Very happy my project was featured on the cover of the Fiber Arts/taketwo “Reveal and Conceal” exhibition online catalog. Titled “Forest Floor”, this piece consisted of a monoprint cover tied with handspun wool. Inside is a semitransparent page with a collagraph print on dyed teabag paper. Concealed under this page is a small print from acetate which is revealed when open. It is one of a series of eight.
“Reveal and Conceal” exhibition catalog cover
As a break from my current printing project, I’ve working with some of my photographs. Such a break allows me to step back and bring new insight to my original work.
Two of these images result from a trip to Odessa, an historic village in Delaware, while the third is from a trip to Maine just before the pandemic began. With the Odessa images I was exploring my experience of its autumn quietness and historic background.
The Maine photograph captures the vividness of the evening light. We were driving back to our vacation cabin after a busy day and it took my breath away.
“Odessa Marsh”
“Odessa Barn Hinge”
“Evening Light”
I’ve been exploring using images printed on acetate with a solvent to print the image on paper – by hand, no press. A bit tricky, need a light touch and some luck so the solvent doesn’t smear yet the image does transfer. Here are a couple of my first images that I’m happy with – after lots of unsuccessful tests. Now to register an image on the paper and create a clean print – while keeping a light touch etc…
“In Coming Tide”
“Debris”
My second course was with Sally Tyrie. She focused on developing a body of work with a single theme. Here is one of my series. The base layer is mono printed on paper with acetate layers on top. I digitally printed the acetate with my photographs I had manipulated in Photoshop. The final layer is machine stitched to add texture and to hold it together. The concept for this group was taken from walks at both the Jersey Shore and the Wissahickon Creek. This was very fun!
“Mixed Media Layering”
Treated myself to two courses through “Fiber Arts | take two” recently. The first with Lorna Crane (I’ve shown work from her course in previous posts), and the second with Sally Tyrie. Both were very fun, intense and a lot of work. Lorna’s was about mark making on paper and fabric and developing work from it and Sally’s about research through photographing and drawing, abstracting imagery, exploring with a lot of hand printmaking. Both pushed one out of their comfort zone.
This post is about three books, which were developed from one of Lorna’s projects. They include hand dyed and hand painted fabric and paper, ink, leather, beads, machine and hand stitching, as well as objects such as the stone, bits of shell, and feathers. I wanted a bit of a story with mine. The first, titled “Beginning”, is mainly black, white and brown, the second titled “Water” added color and the third, “Earth” added three dimensional objects. I may combine them into one larger book.
“Beginning”
“Water”
“Earth”
I had made my first set of magic brushes but when I went to Maine last week I gathered sticks, stones, and other bits. Today I made Maine Brushes. One with feathers, one with a bit of muddy knotted rope, two with stones, and one with a pine cone. I decided to leave the black and magenta electricians tape as it was and added black strings with black and clear beads – a bit of drama. The 4 other stones are just because I always collect stones…
“Maine Brushes”
