Friday, October 17, 2014

Around the World Blog Hop!


 I was recently asked to participate in the Around the World Blog Hop by fiber artist and fabric dyer extraordinaire, Carol R. Eaton.

A selection of beautiful hand dyed fabrics by Carol R. Eaton.

I first "met" Carol as part of The Printed Fabric Bee. The Bee is an online group of surface design enthusiasts who design and print fabrics for one another throughout the year. I then had the opportunity to meet Carol in person at the SAQA conference earlier this year. What a delight! I also got to ooo and ahh over her scrumptious hand dyed fabrics. And of course, I had to buy some! You can learn more about Carol and her techniques on her Around the World Blog Hop post from last week.


As part of this blog hop, I was asked to answer some questions:
1. What am I working on?
At the moment, I'm designing, painting and printing several fat quarter fabrics for a pre-order giveaway for my upcoming book, Fabric Printing at Home. I'm using techniques I cover in the book to create the fabrics including: printing with fruits and veggies, found object printing, stenciling with kitchen materials and resist techniques. I'm also working on the next issue of my online newsletter, Julie B Booth Surface Design News (see the right-hand column to sign up...it's free!) where I'll set out the guidelines for the giveaway as well as include a "how-to" project featuring the steps I used to create one of the fabrics (seen here).


2. How does my work differ from others of its genre?
For the past four years, I've focused on using my kitchen as my resource for materials to make print blocks, stencils, rubbing plates and resists.I continue to be inspired by all the different ways I can use common household materials to design complex textures, patterns and designs on fabric. I guess that using these materials in unique ways is my signature. My continuing explorations led me to write my book, Fabric Printing at Home- a whole book of playing and experimenting with kitchen materials to create unique fabric designs!


3. Why do I create what I do?
I find designing fabrics inspiring-- the colors, textures, repetition of design elements and of course, layering all of it together! When everything falls into place and the fabric sings, it is truly satisfying!


I also love to teach and find that designing classes and explaining/writing about techniques is an art in itself. I love to joke that I design classes that I want to take! Right now, I'm extremely excited about two classes I've designed and am teaching: Fabric Painting, Printing, and Stitching to Tell a Story with Cloth (aka Story Cloth) and Patching, Stitching, Weaving: Creating Healing Cloth where students use mending and applique techniques to create a cloth with a healing message.

4. How does my creating process work? 
I find that I work best when I have a combination of time to play/experiment with materials and a deadline.  Most of the time, I like to have some sort of  goal in mind. It may be as simple as, how many ways can I print with a particular material or  how can I manipulate the material to turn it into something with which I can print, stencil, rub or resist? I keep a notebook and jot down notes and draw thumbnail sketches that act as starting points and also to record what I've learned during the process. A good session in the studio starts full of "what ifs" and ends with some of those questions answered (and generates new questions as well!).


Now I have the pleasure of introducing you to two other artists whose work I admire. Here is a brief introduction. You'll be hearing more from Lisa on Friday, October 24...so don't forget to check out her blog!

Lisa McGarry
Lisa McGarry is one of my online friends. I met her when she decided to join in on my and Jennifer's monthly colorful Searching for Roy G Biv blog hops. I soon came to look forward to her posts...full of gorgeous photos of her adopted home city of Florence. Along the way, she's impressed and inspired me with her thoughtful paper art works and books. She's also made me drool on more than one occasion with her yummy recipes and photos of ingredients and the final product (YUM!). Here's Lisa's description of herself and her work:

Lisa McGarry is an American artist and writer who has been living in Florence for the last ten years. She finds the experience of space and place to be endlessly fascinating, and much of her work is inspired by architecture, cities, travel and design of any kind. Her favorite “materials" are words, paper and paint, and she spends a lot of time looking at the world through her camera lens.

Visit Lisa's blog: http://arzigogolare.blogspot.com

Jennifer Coyne Qudeen
Jennifer is my good buddy! I met her while we were both in fiber galleries at the Torpedo Factory Art Center in Alexandria, VA. When we were first introduced (by our mutual friend Pam Sullivan...an amazing fiber artist in her own right...but blogless!), Jennifer was a basket maker. Her organic and colorful reed baskets soon gave way to woven wall art and experiments with rusty found components. Needless to say, rust won out in the end...and I'm oh so happy about that! Jennifer is a magician with rust and more recently, tea bags. Here's how Jennifer describes herself:

Jennifer Coyne Qudeen is a mark maker, storyteller, surface design explorer, tea drinker, rust junkie and thorough believer in asking what if? And in discovering the answer. 

Jennifer couldn't commit to joining in on this blog hop this time but I hope you will stop by her blog for a visit: http://jennifercoynequdeen.blogspot.com

P.S.: For those of you still interested in playing along with the Search for Roy G Biv this month, I'll continue to update that post through Saturday midnight Eastern USA time!


10 comments:

  1. A lovely post Julie! And thanks for the nod. I'm still rather embarrassed that I had to cancel on you at the last moment.

    Maybe if we work together, we can get the blogless Pam to at least post on one of our blogs... Miracles do happen every now and then. Enjoy!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. No worries...you're a busy woman (and artist!). I'm happy to mention you...I love what you do! Yes, Pam needs to get her feet wet in blogland.

      Delete
  2. What an interesting journey and I look forward to your publication! I'm off to check out the other artists blogs!

    ReplyDelete
  3. How lovely to hear more about you and what motivates you. I will be checking out Barbara Mathews-Cielesky and her blog Papillon Creative - new to me. I am delighted to have been invited to join this blog hop by Lisa McGarry so now I have to think hard about how I'm going to answer the same questions in a couple of week's time!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Margaret- Glad you enjoyed the post. Those were some tough but thought-provoking questions. Happy to hear that you're one of Lisa's choices. Can't wait to read your post in a couple of weeks!

      Delete
  4. I really enjoyed reading your answers to the questions, Julie. I thought your comments on teaching were especially interesting...and I love that fabric in the last image - such vibrant colors!
    Thanks for inviting me to continue the hop...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Lisa...I'm really looking forward to your post in a week! I love those vivid colors in that fabric too!

      Delete
  5. I am in the process of reading back through the 'around the world blog hop'. I have enjoyed getting to know a little more about you and admire that you have written a book ! I will visit again.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for stopping by Sharron. I enjoyed taking a look at your blog...you do beautiful work!

      Delete