Tracy McCabe Stewart - Contemporary Fiber

Well, I had great intentions to promote my work through 2009 coinciding with my 2009 special pricing on artwork blitz. 

I starting feeling bored with myself and a bit weird after about a week of feature pieces; sort of like Oprah always being on the cover of her own magazine.  I am all for having a genuine sharing of my work, but this has all felt a bit too self important for me.   I want this blog to be primiarily about sharing art information and experiences with a sprinkling of tooting my own horn-not the reverse.

It was a grand experiment,  For those of you still reading, thanks for the indulgence.

Right now I am focused on wrapping up 2009 and setting intentions for the new year.  Rather than having a list of intentions, I really like the Christine Kane model of choosing a word for the year.  

My word for 2010 is pathway. 

I especially like this of the many definitions:  A route to or way of access to; way of reaching or achieving something. 

Perfect.

Laurie Perry of Crazy Aunt Purl fame has a great post on her New Year’s focus, too.  I love her idea of coming from the place of “yes” for the year.  Her post today really worth the read. 

I am closing in on a final design for these pesky herons.  I hope to post the unsewn piece over the next few days.

I would really love to hear about your thoughts for wrapping up 2009 and your vision for 2010.  Specific or general.  Please leave a comment.

Happy, Happy New Year!

I am reducing prices on my work for the remainder of 2009-Read more here

I am featuring a piece of my work every day or so through the end of the year.  Here’s today’s piece:

"Crane Series I" 2008 by Tracy McCabe Stewart

“Crane Series I”

2008

By Tracy McCabe Stewart

20″x20″

Hand dyed and commercial cottons, digitally created fabric.  Machine quilted.

2010 price: $600

2009 price: $450

 

Rust Dyeing

 

Last week  my work group, the Free Motions went up to Nina’s to do some rust dyeing.  Participants included Shelley Brucar, Nina Edelman, Leah Rosenthal, Cathy Mendola and myself  They needed to cure for a week to give the rust time to transfer to the fabric.  Here’s the results:

Rust dyed fabric

Nina had some fabulous rusty shapes to play with.  I’ll probably over dye them.  too much white for me.

 

Here’s another:

More rust dyeing on cotton

 

the rust transfer is nudged along by adding salt or vinegar to the fabric and keeping it wet.  I used both on these.  Lots of direct transfer, but not much bleed to the rest of the fabric.

More cotton:

Rust dyed cotton

and finally, some cotton velvet:

Rust dye on cotton velvet

I have finished all of the feathers on my new herons and started shading and stitching.  Here’s how the head is going so far.  It will need more shading to make it look 3 dimensional and the eye needs some work, but in general, it’s good progress.  I’ve used some Shiva Paintsticks and colored pencils all over to get some dimension and iridescence.  I’ll post more as the stitching progresses.

 

"Herons II" (c) 2009 Tracy McCabe Stewart-In Progress

"Bark Series III" (c) 2008 by Tracy McCabe Stewart

 

 

"Bark Series IV" (c) 2008 by Tracy McCabe Stewart

 

Bark Series III and IV

(C) 2008 by Tracy McCabe Stewart

Hand dyed and commercial cottons, seed pods.  Machine quilted.

each 20″x20″

2010 price:  $600 each

2009 price:  $450 each

email me if you have questions or want higher resolution photos