Stitching on Air Part 1

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 My first attempt at sewing on air.



Phoenix Quilt Artist Nancy Green had an article in the October/November 2012 issue of  Quilting Arts Magazine about 'Stitching on Air'. The moment I saw it I knew I had to try it. In all my years of sewing, it never occurred to me that I could stitch across empty spaces. But it works!


After my first experiment you see above, I jumped in to try doing a small piece.

    

The fabric is a brown scrap that I sponge painted using two or three of my favorite Lumiere paints by Jacquard. Once heat set, I fused it to a piece of Fast-2-Fuse fusible (on both sides) stiff interfacing and cut out my rectangles. 

 Then came the satin-stitching around the edges of the open space before beginning the really fun part - stitching! I simply stitched slowly and carefully from edge to edge. These photos show the first pass of stitching. 

My apologies for the not-so-great photos. Click on any photo for a better look. 

Stitching on Air Part 2 coming soon. It is still a work in progress.

Playing with Hammered Wire

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Playing with wire is another fascination of mine and lately I have been experimenting with hammering heavy gauge aluminum wire with some nice results.

 

I really like the textured look of the hammered wire and will share more of my experiments soon. 

Clicking on a photo will give you a closer look. 

Leave a comment any time and thank you for visiting my blog. 

Wire Wrapped Jewelry

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I enjoy wire wrapping and teaching it. There are many ways to wire wrap. Recently I taught a class at the studio encouraging the artists to experiment with wrapping wire heart shapes with beads to make pendants. This technique is very different from my usual style of wire wrapping, and I wanted all of us to explore. There are so many options.

I believe that experimentation is a process that sparks ideas and encourages us to try new things and focus on discovery rather than what we did wrong. Sometimes the most difficult part of trying a new thing is that it does not look very good to us the first few times. I always tell my students that this is ok. It does take several tries to get used to a new technique and then begin to make it your own. What new technique have you tried lately?

Thank you for visiting my blog. Leave a comment anytime and remember you can click on any photo to get a closer look.

Fused Glass #3 'Circles & Bowls'

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I made a bowl! A fused glass bowl!

Of course I had to learn to cut circles first and we had a lot of practice and plenty of success in our class. The problem with glass is that it is all so pretty, I just want it all. But since I haven't won the lottery yet, here are some circles of glass cut by myself and some of my classmates:

Some closeups of my first bowl:

I would love to know what you think. Click on any photo for a closer look and leave a comment.

Thanks for visiting my blog.

Playing with Freemotion Stitching

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Fused Glass Class Two

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 I am having so much fun in this Intro to Fused Glass Class at Phoenix Center for the Arts!

Class #2 was all about 'cutting practice'. Really, scoring and breaking. Since I live for the challenge of the creative process, my design required a lot of practice. Needless to say, I am much better at cutting 1/4 (approx) pieces of glass now than I was at the start. 

My coasters Before firing:

 In all their imperfect glory.     :-)

My coasters After firing:

 

Happy with the finished product. They were pretty forgiving. 

My coaster design was inspired by the designs of Piet Mondrian. Here are some resources if you want to learn more about him and/or his work:

Enchanted Learning site - for art activities based on his work.

Artcyclopedia site - inspiration, photos of Mondrian's work and more.

Encyclopedia.com site - facts about Mondrian

As always, click on photos in the post to see larger versions. And please remember I welcome your comments.