Projects in an Artist's Studio

Mixed media artist and Blogger Win Dinn asked readers to post a link to show what was going on in their studios. Photographing for this blog post made me realize how many projects an artist may have going on at once. For this post, I didn't include what was happening in the office regarding the selling of art. I know I spent sometime in the office yesterday printing off labels for cards and fabric packaging, as well as researching 'Made in Canada' labels, and ordering a maple leaf stamp through Creston Card and Stationery.

Check out what's happening in my studio below.

Developing a new card design. Hand painted textile bookmarks. I am trying out a removable glue for attaching them to a card. So far so good. (this is the only thing I moved in my studio for this photo shoot as I had just placed these on a shelf the day before)

Bookmark backing pieces left over from the 50 bookmarks already made.

Ironing interfacing onto my hand (dye) painted fabric for textile cards.

Sewing details on the card tops.

Threads from fraying the edges of the cards and bookmarks. What a tedious job!

Folding card stock for the textile cards.

  

Gluing the textile card fronts to the folded cardstock.

Weighting the cards down for the glue to dry

I couldn't resist showing you my favorite card from this group. As a matter of fact my husband liked it so much he removed it from the stack headed for sale at Creston Card and Stationery.

And my favorite 'Art' dog. If you look closely at the photo, with the sewing machine in it, you will see her treat jar in the background. I think the cool floor as much as the treat jar is what is keeping her happy in the studio.

 

A sewing project from a family member to make two scarves out of this one large one, one for her and one for me.

I dug this book out when I grabbed books for weighting the cards. I need to review bird anatomy for a community project I am involved in, teaching a group to paint birds in watercolour.

Fabric from my recent Indigo dyeing that is waiting for to me to price.

Hand painted sky and designed material waiting to be trimmed, pressed and priced. I am working towards two Quilt shows where I will be a vendor. One in Nelson, BC and one in Canmore, AB in Oct. I have to be organized ahead because the highlight of my year, art wise is coming up in Sept, well actually all of Sept and I am going to be busy painting in watercolour. I look forward to telling you all about it. It's going to be fabulous.

 

Well there you have an example of one person's studio. Feel free to send me a photo or an email about what you have going on. egidman@kootenay.com

Indigo Pot - A trial

G and I trialed indigo dyeing last week! We are planning a group session later this summer and as this process is very different from what we are used, to we tried dyeing a few pieces of fabric first. Fun, fun, fun. I learnt so much, thanks to G who knows so much more about dyeing with natural ingredients. I now feel more confident when we host and Indigo dyeing session for others.

G had a clothesline set up under this lovely big tree in her yard. With the hot days we are having we were very thankful for some shade.

I prepared some cloth ahead of time by tying fold 10" squares and tying beads in them too.

Here I tried hand stitching in a 'star burst' pattern.

The piece is gathered up and tied off.

To save time I thought I would try machine stitching. This piece was then gathered up and the ends tied.

Cotton fabric was wrapped around an plastic cylinder and scrunched together.

Simple overhand knots were made in this length of silk fabric. Note to self: Don't tie too tightly as they are difficult to untie when wet.

The Indigo dye bath looking just as it should. I am not going to go into the process here as there is a ton of information on the subject online. Here is a link I used (Dharma Trading) which is also where I purchased my mercerized cotton and silk for dyeing. http://www.dharmatrading.com/home/pre-reduced-indigo.html?lnav=home.html

Dipping the fabric wrapped pipe. We were very careful to add the items slowly so as not to introduce air bubbles to the vat.

When the fabric is first removed it is green. As the oxygen interacts with it, the fabric turns blue.

G fabric piece around the pipe cylinder was dipped 3 times for a more intense blue. Unwrapped it is the one farthest to the right.