Teaching: Fun With the West Michigan Quilter's Guild

Step on in and take a peek at the wonderful day of playtime fun we had with the West Michigan Quilter's Guild in Grand Rapids. Surface Design Sampler Platter is a crazy class - six surface design techniques in six hours. It's a mix of kindergarten playtime with a little touch of insanity thrown in.

Printing with Thermofax Screens

The first "oooohs" and "aaaaahs" as students print with their own hand carved stamps for the first time.

Citra-Solv Photocopy Transfer
A tutorial can be found here

Getting creative - adding a decorative boarderstamping paint with the end of her knife around a photocopy transfer

Working out a design for a small art quilt - she's colored in her photocopy transfer with colored pencils.

Choosing a favorite design from which to make a sketchbook slipcover
A tutorial can be found here

And much fun was had by all!!! Paint, foil, photo transfer, stamp carving, stenciling - and finally - BEADS! 

All in one crazy class!

If you're thinking to yourself - I wish, I wish, I wish I could take this class....

All these methods are taught on my two DVD workshops.

Surface Design Sampler Platter

and

Bead It Like You Mean It

For Your Inspiration: Bibliodyssey

I'd love to introduce you to some of my favorite sources for inspirational imagery.

Bibliodyssey

This is a wonderful blog that will post illustrations from very old, very wonderful books - among other things. Clicking on an image in the blog will often (but not always) take you straight to a flickr page with all sorts of different sizes of the illustrations that are often (but not always) available for download under a creative commons license. If they do have a CCL - read it carefully and see under what conditions you may use it in your art! Often you simply need to cite your source.

One of my favorite recent posts, The Whaling Naturalist

Not every image on the blog is copyright free or listed under a creative commons license. "It's the responsibility of every individual user of an image to research and determine the rights status for each and every image. Seeing it on Bibliodyssey in no way, shape or form discharges that legal responsibility." So make sure that you check the source for each image. This generous blogger is very conscientious about listing and linking sources, making it very easy for you to check. And - remember that international copyright laws can be different from US copyright laws.

Geometric Perspective, what's up with the rooster? I LOVE it!

Bibliodyssey has an extensive resource list in the side bar - different digital libraries from universities and such all over the world. It is well worth your perusal.

You might also like this previous post on the Library of Congress' Flickr site

The Sketchbook Challenge: OPEN, April's theme

 It's my turn to work over at The Sketchbook Challenge to choose the theme for the month of April. As I've watched spring blossom all around me I've finally settled on an idea.

OPEN

 How many different ways can you interpret this theme?

open something within

o·pen  

[oh-puhn]

adjective

1. not closed or barred

2. having the interior immediately accessible

3. free of obstructions to sight, movement, or internal arrangement

verb 

4. to move from a shut or closed position so as to admit passage

5. to render unobstructed

6. to render the interior readily accessible

7. to clear of obstructions

be open to receiving.....

"Stuff your eyes with wonder; live as if you'd drop dead in ten seconds. See the world. It's more fantastic than any dream made or paid for in factories."  ~Ray Bradbury

Open your Eyes, your Heart, your Soul!

There is nothing more joyful than seeing the world through the eyes of an artist. Noticing the beautiful textures in the bark of a tree, the intricate lines in the cracks on the sidewalk. Be open to the beauty that surrounds you! 

Draw, create. Then head over to the Sketchbook Challenge flickr group and post your work - fun prizes are available to participants at the end of the month. Here's information on how TSC works.

Tutorial: Screen Printed Cat Pillow

A couple of weeks ago one of my little ones walked in and said, "will you teach me to make a screen?" Now a very good mother would have done this long ago, especially since this little one has been asking to do this for months. Unfortunately I'm more of the "my studio is MY refuge" kind of mother and I don't take time out as often as I should to let them into my space. I felt the need to take time for her this time. So glad I did.

She would like to share with you her process.

She things that if she can do it so can you!

General's Carbon Sketch Pencil

Draw your picture with a carbon pencil and send it through a thermofax machine and thermal-mesh to make a screen. You can also email your image to a thermofax screen service and let someone else make the screen for you. 

Lay out your cloth on a padded print surface (mine is a layer of felt under twill) and position your screen. It's easier to handle a foam brush than a squeegee. Dip it in the paint. With one hand hold the frame, with the other press the brush across the screen. Notice how her finger is pressing the brush? You really need to squish the paint fairly hard to get the paint through to the fabric.

We made a few prints then washed and dried the screen before turning it over and making some facing the other way. We also decided to do some splatter painting over the top of the kitties just for fun. Dip an old toothbrush into the paint and run your finger over it. It makes a really fun mess!

Cut out the kitties and hold them up to the light and make sure they are aligned. Pin the cats and sew a straight stitch around them, leaving a gap about two inches wide. Use pinking shears to trim about 1/4 inch around the outside of the seam.

Stuff your pillow through the gap. I always have left over bits of batting so she tore some of those up and used them.

Squish the batting back into the pillow and stick a pin into it so that it's easier to sew.

Sew a straight stitch to close the gap.

Pose for a picture with your beautiful little creations. Carry them around and tell everyone you know that you made them yourself. Sleep with them every night.

We'll be playing with thermofax screen printing here in the studio on April 18th.

I'd love to have you join me! 

More information can be found here.

The Kindness Chronicles

Ideas to help us make the world a better place!

Guess what? We're born good. We're born with a desire to help. I knew that already, but science is starting to understand it too. Between my daughter's fascination with neuroscience and my favorite podcast, Radiolab, I'm more than a little bit hooked on reading brain studies. Dr. Richard Davidson is doing research that leads him to believe that we are naturally attracted to altruism and that we can train our brains to be happy. If you have a minute, read this post of his, asking us to simply notice the good things more often. 

Little kindnesses:

Some things are so easy that I don't even notice I'm doing them until someone points it out.
I'm on Facebook a lot. I make it a point to only post helpful, positive links.
I try my very best to never whine in public.

When I make a meal that freezes well I always make a triple batch. One gets eaten later and one ends up going to someone who could use it. I freeze things in zip-loc bags so recipients don't have to return dishes.

On a recent teaching trip I was up and down on airplanes all day long. I left at least one, sometimes two, little notes tucked away in magazines in the seat pockets. I hope they make someone smile. It made me smile just to sneak them in and think of someone reading them. I think we get more out of serving others than we realize!

Bigger kindnesses:

I helped a young woman who wanted to alter and combine two different patterns to make a dress for her to wear to the temple. It only took an hour or so (it was a pretty simple pattern) and I think she will do a great job sewing it up. I think many of you could do the same kind of thing - make yourself available to get someone started sewing. Teach them the basics of how to use thier machine.

Check out what these friends are doing:

Linda Kittmer

Lisa's blog "something about nothing"

Linda Teddlie Minton

New Zealand artist Catherine Parkinson
The indomitable Jane LaFazio
Tracie Lyn Huskamp
Hannah Koch
Deborah

Please join me in the Kindness Chronicles. Grab a button here and post it on your blog.
Send me a note and tell me what you are doing and I'll link to your blog next month!

Video Tutorial: Beading Looped Stacks

For Your Inspiration: Spring in North Carolina

All this glory...

in the short walk to the bus stop each morning.

 Photos taken on my iPhone and punched up in the Snapseed app.