Most of my friends reading that title would ask if I was feverish or delusional. I usually rant and rave about how much I hate winter and the months of rain and cold. This year things are a bit different, and it surprises even me that I am actually looking forward to winter this year. And since we don't have a covered arena, and our place turns to mud after the first rains, I don't have to feel too guilty about not getting outside and working...either in the yard or with our horses.
It's mainly due to the fact that this summer has been a busy one of horse events, or trailering the horses to the Rogue Mounted Archers site for practices. Then things really ramped up when the RMA decided to host an international competition Sept 9-14. As members of the group, we were driving back and forth (it's about an hour and fifteen minutes one way) to help get the property ready for this first time event. Also, things got even more antsy, for me, as I ended up deciding to compete. Since I had waffled back and forth over that decision — yes I will, no I won't, yes I will, no never mind — then had several friends tell me to just go for it, so I did...or will. Which put me in a tissy, because I had let things slide, thinking I was out of the competition and the pressure was off. Now it's back on.
Then, just two weeks after this BIG competition, Robert and I are involved in putting on the equestrian part of an SCA event Oct 3-5. We had hoped to kinda bail out of setting things up for this, but it turned out that we still needed to be involved, which just added to the stress level we were already under.
You can see why I am looking forward to winter. After that last event, I want to be a slug for a few weeks, then start some art/sewing projects that I just haven't had time for, as my limited brain power has been focused elsewhere.
Here are a few of the things I want to play around with...some new, some old friends.
Gelli printing. I had never heard of this form of mono-printing, but stumbled on an example on Pinterest. I then did a search of gelli printing on Pinterest and got tons of photos and how-tos showing what it was all about. It looks like fun, seems to be pretty easy, and you can do it on fabric as well as paper, just use fabric paint instead.
Using resin in jewelry making. This is another thing I have been wanting to play around with for quite a while. With the new kits available it seems an easy process and I have seen some really wonderful things done with resin.
More beading on fabric. I got really hooked on beading ever since I started doing the boleros. I want to try using stencils for beading designs, and incorporating paint, stitching and beading all together on pieces of clothing I pick up at the Goodwill. There are just so many wonderful beading ideas out there, and I get all excited. But I don't want to start anything until after all these events are over, so I can really hunker down and get busy.
Back to drawing and painting. I started drawing and using colored pencils a while back, but due to all the time spent trying to get ready for these upcoming events, I put it on the back-burner...again. I did buy a new and better sketchbook with paper than can stand up to wet media, so I am ready to go when everything else calms down. I can also use this sketchbook as an art journal, which will be fun.
Here is a list of some other crazy things I would like to play around with during The Dark Days: Bleach pens, dying fabric, embroidery, making beaded bugs (I bought a little book on how to make them), and printing photos/artwork on cloth so I can use my own in designs on fabric.
Now you can see why I am looking forward to those long, cold, rainy months. I have a lot to do, and I can't wait to start playing.
Showing posts with label art to wear. Show all posts
Showing posts with label art to wear. Show all posts
Wednesday, September 3, 2014
Tuesday, December 4, 2012
Medal For Kay Nielsen Shirt
Per a request by Rice over at the Voodoo Cafe as part of her discussion on SoulWear, I am posting pictures of this work shirt I did back in the early 70s. The title comes from the one I came up with off-the-cuff, to be used in the Art Clothing show it appeared in at the Riverside Art Center and Museum (Riverside, CA). It refers to the image on the back of the shirt, which was my interpretation of one of Kay Nielsen's illustrations for East of the Sun, West of the Moon, and the front of the shirt made to look like I had a chest full of military medals. The woman putting the show together saw me wearing this shirt to an art class, and asked me if I would put it in the show. Gosh, lemme think...of course I would! Not thinking, I whipped it off my back and handed it to her (I had a T-shirt on under it). Much to my later embarrassment, when I went to the show, I discovered my shirt had been washed and...gasp...ironed! A few days later, this shirt appeared in our local paper as part of the advertizing for the show. I still have that article...somewhere.
By the time this shirt was made, all of us art students were into the embroidery, embellishment thing. I started this shirt around 1972, in conjunction with finding and buying the book Native Funk and Flash, which, alas, was destroyed by water two decades later.
So here it is, pulled from a drawer, not ironed...gasp...and laid out on my work table in the garage.
The front of the shirt is decorated with clothing labels cut from other garments I either Goodwilled or gave away, along with bells, keys(one now missing), and metal star studs. The dragon, now looking a little ragged around the edges, was one of my first attempts at decorating with embroidery, after I dorked around with the little roses on the collar points, and the fake ribbons on the "medals". The little pins were gifted to me by various people over the years, and once on the shirt, never left.
The back of the shirt is a combination of embroidery, applique, beading, and painting (the dark clouds). The horse's breast collar is some kind of washer, and a small bell. Everything on this shirt was drawn, sewn, painted, embroidered or beaded by me.
This old guy has held up pretty well over the decades. All the appliques and beading were done using just regular sewing thread. I haven't added anything to it since the 80s, as the shirt fabric is just too thin to hold up. But I still love and wear this shirt. He's an old friend who brings back a lot of memories of a young woman taking her first real art classes (with nude models!), hanging out with other artists, sharing our ideas, showing our works in the yearly member's show (and feeling so, so important), and all of us overflowing with enthusiasm for what we were doing, and what we hoped to do in the future.
By the time this shirt was made, all of us art students were into the embroidery, embellishment thing. I started this shirt around 1972, in conjunction with finding and buying the book Native Funk and Flash, which, alas, was destroyed by water two decades later.
So here it is, pulled from a drawer, not ironed...gasp...and laid out on my work table in the garage.
The front of the shirt is decorated with clothing labels cut from other garments I either Goodwilled or gave away, along with bells, keys(one now missing), and metal star studs. The dragon, now looking a little ragged around the edges, was one of my first attempts at decorating with embroidery, after I dorked around with the little roses on the collar points, and the fake ribbons on the "medals". The little pins were gifted to me by various people over the years, and once on the shirt, never left.
The back of the shirt is a combination of embroidery, applique, beading, and painting (the dark clouds). The horse's breast collar is some kind of washer, and a small bell. Everything on this shirt was drawn, sewn, painted, embroidered or beaded by me.
Thursday, July 5, 2012
Finished Tank Top—Review
Okay, here is the finished tank top, with the new reverse applique covering the pink blob/stencil mistake.
My conclusions after this first attempt are:
My embroidery skills suck! I hadn't done any in, oh, about 20+ years, so this first attempt back into it looks pretty rough. Also, I've decided that, in the future, for most of the sewing of the shirts, and the decorative stitching, I don't want to use embroidery floss. For the designs I like, it looks too primitive. Actually, the whole design on this shirt is more primitive than I would normally like or wear, but since it was an experiment, I kept things simple...for now.
Don't use the blanket stitch to sew on the facings. Because of the way it is sewn, it tends to make the facings fall outward. Next time I'll use either a chain stitch or a Cretan stitch.
I liked doing the reverse applique, and I really liked the stenciling, even if in this case it got covered up. I also enjoyed the beading. So, I figure the pieces I do in the future will have more stenciling and beading, with less embroidery.
Next, I really want to experiment with refining the color combinations betweeen the fabric, thread, stencil color, and beads. It's one of the things I like about the Alabama Chanin clothing...it looks sophisticated and classy, rather than primitive. Nothing at all wrong with more primitive-type designs. Lots of people love them and look good in them, they just aren't my thing.
A few weeks back I picked up some really nice XXL T-shirts at the Goodwill (I wanted something that did NOT have a pet food logo on it). One was a lovely pale grey/green, and two others were rich purple. Those will be the next ones I play around with. One of the purple shirts had a great machine embroidered picture of a Tibetan temple on it, which I'll use on something. When I was enthusing over it at the checkout counter, the lady ringing it up kinda just nodded her head and mumbled something like, "Oh yes, very nice." Obviously, Tibetan temples don't float her boat.
The picture makes the green shirt look more mint-greenish, but it's actually a soft pale green.
Final word is, I love the idea of recycling T-shirts. I like that I can use beads and embroidery floss I already have, although the fact that the floss is 20+ years old might have had something to do with the fact it tended to tangle...A LOT. I want to try working with quilting thread, and also metallic threads, or adding beaded stitching. I NEED NEW GLASSES OR I WILL GO BLIND DOING THIS STUFF.
For fun, I'd like to incorporate rubber stamping, or drawing directly on the fabric to add to the stencil design. They do a bit of the drawing on fabric with some of the Alabama Chanin clothing, and I loved the look. I'm also wondering if some of the techniques used on T-shirt material could be used with recycled sweatshirts, since it's cold so many months of the year where I live. Lots and lots of things to think about and play around with, to keep me busy during the hot summer—As if making jewelry, writing, gardening, and working horses wasn't enough. LOL
My conclusions after this first attempt are:
My embroidery skills suck! I hadn't done any in, oh, about 20+ years, so this first attempt back into it looks pretty rough. Also, I've decided that, in the future, for most of the sewing of the shirts, and the decorative stitching, I don't want to use embroidery floss. For the designs I like, it looks too primitive. Actually, the whole design on this shirt is more primitive than I would normally like or wear, but since it was an experiment, I kept things simple...for now.
Don't use the blanket stitch to sew on the facings. Because of the way it is sewn, it tends to make the facings fall outward. Next time I'll use either a chain stitch or a Cretan stitch.
I liked doing the reverse applique, and I really liked the stenciling, even if in this case it got covered up. I also enjoyed the beading. So, I figure the pieces I do in the future will have more stenciling and beading, with less embroidery.
Next, I really want to experiment with refining the color combinations betweeen the fabric, thread, stencil color, and beads. It's one of the things I like about the Alabama Chanin clothing...it looks sophisticated and classy, rather than primitive. Nothing at all wrong with more primitive-type designs. Lots of people love them and look good in them, they just aren't my thing.
A few weeks back I picked up some really nice XXL T-shirts at the Goodwill (I wanted something that did NOT have a pet food logo on it). One was a lovely pale grey/green, and two others were rich purple. Those will be the next ones I play around with. One of the purple shirts had a great machine embroidered picture of a Tibetan temple on it, which I'll use on something. When I was enthusing over it at the checkout counter, the lady ringing it up kinda just nodded her head and mumbled something like, "Oh yes, very nice." Obviously, Tibetan temples don't float her boat.
The picture makes the green shirt look more mint-greenish, but it's actually a soft pale green.
Final word is, I love the idea of recycling T-shirts. I like that I can use beads and embroidery floss I already have, although the fact that the floss is 20+ years old might have had something to do with the fact it tended to tangle...A LOT. I want to try working with quilting thread, and also metallic threads, or adding beaded stitching. I NEED NEW GLASSES OR I WILL GO BLIND DOING THIS STUFF.
For fun, I'd like to incorporate rubber stamping, or drawing directly on the fabric to add to the stencil design. They do a bit of the drawing on fabric with some of the Alabama Chanin clothing, and I loved the look. I'm also wondering if some of the techniques used on T-shirt material could be used with recycled sweatshirts, since it's cold so many months of the year where I live. Lots and lots of things to think about and play around with, to keep me busy during the hot summer—As if making jewelry, writing, gardening, and working horses wasn't enough. LOL
Saturday, June 23, 2012
Mistakes...They're A Good Thing!
I've been hearing a lot lately about letting yourself be free to make mistakes, because we always learn something from them. In some cases, for those of us with artistic proclivities, they can lead to a whole new fun way to play. Case in point: my attempts to stencil on T-shirt material.
My first attempt at putting a design on T-shirt material with fabric paint worked okay...sorta. The paint was a bit thick and as I dabbed it on with a makeup sponge, the fabric stuck to the sponge and pulled up through the stencil. It still worked, but I thought it would work better if I thinned the paint down with water.
With a new, larger stencil (found at my local home improvement center in the paint department), and some red pigment mixed with water, I tried again, and got...a blob of icky pink, in the vague outline of the stencil. The mixture was too thin, and the water bled under the stencil. And, alas, this blob was right on the front of my first tank top project. Wonderful, I thought, as I stared down at the nasty shade of pink. What the hell do I do now?
First, I let it dry. Then I thought, well, I'll just re-stencil the same design over the top of the blob, since most of it would be cut away anyway in a reverse applique. So, with a different color of paint (not my first choice on any of these colors, but I wanted to use stuff I already had during the experimentation process), I redid the stencil over the blob. To my surprise, I loved the halo effect the blob gave the pattern, but really hated the colors. Now I'm thinking of ways to purposely create the blob/halo before I put down the actual stencil design, using much nicer colors.
As for the final pink and white design...it got completely covered with a design that tied in better with the colors and design of the section of pet food logo that ended up on the top right of the shirt (I'm using old work T-shirts of my husband's, and most have pet food logos on them somewhere).
Even though the experiment with the watered down color failed completely, it actually gave me a new idea to play around with, so in the end, it wasn't really a failure, is was a mistake that led to new ideas. So, go ahead, make mistakes, and you, too, might create a big icky pink blob that leads to new ideas.
My first attempt at putting a design on T-shirt material with fabric paint worked okay...sorta. The paint was a bit thick and as I dabbed it on with a makeup sponge, the fabric stuck to the sponge and pulled up through the stencil. It still worked, but I thought it would work better if I thinned the paint down with water.
With a new, larger stencil (found at my local home improvement center in the paint department), and some red pigment mixed with water, I tried again, and got...a blob of icky pink, in the vague outline of the stencil. The mixture was too thin, and the water bled under the stencil. And, alas, this blob was right on the front of my first tank top project. Wonderful, I thought, as I stared down at the nasty shade of pink. What the hell do I do now?
First, I let it dry. Then I thought, well, I'll just re-stencil the same design over the top of the blob, since most of it would be cut away anyway in a reverse applique. So, with a different color of paint (not my first choice on any of these colors, but I wanted to use stuff I already had during the experimentation process), I redid the stencil over the blob. To my surprise, I loved the halo effect the blob gave the pattern, but really hated the colors. Now I'm thinking of ways to purposely create the blob/halo before I put down the actual stencil design, using much nicer colors.
As for the final pink and white design...it got completely covered with a design that tied in better with the colors and design of the section of pet food logo that ended up on the top right of the shirt (I'm using old work T-shirts of my husband's, and most have pet food logos on them somewhere).
Even though the experiment with the watered down color failed completely, it actually gave me a new idea to play around with, so in the end, it wasn't really a failure, is was a mistake that led to new ideas. So, go ahead, make mistakes, and you, too, might create a big icky pink blob that leads to new ideas.
Friday, June 15, 2012
Another Project...Really?
I need another project like I need a hole in my head, but after seeing Rice's numerous and amazing experiments with hand sewing and beading over on her Voodoo Cafe blog, and after purchasing the book Alabama Studio Sewing + Design by Natalie Chanin, I had to jump in and play.
It has been a long, long time since I did any kind of hand sewing or embroidery, so the first thing I decided to do before diving in with wearable items, was to experiment with the fabric on small sample projects. All of the embroidery I had done previously had been on cotton or denim, material that didn't stretch, and that I could put in an embroidery hoop to keep it flat and smooth. I had never done anything on knit fabric, so was unsure how that would work. How would I keep even thread tension if the fabric was moving around?
First I dug through my husband's T-shirt drawer. He gets tons of the things for free through where he works. All of them have pet food logos on them somewhere, so I will have to work around those. To start, I picked out a black one and a grey one, and cut off the sleeves. Then I made a simple paper pattern and cut out two pocket-sized pieces from the sleeve material.
On the grey piece, which would be the top color, I stenciled a star with alternate wavy and straight arms, using some pale rose fabric paint I already had, dabbed on with a small makeup sponge. After it was dry, I pinned the two pieces together using two of my grandmother's long, pearl-headed straight pins. Using dark grey embroidery floss, I back stitched all around the star stencil. Then I back stitched around the border of the two pieces, about a half inch from the edge. Lastly, using some old rose colored beads I'd had for decades, I did a beaded back stitch next to the original back stitch around the star. Final act was to cut away the painted stencil to reveal the black under-fabric, and trim the grey away from the border to give the piece a black frame. Then I added three rose beads to the center of the star. Done.
Notes to self for future reference:
In the Alabama Studio book, they use paint mixed with water and spray it on the fabric to make the stencil pattern. Now I see why. Using straight paint made the fabric very stiff when it came time to cut it out. Also, dabbing at the fabric caused the material to pull up in the middle of the stencil, as it kinda stuck to the makeup sponge. Once the design was cut out, it left a stiff edge rather than a softer one, which makes the reverse applique look kinda spiky.
Use a simpler, slightly larger stencil next time, at least for the reverse applique. When it was all finished, I couldn't really tell that the arms of the star were different shapes. It ended up looking like an amoeba rather than a star.
My embroidery scissors are still too blunt-nosed to get in the sharp corners of a cut-out design, so I need to find sharper ones.
I need lots more practice with my embroidery. This first piece is pretty crude in that respect.
The beads I picked, although a good color, were too big and clunky for the design.
I very much like the feel/weight of the doubled fabric. Since where I live there are more cold days than warm ones, I think I will be doing more work with two layers rather than one.
One lucky break was that I already had in my personal library the embroidery book Elegant Stitches by Judith Baker Montano, which is the book the Alabama Studio author recommended.
Conclusion:
Am I hooked? Oh yeah. Embroidering on the T-shirt material was easy and relaxing. After more practice with small pieces, I will attempt an article of clothing—probably a tank top. Will I have an entire wardrobe of hand sewn clothing? Probably not. I just don't have the time. But I will enjoy embellishing articles of clothing I already have, using the techniques shown in the Alabama book. They are very inspiring.
The most fun for me, I think, will be adapting the techniques and embroidery into designs more in keeping with my personal style of dressing. I have no idea what I'll end up with, but, as always, the journey is the most exciting part of the process.
It has been a long, long time since I did any kind of hand sewing or embroidery, so the first thing I decided to do before diving in with wearable items, was to experiment with the fabric on small sample projects. All of the embroidery I had done previously had been on cotton or denim, material that didn't stretch, and that I could put in an embroidery hoop to keep it flat and smooth. I had never done anything on knit fabric, so was unsure how that would work. How would I keep even thread tension if the fabric was moving around?
First I dug through my husband's T-shirt drawer. He gets tons of the things for free through where he works. All of them have pet food logos on them somewhere, so I will have to work around those. To start, I picked out a black one and a grey one, and cut off the sleeves. Then I made a simple paper pattern and cut out two pocket-sized pieces from the sleeve material.
On the grey piece, which would be the top color, I stenciled a star with alternate wavy and straight arms, using some pale rose fabric paint I already had, dabbed on with a small makeup sponge. After it was dry, I pinned the two pieces together using two of my grandmother's long, pearl-headed straight pins. Using dark grey embroidery floss, I back stitched all around the star stencil. Then I back stitched around the border of the two pieces, about a half inch from the edge. Lastly, using some old rose colored beads I'd had for decades, I did a beaded back stitch next to the original back stitch around the star. Final act was to cut away the painted stencil to reveal the black under-fabric, and trim the grey away from the border to give the piece a black frame. Then I added three rose beads to the center of the star. Done.
Notes to self for future reference:
In the Alabama Studio book, they use paint mixed with water and spray it on the fabric to make the stencil pattern. Now I see why. Using straight paint made the fabric very stiff when it came time to cut it out. Also, dabbing at the fabric caused the material to pull up in the middle of the stencil, as it kinda stuck to the makeup sponge. Once the design was cut out, it left a stiff edge rather than a softer one, which makes the reverse applique look kinda spiky.
Use a simpler, slightly larger stencil next time, at least for the reverse applique. When it was all finished, I couldn't really tell that the arms of the star were different shapes. It ended up looking like an amoeba rather than a star.
My embroidery scissors are still too blunt-nosed to get in the sharp corners of a cut-out design, so I need to find sharper ones.
I need lots more practice with my embroidery. This first piece is pretty crude in that respect.
The beads I picked, although a good color, were too big and clunky for the design.
I very much like the feel/weight of the doubled fabric. Since where I live there are more cold days than warm ones, I think I will be doing more work with two layers rather than one.
One lucky break was that I already had in my personal library the embroidery book Elegant Stitches by Judith Baker Montano, which is the book the Alabama Studio author recommended.
Conclusion:
Am I hooked? Oh yeah. Embroidering on the T-shirt material was easy and relaxing. After more practice with small pieces, I will attempt an article of clothing—probably a tank top. Will I have an entire wardrobe of hand sewn clothing? Probably not. I just don't have the time. But I will enjoy embellishing articles of clothing I already have, using the techniques shown in the Alabama book. They are very inspiring.
The most fun for me, I think, will be adapting the techniques and embroidery into designs more in keeping with my personal style of dressing. I have no idea what I'll end up with, but, as always, the journey is the most exciting part of the process.
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