Fly Me To The Moon

I look at this piece and think, "How fun would that be?" Wouldn't it be great to hop on a big soaring bird and fly to the moon? I could dream about that. The background was made from handmade painted paper cloth. The picture uses commerical fabrics, hand dyed and rust dyed fabrics. Machine and hand stitched.

                   Below is a close up of a happy girl riding her mythical bird to the moon.

Flower Dreams

This 8x10 piece was a fun little project. I drew her face on cotton fabric. Then it was enhanced with watercolors and gel pens and machine quilted. I put it aside for a few days thinking it would be one of those pieces that would end up at the bottom of one of my bins, never to be seen again. While looking at other possibilities for making another piece I pulled it out again and she survived, mostly from frustration, but she made it.

Now that I have her put together I like her a lot. She has grown on me. The flowers and leaves are raw edge applique made from hand dyed fabrics on a commercial fabric.

Where Have All The Soldiers Gone?

This piece was made with handmade paper cloth, photo transfer on organza, acrylic and watercolor paints, gel pens, machine stitched. The red "drips" that simulate blood were made with acrylic paint.

I wanted to do a piece that expressed my feelings about the escalation of the war in Afghanistan. My heart goes out to the many families who have lost a loved one there.The title of this piece is from a line in the song, "Where Have All The Flowers Gone", by Peter, Paul and Mary.

Paper Cloth Piece

I titled this Paper Cloth Piece because I haven't given it an official name yet. I just finished it yesterday and was really pleased with the results. I count this as my first "successful" paper cloth art. I had tried doing paper cloth before but it always came out stiff and not to my liking at all. This time I used a different glue / water mixture which made the paper cloth soft and pliable. I used tissue paper, napkins and painted coffee filters glued to muslin then machine stitched. I love working with tissue paper and napkins because there are so many colors and designs to choose from. It is soft enough that it left a interesting texture when applied with the glue mixture to the cloth.

Above is a close up. The door and windows are copyright free images that I manipulated in photo shop and printed on cloth. I then used watercolor pencils and gel pens to enhance the colors. To add some depth I cut the paper cloth the size of the door and windows and glued the fabric behind that.
Now that I feel I have mastered the paper cloth construction I want to make more. It was really fun.

Chrysalis

The idea of a chrysalis has been on my mind for a while so I decided to try that idea with some mixed media fiber art. I had a general plan and knew I wanted it to be different from anything I had done before. I wanted to try some different techniques that would be out of my comfort zone. Below is a wire armature with a paper / celluclay molded face.

   

  I molded the celluclay face over a light wire armature then waited for it to dry. This was the first time I worked with celluclay but I can see it is a great medium I will use to add depth to future pieces.   Below is the finished piece.              

    

I covered the wire armature with batting the used my hand dyed gauze to cover and mold around that. I wanted to keep with organic, natural colors of nature so there are different shades of greens, browns and golds. To add some color punch I wrapped pipe cleaners with brighter colors and attached those.   Below is a close up of the face.

   I covered the celluclay with many layers of tissue paper using a matte gel medium. The hair is moss, root and lichen I found on my property. I wove some pieces of the dyed gauze in also.  Below is a side view that shows the wrapped pipe cleaners and green dyed gauze. You can click on the photos to enlarge.                             

Thread Sketched Nude

I wanted to try some more thread sketching but didn't know exactly where I wanted to go with this attempt. So, this piece was a practice piece.I first found a sketch I liked then printed it out on copy paper. I layed muslin over the copy of the sketch and traced over the lines with a light pencil making some alterations in the sketch as I went along. Next I thread sketched the figure with black thread.

Seems my photos always come up too dark but you can see the sketch lines. Moving along. I decided I wanted to do something else to her so I used some acrylic paint to add some detail. Now, Im no painter so this effort is more of a trial for myself in what not to do. I forgot to add a texture medium to the acrylics that makes the paint suitable for fabric. Ooops!  I stitched the background and used some diluted setacolor paint to add color to it. Below is the finished piece.

Below is a close up of the sketch. I haven't named her yet.

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Let Me Remind You of Beginnings

I have been reading a lot about goddesses and their origins in history. The Dance of the Dissident Daughter by Sue Monk Kidd is about her journey to find the Sacred Feminine. I found When God Was A Woman by Merlin Stone at the library book sale which tells the story of the role the goddess played in Judeo-Christian attitudes toward women. It isn't fiction, its history. I have probably posted this sometime in the past but I wanted to do it again to go with a poem I wrote a few years back. I made this piece to accompany the poem. The photo doesn't show the whole piece but below the goddess is the poem I wrote which I transfered to fabric.

Let Me Remind You of Beginnings

Sisters, let me remind you of beginnings,
of the first warm blood that flowed
with the cycle of earth's fertility,
of those wild vines of passion that were
a prelude to your power of seduction,
setting you free to ecstasy.

Remember sisters, the awakening
of your woman spirit,
your rebellion against sameness
that sent your fire into the world
leaping and searing complacency.

Oh sisters, you were not born
to struggle for mediocrity.
You came from fire and ice,
from the belly of Nuit,
goddess of heaven and earth,
you erupted dauntless and shameless
your very breath igniting the cosmos
in the dark night of oppression.

In the beginning of the beginning
you spoke of wisdom and justice
from the mouth of Themis
to save us from the riotous throng
of prophets and saviors,
to lift us above obscure predictability.

Sisters, let me remind you of your true genesis.
You are the infinite mother,
heiress to the universe,
diviner of your own destiny.