CHALLENGE 2013: This was a non happening but will be part of my next years work as I work thru the year

CHALLENGE 2012 : Each month I will choose a picture from last years challenge and create a fibre art interpretation of it or piece of it using at least one new technique each time.

CHALLENGE: 2011: 365 days in picture.

Sunday, December 22, 2013

NEXT PROJECT

This project was meant for submission to a celebratory exhibition and obviously never happened.  I did submit a piece of work but it was a quilt I had produced in the year during a workshop with Rosalie Dace.

The original intention was to produce three thread painted flowers and to mount them on three artist canvases (ready bought), however, I have committed myself to producing two A3 sized quilts for an American auction next year so these may take this format.


I have gathered the thread together (and bought some more) and I think I have enough to go forward with.  The top copy is a paper print out of the flower and the ones behind are the photo transferred onto cotton. 

The idea is to stitch the flowers, cut out, fuse to a background, and progress.  Hopefully this coming week will see some action!

Friday, December 20, 2013

VISITOR TO THE GARDEN .........

I was walking around the garden early yesterday evening and realised I was not alone ......


..... I think I am correct in calling it a green spotted bush snake - harmless.  It had definitely had a meal as you will notice some irregular shapes in its body , left and right of its head.  Frogs ?  Hopefully not a couple of small birds!  It was not too happy as I came closer to get the pic and swayed its head from left to right.

Wednesday, December 18, 2013

Happy Birthday Mum

Yesterday was Mum's birthday and along with tradition out came the Christmas decorations.......



They were dusted down, fluffed out and after a thorough clean of the house the tree was decorated and the angels and (dare I say!) artificial poinsettias were put out on display.

After dark the lights were switched on and the prezzies put under the tree.

Happy Festive Season!

Saturday, December 14, 2013

In the beginning ........

This time of year from about 11, when the sun is shining, it is far too hot to be outside and this is when I distract myself from general household chores to far more interesting projects.

This has been interesting as I started the arduous task of removing the frog from the backing cloth.......


......... he is missing a limb to the right of the quick-un-pick. After one and a half hours my fingers were quite bruised trying to pick out the little threads.  I had a quiet giggle while unpicking away as I have a fellow quilter who calls these type of projects "FROGS"  ....... because you can hear them calling as you work on them ..... "ribbick!"

Plan B :  The frog is a photo transfer on cotton, appliqued onto the duck canvas, and then stitched.  Finally he was appliqued onto the base cloth and stitched again in various places to secure and or to add more stitching.  Hence I am going to go in from the front with a very sharp blade and try and slice thru the stitching enough to loosen and remove without hopefully going the whole way thru.

Thursday, December 12, 2013

ADMISSION OF DEFEAT!

Well that did not go very well at all.   Against all odds I have failed to complete 2013's challenge.

However, the task will be completed no matter what, however, 2014 will not consist of a challenge, instead I will be concentrating on completing those PHD's (for those who do not know - projects half done ) which will include those that were not even started but  placed in a pile in a corner on my work table .

I have changed the look of my blog and will change the heading when 'Blogger' is working okay again and will let me!  (having issues at the moment - not even sure this will happen).

2014 will give you a better insite into what I do and what stops me from completing my various projects.

My first project will be to revisit the piece I started in the workshop with Kathryn Harmer-Fox, earlier this year, a very talented artist/fibre artist. It does not help if you attend a workshop with mixed/confused expectations.  One of Kathryn's techniques is embedding small scraps of fabric into the work to create a piece.

The end result is I have come away with a greater understanding of her work and a piece of work that I am not too happy with.

This is the piece ..........


Combining my technique has meant that my thread painted frog is not blending or sitting in amongst the 'grasses' correctly.  The background is duck canvas (I think) and the 'grass' is a sheet of silk waste that I have stretched and opened out and then stitched in place.  The frog was photo transferred onto cotton and then appliqued onto the canvas, thread painted, cut out and then stitched onto the background. 

My first step is to 'remove' the frog which could take a while but can happen.  

Step two will be to introduce some 2D leaves in some way and then thirdly to introduce the thread painted  frogs, probably scaled down, but stitched so that they are embedded in the piece.

I have a number of pics of my tree frog to play around with .......                                            


                         
 
I do like my threes so I will probably use the original and the two on the right as I can see them up against or holding onto something.

Let's get started.