Adding Color & "Fugitive Media"

As I was finishing the latest Grevillea piece I wanted to add some extra color to the quilting design ... while there are lots of ways to do this,  my favorite media at the moment is the  NeoColor 11  Watersoluble wax crayons ..... 

 The question is ......  what is the best way to make them permanent on fabric?

This week I discovered an interesting article written for Quilting Arts TV by Kerr Grabowski with the intriguing title " Making Fugitive Media Permanent on Fabric" .   The article advises applying a layer of transparent base extender, normally used to lighten textile inks and bond them to fabric.

So for this exercise I coated the areas of Neo Color 11  with the extender using a paint brush ... the extender has the consistency of a thick cream ... so that makes it easy to apply!! 

This extender can be used to make NeoColor 11,  Soft pastels and charcoal permanent on fabric! So there is more experimenting to come!!

Thanks for reading .... CC

New Grevillea Artwork Underway

This week I 've had my head down,  working on the next Grevillea piece and specifically the stitching ....  

The design has come together with the applique and reverse applique completed.  This piece at 20" x 30"  is somewhat  larger than much of my recent work ... so its taken a bit longer to get to this stage and takes more time to stitch and there is a deadline looming!  Great motivation!!

The big questions now revolve around the quilting and choice of thread color.  After a few experiments,  I've settled on the stitching around  the flowers and the reverse applique shapes, but have yet to decide on the other areas!!  

                                  © CarolynCollinsArt 2017  'Grevillea 8  Detail'   

So back to the stitching .....   Thanks for reading ....  CC

An Afternoon with my Gelliplate .......

This week I spent an afternoon printing with my gelliplate!   I tried some experiments and worked  on printing some fat quarters of fabric for the next grevillea design ....

The experiments were inspired by a short online class with Carla Sonheim,  that I purchased recently. 

Carla's technique produces some lovely abstract monoprints with a landscape feel so I was keen to try it out.  Here are some of the results ......

I think  these have a lot of possibilities as backgrounds for a new idea I have .......

The fat quarters for the new grevillea design are printed using grevillea leaves and a couple of abstract stamps.  I wanted a subtle, blended print without too much contrast,  to use in the background.  Printing fat quarters means repeated placement of the gelliplate and sometimes this results in a build up of paint in some areas.  I tried lightly washing off the excess which worked very well and helped with the blended effect I was looking for .......

A good afternoons work I think!

Thanks for reading ......CC

Grevillea's in Review

My Grevillea Series has been rolling along for a while now and before I launch into Number 10, I thought it would be a good idea to review  progress.  Looking back and seeing the work all together is helpful with new directions and new ideas ... not to mention that it makes me get my photo files into order and update my art database!!

So here they are in sequence of construction .....

The first piece turned out to be a disaster from a technical point of view!  The issue related to layering fabric over the printed organza making for a very unstable piece when it came to the stitching!!!  However I like the color and design ideas and this piece remains on my design wall for inspiration.

After that experience,  I stuck to applique and reverse applique (with no fancy fabrics)  with a good result and second grevillea is part of the SAQA 2017 Trunk Show.  

In the Pink Grevillea piece I was determined to master the organza, because I really like the effect of printing on it,  and tried a variety of  flower shapes. This was a good learning experience but it lacks something from a design perspective!

In the middle row ...  the stylised fower design and development of the backgrounds by incorporating hand printed fabric has worked well and I am really pleased with these.  Peaches and Cream was part of an exhibition at Kangaroo Valley and now hangs in a new home!  

Recently I have been exploring a more abstracted flower design in the pink/purple pieces and have returned to the original idea of stitching the flower design ....... with much more success!

The final two pieces use the backgounds I made a couple of weeks ago,  now stitched and appliqued.  I think the blue/green/yellow piece is the most successful.

While I contemplate what next,  I would love to know which grevillea you like best??

Thanks for reading .....  CC

A Question of Background ....

The most recent pieces in my Grevillea series have used strip pieced backgrounds ... a mix of hand dyed and hand printed fabrics to add some variation.  

This approach worked nicely but what if I 'push the boundaries'  a bit ...

Artists often create compositions from small areas of detail in a drawing or painting, scaling up the size to create and new composition.  We used this approach in my weekly drawing class recently.  

We started with a still life drawing and then using a small area of detail from that drawing created a new composition and then added tone and color ......

From one of my Grevillea drawings I made a number of detail sketches looking for compositions with 5 to 7 shapes.  I picked  3 to try out and made them up this week .....

I'm pleased with the way they look ... the shapes and the color combinations.  The plan is to stitch my Grevillea flower drawing onto these backgrounds ... so I'll need to work out the color and weight of thread and the best way to place and mark the design.   

I'm hesitating a little bit about the stitching so I keep telling myself I can always make a new background piece if I mess it up!!!!  

I'll let you know how I get on......

Thanks for reading  .....CC

New Grevillea .... experiment

With all my new found Photoshop Elements skills .... I am doing the second module of the "Photoshop Elements - Essentials 2"  online class with the Pixeladies,  Deb Cashatt and Kris Sazaki ....  I've been playing with ways of creating simplified/abstracted grevillea designs!

This is terrific fun and as you might imagine I now have a stack of design possibilities!!!!   

The next questions is how to translate these into fabric!!

My first idea is to try a version of shadow applique ...  working from the abstract design  to create a base layout made up of geometric shapes and then combining this  with a digital image of the flower printed on organza,  as an overlay.

I found an interesting piece of fabric with a range of shades of  plum and pink .... not a piece that inspired me when I dyed it some time ago but perfect for this experiment and a soft mottled green to use for the background.  After fusing the geometric shapes .... some very thin and too small to applique with my usual technique ... I added to overlay of printed organza.  This is how it turned out ......

"Grevillea 6"

CarolynCollinsArt © 2017

8" x 16"

Hand dyed and printed fabrics, digital image

After some time contemplating the possibilities, I decided on a mix of hand stitching  .... a running stitch and some seed stitches  and a simple horizontal machine line to finish.   The overlay makes working with thin strips and small shapes very stress free!!!  

I like the results of this experiment .....  but there are more ideas to try !!!

What have you been experimenting with lately??   

Thanks for dropping by .....CC

Stitch First Applique Later!

With my new Grevillea piece I reversed my usual construction process by stitching the background before the applique!  Now this is not a new idea but one I've avoided because I like the flexibility that finalising the composition first allows.  Stitching first requires a bit of a leap of faith!  

Step one was stitching the background.  Doing the stitching first makes the process very easy, no shapes to navigate around so the stitching is very fluid and it's easy to achieve a good result.  It also helps to integrate any additions/variations in the background design.

With this piece I added the applique shapes in two steps.  Firstly the main structure of the flower and the leaves and secondly the overlapping flower shapes, stitching them down as I built up the design.

If you have followed previous posts you will know that I have had quite some issues with skipped stitches.  These skipped stitches occur because of movement in the layers as the needle  passes through multiple layers and are very frustrating!!!  By stitching the background first this issue is not longer of concern!!   So making this piece has been a much more enjoyable experience .......

                   'Peaches & Cream' - Grevillea 3   © Carolyn Collins 2017   16" x 16"  

Have you tried stitching first and what did you think about the process???

Thanks for dropping by .....  CC

Grevillea Series #2

This week I've been working on stitching the second Grevillea  piece ....   the applique and the quilting stitches .....

                                                              Stitching  "Grevillea 2"

It's all come together well with no dramas, even with the layer of printed organza.  Using reverse applique for the background has meant there are not too many layers to stitch through!!  Here is the result ................

       "Grevillea 2"       © CarolynCollinsArt 2016    16" x 20"   Hand dyed and printed fabric

I'm happy with this piece  ....  although I can see things I could do differently!!   So there  is definitely another piece to follow ..... its a Series thing!!!  

Just the backing and facing and a "name"  for the piece to go ....

Thanks for checking out my new work .....  CC

Grevillea Inspiration and Design

I love the Grevillea flowers in my garden this time of year  .... I've  been taking more  photos 

and have been comtemplating a number of different design options  ....

My first effort looked quite interesting on the design wall but turned into a disaster when it came to stitching the design ........ too many layers of fusible and fabric for my machine to handle - I used the leaf print on organza for the background and this may have contributed to the stitching problem ....

For my second effort,  I decided to rework the design and  use reverse applique to reduce the number of layers to stitch through and then add applique shapes   ... much happier with this version ....... though the design still needs some work .....

I'm going to try some new compositions for the next piece in this series ....

Thanks for dropping by    CC

Studio Re-organisation ...... Not!

I was planning to show you my newly re-organised studio today .... however,  when the new desk I had ordered,  to make the best use of the space I have,  was being delivered last week, it slipped, dropped and broke in two!!!  so they took it back to the depot and I have nothing to show!!  The studio is feeling very spacious!!!

Instead, let me tell you about a new piece  I am starting to work on ....

I have always been fascinated by the Grevillea that grows in my garden, and it's in full bloom right now.  So I've been taking lots of photos .....

The challenge is to capture the wonderful color and form of this flower!  I've been sketching some layouts and have an idea of how I might be able to bring it together.   Thought I would start with a small piece 10"  x 12"  to see how it works in practice!  I tried printing with the Grevillea leaves during my latest printing session so I'm hoping that will work as the background to the piece.  Will let you know how it progresses .....  

Thanks for dropping by   CC