Color Theory Class

Saturday, while Frank was dealing with illegally placed dumpsters and sewer backing up in the tub/showers, I was taking a Color Theory class!  I had way more fun than he did, for sure.

Sally Gordon has studied color and art history for a lot of years.  She set up an interactive class for about 13 of us CFAL (Contemporary Fiber Artists of Louisiana) members.


Our class packet included a wonderful little color wheel that has windows for determining what a color looks like if you add yellow, black, grey, blue and red.

Really cool instrument.







We started with the pages of white, black and grey and some color chips.  Without regard for composition, we played with how the color reacted when placed on each of the backgrounds.

I guess I have done this before but it was very revealing how the colors receded or came forward.  I have always liked black more than white as a background/sashing color.  To my eye, it makes the colors pop forward, and I like the effect.

Sally said that painters have it easy, they can mix the color they want.  As fiber/fabric artists we have to buy the color we want or create it in an dye vat.  Which we all know is not an exact science.  While shopping is fun, we still might not be able to find the exact color we need if the shop keeper did not order it!







Bebe made neat little marks on her papers.


I threw color on the paper like a wild woman.

We played with gouache colors on watercolor paper and made (I ATTEMPTED to make) color, hue and shade as well as neutrals.

I was really good at making neutrals and browns!














She taught us a secret to adding color effects to our quilt subjects.

She also brought in how the painters of the past dealt with shading and creating light effects.

I can say, I learned a lot about that...…..and if you see my work sheet, you will see I need a LOT of help yet!

Thanks, Sally!

8 Racks of Ribs and a Metal Working Class

 (I will link this up to Nina Marie's Off the Wall Friday)

My cousin Jason and his wife and their together 5 kids all flew in from Colorado and will convene at 
Carrie's house tomorrow.  I make the most incredible ribs so they wanted my ribs.  Thinking ahead, I gave the recipe to Carrie with instructions NOT to give it out to anyone.  And she was supposed to make my ribs.  She did a practice run two weeks ago and pronounced them not nearly as good as mine.  Hmmmmmmm.

So the job went back to me.  Of course, what would you expect from a person who gets her mother and mother-in-law to make Thanksgiving dinner!  That's OK, I get to keep the title of the Best Ribs Ever!

So now that 4 racks of the magnificent rib slabs are in the oven and the other 4 are ready to pop in in 2 hours I can tell you about my incredible day in the Metal Working workshop.

I took pictures all day, just for you!

Mary Hettsmansperger has been in all the major and minor magazines, she has been juried into SAQA and so many other places we all admire.

Michael and I sat at a table together and he made fun of my tool kit.  He called it Sissy tools, I call them ZEBRA!

This was the array of metals she gave us to manipulate.  Copper of several weights, brass, the hemp is mine and somehow got into the photo.  Some of the metals were thick and some were so thin they draped like fabric.  You can sew through about half of these babies.

We used butane burners with self starters.  Our Mary who set up the
classes, was paranoid the whole time that someone was going to burn the building down!

Here is a copper foil with flux.  It becomes almost iridescent in places. 

 Here are some copper sheets cut, fluxed, burned and beaten with hammers.  The coil is a steel wire beaten to within an inch of its life with a mallet head that had patterns embedded in it.



This is a copper mesh burned.  Half of it is original.

And here we wove a thin copper foil with basket weaving materials.  We WOVE metal!






We burned batting (outside) and we put embossing powder on metals and burned them.

 This is a metal sheet that has been sewn through using a regular sewing machine like we all have in our sewing room! 

These are some of the things I burned, beat and made.

 

 

Do you remember the leaves I skeletonized?   they are just perfect here!  

Mary H discharges dark fabrics, dyes light fabrics and Rusts amazing things easily.

I want to be her!  I do so want to be her!

 

Two Of My Pieces Are Hanging! Yay!

It is so amazing to see your work hanging.  CFAL (Contemporary Fiber Artists of Louisiana) hung

My Iguana

our annual exhibit of fiber art at the Louisiana State Archives Building on Essen Lane (in Baton Rouge) last week.

It comes down before the end of the month, so if you want to be a good friend, stop in and see it!  The building is not open on weekends, but is open from 8:30 am to 4:30 pm M-F.

It is called The Art of Fiber II. 

 

 

 

 

 

My Hibiscus

I am going to put a photo of Tracy's piece as well, I need to make sure she is OK with it.  I am sure she will be.  It is an incredible piece.  She is so talented.  She puts just the right piece of fabric in the exact right place.  How she does it, I will never know.

Tracy's piece is at least 3 feet by 3 feet

And Michael has a red piece that is so amazing.  His talent is beyond anyone I know.  He should be in huge galleries, maybe one day he will be.

And I am sure Tracy will be right there next to him!

My Iguana was done for a challenge by River City Guild.  It was to take a block, change it up several ways and make something with it.  This was like in 2007.  The petroglyphs you see are made from a black solid piece, not a Kona though.  I used a bleach pen to discharge the rock painting replicas.  It is backed using the birthing method.  I was surprised it turned so  sharply and maintained its shape like it did. 

I made the decision to do something besides a quilt, because everyone was doing quilts.   I thought it would stand out.  Well, it did.  They HATED it!

My Hibiscus is an applique technique I learned in a Quilt University Class.  It was totally different from anything I have ever did because it is worked from the back of the piece.  It is a precise technique that gives excellent results without all the needle turning and wax paper cutting.  You still need to mark off your pattern and enlarge it, but it makes a really nice piece.

Artist's Reception and a Stash Report

The Artist's Reception for Quilt the Swamp was this afternoon after the Contemporary Fiber Artists

of Louisiana meeting.  CFAL for short.  CFAL is such a diverse collection of people who work in various types of fiber, beads,  materials  and styles.  The show and tells are mostly amazing.

you know the two  pieces I have in the show, the Map of rouge Marais Plantation and OIL.  I really put the map in as a place holder, we could enter up to two pieces and I wanted to fill the two spots. 

I was really surprised at the reception the map had.  I was awed by the positive comments both pieces received but more surprised at those about the map.  I didn't think it was particularly great.  But several people, whose opinions I value, said really great things about it.  

I was humbled, because I so envy their work.  I guess that tells me I am on the right track. 

I am so interested in creating more of both styles, the maps and the industrial structure.  I need to make some rusted fabric and try out some painting techniques I have been reading and re-reading and re-re-reading.  Sometime, somehow, somewhere you just have to jump in and do it!

I also want to see if my fiber group would be interested in doing an eco-bundle.  I need to read up  and get some info for them this week.  Anybody do any of that before?

Ok.  I did use some fabric this week.  For the back of the book quilt, and I actually need to claim the front of the book quilt since I did not do that yet.  I can do it either this week or next, it really won't matter.  What does matter is that I have taken a top that needed quilting and created a back.  And that it all is on the frame to be quilted! 

Moving forward!  Still in the positive numbers but I hope to be into negatives by March!

Used this week	-8	Used this month	-11.25	Used this year	-11.25
Bought this week	0	Bought this month	28	Bought this year	28
Plus or minus	-8	Plus or minus	16.75	Plus or minus	16.75

Kimono

Here is the fabulous Kimono by Michael Young.  He is an amazing artist, so gifted with color and design.  And  have never in all these years felt that he talked down to me.  Not all are like that.

But Michael is!  And I have learned so  much from him.

The Art of Fiber

The Contemporary Fiber Artists of Louisiana show at the Louisiana State Archives Building was set up on Monday 2-3-14 ad will run through 2-27-14.  If you are in Baton Rouge, LA in February, please take a half hour and go see the pieces.  They are incredible.




I have three pieces in this show.




Here is what the room looks like. Sometimes it felt like there were too many cooks in the soup.  Too high, too left, too  right, too low!

 Here are some of my pieces.

Michael young with his amazing kimono