RedBarn Studios

i took pics of all the fabs i dyed last week and had all intentions of working on getting them posted in the wee hours when we were on our trip this past week. yeh, right….the best laid plans and all.  so Sat night before doing anything else i cropped and labeled them all, ready for posting yesterday.

but….best laid plans came into play again cause my mOjo somehow reappeared and ya know we gotta work when the muse hits.

so with out further ado here’s the results of my in the zone dye day, yippee!

don’t ya just love the gradation thing going on????

see the three yellow ones on the top…i actually did a 5 gradation run of  Dharma golden yellow  but this time, boo hoo.  because i did so many fabs i tried rinsing them all in the same wash in the machine (i usually separate the lighter colours).  ix-nay on that one and i should have known better.

splotchy won’t do for NC’s workshop so i’ll either over dye it or do some screen printing.  as a matter of fact, a bit of both might be in order.

the drudgery of ironing
when have lots of fabric to iron i set up my ironing board with my large studio board on it in front of my bed with the board at a comfortable ironing height and then have at it.  i figure there’s no sense in standing and shifting from foot to foot…sitting and ironing can only be a good thing…you guys should try it.

anyway that’s how I got these pics.  was trying to get a good angle on all the newly dyed fabrics all in a row and couldn’t, so tried a spiral.  love it!!!

gradations came out fairly evenly from one fab to the next.

remember this:

here’s the shirt that resulted….and i’ve worn it already i might add…..ha!

when i first brought the fabrics upstairs to begin ironing i just dumped them on my bed. Connor came in and, seeing a chance to play, dived right in throwing the fabrics everywhere.  had to get my camera for this one.

see the how excited he gets with newly dyed fabrics? Not!

my cutey pie

toodles,

Tags: hand dyed, hand dyeing, hand dyes, monday posts, pic of day // 7 Comments »

slowly but surely my need to create is returning and about darn time i say!  as i sat a my table this morning i glimpsed out of the corner of my eye a drawing that had been on my wall seems like ages.  it always mocked me every time i looked at it…“hey Grace…what ya waiting for girly girl…miz arteest….seems really you cannot finish me…nananananana“.

i heard the relentless taunting and, for the most part, chose to ignore it every time.  just couldn’t put my finger on what the sketch needed and why it wasn’t working.  but today i tamed the mish-mosh beast.

any thoughts?

what i think is that i was trying to include too many different designs in the one piece…ugg!…..simplify girl,  so i took it down…put it back on my light box to redraw the base, reworked the design and came away with 2 new drawings. nice! and of course they are circles…you can always find them in my work.

next step is to recolour both new drawings in PSE8 altho patience will not be with me as i try this.  i’m on a Mac now and have  a much older version of CorelDraw that i got for my old PC,  but didn’t want to purchase another copy of the software…funds are tight.

I asked around on one of the lists i belong to and someone suggested these incredibly inexpensive vector based programs, Intaglio and EasyDraw, both made for Macs. mmmh….(if anyone has used either of these, let me now how you like it).  sometimes a girl just wants to colour the point and click way.

before I got my mOjo back today (oh yeh) i forced myself to go into the studio, not to do anything mind you…just spend 10 or so minutes reacquainting myself with being there.  before long, i couldn’t help myself (she says with a giggle)…..i created….i started another grunge journal.  here’s the first one I made.

inside cover….stitched from front then painted in and grunged..the best part

love this new-for-me way of attaching the spine.  as always—-filled with lots of wonderful paper to write/draw on, some really cool bits and, of course inspirational thoughts & ideas throughout to get the muse juices flowing.

i’m calling her lillibird…..my first painted photgraph

i still have some more stuff” to add and will sew in the signatures and put the finishing touches on it tonight.  as soon it’s completed i will be making a video clip showcasing both journals so you can get an up close view my step into the grunge…dun…dun…dun!

Tags: fiber art, journals, mixed media // 1 Comment »

my friend susan called me out on the fact that i left that teaser in my last post with no pics of the results, hee hee.  truth was i was so darned tired from being in a hot garage all day saturday that I couldn’t contemplate being out there on sunday as well.

besides…it was father’s day!

so here’s a pic of a stash of fabs I did last year to satisfy any withdrawal symptoms you might be experiencing and me begging forgiveness

YOWZA  YOWZA  YOWZA!

(p.s…..it wasn’t planned that melly testa’s book would be in the pics
just how it happened folks cause that book is a must have!)

today’s update:
…rinsed out fabs & shirt
…hung on rack to dry
…about to be ironed & photographed
…result: gorgeous new yummy fabric in my stash
…did a batch more today as well.

On a flipping roll I am!

toodles,

Tags: hand dyed, hand dyeing, hand dyes // 1 Comment »

ever since I discovered i could dye my own fabrics i kinda get into a zone when i actually get to do it. it’s been such a long while since i did anything creative and it felt sooooo good to get my hands into the dye pots again.

this time i’m dyeing fabrics for my class with Nancy Crow and, as most of you probably know, she requires A LOT of yardage in all colourways, shades and tints for her workshops.

I usually dye fabric the Anne Johnston way…..piling 3 pieces of fabric in a large jar using 3 different dyes on each layer (see above). i love the way these fabrics turn out, sort a serendipitous adventure.

this time, however,  i need tints and shades of each colour….and that means gradation dyeing that i haven’t done since i started dyeing years ago. instead of using baggies with lots of water, I utilized a low water immersion technique (thinking green here) and small plastic containers.

the process

…made up a 1 cup solution of dye for each colour

…poured 1/2 cup of it into a measuring cup

…dribbled that over one of the 1/2 yd pieces of soda-ash soaked cloth

…manipulated it with my gloved hands so all the cloth is coloured. I then

…topped off the remaining dye solution with a 1/2 cup of water

…mixed it thoroughly then

…poured out a 1/2 cup of that newly mixed solution and

…dribbled that over another 1/2 piece of fab. i continued like this until all 6 pieces were done.

the wait

i then repeated these steps for each colour and stacked up bin after bin, soooo cool to behold!  btw, i got these hand dandy containers at Target….rubbermaid takealongs squares…. 8 for about $4.00…sweet deal!.

meanwhile…
i had a white shirt that had definitely seen better days (dingy white is so out!) and decided to used some of the remaining dyes on the shirt that i scrunched up in a small bin. can’t wait to rinse this out, love the rainbow effect!

next post…the results, stay tuned.

for more in depth tutorials on dyeing check out these:
paula burch’s “all about dyeing”
terri stegmiller’s “2 colour gradation”
melody johnson’s “the lazy dyer”
melissa’s “fabric dyeing 101″
cynthia st charles’”conservation dyeing“
(this is not the most comprehensive list but a start for those not familiar or needing a refresher)

Tags: hand dyed, hand dyeing, hand dyes // 4 Comments »

here’s my latest find.

believe it or not, this music in this video is composed by the position of the birds sitting on the fence. how flipping cool is that?

a little background…

the composer, Jarbas Agnelli, a Brazilian film director and musician, says “it’s possible to see poetry everywhere”. He saw a photo by photographer, Paulo Pinto, and thought the position of the birds reminded him of musical notes (you can see more of his explanation here…be sure to click the link under the video to get to English subtitles).

Why am I sharing this with you?

…being able to see the possibility in the ordinary is rather extraordinary wouldn’t you say

…seeing beauty in the simple, everyday stuff of our lives helps redirect us back to ourselves and what’s important to us

would that we open our eyes a little wider to ALL the possibilities

Train yourself to see beyond what you ordinarily see, focus more positive energy on the tiny moments, know that the bigger things will right themselves into correctness….and YOUR hidden music will be revealed.

Toodles,

i know, i know…..i’ll get back to showcasing my art soon but indulge me this small respite while i reconnect to me.

Tags: Inspiration, defining one's art, video moments // 5 Comments »

in the last few months i’ve been reading more and more blogs about photography, digital scrapbooking (to print and use in my fiber artwork) and being zen.

this last one, being zen, is what has got me on a centering myself path. Here I read about making a comfort list.

there are many kinds of lists we can make about ourselves including the gratitude journal I started keeping years ago (and still do) and, most recently, my not yet completed “bucket list’ but what, you ask, is a comfort list?

in a nutshell, a comfort list is a very personal list of things that bring comfort, a sense of serenity, tranquility or contentment.

so yesterday in my daily meditative-like blog wanderings i came upon the comfort list. just the thought of writing a comfort list was comforting (how can that be?)

off the top of my head, here’s my list for today, right now at least:

• writing a comfort list (you know I had to include that)
  
• swinging on the front porch watching the world drive by with….
  
• a nice, gently blowing breeze
  
• slipping into a cool bed at night
  
• smell of soup on the stove
• watching my children sleep
• a few hours in a comfy chair at the bookstore with…
  
• a chai tea latte
• birds playing at the feeder
• a cool shower on a hot day
• eating island food (OMG!)
  
• my nightly cup of tea
• the whiteness of a snow covered field
• the feeling after i’ve walked a couple of miles
• watching my kids play together
• talking with my sisters
• first day’s light streaming into the window
• the evening of Christmas day when all is calm
• the quietness of the house

i could write forever as more thoughts keeps tumbling through my head.

what’s on YOUR comfort list?

Tags: down time, ponderings // 4 Comments »

My head is clearing and the high from the weekend is slowly dissipating. I’ve even gotten back to writing my morning pages again.

My writing is revealing something interesting though. I thought I’d jump right back into art but I’m finding that my head is not gravitating easily towards artwork just yet.

About the only thing I’ve been able to do with any consistency, while intensely concentrating on Symposium, is reading books and watching short clips about being present in one’s life, much like the book…Eat, Pray, Love, Elizabeth Gilbert’s amazing book on finding and accepting oneself in the present.

So, after 2 yrs of complete immersion, I find there’s a need to concentrate on centering myself.  I am writing much more than before and, surprise, surprise, I am enjoying it (never ever thought of myself as a writer at all, always left that up to my sister, SL Sheppard, a novelist/poet/playwright).

Right now I feel I am meant to be working on my path forward, more an internal process than external, the latter of which artwork is supposed to be. I know that we are all in sometimes subtle ways, constantly redefining ourselves and this is my time.

My experience with Symposium has revealed some things about myself that I suspected but wasn’t willing to touch with a thought just yet. So, words are flowing onto paper and ideas are taking shape in my mind….I’m just taking things in stride.

No rushing allowed.

Tags: defining one's art // 1 Comment »

It’s been a day since the 2010 NC Quilt Symposium ended. My what a ride!

I absolutely loved interacting with all the Symposium teachers I garnered for this event. We laughed and joked and were even serious when we needed to be.

They are excellent instructors who are very generous with their time and knowledge. They are regular down to earth folk who definitely know a thing or two about quilting. I’ve made some new friends from this crew.

Karen Ekmeier  & Pat Sloan

It was also fun being there amongst the over 300 workshop participants.Their smiling faces, ready to greet the day, were great to see every morning. The classrooms at Johnson and Wales University were bright and roomy. This student needed more light so she brought her work into the hallway where classrooms faced a wall of windows overlooking Trade Street in uptown Charlotte.

My cell phone rang off the hook and I’d go whizzing past students on my way to help someone somewhere and felt a bit like the energizer bunny. What I shoulda done was bought myself a pair of skates and then people would have just seen my dust. Ha!

For Opening Ceremonies all the teachers talked a little about themselves then showed either a class sample or some of their work. That’s where the inside joke of “big panties” started. People roared with laughter as Charlotte Angotti regaled us with the story of her 3 yr old niece (she could have a 2nd job as a stand up comedienne!). After that it was a running joke all weekend, including at Iron Quilter.

What, you ask, is Iron Quilter? Well last year, after we had secured Johnson and Wales as the 2010 Symposium’s campus, we got to thinking and it came to us……..JWU is, after all, a culinary school. We decided to recreate the popular Food Network  TV show Iron Chef where 2 of our teachers would compete for the title of supreme Quilter. And so Iron Quilter was born!

I secretly contacted each of our Master Quilters to ask if they would participate. It was an immediate yes from both. Chef Daisy Blade (a.k.a. Karen Stone) and Chef Goddess of the Last Minute (a.k.a. Robbie Joy Eklow) were created.

We held the event in JWU’s auditorium that’s equipped with a double sided cooktop that had cameras overhead for great as-you’re-working angles. We gave members of the audience chefs hat to get them in the mood and went on with the show.

Our judges for the evening were a few more Symposium teachers……Elin Waterston, David Taylor and Laura Wasilowski (below primping for her big role). OMG what a funny bunch they were with their hilarious running commentary.

The premise of the evening was that each Chef would make 3 pieces of work -  an appetizer, an entree with side item and a dessert -  each piece to include use of the secret ingredients. After 45 minutes they would  “plate” their work and present them to the judges who would then choose a winner. They each did such an excellent job that the judges could not decide so it ended as a tie. Closing ceremonies 0n Sunday was short as everyone was eager to be on the road back to their hometowns.  What an event!

Thanks to all Charlotte Guild members who volunteered their help, to the NCQS board for stepping in when we needed them and to all students and teachers who participated. A special thanks to Johnson and Wales University for allowing us to use their campus and for their courteous and ever available staff.

And lastly, we could not have pulled off such a fantastic weekend without the hard work of our 2010 Symposium Steering Committee. For close to 2 years these women volunteered their time and worked tirelessly till the end and we could not have been more proud and grateful for all their work.

Thank you, thank you, thank you all!

Now back to my life. This Saturday my darling daughter graduates from high school so there’s more planning to be done. We’ll be celebrating this milestone later on Saturday with a blast of a party.

Toodles,

Tags: community // 1 Comment »

I wish all of my family and friends, local and far away (and in blogland) a…

Mothering

Today I also wished my best friend a Happy “Mothering” Day. She is such a rich influence in my kid’s life that I wanted to recognize all that she does for our family.

She has no children herself but is always willing to help my 3 children, guide them and love them like they were her own, that I decided that she too will be honoured today. The kids have officially and lovingly dubbed her M2….for Mother #2.

Is there someone in your children’s lives who does for your kids as you do, who is such and inspiring and  influential person in their lives? Let’s not leave them out today. Wish them a happy mothering day too.

Tags: family // Add Comment »

Have you seen this video……it’s hilarious. It’s comedienne Anita Renfroe’s take on Beyonce’s Single Ladies song. We need a spokesperson for us ladies who’ve been around a little longer than Beyonce and Anita has taken on that mantle and “danced” with it.  Ha!

Tags: this 'n that // Add Comment »