week four--black

So I could have shown things that ARE black: ink bottle, arch-backed Hallowe'en cat, old-fashioned phone, little dress--but those are just pictures, representations of black. What IS black? Quite simply, a lack of color. The opposite of white, which is all color. This white background fabric has tiny circles (really tiny, about 1/16th”) , some of which I filled in with a pigma pen; the idea was to fade out into the white. All in all, not very well done, I admit; rather lame, in fact. Not even a bead on it—I tried a few but they didn’t really add anything. I would certainly not call this ‘art’. But it was a tougher concept than I thought it would be and I clearly did not push myself this past week. (My original idea for this would have taken much longer than a week.) We’ll see what this coming week’s word will bring...

week 3--garden

Ah, a hopeful thought in this dreary Northwest Ohio winter. (My former college roommate, while living in Montana, told me she liked earth tones. "You know, blues and greens and purples." Uh, yeah. 'round here, earth tones are brown and grey.) Anyway, no lack of color in this week's project. Online, I found a great comment regarding gardens. It is rubber-stamped on white muslin, then surrounded by bright green wool with flowers and leaves felted on top. A few beads were added for depth and a tiny bit of sparkle.

this week's word: shadow

I liked this word as soon as I pulled it out of the bag, then I got stuck. A shadow of what? The trees at the park made great long, grey lines against the bright white snow, but I wasn't into making a 'pictorial' piece. Hmmm... Then while looking through my fabric stash, I saw a favorite batik, one with kanji all over it. I wondered what the symbol for 'shadow' is, so looked it up and decided to make a shadow of 'shadow'. I dug out fabrics in light and dark shades of the same colors, so to create the illusion on the background. I suppose I could have used a slightly darker grey for the smaller kanji, but am generally happy with the overall results. Machine-pieced background, fusible-web applique, machine-quilted and bound.

and the word is...air

Okay--the first one is done. I pulled the word 'air' out of the bag last Sunday, didn't like it, and tossed it back in. (My challenge, my rules.) I pulled out another word I didn't care for, tossed it back, pulled another, tossed that one back, then pulled out 'air' again. Out of 52 little pieces of paper, to have pulled it out again so soon told me it was meant to be. I'll deal with the rejected words some other week. If an inkling of an idea doesn't hit me right away, back into the bag they go.
So, 'air'. Tough one. It's hard to represent wispy with solid materials. I decided thread can be wispy so I made a frame (Timtex covered with a batik fabric that has a wind-blown sort of flow to it), and stitched light blue thread across nothingness except a few pieces of fine monofilament (I suppose now that they were structurally unnecessary) from inner edge to inner edge. I couldn't find light blue embellishment fibers at any craft store in town so cut my blue thread into short pieces and stitched them in place as I zig-zagged the outer edge. To add a touch of sparkle, like in the uber-cold air outside, I tied a few blue beads onto the threads (with thread), though their iridescence doesn't show at all in the photo.
Reaching into the bag for word #2...

Is 'start again' an oxymoron?

Okay--new year, new plans. I have placed 52 little pieces of paper in a little bag, each with one word such as 'circle', 'red', 'flamboyant', 'tree', etc., just little jumping-off points to get me started. I will make a 5"x6" piece of art each week, be it fiber or paper or felting or ...., inspired by whichever word I pull out. I asked Joe to do some of the words, so I'd be surprised, requesting he not put in words like 'alien'. (He's 9, you know, so is big on aliens and Star Wars and such. He wouldn't do it, but decided to begin his own project to draw an alien a day. See? Each of us inspires others, in some way.) I'm not planning on any other rules with this project, but to finish each piece within the week--knowing they are not for show but just to get me moving again, artistically. Oh, yeah--and I'll post photos of them here. So I guess they are for show. Maybe I'll post Joe's aliens, too.
I'm not really sure I have time for this sort of thing, but I see so many others doing so much with their time, there's no reason I can't at least try to do the same.
p.s. Re: 'start again', I began this blog a few years ago but never told anybody. Silly. Now it's for real.