Details: Fiberactions

Fiberactions Challenge, Color Challenge 9:  Use at least three colors of food in your kitchen
Proposed by Kathy Sperino
Reveal Date ~ May 15, 2013 

A couple years ago I was invited to join an on-line fiber artists group and have enjoyed participating in our bi-monthly challenges.  This time the exercise involved using colors of food as our palette.

I wrote a list and dragged out the scrap bag looking for celery, avocado, pimento, green pepper, red pepper, and lemon.

Then I came across a 'failed' monoprint done on a piece of hand-dyed cotton back in February or March.  The pale overlay of zinc white acrylic reminded me of skim milk.  The image seemed to hold possibilities I hadn't seen when I first pulled the print.

 

 

  Soon I had my scraps assembled using curved piecing techniques, and got ready to machine quilt layered up on two pieces of felt. 

 

'Foggy' 16.75"x11"

The edges are bound with zigzag stitches over rat tail cording. As I finished the piece, I realized that the palette ended up reminding me far more of moldy food colors than the fresh vegetables originally intended!

Over at the Fiberactions Blog today you can see how the other members dealt with this challenge.

Fiberactions Challenge Details

Dynaflow color sample 1

Dynaflow color sample 2

Dynaflow color sample 3

Dynaflow color sample 4

Dynaflow color sample 5

My palette

'She Wore Her Rabbit Hat and Felt Confident' - Styrofoam plate print and Dynaflow textile paint on commercial cotton, 8.5" x 5.5"

I never take time to do much pre-planning when it comes to color, no mixing colors in advance, no color studies - but for the latest Fiberactions Challenge, that is exactly what I did.  You can see the two pieces I completed for the Challenge along with the other participants dynamic responses over at the Fiberactions Blog. 

My gelatin printmaking efforts have been making the move to fabric, which makes me glad, as I do so love stitching in addition to printing/painting.

'She Wore Her Rabbit Hat and Felt Confident, II' - intaglio technique gelatin print and Dynaflow textile paint on cotton, 8.5"x5.5"

Colors of My Name

The Fiberactions group challenge this time was to work with a limited palette of two colors plus black.  The two colors were to begin with the initials of your first and last name.  After brainstorming a long list of colors meeting that criteria, I decided on sapphire and chartreuse.  I also decided to limit myself to working on a black background, using only fabrics from my scrap bag.

Chartreuse immediately steered me toward a leafy scene, inspired by my walks along the beach here at home.

Black remnants from my scrap bag formed the tall, narrow backgrounds.

After fusing all the leaf and grass shapes, I joined the units with black sashing strips and got ready to stitch.

Beading sounded like fun, and I spent several days adding sparkle to the scene.

'View from the Beach Fringe'; 11"x14"

detail - 'View for the Beach Fringe'

detail - 'View from the Beach Fringe'

Do stop by the Fiberactions blog and have a look at how the other participating artists handled the colors of their names.

Two Sunny Days

Lucky for us, there were two sunny days this week.  Waterfalls caught my eye on the afternoon walk Wednesday.

These long summer evenings afford plenty of time for an after dinner stroll in our woods.

 

Blue sky is a blessing I can't get enough of.  There was more today.

I spent most of my studio day stitching beads on my Fiberactions challenge - shhh - the reveal is still weeks away!  I think my color inspiration is obvious.

Flossy and I drove out the road after work to enjoy a walk and cook a hot dog at Crescent Beach.

 The skunk cabbages are big enough to dwarf my diminutive dog.

Wild flowers grace the roadside.

There was a ring about the sun, signal that the weather will be changing overnight.

Layers of green - such a proliferation of texture!  These sunny days are the reason we endure all the rainy ones here in Alaska.

Details

The latest Fiberactions Reveal was yesterday.  I wanted to show you some details of the two pieces I completed for the "split complementary" color challenge. 

My first color choice was yellow-green/red/violet.

Detail of the first piece, 'Language of Crossing Over', acrylic on cotton and linen, machine stitching

Detail 2 of  'Language of Crossing Over', which is 23"x24.5" in its entirety

Detail 3, showing the mix of my hand-dyed cotton (far left) and linen (center panel) and commercial batik (bands and right most panel)

 The second piece used green/red-violet/red-orange and is called ''Snare'; 26"x10.25"; acrylic and prismacolor on hand dyed and dye painted cotton.  Here are two close-ups:

The original background cloth was stamped with thickened procion dyes and then immersion dyed before additional stamping with acrylic and Prismacolor shading was added.  There is hand stitching and machine stitching as well.

Showing Prismacolor extending into the border of hand-dyed cotton, and hand-stitching.

Three Ring Circus

Whew!  The days sure flew by this week, kicking off with a wearable art workshop I taught through our wonderful local library.

I had one student, J, a very focused third grader who brought her own recycled fabrics and great design idea drawn up in her sketch book.  Very impressive!

headband sketch by 8 year old student

While my librarian friend and I cut out flower shapes for her, J stitched away on her project, attaching the flowers to her t-shirt with buttons and beads and sequins.  

She designed this charming headband to accessorize her outfit (see sketch above).

After 2 solid hours of determined hand sewing, J's wearable art was complete. She was pleased and we were amazed at her tenacity.

Back at my studio, more wearable art is evolving as I develop a second 'look' for next month's show.  This one will be modeled by a young friend of mine.  

The base for the head piece is 16 ga. wire bent to encircle the head and rest on the shoulders

Cardboard shoulder pieces being attached to the wire frame with paper mache.  (My paste recipe is 1.5 parts flour to 1 part cool water plus .25 part white glue, stirred smooth).

These silk yoyos will adorn the head piece, along with leaves fashioned from the velveteen I dyed last week.

Hand-dyed rayon with Dynaflow textile paint vines and leaves.   (These are incorporated into the skirt).

I also spent some time wandering through my fabric deciding on a split complementary palette for the next Fiberactions challenge.  All in all, a great work week.  I like the three-ring circus approach, do you?

Monochrome Challenge

The Fiberactions challenge this time was to create with a monochromatic palette (one color plus black and white).  Hope you enjoy seeing details of the two pieces I finished in response to this excellent creative limitation.

'Moonlight Flight'; 21"x14.5"; textile paint and machine quilting on commercial cotton

'Village'; 15"x42.5"; textile paint and machine quilting on commercial batik

I used textile paints applied with brushes and my own original rubber stamp designs.   All the stitching is done on my Viking ‘Lily’ sewing machine with some metallic threads for accent in the blue piece.    

The batting is two layers of cotton flannel.  The binding is rat tail cord zigzagged around the raw edges.