A Very Busy Week!

 

(Above:  Found Object Mandala CXCV. Custom framed:  15 3/4" x 15 3/4".  Found objects hand-stitched to a section of a vintage quilt.  Objects include:  A ViewMaster reel; a coffee K-pod; eight racing medals feathering the profile of President JFK; blue toy cannons; brass keys; external toothed lock washers; circles for grommets; wooden wheels for a toy, assorted buttons and beads.  Click on any image to enlarge.)

I keep promising myself that some sort of regular routine for finishing artwork will happen now that I've retired from retail framing and moved to Cateechee.  This involves all the stitching, mounting, framing, photography, entering into my inventory book, blogging, and posting to social media.  So far, it hasn't quite happened.  I'm still playing catch up but that might have something to do with how busy this past week has been!

(Above:  Found Object Mandala CXCVI.  Custom framed:  22 1/2" x 22 1/2" when hung as a square; 31 1/2" x 31 1/2" when hung as a diamond.  Found objects hand-stitched to a section of a vintage quilt.  Objects include:  A metal clock spring; old-fashioned, wooden clothespins; wooden wheels for a toy; plastic protractors; belt buckles; turtle shaped trivets; wooden mahjong tiles; cafe curtain rings; red dice; Tinker Toy connectors; Monopoly hotels; assorted buttons and beads.)

On Monday I presented a Power Point lecture to the Lake & Mountain Quilt Guild in Seneca, South Carolina.  I returned on Tuesday and Wednesday for an in depth melting workshop.

All the participants had taken my two-day HOT workshop in 2022.  This workshop is where I explain how my In Box and Stained Glass pieces are created.  I provide everything ... from the sewing machines to the polyester stretch velvet which is already prepared with heat-activated adhesive ironed to the reverse.  For this workshop, the participants wanted to "work bigger" and created a "Window" instead of just one, little melted piece.

Because a workshop can often find participants waiting around to use the ironing station or the sewing machines or the melting equipment, I decided to also demonstrate how the hand-stitched In Boxes are made.  No one would be idle!  If otherwise waiting, there would be hand-stitching too.  Therefore, everyone was able to construct a larger Window and also a little hand-stitched In Box.

I planned the workshop so that everyone had the last afternoon to start anything else they wanted to make.  Lots of great pieces were finished and more were even begun.

I don't bring "example" to the workshops I conduct.  I've always figured that the best way to present artwork as a professional artist is to MAKE ART!  So, I made a Window and a little hand-stitched piece too!

 

(Above: (Left)  Window CCXV.  Framed:  18" x 15"; unframed: 13" x 10". Layers of polyester stretch velvet on recycled synthetic industrial felt with free-motion embroidery and melting techniques. $265. (Right) In Box CDXLIX.  Framed:  11 1/4" x 9 1/4".  Same approach except it is entirely hand-stitched. $100.)

Later, I got them into frames ... both behind glass.  I forgot to take photos before this was done.

 

(Above:  In Box CDXLVIII and what will become In Box CDL.  Both hand-stitched.)

When I took the photo of the two pieces I used for my workshop demonstration, I realized that I'd also forgotten to take pictures of In Box CDXLVIII.  It's on the left in the photo above.  At least I put In Box CDL in the photo too ... just in case I forget to take a picture of it after I melt it, mount it, and put it in a frame under glass!  All my hand-stitched In Box pieces are created while the synthetic felt is stapled to a stretcher bar.  They remain on the stretcher bar when I expose the reverse to the intense heat from an industrial heat gun.  The thinnest layer (the space between the shapes ... where it is only the thickness of the felt) melts away in a matter of a few seconds.

(Above:  In Box CDXLVI.  Framed:  19" x 15". $375.)

Thankful, I remembered to take pictures of two earlier, hand-stitched In Box pieces.  Above is In Box CDXLVI and below is In Box CDXLVII ... BEFORE they were put in frames under glass.  I'm getting plenty of hand-stitching done while watching the Olympics.  Tonight, however, the Olympics come to an end and I've already got a couple Found Object Mandalas ready to go!

If it hadn't been for the fact that I spent last Thursday at Bay 3, the cooperative gallery in Anderson which I recently joined, and delivering artwork to the Reeves House Visual Art Center in Woodstock, GA on Friday, I might have remembered the photography ... but maybe not!  It is different being retired.  All I really want to do is stitch, stitch, stitch.  Without the interruptions from retail framing and without living in an urban area, I am tempted to just stitch ... nothing else ... except that I am reading books!  I finished Ron Rash's The Caretaker this past week and am now enjoying Joseph Luzzi's Botticelli's Secret.  

So ... what did Steve and I take to Georgia for an invitational exhibit called The Cabinet of Curiosities?  Well ... the curator requested my piece titled The Cabinet of Curiosities! LOL!  Also, she took Time, Time Signatures, The Wall of Keys, and an art quilt that has never been seen in public called My Teeth.  (All these pieces can be seen on my website.) I wish I could return for the opening but it's a little too far for just an evening.