I've moved

Look for me now at www.sodypopsart.wordpress.com I'll be there from now on. Thanks, Judy

Last Week's Assignment

Well, as promised, I am posting some pictures today. First up is the first week's class assignment from the Design I class I'm taking at Mitchell Community College. This class is on 2D design. Our assignment that week was to create a triptych in black and white showing unity, variety and emphasis. Can you tell which is which on mine?

I am not going to tell you my grades as I go through these classes. The grades are inconsequential to my purposes on this blog (and I am pleased with my grade on this one). BUT I will ask if you can see what I was trying to convey in the assignment. So, which one is UNITY, which is VARIETY, and which is EMPHASIS? Anyone?



Also, I promised my students that if they would send me photo's of their hand-dye results from class, I would post them here. The reason, to see that even though everyone followed the SAME recipe, the results are different. Two of my students, Michelle S. and Barbara B. took me up on that offer. The first picture is of Barbara's hand-dyes. She ended up with a really nice assortment of pastel/sherbert colors.


And the second picture is of Michelle's hand-dyes. Michelle's are much bolder, even though she followed the same recipe. I would attribute that to letting the jars sit in a warmer place while they "cured". Temperature does make a difference in the results.

Barbara bought an extra kit from me that day and did another batch in the turquoise/fuschia combination and let them cure in the hot sun in the jars. She's got some of the prettiest blue/purples I have seen in ages!

More Drawing

As part of this week's assignment, I've been drawing elements of the triptych as per the instructions. One of the pages has to be done on a drawn background of our original. This is the photo I took the other day to use as my background:





The drawing had to be done in black and white, this is the drawing I've done of that photo:

I can see I've got a little more shading work to do in the woods area, but overall I like this drawing!

Buttons and Pendants and Drawings

I came home from school today to find a present in my mailbox!!!!!!!!!! Rain, thank you SO MUCH for the hand-made buttons and pendant.

The colors and the detail in these are beautiful, I don't know how you did it, but I really like these and can't wait to use them.

This photo doesn't do justice to them. The dark one has purples and greens and white and a deep fuschia and rust colors in it, all done in petal shapes. And the blue ones are deep blue and sky blue and white and grey and a bit of turquoise and a sprinkle of silver. Then there the pastel ones that are yummy enough to be candy. And the striations in the pendant....beiges and off-whites and a touch of rusty color with greens and in the very center is a line of purple..........way too cool!!!!!!!!!!!


Speaking of school, our assignment this week is a composition using symmetry, assymetry, natural balance and unnatural balance. Again a triptych on a single illustration board. BUT, this week, we must use an original collage material and then use a photopied set of that material in black and white, and a hand-drawn set of the same material. I chose to use some photographs I had taken over the weekend and some from last summer of elements around here. The farmers field where the corn is starting to grow, the water tanks at the volunteer fire station on the corner, and a daylily from my garden. The drawing is not coming easily to me, but I am beginning to accept my skill levels and limitations (for the time being until I improve and I WILL improve, I am determined to!). The above picture is of my daylily done in large sizing (for unnatural scale) and the picture to the side is of the same daylily done in miniature sizing for the natural scale. (I enlarged the second photo to publish it here, the actual drawing is approximately 2" square.

Now I have to draw the background and those water tanks. The water tanks and the well cover in front of them are the most challenging for me. They "should" be simple, but somehow the simplest things are always the hardest and the hardest things are manageable?

On another note, we got about 2" of rain here at the house this afternoon while I was in school. Desperately needed rain, I can see the grass turning green as I sit here (and I think I can hear it growing too! LOL)

Oh, and those pencils are no longer new..........but they haven't been since about an hour after I posted the picture of them!!!

Pristine and Perfect

They won't be pristine and perfect for long, I doubt they make it another hour without some use. But for now, I finally have a complete set and they are in pristine, perfect condition. Aren't they gorgeous? Okay, so maybe not everyone is thrilled with a new set of pencils, but this set goes from 9B through to 9H, I've never had that full set before!

No longer will I be scrounging to find pencils! And these are going to STAY in their box, well, when I'm not using them!!!

Challenges abound today

I think I wore out my camera! I've had my little refurbished HP for over 2 years now, I've taken hundreds (if not thousands) of pictures with it and it's getting more and more tempermental. I got the pictures I wanted today, but not before it turned itself off several times. Then there's always the press the picture button and have the video record feature start, or the press the zoom button and have the camera shut off and restart on a setup menu? I think I may have worn it out!


In the end though I did get some pictures. I'm working on 4 little black and white quilts that were done in an exercise from the book Color and Composition for the Quilter. The first of these has all the gold work I am doing on it done, and I've moved on to the second....where the problems started. Reading the instructions for this gold cord, it reads "Sadi does not recoil once stretched. Please hand with care." And I did attempt to do that. The lesson learned is to do th beadwork first and put this gold cording on last. I worked in the opposite directions and now my beading thread is catching on the Sadi (which is a beautiful cord) and the end results is pulls like this:And an overall view of what I am working on (8-1/2" x 11"):

I have managed to get some interesting pictures lately though. The one below I can attest to the fact that a watched pot never does boil. But before it starts to boil, it tempts you with some interesting bubble texture on the bottom of the pan:

I will work with this one day, I can see potential here. And the circular pattern the mini bubbles are forming in the lower left corner really intrigues me.

A Good Saturday

Saturday was a fun day here! I teach a class on dyeing at the LQS (local quilt shop) and in yesterday's class there were seven students. In the process of teaching them to dye, my method is to explain, demonstrate, and oversee with each step. After class, I promised to post what my fabrics turned out like.

This first shot is of all 8 fabrics (this is a 2 color, 8 step, jar dyeing process which uses 4 yards of fabric):


And two of my favorite pieces from this batch are below. The first piece is one I twisted into a rope before folding and dyeing. There are some very good linear colorations in that piece from top to bottom. In the second photo you are only seeing the one piece. It's the first time I've got that marked of a change in the tone from one section to the other.


I can't wait to see what their pieces turn out like! They are given the option in this class to pick two of three primary colors. Some chose yellow and fuschia, some turquoise and yellow, and some fuschia and turquoise. And Susan I, if you're reading this, I've almost got another bag of ravellings ready to send to you!

Then, last night, still being in a very creative mood from teaching, I decided to make some jewelry. I think I'll keep this set for my own use.


All in all a very productive and enjoyable Saturday.

Lighting

Lighting is such an important issue in working in the studio. I sometimes forget how important it is, until something changes and I'm reminded.

This week I was again reminded of lighting's importance.

Friends of ours came down for race week from Canada again this year and we totally enjoy their visit. This year I had an extra special gift given to me. One of them is an electrician and last year while viewing my studio commented on my lighting issues and that he knew what I needed to fix it. I didn't think too much of it. I trusted that he did know what I needed, but to look a year in advance awaiting something just isn't in my nature to do. This year when he came down, he brought new lighting and I was thrilled!!!!!! Today I got to work under the new lighting for the first time. Barry, I can't thank you enough! (and you too Chris)

Before, with the old lighting, I could see very well when I needed full light, but shadow light was almost impossible. I had tried several different lights and none worked. Shadow lighting is needed when you match thread very closely to the quilt top, then can't see what you've quilted and what you haven't. And as I've got a Gammill (longarm quilting machine) with a 12' table, it can become an issue very quickly.

To illustrate, this is a play piece, not an actual quilt top, one of the most important things in longarm quilting is PPP, known either as practice, practice, practice or practice, perseverance, and patience depending on who you're talking to. Before the new lighting, this is what I would see with the full daylight fluorescents overhead:


As you can see, the stitches sink in so deeply and the thread matches so closely, they are almost impossible to see. After a little while, my eyes would start to burn and strain and I'd be done for the day long before I wanted to stop.

Now with my new lighting, again THANK YOU BARRY, this is what I see:

Lighting is so important!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm a happy quilter tonight! And I think I'm going to go play (I mean practice) some more on the machine as I can see so well now!

Presque Isle piece beginnings

Last month I went to home to visit family. While I was there, I spent one day at Presque Isle driving around and taking pictures. I had forgotten how beautiful it is there, even before spring starts to really bud out.


On that drive, three pictures I took inspired me to create a piece showing some of my favorite spots I saw that day. I'm not calling this a "quilt", nor a "wallhanging" nor "textile art" yet. How can you categorize something that is still under construction? Especially if you don't know exactly where and what techniques you'll use to finish the piece?


But, here are the photos I took that inspired this piece:

I believe all these were taken from the Lake Erie side of the Peninsula, but as I never know exactly when on the drive I turn from the bay side to the lake side, I won't stake my life on it!

This is the beginning of the piece I have started from these photos:

You can see there were 3 elements that struck me from the photo's, the tree, the picnic table and the rock jetty. This is the first step of laying out the basic elements. Next I'll start to add some detail.

stay tuned..........................

Learning to Draw

I've always been a sketcher and a doodler. Some days are better than others, but without formal training I've always wondered about my ability. Lately I find myself wondering less and less, but enjoying the process more and more. I also find myself sketching a bit quicker, I think I see more now than I used to. Could this come from practicing actually looking at things?

Last evening, while having my evening tea on the back deck, one of my dogs went on full alert. Baci, my rescued dog, thought he heard something up in the woods, but he's not brave enough to actually go after anything, just stand and make a lot of noise! While he was standing, I attempted to capture the shape and definition of the back of his front leg.

Immediately my mind started a loud verbal critique of what I had done. And the other dogs started running up to the woods and the moment was lost. There was nothing in the woods, but there had been a snake there earlier in the day.

While reading through parts of "The Artists Way" by Julia Cameron again later last night, I was struck by the statement that for a beginning artist to criticize their work and compare it to others is a form of self-abuse by the left brain.

Point taken, I like this image for what it is, the best of my ability to capture the back of Baci's leg last night in a short span of time at this given point in my life.

Welcome

Welcome, I'm glad you found your way here. Welcome to my creative journey in the world of art and quilting. Whether my work is truly "art", whether my work is considered "good" or whether my work is considered "craft", I'll let the experts decide.......and while they are debating I'll share with you the what, why and how of what I do, and maybe a few side observations as well.

Stay tuned, more to follow............................