Cat Hair Studio

I wanted to call my blog Cat Hair Studio but the name was already taken.  There's a good reason for wanting to call it that.  Everything I make ends up covered in cat hair!  Short of closing the door while I work there is no possible way to keep the cats out of the studio, and frankly, I enjoy their company.  Once I ended up with a cat with blue paint on his paws!  OMG, the chaos!  LOL.  I had to scramble to catch him before he tracked blue paint all over the house or tried to lick it off.  There is a rule that applies to cats as well as people....DON'T EAT YOUR PAINT!  This lovely glimpse of a newly finished piece is posted merely to amuse the cat lovers out there.  Don't worry, the  hair will be removed and better photo's will be taken.  I'm thinking of submitting this piece and a couple of others that are part of a series to some magazine or other.  I just have to finish everything first!

Leda's Flowers

Here is a new piece that I finished a little while ago.  Getting the pictures taken and edited for posting takes me forever!  The down side of bloggin! LOL.  This began with a piece of fabric-paper in shades of red and purple, which is a favorite color combination.  So many of my pieces begin after experimenting with a technique I want to try and this is no exception.  This is a remnant of my first piece of fabric-paper, made a couple of years ago.  I also wanted to to try printing images on silk.  I chose one of Leonardo da Vinci's drawings and was really pleased with the way it came out.  This piece includes embossed velvet (so much fun!), embroidery, beading, and stamping (with acrylic paint).

Art Quilting Studio magazine

I had the great privilege to be published in the summer 2011 issue of Art Quilting studio which Stampington and Co. just began re-publishing this year.  When I saw that they had a call for entries I only had one week left to get something off to them so I quickly put everything together and stuffed it in a box.  The only photo's I had were terrible and its taken me forever to get around to taking some better ones.  This piece began when I decided to try out some techniques using crumpled craft paper and painted wonder under.  It just went from there until I found myself embroidering through several layers of paper and fabric.  Whew!  that was a chore.  The mountains at the bottom are made of painted tyvek and paper towels! 

Autumn Flowers art quilt

I recently completed this art quilt that I made to go in my new office.  Our offices relocated recently and the new building is painted in all these autumn colors.  My office has a gold accent wall and since autumn colors are not my favorite color choice I had to come up with something new to go on the walls.  While helping a friend move I was gifted with a piece of rayon fabric that was printed in a patchwork design in colors I knew would be just perfect to go on that gold wall!  I began by quilting the fabric with gold thread.  That really made the patterns pop!  I had placed red velvet behind some of the squares and after the quilting was done I cut out part of the rayon to show the red velvet in a reverse applique technique.  Then I decided to paint matte medium along the cut edges and coat them with gold glitter.  What a messy process!  I made some fabric paper in coordinating colors and cut out the rosette pieces which are glued down and then I placed tulle netting over them and stitched it down to ensure that the little pieces didn't lift up.  The little metal squares are made of foil candy wrappers fused to felt.  The large flowers were cut out of a wool blanket and stitched on with gold thread in a blanket stitch.  The centers of the flowers are made of candy wrappers and gold buttons.  I edged the quilt in gold cording and a copper eyelash yarn and mounted the whole thing on brown velvet stapled to a framed canvas.  It looks just great in my office!  Here is detail image:

Mother Earth art doll

 

This is the art doll I created for the Mother Earth art doll reader's challenge in Cloth Paper Scissors magazine.  I was a finalist but did not make the final cut for publication in the magazine.  She is about a foot tall and made of patchwork quilted fabric, embroidery, and hand applique.  Her hair is strips of blue silk and silver threads with snow flakes.  I gave her to my best friend for her 50th birthday.  It so nice when you know your art went to a good home!

Red and Purple Floral

Titling my art is something I have yet to figure out. In the meantime I tend toward a fairly literal description. This piece was completed earlier this year and is my first official piece of mixed media art. In 2006 I began studying fine arts at the Metropolitan College of Denver. I spent two wonderful years studying and thoroughly enjoying being an art student but I was compelled to leave school when I developed chronic pain issues and could not keep up anymore. After years of struggling to figure out what I wanted to do with my life I am determined to make art, even if I can't finish my degree right now. In my spare time, when I am not in too much pain, I make art. This piece came about after reading Beryl Taylors book "Mixed Media Explorations". I began by making my first ever fabric-paper. The floral motifs in some of the scrapbook paper I used inspired me to work on a floral theme. Like Beryl Talor, I adore fleur de lys and metallic elements. The flowers are all paper or fabric-paper. The fleur is fabric-paper with cut out red velvet wonder-undered and embroidered over the top. The background is cotton and hand embroidered with gold metallic floss. I machine embroidered over all the flowers and added beads. The lace edging is all hand dyed with the same paints and inks that I used on the fabric-paper. I learned a lot from making this piece. Right now it hangs in my bedroom where it matches the red and purple color scheme.