't support clear cuts and tearing down old growth but we do need long term employment, especially for first nations in these remote areas, and properly managed, forestry can be part of this approach.

No title yet but it's 27" x 43"

I finished several collages that incorporate mark making and collage on vintage pages. I ordered packs of paper from Etsy and used them with white paint, acrylic inks, asemic text and marks...I love these! I'll be framing them soon and have them for sale - stay tuned!

Speaking of Etsy - I ordered some ultra suede labels from a vendor on Alberta - super quick service and very well made: Spotted Zebra and used them on my Art to Carry Textile Totes:

And I have a few available now HERE

I framed a little piece that my grand daughter had made a couple weeks ago:

And I took a monoprinting workshop today via Zoom, a different approach from what I have been doing but I learned several useful techniques that I can incorporate into my work. I'm taking a two day workshop on gel printing in June and looking forward to learning even more!

If you are yearning for an inperson workshop, have a look at the Gathering the Threads Conference in Cowichan Valley: https://gatheringthethreads.ecwid.com

Getting There, getting there....

For me, happiness is a few hours in the studio....this week I was able to get over the hump with a new piece in my Burrard series, after a few false starts. Mostly the challenges that I mentioned in my blog post of January 30th: http://susanpm.blogspot.ca/2017/01/what-am-i-afraid-of.html

I had decided to paint the sky with diluted white textile paint to tone down the contrast of the black and white fabrics. As I was doing this, I though....gee, I should have put a plastic sheet over the print table....because I watched the damp fabrics wick up some dye residue from the table, red, blue, green and some bright orange.....!!!! Gosh Darn was the polite term!

So, thinking through what I should do, I waited for the paint to dry and rinsed out the fabrics with a bit of Oxy-Clean......then hung it to dry. After it was dry I ironed it thoroughly, hoping that I could get it all to lay flat! I painted the fabrics again (this time with plastic underneath) let them dry and heat set! Most of the dye had come out and the remainder blended into the the over all fabric collage. Lesson Learned!

I added the fabrics at the bottom in a collage format as well and began adding the torn strips for the steel girders....with three packs of 1/4" Steam a Seam tape!

I was all set to begin pressing in place and double checked my photo reference......

Ooooppps, the girders do not reach to the top....they are set at an angle

Well, good thing they're not fused down.....some re-positioning and its making more sense:

Now its ready to come off the design wall, get a heavy dose of steam and some additional pieces fused in place. The remaining girder lines will be done with stitching heavier black threads. Then onto the quilting stage.

I had an art consultant visit the studio this morning and she mentioned a gallery space in town that might be interested in my work.....