I love my new Das Keyboard!
What has a keyboard got to do with fibre art? Well, whether you make fibre art or love it, you appreciate the feel of things. And once you feel this keyboard, you may just fall in love. And no, I’m not on commission.
I want to type long words! It feels so good.
Click on the picture or the link above to read more. I recommend the “silent” version especially if you need to hear audio while you type. Happy tapping.
Although it’s not really called Crumb Cottage – as far as I know anyway – it’s about the size of a crumb in my painting. I believe this cottage is on Pender Island, in between mainland Canada and Vancouver Island. You can see it on a ferry trip from Tsawwassen to Swartz Bay.
I painted the mountains and sky, and the mist between. Then I did some very casual free motion machine embroidery to try to give the look of distant fir trees. For some of the deciduous trees around the cottage I glued on a tiny amount of lint. I’ve discovered that serger thread quickly chops up as finely as you could want.
The cottage itself was tricky. In future I might use a tiny piece of felt rather than thread. I did this in thread by hand and it was difficult to keep the stitching more or less the same thickness, and keep doors and windows reasonably straight, and incorporate some colour variations throughout. Plus, you feel kind of mean, sticking your big old needle into someone’s living room!
The water was my favourite to do. I took lengths of high-gloss machine embroidery thread and split them into strands. That way you get two thin threads that are nice and wiggly, like hair when you loosen it out of a braid. They look like water without any effort from me. I did longer stitches in the foreground (forewater?) and very short ones in the distance. Oh and I sewed some tiny stitches in silver and green metallic thread here and there, and some invisible thread, for sheen and sparkle. All done, hurray!
Click on the logo to read more about this group I just joined, who offer members’ work for sale out of the Crafthouse on Granville Island, Vancouver. I look forward to meeting this group of talented folks and showing my work in new places!
This looks similar to my earlier picture Blossoming (and is based on another “slice” of the same tree) but is created differently, by gluing down thread lint rather than with machine stitching. There’s a little bit of hand stitching of branches and twigs.
Yes, it did take ages, and no, I don’t mind : )
To make the lint I chop up thread in the colours that I want. There are people who make art from dryer lint by the way.
Maybe the camera doesn’t catch it, but the lint is heaped up a few mm thick in places, so that it sticks out at you. Because the spirit of spring just cannot be restrained : ) The darker, shadowed parts I squashed down deliberately to make them recede physically away from you. A certain amount of sculpting has gone on in this piece, on a small scale (I use my fingers or a toothpick).
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I leave you with a wee close-up.
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I’m now a member of this lovely art group! Click on the logo above to see our members’ artwork. Thank you for the welcome meeting!
Thought I’d show you some lint I’m preparing for a new cherry blossom picture. I did the last one in stitching but I’ve been wanting to try it in lint. I think it will have a softer look, which seems right for the subject. There will be some stitching of the branches though.
I’ve already painted a sky-blue background and glued down a few blossoms “in draft” as pictured, to see if my colours look okay. Then I chopped up some strands of thread very finely (taking care not to sneeze : )). Next comes the gluing…currently I’m sticking lumps of lint down onto blobs of acid-free tacky glue, unless I run out of patience and get some spray version of the glue.
Now let’s see which comes first, the actual season of spring, or the finished piece!
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My latest piece, depicting the skyline of Vancouver, Canada. This one’s a whopping 8 x 8 inches : ) I was able to go larger as it involved hand sewing only. Machine sewing limits the size of the hoop you can use, because it has to be a small enough diameter for the edge of the hoop not to bang against the arm of the machine while you sew. (I found this out the hard way).
My previous post goes into how I made the reflections.
Then once the background painting was done, I got to create whole tower blocks out of thread. I felt like a sort of creative Godzilla!
I used a few different shades of dark thread for buildings and then lots of pale colours in shiny, glittery, or high-sheen threads for the lights (that’s the Shine in Rain and Shine, unfortunately impossible for the camera to pick up).
I had to remind myself to sew in straight lines, which helps create the effect of straight-edged buildings and windows – just when I’ve gotten used to deliberately curving my lines to make them look more natural.
By the way, Vancouver is loaded with mountains but they are, as they say in all the best Christmas pantomimes, behind you. This view is from Lonsdale Quay Market on the North Shore.
It’s that time of year again, when art lovers gather to view the work of Art Focus Artists’ Association while nibbling on tasty treats at The Outlet, Leigh Square in Port Coquitlam (here’s a map – click then scroll down).
Specifically the time of year is:
Friday November 12, 7:30 pm to 9:00 pm (includes the opening reception)
Saturday November 13, 11:00 am to 5:00 pm
Sunday November 14, 11:00 am to 5:00 pm
Look out for our lovely posters around the Tri-Cities, designed by Art Focus member Kali Barry (www.kalisart.com).
I’ll have all new work in this show, I’m excited to see what our other artists have been creating over the summer, and it’s so nice to meet and catch up again with the folks who come to our shows. A true highlight of the year!
We have a great selection of cards and miniatures in case you’re planning ahead for the holidays. And the show is spread over three days so there’s a good chance to fit in a visit even on a busy weekend. I hope to see you there!
Not about to quit with the puns.
You may have seen me working on this during the Minnekhada Art in the Park Festival. After a vacation (yay) and a bout of flu (not yay) it’s finished!
Yay!
Do you think maybe I’m quite happy I’m done with the flu?
Anyways. Back to the illustrious history of this piece depicting a view of Burrard Inlet from Rocky Point Park. Boathouse diners a year or so ago may have been amused to see a perspiring me running to catch this sunset on camera before it was too late. I continued the theme of indignity by hunkering down on the muddy ground to make sure I got some foreground grasses in the shot.
This one was quite painting-heavy as you can see. There’s a little bit of machine sewing and then I did mostly hand-sewing of the grasses. I also sewed some grasses behind the silk that are meant to show through the silk, mostly to mess with the logic I usually follow, of keeping close-up details physically closer to your eye.
Next piece is quite different from this one in all sorts of ways, so I’m looking forward to getting into that.
