Me, Myself, and I and Her and She and Them

I was having a conversation last night with my DH about my alter egos.  Two of them have cute names--Stinkerina and Babycita. 


Milagros (Stinkerina)

Stinkerina is playful, demanding, and likes to tease.  She can be a little mean sometimes.  She doesn't mean to be mean, but it does happen.  She can get really competitive when playing games, too.

Babycita is the sweet, patient, loving, calm, happy one.  She showed up when I started doing art full-time.  I really didn't know that she existed until then.  Chuck fell in love with Stinkerina, but Babycita got a lot of positive reinforcement when she came on the scene.

So, I was thinking of who else is out there. 

Well, there is Adventure Girl.  I had forgotten all about her until she showed up last weekend in the studio.  I like Adventure Girl a lot and am going to invite her over more often.  She can be a little reckless.  She doesn't plan or think about things--she just does things.  She is very experiential and brave.

Child's Play
(The Organizer and Artista)

Chuck reminded me of The Organizer.  Of course, how could I have forgotten her.  I wish she had a better name, but I haven't thought of one yet.  I'm pretty sure everyone in my life has met The Organizer.  She comes by at least once a month to organize or re-organize something--more often if she is really needed.

I really do know that Chuck fell in love with Stinkerina with her devilish eyes, but when a dear friend asked early in our relationship what he loved about me, what blurted from his lips was, "She is so organized!"  I guess even The Organizer can be endearing....in that special methodical way.


Line Study 1
(Artista and Simplicity)  

 The Organizer has a twin;  she is Simplicity.  Simplicity is shy.  She has a lot to say, but she doesn't use words.  You can feel where she has been, though.  She is the one that you see out of the corner of your eye and she is gone if you actually try and focus on her.  The Organizer does her best to make space for her quiet twin.

And then there is Artista.  She has been around forever and likes to play with everybody and everything.  She is very social and likes to share what she is learning with all of her friends.

She is just happy to be creative and have a "canvas," even if that canvas is spreadsheet on a computer screen.  She regularly has play dates in the studio with The Organizer, Babycita, and Stinkerina, and has even hooked up once or twice with Simplicity.

I know there are more of me out there, but Artista is begging me to go to the studio that The Organizer was so kind as to clean up last night.

Day 4

Day 4 was rained out.  There was rain from the ramp.  There was rain from the old drips that had been sealed.  There was rain in brand new places.  After moving my studio mates canvases out of his area to keep from getting wet or to dry out.  I was too distraught really to anything in my studio. 

There are so many things that I love about my space, but it all is forgotten when I have to deal with this much water or my own continuous stream of sweat.  It seems that I am being chased by water.  My lease is up this month, so I'm officially looking for new digs.  I need a space that supports me and that doesn't distract me.

Day 3

I got a better offer from my husband on Day 3.  We spent a lovely day together.  But while he was napping, I snuck up to the studio and looked at the results of my dye studies.  I didn't get the blue-green I was looking for, so I'll be doing more studies.  I came really close on the red-violet and cool-red that I think I can adjust and be happy with the result.

Now the juggling begins.  I could mix up dye for both one of the pieces and the studies on Day 4, but I'm only going to have time to rinse out one on Wednesday night.  So, I'll have to choose and be patient!

Day 2

While I was waiting to rinse out the dye studies that I had batched the day before, I organized the previous dye studies that I had done.  Of course, I have to make 12 more sets of each of these for my classmates, but that I left for other evenings.

These are two different reds mixed into yellow dye at 10% increments.

I also emptied out the front part of my studio to make room to dye the large pieces of fabric. I knew this day was coming....

I have two 2'x4' plastic tables set up and will be adding one more to have 12'.  At first I was going to set up on the floor, but then I thought I would have better control if I did it at a more comfortable height.

So, the ramp is filling up.  I need to get some more metal shelving to create stair steps up on the left side.  There will be a day, I'm sure, that I will be in the mood to organize, and I'll have the perfect project!

So my studio day ended with hanging three sets of dye studies.

I'm excited to see how my idea eventually plays out.  There are four possible outcomes.

1.  The fabric comes out exactly how it is in my mind.
2.  The fabric comes out differently than I am imagining it, but I can still use it for this project.
3.  The fabric comes out differently than I am imagining it, and I can't use it for this project, but possibly it can be used for something else.
4.  The fabric comes out differently than I imagined and it can't be used for anything!

Day 1

My plans for the day were to quilt on one of my pieces for my Jane class and then work on another piece of my Jane class.  But when I got to the studio, I thought I have 4 days in a row (which seems big to me now!) and I have these color shift ideas that I'm seeing big. 

So, I decided to push things a bit and start something brand new, knowing that I would fill in with my Jane work.  Starting something big and brand new, not playing it safe with my homework, and not playing it safe by choosing not to work at the day job on Monday all contributed to accessing my adventure value.  That was why I was so pumped yesterday.  Note to self.

I used to access my adventure value by travelling alone and doing other fun stuff like canoeing and camping on the river overnight by myself.  Clearly, I am getting old if living on the edge is pushing deadlines and missing a paycheck for a day! 

I mentally went through a check list of how I was going to proceed and then decided to actually write down these choices.  What was different for me is that I chose the easiest option for each item. 

For these quilts--I see two that are playing with each other--I am using cotton because it is less slippery than silk and easier to manage the way I'm handling the finishing.

I chose wool batting because it is the loft that I want and is so easy to cut and hold its shape.  The other choice I have been using lately is easy, too--felt.

I chose invisble thread as I didn't want to work about matching subtle color shifts.  And I know I'll make other choices in the future for thread, both color matching and color contrasting.

The sizes that I chose are skinny enough to not have to sew pieces of fabric together.  That choice was made for simplicity sake.

The colors were tough to choose. I could sketch and visualize the shapes of the quilts in my head, but not how the colors would play with each other. So I painted several varieties.

In the past, I would have just jumped in mixed up some dye and threw it on the fabric and hoped for the best.  But I guess I value good results more than fast results, because not only did I do paint studies, I also did dye studies, which is really going to take time.  Two of these are ones that I had to do anyway for my independent study.  I can rinse these at the end of Day 2.  Make decisions based on the colors at the beginning of Day 3.  Batch the first piece of fabric on Day 3 and rinse on Day 4.  If all goes well, batch second piece of fabric on Day 4 and rinse after day job on Day 5.

Art Quilt Finishing Techniques

I just wanted to share my latest finishing technique that I have used. Finishing techniques seem to be one part of the process that I experiment a lot with. I have have been very innovative in this area, and many successes, but there are a few that I haven't gone out of my way to use again.

The piece that I'm showing here is a small custom piece that I made for one of my collectors. She specifically wanted a red circle quilt. I ended up using red felt, so even though it is stitched, it isn't officially a quilt.

I had several ideas of how to finish this piece including a shadow frame, (which I didn't offer because it would take away from the roundness that she desired), mounting it on a square piece of plexiglass, and floating it on a fabricated plexiglass mount, similarly to how I mounted Three Waters. It was important to me that it was away from the wall.

My collector thought of using the embroidery ring, which was a very inexpensive alternative that I hadn't considered. I covered it with fabric and then mounted the piece. The embroidery ring has a built in hanging device.

It is actually the same idea (smaller scale and different shape) that I had picked up at Translations Gallery, when they were more involved with fiber media, the last time I was in Denver. They had the flat quilts by their featured artist carefully pinned to black fabric covered stretcher bars that were a couple of inches smaller than the quilt. It allowed the quilt to come away from the wall maybe an inch, but I think it gave the piece more of a presence.

Measuring Fabric

Added Notch & Hemmed Edges

Giant Yo Yo

The Other Side

Finished Back

Finished Front

 
I'll be leading a discussion in my studio on Saturday, September 25. 2010 from 10 until noon on this very subject!  It is called Art Quilt Finishing Techniques--A Discussion.  I will be talking about lots of different options, what to consider when choosing, pros and cons, and hopefully talking about specific projects that participants bring in.  It should be very informative and a lot of fun.