Weekend workshop

As I work on my "Offerings" and have to solve more and more technical problems, I realize how many different skills and knowledge of different media I have to have. So, I am slowly learning them one at a time. This past weekend I took a 1 1/2 day beginning silversmithing workshop at the Craft Center of my community. The instructor was Dan Haga from Charlotte, NC. We made a pair of silver earrings and two silver bracelets. The jewelry itself, although beautiful, was not my main reason for taking the workshop. I just wanted to get more familiar with working with metal and wire, learn how to manipulate and bend it and also how to solder. This was really a great start and Dan a very knowledgeable and personable instructor. I could really get addicted to this metal thing!

Colorful surprise

My husband is in Afghanistan and once in a while, he gets to visit a bazaar. Since he knows I love beads, stones and jewels, he is always on the lookout for things that I may be able to use in my work. Yesterday, I got a box in the mail and in that box, the most colorful surprise. I felt that I had plundered Ali Baba's cavern.

Aren't these colors beautiful? Particularly on a rainy day like today, I could just sit there and look at the sparkly colors all day. My mind is racing and trying to figure out how I can use the stones in my next project.

Interesting form of tapestry

My sister just sent me the link to a video shown during a news program in France on February 10. It is about a tapestry artist that makes jewelry with what he weaves. But not just flat weaving since he shapes his woven strips into various forms. Even though the video is in French, just take a look at the images. It is quite interesting.
http://videos.tf1.fr/video/news/0,,4252444,00-artisanat-d-art-des-bijoux-en-tapisserie-.html
(Don't worry if the first images are not related, it takes a few seconds to get to the subject!)

Surface desing class in Saluda

I had a great time on Saturday teaching a surface design workshop in Saluda, NC. The workshop was organized by Random Arts (http://www.randomartsnow.com/), a great altered art and art supplies store. If you have not been there, make sure you check it out. Jane and her associates offer all kinds of cool supplies, papers, stamps, gels, inks, paints....as well as wonderful classes. The store is also decorated by work created by customers and instructors and a real boost to your creativity.

Because 10 students could not be accommodated in the store classroom, the workshop took place at the senior center, which is a wonderful facility.

This group of people was a lot of fun and it is always wonderful to me to meet people with such different backgrounds and talents. We concentrated on creating textures with a number of different techniques and materials such as silk paper, distressing Tyvek and stabilizer to make decorative elements or beads, distressing Kunin felt, foiling and making non-woven material with soluble stabilizer. We could have gone on and on but the day went by too fast.

Here are a few pictures from the workshop:

Silk paper vessels and "Magic Cloth" created by MaryBryan Roberts

Elisabeth has just finished painting pieces of Tyvek and Lutradur

Jea Brown is experimenting with different kinds of bonding agents to attach foil to her fabric.

Doing this work is so exciting!

I have built the basic structure of my new "Offerings" and I am now drawing the embroidery/quilting designs for the outside. I just love this stage of the work. It is so much fun to create a design that fits in a specific area and for a definite technique. It is also at this point that one idea feeds another one and so, I never know what is coming next!

I do use reams of tracing paper because once I have the structure or plan drawn, I draw the embroidery designs on separate pieces of tracing paper so that I can fold and trace the symmetrical parts, slide one element under it and trace it multiple times and just see how the design looks within its allotted space. Next step is thinking about color or more precisely, finding the color I am thinking of.

...to be continued!

Patchwork festival in Prague

I have just received the notice announcing the 3rd Patchwork Meeting in Prague in April. If you are planing a trip to Europe and particularly to Tchekoslovakia this spring, you may want to keep the date (April 3-5) in mind and swing by. I certainly wish I could go! Check out the website for more information. There is an English version.

http://www.praguepatchworkmeeting.com/

A wonderful meeting

This past weekend, I was lucky to meet tapestry artist Silvia Heyden and to listen to her comments and views about art. What a treat! This elderly lady, who studied in Switzerland in the Bauhaus tradition and with professors as famous as Johannes Itten, is filled with energy, enthusiasm and passion for her work. She stressed the connection connection between music and her work. She was so very interesting and inspiring. Check out her work at http://www.annatextiles.ch/artists/artindex/silvia/silvia.htm . I think it is just beautiful.

Such a moon!

You may start to think that all I do is look at the sky! Not so, but I can't help noticing how beautiful it is and wish I could reproduce some of these colors in my artwork.

I took this picture yesterday from the car and the sky still had an unreal purple/rosy color with a pale orange moon. I took more this morning, but it was a little later and some of those gorgeous colors had already disappeared. The images don't even begin to show the size of that moon!