Merry Christmas to everyone

Wishing you all a very merry Xmas and a happy and arty 2013.

Happy Holidays

Happy Holidays to all of you and a good - and creative - New Year!!

Another Piece of the Plan Arrives

As you know...I've been gathering bits and pieces, dyeing fabric, and generally getting things in order for Pecans - my series for 2013.  Just had a great addition, a nice FedEx package of REAL pecans from my dad's pecan tree in Texas. The people who now own the land were so gracious to send some to me. When we were there for my dad's funeral, I had asked to take some twigs from the tree with the plan for stencils and thermofax screens. They asked about what I was doing and I described the concept to them. So when I called and asked if the pecans were still on the ground and could I have a few, they were more than delighted to send them.  They even sent enough for me to have some to eat!!  I'll be using them for the series after the first of the year so check in then to see how I am incorporating them.......

More and more faces

As time goes on, I seem to be settling into my 'faces' more and more. And I seem to (still) be in love with my oil pastels too. Here are some that I have finished over the past few weeks.

Most (if not all) grandmothers, adore their grandkids, so I have had two commissions to draw/paint a gran and her grandkids. I think this will be my new passion in 2013, more grans and grandkids.

I feel enthusiastic about next year and still hope to broaden my arty knowledge and try lots of new things.

For now, I wish you all and your families a wonderfully happy Christmas and a very healthy and arty 2013.

Themes 2013

By now most of us have decided upon the theme they will work with during the coming year. Joss and Renée, please let me know which theme you choose.

Pecans - the series

For the challenge this year, I decided to do a series on Pecans.  This fall my dad died. He was a wonderful man and a great loving dad. And one of his passions was pecans.  They had a HUGE very old pecan tree in front of their house and he even planted a pecan orchard.  He subscribed to magazines for pecan growers.  Oh and he enjoyed eating them as well!!  (something we had in common!!) So, I decided to do this series in honor of my dad.

So far the series will depict the  different stages of the pecan.  1) sapling, 2) a grown tree, 3) mature pecans on the tree limb, 4) pecans on the ground at the base of the tree - ready to harvest 5) a barren tree after all the pecans and leaves are gone 6) pecans harvested and halved, etc and 7) the piece honoring my dad - it will have his photo in B/W transferred to silk organza, pecans, perhaps other photos, and my mom's pecan pie recipe.

Well....I have done a bit on this series already.  Ordered screen prints, cut out templates, etc.  But dyeing the fabrics felt like the project is actually underway.  After a couple of days of dyeing....here are the basic fabrics I will be using in all of the pieces in this series (6 or 7 planned)

They are all dyed in a 6 step gradation.  Here is one of the brown all set up to batch.

And here are the completed dyed fabrics --

Browns (yes I know some of them don't look brown but they are named "brown" something) -  From left to right...Tobacco, Cocoa, Golden Brown and Dark Chocolate Brown

Greens - Left to Right...Emerald, Dark Green and Forest Green

And Blues - Left to Right... Well actually they are so close it is difficult to tell the difference even in person! But I used Cerulean and Intense Blue.  I took these down a couple of gradations because I wanted some light blue sky with "clouds".  I'm very happy with the results.

Ordinarily this would be the end of dyeing...however after just completing the snow dyeing for another challenge...I HAVE to do some pieces for this series!! Hopefully I'll get to that tomorrow if not starting some today.  

Today I dye

Just completed a half step gradation on the 4 browns I'm planning to use for the Pecans series.  They are all put to bed in their nice warm batching closet.  Tomorrow I'll wake them and give them a wonderful Synthrapol bath!!

Then start with the three greens and a couple of blues.  I think any other accent color I can get from my stash.

At least I hope so.  My shoulders are killing me.  Out of dyeing shape I'm afraid.  But...I had forgotten how I love the smell of dye.  Brings back very fond memories of first discoveries when I dyed my first PFD fabric.  Ah those were the days. But my stash was dwindling and I wanted to be sure I had the same colors throughout the series....so the dyes came out, the mask went on, and the mixing began.  I might have gone on to do the green but I ran out of ziploc bags (my favorite dyeing tool!)

Tomorrow is another day.......