Mood Fabrics!

Mood Fabrics!

Mood Fabrics!

The Haute Couture Societé invited me to show and teach at the end of September. I drove the back way through the Delta region. Stockton was an important part of the shipping industry back in the old days. There is a revival happening around the port.

The Hauties, as they call themselves, were warm and welcoming. Liz Kusama had arranged the Saturday class and lecture, filling the hall with stitchers and fabric artists. I love these tight knit groups that commit to showing their work each month and supporting one another. And I have learned that a two day workshop is best, for really covering the information and letting the attendees have a chance to absorb it.

Sunday, we planted ourselves at the local yacht club, with nice light and a faucet outdoors. There was room to spread out. Of course, there was the Solvy portion of the class. Maybe people have done Solvy before, but I find it brings immediate satisfaction and results to be observed and discussed. Using my scraps brings new inspiration to the process, mixing it up for some different effects. We also did a lot of bucket dyeing and printed up a storm.

What I love is showing up to a hall with my bags of scraps and screens and not knowing what will happen. And by then end of the weekend there has been some good exchanges and maybe changes due to the process of seeing with new eyes. There is bonding and creativity triggered and flowing. I take great satisfaction from these interactions and also new ideas from my”students”.

The Ampersand Vessel Challenge

The Ampersand Vessel Challenge

The Ampersand Vessel Challenge

My art group called  Ampersand or Amps meets every two weeks. At a recent meeting my friend Juline Beier presented her solvy pieces- cylinders made of solvy and stitched newspaper dipped in wax. She is always pushing herself towards more volumetric shapes like her beautiful delicate flax bowls. So, when we were critiquing the rolls I challenged her to make a bowl in the solvy/newspaper/ wax technique. And immediately she challenged me to do the same with my stitched-pieced-with-scraps solvy work.

The challenge was on!

First I made a pattern, a slightly awkward process, draping over a salad bowl. Then selected a variety of scraps and then sandwiched them between the layers of solvy, went to work stitching. I don’t give myself much time to work this way. And so it was fun to feel my way forth- where to make more lacey places, where to leave open areas or closed. How to attach the bottom…Questions answered through doing. I am pleased with the results and would love more challenges to do this work so that I might develop my skill set. I’m stoked on the vessel-ness of it.