Mystics Dance

detail

I have been fortunate enough over the past few months to have been part of the organizing group for an upcoming show called “Fibre Content” and also lucky enough to have my own piece “Mystics Dance” juried in! I have had the opportunity to work with a wonderful group of artists that are passionate about fibre art.
I have been working on this piece for a while on this (among others) … Mystics Dance is watercolour on muslin with hand-stitch and free-motion, … I was so thrilled to have it accepted.

If you would like to read more about the show please go to the fibrations website and we are on facebook as well thanks to the hard work of one of our committee members.

So, click here to go to the website - fibrations.org - and click here to go to the facebook page for the Fibre Content Show.

This is a two day show at the end of October hanging at the beautiful Burlington Performing Arts Centre!

Have wonderful weekend,

Barbara

Northern Lights over Boreal Forest

Just the first start ~
and detail




Ok, so I have always been fascinated by the Boreal forests ~ like a green scarf around the northen shoulders of the continent. Also, I have memories of seeing the Northern Lights when I was much younger and living further north ~ it is like nothing you have ever seen. The light and colour is so different from the normal evening light with green and purple streaks across the sky.

Colours cover the sky and dance in a captivating show!

I am hoping to finish the piece this week and will post the finish soon.

This is acrylic on wool with free-motion stiching. I have enjoyed painting the fabric as much as designing and stitching

Wishing you a wonderful weekend!

Unravelled - ready

Hello again, and I hope all is well ... I have been working busily on this piece "unravelled" which will be part of the Brott Music Festival here in Ontario, and one of the featured composers is Ravel.

So, inspired by Bolero ... this is what came about.

It was thought that he suffered from Alzheimer's or some form of frontal dementia and late in his life offered himself for experimental surgery to try to help ~ he died not too long after that.

It seems that things can become unravelled and confused at times ...

This is vintage fabrics and sheers, nylon netting and cotton 12w quilting threads - hand stitched.

A New Layer

A new layer has been designed and applied, although still needing to be stitched. I am hoping you can see more of the form through this sheer ~ I have stitched the sheer as well but I am thinking it is as hard to tell as it was to do.

This has been a lot of fun and a great design experience, and that with the next post it will be finished. So, wish me no stray stitches that I have to take out.

~ have a wonderful weekend ~

the butterfly and my machine

Since I have been working on my hand-stitched version ~ a few have asked for me to post the machine stitched butterfly that came along as a side and experimental piece.
So, this is all the same base fabrics and threads but has been free motioned with out reserve! It was a lot of fun to work on ~ so now more learning in free-motion work is ahead, I am sure.

Have a wonderful weekend and week ahead!

next stage of the butterfly project

This is where this is going ~ I have finished the perimeter in soft cream and white varigated, 12 wt. cotton Sulky, the extremities could suggest paths and wanderings. The next and final stage is a sheer layer but I am still (of course) working on the sketches and on paper cut-outs before I actually use the fabric.

Now that I can see the end stages of this work ~ my mind has been straying to my next piece ~ I am thinking landscape ...

Wishing you all a great and happy week

Butterfly project

Well, it has a temporary name ... and here are some of photos as to how it is going. This batch of photos turned out much better than the last in terms of the light ~ so the colours are so much more acurately depicted. The last detail photo above shows the final point of this piece ~ the female form. This is for a juried show and the ideas are still coming together but it will be a statement and contrast of the female image and self image. I am still avoiding the sewing-machine but I do have a sister piece completed by myself and my daughter with all free-motion, when I take my next batch of photgraphs ... I will include it. ~wishing you well ~

new work ~ progress

Hello ~ on this snowy evening, the winds are up and the snow is blowing, who knows what it will look like in the morning. Beautiful, I am sure ...

I am so excited about where this is going, it is a slow process but I love every twist and turn and stitch. My debate was if I should take it to my machine or keep working by hand ... for now I am keeping my hand to my work. I find I have more control by hand ... so I worked on a similiar piece strictly by machine ... I love it too but they have different personalities.

This piece will have a final sheer vintage fabric over the top that will let the image peek through, it may not be that far away!

New Fibre Work

I am thinking to myself ... what have I been doing, and then I remember that Christmas is almost upon us. The handknits to finish, the packages to post and the unwrapping of those decorations that have been around forever but come back every year as old friends. There are stories to read, cards and cookies to make ... it never all gets done as one might envision but that is perfectly fine by me. I find it is the small things that make it special ~ the walks at night, the music and more time by the fireplace ... I think those are the things I cherish the most.

And of course, starting a new piece (which has no name or final goal yet) but will eventually have layers of sheers, some vintage fabric and perhaps the addition of watercolours. I am looking forward just working on this in which ever direction it might take me.

I wish you time to linger!

where to work on a pretty day

Today is one of those days where my work inside beckons me and the work outside calls ... it is a beautiful fall day, with crisp air and plenty of sunshine. I will head outside shortly to plant a few hydrangeas for next year and move a few things around ...

Lilies 2 is coming to an end very soon, I am finishing up the last few places of thread sketch

I will post them post very soon, to see them together ... then the presentation of the pieces which always leaves me a little wondering ...

A new piece is on the drawing books for a juried show after Christmas which will include some reclaimed and vintage fabrics that I have stumbled upon ... I am still developing the images but it is always exciting to have new thoughts racing around, the fabrics are soft and delicate as well as some of them being a bit more on the sturdy side ~ a great contrast.

The sketches have started and then will come the watercolours ~ lots of options and direction

Have a great week!

Lilies 2 of 2 ~ in progress

a little closer detail

First, I hope that eveyone is in the middle of a lovely weekend.

Here is the second of the "lilies" set (still in progress) ~ shown with a little detail work.

I find that as I explore this medium more and more ~ that I am using my reference sketches less and less. More intuitively following the composition of the piece as it sits in front of me, letting the work dictate to me how I go from place to place.

This is watercolour on muslin, wool rovings and hand stitch

The Sedum Series

This is the second in the series ... of sedum heads from last fall. I hope you like the colours and the stitches, and the bits and pieces of stitch left behind. The second piece seemed softer that the first ... maybe not so controlled or anticipated.

This is watercolour on muslin, with rovings and handstitch.

The Changing Landscape ~ juried in!

I can't tell you how pleased I was to learn last night that I piece that I had been working on most recently has been juried into a multi-disciplinary show at the Burlington Arts Centre in Burlington, Ontario.

This piece is called the Changing Landscape and has been inspired by both a beautiful piece of landscape pottery but most important the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. It represents the oil and water mixing and swirling ~ habitats in crisis and lives and livelihoods devistated by this event. I came to realize how deeply disturbed I was by this huge mess that seemingly has no easy solution for anyone involved. I hope and I wish that anyone viewing the piece will understand how fragile our enviroment is and how somehow not enough thought is ever given as to how much harm can come to it. The scope of this is way, way, way beyond me but even if a few more people that might view the show ~ give our enviroment a bit more consideration then hopefully the statement wasn't a loss.

This is acrylic on muslin, rovings, hand-stitched, mounted and framed for the show

Passing Storm ~ all together ~

Here are the three ~ finished and put together, once again, photographing my work may not be my strong point. I think I am done with threes for a while ~ the thinking is sometimes the hard part about that.

I hope they connect for you ...

acrylic on muslin, rovings, hand stich

Passing Storm ~ third of three ~

The third of my set finished ~ hopefully I will have them set on a canvas shortly. Seeing them together ~ you can look from one to the other ~ maybe there is a beginning, a middle and an end or maybe not ~ sometimes I will take up the same subject matter another time.

I find that there are things I that I keep coming back to over time and somethings I don't ~ but by keeping only a gentle grasp on the ideas maybe there will be another set of three. I like twos as well, but usually they are larger and the singles are even bigger again.

I am working on a single and also a set of two right now.

Interestingly enough, the subject can sometimes tell you what to do or where to go ... often, a storm has a beginning, a middle and an end ...

i wish you a great weekend

Passing Storm ~ second of three~

So, here is the second of this set, in the middle piece ~ I wished to catch the rolling and turning back of the wind on itself with the ever so golden glow in the background. There are lots of indigo fluid acrylics under those rovings.

this is acrylic on muslin, with rovings, and hand-stitch

Passing Storm ~ first of three ~

This is another small set of three that I have started ~ inspired by a passing storm and the beautiful light that followed the dark clouds. I hope that you can feel the wind and fast movement of the clouds. I sometimes enjoy a good storm as long as it passes quickly and is off at a distance ...

~ acrylic on muslin, wool rovings and hand stitch ~

best wishes

Red Threads

Another small weekend piece, taking a little break from the larger bits but still working on them non-the-less. I enjoyed the stray red threads and bit of wool that almost turned themselves into a heart (or a juggler with very long arms).

This is water colour on muslin woven strips, wool, threads and ribbon trapped beneath a layer of sheer (also water coloured) and then all stitched by hand.

Sunspot

This is a small piece from the weekend ~ sometimes a take a little break from the bigger pieces with the rovings and lots of stitch. I named it sunspot because it makes me think of what a sunspot would be like ~ if I could indeed see one ...

watercolour on both muslin and sheer nylon fabric with stray wool and threads trapped beneath ~ hand-stitched with french knots for fun

Felt for stitch (detail)

a close up of a wet-felted piece which is ready for stitch ~ creamy white and pink rovings, a bit of watercolour, a few stray threads, wool and angelina fibres ~ about 14"x 12"