Unlocking the Muse for an Open Challenge

You may have been wondering what I’ve been up to since the last post.  On the other hand maybe not.  Nevertheless, today is reveal day over at the Tangled Textiles blog for the challenge theme OPEN.  That’s what I have been busy doing; working feverishly on my piece.  I was initially drawing a blank on where to go with this one. Various suggestions, such as OPEN mail, parcels, presents, OPEN doors, policy, and eyes wide OPEN; were not ringing any chimes for me, so to speak.

Okay out I went for a drive to the park, passed several homes, and an industrial park.  Sat on a bench for a while and came home passing that same industrial park.  This time however, I noticed a gate with a lock and thought to myself, "you'll need the right key to open that one."  Bing.  An idea was beginning to germinate.  I had painted some fabric that resembled an industrial park and posted about it.  Remember?  It looked like this.

 

If I cut it in half and use the lower half, it might work to represent a chain link fence.  Keys?  Will they work?  How will I portray them?  I remembered a stenciling technique I had seen done with Shiva paintsticks.  I also remembered a pointillist technique I had learned.  I found an image of an old key and went to work.  I also gathered up old keys around the house, traced them onto freezer paper, cut out the shape and pressed the resulting stencil to the fabric.  This just might work.

 

I went on a hunt through antique stores, thrift shops and found an old skeleton key and decided that I would do a rubbing.  I didn’t like the result, so I set the key aside. The piece needed some hand stitching along with the machine quilting to add what I thought would give it some depth. 

 

It still needed something else, but what?  I added just what an old key would need; keyholes.  Next, I added the keys.  Everyone needs THE RIGHT KEY to open something, don’t they?  There you have it.  I hope you enjoy my resulting challenge piece. 

Hop over to the Tangled Textiles blog to see what the others have produced.

Monoprinting

One of the things I am discovering during my colour studies course is monoprinting.  I didn't really understand what it was, but as it turned out, I got a chance to try it.

It was simple really; don't know why I hadn't tried it before.  We usually have left over acrylic paints when we've completed our exercises, so the instructor gave very explicit instructions for what to do with left over paint.

Add sufficient water to the paints in such a way that they do not mix together very much and that they flow more easily than straight out of the bottle.  Press a blank sketchbook page onto the palette containing the left over paint; lift the paper and presto, a monoprint.  So here are some of the ones that I tried.  The paints I used were Golden Fluid Acrylics.

First attempt I had left over blue and yellow acrylic.

As you can see I added too much water and the paint mixed so much that you can't see the yellow at all.  It mixed with the blue and gave that greeny look.  There just a tiny hint of the yellow in the upper right hand corner.

Okay, so how about using no water at all.  This was my second attempt. 

Clearly you can see the colours that I used and there are a couple of spots where they mixed.  In case you're interested, the acrylics used were Golden Fluid Acrylics in Diarylide Yellow, Pyrrole Red, and Ultramarine Blue.  This one turned out okay, but now it was time to add some water. 

Very carefully I added just enough, I thought, to get some flow going.  What do you think?

I kinda like this one, but it was worth one more try because there was still sufficient paint left over, so here is the final attempt. 

This one is my favourite.  I've got to give this a try with fabric!!!

Helping out

seems to be what quilters do best when there has been a tragedy.  What do I mean?  Quilters have put their skills and fabric "collections" to use providing comfort and caring after tragic events like the tsunami in Japan, the flooding after Hurricane Katrina, the flooding in Calgary, and many others too numerous to mention.

In one of my previous posts, Quiltingranny of Layers of Hope 911 left a comment asking if I would give a shout out.  She was in the throes of organizing a drive for quilts for 19 firefighters from one town that lost their lives fighting a wildfire in Arizona.   You can read about it here.  There is a video on her blog of those lost here.

Let me get to the point I'm trying to make.  Quiltingranny is asking for help to make 6.5 inch unfinished blocks that can be made into quilts for the families and survivors of the tragedy.  Check out her blog to see some of the other events that she has helped with (quilts for Calgary flood victims).

If you can make a block or two and are willing to send them to her, contact her directly.  Now I'm off to put together a few blocks myself and send them off.