A FAVORITE SLOW STITCHER

Hazel's story cloth about 3" by 5" and her notecard above with another image of one of her story cloths

I was thrilled to be able to scoop up this brilliant story cloth 

by Hazel Monte of Handstories blog last month.

Her pieces speak to me so very strongly 

and I'm the lucky owner of several now.

Each one she makes are unique,

signed on the backside with their own special names.

the story cloth

So I've been thinking of how I can put them all together into a larger story cloth.

I think I have enough now to do that with.

I've been playing around with arrangements

and there are just so many ways to go.

a close-up

But honestly,

I feel I can't do them justice as Hazel would.

Hazel as you can see,

brings magic to scraps of cloth.

I know several of us send her remnants every now and then

plus she sources from old clothes that are dear to her,

and also supports other slow stitchers like Jude Hill

I'm wondering if I could commission Hazel to put them together for me?

Just a thought,

but a big one.

If you are new to her work let me give you some background.

Hazel hand dyes many of her pieces of cloth with natural dyestuffs.

I believe lately she has been playing with a vat of indigo.

She has an innate design ability that allows her to design as she stitches

which being a retired art instructor is a rare gift.

Most of us usually have to plan something out before we start, 

perhaps a rough sketch.

Rachel also has an uncanny skill with watercolor

and abstracting images that are purely delightful.

But what I find the most remarkable about Hazel's slow stitching

is the delicate quality of each piece she makes.

They are precious tiny gifts,

so small and lovely to hold in your hand,

so lightweight and soft.

A sensory experience for hand, eyes and hearts.

Her stitches are extremely tiny,

I really would love to watch her work one day to see how she moves her needle

and gets it to make that magic of hers.

And if you've never been to her blog site 

you will find that she is also a gifted story teller.

She is able to make you both laugh and cry.

I keep telling her she needs to write a book.

SPIRIT CLOTH INSPIRED

If you haven't had a chance to enroll in any Jude Hill stitch classes,

I really recommend Patchwork Beasts.

Jude of whirled wide Spirit Cloth fame is listed to the right under Artist's I Follow.

Love all her classes,

most of which I've taken over the years,

but it's her beasts faces that are so fun to play with.

Her drawings and watercolors of their faces in her on-line class are whimsical

and offer a lot of ideas to choose from.

I believe this is my 2nd attempt.

My first one can be seen here.

Jude is a wonderful teacher and I've learned so very much from her,

and her blog still continues to inspire and delight everyday.

So thank you Jude!

In our Tues. Nite Fiber Arts class,

we did a bunch of eco-dyeing about  year and a half ago.

Above are the pieces drying out.

We experimented with lots flowers, leaves, fruits & vegies for their dye properties.

After the pieces were opened, washed and ironed it was time to learn a few embroidery stitches along with needle turn applique.

Dang, 

this close up really shows my very messy embroidery.

Whoops!

Anyways...

We only used thin white and off white perle cotton threads to embroider with

which we had placed inside our bundled fabrics so they too absorbed the dyes.

Kinds of fabrics were thrifted linens, cottons and silk.

Each of us choose something different to fill our applique opening with.

I wanted to try another beast face.

Using Jude's famous invisible tacking stitch,

the face was attached to a contrasting piece of dyed cotton. 

I like to thrift really soft, 

old white bed sheets that have been washed many times.

Makes it much more easy to slide the needle thru.

Knowing I wanted to log cabin around the beast,

 here experimenting with several pieces of dyed, torn strips.

Then more stitching to secure/quilt over top,

a few vintage buttons and a twig complete the beast.

Oh,

in one of Jude's first classes I took,

she demoed how to easily fray the edges of the fabrics for a very cool edge.

I love the texture it adds.

A super fun project.

ECO DYEING MEETS SLOW CLOTH - part two

ECO DYE BANNERS

BEGINNING 3-D ART

various pieces of cotton, linens & silks, windfall, spices, fruits & vegetables

with lots of string, hot plates & large pots for steaming

I'm hoping you enjoyed the banners in part one,

these next ones in part two are just as fabulous!

I hope your eyes will be delighted as mine were.

We start off with super star junior Rachel Kannampuzha.

Rachel is a deep critical thinker who always goes beyond the minimum requirements,

coming up with unique, original ideas for all her assignments.

I know for a fact that Rachel was inspired by the work of fiber artist Grace Forrest

when I suggested to the kids they check out Grace under Artists I Follow on my blog.

Rachel created two figures with her eco dyed pieces

and all of us were in awe.

Grace found out that Rachel was following her blog 

and they've now become friends thru the magic of the internet.

And if you remember the post from earlier this year called Garden Diva,

Grace sent my class a piece of hers to enjoy at Xmas time.

I love this close up of the woman against that rich turquoise backdrop.

So exquisite Rachel!

Youngster Margaret Yiu, 

junior,

with her gorgeous craftsmanship and her beautiful sense of design

created this next one.

She chose to work symmetrically (the kids had a choice),

and nailed it!

I adore her fabric rose she created,

and how she tyed each side together with the burnt orange chain stitches.

And check out how perfectly she couched down her string.

Junior Jillian Morris blew us all out of the water with this next piece.

It measures about 36" long,

2 -3 times longer than all the others.

Notice how she stripped many of her fabrics to help elongate her banner,

creating a lot of rhythmic negative spaces.

Also notice additional rhythm she achieved because of her numerous stacks.

And the balance made by her three perfectly placed polymer buttons.

Great work Jillian!

Now we go back to one of my sweet 8th grader's,

 Palmer Patel.

Palmer is the young man accompanied everyday by paraeducator Coach Milan,

and this is his second year with me.

He loves art and works very hard in my class.

We are all so proud of this beautiful piece he made

because fine motor skills do not come easy for him.

Bravo Palmer!!

Another 8th grader,

 Loren Kim,

created this next incredible work of art.

Loren was with me last year as well and is one of my top students.

Many of her works were featured last year on the blog with more to come this year.

One of the requirements that she made the most use of that I love is the fraying of her edges.

Notice how she frayed all the 4 major squares,

and how it brings so much softness to her piece.

In fact,

 I like this piece so much that I want to show off these two main sections up close-up.

And we end part two with 8th grader Dana Ahmad.

Dana also loves art and takes it very seriously.

I'm pretty sure Dana went into 3 different bundle pots to get her exterior edge colorways

which brings so much interest to this lovely piece.

And look at all the fraying she did along this bottom edge

which adds so much softness.

And my favorite part of this very pretty piece is the rose she created below.

Brilliant work young lady!

Thank  you all for working so hard for me,

jumping thru endless hoops,

and finishing on time so I can post and exhibit your work.

ECO DYEING MEETS SLOW CLOTH - part one

ECO DYE BANNERS

BEGINNING 3-D ART

various pieces of cotton, linens & silks, windfall, spices, fruits & vegetables

with lots of string, hot plates & large pots for steaming

I love teaching this assignment and dedicate it every year to mentors

India Flint and Jude Hill,

who continue to inspire me on a daily basis.

We start by talking about where all natural dye stuffs come from

and the kids go home and the search is on.

They bring back so much good stuff to use and have fun showing it off and sharing;

some goodies coming in with ants, worms and spiders as well.  

ha ha.

Some of the student bundles after emerging from the dye pots.

Notice how the color is seeping into the paper?

So lovely.

I save a lot of tidbits from garage and estate sales,

many pieces of laces, doilies, linens and such,

and cut them up into smaller pieces for the kids to choose from

(at least 20 varieties this year).

I also purchase at least 5 silk varieties off the bolt from Dharma Trading Company 

and rip banner size pieces for the students main foundation.

They can make as many as 3 bundles, 

and this year I had 4 pots of dyestuff to choose from to steam their bundles in.

I was able to find windfall from Ornamental Plum,

Eucalyptus, and Walnuts,

plus I made a cheater pot of Rit Turquoise this year. 

When the Rit mixes with the windfall it tones and softens the color to make it look like a natural dye.

I also made a pot of clear water to steam in 

which turned out many beautiful results

because of the rich source of dyestuff's the kids brought in.

These pieces above are from two bundles that I demoed with.

Loved how the doll bloomers turned out.

Included in each child's bundles are at least 2-4 butterflies of pearle cottons 

that pick up the color as well.

They use these to sew with on their banners.

After all the bundles are opened,

I have the kids gather round a table.

 They have to donate at least 2 of their pieces they don't care for or think they will not use.

Then we go round and round and they pick something new 

they might be able to incorporate into their designs.

I believe we made it around the table 3 times this year with 29 kids and 2 adults.

That's right, 

we also have English teacher Donna Hall and Coach Milan taking the class as well.

In the photo above Donna is the tall blond on the left,

and Coach Milan is middle right with hat on backwards 

standing next to our red head Assistant Principal,

 Rose Ellen Shea,

 who heard about the process and wanted to watch the excitement.

So let's see how these banners turned out this year.

There were so many outstanding ones that I've had to break this post into 2 parts.

I wanted to start with Ms. Hall's banner because the kids and I loved it so much.

The reason I want each kid to use at least 2 dye pots

 is so that they have two contrasting colors to work with.

I believe Donna used the walnut and turquoise pots.

Starting on their foundation,

students are required to stack fabrics 3 layers deep in at least one area,

and to use at least 5 of their 12 embroidery stitches they learned to tack them down with.

Also required were to incorporate at least one of their polymer beads you saw in an earlier post, 

and to figure out a clever way to hang their banner from a twig they've sourced.

Ms. Hall also found an additional embellishment (required) with the carved wooden button,

plus she sewed down lots of complimenting seed beads to catch the eye.

Most of the feathers you will see came from around my cabin this summer. 

This next beauty was made by junior Lynette Lee 

whom I'm finding is an incredible designer and craftswoman.

Check out these close-ups of her work.

My favorite part of hers are the woven fabrics ala Jude Hill with the eco-dyed thread X's over top.

The yellows in this dynamic piece were made from the spice Turmeric.

And here is a close-up so you can see senior Sarah Woo's handwork.

I'm hoping you are also noticing that each piece has threads

 that are being couched down in random patterns,

another requirement.

These are probably too earthy to be called adorable, 

but this one by senior Alexis Bilas-Imperial is pretty darn close.

The clever girl turned hers into a landscape.

Do you see it,

The clouds & flowers?

And if you look really close you will also see the clever use of safety pins

 to hold bead embellishments on top of pieces of eyelet.

In this next beauty you can really see the gorgeous turquoise that senior Crystal Lai-Ton-Nu was able to achieve in one of her bundles.

I believe her second bundle went into eucalyptus.

Two close-ups of her impeccable craftsmanship in her embroidery stitches,

and look how perfectly she couched down her thread.

So lovely Crystal!

And this last piece in part one was created by 8th grader Leanne Alcoy.

Every year I've been blessed with amazing 8th graders,

and Leanne is no exception.

 It looks like Leanne's two bundles went into the Ornamental Plum and Eucalyptus.

This is beautifully crafted,

and I love the dimensional effect she created with the overlapping of doilies. 

And then sewing on a dried flower in it's center is the perfect focal point.

Thank you all for bringing such beauty and inspiration into our lives.