Beyond Notan--Even Further

A while ago, I created this piece of Notan in fabric. This was even before the Studio Journal class where creating cutouts is part of lesson three.



Then I quilted it taking it beyond notan.


Then I made a kaleidoscope out of it, taking it even further:


Now to create notan shapes out of the kaleidoscope. Hum, wonder what you would call those. Maybe back to notan?

Kaleidoscopes and Stuff

I've been playing around with an online kaleidoscope creator. A word of warning, if you have an addictive personality, watch out. Much time will be wasted. But look at what you can create:


I'm trying the colour wash with plastic wrap on fabric, but no luck yet. Will keep playing with it and see what I can come up with. Results to follow.

My daughter (the one in art school) looked at my messy journal yesterday and commented: "Looks like an artist's workbook". Cool.

Odds and Sods

The Studio Journal course is extremely interesting. This week we are working on colour. My two colour washes are interesting, but not exactly what I expected. The idea was to do a watercolour wash, place saran wrap over top and let the wrinkles in the plastic affect the paint.

Attempt number one was done on Japanese rice paper (purchased on my trip to Japan last year). I did a frottage rubbing first, added the wash and the plastic. The wrinkles don't show up at all:


So I tried again. This time, I did the wash on a page in my journal. It has a heavier weight, and I thought it might work better. The wrinkles actually show up better in the scan than in actuality, but they are still very faint.

So the variables are paper, water amount, paint quality and plastic wrap quality. I've tried it on two different types of paper without much satisfaction. I think it may be the plastic wrap, so that is the next variable to play with.

On other fronts, my black and white quilt for the "My World in Black and White" challenge is taking shape. Sorry, no photos until after the end of September as it is a juried challenge.

I finally came up with an idea for the next person's Exquisite Corpse, and I'm working away industriously at it. Looks very nice, but sorry no photos for that one either. Gee, I'm such a tease.

I still haven't had any brainstorm for the July TIF challenge. Aargh. It is already a week into the month and I'm clueless. Ah well, somewhere during the journal course, maybe inspiration will hit. One can only hope.

July TIF

This month Sharon asks: “What is it to be at the half way mark... “Half”, “Way” and “Mark” all lead off into interesting directions that can be represented in all sorts of ways. So that is the challenge for this month.”

An interesting question. Nothing comes to mind. I've just started Sharon's Studio Journal course, I've got the Exquisite Corpse challenge in progress (finally came up with an idea for the next one last night) and I'm hoping to do something for a black and white challenge. I'm almost 1/2 way through the editing in my novel. There is a half. And a way. No mark though.

Another thing that comes to mind is to leave certain projects half finished. I can then return to them when I have more time and quilt or whatever needs doing. Or maybe I can add marks to things that are presently half finished? I have the second shoe quilt I started, but have yet to quilt. That would be adding a mark to something that is presently half way done. Then I could half start another project and I've done it all!

If I work through exercises in the studio journal course and in the Art Quilt Workbook, but only get them to a certain stage, they would qualify. In lesson one, we were to translate an image into marks like we would stitch. This could also be an idea--to take a painting and make marks in my journal, but translate it into fibre when I'm less busy.

So many ideas. So little time!

Studio Journal Course

Yesterday I received the first lesson for Sharon B's course Studio Journal as Designers Work Horse. Wow, what an amazing amount of information in the first lesson. It's like Sharon read my mind and designed the course to meet the needs I have right now.

A few things stood out at the very beginning. The first is to work at your own pace. That was a blessing is disguise. I am so busy right now that I wasn't sure how this course would fit in my life, even though I know I need to do it. This will make it fit. I can do it around other tasks, or as part of other tasks.

I highlighted one line that sticks out: Get your imagination going. I signed up for this class because some times my imagination fails. Or starts and peters out. Hopefully, this will help me sort out the entire process. Sharon likens a studio journal to a compost heap where things are added and new things grow from what you add. I already do that with my writing, so I understand how this works.

Our journals are a place to take responsibility for our own creative development. I love Sharon's statement that a journal "declares to yourself and your family that personal creativity is of value and important." Yep, that about sums it up.

I'm not sure whether to compress everything into one journal. Because I write and do fibre art, I'm not sure that keeping the two ideas in one journal is the best for me. For my writing, I have a notebook in my purse so I can jot down ideas no matter when I have them, and one by my bed so I can sleep at night. I'm more inclined to jot notes in one of those and transfer it to an art journal, but I'll see as things progress.

A creative journal can help stave off creative blues. You mean those one where I think my work is boring? Cool.

It will also help to solidify ideas. How many times have I come up with a great idea and run off half-cocked, only to have it fizzle because I couldn't figure out where to go with it? June's TIF is a perfect example.

In the front of my journal, I've now written:

Get your imagination going!

Discover your own path.

Take responsibility.

Value your creativity--make time for it and defend it.

Scraps are the threads of my creative life.

Patterns are recognized over time.

Work out direction before investing energy. (This one speaks directly to me and is the main reason I'm taking this course).

Now on to exercise two.

Beyond Notan

I guess this is my June TIF.


And a close up shot:


This started as a quick project on balance and notan was used as the example. I fused the leaves onto the background last month, and tossed it in a corner. I kept thinking about quilting to take it beyond notan. It became the story that is possible.

However, I'm at a loss how to quilt the other piece, even after a week on my design wall. It is missing something, but I don't quite know what, so I'm going to let it sit for a bit more. I have a large pile of those WIVSP (works in very slow progress). I realized that often I have partially formed ideas in my mind and don't know how to bring them to fruition. As a result, I'm frustrated with the results. They are exactly what I thought of, unfortunately it isn't a finished product. Hopefully the journal class will help with fully forming ideas before I start to create. Or at least give me tools to figure out how to fix something that isn't working.

Studio Journal Course

I received the supply list for Sharon B's studio journal class through Joggles. Ooh, one more thing to do. At the Cirque, I purchased The Spark: Igniting the Creative Fire That Lives Within Us All. One thing mentioned is that deadlines feed our creativity. When we are pushed to the wall time-wise, it forces our mind to come up with alternate solutions to problems. From experience, I know this is true. I wrote a novel in two months because I had a deadline. Editing is harder as there isn't the deadline to work under.

Initially, I signed up for the Take It Further challenge to give myself art deadlines. I wanted the same intense need to be creative in the visual field. Although I've done the projects each month, some haven't seemed very creative to me, so I signed up for the Studio Journal class.

Unfortunately, I'd managed to pull a Scarlet O'Hara and put off thinking about it until tomorrow. Now I need to find ways to amalgamate some of my projects. My black and white entry can also work as my roosting robin challenge. Work from the journal class will give me sketches to work from for the TIF challenge (something I desperately need). I've also joined a local group to work through Jane Davila's book. Ah well, what's one more thing?

Here's where June's TIF is at. Does it need anything else, or should I just quilt it? Any earthshaking suggestions for quilting? I'm thinking maybe a fashion photo like on a pattern cover, and maybe scissors and measuring tape. Feel free to discuss.