Some Photography progress

With my new lights installed, it is time to figure out how to make the photography corner work for me. At the moment we are figuring out how the back of the door can be used best. Currently white and a bit scuffed up with holes from hooks, there is still some flash back. And I figured out that the camera sits a bit too far back from the item.

The telephoto lense is a bit insensitive. It is here or suddenly it is there. We figured the camera could go on a tripod behind the lights, which are positioned to give as little glare as possible, but close ups are difficult at the moment.

I stepped in front of the lights and tried to block out an even shadow, but as you can see, the upper right has glare. Slightly romantic, but pah!

I tried it again in the next two shots, still getting glare and now the upper image is unfocused, despite using a macro feature. 

ibid.

The Vine Girls are not well photographed and I have since given the tea pot an earthy necklace and doily to sit upon. This set up is below the even level of the lights and the dolls and table are too tall for the frame.

I like this close up. I am a little below the lights and using the telephoto lens.

This close up is also nice. I managed to get the hinges of the door out of sight.

The Vine Girls family photo is not too bad. I haven't done anything yet about learning about white balance. I want to figure out the close up thing first.

She's looking pretty perky compared to the others.The Vine Girls are for sale, but I have to figure out how to sell things. Before I can sell things. I have to figure out how to get them somewhere people will notice them. But first the photography.

Fog Girl

I have started a new doll series, beginning with Fog Girl.

The grey is a two colour weave, grey in the weft, white in the warp.

Two grey threads and a blue/grey. Small crosses.

Lazy Daisy florals.

 

Button hole stitching on the edge.

Her head has a tilt and her waist has a twist.

The images Fog Girl is posing with are from Norman Ackroyd's book A Shetland Notebook, published by the Royal Academy of Arts, London, 2014. It is a stunning collection of landscape watercolours of the Shetland Islands.

For your possible entertainment, a video of a completely unrelated activity.

The formatting of the video didn't look great in the Preview, if you have trouble viewing, let me know.

Vinegirl 4 is finally finished

This little sweetie has taken a couple of years to finish, simply due to lack of attention.

I am very happy with her face, it has a gentle expression and her 'hair' has a lovely sweep.

The back of her head has a bit of butterfly happening, a little unexpectedly. That's what happens when I stitch along without a plan.

The Vinegirls together. They each have a different stitch motif.

The Vinegirls from behind. Each one has an element I really like. I am fond of the tall one's back of head.

All together in their home. I found this chipped teapot on the grass verge two years ago and they all fit in. Not sure what a teapot has to do with girls growing up through vines but it will work for now. We're back to the camp for another week. Ta Ta for now.

Vine Girls

 I was recently asked what I was working on and I said, "Vine Doll number 4." 

"What's that?"

"Have I never posted my Vine Girls before?"

It looks like I haven't done it on purpose. Here they are the dolls that inspired my work.

(the computer and I quarreled all afternoon, apologies for the inconsistent formatting)

The upper two dolls are made by Sherry Del Rizzio. I found them in a lovely book about dolls that I do not own. I can't give you the reference. The bottom two dolls have had the name of the creator clipped off after years of taping these to my bulletin board, the printing is all ripped off. They are not mine! But I love them.

Here are my three finished Vine Girls. I found a fun teapot on the side of the road after students had a mad moving weekend and I scooped it up. It is the girl's home for the time being.

This is the first of the dolls. The head is sewn on separately, while the legs and arms are all one piece. I don't put any faces on the girls, just the outline of where the face could go.So far, she's my favourite.

The next doll also hasn't any clearly defined legs and her head is sewn on separately. 

I love the circles on the back of her head, it looks so Bayeaux Tapestry, although that wasn't my intention.

I wanted to try gestural arms and legs next. I am a little unhappy with this poor doll's one arm. It torques the body around. In fact, she's rather badly misshapen. She and I had some difficulty negotiating her lady parts. It's a little frayed at the edges, but then so many of us are.

Doll number four is in progress. I trace out the pattern parts, embroider until I think I might go mad, cut out the parts, sew and stitch and then add more embroidery. Then stuff it and see if I like it.

This is the beginning of the back of the head.

If I like, it great. If not, she sits on my desk until I get the message she is trying to tell me and I attempt to fix it. This doll will be short, pudgy and have short arms and feet. No legs. No lady parts. I think I need a drink, five hours after I started this task.

Studio Ready, Get set, tea.

My time spent with Karen Ruane at Contemporary Embroideries is at an end for now.

I have completed three of her online courses and enjoyed and learned a ton from each of them. Next year she is offering an 'Alchemy' course that is very intriguing in case it interests any of you.

http://karenannruane.typepad.com

My mind is spinning from all I've learned and feel it would be good to do some percolating and processing. I've been using masking tape to keep all the ideas from oozing out of my head. I was spinning around the studio in circles this morning and decided I needed to organize.

First, I have to clear out the room of all extraneous things, like recorders and vacuum cleaners and bills.

Then I had to set up multiple surfaces so each 'idea' has it's own home, I piled up any pieces of scrap fabrics or notes, any threads or buttons, even baskets to hold items in. Next, I sorted through the piles of whatever has landed in an idea's backyard and begin to add and subtract.

 This is an old project, based on the colours of a gas spill on water. When I was a girl, going to the gas station was an experience of a wild smell of the gas from the pumps and seeing amazing colours of the gas spilt on the tarmac. Years later I came across a photo of a gas spill and started replicating it in  a grid of these small postcard sized 'quilts'. I stalled because the stash of textiles to chose from was so large. I discovered a trick from Karen's class of using a back ground muslin to pin selected textiles into an approximation of how things might go. I've cut up the next four postcards worth of muslin and will dive into the scrap bin tomorrow to begin creating new groupings.

 In the top left corner is part of a finished piece, Detoor,  that imagines the view is up through the early spring leaves of a linden tree. It exhibited in the traveling show 'Rooted'. It is now time to get the second piece going, also based on looking up through leaves. I'm concentrating on transparent colours, using mostly see-through textiles. The white scrim in the centre and the middle left is a technique I learned, also from Karen, and it allows a nice variety of ways to see through to the next layer of stitching

The Vine Girls on the right need a new gal to join the gang.  There is a pattern for the new doll on the tracing paper, although it didn't show up well here. It is traced on the flesh tone fabric behind the dolls and the threads have been chosen. These threads are a bit darker than those adorning the first three dolls, but then this fourth doll has had to wait rather long to get a shape, so she's already a bit grumpy and aged.

This is where the Vine Girls live at the  moment. I found the tea pot on someone's boulevard grass on garbage day a few months back. I think it is the perfect bling for girls growing out of the earth.

It was at this point in the morning's work that I lost my glasses. I have no idea where they went, I checked the top of my head several times, the collar of my shirt as well. I checked the top of all the surfaces and gave up. I trolled through the house twice and the bathroom three times. Nope. There was too much stuff to look through and under. Hopefully, I wouldn't step or sit on them. I forged ahead, but had not a very clear idea of specific colours I was now looking at. 

 Way back during the first of Karen's classes, Extending Ledgers, I had a brainstorm based on a technique we were learning of doing mad free motion sewing on the sewing machine and then cutting away top surfaces to reveal whatever lay underneath. The bottom-most piece was what I was using to experiment with. There was also water colour paints being used on paper and I decided to try painting scrim, because I found the pure white with colours a bit too unsettling. The scrim here is a pale blue/mauve and it needs to be free motion sewn. I'm kind of excited about this, but who knows what it will look like. This is a cliff to jump off of in the new year.

 This is a sample of some of the cut-away work that started the above idea. There is another sample, but it is in horrible peach tones and I can't bear to post it and admit it is mine.

Everything is all tidied up and ready to begin. I even had a pants hanger available for true obsessive organization.

I promised my mom a quilt the last time I visited, about 6 months ago. Since then I have found a pattern she likes. Very luckily, my good friend, Linda, gave me this gift of hand dyed fabric, exactly the range of blues I had in mind for Mom. I promised to have the pattern all cut out over Christmas, so this is where my attention needs to go first.

 I also decided to offer my sister a textile gift for her 50th birthday this September. She gave me several guiding suggestions. From them all I came up with jewel toned fire works. Above is the beginning. I have only a vague idea where it will go to, I have to think about how best to depict fireworks without being literal about it. I'll have to do some sketches, sigh.

 Cleo Belle is beyond exhausted at this point. I thought she had a good idea and began to wrap things up. Afterall, it seems like a good pile of projects. Then I remembered I had posted on my midnight waters project before and hadn't done an update for a while. I have moved from this....

to this.....

It felt like a huge step at the time but it looked kind of tiny when I photographed it today. I have to remember that the piece at the top of this post is the result of nearly 18 weeks of work with Karen and this had been put on hold.

I took an extra half hour to tidy up, have lunch, get the hiccups and begin this post. I bent down to light the fire, hiccupped, and out fell my glasses. They were under the scarf I was wearing, tucked into my bra strap. I should really get one of those sports bands that keeps the glasses firmly on the head at all times.