RedBarn Studios

dancing in the moonlight journal

This weekend I’ll be at Daniel Stowe Botanical Garden at their annual AutumnFaire. More than 25 local North Carolina artists and craftspersons will be setting up to showcase and sell their artwork.

AutumnFaire is a celebration of nature, plants and gardens with items including, among other things, basketry, soaps, pottery, jams & jellies. A few of us in my group, Fiberart Options, decided to rent a booth this year. We would love for you to come by to say hi and  check out our booth and our own nature inspired art. I’ve been busy the last few weeks making some new journals to add to the booth.

Lil Purse – journals for girls

By the way, there’ll be carriage rides, autumn displays and the beautiful gardens at Stowe to explore. It takes place this Saturday and Sunday, October 2nd & 3rd from 9am to 3pm.

Toodles,

Tags: FAO, journals, paper art by grace
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today is the first day of the SAQA Benefit Auction.  for the past few years SAQA (studio art quilts associates) has asked quilt/fiber artist to donate a 12″ x 12″ piece of artwork for their annual auction.   it’s wonderful to see each year how many artist take part.

the piece i donated this year is “amidst the fire” (on page 1b).

here are a few other pieces for your perusal…

“Under Cover” – Diane Marie Chaudiere

“Chiapas III ” – Pam Lowe

“Elysium” – Deidre Adams
(one of my absolute favorite fiber artist…love her work!)

“Deconstructed Flower II “- Deborah Weir

“Voila” – Olga Norris

“Gray Study” – Norma Schlager

how to bid
all the funds raised during the auction support SAQA’s ongoing mission to create exciting exhibitions, full colour catalogs and to fund outreach programs.

take a moment now to peruse all the wonderful artwork on SAQA’s website.   here you’ll find beautiful photos of each piece, info on how the auction works and a bidding form.

bidding starts today at 2pm (eastern time) and ends October 9th.   check out all the pieces and note which ones you’d like to see hanging in your home then go to the bidding form and send it it.   soon you too will be looking at 1, 2 or even 3 pieces of beautiful fiber art gracing your walls.

toodles,

Tags: community, fiber art, hand dyed, monday posts, this 'n that by grace
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today was a good day for good deals……and to spend time with friends.

we (the pandoras of course) headed off to greensboro for the gingher factory sale happening this weekend (and next as well).   believe it or not….NO item was priced over $10!

WHAT!!!!!  you say

i kid you not, all those beautiful gingher quality scissors at prices from 50¢ – $5.50, not to mention $2 and $3 mats and rulers for 25¢ and 50¢!

my stash

i got doubles of some of them (maybe triples too…hee hee).   they also had 15″ and 18″ paper guillotines and i got one of the 18″ ones.

was just thinking the other day that i wish the paper cutter I have was just a tiny bit longer cause sometime i need the extra length to make a large cut…..and voila!  now i can.   btw…..i have to tell that IT was a mere $10!

feels like i’ve been to chicago and hit the oprah winfrey show jackpot…”and one for you, and one for you, and one for you” (so she always says when she socks it to her audience with a big gift).

the sale took place in the warehouse, we believe it was probably a distributing center rather than an actual factory.

above you can see all the trays and boxes on the tables set up around the room.   considering the prices it was a very civilized affair….no one rushing and grabbing.  we got what we wanted then stood in line.   and this time i did not spend the most (hee hee).

here’s susan with her stash…and there’s more on the floor and under her arm.   we carried it wherever it would fit on our person.

posing with our loot
(photo courtesy of susan brubaker knapp)

had a blast on the drive up to greenboro and back and  it was ever so great spending time with the ladies i love to hang out with.   we hadn’t done a road trip in a while so this was so worth the effort on every level.

toodles,

Tags: pandoras, road trip, stash by grace
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For most of us we go thru life thinking…heck no, me….draw!  for the last 2 weeks, on a tuesday, i join my friend, delane, in a drawing class.

lynn is a very generous teacher.  she taught art to high school students but recently retired.  now we all know that just because you retire from your regular job doesn’t mean you stop working (usually due to boredom).

so lynn decided to get back into life by offering to teach a drawing class to adults…..for free!

now i’ve tried to teach myself  to draw…..got the genius book “drawing on the right side of the brain” but i’ve come to the conclusion that i like a classroom setting.   i need/prefer/love to be in amongst fellow students learning from them as well, not to mention the little tips,  immediate suggestions and help you get from the instructor.

delane mentioned this upcomnig class and i told  her to include me if there was space.

so every tuesday i head off to “learn me” some new drawing skills.  last week we learned to use the chamois for blurring and the kneaded eraser to press away pencil strokes.  found out it’s not always necessarily to erase lines.  look at my jar!!!!!

last weeks work

yesterday was about light and shadow….one of the things that has forever stumped me (this is probably the main reason why  i stay away from creating representational pieces in my artwork).

we started with a sphere…ehh. that one i still have to work on.    it was only after i did the cylinder that things began to click and the shading looked right.    who knew that shading is supposed to suggest the lines of the shape!   duh! a hard line is not needed for realism.

so after a little more practice we set up the pieces we brought for our still life drawing.   of course it took me forever to finalize my still life. i knew i needed different heights and shapes but for the life of me just couldn’t find the right combination of items.   finally settled on these 3.

knew the conch (pronounced “konk”) shell would challenge me with all those curves and shadows
(Mummy gave it to me one year…a Bahamian artist cuts away certain sections and creates beautiful new pieces). 

still have more work to do to finish it but i like how it’s going so far.    thanks so much lynn.

here’s another funny pic…..lynn wanted us to use a viewfinder to look for a section of our still life set-up to draw.

i look up at one point and to see Joan and Sally across from me.  it struck me as funny…like a 3 stooges pose….and i had to get the shot (they are both fun classmates that allowed me to take and post their pics).

see y’all later,

Tags: Art, community, Paper by grace
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this was a good one.  yesterday michele, susan and i gathered at delane’s house for a cool technique. we painted shoes! (a la Lyric)

once a month, the pandoras, as we call ourselves, get together to do something art related and learn a new technique.  this time we all voted to use lyric kinard’s painted shoes technique to create some sweet togs for our feet.

first we painted each shoe with gesso to give the leather some tooth then went at it with colour and design.   here’s some before and prep pics of my shoes.

before pic                         tapes up edges          painting w/ gesso

one of the wonderful things about getting together is that there is business part to get through so the chatting and laughter abounds as we each put our own lovely twist on the technique we’re trying out.

michele tip-toeing through the flower patch

delane getting serious with her swirls

susan bringing out the feathers

and here are the fantastic results.   i think we did a might fine job, even if i say so myself!

of course i have to show you some close ups:

delane’s shoes (sprayed with a gloss sealer)

michele’s shoes (simple and sweet)

susan’s shoes

(remember this peacock feather from the Quilting Arts cover a couple months back?)

my bright as sunshine shoes (will definitely see me coming huh?)

susan and i still have some finishing up to do.   i love the curl of the red into the orange on mine.

my plan is to do some more zentangles all over and then maybe paint in select areas.    might have to tone down the orange a bit tho…..eh, who knows what i’ll end up with.

here’s a funny pic….we put our shoes on the floor then clamoured over each other taking turns to get pics of everyone’s shoes.  i had to jump back to take of pic of us taking pics…..ha ha.

take care all,

Tags: Art, paintings, pandoras by grace
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a couple of weeks ago i teased you with a sneak peak at a journal i made for a friend.

nancy cook had the brilliant idea of bartering our creativity!   she would give me a pile of neutral hand dyed fabrics for my nancy crow class but, in lieu of a monetary payment, i would pay in kind.

nancy is a fiber artist who creates beautiful pieces that showcases nature through painted and stitched botanical illustrations.   from this knowledge i created a journal specially for her.

for the cover i used a piece of my hand dyed fabric that overflows with different greens, golds and bluish greens to convey her passion for nature.   i then machine quilted swirling leaves all over to represent the sometimes  lyrical botanical illustrations in her work, and painted them with a burnished gold Lumiere.

i needed to keep any embellishments simple so, after much deliberation, i decided to use an almost transparent, shimmery organza ribbon to edge the journal both front and back.

uPDate: i originally used the ribbon as a tie closure but removed it because i felt the ribbon was too thin and would not hold up over time.    instead i covered a button with some of the same hand dyed fabric and added an elastic loop that i painted with Lumiere paints to match.

the journal is chock full of 144 pages that includes 24lb text weight paper, watercolour paper, recycled brown paper and even some graph paper all contained in 4 fat signatures.   each signature is sewn individually to the cover using pearl cotton thread i hand dyed to match the cover.

i constructed an envelope, attached at the back of the journal, as a convenient place to keep slips of notes and other ephemera she might collect.

when i got it finished i wanted her to see the complete finished journal first and, now that it’s been presented to her (with a lovely squeal of pleasure from her i might add), i can show it off to you.

i’ve been working hard on creating more journals that i’ll be putting up on my now empty etsy shop (sad sad state of affairs i know) but will posting about them here first. Check my website to see all the journals I’ve made and find one just for you.

Toodles,

Tags: commissions, hand dyed, journals, paper art by grace
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It seems such a long point till this time and this post.   we all go thru hectic, busy times but it seemed that I just could not gather the oomph for a long while to write any post, far less about art and, i must admit, it was starting to get to me.   with a boost from my friend nancy a couple of nights ago, here’s an update on life.
small yippee!

one of the things that has happened recently is my daughter’s transition into college.

oh my what a transition!   but I was so very surprised at the extent that this event would affect me. i can honestly say that the last few weeks adjusting to her not being at home has been one of the hardest things i have had to endure.

i hear from friends who’ve experienced this already that it is far from being over but i feel i am coming out the other side (ehh).   still tearing up when certain memories creep in or thoughts about our daily life that’s now different hits me. A new normal i have to learn to adjust to.

the crew

before we hit the road that friday i asked a neighbor to help us commemorate the day.   the sillyness in this picture is so telling about us as a family.   did NOT know, however, that hubby had fingers behind my head as well!!!  also notice  college student’s tongue sticking out. .   the other 2 were totally oblivious to what was going on. Ha!

car packed to the tip top

should have been a sluggish car ride cause car was totally packed with no room to move.   believe it or not connor was sitting right behind cheney in this shot..poor thing.

her place of residence for the next 4 yrs…

cheney is adjusting well to life as a college student.   just like she did when she was home, she checks in with me almost every day by phone…funnily enough, it’s the same time she did before…right after classes finish for the day.

one of the good things we’ve taken advantage of is getting her a camera for her pc so we can skype with her (another one of those words like “google” that’s turned into a verb).

it’s strange being in this big house with only 3 of us here now…fells like a cavern sometimes, especially when hubby is away on business and just 2 of us are here.

my only question to my mother after having experienced this all-consuming wave of emotion is why didn’t she ever tell me I would feel like this.  in her wise Mavis voice , she said there would be no way to describe what would happen but knew when it did, that she would be there for me when i needed her.

WoW! and the baton has been passed on.

Tags: family, this 'n that by grace
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