2008 Weekly Mixed Media Project

This is my 29th Weekly Mixed Media piece this year. Below is the back side of the same piece. It's a combination of felt scraps and left over strips from stitched mixed media projects.




To create this piece, I chose four pieces of leftover felt from previous projects.


I decided not to use my needle punch/felting machine at all this week, but instead I' simply sew the pieces of felt together, even if some parts are not totally felted.


The I chose seven think strips that were leftover from trimming down some new work I have created, that I will post about shortly.


One by one, I zigzagged stitched the thin strips to the felt, using my sewing machine. This shows one strip sewn.


And this shows two strips. You should be able to get the idea.


Here are all seven strips sewn down.


And this is the back side of the piece,a s shown above that.

Next, I cropped it down to 6" square, by tracing a template, and simply cutting it to size. No need to finish any edges.

You can see my 2008 weekly mixed media work (so far) on my website, and read about my process/progress here on my blog.

Rubberband Ball

Above is the latest picture of my family's rubberband ball. Below is the back side. There have been some changes from two weeks ago. I wonder if the summer heat adds to the deterioration.


The major black rubberband is holding everything together. It's still very strong, but when it breaks, it'll be drastic.

I try to post updates every two weeks or so. If you'd like to see what it's looked like in the past, click here.To see what the first picture I posted, in July 2007, click here.

There's also a short movie of my rubberband ball on youtube, that shows the pictures I took from July 2007-June 2008.

Project Runway Season 5

(Spoiler alert! Don't read if you haven't seen the first episode yet!)


Season 5 of Project Runway started last night.

The first designer challenge was to create fashions from objects found in a grocery store. They did this same project the first season, and I loved it, so I was glad to see it again. Most of the designers had a very hard time with this, but some ran with it. (The picture above has my favorite four designs. I "borrowed" the images off of Bravo's website.) The top left image was created with vacuum cleaner bags that were dyed and bleached, and coffee filters that were burned. I love this dress! WONDERFUL blend of technique and style! The bottom left dress was made entirely of plastic cups! This designer has guts, and I admire him. If you want to see all of the fashions, Bravo shows all all of the fashions, and lets you Rate The Runway.

Bravo has done very little PR about Project Runway Season 5. I didn't see any articles about it in the Boston Globe or the NY Times, and I saw Heidi Klum on Regis and Kelly yesterday morning, and she barely mentioned Project Runway nor did she show a clip of the new season. Looks like Bravo isn't promoting the show since it's moving to Lifetime next season. You'd think they'd take advantage of the current marketing opportunity this season, but I guess not. Nothing like shooting yourself in the foot. You can read more gossip about this on ProjectRungay.blogspot.com.

The one hint Heidi did give on Regis and Kelly, was that there will be a challenge where the designers have to create a fashion out of car parts. I very much look forward to that. Last season I posted my favorite episodes from past seasons, where the designers had to use unusual materials. Enjoy.

12 x 12 x 12 July 2008

For my July 12 x 12 x 12, I used one of the pieces of deconstructed printed fabric I printed of a (green) construction fence. I added some hand stamping and painting, using fabric paint, to counter act the light orange I ended up with from the dye in the deconstructed printing. I've been monoprinting off of orange construction fences for about seven years, and this is the first ORANGE piece I've ever made. Not planned ahead of time, and pretty funny especially since this time I printed off of a green fence.

If you want to know more, you can read past posts about my 12 x 12 x 12 series here on my blog, or see all of the completed work on my website.

On Exhibit in Boston - Art with Fiber

I went to Harrison Avenue in Boston to attend some gallery openings, on Friday night. Since I like to post about shows with works that include fiber in them, I am pleased to report that there were quite a few pieces in three different shows. (I did not have time to visit every gallery, so there may be more works that I did not see.)

There are two very nice shows at the Bromfield Gallery through Saturday, July 26, 2008. The "Rara Avis" show hasone very large necklace-like wall piece that fits in the category of fiber, It's by my dear friend Adria Arch, and is part of her Symmetry Series. It's made of paper inkblots and string, is really quite large and textured, and should be seen in the gallery, if possible, because of its large scale.

Boston Sculptors Gallery's "New Members Show" has a number of pieces with fiber, made by a few different artists. Of note was a sculpture that had fibrous materials sort of nesting the main piece, three pieces by one artist that had small pieces of fabric with photo transfers, and a piece (I absolutely loved) that consisted of red bicycle hooks that were screwed in the wall with rubbery fish-like skeletons draped over the hooks. I apologize for not having enough time to write down the names of the artists and their pieces. The gallery was pretty crowded, and my time was short. This show well worth seeing, and is open until August 1, 2008.

Nancy Crasco has a textile piece in a show called "a politic", at Gallery XIV Boston. The art and political themes were quite interesting. This show is up until October 4, 2008. There's a partial review of the show on Artscope online. The full review can be read by anyone local to Boston, by picking up a free copy of the July/August 2008 issue of Artscope Magazine.

Deconstructed Printing Part II

After waiting two days after trying deconstructed printing on Tuesday, I dried my fabric, and then washed out the extra dye.










A fair amount of dye washed out, so the nice dark orange I thought I had when I was printing, is now a lighter orange. Oh well.

I think using dye on fabric is fun, but I'm more WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) as I do my art work. That's why I like to use fabric or acrylic paints instead of dye. It was fun to try the deconstructed printing, but I'm going to stick with my usual way of working.

2008 Weekly Mixed Media Project

Above is the front side of my 28th 2008 Weekly Mixed Media piece, and below the back side.




To make a similar piece, take some scraps from past felting projects, and lay them on a grey piece of pre-felted wool fleece that is about 10" square.


Place a white piece of pre-felted wool fleece on top of the scraps and the grey pre-felted fleece.


Needle punch from the white side down, for quite a while. When bored, flip it over, and needle punch it from the grey side down for a while, and then flip it over to the white side, and needle punch it until you can see the scraps coming through and you're happy with what you're seeing.

Using white thread and bobbin thread on your sewing machine, sew stitches around repeating shapes, to emphasize the edges. You can use a contrasting color if so desired.

Take a 6" square template, center on the felt so the design is balanced, trace the template, and trim down to size.

You can see my 2008 weekly mixed media work (so far) on my website, and read about my process/progress here on my blog.