New Exhibit

I have been included in a new group show of Fiber Art: "Materiality: A Fiber Arts Group Exhibition" at the Ann Street Gallery in Newburgh, New York.

On display will be this work and this one as well as work from 22 other artists.

The show runs from March 15th to April 12th, 2014.

Opening reception is on March 15th from 6:30 - 8:30 PM which I will try very hard to attend. I hope to meet some of you there!

Many thanks to Curator Virginia Walsh for inviting me into this exhibition!

New work

Still using black fabric. This time I wanted to merge my older, compact, solidly filled up, stitch-upon-stitch style with the new, black fabric, more texture oriented, looser collage style. No 3D stars or stitched-over objects in this one but I did collage in a few small pieces of fabric and it is stretched onto a frame. As usual a variety of embroidery techniques are used, but I took some of them further than I usually do: the pointillism, most of which is made with metallic thread, is a mix of colored dots - some areas with a total multi-color mix, and others made up of different hues yet still keeping a single tone. There are a few small sections where the pointillism is on plain, un-colored fabric. The three-dimensionally rendered parts are rendered, I hope, with more realism than I have yet achieved. I make much use of the smokey monofilament thread which is becoming one of my favorite flosses. I'm finding that French knots are a good solution to fill in areas when I have a loss of ideas.

This took longer than expected and I had to leave out some images that I wanted, otherwise I would be working on it indefinitely.

"Threads" Exhibit

I have been included in a new Fiber Art group exhibition entitled "Threads" at Tubac Center of the Arts in Tubac, Arizona.

On display will be this work, this one and this one, as well as current work from other contemporary artists working in fiber.

The exhibit runs from October 18th to November 17th, 2013 with an opening reception on the 18th from 5:00  - 7:00 P.M.
As usual I will not be able to make the opening but I do hope someone out there will!

Making multicolored floss

 I love multicolored floss (sometimes called painters floss), but I could never find any that had the extreme color variation that I really wanted. What I really wanted was to have a single piece of thread that gave a different color for every single stitch. Eventually I realized I just had to make my own.

I bought some white cotton floss and a set of fabric colors and started to experiment.




 I found the best method was to simply paint the colors right on the floss with a thin brush. I also found that it really helped to hold the floss taut and in place. I used tape for this.


I painted one side then flipped it over and did the other side and also filled in any little remaining blank spaces that needed it. This took several days since drying time for each color was needed.

                                                                                                                                                                              

After it was done I un-taped it all, put it in a 

small pouch and tossed it in a dryer for about 

20 minutes or so to set the colors.

I was happy with the result. I get a different color for almost every stitch, and as a bonus many of the stitches have multiple colors in them - some with different colors on each end or sometimes split horizontally down the middle.

I used this 'homemade painters floss' with this piece and this one.

Hopefully this is just the beginning.....

New work

Still continuing to work on black fabric. The center image was taken from an old anatomy diagram, but I changed parts of it to resemble an African mask and I did some more improvisational changing. In the end it turned out looking like some kind of 'un-dead' monster or something.
I used multi-colored metallic thread with transparent monofilament thread layered on top in an attempt to create the look and feel of skin tissue. I also used some cotton multicolored thread that I hand-dyed. I will post about that sometime soon.

The line images surrounding the 'head' I made by laying down a bright red/pink/orangey thread and then stitching over it completely with black (though bits of slight fuzz from the laid thread is visible). This technique is similar to 'couching' but I covered the entire laid thread….. I think it's called a 'trailing stitch', I'm not sure. The black thread on top of black fabric makes an interesting texture.

I stitched the black fabric to black velvet and stretched the velvet onto stretcher bars.

Of course, the monofilament thread over the multicolor metallic as well as the black on black make a fun photography challenge. Seems I'm always making things that are hard to photograph, why stop now?

More new direction

I decided to keep with the general ideas of what I did in the last piece - black fabric, some three dimensional elements, more experimenting with the surface.

New

This is the largest piece I have yet completed in embroidery, 6 1/2" x 6 1/2". Actually I think there is another one with the same size, but not as dense. This one is completely filled solid with stitches.
It started out with the central figure based on an image from an old 50's French cheesecake magazine. Then I had a flash of late 60's comic book sci-fi influence. Then a PBS show about chickens happened. Then all hell broke loose, literally. The human figure plummeting through the demonized depths on the left side is myself.

What I have been trying to avoid is too much use of a black outline on things to define them, to pull them out of the background. I want to make everything look 'painterly'. Adding a black outline looks too 'cartoonish'. I have nothing against cartoon imagery but I just want things to look more painterly. But I couldn't avoid using black outlines in this one.

This piece took too long. I think my stitching may be slowing. Maybe I have reached 'stitching Nirvana' and I no longer am aware or care of the passing time. Nah. Next one is going to be smaller.

Exhibiting in Group show

I will be exhibiting this piece at the Hotel Hadley Studios group Fiber Art show "Gay for Eagles".

The show runs from April 15th to May 14th at Hotel Hadley Studios in Siler City, North Carolina.

Thanks to curator and fiber artist Drucilla Pettibone for accepting my work into this exhibit.

I will probably not make the opening but I will be there in spirit!

New embroidery

I decided to make a plan and do small embroideries (2.5 x 3.5 inches), one a month for this entire year. This took me about a month and a half. Oh well. I'll try some more.
This photo is thoroughly inadequate.

New Hoop video blogging still going

More again with new Hoop

Back to new hoop

Continuing on with the new hoop which was last posted about here.

Drawings cont.

Continued from the previous post.

Drawings

This is in response to a request that I show more post-it drawings. I had many stashed away that I forgot about that I was going to make embroideries from. Well, here they are along with some other things I have gathered for inspiration / reference.
There will be a part 2.

New Hoop, yes more video

…….more of the attempted metallic thread 'tutorial' and continuing on with this work.

New Hoop more video

Continuing on with the new hoop, last seen here. In this 'episode' I attempt a little tutorial about using metallic thread (which will continue in the next post).

Video Explanation - Final

Continuing from here and here about this.
Just wanted to show more super-close-ups. The color is much better in this one!

Video Explanation (continued)

Continuation from this video describing this work.

Video Explanation

Video 'explanation' of this . I apologize for the poor video - some of it being blown-out, yellow lighting, out of focus, …...but the audio is o.k. , I hope its not annoying to watch.

Pseudo Surreal

This is probably the most difficult thing to 'see' I have made. It must be viewed in person and close. It must be examined and not looked at as a whole. I mean, it CAN be, but......double-click if you can.
I will post a video explanation soon.