Books new to me...

One of our yearly traditions is to head out to the Book Outlet Boxing Day sale in St. Catharines, Ontario.

It is a overrun and clear out remainder book store which is in a huge warehouse. Sometimes I get a lot of books and sometimes a few. Yesterday netted what I call a few. 

What you see on the red sticker is the regular sale price. The boxing week sale is half price. Nice additions to my reference library. 

This is Boxing Day sales at it's best! - Jo

Circles Squared2

Circle Squared2 is a work in progress.

I started by stamping the fabric with a candy wrapper holder... the kind that holds the chocolates in the box with Colourvie a product created and sold by Gunnel Hag of Toronto, Ontario

I then was inspired to stitch in different embroidery stitches around the result circles in sets for 4.

Now that I have that done I am stuck on the borders... I have been percolating that for many months.

It is one of my first projects I am going to finish after my back pain settles down.

I really love the idea of this one. It is a homage to my love of art and my mathematical family.

It won't be shown for awhile but I will share a brief glimpse of the embroidery.

What do you get stuck on and how do you move on? 

Jo

Wah

Decolourant experiments .....

Earlier this year I took a workshop/retreat with my friend and fellow Fabrigo Al Cote...

Al Cote is a talented artist and please check out his website and display at the Grimsby Public Library and Art Gallery this December, 2015 Grimsby Public Library and Grimsby Art Gallery, Ontario

One of the techniques we played with was decolourant. This is not just the spilling of bleach onto your clothes and "making lemonade out of a lemon" But acutely products that you can use more safely that household bleach for your fabric and your own health. Here is s a link to learn more about it and its properties.  http://www.dharmatrading.com/paints/decolourant-and-decolourant-plus.html

These products can be stenciled, painted, stamped, ragged etc on your fabric.
Then they are left to dry. And then processed as per the products instructions.


Al is a great teacher and has been pretty busy teaching this year. But he also loves to experiment and use that in his work.

Here are some pictures of the deColourant that we played with on that day.

Before... deColourant added to fabric. These have the "coloured DeColourants" added. 

After the declourant was ironed and washed out.

and some more

Before and after

after only

Before and After

After only

After only. 

It was a quick and easy surface design trick to have up your sleeve.... 

Hope you have enjoyed. 

Have you used deColourant? 

Jo

Pixel Ladies....

Pixeladies

• About the Pixeladies

  The Pixeladies are artists who love to tell stories in cloth. When they're not creating art, they teach courses on Adobe Photoshop Elements for fiber artists and sewing enthusiasts. 

If you ever want to learn to use your Adobe Photoshop program these are the ladies to meet. 

This summer I took a course online from Deb Cashett and Kris Sazaki - the Pixel Ladies.
I haven't taken a course like this ever before. Geared to Artists but really for anyone they made it fun and informative.

The price could not be beat either...

I took a web design course at a local school several years ago. I paid more and it was absolutely useless. The teacher was horrible and self inflated.

But Deb and Kris were professional, fun and gave feedback promptly and patiently.

Pixel Ladies Class where I learned to cut out sections of a design from a fabric and re arrange it into something else

The format is by video lessons and by pfd workbook. You work on your assignments and post to the classroom site. You have access to the other students in the forum and their questions and work,

They have several courses to offer at different times of year. And you can learn to use Adobe on your PC or Mac because Kris uses one and Deb the other.

My only down comment is be prepared if you want to get full use out of the course it is a time commitment. Sure you can watch the information and read it too but if you don't do the work you won't learn it. And it is a lot of information over 4 weeks. I spent several hours on each lesson.

Moe our dog posterized

I really liked being to watch the video's over and over again just to see what I didn't get the first time.
I did write notes as I went.

The classroom is open for 6 months so you can re watch videos etc, but the feed back only goes on for the stated 4 weeks.

Fussy cutting out a flower and applying a filter. 

The potential is great to use these skills in my work. And it was just plain fun. 

Pixel Ladies Blog

Check them out!

Jo

Working in a group....

There are many ways to work in a group...

You can join a guild, you can join a club that has similar interests etc.

I currently belong to two quilt guilds which are filled with fun creative women. I haven't actually made it to either one this fall due to work schedules and how my fibro has been but I do love seeing the pictures on Facebook.

I belong to one once a month stitch group and those ladies are good for the soul. They make me laugh! I have made it to most of those days.

Then there is the Tiara Club as my husband and I have dubbed it. It is where I go to talk about my latest obsession my Baby Lock Tiara!

Last year I joined with 3 other artists to get together to expand, explore and create. We have been meeting regularly to share our own art, learn from each other and have done several collaborations.

We named ourselves the Fabrigos. The name came about while we were having one of our collaborative brain storming sessions. We love fabric, we have become Amigos and we love adventures.

Now we have started a blog to share what we are doing and to document our journey. I hope you will drop by and visit our blog, leave a comment and share in our adventure. You can find our blog

Fabrigos - The Journey of Four Artists and Their Fiber Art Adventures

at http://fabrigos.blogspot.ca

I hope you will drop by and see what we have been up too! We have great fun and it is an inspiration to be with these friends and artists.

Each group works in a different way but is so giving and forgiving. If you ever find yourself in such a group enjoy! If you don't have a group start one! And if you don't enjoy the group.... do yourself a favour and find another. 

Jo

Creating Peach Blossoms... and 31 Day Blog Writing Challenge.

I have been busy working on a special project. It has taken a couple of months to work out the idea from concept to completion. More time than I thought it would. Because I am entering it into a juried process I don't think I should publicly post it.

I don't know if there are "rules" about this - I know that there are some calls that request that you not post pictures. But if there is no such requirement should you show pictures of your work if you intend to enter it in competitions or exhibits?

But  I will post what I made to create my project.

I wanted some textured fabric in a specific colour. I wanted fabric to make some peach blossoms.  So I made some tissue paper fabric.
Muslin or lightweight fabric  layered with tissue paper and a watered down PVA (white school paste) to adhere the tissue paper. Then I painted the fabric with a wash of seta colour paint.

So this is the beginning of my blossoms. 

My other thing to get me out there is Cheryl Sleboda's 

the 31 Day Blog Writing Challenge

Maybe not a great month to start this but no time like the present. 

Go to her site and check out her blog. There she has a link up to some great blogger's. A wonderful way to see some new ideas. 

Some of my posts will be what I am up to with my art or creative adventures. 

Next week I am off with friends to view an exhibit in Auburn, New York. Looking forward to a day out and some inspiration. 

Have a great day... 

Jo