Mixed Media Success

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Painted Paper Towel

Painted Paper Towel

I love teaching and had a blast facilitating learning for the students in my technique class on Saturday! We were exploring Mixed Media Techniques for Fabric and we had a blast. I had four and a half students. I say half because one student had to leave early. 



I have taken and taught classes where the students are required to keep to essentially the same pace in order to complete a specific product by the end. This was not that kind of class. My interest was in sharing techniques that the students could explore and make their own so they could use them in their own work. I believe we accomplished just that.



We were able to explore several techniques and it was really fun to observe each of them taking those techniques in their own personal direction. Same materials + varying thoughts and approaches = very interesting and inspiring results. See for yourself.

 

Painted Paper Towel





Painted Paper Bag



I planted seeds and let them go. And go they did.

Pumice Gel on Fabric

Pumice Gel & Glass Bead Gel on Paper - the photo
does not do it justice. Glass Bead Gel is gorgeous
as it catches the light.

Clear Tar Gel, Lumiere, inks on fabric

On this fabric, Molding Paste,
Pumice Gel, Clear Tar Gel,
Metal sheet stamped & colored
with alcohol inks

The most fascinating, frightening, and fun part of this as the teacher was pushing aside the desire to move people along and allowing them the time to explore and discover.

Metals, Mica, Candy Wrappers created by Joan



Metal sheet, paper, mica piece,
mica washers, created by Quinn









Read about Quinn's class experience on her blog post of 9-26-10.

Painted Misty Fuse, metal pieces,
feathers, leaf on fabric

Painted Misty Fuse, feathers gold leaf,
on paper

There were many more samples they created for themselves and a binder to hold everything in for future inspiration. I cannot wait to do this again.

Work in Progress (WIP) Wednesday

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Progress. Is sometimes slow. But steady. 

That’s what living is, yes? My life is a work in progress. And I usually have works in progress, usually more than one. Here are a few shots of the WIP from two weeks ago. I have actually had some time and felt good enough to do some stitching on this yellow piece. I like to experiment so you’ll see more of this. It will not remain yellow.

The plan is to paint after quilting.  I layered two layers of cotton batting with the inted of getting more visible/obvious texture. I think that is working. I basically made up the design - I find that I like making it up as I go - no rules, just right. Hah!

I have only tried this once before, right after I got a copy of The Painted Quilt by Linda and Laura Kemshall. Great book!

I am also very inspired by Lynda Monk and the work she shares on her blog Purple Missus! Just scroll down through her older posts and enjoy. Her work is intriguing and inspiring to me. I don’t know what color I’m going to paint it yet, but I trust that it will come to me. So, I am on another quilting adventure – doing things I’ve never done before to see what happens.

 

Other work in progress is me. Ha. This is never ending right. I am always grateful to wake up every morning. The last six weeks or so have been very stressful physically. My diabetes numbers started to get way out of control, we’re talking upwards of 350.

This was triggered by the need to stop one diabetes med that was causing me to gain weight. Found a new endocrinologist who gave me a different med, which unfortunately just didn’t lower the blood sugar numbers like they needed to be. So, we switched to insulin. What an adventure that has been. It has taken weeks to get even close to the right dosage. It is starting to work and we still have a ways to go. But I do feel much better.

I have actually never had really high numbers until this year, especially numbers in the 370-420 range. It is a very scary and frustrating thing and it zaps energy and makes it very hard to focus. I’ll keep you posted. I’ve also been making myself attempt drawing a lot more so here is a sketch of my testing supplies. They're a little light but you get the idea. Next time I'll sketch on new paper, not recycled paper.