boriginals.blogspot.com

Today I found a wonderful blog called b originals. She is a graphic artist who does simple but elegant work. I found her by checking out the many blogs listed in the "sew mama sew give away". I'm having so much fun checking out all the blogs that have entered.

Agave Fiber

This agave plant has fiber inside the leaves and the end of each leaf is very sharp. The Indians used to take the sharp needle point at the end and strip the thread like fibers out that were attached to it and use this for sewing. It is a very strong fiber.

Beads and things

Special beads and things I found at the fiber art show.

Recycled Sari Silk yarn & Banana Fiber yarn

Banana Silk fiber yarn is made from the fiber of the banana tree. The fiber is refined, processed and skeined in Nepal by women.This beautiful yarn comes from a renewable, sustainable and environmentally-friendly source. It is very soft and has brilliant colors.
Only the decaying outer layers of the trees (aged bark) are harvested and soaked under water to quicken the natural process. When all of the chlorophyll structures are dissolved, the cellulose fibers remain. They are extruded into pulp and to make it suitable for spinning into yarn.

Milagros (miracle) charms

I will probably use these on my mixed media art pieces and art dolls. They are about 1 1/2 inches in length and made of metal. Each one has a different meaning.

New Mexico, the land of enchantment

My trip to New Mexico to the Fiber Art Fiesta was wonderful! Just the colors were so inspiring, even where I stayed at Casas de Suenos. Here are some photos to show how colorful the gardens were. What an inspiration!

Batik 2

My friends and I just finished more batik this week.

These are some samples of what we did.

The top photo (pink and blue photo) was a very large piece of fabric that all 4 of us did together with leftover dye.

Marbled Fabric

Have you ever marbled fabric? My friend Shirley and her friend Vou did just that. This is just a small sample of the many that they did. They turned out beautiful.

I guess my next project after batiking will be marbling. There is so much you can do in fabric dyeing, that's what keeps it exciting.

I would love to hear from you and see photos of what you have done in dyeing fabric using any kind of technique.

Journal Page One

We were allowed to use 10 words of our own or a quote for our first journal page. I chose a quote. I decided to use PART of a quote that I liked by Sir Walter Raleigh.

The entire quote is...

Give me my scallop shell of quiet,

My staff of faith to walk upon,

My scrip of joy, immortal diet,

My bottle of salvation,

My gown of glory, hope's true gage,

And thus I'll take my pilgrimage.

...Sir Walter Raleigh

Inside Journal

The left side photo shows my friends garden at the Hill Country Sculpture and Meditation Garden in Kerrville, Tx., at Elm Cottage B&B.

The right shows my doll start. The name of the doll is SANI, pronounced like "sahknee". It is a Navajo word meaning"The old one". I made the doll from polymer clay and fabric. It has acrylic eyes, no hair, no ears, no arms, no legs and no gender. It can be male or female, whatever one of the participants decides on. This doll has many possibilities I believe and I hope they all have fun working on it.

Round Robin Doll Journal

Here is my art doll journal I made from my own handmade batik fabric. I found these little brass letters at a scrapbooking shop. The swirl is couched on recycled silk yarn. The journal is free motion quilted and embellished with a Tagua Nut button. The binding is couched ribbon. The closure is a leather strip/Tagua nut button closure that you can adjust accordingly to the thickness of your journal.

The journal will show the progress of the dolls life as it goes around the country and Canada in a doll round robin. Each participant will contribute to this journal as she works on this doll.

It is all very exciting!

Dye Hanging Fabric Technique

I tried something new. I decided to hang some muslin over a dowel rod and then pour some dye over the dowel and just let the dye do its thing. I used only primary colors...yellow, red and blue, putting yellow first, then red, then blue. I did this in a barrel outside to contain the mess and to let the fabric dry and also to keep it from blowing away, as we had high winds yesterday.

Here is a photo of the fabric hanging over the dowel, all nice and dry. The other photos are of the finished fabric. You can see where it was hanging over the dowel as it is darker in that area. I think the results came out very interesting, except I wish I had a bigger rod to hang it over. I heat set it with an iron afterwards.

Experimental Doll

This doll is jointed using large beads to connect the arms and legs to the body. I made a polymer clay face and sewed it and also glued it onto the fabric body. I also tied yarn at the elbow and knee joints.

Check in later to see the finished doll.

Polymer Clay Doll Head

Here is a doll head I made recently. I used acrylic eyes in this doll. First I make a foil base in the shape of a head. I cover that with a thin layer of clay. Then I make two holes for the eyes and one at the neck for a dowel to be inserted later. I then make logs and balls of clay and place them on the face. Then I start blending and shaping and sculpting. I use a chopstick or the handle of a paintbrush usually. I just blend and sculpt until it is like I want. Then I bake it in a toaster oven according to directions. Usually I bake it for 5 minutes then out for 5 minutes etc. until it is hard, because I don't want to crack the acrylic eyes.

Enchantments

Thomas Moore wrote a book called The Re-enchantment of Everyday Life. He speaks of the soul's need for enchantment in this quote....
"...To make local nature a concrete element in daily life is a necessary initial step in the re-enchantment of our individual lives...Enchantment is to a large extent founded in the spirituality inherent in earthly nature...Our task is to re-expand our very idea of spirituality to include the lowliest of things and the most particular and familiar haunts of nature."
Don't you remember playing with earthworms, putting flowers in your hair, climbing trees, catching fireflies, combing each others hair, laughing at the silliest things till your side hurt, watching the stars at night while laying in the grass?
I remember....do you....? We all crave enchantment repeatedly, even if we are grown up.....

Something out of nothing

This little Shaman doll was an experiment.

I used... cardboard for the body base, a fabric scrap for his clothes, pieces of mop for his hair, an old piece of a basket for his staff, a found little ceramic bird and real feather to go on the staff, moss to go at the base stand which was a CD from junk mail. I used makeup to give his face color and texture and one lone earring for neck embellishment. His head is from a very little piece of polymer clay over foil. There is a piece of coat hanger going from inside the cardboard body to inside his head for stability. He resides in my guest room, and all my guests love him!

So, you see you don't need much to make something out of nothing.

Carvings

These carvings are from a friend of mine. They are carved from pieces of bark off fallen trees. I think he does a wonderful job!

Bella

Here's another doll I made awhile back. I usually put in acrylic eyes in dolls this size, but this time I decided to have her eyes closed. She is made from polymer clay. I used horse hair for her braid, as I don't like using doll hair. I mainly wanted to show you her face and to point out that you can tilt the head any way in order to create emotion or feeling.

Amish Doll

This little Amish Doll was found at a flea market in Pipe Creek, Texas. They say that the Amish make their dolls with no faces. That is what I was told anyway. I think she is lovely.

Silk Yarn

Recycled silk yarn is wonderful and I just happened across it in a little shop in the hill country of Texas one day. The owner told me it was from Nepal. I loved it and bought the only one they had. I love using it for my dolls, my journals and my art quilts. I hope I am able to find more of it.

Texture, Color and Detail

The color combinations, the textures and the detail is what I look at when I look at a photo or something in real life.

Here are more of my photos that I would like to put into art quilts, or use in art dolls someway, either with the color combinations, the texture or some detail that is shown.

To Dye For!

Batik is one of my favorite fabrics. I use it in a lot of projects, from traditional quilts... to art quilts... to dolls. I attended a workshop and learned the basics of dyeing fabric using Procion MX dyes. Later on I learned to make batik fabric using soy wax, which is environmentally friendly. It is not a hard process, just a little time consuming.

Some friends and I got together and proceeded to dye some PFD (prepared for dyeing) fabric that I purchased online.

The first photo shows Indian, wood, fabric stamps, that are wonderful to use.

The second photo shows the wax on the fabric... waiting to dry so we can put the dye on

The last photo is of the finished batik.

I have started dyeing some more pieces and will finish this week with the crackling. I will post the new photos when I'm finished.

Stamps for the wax can be almost anything. We experimented with different household items and found that the following make good stamps: toilet paper rolls, thread spools, corks, cookie cutters, empty juice cans, and strawberry containers. If you do batiking use your imagination for the stamps!

From photo to art quilt

I took this photo and decided to make an art quilt. I hand-dyed the fabric and then did some free motion quilting on it.

I still need to add some more embellishments like beads, and also a binding and then I will be finished. It measures only 9 by 11 inches. I am making a series of mini art quilts with flowers as the theme. Most will be from my own flower photos.

Flowers are Natures ART

Flowers are always an inspiration for me. They are natures art. I took this photo and when I saw pink and red together with the little touch of black and green and white I thought it was beautiful! Nature has the best color combinations.

Jewel vs. muted

Even bright jewel tones and muted colors work well together as in this peacock feather.

More bold and pastel

The bold red with the pastel yellow and green look great together here. The touch of blue adds to it as well.