Gratitude, Word of the year 2013

I choose GRATITUDE for my 2013 Word of The Year

The piece began with a picture of my hands

 My hands are open, as if accepting

 I printed the image, then traced it onto freezer paper to get the image started on muslin

 I added value one shade at a time

 Then I added rays of light

The back is almost as interesting as the front

 Hand stitched beads

 Detail

 Each night my husband and I write what we are thankful for each day

then add it to a monthly Gratitude Jar, this is January's

 This is February's, at the end of the month they are dumped into a really big jar

 We've both enjoy writing our gratitudes each night

Next year we will read one, and write a new one

Final piece

I truly enjoyed the meditative process of thread painting this piece

but, I would do two things differently next time.

1. Paint the muslin first, this would cut done on white spaces, and save thread

2. The piece became very wonky as I stitched. I sought the advice of an expert, Susan Brubaker Knapp, here is what she said: “When I thread sketch, I only do it through the top layer of fabric and interfacing (Pellon 910 or Heavy Weight Shaping Aid), sometimes two layers of interfacing. It looks like you have done it with batting and backing fabric, which do not give you enough of a solid foundation for all that thread. Also, make sure you use very light weight thread (50 or 60 weight).”

Primary Chairs

Here is my second chair for Adaptations.

It will be part of a series of 3 chairs called, Primary Chairs

becasue they will be yellow, red and blue, the primary colors.

I wanted the chair to have a white box on it.

To figure out the 2 point prersective for the box

I used tape to create the lines to the 2 vanishing points.

Using the angles of the seat on the chair I was able to figure out the vanishing points.

I used tracing paper to sketch out the cube.

Shiva paint sticks were used to create the shadows.

Black tulle was used to create shading on the cube.

Here are the two chairs together.

The white box represents faith.

The rocks on the yellow chair represents the differnt things or people who help keep you balanced when life is not.

This is a weird shot of the box from a severe right close up angle.

Adaptations Piece

This is a piece I made for Fiberarts Connection of Southern California Adaptations Challenge.

Adaptations intent is to illustrate the many ways we have made the choice to reformulate and recommit in response to changes in environment: personally, socially and structurally. Adaptations are seen everywhere around us. Disability forces us to adapt. Change in climate forces nature to adapt and people to migrate. Change in economics forces us all to adapt our spending or life style. Change in age forces us to adapt our reactions. As you see Adaptations are everywhere around us.

This is the original picture taken while at Ox Bow Art Camp, MI the summer of 2008.

The actual chair is quite small, maybe 15" tall. I noticed it in a bathroom.

I edited the original picture to come up with this, enlarged and printed it out to make a template.
The background is pieced using traditional quilting techniques.

The Chair is appliqued and shading was added using Shiva Paint Sticks.

The forms, which are rocks to me, were thread painted to add texture and weight.