Beading advice update

The other day I asked for advice. I am looking ahead to some projects for next year. I want to learn a few more 'proper' beading techniques.

New bead ideas

Deanna was the only one who replied. Great wisdom. Basically "Try it out first and then decide." Ummm. Yes, you are right!

Also, yesterday was blog post 1600. So in honour of that... Deanna, if you can email me with your address, I will send you a little something(s?)!

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The past few days I have been having quite a clear out in my studio. I am clearing the decks for a major project. I got the table space sorted. But I really needed to go further. I still had a box of paperwork and lesson plans from when I was teaching stored under a table. Very unsightly random bunches of scrips and scraps of things which could be used for the Design units and so on. Oh how I ache! But when it is done, I can concentrate on the big project without the clutter weighing on my mind. I know if I don't do it now, it could be next Autumn before I get a breathing space again. The first part of the year is generally right out straight with other projects in the run up to various exhibitions.

Once I get started on this project, I am not sure just how much I can show. So, the posting frequency may be somewhat reduced. Still doing the daily beading though!

Something on Saturday

In the post yesterday!

In the days following Thanksgiving, Deepika of Pattern Review opened up the forum blog for comments of thanks to members of the forum. I had several people I was grateful to, so each day I added a thank you comment.

And I was surprised to find that my name was drawn for a prize! This prize was from Gwen at Gwyn Hug - measurement cards - a tool that helps with getting a realistic idea of how much fabric you might need for a garment you want to make.

I asked Gwen how it would work for someone who drafts their own patterns, as the number crunching was developed by recording yardage requirements from 1000's of patterns. I have a pretty good understanding of how much I'd need and how much I can get away with just from years of experience. Gwen explained the numbers side of it a bit more.

So, I think it they will be helpful for drafting for a different size and unusual garments like my wearable art. I think, too, it can give me a better idea of how much yardage I need to produce if I am going to make something with fabric I have screen printed or have done all over embroidery or quilting. So, I chose the set for women's clothing. And it arrived in the post yesterday.

Thanks Deepika and Thanks Gwen!

And the Winners are....

Names in a basket...

The Thoughtful Man drew out the names for the fabric bead give away.

And Here are the winners. Ladies could you send me your email addresses?

Judith - I sent you an email to the address in your profile.

LA Paylor - LeeAnna, I used your email you gave here.

Shelly - can you send me your email address? If you click on the link to view my profile near my photo on the side bar, you will find it there.

I will redraw again on Wednesday if I don't get an address.

Oh, I wish I had made enough for everyone!

5 Years Blogging! and Beads for You

After I heard about Lisa Chin's blog anniversary, I thought I would check how long it has been I have had this blog. And I realised that my 5 year 'bloggiversary' was today, the 16th of October. Hard to believe it has been that long!

My friend Helen helped me to set up the blog. I am really glad she did. It has been a big help to keep me productive and on task when I am working on projects. I often wrote things I worked on or made down in a diary before I had the blog. But with the blog I have been more consistent about keeping track. I really enjoy writing about the process of designing and making. It is also useful to record inspirational things I encounter as well.

So, I decided to make some of my fabric beads as a give away. The safety pin bead project for this week was in colours of pink and purple... and I had some prefused purpley-pink fabric from the 'Cloud Puppy'. So, that is the colour I went with.

So I have 3 sets to give away. Leave a comment and you might get a set sent to you! The comments will be open til Sunday when I post this week's beading project. It is actually a double celebration because on Friday it will also be my 1300th post!

Remember the photos are close ups, so these are all fairly tiny.

SET 1 -

and set 1 individual photos











SET 2 -

and set 2 individual photos











SET 3 -

and set 3 individual photos










If you would like to have a chance to get one of these sets, please leave a comment. I will close comments on Sunday the 20th October.

Remember if you have no reply blogger, I won't be able to contact you personally. I don't allow anonymous comments because of the amount of spam I was getting. So, if you click on my profile at the top of the sidebar you can access my email address and send a comment that way. Please make a note that it is a blog comment for the beads so I don't wonder why I am getting a random email from someone!
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This post is now linked to Off the Wall Friday at Nina-Marie's.

Something on Saturday

Beautiful fabric in the post.

A few weeks ago I replied to a question on Lisa Chin's blog about what my favourite kind of dyeing was. She was asking as part of a celebration of 5 years of blogging.

Then I was very surprised to learn my name had been drawn for winning one of her fabulous ice dyed fabrics. (People put ice over the prepared fabric and then squirt thick dyes or sprinkle powder dyes over the ice. It causes some of the dyes to separate and strike at different times due to the delay of the cold ice.) Lisa gets beautiful results. Just see the fabrics she was willing to send off to winners of the draw!

I would have been happy with any of them. The one I loved was the middle one. I had some in a similar colour from Farne Designs at one time, but her methods have changed a bit and she doesn't seem to get the purple/teal combo any more. This wasn't quite like Valeri's but close.


And lo and behold yesterday in the post...

TaDa! It was that one!

Thank You so Much, Lisa!

During the summer I got a bit of a tutorial from my friend Merete who gets wonderful colours when she does dyeing. So, it may be possible that I could start getting some more interesting results myself instead of the disappointing ones I usually end up with.

Arts Week Exhibition...redraw for give away

Yesterday was the Arts Exhibition for the Reading Arts Week for New Directions community college. The Fabric Painting taster session gained alot of interest, but only 2 ladies stopped long enough to do it. Above is a sample I made while showing some of the techniques. Basically, it is a painted doodle.

There were a lot of other things going on, including a group of ladies (from the knitting course taught by my friend Gabrielle) who were part of an effort to knit a banner for the college! In another room, there were taster sessions on Machine Embroidery and Flower corsage, etc. I hope we have been able to show quite a few people that they should further their learning in some way next year!

Here are the pieces made by the learners who stopped by.

Gillian
I was really pleased that Gillian stepped outside the box and used a combination of the designs I offered to create a unique graphic design of her own.

Sirini

Sirini used techniques she has learned on other painting courses. The results are stunning.

The college had also asked for submissions of artwork to be made up into postcards which would be sold in benefit of the Reading Mayor's Charity. I really didn't have time to submit new photos, so suggested that the organisers look at my website. They liked 2 of my pieces, so I sent the photos to them. There were 350 entries and the public voted for favourites. Suprisingly enough, both of my pieces were chosen.

"My Tears in Your Bottle""My Tears in Your Bottle" is a piece which has exhibited several places and "Mimsy Borogroves and Co" is one I was never very happy with, although I do feel I achieved what I set out to do. The postcard actually makes it look very good!! Both of the pieces are in private collections. Click on the titles to read a bit more about the background to the work.

"Mimsy Borogroves and Co"

So, I have picked up a few of the postcards to keep and to pass on to their owners!

GIVE AWAY UPDATE: Due to the fact that two of the winners of the give away did not contact me with addresses, I have redrawn.

The NEW winners are Ferret and Lorchen. If you get back to me with your snail mail addy, I will send off your design.

Give Away and Courses for next year

Give Away: I sent off the first give away today. Summerset decided to choose the design with orange on it. (Centre one in the group.) I will be interested to see how she is able to use it.

I have not heard from Debbie or Hippopip with their address so I can send the other designs. If I don't hear by Sunday I will draw 2 more names from the original list. If you can not find my email, click on my profile and then click on the email link. If that still doesn't work, leave a comment on today's post and I will see how I can get back to you.

Yesterday I had a great time visiting the Fashion Students to sign off some design work. Here is a small selection from Barbara's exploration of Flowers, concentrating on Sunflowers. Good Work Barbara! Looking forward to seeing how you develop the rest of the ideas.

Tomorrow I am involved in the Reading Arts Week Exhibition. I will be doing a taster session on painted fabric designs in the morning. Stop by and say hello. If you are early enough, you may get to have a go! If you can't get there in the morning, come by anyway and have a look at the work the students from the various courses have been doing both throughout the Arts Week, but also throughout the year.

Today I am filling out paperwork for courses I am going to teach next year. The new course guide is out, and should be online soon. If you live in this area and might be interested in learning in a Community college, New Directions in Reading, Berkshire is a great place to learn. There are loads of course ideas.
At this point it looks like I will be teaching:
Experimental Textile Techniques - 10 weeks starting Monday, 5 Oct, 2009 - 10:00 - 12:00
Designer Cushions - 10 weeks starting Tuesday, 22 Sept, 2009 - 19:30 - 21:30 pm


There will also be a series about making simple dressing up costumes for children.
Fancy Dress for Kids - Celebrations - 5 weeks starting 7 Oct, 2009 - 10:00 - 12:00
Fancy Dress for Kids - History Costumes - 5 weeks starting 18 Nov, 2009 - 10:00 - 12:00
Fancy Dress for Kids - Story book Characters - 5 weeks starting 6 Jan, 2010 - 10:00 - 12:00

Create a Christmas Stocking - one day session 14 Nov, 2009 - 10:15 - 16:45

Contact New Directions on 0845 842 0012. You can simply email your enquires to info@newdirectionsreading.co.uk


There are possibilities of other courses I will be involved with, including some City and Guilds, so watch this space!

And the winners are...

I have done the draw for the winners to the give away from the 200th post on last Sunday. My husband selected the winners...who are hippopip, Summerset, and Debbie M.

Congratulations!!!

If you will email your snail mail addy, I will send off one of the designs. It might be possible to give a preference, so if you have one, let me know and I will see how it works out. If not, I will do a draw with these to see who gets what!

Thanks to everyone for joining in!

Featured Blog

The Featured blog today is the Today's Title is... Blog. Like the Doodle Day Blog, the blog is run by Helen S with prompts...this time for photos. Some of the prompts on Today's Title is... are a bit more abstract than those on Doodle Day. I appreciate it because it is stretching.

The photos are quite stunning. For instance, for the week the prompt was Texture every single post was an inspiration. Seems those of us who do textile art are quite fascinated with texture. We have also had Empty jar, Point of Conversation, Slice of Reality, and so on.

Another time the prompt was Cog. These too were fascinating. Here is the one I posted for Cog. I had taken the photo when we visited the museum at Iron Gorge in Shropshire.

Perhaps you have a collection of inspirational photos. You might like to go over to Today's Title is... and join up.

Tomorrow is the draw for the give away from comments on the 200th post. (other people posted on other messages, but it had to be on Sunday's post.) I will check again tomorrow before I draw.

I think I have 16 comments... from:

hippopip
Debbie in Texas
Linda F. Harkins
Ferret
Leslie S
Lorchen
Cathy Vigor
Carole M
Linda Robertus
Debbie M
Laura West Kong
Beth M
Judy Scott
California Fiber artist and composer
Summerset
Louise in SW Saskatchewan

There are 3 designs, so I will choose 3 names. Wish I had time to do more, but perhaps the next time!

Give Away Doodle Designs

I'm loving all the comments for the give away! Keep them coming! It will be easier for me to keep track of who has commented if you put comments for the give away on the 200th post.


But you are welcome to continue with comments... in fact, I am sure you may possibly do so ...............Because............

Here are the designs I will be giving away!

TA DA!

These are developed from a doodle I haven't shared yet and some bits from Doodle 7.

2 things I learned.
1. These are way to complicated to have the students do.
2. Three designs like this take ALL day. One in the morning, one in the afternoon, and one in the evening.
But it was actually more like a rest to just sit and zone out and do the painting. I think I will be painting in my sleep tonight!

So, as much as I would love to give everyone something, I will limit the draw to 3 like I said yesterday.

I draw the designs freehand with chalk or Sharpie and then begin painting. Some colours soak in quite a bit, so they need 2 coats. I actually explored colours I don't normally work with in the middle design. I wanted to see the effects of using orange on the dark blue.

The designs are painted onto denim using craft acrylics which are also suitable for fabrics. The designs pop if you outline them with Sharpie. They can be washed...on low temp. The design may go muted if washed too frequently. You may need to touch up the outlining with permanent pen (which would probably only be Truly Permanent if you Didn't Want it to stay in the fabric!) If you sew it onto clothing, turn the garment inside out when you wash it to keep from distressing the paint.

Some asked about linking to your blog. I am fine with that. Thanks for including me!

200 Today!!

TA DA!!!!

Today's post is number 200! Thanks to everyone who stops by. So, I want to do another give away as a way of saying thanks.

This time I am going to paint one of my abstract flower designs for you on a square of denim. Then you can use it as you wish. Sew it as a patch on a jacket, stitch it into a quilt, embellish it with beads, post it up on your "special things" board, or whatever.

Some of my painted designs

I have yet to determine the design or the colour, but it will be along the lines of one of the motifs from one of the doodles. It will be a completely new one!

I will probably work on this tomorrow. At present, I am thinking just one...but you never know, I could get on a role and make 2 or 3! I will show you when they are done.

What you need to do

... is to leave a comment on this post.
I will collect them and at the end of the week, I will do a draw. When I have listed the winner(s), I will post them...probably next Sunday. Then, if you win, you will need to send me an email with your address. I will be teaching nearly everyday the following week, so I won't have time for chasing up snail mail addies.

PLEASE NOTE: I thought this might be a good time to give a link for people about how to leave a comment. Some might not know how. This page goes through the steps.

Some people do comment, but their email isn't connected to the comment. So, I can get the comment, but I can't reply back to you, as I don't know your email addy. So, if you want me to reply, you need to sort out your profile. There is a good tutorial of how to do this at this blog.

And finally, I do try to reply if there is a question or detailed comment. Sometimes I have just made another comment here on the blog following yours. Not sure if you have gone back to discover it though. Sometimes if it is just a short comment, I recognise it as such. I guess I could fire back something saying "thanks!" but I don't always have time!!

And that's the end of the boring bit. (Aren't you glad?)

Featured Blog

Today's Featured Blog is the Doodle Day Blog which I have referred to frequently. Helen S gives a prompt - usually at the weekend - and through the week members of the blog post the doodles they have made.

Recent prompts have included Dragons, their counterparts (Knights and Maidens), Butterflies and Dragonflies, Bees, Daisies, Tree House, Owl, and so on.

I have found these prompts good for getting me to try my hand at drawing. I am not intending to create extremely realistic drawings, but just play with ideas. Some of the ideas come out in the form of a story, some I am finding I want to explore in different ways and develop design possibilities. In this post, I wrote a bit of a philosophical ramble about how I was finding the doodling process.

Here is a doodle I did last week. I am still playing with developing some ideas about abstracting flowers to get some retro designs. but, instead of focusing solely on the design, because I am decorating a page, I often find that something else I end up doodling becomes the thing I like and want to take further.

Doodle 7

Getting photos has been the hard part. At first I tried photographs, but I could never get it right. Lately I have been scanning the page. But I am still not too happy with it. However, that being said, I think people get the gist of it.

If you click "doodle" on the labels at the bottom of this post, you can see some of the other doodles I have done. Some are here and some are on the Doodle Day Blog.

*****AND...on another note, tomorrow's post will be 200! Looks like time for another give away! Keep your eyes and ears open!*****

Special parcels!

Today a received a parcel with a lovely handmade book in it. I love blank books. This one is special because I won it on a give away at Amy Nelson's blog, An Li Na Designs .

Amy has been posting tutorials of how she makes her books. She is also one of the organisers for the Stretching Art exhibition, and has been posting step-by-step photos of one of the dolls (A Dragon!) she is making for the exhibition. Go over and have a look.

Amy and I actually met...well, nearly. We were both in Hollis Chatelaine's dye painting class in Houston. I "knew" her from the Stretching Art list, but we didn't find out we were in the same class til we were back home!

Also, Louise, who was one of the winners from the give away I had, left me a message that she posted a message to her blog about receiving her squishy parcel. I started reading the blog and discovered I may have met her at Houston as well. She was demoing in the Misty Fuse booth. I stopped by there a couple of times to blather on about my Bernina Garment, since I had used Misty Fuse in a few different ways in constructing it.

I wonder how many other blog followers I have just about met?

UPDATE: Hey! Sue B is a Misty Fuse girl, too!

Here is a bit of a mention of how I used the Misty Fuse with the mystery fabric.

The Mystery fabric works well when fused with Misty Fuse over a print or a too bright fabric to knock it back. I used it in red on the backing for Lady Sew-Forth, and I am using it in beige on Zoom:Letter, to "age" the brocade pattern which will be the border. I also used it in the ancient document print to pull the features of Zoom:Language together. These are all fused with Misty Fuse.

The ancient document mystery fabric and the beige and some of the brown are all part of the Endless Possibilities triptych, but not fused.

And the winners are...

Saturday was my 100th post, and suggested a give away for those who would comment. Today was the draw. So...
Fancy Box with 21 names on slips. (not counting my post and Ferret's extra one) Climb upstairs and ....drumroll...."bother" DH who doesn't really mind and picks 3 (divides into 21).

1. Louise, who says she is in SW Saskatchewan.
2. Sue B
3. Quiltlady, who says she is in San Diego.

Hurrah!!
Then feel bad because it would have been nice to give something to everyone. But I can do this again sometime.

Climb downstairs and take photos. Get bits of rust fabrics and fold them to show some of the patterning. Cut some of the "mystery fabric" I have mentioned lately. It is actually very thin and see through, but I have folded it up on the piles. (Sorry it is pink. I don't do pink, but I saved a bit for me just in case I desperately need it next week!) Rummage through the strange threads pile...

And voila!

So, if the winners would send me their snail mail addys, I will get these bits and pieces in the post for you! If you click the link about my profile under the bit where it says About Me, you can find my email to give me the snail mail.

and by the way,

Susan Purney Mark has been doing a Stamping Monday on her blog, showing ways to make and use stamps. For this week, she asked if anyone had stamps they made like the ones she was showing. If you sent a photo, she would put it up on the blog. SO, I am featured on her blog today...well, my stamps and how to make them are! Go have a look.

A Posy for You!

Today is my 100th post! So, I took some photos of the crocuses in the glorious sunshine we are having to day. And although I have plenty of other things to do :-P I taught myself how to do layers in paintshops pro and made a collage of images.

Or in other words, a posy to celebrate Spring and 100 posts.

GIVE AWAY:
If you leave your name, I will select one next week and send a little something.! I am not sure I can do handmade at this point, but you might get a fancy thread or something!

Notice: I am doing the draw on 25th Feb. So, if anyone is still wanting to leave a message, now's your chance. I am thinking you might get a bit of my rust dyed fabric from which I made the award winning skirt design! You can see it in the first part of this page.