GONE RUSTIC

Eco Dye Artist,

Rita Summers of Gone Rustic in Tasmania,

is producing some beautiful pieces for sale.

I found her on Pinterest and couldn't resist buying a few of her works.

I especially loved this paper bowl that she stitched together 

then embellished with a bit of crochet.

Scrumptious!

I also purchased this sweet notebook.

It looks large here on the blog but in person is only about 2" by 4".

Rita adhered the Eco paper to some type of interfacing

 then Free Motion Stitched her lovely design on both front and back.

It's so precious!

Here you can see how she zigzagged the edges together.

I looked up Tasmania on a world map.

It's an island off the Southeastern bottom edge of Australia,

right below Melbourne, Australia.

It was hard to pick a favorite,

that's why I bought 4 pieces.

But I adore this next one.

It's a journal made with several different kinds of Eco Dyed papers.

Notice how she used waxed linen to stitch it together with.

Here is one of the inside pages.

And the last piece is this note card.

The purples and blues she got are incredible here.

Below you can see how she bound it with a figure Eight Stitch.

I hope you enjoyed seeing Rita's work.

She also sells Eco Dyed clothing.

PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER

WIRE QUILTS

INTERMEDIATE 3-D ART

wire & mixed media

This Intermediate group of kids ended their year with this Final,

 a new assignment inspired by the work of  British Textile Artist,

Manchester based Liz Cooksey.

I found her on Pinterest and loved each and every piece I could find of hers.

I also had the young ones check out her site to inspire them.

I asked the kids to use wire to build an interesting framework in which to include at least 7 sections.

I also asked them to hammer the wire for extra strength,

 but they told me it didn't work so well.

I also gave them a list of at least 13 different techniques we had used in the past two years,

like knitting, crochet, leaf stitching, metal work eco-dyeing, etc.,

to chose from for these 7 sections.

Of course to also make them visually pleasing together.

Let's see what they came up with and decide if I try it again next year.

I think out of all of them this one by senior Antoinette Jabat was the most appealing to my eye.

Working in a neutral palette,

 with the eco-dyed weavings,

 and of course that gorgeous stitched leaf was right up my alley.

Oh my!

The leaf up close.

Love how she suspended it.

The eco-dyed fabric.

Next we have this very feminine piece by senior Kristine Luong.

I thought her weaving she wove was especially pretty,

but it feels slightly unbalanced on the lower left side.

Needs one more flower I think.

Junior Shreya Sheth really got into this assignment and worked her heart out.

So many interesting & delightful surprises for the eye.

Also,

Shreya was the only one who actually re-read the requirement sheet 

and built the outside wire components like Liz Cooksey does.

I'm talking about those stars.

And notice those spray painted twigs?

And the clock paper that she also used inside her Mosaic Tile Box?

A really tremendous piece Shreya!

How clever senior Liana Chie was to build this to the subject of a hot air balloon.

Do you see the little man inside the woven basket?

Senior Hazel Cruz didn't get a chance to finish hers but we all sure liked her fabulous start.

And this last one by junior Jacqueline Yu came together so beautifully,

done in her favorite color scheme.

So these are my thoughts.

Next year if I have the kids do this assignment again,

I feel I should stress that each section has to be done in something they have made themselves,

 rather than a found object in those 7 sections. 

 But if they build more sections,

 then they can bring in other goodies like buttons and silk flowers and such.

I would love some feedback on this please.

NEW ASSIGNMENT INSPIRED BY ALICE FOX & INDIA FLINT

Two of my favorite artists, 

UK based artist Alice Fox and Australian/Latvian based artist India Flint,

have inspired me to try a new assignment with my Intermediate 3-D students.

Alice Fox

from Tide Marks

India Flint

on Pinterest

I want to get the kids to experience weaving on a tapestry loom,

(their previous experience in Beg. 3-D was weaving thru wire dimensionaly)

and do a bit of experimenting with found rusty objects like Alice does,

and windfall like India does.

Alice's tapestry looms with weaving in progress.

So today we are warping our looms.

We are using handmade frame looms 

that I built 30 some years ago when I started teaching at Whitney.

I'm planning on having them weave up thin bands to experiment on like Alice is doing above.

I look forward to sharing the results later this month.

Here are a few shots from Alice's blog  and book Tide Marks to inspire my young ones.

A MATCHING SET

I recently opened up some Eco-dyed pillowcases

for our bed up at the little cabin.

I tried purposely to make them match 

and I really like how they came out.

Rusts and corals,

so pretty together.

When I put everything back on the bed 

and stepped back a bit,

the light changed and I wasn't able to get a very good pix,

but at least it shows the way all the colors in the room come together with the pillowcases.

The hand sewn doll is by a gal from the Laguna Beach Sawdust Festival

 that I picked up this summer 

(sorry name forgotten),

the pillow she sits on by Susan Johnson of Avalanche Looms,

and the little rug hooked tree pillow by Karen Kahle of Primitive Spirit.

The quilt and 2 other pillow cases are vintage with hand embroidery.

In fact,

all the furniture and accessories in the room are thrifted

 from the little mom and pop stores in Crestline.

I love supporting the local community.

EXPERIMENTING...

with a little bit of this and that,

and summer cabin flowers.

Vintage baby top...

old loom woven piece from college...

some saved clothes tags...

and a stuffed doll I made in the 1980's (Native American inspired).

Too much wildness for a baby top...

but I like how some of the ink from the tags has transferred to the top.

Way too much on back side.

But I like the cotton weaving.

I'll save it and incorporate it into something.

The stuffed doll's horse hair got a bit frazzled,

but I like the tags.

We'll see where they end up.

A LITTLE SHIBORI IN YOUR LIFE...

makes me a happy camper.

Demonstrated a bit of Pole Wrapping Shibori to my students

over top an eco-dyed silk scarf.

The result was pretty darn cool,

and made the eco-dyed scarf so much more interesting.

Now I'm really a happy girl!!!  :)

RECYCLED ART

Using my eco-dyed string leftovers to wrap around an old embroidery hoop,

I whipped this delightful old doily that I salvaged from a garage sale,

onto the hoop for a very pretty dangling window light catcher ornament.

I think this doily might be at least a 100 years old because it was really browned with age,

and I even washed it first before mounting it.

It went perfectly with the eco-dyed strings.

A LITTLE MORE ECO-DYEING

Now that my students are going thru the Eco-Dye Unit,

the temptation is too strong not to join in the fun.

So I wanted to over-dye this dingy antique pillow case

 that didn't come out too well last year.

Using coriopsis flowers,

 geraniums,

 some purple-green leaves from a bush at the cabin, 

and there is something else in there that I can't identify.

Perhaps pieces of strawberry.

A couple of folds later...

and it's bundled for its steam bath.

The unveiling is always my favorite part.

What's interesting to me is how different the color looks above under classroom lights, 

versus below,

at my studio outside on the sidewalk.

Some close-ups.

I believe these two next shots were after the first bath 

while still wet from washing machine.

Looks a heck of a lot better then it did before, 

that's for sure!