First San Diego Etsy Sellers Meetup in Del Mar, California

The San Diego Etsy Sellers Meetup had its first public event yesterday, Saturday, April 30th, a warm and beautiful Del Mar, California day.  My quilts were shown under the name of "Linda's Art Quilts" and two other members also had displays.  The "Enchanted Forest" from Wendy Hannaford showcased absolutely captivating "Fairy Things" including head adornments, "Fairy Houses" and a most gorgeous and intriguing "Magic Mirror:  "Soar Like An Eagle"  from Joanne (Jody) Bolden presented a display of her one of a kind creations including miniature books, tiny pocket dolls, jewel quality magnets, and an array of outstanding greeting cards, along with other creative things that are almost too numerous to list. 

The lively, welcoming and supportive proprietor of the Earth Song Bookstore opened the store to host this event on the main street that runs through Del Mar.  If you have never visited Del Mar, it is one of those things that you might definitely enjoy.  The shops feature many one of a kind items and the eateries are outstanding.  This seaside town is one of the jewels in the Southern California crown. 

Lighting was not conducive to great photography from such a floundering amateur as I, yet a few photos were captured.    I also tried to use a video camera for the first time.  Although two fairly decent clips were gleaned, blogger.com gave messages that there was an error in uploading the videos so, unfortunately, they are not included here. 

Still Shots

Large Poster Outside the Earth Song Bookstore

Joanne Bolden, Linda Friedman and Wendy Hannaford

(from left to right)

Joanne, Claudia and Wendy

(left to right)

Fairy Headress by Wendy Hannaford of "Enchanted Forest"

Fairy House by Wendy Hannaford of "Enchanted Forest"

Handmade foldout book by Joanne Bolden of  "Soar Like An Eagle"

Pocket Dolls and other miature marvels by Joanne Bolden of "Soar Like an Eagle"

Books and magnets by Joanne Bolden of "Soar Like an Eagle"

Partial display by Joanne Bolden of "Soar Like an Eagle"

Joanne Bolden of "Soar Like an Eagle" standing with Wendy Hannaford at her "Enchanted Forest" display

More magnets from Joanne Bolden of "Soar Like an Eagle"

Linda's Art Quilts  from me laid out on a table.

Another view of Linda's Art Quilts from me display

The day was enlivened by the bookstore's "resident" psychic reader who provides her services at the Earth Song Bookstore every Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

San Diego Etsy Sellers - A New Venue

Annette Palmer, the proprietor of Earthsong Bookstore in Del Mar, California, has organized a new group called San Diego Etsy Sellers Meetup and will graciously open her store for members to display and sell their handmade creations on the last Saturday of each month.  She has also started a blog at http://sandiegoetsysellers.wordpress.com/ and a Twitter account at #sandiegoetsysellers.  It was great to see these three of my quilts featured on this new blog. 

"On the Edge"-- A New Work

Completed this new work yesterday and managed to post it on Etsy today.  I was greatly moved by the Quilt Visions of San Diego exhibit that featured the work of Jeanne Lyons Butler a couple of weeks ago and had to experiment with white stitching on a white background with simple line and shape embellishments.  I also wondered how the hard edges of aluminum would work with an elegantly delicate voile.  I liked the results and wanted the 6 1/2" x 9 1/2" quilted work to stand alone as an independent work of art, not merely a small art quilt, so prepped a stretched artist canvas with gesso, highly textured it with modeling paste to reflect the quilting lines, and then painted it with a rich, silver screen printing ink.  Once that element was completely dry, I hand stitched the art quilt to the canvas.  The art quilt is completely finished with double fold binding, a hand dyed backing and a label; however those elements cannot be seen without detaching the work from the canvas.

Fabric and Fiber Bead Play

Instead of putting my fabric scraps into the scrap bag, I've started pulling out pieces that are large enough to cut at least 1" strips out of and making fiber beads. Today was a day to "play" with them. As time goes by, the pile will surely grow.

Grandma's Attic

The last couple of days have been great fun.  Another of my works, "Grandma's Attic" was included in an Etsy Treasury that can be seen at
http://www.etsy.com/treasury/4d2cfb08cd5b6d9108bb76c8/grandmas-treasures

Etsy Treasury

I just got word that my "Escape and Return" art quilt is in an Etsy Treasury today. The treasure can be seen at www.etsy.com/treasury/4d91646689646d91d3576dd5/escapes.

"Farewell Toast to Winter"

This week I finished two more art quilts and today listed one of them, "Farewell Toast to Winter," on Etsy.com.  This was a fun and challenging work to execute.  Instead of traditional batting, I used stiff interfacing because I knew that the dense thread drawing would tend to pucker and would need a strong stabilizer.  That choice became the major challenge because the interfacing creates lines where it is bent.  Instead of this being a negative, it yielded an opportunity for further thread embellishment and texture.  Here are some photos of the piece.

Full Front Image

28 3/4" x 14 1/2"

Close-up of Stitching (Vase Bottom)

Closeup of Stitching (Stemware)

Closeup of Flower Shape

Reverse

Silk Screen - Great Instructions found

A while back I experimented with using old, thick, white, fence paint to mask a silk screen that I made from a large embroidery hoop.  It worked out very well but I am running low on this thick paint that is not useable for anything else.  Moreover, the need to mask the projects in the garage and the drying time made this method of masking silk screens a bit laborious. Here is a picture of the screen I made using this method.

Picture of screened image on a T-shirt

Picture of screened image on a T-shirt

In order to screen the heart onto the figure I made a quick mask using a sheet of overlapping masking tape onto which I drew a heart and then cut it out with a craft knife.  Then I affixed that sheet of tape to the back of a small embroidery hooped screen.

Small screen for heart image

Close-up Of Second Screened Heart Image

 Since I had two more T-shirts to screen, I had to wash out the screen between printings so that the ink wouldn't set up and ruin the screen.  The washing process loosened the tape significantly and it was difficult to execute a clear print by the thrid screening.   

Today I set about searching the Internet for silk screen masks and found that Speedball carries rather reasonable products that mask and will clean out of the screen with soap and water when desired.  The ones that most interest me are the Speedball Screen Drawing Fluid and Speedball  Screen Filler.  First a design can be drawn onto the screen with a brush using Screen Drawing Fluid.  When that is dry, the Screen Filler is applied.  When the Screen Filler is completely dry, cold water washes out the Screen Drawing Fluid but leaves the Screen Filler and then the screen is masked and ready to use. 

Super!  I've ordered one bottle of each of these items and will write about their effectiveness when I use them.  These items are available on-line at various sites; however, I ordered mine from Dick Blick. 

I also found a tremendous site that gives detailed instructions on various silk screening techniques including step by step instructions on how to use the Drawing Fluid and the Screen filler.  If you're interested, check out:  http://www.reuels.com/reuls/Silk_Screen_Printing_Instructions.html.

Hope Mojo Pocket Doll

"Hope"

Yet another Mojo Pocket Doll made it's way to Etsy.  Hope--something we all need.

Link to TAFA Logo Competition

For all who are intested in entering art work for the new TAFA logo, here is the link:

http://www.tafalist.com/p/new-site.html

The present logo is already great.  Imagine how phenomenal the facelift of the TAFA site will be when it launches the winner's logo design!  Wowie.

"Goodness and Health" Mojo Pocket Dolls

"Goodness"

"Health"

Over the past few days, I've eked out the time to post a few more of my Mojo Pocket Dolls with their own little pocket purses on Etsy.  "Goodness" and "Health" are the most recent.  Making these dolls is quite fun.  Each polymer clay face takes on a life of its own.  My scrap bag overfloweth with prized snippets and these dolls offer me the opportunity to dig back into the bag to revisit these old fabric friends.

TAFA

TAFA - The Textile and Fiber Arts List is getting a facelift.  The site is posting a competition for a new logo, so if you are an artist who enjoys creating eye popping logos, visit the site and join in the competition.  The winner will receive a great prize.

I have created a set of Mojo Pocket Dolls that I will soon be listing in my Etsy store.  They need better pictures than what I now have, but here is a peek of just a few.  Each was made from fabrics in my quilting stash and each comes with its own little pocketbook.

"Love"

"Joy"

"Luck"

"Hope"

"Wisdom"

The Work Surface Grows

Merely spanning two tables with a sheet of plywood made working on a fairly large art quilt so much easier than trying to work on round and oval tables that the idea grew and grew.  By merely connecting two tables with plywood, the center of which is supported by a small rolling cabinet, I now have created over 9 feet of flat work surface.  The bonus is that it forms a return from my sewing table that also acts as a support for larger quilts when they are taken to the sewing machine.  It is my dream to someday have a "real" worktable of this size with shelves and drawers under it, but until that time, this setup is working famously.