How my stash is organised, more about EQ6

My stash is in plastic boxes that are on shelves in a cupboard. Queensland is not a climate for leaving fabrics on open shelves because of the fading. Besides, I am not tidy enough for that.
These are the boxes:

• White to Black
• Cream to Brown
• Red
• Yellow and Orange
• Green and Aqua
• Purple
• Blue

As every fabriholic knows, some fabrics don't fit into a colour category because they have multiple colours. They are sorted by value in the following boxes

• Multi light
• Multi medium
• Multi dark
• Multi bright

Then there are 2 more boxes with theme fabrics

• I spy and other children's fabrics
• Butterfly, ethnic, sewing designs

And about EQ6: I still have problems opening the program, the opening window comes up, then disappears behind the design window and the program then freezes, so later on I'll re install. Even this can be a problem,  because I think you can reinstall the program only so many times, something many users have complained about.

But.....I realised also that placing designs into the sketchbook, does NOT save them automatically, so, all that work is gone, about 14 different versions of Dancing Fans and I am still very happy that the important parts were printed out.

Dancing Fans...back to my first love

In art/craft that is!
For a while I have been thinking it is time to start another patchwork project. Throughout this year I've made 3 major projects: Bernina Bling and 2 children's quilts, so I didn't abandon quilting altogether. This remark in response to what I get asked every so often: " Don't you quilt anymore?"
Back to the new project. I set up the following checklist for this new project:

1. This is a bed quilt: so it has to be big enough and fabrics and techniques used have to be appropriate, iow, the quilt is to be washable.
   
2. No new fabrics to buy, but I am sure I have to buy wadding.
3. Not too complex. 
4. Not boring in either technique or design
5. Some handwork. We finally solved the problem of lighting in our lounge and I can now stitch while watching TV.

While two days ago I was wondering if I could legally sell EQ6 , yesterday morning I used it to design this new quilt. Dancing Fans is the working title, I may change it yet. However, after having problems opening the program, my project is there but there is nothing in the sketchbook!!! Shock Horror!! Fortunately, the only things I really needed: the template and the layout, I had printed out. I'll have to try to reinstall and if that doesn't work, get to support.

But this is what it is:
A Fan block with 5 blades. The blades are appliqued onto a 6" background.
I am using stash fabrics.
I considered a few different options such as a colour wash quilt , but that would make it too complex.
I made one test block 

The plan is to cut the background fabrics from medium dark-dark fabrics.

Blades from fabrics in my "multi light" box

Applique a quarter circle over the end of the fan blades in the lower left corner.

"Keys that jingle in your pockets"

I skipped the 2-key practice and went straight into the 3 keys!

I worked on this for 90 minutes today, half an hour yesterday. In all, I did 2 hours yesterday. I think if I just keep drawing, I just got to get better, shouldn't I? I am also re-reading "Drawing with your artists brain".

I do understand it better now than I did when I first got it.

I don't know, maybe because my designs (except the Tarots) have always been so analytic, that's just how I think: if I cannot analyse it, I think I cannot draw it either.

The book speaks about retraining your brain...

"Windmills of your mind"

Our art group has asked the textile/mixed media artists to create a piece based on music for March 2010. That inspired me to do a drawing, based on the lyrics of  "Windmills of your mind",  at Deb's course.
Initially I was going to do a collage,  then I designed a film strip that was to show "images unwinding".
I was pretty excited about that design, but it meant that each of the images had to be drawn small, to fit into the strip. As per usual, I got to the stage where it didn't seem worthwhile, especially as I missed 2 of the classes. Also as before, I didn't like my drawings.
Today I decided to "just do it!" and DRAW. I chose "keys that jingle in my pockets". I spend 90 minutes, drawing one key and I am happy with the result. I didn't draw from life, but from a reference drawing. Next I am going to draw a key overlapping another key, then 3 keys.
I will need to forget the idea of drawing small, so I am going back to the collage, something like this
Next class is Tuesday, I want to be able to have something to show then.

Deb's new course

Deb is starting a new course: " Design, Development and Finish".
For a while I wasn't sure if I was ready for this. My realistic drawing didn't seem to be going anywhere. I didn't mind doing some bits and pieces, but I couldn't visualise anything I would want to work on for weeks.
Till last week when I decided to go with design and then apply realistic drawing techniques. I don't know if that style has a name, for the time being I am calling it "organic geometrics". In other words: geometric design that has become more fluid, more random and has perspective applied to it. LOVE Deb's "Wonkies"!
So I enrolled and it will start on the 6th October. Not sure if I will stick to graphite or go with colour, but that seems to be a decision that we will explore at the class.

What about realistic drawing?

I tried.
I really tried.
I was even successful every so often.
However, I found myself not wanting to do the actual drawing. I knew I should practice, practice, practice. I read books and articles, I tidied my work table. I downloaded a lovely reference photo of a pair of old boots, graphed it up and intended to copy it that ways, square by square.
It went OK, but I wasn't happy doing it. 
I started to think back about projects that I enjoyed so much that I couldn't wait to get back to them and I realised, I am a designer rather than a fine artist.

I love design, I love using all kinds of pencils and pens,  I love working on paper. Why fight that? Why not combine my knowledge  and years of experience of design and my newly acquired knowledge of realistic drawing?

Here is the last quilt design I did. "Spice Stars" Please note: this is 2.50m x 2.60m and has some very intricate machine quilting.
I was very happy with that design.
Working with fabric and sewing, there are many more restrictions than there are with drawing.
As I have mentioned before, I am a member of the newly formed Somerset Art Scy Inc. Each Wednesday some of the members get together to work on their art. I decided to join them and also decided I was going to work on something enjoyable.
Got my pastel paper out and pencils, but found ordinary pencils didn't work well. Got my pastel pencils out and just drew some curvy shapes and then filled them in with further shapes.
I made them go over and under to provide some depth, I LOVE overs- and -unders
It is still a work in progress: initially I coloured in very tentatively.  RS suggested that I push down harder, to get more intensity. It stuffed up my work, because the pen outline is done AFTER the pastel pencil, having to go over it again meant I had to go over the black lines again.

You can see which parts have been redone.
I put the work where I can see it, and I know now I that the shadows I put in aren't correct. I should have put shadows where the shapes cross over, so I am not sure I want to continue with it as I can see so many ways I can improve on this now.
The main thing is: I enjoyed the process tremendously.
Deb is having a new course and I'll make that a separate post.

Having a go at collage

OK, so I was all excited about finding the right technique, but being a realist, I didn't jump in immediately but got some 4" square canvasses to try it out.
The theme was to be: Kitchen. Maybe these little trials would make proper little artworks to give away or even to sell!

I printed some kitchen images from one of the Dover books. I cut them out, glued them on according to the instructions and played with some mediums ( should that be media???) and some paint.
The result is awful!
But it shouldn't be surprise. I didn't quite follow the instructions.  This seems to be an ongoing issue with me! LOL The book suggests liquid acrylics, I used watered-down tube acrylics. I didn't want to have to purchase a whole lot of new materials when I haven't even used much of the ones I have!

Not only does the book suggest liquid acrylics, everything is identified by the brand name. I am not sure you can get that brand here, but the obstacle remains: I have dozens of tubes of cheap-brand acrylics I would like to use.

Anyway: I can still paint some more over it, the ugliness is partly due to the revolting colours!
I might glue some more stuff over it and I probably need to be more aware of composition. And improve on the colour scheme!

Piano improvising

My friend Kathy lent me a book " How to play the piano despite years of lessons" when I mentioned I would like to learn to improvise. Us textile artists don't just chat about visual art!
Well, that book really changed my thinking and piano playing practice.
It claims" no need to know scales or chords" and that may well be true, but I have done scales and chords all my life, but I never knew how to apply what I knew.
As per usual, you take from instructional books what suits you. Once I understood how the chordal system applies to music, I had this lightbulb moment!
I got out some of my old song books. They are also called "Fake Books" because they have the melody line only plus the chord indicator and you "fake" the left hand. It was amazing, all of a sudden it no longer took months and months of frustrating practice to play a song!
It is now so much fun to play, I spent a few hours every day.
I have ordered another book " How to play from a Fakebook" so I can give Kathy her book back.
Thanks Kathy!

If everything fails.....follow instructions

While I will definitely do Joan of Arc in collage, I also want to develop my realistic drawing skills.
When I whinged to Deb it wasn't happening, she asked: " Are you measuring???"
I had to say "no" and I really wasn't doing any of the other things.
So yesterday I decided to allow myself the time to set up properly: floor easel, a masking tape line on the floor so I measure from the same distance. Object set up against a black cloth.
I am attempting to draw a simple narrow necked vase and I did it all: measure, draw guidelines, then do the curves, then finetune. Once I had one half I liked, to used the tracing paper technique we learned to create a fresh, symmetrical drawing.
Today I am going to put a light on the vase and start creating some form.

Re JoA: I bought different mediums and some small canvas panels to practice the collage technique on.

That great moment

My Tarot series took decades to actually come to fruition.
The next series is "uppity women": in chronological order (but not in the order I'll create them): Hildegard of Bingen, Joan of Arc, Elizabeth I, Catherine the Great.
I expect this series will not take quite as long because I'd be in my nineties!
I made a start on Joan of Arc, but got a major block caused by a lack of knowledge of materials and techniques. I created a collaged background and then painted a portrait of Joan over that. Later on I wanted to add flames and a lily. But the result was pretty awful: the collages were too dark, where the portrait covered some of the collages, those papers soaked up the paint creating a hard edges corner in the middle of Joan's face!

But today I suddenly had this great moment: a feeling of absolute clarity of where I want to go with this after a long period of indecisiveness, prevarication, frustration and uncertainty.
I was re-reading the Ann Baldwin book I mentioned earlier and I really like her style, so I decided to follow her instructions. It means starting from scratch, I don't think I can fix the earlier work, but I might go a bit larger as well. I will not paint the portrait, I will not paint the lily but work with paper collages. Even to the extend where I will scan in the lily I did in my visual diary last december and use that, rather than actually painting it on the canvas. I will however paint the flames, even maybe using a modelling paste.
When I think back of all the technical errors I made, I really did learn a lot from my mistakes.
I don't think I will use my newly acquired drawing skills (basic as they still are...) that may be for another time.

My art in general

Deb's new classes started last Tuesday and we're doing textures. I chose leather this week, she had a picture of a leather boot and I am having a go at that and then I may go back to my earlier "boots and hat" subject. I started the drawing at class and will work on it through the week.
I have stopped going to the Friday class, at present it doesn't seem to suit me. I have joined the newly formed Somerset Art Society. We're having an exhibition tomorrow to coincide with the Multicultural Festival and I've put in "The Chariot" and "Wheel of Fortune".
I didn't take a job. This is a bit unusual for me as I always enjoyed being part of making something happen. But right now I am enjoying my freedom of commitments just too much! Those who did take on jobs seem full of energy and enthusiasm which holds great promise. The ultimate goal is for Esk to have its own Art Gallery.

Back from New Caledonia

We had a fantastic time in New Caledonia. I even did write a travel report with photos and if you are interested in this just ask me for the pdf file.
Re the french language: hubby reckon I was pretty good: I ended up being able to read signs and be polite. I could understand very short sentences. We bought the Les Nouvelles newspaper a couple of times and I could read the weather report and some other articles and reports. When listening to conversations, I could understand some words but not the meaning.
Was it worth spending all that time on it? Absolutely! It is a beautiful language and I enjoyed having a bit of a go at it.

Re Dorrie's coat: I made one, it wasn't great and I hadn't quite finished it off when I tried it on her. She wanted nothing to do with it! LOL Oh well, meant I didn't have to finish that particular job!

The Dodecahedron

Click on the image to enlarge.
Yesterday I dropped this piece into the Fernvale Futures Centre for their craft show.
It really is a gorgeous piece of work! Even if I do say so myself and the photos don't do it justice.
Next time I need to enter something and need something new, I might do another one. The hardest bit will be to decide on the theme: it has to be something that I can do 11 panels for. (Panel # 12 is the base and is just calico with the details written on.

It's french, french, french....

It really is an experiment: I am spending lots of time on the french study. Not only www.frenchpod.com , but there are so many other (free) sites to practice.
Phonetique voyelles is full of hearing exercises, you hear 2 words and you tick whether they are the same or different. You do not need to know what they mean, you just train you ear.
Mission Europe is a kind of game/story and it is set up by the EU, Languages Online is really fun too and importer - Dictionnaire Français-Anglais WordReference.com is a fantastic dictionary except it has an anti-animal-cruelty ad in the banner which I try to avoid having to look at because it upsets me.
RFI - Langue française - apprendre is a french radio station that has "learn french" sections.
I only spend minimal time trying to memorising lists of words or conjugations of verbs, it is all learning things in context. I find french songs: some in kids programs, others on youtube.
The experiment is to see how this kind of study will work out in practice.
My niece said to me: "Oh well, as long as you can understand what they say" but that is a lot harder than reading it, because of the rhythms of the speech and the "liasons" the way words are strung together.
Because there are so many different sites I can use, it does not get boring at all.
Of course, no drawing....

Pastels? Maybe not for me....

Friday's art class was disappointing. We had a choice of 2 still lives and acrylic or pastel. I chose pastel but I found I was totally out of my depth. I don't quite know where to go with pastels from here, what I need is a specific pastel course, like Deb's drawing course. Actually I did do a 3 hour class with Helen and that was good, but there don't seem to be other classes planned.

Ah well, I am busy with french lessons and I am having a go at making a coat for our dog Dorrie. When we are in Noumea, she will have to go into the kennel and sleep outside, right in the middle of winter! She hasn't got a thick coat and is used to sleep inside.

French lessons

Our 45th wedding annniversary is coming up and a reason for celebration! A family party is, at present, out of the question and a week ago hubby said "Why don't we go to Noumea for our wedding anniversary!" So now we've booked to go in a matter of weeks and I am frantically using online French lessons. I am using Frenchpod
Definitely a fun way to learn french and of course, I did french at school, grew up in an environment where I was more exposed to french and french culture than if I had grown up in Australia: living in Holland where we had as many french songs on the hit parade as english ones, seeing french movies ( with dutch subtitles) having a Belgian mother who had lived in Paris, spending holidays in Belgium which is bilingual.
I download the lessons to my MP3 player and wear it while walking, while doing the housework, etc.
Mind you, it may all mean nothing when it comes to understanding spoken French, but hey, I learned how to ask where the toilets are..that just HAS to be useful as long as I can understand the reply! As I said: these lessons are fun!

Tarot

I asked forum members on the tarot site, could anyone suggest a name for my tarots. Next step, I was then going to order some blank, ready-to-print tarot cards and print a couple of sets.
One suggested Hetty's Tarot. Not bad, but I had already thought of that myself and it didn't excite me much! Someone else suggest "Threads of Fate". That I like a lot. I never thought to use the word "threads" , it is so appropriate. But then it becomes the "Threads of Fate Tarot". I thought it was a bit long, but it does have a nice ring to it!

Boots and hat

As I promised: boots and hat. Plus some stuff in the background!

I haven't attempted any more drawing, because I got sidetracked with French lessons. More about that later.

But tomorrow I am going to my Friday art class and, unless Gina has something special she wants us to do, I am having another go at this, using the 2 pictures: one in colour, the other reduced to grey scale. You have to agree: it must be easier to work in pencil from a greyscale picture. I might even use my value scale: a piece of paper that has 10 shades, from white to black through grey. Deb taught us to hold the value scale against a section of the original so you can see how dark or how light you've got to shade it. Anyway, that's the theory of it.

That didn't work

I set up a still life with a pair of hubbies' riding boots and his hat, but I couldn't get it done. I tried different ways: blind contour, blind contour with some looking, contour, creating guidelines, working with angles. I might take a photo tomorrow to put here. The drawings were too large to scan, I'd have to take photos of them.
I might have another go tomorrow.

Tarots and baby quilt

People on the AT forum suggested I could create my own Tarot Deck. I immediately shuddered to think I would have to creat another 56 works! The 22 took over my life for nearly 12 months and I want to do other things.
But they said: "Just do the Majors". For the uninitiated: I did the Major Arcana, 22 of them. Full deck includes the Minor Arcana...another 56.
I am thinking, how do I go about that, find a publisher? But no, you can actually buy blank Tarot cards to print yourself. I can just see that: with a fancy little bag to store them in! Some people on the AT Forum tell them they would buy them!
Anyway, would make lovely gifts and definitely doable.
Traditionally, all Tarot decks have a name. I don't have one. Any suggestions?
Besides Tarots, I did a bit more work on the the first Dutch quilt. Only worked on the design. Did I tell you I have some blocks fused ready to stitch? Kangaroo, platypus and the name of the recipient. I don't want to put the name here, it is very unusual, I don't want the parents even to know i am making that quilt: let's call him Fred. :-)
Won't do much tomorrow: I am having an artist date with Kathy from Koolkat Quilting
We're going to see Deb's (my drawing teacher) exhibition and have lunch together.
An artists day is something suggested in Julia Cameron's The Artists Way book.
Saturday is Toogoolawah Show day, looking at cattle, fine art, craft and cooking entries as well as horticultural and agricultural entries. A small side show alley and catching up with people.

Tarots...again

I finally put a link to my Tarots on the Tarot website
This is THE international website for people interested in the Tarot and it was started and is maintained by a woman living in Brisbane's Coorparoo. It has grown tremendously and an eye opener for anyone who thinks the Tarot is something that not many people would be interested in.
I am now a paid subscriber so I can advertise on this site.
I posted my link on two on the forums and got some lovely reactions and more lovely reactions
Of course, the ultimate compliment would be if someone would actually want to buy one, but meanwhile I am happy with those compliments!
My username there is Antoinette, which is my middle name.

They aren't worms...

After drawing the wisteria stems last week, I played around with some imaginary stems. I wanted to capture form, light and shadow and the relative position of the objects. The drawing was cropped a little to fit on the scanner.
It wasn't difficult to do, although it was a lot of work. I drew the "worms" with a double line, just drawing through them. Then I used an eraser to create the "overs and unders".
After that I did the shading.
I've done a lot of
celtic type designs, so this was not altogether new to me.
Today was the last class of Deb's Beginners II course and I hope she will have enough takers to start an intermediate class in July.

Textile Art Festival

I went to the Textile Art Festival in Brisbane yesterday and I had the best time!
I have always loved books I can learn something from and I bought this book from The Thread Studio. They were the busiest stall: people waited 4 deep first to get to the merchandise, then to pay.
I also did a "Ratty Tatty Papers" workshop, one of those 1 hour events.
We made a silk sheet with coccoon strippings and silk rods.
We learned coccoon fibres are naturally gummy and the whole lot with embellishments just gets ironed between 2 sheets of baking paper.
I don't know yet what I will do with it.
A bought 6m of the newer fusible that isn't supposed to fall apart: applifix. Hope it works!
There were heaps of exhibitions and they were dispersed among the stall, so exciting.

But what was even more exciting was that Bernina had all their challenges on display, including mine: Bernina Bling.
It looked fantastic: on a black background, but without the hanger.
The story about this:
I am a "Bernina Friend". I am sorry people, not my choice of title. It just means I was a professional quilter who works on a Bernina. We get special days to try new machines etc.
Last year we were all invited to create something for the new machine. Rules were: make whatever you want to make, but it has to feature the logo (the stylized "8") and stick to the colours white, black, silver and red. All entries would stay with Bernina for 12 months (since extended) and be used at shows etc to promote the new machine.
Winner would win a new $10.000 machine. It had to be completed by the beginning of Feb. I was working hard on the quilt for Sjef and Saul, which had to be finished by Christmas. In January I inially thought I wouldn't be able to get it done, then I decided to just do a small one. not agonise about too much about it and I got it completed in time.
Meanwhile: someone is producing a book on these works and their makers and that will be published by October. The cover design was at the show yesterday, very classy.
So that was very exciting. There were some absolutely stunning designs for this challenge, including wearable art. The other great thing about yesterday's show was that I met so many old acquaintances to chat to, I thought I'd lose my voice! Some I hadn't seen for many years.
So a good day all around!
Today I am going to start on the Aussie Quilts for 3 babies in Holland. Test out the new Applifix!

Some drawings and a pastel

I don't know yet how to move the images around on my page! :-(

Anyway, here are some of my better efforts.
The pastel was done by using step-by-step instructions in an Art Magazine.
The nude was a copy from a drawing book, using the technique Deb taught me; using guidelines and a compass is part of it.
The eye was from a lesson in Drawspace, online drawing lessons.
The twisted stems were done in the Japanese Gardens in Toowoomba, they are wisteria stems. The fig tree was done at Gina's place.
I didn't manage to capture the actual ridges on the wisteria stems, but I did capture the twist and I was happy with that. Learning how to show the ridges is now on my drawing to-do list!
I am finding that the more I draw, the more I enjoy it. Next term we're going to work with coloured pencils with Deb. I've got a heap: pastel pencils, ordinary coloured artists pencils, watercolour pencils, coloured graphite pencils, so that should be fun.

How did I get into art classes?

In June last year I started with art lessons. It happened in a weird way, although I have always wanted to be able to draw.What happened was that I won a prize with my wearable art. (see pictures) As well as some cash, I also won a $200 voucher towards the workshop of my choice at Artsfest Grafton.

What appealed to me was the workshop: "The Dynamic Pose", with Janis Lander. It required artists with some experience, I contacted her and she suggested that I do some basic drawing classes and learn a bit about anatomy prior to the workshop.

I started classes In Fernvale with Gina and also booked in for 10 sessions of life drawing classes in Toowoomba. Although I was totally out of my depth at the life drawing classes, I got a lot out of it, because the coordinator of the sessions was very helpful.

In the end, the Janis Lander workshop was cancelled because of lack of numbers, but by that time I was hooked. I did a class with Damian Kamholz, where I was also out of my depth, but then, I didn't have any depth, I was such a beginner. Again, I learned stuff there too.

Gina encouraged me to do some painting, but I didn't enjoy the acrylics. I didn't enjoy the mixing and the fact the paint dries so quickly and neither did I want to go to oils.

I did a pastel workshop and I liked it.

Earlier this year I started classes with Deb Gilmartin in Toowoomba. This was drawing for beginners and I loved it. She teaches classes in 6 week courses and they are fantastic! The classes are well planned and organised and I am learning such a lot!

I am also still going to Gina's classes, which are more relaxed and have a very social component, as Gina wants to establish an artists group in the region. The two classes are very different and I enjoy them both.

Oh...and if you like to see the full range of the Tarots I finished, go to http://www.hetty.mosaicglobe.com/