Anybody See the Connection Here?

It's strange when you realize what you subconsciously pick as 'your colors'. Hmmmm....

Working on Commission?

Well, sort of. I'm in the process of creating a textile art piece to be used in a wedding ceremony and then it will become a piece of wall art. I've been struggling with different designs and have finally decided on 'book' type design that is somewhat like a scroll. It will be about 50"long and 8" wide and will have separate pages which will show pictures and wishes from friends of the couple on one side and then artwork in these colors on the other side. So now that I have decided on a format, I'm working on color studies to decide what colors I'd like to use, what marks I'm going to make etc. I'm experimenting with silk and cotton and using silk paints and fluid acrylics. If the acrylics are thinned to a watercolor consistency, they don't affect the hand of the fabric too badly, but I'm leaning towards the silk paints just due to their yummy color and lack of stiffness. The request was to use a bright primary palette even though that is not my usual way of working, so I'm having a bit of a time trying to integrate it into the piece, but I plan to do some stamping of other colors and metallics on top to mute things a bit and to pull the piece together with a theme.




So, I've been cutting stamps today as well and had forgotten that they are a lot of work! Maybe that's why I ended up doing etchings vs. linocuts. I started out using a shortcut technique I read about in Quilting Arts magazine using plumber's gasket instead of lino material. Big mistake. It is so hard to cut and the marks are ragged even with very sharp new tools. (See the brick red stamp on the left.) My next stamp I used unmounted easy cut lino...much better. (Grey material at right.) Plus there is really no cost savings using the gasket, it is the same price for a 6"x6" piece of that as it was for an 8"x10" piece of unmounted lino. So a no brainer as far as I'm concerned. But now my hands are tired out and need a rest. So I'll do some more painting.



Below is a sample of the more muted palette I first suggested but was rejected...oh well.

Embracing Encaustic....

Last month I finally was able to attend a workshop in Portland with renowned encaustic artist, Linda Womack. The six hour class covered all the basics of encaustic painting from making medium and preparing the support to the actual painting, fusing, incising the wax, filling lines, adding collage pieces and lots more. I was only able to complete two pieces as I was really into just trying different things and seeing how they worked, not trying to create a masterpiece. Here's my first trial...



Here's an angle shot so you can see the texture gouged out with tools...



I am so enthralled with the look and feel of the wax that I think this is something that I could really get into, so a few days ago I ordered my first five pounds of beeswax. I have some paints and damar and a heat gun etc. so I've been shopping the last few days for a pancake griddle online and managed to find a giant one at Kohl's in Medford that I plan to pick up tomorrow. So it looks like soon I could be off into the wonderful world of encaustic painting. I'll post the results when I get started.



But first I need to seriously work on the studio reorganization and remodel so I have some space for this new passion. I'm also thinking that encaustic monoprints would dovetail nicely with the class I took in February, so will be thinking about that as well. Ah learning is great....

Monotypes and Chine Colle in Medford

Last month I was lucky enough to be able to take a three week class and workshop with Nancy Jo Mullen in her studio. This workshop was my reintroduction to printmaking which I have essentially been away from for 10 years. When I walked into Nancy Jo's studio I was greeted by all the familiar smells from my days as a studio lab assistant at Santa Barbara City College. The class was so much fun and all the other gals made for such a supportive atmosphere, I am inspired to get my main studio cleaned out, my press set up and get back into printing. Here are a few examples of prints from the class and workshop and you can see the rest here...







Now I am very excited about the possibilities for combining the printmaking with my fiber design and then throwing encaustic into the mix. It seems there's a great circle here Fiber>Printmaking, Printmaking>Encaustic, Encaustic>Fiber. So hopefully will begin a few experiments to see what I can come up with in those combinations. I'll also report on how the studio remodel is going. For now, here is what my work area looks like. Shocking!!

Busy Times

It's been a while since I posted and I know I need to get caught up with what's been going on here, so I'm putting up a few photos from over the last few months of little play projects that I have been working on. Since I have been doing a lot of waiting lately, I decided that I needed to update my hand sewing kit with some new things that would interest me more than the English paper pieced stars I've been working on for the last few years. So I decided to bring on my favorites, batiks and texture. Hence this braided stitched piece made from batiks inspired by Jan Beaney and Jean Littlejohn. Who knew ripping fabric could feel so good?



Another is what I call my "teabag" project. It's a small piece made with teabag papers and hand stitching. Thanks to friends who helpfully saved their teabags for me (another weird art project...) I have enough to make something really big if I decide to. I love the look of the tea stains which make it seem very vintage and the hand stitching is fun because I'm not worrying about sizing or direction, just seeding them in. Now how can I get people to drink more blueberry and raspberry tea so I can get more colors in here? Not sure what I will do with all this yet, but am enjoying the play aspect of it as well. Perhaps it will evolve into a new piece.



In the next few weeks I'll try to blog on the monotype workshop I took in February and the encaustic painting workshop I did earlier this month. Been trying lots of new things so I have lots to share.

3 Day Marathon Overload

I am toast. Been recuperating from a 3 day marathon class with Sherrill Kahn in Ashland, Oregon this last weekend. Sherrill has boundless energy and spent 90% of the time demoing techniques and answering questions. I was feeling a bit overloaded after the first day but got started on a piece and by the second day I was well along with a second one. That evening I did 'homework' on both pieces to get them ready to be made into final wall hangings or ???. I spent most of yesterday adding embellishments to the first piece (the orange one shown below) which I was fairly satisfied with. The second, black piece did not get so far. But I am ready to do more painting to create fabrics to go with it. It was a long three days but very much worth it as far as learning new techniques. More pictures are on my Flicker photostream here.

Class Update

Beginning of Wall Hanging
Originally uploaded by Jill Lee Jones

Well, I finally got around to taking photos of the things I started in Marcy Tilton's workshop in June. It was an enjoyable drive to her beautiful home in the woods outside of Cave Junction. Marcy and her sister, Nandini, put on a great workshop and even served us a wonderful lunch. It was fun and inspiring, I spent the time making lots of materials to compile into future projects. Above is the beginning of a wall hanging I started. We did lots of painting on fusible web, fabric, discharging, silkscreening, and other techniques. I was so inspired and excited at the prospect of creating my own cloth or using the ideas to embellish clothes or other items. I want to go back and take another class sometime before the weather gets bad here. I highly recommend Marcy's workshops. More photos are on my Flicker photostream here.

Also, I wanted to mention that I've been busy working on some other pieces which I need to photograph and put up here soon. My Bali Wedding Ring won 3rd place in Machine Quilting at the Mt. Shasta Quilt Show!