Get Inspired

I just got back from a one day trip up to DC. It was great to have a day to get to a few museums to check out what was new. My visit was quick and focused - get to see as much art as I had energy to absorb.

Even though I was told that this summer in DC wasn't as hot as it usually is in July - it was pretty hot and humid. I got tired of walking and jumped into more than one cab. I started in the Textile Museum, on S Street - a small but great museum - they told me that the museum collection was dedicated to tapestries and rugs.

That said, the two exhibitions were on twentieth century Amish quilts on loan from the International Quilt Study Center and Museum at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. What a great collection they must have there. These quilts were truly amazing - the use of color and repetition is vibrant, holding attention with an active peacefulness.

The second exhibition presented the Museum's new acquisitions. There were about 20 pieces including a wonderful Indian turban with pleats, folds and twisted cordwork - that was so intricate that it was clear why it was sewn to a felt base - it would have taken all morning to re-wrap it. A wonderful large contemporary batik from Java, the tjanting work is so intricate it is amazing.

Of course, I am always in love with textiles from China and there were two great examples, a wonderful silk woman's robe, and a "rain" coat. The rain coat was made of woven layers of grasses and pounded palm stitched together at the edges and had some wonderful "fringe" on the hem - from the loose fibers.

The Textile Museum is a quick stop near DuPont Circle - and worth the trip.

I also got to the Renwick Gallery on Pennsylvania, very near the White House, and finally ended up in the East Building of the National Gallery - to check out the work "since 1950". Then a train up to Baltimore and back home. An exhausting and inspiring day. -janet

Planning for IQA in Houston this October?

The schedule for the International Quilt Festival has been out for a few weeks and the classes look like the best yet. I will be teaching in the Mixed Media Classes, which have expanded and will be doing two different demos during the Mixed Media Miscellany sessions.

This year, I will be offering some new classes; here is my line-up:

#140 Needlefelted Images (Monday evening)

Learn the basics of needlefelting. Make a great landscape or abstract image using needlefelting techniques on various foundations, recycled and new fibers and yarns.

#316 Stencils Made Simple (All day Wednesday)

Learn a new appreciation for using stencils, contemporary tools and materials, with attention to special techniques for textile work using dyes, paints, and sticks as well as simple registration methods and proper storage. Create a collection of durable stencils using your own images, including simple and complicated "bridges."

#508 Japanese and Specialty Paper Primer (All day Friday)

Gain confidence working with fancy and hand-made papers. Learn techniques for manipulating, staining, dying, cutting, leafing, and sewing Japanese "rice," lace, and specialty papers.

#468 Mixed-Media Miscellany #1 (Thursday afternoon)

See what this exciting event is all about. Twenty teachers at separate tables around the room offer continuous demonstrations of particular techniques and methods that can take your quiltmaking and/or crafting a step further. Enrollees receive a booklet of one-page handouts from each teacher and circulate around the room, informally getting lots of new inspiration.

My table: Japanese and Specialty Paper Collage

#749 Mixed-Media Miscellany #2 (Saturday morning)

See description for Mixed-Media Miscellany #1

My table: Screen Printing with Removable Stencils

I hope to see some of you there! Watch this space for updates.

Printing and Pluto!

Well, I am back from QSDS and in the studio. Before I left I had printed up some shirts I am hoping to get some of them up on to etsy.com in the next week or so.


If you have ever been in my studio, you will know about the studio cat, Pluto. He is a great hunter and too friendly! He loves to be in the middle of what ever is happening - and is constantly and unceremoniously being tossed off the print tables onto the floor.



Lili, my studio assistant and indispensable right hand this summer was gracious enough to take some photos of the last day of studio alignment with Pluto - so enjoy!



In my next life..... Have a great summer!

Textural Beading E-workshop Update

I am currently teaching an e-workshop over on Joggles.com, it started last week and I think we have good and very talented group of artists participating.

This is the title photo of the samples included in this lesson.

I set off the document and instructions to Barbara at Joggles last night for the 2nd class for "Introduction to Textural Beading". This installment focuses on edge details - a great way to give any beaded piece a clean professional finish.

Since this is my first time doing an e-workshop I hope that the step-by-step photos give every one close to a face-to-face tutorial. Additionally, my choice of bead size and color should help decipher the stitch instructions. -janet

Back from Surface Design Conference

I have been out of town for a long time, but had a great time visiting with my friends in Kansas City at the Surface Design Conference. It was great and I had a wonderful time taking workshops, going to great talks and of course eating BBQ in KC.

I was lucky enough to be the assistant in Els van Baarle's batik workshop "Walking the Creative Path" I worked mostly on paper throughout the workshop and really liked some of the work. Here is a peek at one of the books I worked on while in the class.

I intended to make some record of how dye colors mix using wax resist and layers of color. So one side of the acordian book uses the "warm" family of colors and the opposite side uses "cool" primaries. I played with the wax and resists to make the covers. I will come back to working out dye color mixtures... with some documentation for reference.

I will do more playing in the studio with dyes on paper.

Back into the studio for 2 weeks!

Then I am headed up to Ohio to see the Quilt National 09 show - and for a week at QSDS with my friend Nancy Cook.

Join me for a Textural Beading Online Workshop

I will be teaching an online version on Textural Beading and Embellishment Workshop this spring/summer at Joggles. No matter where you live, now you can take a course to learn something new or improve your technique, via the internet.

If you’ve never taken an online course, here’s how it works: You sign up and pay the class fee. A few weeks before the class starts, the folks at Joggles will send you the supply list. On the first day of the class, you get an e-mail that gives you information and passwords for signing up to participate in the class forums. Here, you can write messages to the instructor, share your thoughts, progress and photos of your work with your fellow students.

You don't have to participate in the forums, or you can just lurk and read your fellow students’s comments, so it is perfect for people who are a little introverted, too!

Each week of the class, you receive an e-mail with the lesson in PDF format. As you work through the lessons, you interact with me and the other students, share photos of your work, and of course can get individual help.

In the six weeks, you will begin with the basics of beading embellishments and create a collection of small samplers. The workshop will include all the techniques to finish the final project, the figure above, that you have seen in my previous blog posts. Please join me this summer for some beading. We should have great fun.

Introduction to Textural Beading and Embellishment, starts June 10, and costs $60 for six lessons. Visit www.joggles.com for details on the class.

Progress on Fiber & Beaded Figure

Last week - I had an unexpected trip to Arkansas, to attend to some family issues and got a chance to do some very focused beading on the figure that I have been working on - and after a good 8 hours of beading -my neck is cranky and the piece it is now finished!

Here is a detail of the head and face. I don't yet have a "name" for this figure, but she feels very peaceful. I like how my first attempt at a paper clay face turned out. The piece, took a few turns that weren't expected. The head and hair were difficult to work on the finished and stuffed piece and I moved to a curved beading needle to keep my sanity.

I am teaching a beading workshop to some friends from the Lake Norman Quilter's Guild in my studio in the next few weeks and I am happy to have a new piece to show the crowd.

-janet