Sealed For Your Protection

I ordered some Golden High Flow* acrylics. The High Flow paints come in a small squirt bottle, which if you don't realize they are Sealed For Your Protection, but you twist open the cap and give it a good squeeze anyways, become unsealed. and does not protect you - it comes out the sides all over your hands, not through the tip where you are expecting it to come out. They are,  however, true to their name and flow beautifully.

  The High Flow paints were used to fill some empty markers that also came in the shipment. I picked out a few different sizes and shapes to play with. My favorite is the 3mm chisel, it feels like a pen. The crusher is a very soft moppy brush, I think that one will come in handy. They use a pumping action to get the paint from the barrel to the tip, which means there is a middle part which controls the flow. You really shouldn't forget that part and then try to paint with it. It will not be Sealed For Your Protection. Yes, my hands are all sorts of pretty colors.

Golden has some pre-filled markers that were on back order, so I am anxiously awaiting those!

The SAQA regional reps had a day of training before the rest of the conference, and as an activity to help us get to know each other's names, we exchanged fat quarters. Of course all of the fabric was beautiful, many of them were hand dyed or painted.  I was incredibly lucky enough to get this amazing piece that was snow dyed by Beth Schillig. YUM!

 

*well, that was dangerous. I went to the Golden website to include the link and got lost there for a while. They have this virtual color mixer which I could play with for hours. Some of the paint combinations from the color picture (under "image") are surprising.

 

Yellow #4

In my last post I mentioned that the kids would be both home soon. They are, indeed, both home now. However, I forgot how hard it is to even THINK in full sentences when they are here. I love it! And they make cookies (they even clean up after).

So, that's what my last few weeks have been - children! Sadly (selfishly for me, not for them!), they both have jobs and Thing 2 is taking drivers ed, so family time will not be as abundant as in past summers.

My auction piece for the SAQA auction was received and has been photographed and is up in the auction album. 



I am enjoying making quilts based on the color yellow. So far they've had a bit of a fantasy flower theme... definitely not flowers you'd find in real life :) Yellow #5 is shaping up a bit differently. Stay tuned...

Sneak Peeks

 It's been a busy week. We got Thing 1 home from college - very happy about that - and we get Thing 2 back next week. And then summer can officially start. A little early, but it ends early when they go back to school in August. 

Anyhoo... I've also been working on painting three different pieces this week. This is a close up of the second in my Red series. I love this picture, the colors are so vibrant!

 

and this is a new one that will finish at 12"x12", fourth in the Yellow series. It's intended for the SAQA auction, if I can get it finished and in the mail first thing Tuesday morning!

 

What are you working on??

Photographing Your Quilts

At the SAQA conference, Gregory Case gave a presentation on photographing your quilts. It's not quite as simple as it may seem. Yes, it can be done at home with your iPhone, but that will not give you the results you want. 

Gregory emphasized that if you're sending this photo to a show to be looked at by the judges, this is your quilt's wedding photo - you want it to look it's absolute best.

He showed us examples of photos of quilts taken with an iPhone vs using a SLR in RAW mode. Not too surprisingly, there was a huge difference. Even using a SLR in jpg mode vs RAW mode was not as accurate in color or texture. So, first you need a camera that takes pictures in RAW mode. Yes, this is like giving a mouse a cookie.

If you get a camera that takes pictures in RAW, then you need software that processes RAW. Photoshop Elements is great for processing jpgs, but you need the full Photoshop deal for RAW. 

Now that you have your camera and software, you need to learn to set your camera to take accurate color, rather than the "pleasing" color it was designed to take. Cameras are designed for less colors, but oversaturated ones, so you lose a lot of detail. 

Since every step of the process requires a different device (camera, computer, printer) and each of those devices use a different way to read color. So if you want it to print the way it looks on your screen, or you want the judge to see it on their screen the way it looks on your screen, you need a color monitor which calibrates color between devices. And then there's the whole studio set up which needs a good amount of space and lighting.

There was a lot more detail in the talk, but to sum it up, if you want your photos to look professional, find a professional who knows specifically how to photograph quilts. You can get serviceable photos on your own, but it will take some practice, an investment in equipment and space. Sarah Ann Smith has a great tutorial for her set up. For me, though, as much as I love my camera, and even fiddling with Photoshop (Elements), I'd rather be spending that time on my art!

Speaking of Elements, that was the theme for the SAQA exhibit that we went to see during the convention, which highlighted SAQA's change for the definition of an art quilt. In the curator's essay, Jill Werner states, "Each artist was asked to interpret a chemical element from the periodic table. However, there was an additional twist. The artists were asked not to use the traditional quilt-making materials of fabric and thread (or at least to use them as little as possible)."
Here are a few of the pieces:

Wen Redmond, Lighter Than Air (Helium)

Trisha Hassler, The Irony Of It All Was Not Lost On Her (Iron)

Marian Zielinski, Beckoning Of The Night (Neon)

Mary Vaneeke, Samarium 62: No Relation (Samarium)

Kathy York, Seeking: A White Mitten In A Blizzard (Technetium)

Cynthia St. Charles, Zinc

Diane Melms, Chromium

I RODE THE ELEVATOR WITH YVONNE PORCELLA!

Yvonne is truly one of the quilting world's rock stars and one of the founders of SAQA. Here she is at the SAQA national conference talking about one of the quilts she was working on as SAQA was being formed. She has a great sense of humor and often had the entire room laughing.

The whole weekend of the conference was filled with informative workshops, lectures and even a field trip. The two break-out workshops that I took were photographing your quilts and being your own art coach each of which I will talk in more detail in other posts.

We also got a sneak peak at the new line of fabrics that SAQA has been working on. I can't show you any pictures yet, but they are fabulous! Very unique prints and colorways that I can see being used in everything from traditional to modern to art quilts. Guess I had better make some room in my fabric stash for when they are available to purchase. I'll keep you posted!

Next year the conference is in Portland, Oregon. If you're in SAQA, you should go. If you're not in SAQA, you should join and then go.

An Ode to My Scissors

The story that goes with my picture, and was going to be written on it (and may still), is about how much these scissors mean to me. In 1984, I was accepted to go to the National 4-H Congress in Chicago. This trip, for me, was HUGE. While we were there, we were given gifts by different sewing item manufacturers, but the gift from Gingher of the set of scissors was beyond anything i had expected. It came in a velveteen box with a brass plaque WITH MY NAME ENGRAVED ON IT. ehem. They were (and are) so shiny and sharp. I could not even have afforded to buy them at the time, but to have them presented in such a beautiful way meant so much to my teenage princess self. They are still cherished.

toilet paper and stars

 I'm taking a drawing class through our local art gallery. For the last class the teacher stacked some rolls of toilet paper, added some white balls and a couple of white tray things in the back. I've never used charcoal before. Class ended before I felt like I had really finished it, but I'm pleased with what i did accomplish.

 Did you know that quilting is not like riding a bicycle? I haven't worked on a pieced quilt in a long time - I had forgotten a lot! Also, fabric does not seem to obey the laws of physics.

I have enough to make 12 stars. The plan is to make 4 twin size quilts, each with different settings and background fabrics. These blocks will finish at 30".

I've also cut out fabric to make this quilt. It's something that can be portable and I can leave it packed up for working on at my WOW meetings (a group of the bestest artsy women!) or other sew togethers.

Will

I'm part of a wonderful Art Quilt yahoo group and many of them pick a word of inspiration around the beginning of the year as inspiration for the rest of the year. Last year my word was Schmutz a Yiddish word which means dirt or filth, but to me also means extra stuff - clutter in the house and studio, things hanging around that you don't love or use and also just too many embellishments on a quilt. Don't get me wrong... I like and use embellishments but sometimes more is not always better. You know what quilts I'm talking about, right? So last year my quilts were unadorned. Simple, essentially whole cloth quilts painted with acrylic paints. No applique or beads or ribbons. I also applied it to our house, trying to keep the decor simple and uncluttered. Still working on that.

This year I've decided my word is Will. I Will work hard, I Will put time into my art, I Will eat right, I Will exercise. And not in the Someday I Will sense of the word, but in a more present tense. So, um, maybe the word is Am. I Am working hard, etc... but then i'm probably overthinking the whole thing :)

The Will I am thinking of is some of the Planning Ahead Will, but also the will of Diligent Purposefulness.

 

Also, my dad (who passed away a few years ago) was named William. He went by Bill, or Wild Bill, or Sully even, not Will, but close enough :)

Apparently it's a week of inspirational quotes:

John Cage:

“When you start working,
Everybody is in your studio-
The past
Your friends
Enemies
The art world,
And above all, your own ideas-all are there.
But as you continue painting,
They start leaving,
One by one,
And you are left completely alone.
Then if you’re lucky, even you leave.”


I find this to be spot-on... do you have this experience when you are making art?