HerStory Book and Exhibit!

Here's my contribution to the HerStory project, which honors women from the 20th century who blazed trails for those of us who came after. Pearl S. Buck was a Nobel prize winning writer who wrote about life in China before the revolution. She painted vivid, unforgettable scenes and characters which I read as a child. The book by Susanne Miller Jones is available now, and the HerStory exhibit will tour major art quilt venues through 2019.

Haute Handbags Magazine!

I'm in the current issue of Haute Handbags!! These are the artsy purses I make from used jeans I get from the Goodwill in our town. Beautifully faded is far better than buying new denim from JoAnn's, don't you think?

Polymer Buttons for Embellishing

It was a cloudy, cold day yesterday, so I needed a fun, easy project to lift my spirits. I rolled out the Fimo on the kitchen counter, pressed with rubber stamps, and used a BBQ skewer for the buttonholes. After baking and cooling the buttons, I gently swiped them with a soft sponge with just a bit of acrylic craft paint. It added enough color to contrast with the clay-colored Fimo and bring out the stamped texture.

Deconstructed Screen Print Session Today

I'm in the beginning stage of creating a quilt for a call for entry my art quilting guild, FRCQ is sending out. The theme is "contrast". Now, I normally love to use soft layers and subtle transitions - that's what I'm all about. But I'm going to consider this a challenge. If I have an area I need to work on, it's probably contrast more than any other one thing. So I began with creating some fabric using deep reddish pink and black. I'll create more fabric and fine tune the idea as I go - right now it's just a vague concept.

Diversity Show at National Center for Atmospheric Research

Our reception was very well attended, and it was so fun to see everybody. I was excited to see the caliber of work juried into the show - and there seemed to be as many ways to interpret the theme of diversity as there were entries. Mine is the one with the faces, and the title is "Light Has Every Color". What I meant by the title is that light is a spectrum. Each bright, pure hue is contained within light. We all contain light, and shine our own colors outward to brighten the world.

Moth Art Quilt

I started by collaging a page in my sketchbook, using watercolors and drawing a moth with pencil. The pictures show you the various stages. When I was satisfied with it, I copied it onto printer/fabric. After I added strip pieceing around the outside of it, I stitched through a layer of batting, and added some hand stitching for texture.

Denim Purses for LifeImages Artfire Store

I've made these purses and talisman bags from denim that I've painted, bleached, and appliqued. The appliques are my sketchbook drawings copied onto printer/fabric. The image of an artquilt I made a few months ago is what I'm using for my store banner.

New ArtFire Store

I'm just now getting it up and running. LifeImages went live on Saturday, so be patient with me - I'm still learning how to use it. But if I can learn Blogger, I can certainly do this! To see: Scroll down and go to the LifeImages section of the right sidebar on this page.

Open House at Textiles West

This is a hotbed for fabric babes like me who dye, paint, and print with fabric. The alpacas and the yak made an appearance as "ambassadors" to show some sources of natural fiber. They were petted and loved by the general public. Textiles West has just gotten a brand new fabric printer which uses pigments, not copier ink. This is the only one in the region as far as I know. The results on fabric are beautiful!!! I'm even now scheming about ways I can use this in my art. . .

Finishing Another Small Work

For this piece, I collected and dried wildflowers between the pages of a book, made a gelatin print plate, and did a reverse print for the background. The bird and the flower are pencil drawings from my sketchbook, which I copied onto printer-fabric on my home copier. The polymer clay embellishment is one I made during a session in my kitchen using a rolling pin and rubber stamps. Thanks for looking!