How Did That Happen?

It's  been a roller coaster past few weeks....with major changes in my life. All good things but it certainly made blogging and creating more than just a bit challenging.

Back in November I had a very success Studio Tour with great sales and lots of visitors stopping by! I sold Antique tiles, a shadow applique piece that I loved so much. I had a little bit of a tear in my eye as I wrapped it up for its new owner. but it went to a good home!

The following weekend I had a massive Studio Relocation Sale - downsizing as we prepared to pack up for our move in the New Year. I cleared out lots of books, fabrics and all manner of surface design supplies. I think I made some friends very happy as they carted off lots of great bargains!

Then the chaos began, as I sorted through the remaining supplies and had to decide what could be packed away and be put into the storage container and not access for 2-4 years! And then what items I could fit into my much, much, much smaller new studio.

Moving day came with a large truck to take our belongings over to Pender Island and our next home (its not a "new to us" home as we've used it as a vacation property for the past 10 years). We got everything into the truck - with virtually no room to spare.

A few days after that the BIG storage box came and two strong men to pack that up! Again, it was filled to the brim - and we said good bye to the overflow from our Victoria home......just to clarify, our move to Pender Island could be described as semi-permanent, we are renting out our home in Victoria and making the move to Pender for a few years so we can have an opportunity to travel and have a different lifestyle.

Once the kitchen was unpacked on Pender my first goal was to get my studio organized. I had mapped out a general idea of how I wanted to arrange things and it has worked out OK. Still some tweaking - getting the design wall set up, bulletin board in place, making it a little prettier (and removing the closet door) and trying to find where I put everything...it's all good and I am so happy to be here!

Studio Tour...... for another year

Well, the Oak Bay Artist Studio Tour is over for another year. I loved every minute of it and hope that I'll be able to do it again next year! Since we just returned from Italy 5 days before the tour, I didnt get any new work finished in those few days......but spent the time cleaning and sorting and arranging all the furniture and art.

 Visitors mentioned how tidy and well kept my studio is, but they didnt see the piles of stuff at the back of the basement. Today I'll be pulling that stuff back in and it'll look like a messy working studio once again!

I love being able to talk about my work and how its created, most visitors are curious about the products I use and the stages of development, they are surprised when I tell them that all the fabric I use in my work has started out as plain white or black and I've dyed, painted, and printed on it. I see these tours as an educational time for the visors and they are always appreciative that I spend time talking about the process as well as the end results.

It's interesting to see which pieces engage the viewers, it's often either my most representational or my most abstract, not so much the art in between. As I'm working more and more to the abstract, I wonder what their responses will be then. My plan for next years tour is to have all completely new work in two very different styles that I've been developing......we shall see what happens!

I was tickled that one person came in because her friend in Ontario gets my newsletter and told her about it. Another visitor recognized a piece from the Sooke Fine Arts Show and another person asked where "I was represented", meaning what galleries took my work.....oh, I wish!

I had a display of samples for the workshops I'll be teaching here early next year and got some good responses from those. Workshops always fill for me, but its nice to start early to promote them.
So those are some observations, the hot apple cider and shortbread cookies were a hit too!
And now....back to work!

New Work for the Oak Bay Artist Studio Tour!

I've been busy working towards my first Artist Studio Tour, finishing pieces, quilting, dyeing, mounting work on canvas and much, much more! It has been fun and creative work, but my main problem is that I'm not sure how much work to produce? I'm hoping to sell lots and have some pieces in reserve to put on the walls as others sell.....but how much?
Maybe you can give me some advice!

This is work that I've finished in the last week or so, I'm enjoying mounting them on canvas board, I like the look when they are hanging. What do you think?

So the first piece shows just the base fabric. It was a piece of soy wax resist linen, that I waxed and dyes, then waxed and dyes some more. It took several processes to get the depth of colour I wanted.

Then I traced, fused and cut shapes that echoed the design in the linen. I backed the linen with iron-on fusible interfacing to give it more stability.

Then lots of quilting with multi-coloured poly thread, trimming and mounting on board. I found a good YouTube video for finishing the corners nicely:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccaNqgje5lY

The next piece I made from fabric I had dyed on a wine bottle (more about that in another blog post) then cut, fused and stitched the cardinal tree and berries.

 

Finally, I used fabric that I had applied soy wax and dye on a pole, after washing, I screen printed the crows on and quilted bird foot prints.

Quilt Studio Tour

Last year I helped to organize a very popular guild event to raise funds for our workshop programme. Having spent a great deal of time during the previous 18 months designing and then renovating my own studio, I thought it would be a lot of fun to visit other quilters work spaces.

I thought that we are always curious about how other people use their creativity at work and given the huge popularity of home reno shows, it might be a fun time.

The committee chose 6 studios with a variety of spaces, some purpose built, some squeezed into spare rooms, basements and lofts. One quilter used three different rooms over two floors! We chose a long arm quilter, a mixed media artist, a business studio and more, it was fun taking the time to be part of poking around in our friends work places!

Daphne's studio showcases her journal quilts and small art pieces.

Lenny's studio is bright and full of windows looking out onto her beautiful garden.

 

Bette is showing us her custom built fabric storage drawers.

 

Sharon's studio takes full advantage of every square inch of space!

 

Laines' space downstairs is where she works on her painted and photographed pieces.