News, Views, Coos and Peeyews

I discovered Julie Ryder's textilework with composting, macro images and textile art a long while ago and once in awhile pop in to see what she's doing.

"The third exciting exhibition is Julie Ryder: In Repeat – Selected Textiles from 1992 – 2007.

This exhibition highlights 15 years of design and print for textiles from Canberra-based textile designer and artist Julie Ryder.

During this time she has gained notoriety for her use of bold design and colour, exploring texture, collage, mark-making and multi-layering effects.

These designs are then hand-printed and hand-painted onto fabrics for interior furnishings, fashion and homewares.

A special opening for these exhibitions will take place at the Cowra Regional Art Gallery at 6.30pm on Friday, August 1, 2008.

Guest speaker at the opening is Peter Zanetti Director, Megalo Access Studio.

There will also be a floor talk by Julie Ryder at the Cowra Regional Art Gallery at 11am on Saturday, August 2, 2008.

This will be a unique opportunity to meet the renowned textile designer and and hear about her work in the exhibition and her background as a textile designer.

For more information contact the Cowra Regional Art Gallery on 6340 2190.

   Art and the Briophyte

 Julie Ryder's Portfolio
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Some fabulous tutorials here on everything from writing CSS code to making a skirt! Smart, funny and clear writing from Media Tinker.

How to photograph dimensional artwork.

Have you seen all the cool projects and technique tutes on QuiltingArtsTV???????

Calgary based textile artist, whom i would LOVE to meet!!!  Lesley Turner creates some amazing pieces, some i think with rust, or at least in rust colours :}

As for the "Peeyew" i won't dignify it with a link---some "artist" is using dead rabbits as part of an "installation" in Eastern Canada. Get real.

Theme: Core

"Core Sample"--as in , if someone could take a core sample from me, not as in a sample idea or exercise :}

Sometimes they choose you

While i will never be done exploring techniques and experimenting with materials, i think it's time to concentrate on  a theme, or (shudder) Concept. Okay, maybe *not* "concept"---you KNOW my feelings on the airyfairy artsyfartsy side of *that* argument.

I've noticed lately a few bloggers have chosen particular motifs, sometimes already intrinsic in their personal iconography, or a defined area to extrapolate from--circles, deconstruction, houses, journals, a colour. I think mine chose me on Sunday night while we out for a drive in the mountains on an old gravelly back road in the middle of nowhere.

We saw a few of these along the road and came to the realization that they were the original conduits used to transport runoff over certain areas, under the road and off the mountain. Huge barrel like structures, complete with cooper's rings of steel, they were 3 feet across and up to 20 feet long. I want to call them "water cores", though i have no idea why!

Today i was noodling around with rust dyed fabrics, dyed bits of cheesecloth and some invisible thread. The pieces kept buckling, rippling and folding over on themselves as i stitched, so i decided to let them have their way. As i laid pieces on each other, twisted them around, flipped them, the word "Core" kept coming to my mind. When i  "dictionaried" and "thesaurused" the word, i came up with several seeds of ideas ( and if you read this entry, you'll get the pun. For the sake of brevity here, you will have to read it there :})

Right now the pieces are unattached, and it looks rather corn-cobbish!

And believe it or not, i ran out of invisible thread! Everyone *always* has innumerable spools of it, even if they never use it----and now mine's all gone!! Note to self--the smoke "colour" has its uses, but not on light rust coloured and dyed fabrics:}

Tomorrow i hope to get all the bits together and let it speak its piece, reveal its core and extrude its secrets.

Thanks to all too who wished us well on the upcoming wedding!

Yep, we're gettin' hitched :}

Greyman's finally come to the realization that i actually do love him, that i will never leave him and that i want to be with him forever. And he knows i'm the perfect woman for him, and that he couldn't survive without me. Pretty good for two people who have been seriously burned in previous relationships, who were distrustful of commitment, who never wanted anyone around again 24/7 !I've been asking him for the past four years! January will be our 5th anniversary together and i just thought it was time, and he did too :}

If all goes well with obtaining current photo ID for me, to obtain the marriage license, the day is set as Aug 23rd. Depending on government vagaries, it could be later than that :}

Yes, the bride will be wearing rust--or a variation there-of :} The groom of course will be in, wait for it, grey. It will be a very small party----the family isn't large to begin with, and we just want a few that mean the most to us. Some are too far away for the short notice and some don't give a damn. It'll be outside, weather permitting--no hail please!!!!-and in Calgary or the mountains nearby, which we love.

 I've chosen deep blue hydrangeas and orange spray roses with touches of Queen Anne's Lace and fiber-optic grass as the accents. It won't be a traditional bouquet (did you really think it would be?), and i'll show you pics as the form for it grows.

I thank you all for the well wishes and the comments!!!!!

Update on Sun, July 27, 2008 at 02:59PM by arlee

Whoo hoo! I don't have to have photo id! My birth certificate is sufficient,

so the date is Aug 23rd!!!!

Of course, there will be photos of the thing as it happens:} Jackie--i am SO tempted to write "mad textile scientist" -----but i guess i best play safe and go with artist :}

Now you see it, now you don't, now you see it

I guess i'm one of the few who enjoys working with invisible thread :} When i Googled, i found 99.9% of the images and sites were commercial---very inspiring, a shot of a spool of invisible thread--_whoooo.......

Leigh Anne Lester however has some pretty cool stuff, though her focus is more the use of it to hold plastic together---ethereal and icy!

I also signed up for Maggie Grey's Workshop on the Web, and am looking forward to learning some new things to apply to more than artsy journals and bags :} I discovered this site yonks ago, and never had the wherewithal to go for it, financially or confidence wise.

Dragged out some of my library too, to really look at things---i WISH i had taken note in '94 when i bought Juliet Bawden's book "The Art and Craft of Applique", that she had mentioned and showcased textile artists who were incorporating paper and found objects in the late 80's/early 90's! Note to self--read the WHOLE book, not just the good bits and the pictures! I highly recommend going through some of your own treasured tomes and seeing if there's anything you missed, or that you now understand or want to try with elan :}

And now on a completely unrelated note---i just realized getting a marriage license without current photo id is nigh on impossible! I've planned what we're wearing, who's going to be there, where and what flowers i'm getting, but it will be a sad moot point if the JP says "Umm no marriage license, no marriage".............

*another* one.......

photo test 

Invisible Woman, a kind of love story

I've had invisible thread in my stash for yonks, using it only occasionally, usually snarling at the snarls and the difficulty in threading a needle, any needle, with it. In the last couple of days, i have finally whipped it into submission and am falling in love with it.

I like the way the needle leaves a hole as the nylon pulls just the slightest bit, i like the delicately raised strip it leaves when you use a zigzag, i like the texture it gives quilted over a sheer or a tulle, over metallics and heavy areas of paint. I really like the way it blends torn strings of sheers right into the background. It nudges aside the weft and warp on cotton and sinks into velvet, resting on the bottom like a fallen strand of hair.

It lets the fabric speak without an edge to its voice.

Coupled with the takeout box pattern and this sly line, i have 3 more cutout and ready to go! One box will be a deep foresty green rayon velvet that i've stamped turquoise ferns and lilac flowery circles on, one is from the fabrics below, and one will be my beloved rusts and rusty bits.

The black and white w/ a splash of gold background is a monoprint done with Polyfab, 15 years ago!  The script is mostly backwards because at the time i forgot about mirroring, and i have no idea now what it says, (something about a forest?)......The dragonflies will be cut out and appliqued---originally they were on a sheer vest that was made too small for any decently sized woman. I've stamped a few areas of the "background" with turquoise, purple and bronze as well.

And i do know myself----i will probably create 4 in a breathless week, then not make any for months or years :}

Take-out from Madame LaToussa's Cafe de Chinoiserie

I saw these boxes a long time ago when i was first cruising the net, and always wanted to make a few! That idea solidified with one of the back issues of QA that DebL had kindly sent me---- there was an article and photos with instructions by the artist i had discovered then, Leslie Gelber. I had already used an actual take out box as the pattern, and was semi-confident of the construction, but Leslie's article helped with a few points.

The delight of these boxes is that they can be as simple or as ornate as you want. My first one was created from the purple sample i showed in a previous entry-----worked up beautifully because of the weight and hand. MIL had literally an hour before handed me a couple of strands of old shell necklaces and they were perfect for some of the embellishments! I left some as they were and painted a few as well. (She also gave me some lovely little hankies that i'm planning on turning into one of these for her :} I might not have it done for her birthday, Friday, but i know she'll love it whenever she gets it!))

My purple piece wasn't quite big enough, so i let some of the edges be wonky:

Front:

Back:

Side:

For the handle, i doubled a piece of wire, sliding the looped end through the gold ring, twisting it to anchor, then wrapped one "strand" with the hairy yarn, twisted them together and looped through the other gold ring. The gold rings are grommet parts that i can't use (yet) because i don't have a proper setter for them.

Leslie's pieces don't have a slit in them to close, but since i had already cut one from my cardboard box pattern, i used a button to close it--she used ties, toggles and all kinds of stuff. I also didn't need to have cut little holes for the handle as the sides are stitched together and embellished, with the handle attached to that point. Fortunately they are hidden by the HY :}

She had also mentioned using buckram or a cardboard takeout container as an interlining---mine was stiff enough to need only lining to hide the quilting.

Leslie doesn't appear to have a website anymore---i know it was a fabulous one, but it's gone for whatever reason, though if you Google, you will find info and pics of her work.

Squarespace is still not behaving, so i can't post pics as thumbnails for you to click on for larger details, sorry! If you do want to see them closer, head over to my Flickr or if you're in any of the Ning social network sites, you'll find them there shortly.

Update on Wed, July 23, 2008 at 06:17PM by arlee

The lovely and talented Ruthann has a template for these---hers is about 8" square, mine is 12" square (this is the open measurement of the pattern) I can send you mine if you haven't got a actual take out box, along with instructions. On hers, i would recommend not only sizing up (as you like) but eliminating the slits if you want to attach closures of any sort.

SEnd me white!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am going to be doing some serious digging in my rubbermaids of fabric, after seeing these-------OMGOMGOMGIWANTTHESEFABRICS!!!!!!!

Patricia has really been turning me on to the rustabilities of this technique!  Actually, i'm going to try these with all kinds and colours of fabric and all sorts of rust, dirt, grime and grease :} I've bought the biggest bottles of vinegar and huge boxes of salt, have stockpiled some buckets from the Flower Mines, and am just waiting for a long stretch of time. I'd love to score some space from the local junkyard to bury and strew fabrics, throw some in puddles for them to drive those big manly crusher thingies over and drip battery acid, oil and carguts all over them.

Yeah, it's wierd. Yup.

In the meantime, i have been "colouring" today---just noodling around with scraps and colours and ideas. Here are two results that i will translate further once the above insanity has been accomplished.

The first is a base of some of my rust dyed fabric with scraps of coconut fibre (from Karen in Vanuatu) and a piece of birchbark from one of our road trips last year. Some text on paper, a bit of copper and black tulle. Meh. Crosshatchy, eggy, and intense-------but i love the texture of the applied raw edged twisted strips and the definite dots of the quilting. File these ideas.

Next i tried that quilting bit on some strong colour----hand dyed cheeseclothy gauzecotton, slivers of copper foil, some loose angelina and a bit of saffron shading into orange shading into hot pink roving that i am jonesing for more of, all again with copper tulle over. LOVE the texture and hand it gives. Useful base for something--cuff bracelets? Bag? Box? Still just a developing idea.

But if i use this/these with some Rustabilities???????????OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

bear with me please...

Squarespace has released a new "version"---it looks the same to you, but as the owner and administrator, it's quite different on the "inside"--there are bugs they have to work out, and new things for me to learn, so if you get confused, well, so am i :}

work

out, and new things for me to learn, so if you get confused, well, so am i :}