EXPERIMENTATION: What the heck am I doing?

I ran away this weekend to play and experiment. I started with fusible web, ink, a syringe, and some water. Guess what I am doing with these wet and wild creations....

                                  

                                           

Stay tuned next week for the results. 

Have a great week....

Kathy

CHALLENGE: Mystery Material

I often talk about my Art Quilt Group and our monthly challenges.  On our schedule three times this year is incorporating a 'mystery material' provided by one of the members.  A couple of months ago our mystery material was these vintage crocheted stars provided by Jackie.

I decided to rebel a little and make a textile necklace instead of an art quilt. One of my favorite things to 'pin' on Pinterest is textile jewelry. Click for my Fashion- Textile Jewelry board. As I began to plan my necklace, I decided just a bit more rebellion was needed and dyed the stars to match the colors I wear most frequently. Here is the before and after:

I used three strands of book binding waxed cord and sewed a zigzag stitch all of the way down to create the foundation cord. This is one of my favorite techniques! 

To mark felted wool circles so the embroidery stitches were evenly spaced, I used appliqué pins as markers. 

There is thin felted wool between the two stars. 

For the spacer beads, I used plastic pony beads and wrapped silk ribbon around them. 

Already I am wearing this necklace LOTS! It is quickly becoming a favorite. 

Remnants:
If you are looking for more inspiration for textile jewelry, there is a list on TAFA: TAFA Gift Guide: Fiber and Textile Jewelry
 If you are unfamiliar with TAFA, it is The Textile and Fiber Art List is a membership association of handmade traditional and contemporary textiles and fiber businesses. TAFA’s members may exhibit, sell, and teach. Here is their homepage: TAFA.

For me, school starts tomorrow; I am looking forward to being back with the students.  Wish me luck!

Until next week....
Kathy

EXPERIMENTATION: Keeping a Experimentation Journal

At work, both employees and students are encouraged to take Gallup's StrengthQuest  If you are unfamiliar with  StrengthQuest,  it is an on-line assessment , when completed you'll receive a customized report that lists your top five talent themes with suggestions how you can use your talents to achieve success. 

My top five strengths are Individualization, Activator, Positivity, Arranger, and Learner. People who have the Learner theme have a great desire to learn and want to continuously improve.  In particular, the process of learning, rather than the outcome, excites them.

I am definitely that Learner; I am always looking to explore and experiment with new techniques and I have PILES of things I want to delve deeper into. Below is a stack of magazine articles that I have saved of techniques that I want to learn more about. The problem is that I am not always willing to experiment on a larger piece of art; my schedule doesn't allow a lot of time for do-overs when experiment fails. 

This summer I have found a way to go after my inspiration; I have made time to experiment and created an Experiment Journal.

When I am saving articles, I have a folder for my Experiment Journal. 

The most important change that I have made is that each Friday afternoon is my experiment and play day.  I play with small-scale pieces while making notes of trials and successes.  

If I want to keep the actual article from the publication, I tape the lower half of two pages together to create a pocket (the green tape above).

Now, I have a visual catalog of techniques that I can incorporate into my work. 

Do you like to experiment?  Where do you get your inspirations?

Remnants:
Going hand-in-hand with learning is my passion for creative magazines. Over the next few months, I will share some of my favorite magazines. One of my favorite magazines is In-fusion, an e-mag from Dale Rollerson who owns The Thread Studio in Perth, Australia. I have learned a great deal from Dale and her magazine is the same. It is a quarterly magazine; each quarter there is a theme that ties the articles together, this quarter's theme is "Liquorice Allsorts Edition(and it is yummy). 

You can subscribe to her magazine from her website, thethreadstudio.com. She has a taster on her website that you can check out: http://www.thethreadstudio.com/catalogue/infusion/taster.pdf. I encourage you to give it a try, it is well worth the money. Below are a few of my experiments inspired either by an article in In-fusion or an on-line class:

What is your favorite magazine?

NEXT TIME: If you are wondering about the two techniques showcased above, stop by next week when I show you my teabag creations using Tombow markers. 

Have a great week! Kathy