100th post! And, yippee, I finally did it!

Wow, 100 posts! I can't believe I made it to this point.

And, the yippee is because after over 9 months of not entering a juried exhibition, I got my package in the mail today for Art Quilts Lowell! They extended the deadline and I pushed it all the way to 5 pm today! I don't even care if I get in. Well, okay, I do a little bit, but my goal was to really focus on entering a show. I have had so many deadlines on my calendar that have just whooshed right by. PArt of that was a conscious choice on my part to focus more on family and get away from the stress of trying to finish pieces on a deadline. I decided to just work and if I had completed a piece in time then enter. Well, I'm not a finisher, so without a deadline really looming and real commitment to make it work, that just didn't happen. That is still my goal however. To work on my work, regardless, and then if I have the work for a show then enter. I'll keep trying.

Here is a small bit of what I entered:




I started it about a year ago and then pulled it out of my tub of half way done pieces while away on the Focus on Fiber retreat. I hand stitched it like crazy. It gives me a sense of calm and peace when I stitch by hand. I call it Free Woman Dancing in celebration of the freedom I felt while on the retreat and the glorious women I was with and the wonderful dancing that occurred. It was definitely a time of new beginnings and growth for me.

So, keep your fingers crossed for me.

Lots of classes are coming!

Well, the summer schedule for my classes is now complete. The class information is all up on Fiber on a Whim's class webpage. Here is the short version:


Friday, June 13th, 10:30-1:30 Wet Felted Vessels $35.00
Saturday, June 14th, 10:30-1:30 Sunprinting $35.00

Friday, June 27th, 10:30-1:30 Watersoluble Wax Pastels for the Fiber Artist, $35.00
Saturday, June 28th 10:30-1:30 Stamp Carving (Make Your Own Stamps), $60.00 (which includes a kit fee of $25.00 for materials)

Tuesday, July 12th, 10:30-1:30 Needlefelting $40.00 (which includes a kit fee of $10.00 for wool felt fabric)

Saturday, July 16th, 10:30-3:30 w/ lunch break Monoprinting $40.00

I can't wait! I'm having so much fun completing the class notes and trying out the projects and ideas for the classes. I hope to see lots of you there!!

heidi

Yippee!

Both of my pieces sold today on the first day of Collage Mania II!! Yay! About 90 pieces sold today! Which means that Virginia Spiegel helped raise at least $7000 so far, (hopefully some generous donors gave more than the required minimum of $80.00). I can't wait to hear the final total.

So the good news is, that means there are still over 100 pieces to be purchased tomorrow!!! And, the minimum donation drops to $40.00 tomorrow! A lot of my favorites are sold, I'm not surprised, but there are many, many fabulous pieces yet to be acquired. So get your email ready and hit send at 9 am tomorrow with your choice of artwork(s)!!!

What I've been up to

Mostly playing around with project ideas and writing up notes for upcoming classes. I taught two classes in April at Fiber on a Whim, watercolor pastels on fabric and wet felted vessels. They are both being offered again in June. And, I'll also be teaching Sunprinting, Needle-Felting, Stamp Carving and Monoprinting. Still working on the dates and I'm still writing the notes and finalizing the projects, but I can't wait for June to get here! Once I have all of the dates I'll post the schedule here. I really enjoy teaching and sharing my passion for the fiber arts with others.

I'm obsessed with the monoprinting the last few days. I've done it before and really enjoy the process, but wanted to try out some ideas I have for the class. I made a "plate" (or a collagraph in printmaking terms) using a sheet of foam paper. I glued to this lentils, bits of foam, textured paper, tape and tin foil. I then played around with applying paints, misting with water, dry fabric versus wet fabric, using a brayer versus not, etc. so I would be able to answer all the questions that I will inevitably get! This process has just reaffirmed for me that you have to practice to get better at anything. And, practicing is the way to discover your own style and the little tricks. Here is one of the better ones from this practice session. I added a bit of colored pencil to highlight the edges of some of the collaged pieces.

Love to hear what you think! :)

Happy creating!
Heidi

My other piece in Collage Mania II

I just realized that I never posted my other piece that I donated to Collage Mania II. Here it is, Rearranged Continuation:

Just a few of the fabulous......

....pieces of art available through Collage Mania II! Get ready because I'm sure they will be selling fast on Monday. $80.00 for an original piece of artwork is almost unheard of. First come, first serve! Prices go down to $40.00 on Tuesday, but your favorite may be gone by then! AND, it all goes to the American Cancer Society. Every single penny!!! None to the fabulous organizer, Virginia Spiegel, who I know must work at least the hours of a full time job on her fundraisers, all in the name of a cause she supports. So here are some of the beauties I'm featuring today, just a few of the 235 available. I almost hesitate to post these as I might be bidding on some of them myself.

Some of these pieces are part of a series and you could purchase all 3 or 4 to make a stunning wall arrangement of art!!!

All of the details about the pieces are on Virginia Spiegel's website on the pages of Collage Mania II. The artists of the pieces I have listed here today are (in order from the top): Liz Berg, Jane Davila, Terry Stegmiller, Rhoda Taylor, Cynthia St. Charles and Karen Stiehl Osborn.







Please search through all of the others, there are so many fabulous pieces!!!

Collage Mania II

The Patron Preview for Collage Mania II is now open! Virginia Spiegel is again coordinating a fantastic event to benefit the American Cancer Society. So, if you like art and you want ALL of the money you spend on it to go to the American Cancer Society, take a look through the 200+ 8x10 inch collage art on this website.

She has raised over $150,000 already through Fiberart for A Cause. This woman is amazing!

I have two pieces donated to the event. :)

Bleeding Tissue Paper

My three year old loves playing with bleeding tissue paper. I brought back some of the pieces that Jacque Davis was using to dye fabric at Focus on Fiber. She loves ripping the pieces, cutting them, smashing them down on paper and then spraying them with water or painting them with water. Somehow she is able to come up with much better results than I. She layers on more colors than I think could possibly turn out any better than a huge muddy mess. Puts so much water on that there is a sitting pool of water in the middle of the paper. So, at first I was working on my own and she did her own. Now we do it together, so that I might learn from her free-ness with the process. We have several of these lying around and I've taken to enhancing them with colored pencil. It's great fun and as soothing if not more so than stitching. I love watching to see how different colors react to one another, next to each other, on top of one another, on top of different tissue paper dye colors. Great project for anyone looking to increase their color skills with colored pencil. Here are two different scans of sections of one of mine and Maggie's artwork. I should have taken a before colored pencil photo but of course I didn't.

Oops, forgot my photos on that last post

As usual, I'm too lazy (well, really just to busy, takes less time) to take actual photos and am just using my scanner, which means that I only have a portion of some of the items.

The third photo down is a scan of my last piece from my printmaking class. It is a solar plate print from a photograph my husband took of a reflection of a tree. I manipulated it digitally and printed it on a laser transparency and then made the image into a solar plate. Pretty cool process. The first picture is the original photo (credit to Dan McMahill) and the other is after I changed a few settings and made it black and white.

The other two are a small area of the silk square pieces I made in Hellene Vermillions silk painting class. It was a bit hard to get a good scan of silk and to get the colors right. But, good enough for my blog I suppose. Take her class if you can!!

Okay, back from the bus-stop (obviously) and now on to finding gymnastics outfits and a snack before heading out.

See ya!

Heidi

More Classes Are Coming!

Today has been a good day so far. It started with me getting my son on the bus and then going back to bed (bad habit, staying up too late). Then heading out later to pick up my daughter at the Chattahoochee Nature Center (she takes a nature class with Dad a couple of times a month on Wednesdays). Well, today I decided that she and I should hang around for awhile. We took a walk through all of the plants and learned many things about birds. Turns out Wednesday is the day that homeschooled students are at the center to act as educators about the birds! It was really fun watching the 10-12 year olds give me their speeches about the birds. They were really impressive! From there we went to Borders and read lots of books and magazines. I'd have just enough time to flip through a book or magazine in between Maggie picking out the next Dora or Elmo book for me to read. And, now we are home, ready to head to the bus-stop and then out for gymnastics for the kids. Where I can simultanesouly watch and look through more fun books or work on some stitching.

I've been working on class material for some more classes I'll be teaching and thought I'd share some thoughts on my art teaching experiences so far.

Teaching at Fiber on a Whim in Sandy Springs has gotten off to a really great start. I knew that I liked teaching but now I know that I REALLY, REALLY like it!! It feels almost like a sin to be paid for teaching art, almost. ;)

In April I taught Wet Felted Vessels and the participants made a small pouch (cell phone size) and a bowl. They were worn out from the physicality of the class after 3 hours but all seemed to have a ton of fun.

I also taught Watercolor Crayons on Fabric in April and this class was even more fun. There were a wide variety of comfort levels on using the crayons but by the end of the class all seemed to have fun playing and seeing how wonderful these little jewels can be.

Both classes filled up with waiting lists so the same ones are boing offered again. So if you missed them the first time, now is your opportunity!

Friday, June 13th, Wet Felted Vessels 10-1
Friday, June 27th, Watercolor Crayons on Fabric 10-1

Here is an email quote from a participant in my watercolor class: "This is ... as close to having fun as I can remember doing in my life." I couldn't have asked for a better compliment. I of course want to teach the materials and help students gain some skills and confidence, but giving someone a day of fun, permission to play and also to see themselves as a creative being are my ultimate wish.

To register for classes or for more details go to the Fiber on a Whim page: www.fiberonawhim.com

And be watching for even more classes!! Sometime this summer or into the fall, I will be teaching Sunprinting, Stamp Carving, Monoprinting and Needle-Felting (by hand and by embellisher machine). There may even be some classes for children or Mommy and Me type classes sometime this summer.

Oh and before I forget, I took Hellene Vermillions Silk Painting class and I had so much fun!!!! I came home with 3 great silk pieces! I highly encourage you to take a class with her. You can find her class info on Fiber on a Whim's site as well and her blog and website there I think too.

Have a great evening! Off to the bus-stop and to gymnastics!

Heidi