I have decided to practice creating art using collage.

Over the last year, I have been making papers using a variety of media, substrates, and
techniques so I have a lot to choose from.  I also have a of of pens, pencils, markers, and stencils to add layers and color.  

The trick is how to combine all these things to make an interesting composition.

Over the next few months, I will be posting my experiments — some wonderful, some not so wonderful.  But I am really enjoying the process!
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I am loving working on this new series.  

Unfortunately, just as I started incorporating real leaves into my work, it's fall.  It's snowing.  And there are no more leaves to work with.

Timing is everything.

But, I'm now applying for an artist residency at the Denver Botanic Gardens to continue to explore incorporating nature into my work.  I heard last year they had 3,000 applications so I'm not getting my hopes up.  But if I don't try, I will never be successful.   

I might try printing  leaves and flowers from artificial ones I can buy from a craft store in the mean time.  There is always a way to get around issues when making art.  I think problem solving is 80% of making good art.  That, and having the skills of using all our tools and media ends up creating something meaningful and wonderful.
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First things first.  My friend Mary Williams is having a solo exhibit at Westward Gallery through the end of the month.  She is an amazing artist, moving from 3-D sculptures in wood to painting on wood panels.  Her work is exciting and wonderful so if you are in the Denver area, I encourage you to visit her exhibit.

Mary and I go back many years to the time she put together a group of 5 artists to exhibit their work in different mediums.  Our group named itself "To Expand" and consisted of Mary, Victoria Eubanks (encaustic), Ken Elliott (oil and pastel), Janice Mcdonald (collage) and me (fiber).  We didn't know each other at the beginning but from our first exhibit at the Madden Museum in Denver, we became good friends.

Today, we met for lunch for the first time in 2 years (thank you Covid) and walked across the street to see Mary's new exhibit.

Thanksgiving is next week and I will be being thankful of all the artist friends I have made over the past years.  And especially thanks to Mary, who opened up so many possibilities for me. 

I will be thankful for all my friends who support me and my art!
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Still working on this series.

I printed five panels with real leaves and acrylic paint but now that winter is coming, all the leaves will dry up and disappear so if I want to continue this series, I will have to wait until next summer when the leaves are at their height.

By then, I will probably be onto something else.

​I'll keep you posted!  Meanwhile, enjoy the change of seasons.

I am always amazed at the creativity of fiber artists.  

I visited this exhibit at the Denver Botanic Gardens this week and loved Sammy's work.  I've also been making some paper recently so this fit perfectly with my current interests.

Here's a description of her current exhibit "Taking Root" from the Botanic Garden's website.

A first-generation Korean immigrant, Sammy Seung-min Lee transforms Korean hanji paper into intimate artworks exploring how familiar traditions can become unfamiliar within the setting of a foreign culture. 
Lee’s works use mealtime customs to tell personal stories about the ways in which the strangeness of a new culture can make even the mundane comforts of food and home seem incongruous. These works are also an opportunity to take a seat at someone else’s table—a glimpse into what it means to take root and make a new home. 

To see a video of her, click here.

Last weekend, I took a two day workshop with Rhiannon Alpers that was sponsored by the Rocky Mountain Weavers Guild.

The workshop was held at Inner Ocean Studio in Denver.  Inner Ocean Studio is the former studio of Ray Tomasso, a well-known artist who worked in hand-made paper sculptures and print-making.  Ray and I were members of the Ice Cube Gallery so I knew him well but had never visited his studio.  He died suddenly a couple of years ago and his wife decided to convert his large studio into an artist workshop space.  It's a fabulous space so I hope you can visit and take a workshop there in the future.

I have made a lot of artist books but learned a lot about how to make a "professional" book —  making and using bookcloth and as well as adding tapes and mull to secure the text block to the cover.

Who knew book-making could be so exacting and time-consuming!  But the books I made are truly works of art.

I had a wonderful time, meeting other creatives, and seeing the future vision of what Inner Ocean Studio is becoming.  We needed a creative place in Denver for making fine art and I'm happy that Rhiannon has taken on the job of being the Director of this space.

She is a wonderful instructor and is a perfect person to engage the artistic community in Colorado (and beyond!)

I will be back!

​Here are the directions to make this arty necklace.  Have fun!
 
Materials
11 regular size pipe cleaners
Various colors of Sari ribbon (or thin strips of silk/cotton/poly — whatever you have in your scrap bin)
Hairy yarn remnants (Eyelash yarn or any other textured yarn)
Various colors of thread (solid, variegated, cotton, poly, metallic, anything you have
Colorful elastic hair ties (adult or child size)
Light weight rubber/metal charms
Plastic beads
16mm jump rings
Rattail Cording
Couching foot (optional but very handy!)
 
Directions

• Put on couching foot and lower feed dogs.  If you don’t have a couching foot, use your normal zig-zag foot.
• Wrap a pipe cleaner with sari ribbon.
• Thread your machine with matching or variegated thread.
• Set your machine to the widest zig-zag stitch and cover the pipe cleaner with thread, attaching the sari ribbon to the pipe cleaner.  If you have a couching foot, you can move the pipe cleaner backward and forward to get a more varied look.
• Wrap yarn around the sari-covered pipe cleaner and repeat the same zig zag stitching over the yarn-covered pipe cleaner to attach the yarn to the pipe cleaner.
• Make 11 of these in a variety of colors
• Cut the pipe cleaner in half and form a circle, bending the ends together.  Put aside the other half to make another necklace.  You should now have 11 pipe cleaner circles.
• Arrange the colors to your satisfaction in a line.
• Starting at one end of the line, open a jump ring and add a bead, charm and elastic hair tie.
• While the jump ring is still open, attach this ring to both pipe cleaner circles. Close the jump ring.
•  Continue until you have 11 pipe cleaner circles joined together by jump rings.
• Choose the color of the rattail cord and thread your machine to match that color.
• Cut two lengths of rattail cord to 14 inches.
• Thread one end through one side of the necklace and fold over about 2 inches
• Using a zig-zag stitch, attach the folded over part of the cord to the longer cord.
• Do this for the other side.
• Tie the two cords together and you are done!

 
I know this sounds complicated, but really, its not.  Once you get the hang of making the pipe cleaner circles and how to attach these together with jump rings, it goes pretty fast.  Every time I wear this necklace, people notice it and love it.  I’ve listed the materials I use but feel free to substitute your own.  I tend to keep everything light-weight but I encourage you to experiment using the materials in your stash.
 

Looks like I'm starting a new series!

Fall is here and the leaves are starting to dry up and blow into the wind so if I want to capture some leaves while they are still alive, I need to do it now!

I'm loving combining printing with hand stitching so here is the second one I finished this week.  Working of the third and fourth so I guess I'm starting a new series.

I love working on these pieces since I have no idea what I will create along the way.  But somehow, they all turn out pleasing to me.

Have a wonderful creative day!

I always come back to hand stitching.

No matter how many paints, book-making, print-making,, mark-making, tool-making, or anything else I experiment with, I always love working with thread and fabric.  It's calming.  Meditative.  Healing.

Here is a finished piece that started out as white cotton, dyed with black beans in the sun (see my July 17th post), gel printed with blue acrylic paint, over printed with real leaves using yellow acrylic paint, hand stitched with French knots and a running stitch with variegated embroidery floss and pearl cotton, and then layered with batting and a backing, free motion stitched on my Bernina and finished with a rattail binding.

Whew!  That was a lot of different techniques all packed into one piece.  But satisfying.  So I'm working on another.

This weekend, I visited the Kirkland Museum in Denver along with 4 fiber friends.  I hadn't had a chance to visit this museum since it moved into a new building, next to the Clifford Stiles Museum and the Denver Art museum.  It's a beautiful building, much larger than the one before.

But honestly, no different.

I remember the first time I visited this "collection" and was overwhelmed with the amount of objects.  It felt to me like going to a garage sale where lots of things were crammed into a small space.  And while the new space is much larger and the things are enclosed in glass shelving, I didn't lose the same feeling. 

Vance Kirkland was an eclectic painter.  He is most known for his "dot" paintings which he created while hanging vertically over a canvas.  His studio is part of the gallery.

If you are into decorative art (furniture/dishes/glasses/etc) you should visit this gallery.  I found it too eclectic for my taste, making it hard to see anything with a cohesive view.  But as we all know, art is in the eyes of the beholder!