Frottage

Sounds like something to eat, doesn't it? Actually it is something everyone did as a kid, I think: Laying paper upon a structure and then rubbing with a pencil to get the outline and surface.
This is one of the exercises we have to do - or rather which are suggested to do - in an online class with Sharon Boggon at joggles.com called Studio Journals. I have been working with a sketch book on and off (lately rather off) and thought that training in a class would perhaps help me to keep up journaling on a more regular basis.

Zentangle

Ever heard of "Zentangle"? This is kind of a philosophy combining doodles and the idea of Zen. You try to fill every piece in a given design with another overall design. This takes time and you are to enjoy the process (live in the here and now). Drawing is done with a very fine Micron pen on exquisite heavy paper. I enjoy this process when I am stuck with an idea or just have no inclination to really work in my studio. You can do this for hours (although my neck starts screaming after a certain time) or just for a few minutes.
For the materials needed and for inspiration look up www.zentangle.com

Origami book

So this is one of the diversions I mentioned in my last post. It is a really tiny book (1 1/2" square) which is totally folded. No glue, no tacks, nothing. I found the kit at www.greenchairpress.com and had quite a lot of fun after I managed to work out how it was meant to be. (Believe me, that took some time. I am totally lost when it comes to spatial sense.)
Sorry that the picture of the interior (small pages you just insert which I decorated with paper inchies) is upside down. It was too dark outside to make a new photo when I realized that.

Another birthday

Seems that I am constantly working for friends - or rather their birthdays ;-)
But I have been busy otherwise, too. One of these days I will show you pictures of some artistic diversions I took.

Friendship

For my best friend's birthday I made this small wallhanging. I know that she loves nostalgic things, so I thought this a perfect gift. In hindsight it would have been better had I not chosen the background fabric with the small roses on it. It rather competes with the appliqué and stitching. Alas, too late! I hope she will like it nevertheless.

Finshed

Finally the quilt is finished. Since this piece is going to hang on a slightly curved wall I did not quilt all three layers. The center piece was quilted on the batting. Later on I added the borders, added batting to these, too, and then quilted only the borders with the background. I was afraid that quilting all three layers might make the wallhanging too stiff for the situation it was going to meet.
That is not the only reason why I haven't been blogging as regularly as before. My husband's computer is not working, so he is occupying my laptop all the time. Arrrrgh! I really look forward to the time my son is coming home. Between them they will hopefully be able to repair the other computer and give me free reign with my laptop again.

Memories

This booklet is for my stepmother. My father and her invited my husband and me to a very expensive hotel. We stayed for four days and celebrated my father's birthday. I collected everything I could lay my hands on and made this booklet which includes photos, cutouts from the hotel's advertising folder as well as the daily menu and my guest card for instance. At the back I sewed our buttons into a small see through bag. I really hope she will like it.

Work in progress

A commissioned wallhanging is finally reaching its completion. I had the measurements and the preferred color green to work with. Starting with several sketches I worked by auditioning my fabric. Later I freecut the fabric and translated the sketch into a quilt. Everything was done by raw applique and then quilted.
As is often the case I discovered a fabric in my stash that worked much better than the ones I had bought for the foreground. So I discarded the precut shapes and just added this fabric which has a kind of watercolor appearance. Now there remains the border to quilt and then it will be finished. I am quite pleased by the outcome, especially since I have been procrastinating several weeks before finally starting to work on this piece.

Results from the workshop

One of our loosening up experiments was the felting of a pincushion. Looks like an UFO, doesn't it? Plus we made these small pins with shrinking plastic. That was fun!
Later we tried to achieve a somewhat trapunto effect by quilting a piece of "fabric" made by felting rovings, fabric and other stuff together.
At last Sara had a challenge for us. We had to randomly chose five words from a book and make a piece using these. Mine were the words location, glass, hall, staircase and girls. This really forced us to work outside our comfort zone.

Embelisher experiments workshop

So this is what it looks like when you have a workshop with 12 women wildly experimenting with the embellisher.... and when you have a host who supplies you with all imaginable things you might need for these experiments.
It does not matter how many boxes of supplies you carry with you - there will always be something you left behind because you thought it would not be necessary. This item will be needed most of all, I assure you.
No need to worry, we could buy everything, and of the best quality, too. Wools and rovings and silk carrier rods and silk throwster waste and yarns, these hand colored yarns!! No need to say that every one of us later took off with quite a lot more or heavier boxes than we arrived with. I wonder how I will keep the family nourished this month....

Brooch

This brooch was the first thing I finished during my workshop with Sara Lechner. This and a small pincushion were sort of a warming up exercise to get our embellisher going. We even made some pins with flower heads (from shrink plastic) which I think are quite charming.
The next posts will give you an impression of the workshop which was very informative and quite exhausting!

Felting experiments

Yesterday I attended a class to make Nuno-felt. We had a lot of fun and I came home with a selection of 6 felted pieces. It is quite interesting to realize how the kind of wool as well as the underground fabric influences the outcome of the felted piece. Since I am going to make a felted jacket in autumn I gladly accepted the opportunity to test various backgrounds - I decided on a striped silk fabric for my jacket, since this was the fabric which felted best.

Small journal

This is journal #3 in a smaller size. It was so easy to put together that I made it as an additional small present for a friend of mine. I added a small tag done from the same fabric paper the journal is made from. I just sewed a small pocket from silk paper onto a sturdier page in black.

Felted brooch

This is a felted brooch I made as a birthday present for a friend of mine. I felted velvet and organza onto black kunin felt, then added some Oakshot fabric and specialty yarns. Afterwards I stitched the outer border and some knots and added some seed beads. Next week I will take a class with Sara Lechner and hope to be able to really use my embellisher afterwards.

Textile leaves

Just returned from an incredibly intensive class with Elsbeth Nusser-Lampe. I think I never learnt so many techniques in two days. We worked with painted Tyvek, Vliesofix, gold foil, we quilted and stitched like mad. Everything was very carefully demonstrated and explained, there were many examples to look at including inspirational material. Elsbeth Nusser-Lampe had two books and two leporellos with her to show different ways to bring our work together. Now I have to decide to do a book or a leporello. At present I tend to the latter form since this is one I never did before. On the other hand all examples are made as a sandwich with background, so finishing them and then binding them to a book would be as easy. Besides I would have to paint and perhaps stamp my Pelmet in order to have a decorative background for the leporello binding.....
I you have the opportunity to attend a class with this artist, jump to it! It is so revarding.

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Wind object

Just unpacked the wind sculpture we bought during a trip to Bavaria. Two ever so slightly rusted raven that are now flying their endless circles in our garden. Both my husband and me immediately fell in love with this sculpture. These birds look very absurd especially since most of the time they are flying backward....

Autograph book (Poesiealbum)

I was incredibly lucky to buy this autograph book at an ebay-auction. Normally they are extremely expensive, especially when they are as complete as this one. Entries start 1888, and the book is completely filled with poems and the like, some even on both front and back page.
The script is the so called "Sütterlin" style which I myself learnt during second grade. This was a short project which was supposed to help us improve our handwriting abilities. However it is very difficult to read the entries because I don't remember all the letters, it is too long ago and I never used it except during those few months at school.

Sunshine

This seems to be only form of sunshine we get at present - sunshine in a pot!

Sketch journal

The second journal of the online class with Sue Bleiweiss is done! This is what really lured me into the class. I had seen sketch journals in Sue's Etsy shop and loved them at once. I would have ordered one but didn't like the colors or the fabric of those she offered.
Now I made one of my own and I am really happy with it. The inside fabric (of the pocket) is a Stoll Weber-fabric (I absolutely love what she does with fabric). The outside is a piece of Sherryl Khan-fabric I bought last year in Berlin. The photos don't show the color of the inside background fabric correctly: It is a very deep dark purple (Oakshot fabric).
The closure is a piece of bark I treated with UTEE. I particularly like the outcome of that experiment.

It's spring, it's spring, it's spring.....

I wonder if I say it often enough it will actually happen. The photo was from Monday noon. In the meantime all the snow has turned to water. And more water is coming down from above.... It doesn't get light all day. Normally I don't care much about the weather, but this kind of weather drives everybody over the edge.
The only consolation I have is the online class with Sue Bleiweiss. Making her journals really brightens the day. My second journal is finished and I will post the photos with the next post.

Journal #1

This is the first journal I made in an online class with Sue Bleiweis. After finishing the journal itself I was not very satisfied. However tonight I woke at 4.00 a.m. and couldn't get back to sleep. While tossing in my bed I began thinking how I could improve the journal. First of all I did not like the way the linen yarn from sewing the signatures in showed on the backside. So I decided to hide this by adding vintage buttons to the spine. Then I thought of the stamping I could add as well as the tags I could make to go with the journal. After playing around today I am quite satisfied with the outcome. I now really like what I did and do not only think of it as something done just to learn a technique. At last I also added some German scrap papers. I love these because they remind me of my childhood where we collected them and glued them into small books. There are not many occasions I can use them today so I jump to the opportunity.