Bee Dazzled

 I encountered this fabric last week at the Textile Arts LA textile swap:

It was very familiar, because of this video:

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A post shared by Kristine Augustyn (@kristineaugustyn)

Which was part of an online collaboration I had with Kristine last year (see it here).

But not only that...

My response to her video was this:

Release, 2020 (more info on my art website)

And to create it, I knocked off the bee print!

I was considering this concept as a possible print for girl's panties, maybe with ladybugs instead of bees, but had second thoughts -- do young girls want bugs on their underwear?

Today, it went into a Scrappy Square, flying full circle, so to speak.

Linking up with
Shelbee's Spread the Kindness (Tues)

EXHIBIT: MATERIALITY & METHOD, A SMALL WORKS FIBER EXHIBITION

Group show of small format works on the theme of Materiality & Method by the members of Textile Arts LA

I have a piece in this!

Leopard x Black Plaid x Pink Stripe
paper weavings of color laser printouts, 4 panels
22 x 9"  ©2019  

DATES
Sun, Sep 8 - Sat, Oct 5, 2019
Pretty Smart
4117 East 4th Street Long Beach, CA, 90814
(map)

OPENING RECEPTION
Sunday, September 8, 2019
4 - 6pm
Link for artist list and more details.

What I wrote with my submission: 
These are small (3x3”) paper weavings from reject color laser printouts of my surface designs. I design prints for a mass market underwear and loungewear company. Since I create artwork for both women’s panties and men’s loungewear, I’m combining the feminine and masculine patterns into one weaving. I’m deliberately choosing combinations that “don’t match”. I started this project on 1/23/19 and since I have an endless supply of reject prints, the project will continue indefinitely.

Creative Block [Printing]

Ha. No creative blocks here! I have an abundance if ideas and my problem is more trying to concentrate on one thing. 

Yesterday, I spent the day at Carrie Burkle's DTLA Arts District studio space playing around with block printing. I went with the intention to have some creative play time and to print up some yardage to use in my weaving project (which for some confusing reason I posted on my fashion blog).

The space, we paired up at six tables.

My work station. All clean. Not for long.

What was in the pink bags?

Bandanas printed by Carrie! Plus a blank to print.

Carrie gave us a brief intro about the concept of block printing, and things to think about as we designed our blocks.

Carving demo.
We used insulation foam, one end covered with flocked cotton, affixed with water proof Gorilla glue.

My blocks, including a never-used-by-me wooden Indian block purchased in Artesia.

We made our own reusable stamp pads.
Wooden block, dampened cellulose cloth cut to size, wrapped with cheese cloth that was T-pinned to back.
All elements reusable -- dismantle and rinse off.

Carrie demonstrates how to ink up the pad using my work station. [Still fairly clean].

First print experiment! 

The large yardage, in work. [Note workspace mess is building up on the right].

Deploying the Indian block on some striped cotton lawn.

It was a hive of creative activity!

Drying area. Many saved their brown paper that protected the printing station to repurpose.
In foreground, communal offering of ink and stamp pad. Lots of sharing!
[apologies for lack of focus in photo]

Our prints!

More prints, my yardage in foreground.
I'll do another post with more detailed pictures of my efforts.
There are enough photos in this post already!

This was another Textile Arts Los Angeles event.
Check them out if you love textiles and live in the greater LA area!

Diedrick Brackens Studio Visit

Diedrick Brackens is a fiber artist who has been selected to be part of Made in L.A. 2018 at the Hammer.
Through the auspices of Textile Arts Los Angeles, I was able to visit him at his studio in Leimert Park today.

He shared examples of experiments from a recent residency in New Orleans.

if you feed a river

jubilent . unidentified

detail

part of a project about water
yarn is dyed with black dye and the water from different sources

Pacific Ocean on left, Lake Pontchartrain on right.

 Three of us then walked over to Maren Hassinger's opening at Art + Practice.

More about that in a later post!

If you live in Southern California, and have an interest in the fiber arts (in all its many forms!), consider getting on the email list of Textile Arts Los Angeles. Lots of interesting things transpiring with the group! 

Linking up with Shelbee's #SpreadTheKindness
and
Catherine's #SaturdayShareLinkup