tashina knight

She’s all finished!!

She was both easier and harder than I expected. She is made from plant dyed felt from A Child’s Dream, flowers for the ears and sequins from local craft shops and the fringe around the neck from Joggles.

To make her, I drew a cat on paper and cut it out. I pinned it to the blue felt and drew around the paper with a felt pen. I forgot about doing this on the wrong side of the fabric, so the kitty is the mirror image of what I had planned. I unpinned the paper and then pinned some pink felt to the blue felt for the back of the cat. I stitched along the felt pen line leaving an open space at the chest to be able to turn her inside out. I cut out the kitty, leaving a small seam allowance (about an 1/8th inch since felt doesn’t fray.) When I tried to turn her inside out I found the tail would not fit through the tail hole. :(  So I had to seam rip the inside curve of the tail and then pull it through and then re-sew it. At this point I had not learned slip stitch (also known as ladder or invisible stitch) so it’s a bit messy as you can see in the larger picture. I then stuffed the head with polyester fiberfill and sewed on the features, learning blanket stitch along the way. After adding the rest of the embellishments except the neck fringe. I stuffed the body and learned slip stitch so I could close her up. Then I added the neck fringe. All done!

As I mentioned last post, I’ve been buying some new fiber related art supplies lately since I seem to be headed in that direction artistically. I’m always looking for ways to express myself in every color of the rainbow and, to that end, I’ve compiled a little resource of sites that I visit for hand dyed items.

First- the photo above comes from Lunn Fabrics Studio.  It is run by Debra Lunn (who makes some very colorful quilts!) and her sculptor husband.  They carry quilting-weight cotton fabric in every color. For other hand-dyed cottons, try Artfabrik, Alaska Dyeworks (who are a pleasure to talk to), Fabrics To Dye For or Cherrywood Fabrics who make really richly colored cottons that look like suede.

If you want to make stuffed animals or monsters out of wool felt, you can either go with primitive folk-art colors (often used in making wool rugs) from Moondance Color Company or Colonial Crafts or try rich plant-dyed felt from A Child’s Dream (this is where I bought the felt for my Month of Softies cat.)  Ever heard of silk felting? You can try it with kits and hand-dyed silk tops from Treenway Silks - the silk is from an Australian company so if that’s more convenient you can get your silk fibers from Treetops Colours. Look at their wonderful colors!

If you felt knitted items, Over the Rainbow Yarns on eBay dyes wool yarns in gorgeous colors - she often mentions in her descriptions whether the yarn felts well.

Some of my favorite hand-dyed yarns come from Great Adirondack Yarn Company. One of the most fun of their yarns, Fluff, is available from The Yarn Company or Custom Yarns. This makes great doll hair too.  Some other beautiful hand-dyed yarns are available from Mountain Colors, Joslyn’s Fiber Farm, and Cherry Tree Hill Yarns.  You can also learn more about these companies in the fabulous Handpaint Country book by Cheryl Potter and Alexis Xenakis.

For hand-dyed mohair, you can either dye your own or order from England. Barbara-Ann Bears carries some pretty pastel mixed colors and V & N Bear Supplies carries a range of sherbet colors.  Maybe someone makes it in the U.S.? If so, let me know and I’ll add it here.

If you want to get started on making your own hand-dyed items, there’s no better place than Dharma Trading. They have it all. 

  When I thought of gluttony, what came to mind is all those creatures shut up for the winter in their burrows and hives and how new and fresh the world must look when they get their first glimpse of spring.  Anthropomorphizing a bit, I thought of how glad the bees must be to fly in the warm sun and get their fill of spring’s first nectar.

I finished my softie and will be posting it here in the next couple of days. It doesn’t look half bad considering I had no idea what I was doing.

My husband is on vacation this week and we’ve been just lounging around and watching our Netflix.  Garden State and Truman Show yesterday, maybe some O.C. and Gilmore Girls episodes today. And some of those refrigerator chocolate chip cookies that you just break into pieces and bake. Yum! Tomorrow I think we’ll maybe head down to Carmel-by-the-sea and see some of the art galleries- I haven’t been there since I lived in San Francisco in the late 80’s.

I’ve been buying some new treasures lately.  Some little pink and green crocheted flowers and pretty buttons and sequins from eBay. Some wool felt and roving from A Child’s Dream Come True.  I want to try some cloth dolls so I bought some supplies from Joggles.  They have so many things I would like to have there- it makes me want to be a glutton! The best part of being a fiber artist to me is all the colorful embellishments to collect and use.  I was a bead seller for years and have some really wonderful old Venetian and Japanese lampwork that I wasn’t able to part with and will be using in future fabric constructions. 

And finally, for a bit of eye candy, here’s a link to one of my favorite doll artists- Akira Blount. I love her imagination.

Don’t laugh- it’s my first sewing project.

Well, except for the gym bag that was our ONLY project in 7th grade home economics. Do they still teach that? I was so bored and miserable in that class that I messed up my 4.0 GPA and got a C and haven’t sewn a thing until now (not counting the odd button on a shirt and that sort of thing).

This poor kitty didn’t want his tail turned inside out once I had him sewn up so I had to seam rip all of one side of the tail and then sew his tail again so you can see all the tail stitches. (Is there some rule for what will turn inside out correctly and what won’t?) Maybe I’ll cover the stitches with ribbon?  My mother gave me a few pieces of leftover plant dyed felt last night and after I started the kitty I realized that I have no white for his eyes. I’ll have to figure that out tomorrow.  To sew him I got out the Babylock Ellure I bartered for earlier this year and actually didn’t do too bad. I LIKE sewing. Who knew??

The main inspiration for this little project are Loobyloo’s A Month of Softies where the theme this month is Vintage Catwalk.  The due date isn’t until the end of the month in case anyone else wants to join in. The technique came from one of Nina’s tutorials on craftster.org.  And the motivation came from this post from one of my favorite quilters, Melody Johnson, who has a new blog.  I especially took to heart this part: "Make only what makes you happy. You get no extra points for the struggle."  I’ve been struggling for a long time to make things I think I should make rather than what I want to make. I’ve been trying to make things that will sell or things that I think are impressive when I see them in magazines or trying to work with materials that are archival only (even though one of the early joys of my creative life was coloring in my line art with alcohol based markers) and you know, really, I just haven’t been making anything because none of those things really appealed to me. So I think I’ll just make whatever I feel like making - and have fun doing it!

If the kitty’s tummy looks funny it’s because it is still open so I can finish stuffing him after I figure out his facial features. I’m really liking making this fellow. Anyone have any felt animal tips? I could use all the help I can get!

Furniture doesn’t get much more colorful than Sticks!

At left is one of the two pieces I own by Sarah Grant-Hutchison and her team.  I was left a small amount of money by my maternal grandmother who died a few years ago at 99 and 11 months of age. [She was quite a character - in her later years she starting hearing voices singing in her head. The problem was she didn’t like the songs they were singing.  Over time, although she couldn’t make the voices go away, she did manage to make them sing the songs she liked best.] The understanding was that I would use the money to buy something to remember her by. So I bought one of Sticks pieces called a Hallelujah Lady. She is 8 1/2′ tall and comes apart at the waist for easier transport. I named her Ethel after my grandmother.

Goodgoods gallery has a good online show of Sticks pieces. 

An article from 2000 in Paint Decor magazine tells how the pieces are made.  They ship in milled wood and also search for birch and poplar driftwood in the Iowa countryside along riverbanks.  The pieces are built at the 28,000 sq ft factory and then put in the Drawing Queue.  Sarah and her assistant draw all the designs and then the pieces are passed along to the painting team.  Sarah does a lot of custom pieces and installations.

You can also order pieces with custom color palettes. Here is the Caribbean palette:

Also be sure to check out their latest… snowmen and santas.

You’ll need to click on the image to get the full view on this one….it’s long.

Just in a happy mood for a happy illustration. Still playing with Corel Painter.  This image is like one of those flying dreams that people have (I never do for some reason), but this is a balancing dream.  I had to put the sum in there because this is California’s first really sunny day after about 2-3 weeks of rainstorms. 

This week I’m determined to start some fiber project. I want to learn to knit and crochet and needle felt. And make art dolls. And quilts. Okay, maybe that’s a little much for one week….but I’m going to start something tomorrow. I’ve been looking at all the creative blogs out there and am especially enamored with Mimi Kurchner’s blog named Doll. She makes very original fabric dolls and is very generous about sharing her techniques. Also notable is Wee Wonderfuls because she seems to have so much fun making things.

You know why I want to learn to knit? So that, someday, maybe 10 or 15 years from now I can make things like Kathryn Alexander’s Entrelac Pullover. I saw her work in Nov/Dec 2004 Fiberarts magazine and fell in love. Just beautiful.

I plan on making a quarterly list of new books you may not have known were coming out. My only "normal" job has been as an assistant librarian. I gave that up in 1998 but I can’t resist keeping track of publishers and upcoming releases. Many of these books won’t be out for months yet, but I just place them in my Amazon wish list and let them sit there until Amazon shows them as available.

For dollmakers, we have Creative Cloth Doll Faces by Patti Medaris Culea and Cloth Dolls
by Brenda Brightmore.  Patti’s last book was excellent and I expect the new one will be too.

For those who bought or upgraded to Corel Painter IX, there are two books coming out - one is the updated Painter IX Wow Book
by Cher Threinen-Pendarvis and the other is Painter IX Creativity
by Jeremy Sutton.

For artists in more traditional media we have Facial Expressions: A Visual Reference For Artists
by Mark Simon,  Abstract Painting: Concepts And Techniques
by Vicky Perry (love the cover!!), The New Acrylics: Complete Guide To The New Generation Of Acrylic Paints
by Rheni Tauchid, Paint Luxurious Textures in Watercolor
by Jennifer Sheffer, and Color and Light in Oils
  by Robin Capon and Nicholas Verrall.

Altered Book and journal makers may be interested in Pockets, Pullouts, and Hiding Places: Interactive Elements for Altered Books, Memory Art, and Collage
by Jennifer Mason. Also, eagerly awating The Decorated Journal: Creating Beautifully Expressive Journal Pages
by Gwen Diehn who brought us the highly recommended The Decorated Page  a couple of years ago. Want to try Fabric Jornals? Try The Art of Fabric Books by Jan Bode Smiley

Fiber artists may enjoy Yummy Yarns: Learn To Knit In 20 Easy Projects Featuring Fun Novelty Yarns  by Kathleen and Nick Greco,  Fusing Fun! Fast Fearless Art Quilts by Laura Wasilowski,  Art to Wear by Jana Ewy,  Quilt National 2005 , Picture Your World in Applique by Margaret Cusack,  Knitting Over The Edge (The Second Collection) by Nicky Epstein and  Felting by  Trisha Malcolm. 

And what Colorist Blog book list would be complete without a new book on color, Powercolor: Master Color Concepts For Every Medium by Caroline Jasper.

There! That should keep us busy for a while!

  This Illustration Friday image was done in my 30-day trial of Corel Painter.  My last version of this program is Fractal Painter 4 so I was wowed by all the new features. I think I’m gonna have to dig deep in the pockets and buy this version! I’m also trying to decide between Coreldraw (which I can get for the upgrade price since I have Photoshop) and Adobe Illustrator for at full (high!) price.  The last vector program I owned was Aldus Freehand, back before it was Macromedia Freehand. Very old. Definitely time to update the software.

When I set out to illustrate Disaster Relief I had no idea how to start as I’ve never done an illustration for something happening in the world. What struck me most about the disaster relief is not all the bickering about which country sent how much and was it "enough", but just that it’s nice to see countries working to do something good- something not involving war or oil or power struggles.  My illustration is not meant to show every country that is donating so please don’t be upset if your flag isn’t there. For the small heart I looked up all countries that had people die on their shores. For the large heart, I just looked at a few news stories to get the biggest donors and then just chose others at random, because even if their countries didn’t donate money, the people are still donating volunteers and love. I’d like to give credit to worldatlas.com which has copyright free flags for use for only the price of a link back to their page.

It’s a new year and time to find out what the experts say about the colors of 2005:

Pantone says that home furnishings will reflect self-expression. They offer 8 possible palettes for the new year, including my favorite, Radiance, with some really beautiful colors in the red-blue range.

If you make jewelry or other wearables, you might want to make some items to match the colors people will be wearing. The Spring-Summer palette includes Pool Tones and Washed Silk. For Fall, we see jewel tones and "moody" colors. There are even a few ideas for what we’ll see in 2006. And don’t forget to look at the Pantone predictions too.

The Color Marketing Group (which does not have a very colorful site!)  gives their predictions on everything from consumer goods to transportation. They also already have up their list for 2006.

Forty Media tells you what are the hot web design colors this year. Brown is in, red is out and here’s the Web-smart palette so that everyone can see the same colors you are seeing.

Want the latest colors available while you work in Illustrator or Photoshop? The Design Weblog has just what you need.

Happy New Year and wishing you all the most creative and colorful year ever.