Art Cloth Network Meeting

On Wednesday, I returned from the Art Cloth Network meeting, which was held in Houston this year. The Art Cloth Network is dedicated to exploring and promoting ART CLOTH. In addition to a business meeting, we also have gallery where members show their recent work. Pictures of our meeting can be seen at the Art Cloth Network Blog. Since Art Cloth Network had a juried exhibit at Archway Gallery in Houston, we attended a Meet the Artist Reception there on Tuesday. The exhibit is titled Quake. Be sure to double click on each image to view the whole piece.

September Highlights II

I am happy to report that I had two unexpected sales in September. At one of my salon/critique group meetings early in September, I brought one of my fabric collages that I just finished stitching for critique. I was planning on mounting it on wood, but I did not have time to do so before our meeting. To my surprise and delight, Barbara Amyx told me she wanted to buy it when it was finished. However, she told me not to hammer any nails into the wood. I delivered this piece to her at our next meeting. All of the fabrics in this collage are ones that I have dyed and/or painted. I have also started work on some more. I will post pictures when they are finished.

Most of the wood collages I make have nails hammered into them. Below is a picture of the one that was awarded the Judge's Purchase Award in 2008 at Tubac Center of the Arts.

Barbara and two other painters rent a house in Tucson and use it as a studio. In September, they invited a group of artist, collectors, and students for a light lunch and networking. I wore one of the silk scarves I had dyed. One of the attendees went home with it wrapped around her neck!

September Studio Highlights or What the Heck I 've Been Up To

September was a productive month.  On September 10 and 17, I taught an Introduction to Art Cloth course in Tucson. One of my new favorite techniques that I adapted from Make your Mark: Explore your Creatviity and Discover Your Inner Artist, a book by Margaret Peot is applying paint using a brayers wrapped with  paint using a brayer with rubber bands wrapped about it on two pieces of commercial fabric. On the first fabric pictured below, I then stamped over the brayered layer with carved erasers using citrine Lumiere. On the second one, I sponged printed with the same paint. Let me know what you think of the results.

In September, I spent many hours working on the Sonoita Elementary School project. I drove out to the school three times (one hour and ten minutes each way) to get some help with sewing jeans strips together for mounting the twenty second graders' quilt blocks.

One day, a mother and I spent five hours pinning and sewing. I finished this wall hanging last week. Since there is no place in my home to hang it to photograph, I laid it on my bed and stood on a ladder to snap a photo. Once it is hung at the school, I will be able to get a better shots of it.

My DH was so impressed with the finish product that he wants to keep it. I told him that was not possible. However, it certainly the best compliment he could have given me.

I also finished the top for another quilt square for the desert beauties collection: the lantana. Some of the lantanas have flowers that are all the same color and others have multiple colors. I decided to depict the one that has different colored flowers. Below is a picture of two plants in my garden, followed by my quilt square.