I subscribe to Quilting Arts and Cloth, Paper, Scissors magazines. I consider them to be excellent investments for a budding fiber artist. I admit to being drawn in initially by the shiny colors and fun techniques. However, you are infused with the practices of working artists, usage of the principles and elements of design and a celebration of inspiration between the covers of every issue. It's always an "inspiration celebration" when a new issue hits my mailbox! I am learning to view things from an artist's perspective (pun intended), which allows me to take away increasingly more as I continue to learn.
Recently, there was an article in one of them (the specific issue is hiding from me today - I'll add it here when I find it) that addressed setting parameters for a series of work. Perhaps you establish a size for the work, a limited color palette, specific materials to use, a technique and/or a theme. By setting parameters, you simplify choices and shape the work into a unified whole. The articles arguments were compelling. It's a basic concept. It wasn't even a new concept for me - the idea of defining your scope comes up over and over again in life. However, I'm a gal who clings to her entire box of 120 Crayola colors and drags way too much stuff to workshops. I'm all about the options! Somehow I needed to set up parameters to help evolve my grant theme. (As an aside - the tour of the Crayola Experience museum in Easton, PA is wonderful for children of all ages!)
"Working smarter, not harder" - Christopher Thomas
Another thought that I'll throw in here is an observation of a fellow Creative Memories Consultant from back in the day. Cheri had a gift for working efficiently. The woman was downright prolific. She'd combine our scrap booking supplies with a small concept we'd learned and feed it back with exponential creativity. She solved display problems using the Creative Memories products and managed to parlay that into increased sales. She always said that she just used what she had at hand. That's a life lesson I'd like to embrace. I've been enriching myself with guild lectures, books, magazines, exhibits, workshops and studying in small groups of artists for several years now creating a reservoir of resources. I have garnered much goodness, but now must choose where to focus...
Recently, there was an article in one of them (the specific issue is hiding from me today - I'll add it here when I find it) that addressed setting parameters for a series of work. Perhaps you establish a size for the work, a limited color palette, specific materials to use, a technique and/or a theme. By setting parameters, you simplify choices and shape the work into a unified whole. The articles arguments were compelling. It's a basic concept. It wasn't even a new concept for me - the idea of defining your scope comes up over and over again in life. However, I'm a gal who clings to her entire box of 120 Crayola colors and drags way too much stuff to workshops. I'm all about the options! Somehow I needed to set up parameters to help evolve my grant theme. (As an aside - the tour of the Crayola Experience museum in Easton, PA is wonderful for children of all ages!)
"Working smarter, not harder" - Christopher Thomas
Another thought that I'll throw in here is an observation of a fellow Creative Memories Consultant from back in the day. Cheri had a gift for working efficiently. The woman was downright prolific. She'd combine our scrap booking supplies with a small concept we'd learned and feed it back with exponential creativity. She solved display problems using the Creative Memories products and managed to parlay that into increased sales. She always said that she just used what she had at hand. That's a life lesson I'd like to embrace. I've been enriching myself with guild lectures, books, magazines, exhibits, workshops and studying in small groups of artists for several years now creating a reservoir of resources. I have garnered much goodness, but now must choose where to focus...
So, it's time to make some decisions. What do I know? What excites me? What's left to puzzle out?
- Size After the exhibit, I plan to make these pieces of fabric into bags to donate to the museum store, so the fabric needs to be tote bag sized. In addition, I want to learn to work larger instead of my usual fat quarter. I bought Joen Wolfrom's Magic Design-Ratio Tool which allowed me to eyeball various ratios of height and width. I'm going to go with a winning strategy - the golden ratio! The 8:13 ratio would work out well for the yard sized pieces of white cotton I've already cut and washed. I will leave a margin space and look to create a finished piece that is 20" by 33". The additional fabric of the yard can serve for a coordinating lining and handle. I have a preference for vertical orientation.
- Color I was introduced to Carol Soderlund through a guild workshop on dyeing t-shirts. I was immediately taken with Carol's teaching style (fun!), creativity and depth of knowledge. I attended her True Colors workshop at The Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts in Tennessee. Arrowmont is a beautiful facility in the Smokey Mountains. I recommend it highly! I was so pleased with the color palette that I developed, the idea of dyeing complex neutral colors and the exercises I learned for blending color by eye that I signed up for another workshop. In October, I'm taking The NEW Color Mixing for Dyers Part 1 class at ProChemical and Dye in Massachusetts. If anyone else is going I'm looking for a room mate! I want to move beyond my usual seat of the pants dyeing and approach this grant as a controlled dyeing study with a limited color palette. I know that I want to work with navy for my blue to get good depth of shade. I'm between scarlet and strongest red for my red. I'm between golden yellow and tangerine for the yellow. I plan to repeat a classroom exercise to see which blue/red/yellow combination gives me the range that appeals most to me. Gotta love the empirical method! Here's a gratuitous picture of my family reunion t-shirts made last year based on what I learned in Carol's first class. It was my first time trying out my air brushing equipment.
- Materials I plan to work with Procion MX reaction dyes on white cotton fabric.
- Techniques I have learned a number of dyeing, discharge and printing techniques in workshops with Jane Dunnewald, Elin Noble, Candice Edgerly and Carol Soderlund. I have a Thermofax machine and I know how to use it! I love the look of soy wax stamping, stenciling and foiling for coarser shapes. The Thermofax and TAP paper rule for more detailed images. I'm not planning to limit myself on techniques as I want to see what I need to do to fulfill the vision I have for each piece.
- Composition In addition to teaching a dyeing workshop, Carol Soderlund gave a guild lecture based on Christopher Alexander's book "The Nature of Order: An Essay on the Art of Building and the Nature of the Universe, Book One: The Phenomenon of Life." I'm finding the book very appealing. Very few people know that I minored in philosophy in college. She used her own medium of quilting to demonstrate how Christopher Alexander's 15 fundamental properties of life/wholeness applies to fiber art. The idea that the human eye sees beauty in these structures spelled out *composition* to me! The Kubala Washatko Architects, Inc. website has a handy visual overview of the fifteen properties. http://www.tkwa.com/fifteen-properties/ With 15 properties and a goal of 38 pieces I can cover each property twice and a third time for my favorites.
That's enough progress for one post. Did you know that I'm even working on the grant in my sleep? I'm using the technique of prompting myself with problems I'm trying to solve just before nodding off. Sometimes you get lucky and wake with the answers. Stay tuned... I'll be grappling with.the dreaded theme dilemma in the next post.
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