I thought I would have a day to my self to sew and it turned out my location was taken with some other event. I was under the impression that it was open studio today, so I was a little bummed. Still fortune have it I was at JoAnn's and caught a 50% off sale on a major piece of the project I was working: Tassels. Knowing me I would not have gotten there till Monday otherwise and missed the sale. I'm happy, tired, sore, but I am done. All thirty are completed and sitting in a basket nestled onto of the larger type. I finished with out interruption in about 5 hours. I was busy recalculating overhead, supplies and labor. I'm thinking $12 even and a return on the other prices to original calculations. I can still make a good product at the lower price without feeling the pinch of materials costs to make quality goods. Yeah! I'm done.
My smaller partner in the venture is in the process of the edition. Next week I targeting to finish up. I'll be spending tomorrow on my projects trying to find where I left off. I'm opting to go block group by block group, but I need a whopping amount of wonder-under which I have in vestiges to get me through one row in the quilt. It is one of the more complicated ones I have done. Glad for it though. The intentional nothings are priced at $17. The next size up I though would be $27 is readjusted to $33 I'll be making these for years to come and the fabrics will always change. I plan on an edition of spheres by Easter. Someone told me I should concentrate on sales for Christmas and Easter. Its a wonderful idea and I can focus better for variations on a theme for the woodcut print crosses and Easter themes. And time for building stock in between time.
I may have pushed myself a might bit to hard today. I planned on doing 9 hours like Sunday, if I needed. 7.5 though and more intense than expected. Those tiny little stitches can turn your head easily. I'll heading to bed shortly. About 2hours to create. Roughly $60 a piece. The others I'm pricing at $28. The beads on the right I made myself from a can. I have other I cut from a Arizona Tea can and scrubbed food tins. Steel is hard to cut even with the airplane sheers so I have to be careful. I'll be starting on the smaller ones tonight. I'm aiming for 30. 10 will be for the Christmas ornament exchange next month. These are a keeper. Especially once I get the right cord to use for decorative knots. Creating it into a fetish keeps my hands busy too. Meaning applying much decoration of doodads and such to the surface. Encrusted with buttons to the left. Everything used was recycled or surplus to be sold.
I was blazing a might narrow trail in my work method since last week. The work week starts for me on a Saturday. I rest as much as I can, not touching a brush, a rag, a needle or a machine. Come Sunday I'm hard at a tack that I've been preparing a week before. The rest of the week flows with editions and preparations for the next long run. However this week I could not take it and the Tantine I have prepared to sew, has been sitting on the side waiting. The first was completed with a nine hour session on Sunday. Maybe I'm just recovering from the intensity. Hell, maybe it was inspiration. Either way I stepped outside of plans and have moved into these ornamentals. Fascination machines if you will. When I have time the second edition will be encrusted in buttons or dangling shells and feathers. I have other three dimensional shapes I'd like to string on and maybe just maybe craft wings from kite sail and wood, letting them flow in the wind. I am totally convinced to make them outdoor as well using the necessary fabrics. I'm reminded of the Chinese gadgetry I combed the Asian district for in San Francisco and New York City. Things to hand in the windows for Chinese New Year. Good luck charms and encouragements for the flow of Qi. The shops using the Hmong fabrics do similar things incorporating beads, tassels and strands of fabric. I'm totally in love with the design of the doodad. I m considering applying them to canvas for a new series. Need wood first. 10" x 48" canvases vertically. Totemic in the least. I'd love to get my hands on a cash of pompom fringes, but hand made will have to do. I'll have to design a new bag for these doodads and give them a name. One thought is to create some to attach to already sewn designs, but sold separately. I've got eight forms complete and have move to stuffing. The first went over so well at the Christmas party I am anxious to think they'd sell at the Arts Market. I'll start on the 50% reduced sized ones tomorrow. The fabric is prepped. It is nice to feel structure in the week and in the day. It's hip to be square. All I've got everywhere are parallelograms and odd shapes that defy naming. Basically I've got to square up or extend out and square up to be right with the quilting gods and for the sake of not being catywhampus when I get the the end of my adventure with the pattern before quilting. If not, I'm in trouble and bound for a large headache. I'm still working on the design to the left. I have some problems to work out the variations and repetitions. each black has a pattern based on the previous row and a turn to the right or left. The intercessions are the arrow/quiver like patter to be done in various scraps. I bending values to get this all to work in the realm of what I have without having to resort to changing colors, though I may have to modulate. Also I'm trying not to break into the knits. I'd have to reinforce and change needles here and there. Below is the first block. Unfortunately I proceeded without the diagram so I have a mistake. Maybe you can catch it. The again, if I can work it in, maybe I will. The binding is stitched on Switchback Ivy and its handwork form there. Learned a new mistake I made and how to correct it,even that was worth it. Good responses. Apparently I'm a natural quilter. I appreciated that comment a whole lot. With that and a well oiled machine ( It took me about a half hour to get all the joints and levers along with cleaning), I feel like I'm earning my stripes in artisanship. I'm past Apprenticing I'm sure. Adept or Journeyman I wonder where I am at. Adept. Journeyman means some teaching I would think. I'm really psyed about feeling this level of accomplishment I'm at and putting it to wOn another note, I am not ready for Black Friday for Etsy. I'll do my last minute box grabbing a the PO sometime before then and now. Aye Chiuaua! Thinking positive for sales. Wondering if I've been scouted for a sale for sure. Yeah... positive. Hoping for at least one and praying for organization of my pursuit to successful adventures. Later. Stay well. I couldn't muster much energy today. Probably because I took Sabbath to place everything back in order so the week would go easier. I've had not much rest in site till last night and I slept like a long. Mind you I forgot to eat dinner and I was up at 2am to rectify it. I'm paranoid about it because a friend died of low blood sugar. Passed away in the middle of the night. I drew a bit as well. New quilt blocks and I'm hammering out measurements as we speak. The block is 15" by 15". I can't seem to get away from a four square root. It'll dance when it is done. Maybe even sparkle and wink. I hope to have a block or tow done by Sunday. I've been cutting like crazy. The daunting things is how much I have to cut. I've decide on a Full so I will not have to do as much work. I keep holding myself back from adjusting the design to stay true to the sketch, but I feel some variation is needed to help with the visual movement across the design. Below is Switchback Ivy. I got enough energy together to work late today. I was thinking a day of rest was in order, but having this quilt on the long arm for so long made me ansy. Besides I have another I want to quilt in time for Christmas. As it is it may be later than that. Meanwhile, I've got the binding cut and that is tomorrow task to get it on by machine and finish by hand. It looks sloppy when I do it by machine. I'd like a tight finished project. I fixed as many of the problem spots as I could thank to my mom and a friend at the shop. For my first go from designing to piecing to quilting, I think I did a good job. I'm wary of problems and will work on them for future endeavors. I like quilting and am learning to love technique. I have several backlogged to quilt and am looking forward to the practice then intent. I've got red cotton batik fabric I want to use for a quilted jacket. First step is to quilt the fabric. I'll post a swatch another day. It'll be the prototype for the line for larger women. When I'm ready I'll size down to a eight depending on the ethic pattern I buy. Off to chill out and read. Enjoy your day. I finally got someone to assist while I was working. I have a few things I need to do for the site and one of them is to put my picture on it. Namely working shots. I'll have to have my mother take shots of me in the studio painting, creating collage or something artistic displaying me at work. Active. In the throws of wrestling with the creative forces of man and nature. You get the idea. I be posting another photo of me with my bio. It'll work for now. I'm anxious to process and complete, but I remember the shots I had from University are lost and even if I had they are a bit old. I had one shot of me inside a birdcage. Well, it was over my head. I used that because I was displaying modified birdcages with the work. Especially my M.F.A. exhibition. The bell tolls and I've got to answer. In the shot I'm working on the mola I was showing the templates for yesterday or the day before. I wanted to get a shot of me at the sewing machine, but I forgot to ask someone till after I was done with that step. I'm trying to figure out how to minimize waste when I trim it down. I may use the trimmings in another quilt. So far to clear I am 11 inches high at varying lengths for the moons of Jupiter and the science words. Meanwhile the one armed backpack design in moving along. Maybe tomorrow schedule, though I am anxious to quilt by hand and maybe collage possibly oil paint. A little studio cleaning is in order first though. Yawning profusely and thirsty. Enjoy your night. I've been a wee bit tired, but slowly getting my energy and interest back. The last three or four days have been hell in that I did not want to touch a brush, a piece of paper, a needle or look at a piece of fabric. I was feeling close to change the game and throw everything away. The fabric piece are done for Reindeer and that took about six months to get there. I took a break back in April. When I left RCIA I was driven back into the studio to create more profound works. I think I got stuck and started editioning in fabric. Relatively so, not actually. I like unique piece and the ethic of the stand alone. The piece below really got me back to where I was when I first began. The prototype is on my bed. It was to be a wall hanging, then I couldn't resist and laid under it. Comforting to say the least. Then I washed it and all hell broke loose. The piece is well, just needs some hand work to secure the issue. I hand quilted it and have not plans to take it down that way to rebuild again. Hell, get it framed. Anyway, that piece has a word created in mola, embedded into the design. I may do the same for this. I hit me when I pinned it up. Something arbitrary no doubt from a first or second grade grammar. I wanted that for all of them, then my machine died and that is that. New machine, new rules, new vistas. I'm going for creating a style and expectation that does not disappoint. NO luck need there, I'm confident it will work. I finished up at about 10:30pm. Started around 3pm with hour and a half break. Not bad for six hours. I wonder what a full eight hour day would yield, everyday for a week. I had just intend to get the satin stitching done and remember to finish out. The quilt had to wait. I was disappointed about that, but I've gotta get rest for tomorrow. This will be hand utility quilted and maybe just maybe I'll have a groovy subtitle to Red Glider, or an instead of.... Cold, needing body heat. Hoping Fall won't take my sense of womanhood away. Missing the changing of the leaves anyway. So there ya have it.. I was freaking my little brown head off about the tension. I slipped into Joan's office on Wednesday before heading to lunch and a sob my woes to her as I was thru to the end of my rope about it. She gave me pointers which went into action yesterday and today. Clean clean clean and get the sucker in the little hole and keep it there was what it amounted to. I checked other avenues as well as the top tension. Ever since then, she's been running excellente and I can not complain except to be timid and trepidatious about the finish. I so wanted to make a good gift that it hurt when I saw the loose threads. Satin stitching and a healthy cleaning and oiling before hand. I am floored that I got it to work and well. The picture on the right is the back. The main reason I showed that is because with the Singer Simple from Wal-Mart the tension switched the stitches to the back and I had many a rats nest to conquer because the tension would not maintain. Maybe it was me, but lord knows I pushed that machine over the edge and burned out the motor. This Singer, older model, is holding it perfectly, I just have to adjust my settings as needed. Conquering twice today, just a little bit to move forward. Just a little bit. |
N.A. JonesVisual Artist; Independent Researcher; Librarian; Cook; Amateur Astronomer; Gardener - the hard way, Writer; Explorer Archives
November 2015
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