Spring Inventory

Here are some examples of the work done this past semester. The first set is from my Surface Design studio:

Here I chose a painting by Pieter Bruegel the Elder as my color and composition source. I really concentrated on color matching on this sample and for the composition I took my inspiration from Mondrian and applied squares of color in the same place as they appear on the original composition.

Here my color source is Wayne Thiebaud. I decided to take the color stripes found in the ice cream and make my own stripes. The colors follow from left to right. Color matching was very difficult in this sample because there were so many slight variations in each of the colors in the original painting. I tried to keep the ice cream feeling in the stripes I made.

Thickened MX dye with a seaweed solution, set for one week. Resist dyed. I'm not too crazy about what basically amounts to tie-dying, but I like the sense of depth created by this thickened dye. There is more color variation and is more visually interesting than most tie-dye. This was made using only two dyes, orange and chino.

Marbling!

A while back I bought a marbling kit and I found this to be the perfect opportunity to try it out. I use two methods, raking with a fork and droplets. Many of the colors dispersed differently. Notice some of the Lisa Frank influence?

Some more samples (old school PBS influenced):

Reverse applique by hand

Machine Appliqued

Embroidery in Progress:

The dark park of the fabric is reverse appliqued fabric that I overdyed. The rest is stitches in different golds. I want to fill more of the space with embroidery. Below is a detail.

This past semester I also decided to learn how to weave. Here are some of the results:

This was my first successful weaving, boxes made from satin weave structures. It was made on an AVL compu-dobby 24 Harness Loom.

This is a sample playing with twills on the same loom.

We learned how to use the Jacquard TC-1 loom. Below the weaving is my pattern made on Photoshop.

Christmas 2009

Above: tourist painting (?) with "painted in holland" stamped on the back. Oil on panel board.

Above: Knit mini quilt. Triangles in no particular arrangement. Perhaps made of scrap yarn.

Above: jade necklace

Above: Light bulbs with metal filament shaped as two leaved flowers. Some kind of coating has been applied to give filaments color when turned on.

Above: Detail of light bulb turned on. The light appears to vibrate softly.

Signs of Autumn

My collection of items over the course of this autumn:

This is a seed pod of some sort found near my parked car after school a couple weeks ago. I looked up to see a tree with these growing in it. I wonder what damage would be done if they fell on an unsuspecting passerby. The pod is a lot heavier than I expected. I included a view with my hand to show the size of the pod. If anyone has any information about the tree this is from, please let me know.

This next one is an image of my last studio assignment. I don't know how happy I am with the crystals embroidered on the pillow.

I bought this stone globe because it looks like there are galaxies inside of it. It changes every time you you move it, like there is glowing mica deep inside it. I do not remember the name of the stone, other than it started with an "O" but it is said to have properties that inspire deep reflection. Looking into its surface, I can see why.

This is the last acquisition for autumn, a white tiger resting on crystals while the Milky Way is suspended overhead.

The Gregg Museum

Recently I visited the North Carolina State University's museum, the Gregg.

Here are some images from their collection.

(Some images are blurry because I wanted the colors to be accurate, so I didn't use flash)

19th Century Quilt

19th Century French Dress

19th Century Kimono with the four seasons depicted

Crystal Dress (1970s or 1980s)

Woman's Turkish(?) shirt

All silk embroidery with beetle shells and mirrors

(thought to keep away the evil eye)

Top: Inside of shirt

Bottom: Outside of shirt

Gold wrapped thread sari

Window Displays

What do we lose when when we move so many businesses into strip malls? Lovely window displays lining our streets, for one thing. Here are some examples where Vienna keeps it real. These were found just rambling around the city. I was rambling, not the window displays.