My Process for Creating a Blurred Boundaries Entry by Carol Nilsen

While thinking over the concept of boundaries blurring, I focused on spheres rubbing together because they brought to mind entities competing for space or ideas jockeying for position. I chose to work in sheer hand dyed silks, my own printed polyester sheers and linens, and assorted recycled and new commercial metallics, to be stitched to gold lame fused to wool batting which was fused with Mistyfuse to a commercial cotton backing. Initial palette included yellow, orage, red, and blue spheres.

After strengthening the spheres with additional sheer layers around their perimeters, I tried out a few other colors and fabrics and finally decided the blue was too dominant for the concept of blurring. Stepping away from the piece helped.

I wanted to convey motion of spheres in contact, so I cut subtly varying shades of sheers and metallic mesh into arching shapes and attached them to the design wall with pins, which gave me a chance to adjust the composition as it progressed.

After I liked the basic composition, I adjusted the pinning for sewing by removing each vertical pin from the felt design wall and repinning it in a horizontal position. This makes the temporary composition movable and ready for the sewing machine.

I edited and made more changes.

Here's the finished piece and a detail, photographed by Johanna Love.

(Postscript: The juror chose a different piece for the show...)

Fiber Arts of Southern Arizona

 Hi all,

 I wrote a blog a little while ago about spending time now in Tucson, Arizona.  One of the great things about it is that both Mary Vaneccke and Joy Lavrencik also live here. Mary invited me to a meeting of the Fiber Artists of Southern Arizona, a small group of artists living in this area. They graciously asked me to join the group. It feels quite nice to be "grounded" with fellow textile artists in a brand new place. I already have work on their website and have been invited to show with them at a Tucson venue in January.

It as lovely to be welcomed.

Here a link to the FASA site.

https://www.fasa-art.com/

 There is a variety of approaches to fiber art on the site. I hope you enjoy exploring!

 

 

It Takes a Village by Joan Diamond

 It Takes a Village by Joan Diamond

Recently I was thrilled to learn of my acceptance into the World of Threads Festival 2023.  My artwork is an installation piece, consisting of 10 "pods" as I call them, suspended from the ceiling.

The Festival is in Canada, and I made what was for me a 9 hour trip to assist with the installation.  It was awesome to watch it materialize.  I'm so happy to have been able to help, even though for safety they didn't want me to climb a ladder or help with the SkyJack (looked like good driving fun!).

After a long day of fussing with thread lengths the art work was finally hung.  So exciting!  As you can see from the first picture, there are small circles on the floor, below the pods. These circles each encase a small pile of seeds from the monster River Birch tree that lives in my backyard. About a week into the show I got an unexpected email from the promoters. Oh dear! People are walking through the sculpture, and consequently walking the seeds throughout the building.  Building management is most unhappy about this! 

The curators, with their first rate attention to any and all details that crop up were on it.  Look at the most elegant, creative solution they came up with!  

I told them they did me a favor.  Going forward, now, somehow I will have to come up with my own risers to include with the piece, as now that I've seen it with the risers,  I can't "unsee" it!! The risers created a visual boundary that has accomplished the goal of preventing traffic thru the art, and in the process, made it even better. No tape lines on the floor; no rope barricade fencing off the art and creating a "belt" at its midpoint. Thank you management for your concerns!

Same spot, but different views: 

From this.               To this.

Big Project, Big Year by Mary Vaneecke

 Five years ago, I started collecting 20,000 pairs of handmade baby booties to draw attention to the problem of infant mortality in the US.  I called it The Mourning Project.  

On Saturday, October 21 of this year I co-hosted the first complete exhibition with the March of Dimes Arizona and the Center for Compassion, which offers grief support to those who have suffered traumatic loss.  It was amazing to see the 38' by 45' installation come together....

Learn about the event and the issue in this amazing short video with stunning aerial views of the installation.

What's next?  We're going to St. Louis this summer.  Stay tuned for more news at www.maryvaneecke.com.  

#20000BabyBooties        #UnitedAgainstInfantMortality.    #BlanketChange

Making Big Changes

 Hi all,

My husband and I are starting a new chapter of our lives, spending several months of the year in Tucson, AZ. We were there for 5 weeks in November to work on making our new house a home, came home to Illinois for a few weeks over the holidays and will return to Tucson in early January for 3 months.  It is a big change (especially for me!).  One of the biggest changes is that I gave up my studio in Illinois and ended up downsizing quite a bit to move things home. I felt that spending money on rent when I was not going to be there working did not make any sense.  The other side of that coin is that I have a casita space (AKA the NEW studio) in Tucson. So I have been trying to figure out how to set up 2 different spaces over the past few months. Sounds decadent, doesn't it???  I feel very lucky to have the space in Tucson but it came with a price. My current home studio is a small room in the basement that I share with the plumbing, the electrical box, the second refrigerator (:-), the alarm system and not one window.  I do have a second bedroom down in the lower level that is being pressed into service for a place to sit and work on computer and printer and my sewing area is making use of my desk in the other room.  

The Tucson space is about the size of a one car garage, has some built in storage, a great floor, a sink, and 2 windows.  I have been getting it pulled together so that when I go back in January I can begin to work.

Meanwhile, I am back in Illinois trying to work out what is worth shipping to Tucson in terms of supplies, and when does it make more sense to just order from Blick.

The other outcome on the Illinois end is that I got a U-Haul indoor storage space (10 x 15) to have a place to store all the finished art work that used to reside in that small room in the basement. THAT has been great actually. Close by, very well lighted and secured. I can go find things there easily and it is only 5 minutes away.  And cost a lot less then my former studio space.

For this first 3 month time in Tucson I am going to work primarily on the online workshop that I signed up for a year ago with Claire Benn on Natural Pigments.  I hope my narrowing my focus there I can work out the kinks of working in a new space.

I keep telling myself that change is GOOD, difficult in the moment but GOOD in the long run. And I truly believe that a change to an entirely new setting and environment will help my work expand in new directions. I am already collecting bits of desert "stuff". Dried cactus, wood fragments, etc.  We shall see.

Stay tuned! I might write about this again in April. And maybe there will even be pictures of new work.

'Peel' In Process by Barbara James

At this busy time, hand stitching can provide a meditative practice. I am currently working on a piece that is inspired by memories of my grandmother.  As I stitch “Peel”, I think of her peeling fruits and potatoes with me by her side. The piece gradually takes shape as I layer sheer silk organza and add hand stitching.  Here it is in process.