Maria Simonsson - Rusting

I am working on a project about and with iron. It has been developing in my mind for quite some time.
I come from a region of Sweden where there has been iron industry, or at least iron production for over a thousand years. You can say iron is in my blood.

Apart from loving rusty things, like old nails, I find iron fascinating. It's an important building block of our universe as well as our bodies. So far my explorations have resulted in a collection of rusty iron things and a pile of rusted fabrics. And some jotted notes to follow up on.

I will show you some of the fabrics for now.

Here is a piece of cotton fabric that was previously rusted with reebar in a grid pattern.

Now I have added washers and some nuts.

Here is a close up

And here is the result

Not very sharp rust marks. I didn't immerse the fabric in the vinegar/water mixture. Just spritzed it daily for about a week.

Here is another one

Before

and after

This piece of fabric was wrapped around a reebar rod and tied in place with thin wire that also rusted.

It gives a shibori effect.

And finally a piece where the washers on the fabric actually acted more like resist than rusting agent.

Always surprises.

Playing with Plastic - Jessica Beels

I work with a wide range of media.  Recently I have been trying to reuse materials in an effort to reduce the bulk of my own garbage as well as to give new life to things often overlooked.     

I have also been trying to make more two-dimensional pieces – adding more flexibility to a mostly 3D repertoire that usually requires pedestals for display – thereby expanding where and how I can show my work.   

painted plastic bags

So, for the past three years, I have been playing with fusing cut-up plastic bags into translucent pictures. I sometimes paint the flat bags with metallic acrylic paints, so that the final, layered surface contains transparent elements, colorful swatches, and reflective accents.  

fused layers (detail from Can't See the Forest for the Trees)

One of the first pieces I made with this technique was called "Can't See the Forest for the Trees," which is now part of the collection of the Union of Concerned Scientists and on view in their lobby in downtown DC. 

Can't See the Forest for the Trees

My most recent foray has included small (about 6" x 6") botanical studies. These are the first two of a series I am working on this winter:

Waterlily

 

 

 

 

And a black-eyed susan:

Black-eyed Susan

These images don’t quite feel fully realized, but with a few more layers I think they could be quite intriguing.  I also plan to mount the pieces about 1/2" above the surface of the white board (shown here resting right on top of the surface) in order to add colored shadows (cast by the translucent portions) to the mix of layers.

New Direction - Ann Liddle

Last time I wrote, I was trying to figure out what to do for my featured artist show at the Workhouse Arts Center in Lorton, VA in December.  I had de-stuffed the crocheted bodies I made years ago and thought I'd work with them.  But inspiration was not forthcoming.  I decided on a new direction - stripes.

I was interested in trying spray paint on canvas and then working with that as cloth.  I sprayed 11 yards of canvas, each a different color.  Then I worked out stripe designs on paper with colored pencil, cut the canvas, sewed the stripes.  This resulted in rectangular striped pieces each about 22" x 30".  I then cut each piece up and reassembled it in very different ways.  (I worked these out on paper as well before cutting.)  Sometimes, I added striped inserts.  I wish I would have taken pictures of the rectangular version before I cut them up.  But I didn't so all I have are the final results.  Here they are.  The show is called Stripes Reinterpreted.

Forest Stream.

Morning 

 Nightfall

On Balance

Fall

Rock Face

Spring

FINE logo - Anne Buchal

Some time ago, at one of our meetings, the group thought we should have a logo to “brand” our shows. This would take the form of a fiber piece bearing the letters F I N E. After some discussion, we planned a wall piece in the form of a quilt. I made some sketches which we looked at and then I went on to make the piece.

I wasn’t very happy with result, which as you see was 4 squares alternating back and white fabric.  No one else was satisfied; the design was too severe, rather old fashioned. Now I am in the process of trying again, aiming for a design with less classic lettering, keeping the black and white which has the effect of carrying power: it needs to be seen across the room.

This is a project for a typographer, not a fiber artist. The pictures show the present quandary, the last of which is in paper. Suggestions welcome. Upper case?  Lower case? Serifs ? Color? 

Slow progress - Maria Simonsson

I continue to work on my map quilts for our show in Pennsylvania next year. It is such slow going! I am now at the quilting stage for the first quilt, the winter scene. I have not quilted in years, so it feels like I am re-inventing the technique, and possibly I am inventing my own version of it. Experienced quilters may cringe when they see me do it. I like the results, however. I am considering taking a basic quilting class, to brush up on technique. Why go through the agony of re-inventing if you can learn from the truly experienced? I am also thinking of joining a couple of quilting guilds. I feel more quilts in my future!

Here is a picture of the quilt, almost finished.

I imagine this image as a birds-eye view of a small Russian village after a heavy snow fall. There is a frozen stream running to the left of the village in the image and a couple of carriage paths crossing through the village.

Outside the village there is a hill (upper right), fields (upper left and lower right) and a meadow with trees (lower left).

Here are some closeups:

The village

Village detail

Plowed fields and some snowy trees

Trees between the stream and the meadow.

They are not beads but French knots, lots and lots.

Takes forever.

Good thing I have some interesting audio books to listen to.

When I started this project I was listening to a couple of classic Russian novels. First Anna Karenina and then The Brothers Karamazov, hence the Russian village imagery.

Painting on the Porch -- Beth Latture

When the weather is nice I love to work on the screened porch.  Over the past couple of months I've been working on a painting for the Mapping theme that FINE is working on.

I started with a large canvas with a yellow underpainting, then created a "beltway-like" map by masking and sponging over with a magenta paint.

Once I had the structure in place I started filling in the map with color blocks

and then began some patterning within the blocks.

Since I am painting, I'm definitely in the "Nearly" category of our group name - Fiber in Nearly Everything.  However, I find that the techniques that I use - either in painting or fiber - are usually very similar in that they consist of a meditative repetition of stitches or marks.

This is a work in progress with the goal of creating a map-like image from familiar forms and patterns.  The other goal is to enjoy the pleasant days on the porch, painting and listening to music, with my loyal companion Daisy.

Working with Weeds--Julie B Booth

Detail of Dandelion fabric

This summer I spent a lot of time working with weeds.

I used the weeds I found in my garden to create a series of hand painted and printed fabrics.

My plan is to design a series of pieces called Weed Maps for F.I.N.E.'s upcoming show All Over the Map. In these pieces, I will collage the weed fabrics with a series of fabrics using different grids. The grids will represent a sense of order in contrast to the wild disorder of the weeds.

Once I have all the fabrics printed, I plan to sit with them and let them speak to me to see what my next move will be.

More to come...

Pillow Talk - Jessica Beels

I have started making wall pieces out of patchworked paper.  I tear sections of still-wet, newly made, flax paper and arrange them over the front and part of the back of a wire mesh form, leaving an opening in the back to take the mesh form out when the paper has dried.  The paper shrinks over the form, contorting it as the paper shrinks and dries. The final piece maintains most of the square shape of the wire mesh, but buckles and ripples where it can.

Some of the paper sections are printed in different colors of metallic paint and ink with various languages and scripts, making the surface a kind of disjointed conversation, like murmered exchanges late at night – hence “Pillow Talk.”  The example in the image above includes speckled paper with seaweed inclusions.

I really enjoy making these pieces.  The challenges are: 1) achieving a satisfying composition working in two dimensions, initially, with the goal of a three-dimensional final form; and 2) designing it so it won’t pull itself apart as it dries.  Another challenge is taking good images of the work.  The color variations are subtle and metallic paints are hard to photograph.

I look forward to seeing how these pieces evolve, maybe in series mounted together, or made over different mesh shapes.

Collapsed Bodies - Ann Liddle

I have a show in December as featured artist in my building at the Workhouse Art Center in Lorton, VA.  I'm getting anxious about getting enough work done so I decided to reuse some old work.  I crocheted the bodies below in 1997.  At that time, I stuffed them and inserted wire armatures.  Now I've destuffed them and removed the armatures.  I have a pile of collapsed bodies to work with.

I'm not sure what I will do with them.  I did restuff one and stiffen it into a sitting position - shown below.  I think I will paint her and maybe put her in a shadow box.  I don't know.  Stay tuned.

Ann

Back on the blog

Back on the blog - Maria Simonsson

I have a renewed interest in the blog since receiving an e-mail from an organization asking to feature me on their website. They had found me through this blog! That proves to me that there are actually some people out there who have found us! So, let's keep updating with what we are doing on our map quest and other things.
I will be back with some images later. Now it's off to the golf course for the second day of my daughter's tournament in Columbia, South Carolina.
Maria