Today, I met with Barbara, Susan and Jane for a Story Cloth get together. It's been a few months since our last session of Fabric Painting, Printing, and Stitching to Tell a Story with Cloth. We all wanted to see the finished story cloths and spend some time together. And...since we were meeting at Artistic Artifacts...do a bit of shopping afterwards.
Barbara was the first to show us her final wall piece inspired by the movie, Midnight's Children, an adaptation of Salman Rushdie's novel.
For an explanation of her process and how stitching freely had her connecting to her own childhood see her blog, Papillon Creative (posts on Telling a Story on Cloth Parts 1-3).
Barbara also brought along some of her stitching experiments and explorations. She is enjoying stitching freely with no final intention. She talked about how her stitched lines are like journeys.
Susan brought in her pieces with the mysterious figures. She talked about relationships and communication. How the word "circle" is a constant in our vocabulary...inner circles, circle of friends... This became a theme in this piece.
The tea bag paper piece is also moving toward completion. The group was impressed by the subtle stitching in white thread surrounding the figures.
A new piece is in the works. We can't wait to see where this one is heading.
Susan also brought in her finished piece from, Patching, Stitching, Weaving: Creating Healing Cloth.
I was particularly interested in seeing Jane's piece. By the last class, she'd printed the moles and gotten the design laid out but there was still stitching to do.
What a delightful piece! Jane decided to stuff the moles to make them pop more from the background and her dense stitching and little details were just wonderful. We all loved the barking dog!
To see some of these pieces in process see: Story Cloth: An Update and Rich Stories.
After our meeting we spent an hour looking at all the amazing supplies at Artistic Artifacts. If you live in the Washington, DC area and you've never been to this shop...it's a must see! If you don't live nearby, you can order many supplies online.
All three of us picked out hand-dyed fabric packets that included vintage lace and crocheted doilies. We decided for our next get together, we'd work on a story (or a stitched piece) that incorporated some of the fabrics we purchased. I also got some other colorful goodies!
Judy Gula, the owner of Artistic Artifacts, invited me to do some demos at the store's open house on December 6th. She's hoping that she might have some copies of my book, Fabric Printing at Home, by then. In any case, I'll be back there at the very end of January for an official book signing, demos and a two-day workshop. Stay tuned.
If you have an interest in the Story Cloth class, I'll be teaching it as a 7-session Wednesday evening class at The Art League School, starting on September 17. Click here for more info.
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