A Peak Inside My Portfolio: Flight Series Continued

About a year ago, I was working on a series of acrylic paintings that involved the idea of flight. They were based heavily on photographs and sketches I did of my husband's airplane that he is building. You can see those previous paintings here and here.
Anyway, I have decided to expand that series and work on getting some of the pieces into galleries and shows. So over the spring and summer, I have been working on another small work to add to that collection. I plan on doing at least two more, hopefully before the summer is done!

Original picture of the plane that the sketch and painting are based on.

Getting started!

Blocking in basic shapes and lines.

It's looking more real!

Almost done!

Finished product :)

A Peak Inside my Portfolio: Embroidered Bracelet

Still on my Fiber Arts kick! One my summer projects was to design and sew a cuff bracelet for myself. Embroidery is so nice because I can sit and do it while I'm watching TV or listening to music or relaxing out on the porch. Check out some of my other fiber arts projects here, here and here!

Gathering all my supplies! Embroidery Floss, material and leather. Don't forget a needle, scissors and a button to finish the piece.

Here's the sketch on the material and you can see, I've started to fill in the design and edges with a solid border.

I wasn't sure about filling in the area with yellow but I ended up liking the look!

Here's the finished piece with the button on the back to close it.

Finished bracelet!

At Home with the Artist: Wall Decor

There's this area in our hallway that I've been dying to fill with something! 

I knew that I wanted to put my Harry Potter embroidery in this area from a loooonnngg time ago. Check it out at this post. But I also wanted to add some hanging planters (with fake plants of course since I am a known planter killer)

So I created these adorable mini hanging planters with some clay, white paint and modge podge to finish them off. I poked holes in the back before the clay was fired for them to hang. I got them all set up and hung and guess what!?! They kept slipping off the nails!!

So I had to get creative! I used some leftover leather cording that I had and constructed some holders for the hangers so that the wouldn't fall and scare us half to death in the middle of the night. ( I swear to you, it sounded just like a gun shot!) Here's the final product!

What's Going on in the Classroom: Dyeing Fabric

As a last exciting project of the year, we're doing some fabric dyeing. Essentially it's tie dye, but we do delve into the world of traditional Japanese Shibori dyeing to start off. We learn all about the history and traditional folding etc. Then student either bring in a piece of cloth that they would like to use or they use a piece of muslin that I provide. Students have to choose (or make up!) their folding method.
We spend a day soaking the fabric in large buckets of dye and then we seal them in Ziploc bags overnight. The next day, the fun begins! Outside, I have several tables set up for soaking the cloth in a salt bath, then taking of all rubber bands and other items, and then rinsing in a clean water and wringing out. We had some pretty cool results this year! I think students will probably do some embroidery on their pieces as well. Here's to the end of the year!

A Peak Inside My Portfolio: Fiber Arts

Lately I've been dabbling in fiber arts,. In the past I've done a lot with embroidery, as you can see here and here. But recently I added to my skills with painting on fabric. I have done two items that were given as gifts. One was a tie for a family member on my husbands side. I painted a seascape on a yellow tie. The other was a table runner for my aunt, in which I used, batik, dyeing fabric, painting on fabric and embroidery to complete the final piece.

First I used a flour paste to create a batik design on my fabric. Although it worked out well, I would not recommend this method, it was very messy!

After applying the paste and letting it dry, I then sprayed a watered-down dye  mixture onto the fabric and let it drive completely over night.

After it was dry, I washed it thoroughly, which took forever! I was very happy with the resulting design!

The last steps were to paint the design on to the body of the table runner. I used acrylic paint to do this. Then I embroidered some white designs around the painted portion and all along the border. As a finishing touch, I added tassels!

What's Going on the in the Classroom: Stop Motion Animation

As the school year winds down (Can it really be over?! It went so fast!) We're doing some fun projects that I really like and are easy for the students. They are so stressed out with AP testing, exams and end of the year papers that I like to keep things light. One of the projects we do is a group project where students work together to create a stop motion animation film. Students create their own props, characters and backgrounds and then take all the photographs. We just finished taking the pictures and this coming week we will be in the lab working hard to put it all together. Students have had a lot of fun with this and I can't wait to see their final results. I will try to post them here as well!

What's Going on in the Classroom: Photography Field Trip

Hello all! I know it's been forever since I posted! I'm not going to lie, I do not have a good excuse :)
However, we are moving right along with the school year and it's almost over! I can't believe how close the end of school is getting. Most recently in photography we have started doing film photography. Students are all taking their own film photos, developing those negatives and making their own prints. Some love it, some hate it, but it's been a great experience.
We also took some time a couple weeks ago to go on a Photography Field Trip to Pewabic Pottery in Detroit. There was a ton of cool history and information to learn about the pottery and a million interesting photo ops!