Tuesday, October 11, 2016

Fall Hand Stitching: Pattern and Rhythm

Maria S.: Chain stitch sampler

The theme for session #2 of Hand Stitching was Pattern and Rhythm. Students got to experiment with looped stitches...Fly, Detached Chain, Chain and Buttonhole/Blanket in a sampler. For the challenges they could also incorporate stitches from the previous class session on Line (and some even experimented with some other stitches!). Challenges included: using commercial or hand painted/printed fabric as a jumping off point; basing a composition on one of the patterns found in nature and playing with the concept of rhythm. I'm not happy with all the photos and hope to take better ones of these pieces before the end of the class.

Samplers:
Alissa W.
Grace M.
Gretchen K.
Maria S.: Buttonhole/Blanket
Maria S.: Fly and Chain

Jumping off from commercial fabrics:

Gretchen K.
Judy M.

Jumping off from hand printed fabrics:

Alice A: Bleached fabric.
Alice A.
Gretchen K.
Kerstin W.
Kerstin W.
Maria S.

Patterns in nature:

Alice A.: Symmetry
Alissa W: Mosaics
Grace M.: Spiral
Maria S.: Spiral

I have a couple of returning students both are working on landscapes:

Ann Z: Ireland
Jan B.
Stay tuned for Texture!!

Monday, October 10, 2016

Fun with Handmade Stencils

Day of the Dead sugar skulls by Denise R.

Last weekend, I taught Fun with Handmade Stencils at Artistic Artifacts.

We created stencils from freezer paper, packing tape and shelf liner. We played with layering textures. Students learned about designing multi-colored stencils and working with bridges. Here are the results:

Denise working with a freezer paper stencil.
More sugar skulls!
Denise R.: Packing tape stencil printed with a texture.
Buffy K.: Packing tape stencil.
Buffy also played with some freezer paper masks.
Combining the masks with the stencil.
Peggy G.: Packing tape stencil. Using more than one color through the stencil.
Peggy G.: Freezer paper stencil with multiple colors.
I even jumped in to play with stencils!
Detail of one of my freezer paper stencils. I used two different stencils to create this print.

Thanks students for an enjoyable class!

Monday, October 3, 2016

Fall Hand Stitching: Line

Grace M using different densities of line stitches

Last week, students in my Hand Stitching class brought in their line samplers and challenges. So much talent and so many great interpretations! The stitches that they used were: Running, Back and Stem. I love seeing how each student played and stretched and explored!

Grace M.: Sketches in her journal. I ask students to use their journals to have a continuing dialog with their work.
Grace M.
Alice A.
Gretchen K.
Gretchen K.
Gretchen K.
Maria S.: Playing with Running Stitch.
Maria S.: Playing with Stem Stitch.
Maria S.
Maria S.
Marine W.: Playing with Running Stitch.

The students also started in on Pattern and Rhythm samplers this past week. I'm looking forward to seeing how those and their challenges come out. Stay tuned!

Sunday, October 2, 2016

September 2016 Stitch-In

Barbara M.C.: Detail of a new piece inspired by India.

Continuing with my attempt to catch up!
Last Sunday, we had the September Stitch-In. Here's what folks were working on...
Barbara brought in a piece inspired by the colors, architecture and customs of India. All her fabrics are hand painted. This piece had lovely stitched details and little surprises! And Barbara never shies away from working in a large format!

Barbara M. C.
Helen B. brought in a completed piece that she'd started at the last Stitch-In. She used an inherited silver pin as inspiration.

Helen B.
Helen was also working on a series of hand appliqued pieces from a recent workshop using a traditional approach. Unfortunately, my photos didn't come out...so hopefully I'll be able to share those in a future blog post.

Holly C. brought in the piece that she just completed from the most recent Healing Cloth workshop. She also brought in a wonderful bag she created from pieces of her indigo dyed and resist fabrics.

Holly C.: Dog Dreams.

Holly's bag.
Kate G. and Susan P. continue to work on pieces from the spring session of Hand Stitching. Unfortunately, I don't have photos of Susan's pieces (though you can see some of them in this post). Sorry Susan. Here are some of Kate's.


It was great to spend the afternoon with all of you!