African Inspirations

Camilla L.

Today I taught African Influences: Textile Inspirations at G Street Fabrics.

Camilla L. detail

It was a joy to teach these four women. Each one of them has a very unique way of working with color and design.

Barbara H.'s craft foam block

Barbara H.

Barbara H.

Barbara H.

Cynthia H.'s sampler

Cynthia H.

Cynthia H.

Seeing this feast of colorful African-inspired fabrics made my day!

Hot glue and carved blocks by Winifred W.

Winifred W.

Winifred W.

Winifred W. detail

Another Book by Junko Oki

I had a recent email from the lovely Mary Jane Dodd. She's been weaving and stitching wondrous airy creations...most notably her mysterious leaves and her peace flags.

It seems that she's also been curious about the fiber artist, Junko Oki. She googled Junko and to her surprise ended up seeing my post about Junko's book, Poesy.  Mary Jane wanted more info about Junko so I headed off to her site...just as much to satisfy my own curiosity about what Junko was up to as it was to provide a link for Mary Jane.

What I found out is that Junko Oki has published a new book called, culte a la carte! Of course, I had to order a copy.

Although it is a small paperback, unlike the hardcover Poesy, it still has her incredibly rich stitchery.

Really like this piece as it reminded me of an eye!

Each page spread is a front and back (or back and front...they are both works of art!) of each small piece.

I think this book and Poesy will be perfect to share with students in my spring workshop on Healing Cloth at The Art League School.

Textures Week

Turning these textures into fabric designs

This week I'm working on the Kitchen Textures and Found Objects chapter of my upcoming book, Fabric Printing at Home. I'm down in the studio carving, printing, painting and stenciling. Above is part of my kitchen texture stash.

Detail of one of my attempts at Textured Materials.

As usual, I'm being too much of a perfectionist. Three attempts at a sampler for the Textured Materials section of the chapter. Fortunately, I'll probably be able to use two of the fabric pieces--one for the sampler and the other for a beauty shot or on the cover.

Back to work!

The Printed Fabric Bee

I thought I'd mention this great project that I'm taking part in. It's definitely up my alley and when I was asked by the amazing fiber artist, Lynn Krawczyk to be the tenth member of the group, I just couldn't say no! We have a Facebook page and I'm hoping that you will hop on over there and like us (don't you love the jargon!).

The Printed Fabric Bee is a printed fabric exchange between ten professional textile artists. Each month a member of the Bee becomes the Queen and decides on a theme (and colors if she so chooses) for her fabric. Then her 9 Worker Bees get to work creating fabric in her theme. In the end, each member will have a collection of custom made fabric made by all the members of the Hive.

Members of the Bee will be posting about the fabric on the FB page. Based on some of the artwork I've seen by members of this group, I get all goose-bumpy just thinking about the beautiful fabrics to come! After hopping over to see The Printed Fabric Bee, you might want to visit the blogs and websites of the artists:

Lynn Krawczyk
Gerrie Congdon
Lesley Riley
Carol R. Eaton
Jackie Lams
Lisa Chin
Susan Purney Mark
Lynda Heines
Pokey Bolton

Apples and Honey

Apples dipped in honey on the eve of the Jewish New Year...Rosh Hashanah. A yummy tradition symbolizing our desire for a sweet New Year!

I've been printing with apples (tried honey as a resist a couple of years ago without success, I might add) and pears and other fruit and veggies. That chapter, my BLAD (Book Layout And Design) chapter, is now in the hands of my editor for another round of editing. I expect that I will soon be meeting my photographer and then this will all become VERY real!

A couple of detail photos of fabric that didn't quite meet with my strict standards.

Tonight, I'll be in services, enjoying the beautiful music and the meaningful prayers. A respite from the craziness.

So...for those of you who celebrate...L'Shana Tova!

Have a sweet New Year!

First Child

Rejects pile

No, I have not fallen off the face of the Earth! This week I've been literally wrapped up with working on the book. Wraps and foils are the topic of the week. Long hours and lots of fabric...most of it now delegated to the re-use for some other project pile. In fact, when all the perfect samples are complete and the book is written, I can imagine working on these yards of rejects, hopefully turning them into something beautiful.

Today, it's a conference call with my editor and art director. I am getting an education in The Process. I'm learning about Book Maps and BLADs.

My Mom used to tell what she considered to be a cute story about first children. She was always so concerned about whether or not she was doing the correct thing when it came to me, her first child. She was constantly asking the pediatrician what she should be doing. His reply was the first child was the experiment, the one child where you made all the mistakes, had all the worries...and then he jokingly said... You throw them out and start on the second child!  So, just like me, this book is the first child. I'm hoping not to make too many mistakes (though I know that there will inevitably be some) and hope that all the worries will work themselves out. If not this time...maybe in book #2!

Roy Winner, Play Date & Great News!

The winner of the VIOLET Challenge Fabric is... Cindi!

Congratulations, Cindi...if you would please email me (threadborn@gmail.com) with your mailing address I'll get this piece of fabric off to you soon.

I thought I'd also post a few photos from Thursday's play date with my friend, Kathy S. This is the second annual studio play date with Kathy. Last year, we did gelatin plate printing. This year, we made animals.

Kathy's been an admirer of my wrapped wire animals for a while now. She keeps asking, When is the book coming out? This time, I had to tell her...well I guess it will be my second book! For those of you who don't know, I just got a book contract with Quarry Books! The book will feature creating fabrics using supplies from the kitchen. The title: Fabric Printing at Home: Quick and Easy Fabric Design Using Fresh Produce and Found Objects. Publication date is October 2014. I'm very excited, nervous and will be very busy...as the book has to be written by mid-December! Needless to say, I will be on hiatus from many activities over the next four months (but will continue teaching classes).

But I digress...
Kathy decided that she wanted to make a giraffe after seeing my green giraffe with the sweet face. I also made a giraffe to show her the step-by-step.

Kathy's giraffe

And once again, Kathy provided a scrumptious lunch (with help from her equally talented daughter, Abby!). She even brought the bouquet of flowers for the table!

We had steak salad.

Brownie pie with whipped cream as well as fruit salad so we didn't seem completely decadent!

Kathy managed to get her giraffe completed with the exception of sewing on the bead eyes. We decided that he was definitely the Male of the family!

Kathy's orange and blue giraffe.

What a great time we had!