The Learning Curve

Kristin here. Wouldn't it be great if each time we had an idea we were able to execute it perfectly; just as imagined? Yeah, it doesn't usually work that way, especially if the process is not with one's usual medium.
I was recently invited to participate in a group show at the art center to which I belong. All the works are to be in paper. The artist who invited me was inspired by my Army Wife show, so i thought it would be a good idea to continue somewhat in that vein. Everyone there "knows" me for my aprons, so I wanted to make a paper apron. In my head it's an apron woven out of security envelopes in a businessy type of pattern (houndstooth in this case). More paper would be used to make a lace-like border and accordion folded and fanned ties. It looks great in my head! But after hours and hours and days and days of cutting strips, glueing, and weaving, I realized that I had made many mistakes in the weaving, and each time I tried to fix one, it exacerbated another. Also, the weaving was not lying as flat and clean as I wanted.

These are problems that could be fixed by starting over. If I made several pieces I could work out the kinks. Practice makes perfect. However, this has a deadline, and it is not the only project I'm working on. Nor is it the only one with a deadline. I realized that I was spinning my wheels trying to make this work straight out of the gate. My time would be better spent saying no to this particular invitation, and getting back to my usual work.

It's frustrating to turn my back on something, but I hope to return to it when I have more time to trouble shoot and refine my process. I'm afraid it's also easy to stay with what one knows in order to avoid just this conundrum. How easy it is to stick with the nice safe process and materials we are already familiar with. I'm excited about my cloth projects though. I don't want them to suffer because I spent too much time trying something new. So it's a delicate balance between staying on the path we know and finding the place and time to branch out. When I've finished the art quilts in progress now, I will return to this paper idea. Plastic bags are calling to me as well. I'll miss this paper deadline, but I'll make some other art quilt ones. All in due time.

challenging materials

Hello! Natalya here...
Lately I seem to be enjoying challenging myself with materials. I have always worked with recyclables in my art quilting, but mostly that has been vintage linens, dryer sheets and the occasional bubble wrap... This year I seem to have upped my ante without even noticing...

cut up and layered plastic bags

First I dove into using plastics. Within a few weeks of collecting plastic bags from various supermarket trips I had enough materials to create several artworks almost entirely of plastic.

mittens and twigs!

Then I invited my friends to contribute to my self-imposed challenge. I am currently making portraits of their homes and for materials using ephemera that they collected for me. What was I thinking?  Well... I was thinking it would be fun actually!
In the first portrait I made, I was given worn out wool mittens, twigs, tissue paper and dryer sheets. It was a fun challenge to figure out. Somehow the mittens made a perfect lawn and the color of the tissue paper was the same shade as the stucco house.

brochures!

The next challenging bit of ephemera that's on my work table currently is mostly paper. Brochures from various parks, house plans and ticket stubs. This home portrait will be completely different from the previous one. But will I be able to keep it all in my style? Sure hope so..

What challenging materials have you worked with?

Quarterly Journal Dress

Carol Sloan here.

I love create collages out of vintage papers. I usually add paint and molding paste on top of them, almost covering them up...but I still love to add them for texture and the occasional peek of text.
After completing one of my larger pieces for the Old Forge show, I decided to make a sculptural type collage.
Seeing three "dresses" in the show, I decided that, even though my slant on the fashion theme was nature's fashion, I would create a dress.
A tiny dress.
Out of paper and vintage lace.

I actually made two dresses (I was having too much fun to stop!) when it was all said and done but will only send one of them.
For the first one, I used pages from a women's magazine ("Demorest's Monthly Magazine" 1878), vintage sheet music, dress pattern pieces, antique book pages and a few scraps of handmade paper.
I glued these torn pieces of paper onto a scrim type fabric with an acrylic medium.
(let that dry of course)
I used a doll dress pattern that my grandmother used (when I was a young lass) to make doll clothes out of.
It is veryyyy old...
And then I stitched the paper dress up on my sewing machine.
I added a sash at the waist with vintage netting as well as antique lace around the sleeves and bottom.

Framing was going to be a problem since it is a 3D piece.
I decided on a deep shadowbox frame. This worked great but was a bear to photograph.
Here's a shot out of the frame.

I'll add a couple of detail shots so you can see the fashion references on the dress.
I had a lot of fun making this tiny dress (overall length is about 7 inches)