green line: finished

there's no reason that this took as long as it did to finish. it was just an experiment that i liked the look of but got bored making. it's about 15" long and 2.5" wide. felt like it was 1 million french knots...but it was probably more like 1 thousand . still a substantial amount of knots.

this knot cluster is about 1.5" inches high. i'm completely aware i stopped before it reached it's limit.
but i'm not sure there IS a limit so stopping here was just as good as any place for now.

still one of my favorite process photos...

halloween costume 2015: sloth

all i knew was that for halloween i wanted to create some kind of headpiece art from scratch. from there it was just about setting my priorities straight.

--if i have to work on something for awhile, i need to love it....sloths!
--if i have to wear something on my head, this year it needs to have big flowers on it....hibiscus!
--if i'm going to put a sloth on my head, it has to be reaching out at people...obviously, because that's the dream: a sloth reaching out to hug you while it noms on flowers.

everything was made from cardboard, paper, foil, masking tape and paint. except the leaves. i had planned on making all the leaves, but i'm really glad i didn't.

in total, this costume cost me $15 because i used what i had and what i used was negligible. i only purchased the fake leaves and a thrifted baseball cap that i didn't end up using.

from concept to costume contest winner!:

this was one of those extremely rare projects that sorta came out exactly as planned.

i sized some cardboard strips to my head like a triple headband and started building.

starting to look pretty cute!

40 painted paper hibiscus petals & papier mache

adding color and painted texture w/ hibiscus prototype.

i forgot to take more in progress photos so it magically looks completed.

a sloth mantra.
i also like "live gently, do whatever you want, and don't worry about dying" but it's not as catchy.

nick finally put together his cool but socially awkward costume.

i won a prize! 

until next year, Halloween!

creepy creature

art making progress is super slow right now for no good reason. but i did work a little more on my teacher exemplar for my "cool threads" class starting up soon. and this mildy disturbing and stubbly guy came out.

love letters continued

finished the love pillow case. ideally this would hang on the wall WITH a pillow in it.....
it needs a name. i've got 3 so far:

love letters
the case for love
support pillow*

thanks to all who helped make this happen. it's was a pleasure to spend some time with a part of you.

*so far this title is winning

fabric doodle

even though this is  a teacher exemplar, i'm excited about this process for myself. it's another one of those "i've been meaning try this out for an embarrassingly long time" things. turns out, it's fun and almost exactly what i had hoped for. the watery painted shapes is a common element in my work so this is also a sampler for myself as well.

first, i brushed some clean water onto some spare fabric. i added more colors after i took this shot:

i expected it to spread a LOT more. i might have to soak the fabric and let it drip dry for a bit when i do this again for myself.

i skipped some steps here but i added more color and water. i was really try to get a tie-dye effect. now, you could just draw and sew right on this and it'd look pretty cool. but i think this next step is going to be a hit with the kids. i used some fusible webbing and ironed it on the back of the painted parts i thought looked the best. then i cut out those patches from the fabric. fusible webbing is great!

then i cut out shapes that i wanted, peeled off the paper and ironed them on my final fabric. since it's a "doodle" i didn't plan this out too much.

i used a mark b gone pen to doodle a bit. the lines disappear with water.

the drawing and colors are all made with kids in mind so i don't think i picked colors and the doodling i would have if it were purely for myself. not too much drawing either because the more lines you make, the more sewing you have to do! i don't want students to see something i might work on for weeks and go nuts drawing lines they won't have time to sew. eventually this will be turned into a small "no sew" pillow that the kids will make. again, fusible webbing is awesome.

love letters

finally making some progress on something i've been wanting to do since last fall (some readers might recognize their own handwriting...if not now, then later). 

it's cheesy at first glance but i think it could be more layered in meaning when it's done. and it's definitely sincere. either way, it's a good way to keep working because i don't have a grand plan right now.

"...process, in a sense, is liberating and you don’t have to reinvent the wheel every day....and at least for a certain period of time you can just work. If you hang in there, you will get somewhere." --Chuck Close

green line

making things got pushed aside for a bit but i'm attempting to get back to work.

applying myself

my application for an artist residency has been submitted. i have no expectations and would be completely shocked if i were accepted.

the gathering of work, pushing myself to finish somethings and finally, stepping back and coming up with why i made them in the first place was an important process. so either way, i win. it's also like "it's been 1 year since i basically stopped teaching full time and here's some stuff i did instead." 

could i have done more? sure. but it took about 6 months to even get to a point where i was making things that interested me. 

there was an image limit so my workaround was to put multiple views in one photo. the photo quality isn't perfect but here's some submissions i finished this year. i've also updated my website (current work and past projects specifically).

working title: im there; youre hungry. 2015. hand embroidery. 39 selected texts that i've sent to my husband this past year.

bed head. 2015. silk screen.

what is next. 2015. hand embroidery on paper.

sprout. 2015. hand embroidered painted paper shown with chlorophyll beverages.

diamonds in the sky. 2015. painted & folded paper with cotton candy.

there's about 9 more slides in the portfolio besides these, and i'm hoping they show my versatility but also seemed connected to each other. 2-3 pieces are OLD, but i think they still work. 

the most challenging part by far was the proposal. what the heck am i going to do for a year long artist residency? i have ideas but explaining their function succinctly was extremely tough. i don't think i actually did it, but i certainly tried.

i wonder what will happen.

moss is also green

my aunt's garden is filled with moss and it's so green! it's fun to dig some up and try to keep it alive in my indoor "garden."

i've tried this a few times before with very little luck. maybe this tiny new clover will help.

i hear that white cat hair is lucky as well. so i'm covered!

loading spring....

50% complete.

early sprouts can be seen here.

more french knots

at time of this post, i'm in Philadelphia giving this to Jenny O as a hostess/house warming gift.

it has almost the height of my first piece done this way.

i suppose i could sell them. they're small enough (8"x8") that they don't take me a full day to make. more like 1/2 a day. pricing is challenging with this type of work. (time consuming, small, original, custom). not many people want to pay what it's probably worth.

just for size and design sake.

the back is a bit of a mess! i'd have to get better at stretching it.

but i really like the see-through-ness.

i have been experimenting with french knots. turns out i can get very sculptural with them. i'm excited about this and can't wait to try out a few things.

just a practice. i can imagine it going all the way around...

sprouts

without thinking about it, i still make things that coordinate with the season.

this one has just started and will take some time but i'm excited about it. not because it's an awesome idea--it's just okay. but i'm excited about it because i think it'll be pretty.

it's fairly technical  in some ways. color matching, specific stitches. but then other parts are pretty loose. size of "sprout," size of paper, torn edges, stitch pattern.

i estimate i'll have at least 100 of these. i already have a good idea of how i'd display them (differently than shown).

they'd also be good in the same room with this piece --if that piece were hanging on a wall with puffs of cotton candy in them that you could of course take and eat. there'd be a cotton candy machine in the room too...

also, without realizing the connection until now, i started taking chlorophyll with lemon juice this week (thanks Paula and Jenny for telling me that's a thing that happens). so obviously, in my hypothetical gallery, there'd be shots of chlorophyll nearby so viewers can truly drink in the green-ness.

my helper

hadn't planned on posting many progress photos of this piece, but i couldn't resist once Poe stepped into the frame.

only about 30 more texts and 120 more hours to go!