Tracy McCabe Stewart - Contemporary Fiber

I never did get pictures up from the fantastic workshop I did with the fabulous  Jeanne Beck in September.  Better late than never :-).  We played with a number of techniques, but one that I had lots of fun with was making string stamps and heat mold stamps.

String stamps are about as low tech as you can get; that’s part of what I like about them.   Armed with a ball of twine and a scrap piece of wood, you’re in business.  Here was my effort; inspired by endless games of cat’s cradle as a kid.

Tracy' fabulous string stamp

and that stamp in action:

stamp action!

here were some more from other participants and Jeanne’s own stash:

more string stamps

and more:

more stamps

when you use the stamps once, the paint dries and the seals the string:

string stamps continued

Then we played with heat and mold stamps.  You heat these up a bit and impress texture on them.   We had fun with Shelley’s shoe:

Shelley's shoe gets pressed into service

Here’s the stamp it made:

Shelley's shoe stamp

Shelley's shoe stamp in action

Someone made an impression of a wad of string

String wad stamp in action

I haven’t done much experimenting with these.  I’ve been so heavy on the wrokshops lately that I haven’t really had time to assimilate the new skills and tools.  I’ll post as I get to it.

Hi all,

I missed the first day of Laura’s workshop because my trusty bug decided to blow it’s water pump while driving home from my guild meeting on Tuesday.  I had no idea what I was walking into the second day, so just brought some pieces in progress and figured that I could just enjoy the company of the group if they were already too immersed in work from the day before.  I did end up working on a new heron piece for a good portion of the day, but was around for instruction for a great 3D technique of Laura’s.

The technique involves embedding mixed media materials in a glue and water suspension.  It gives you the option of creating 2 sided materials and create sheer areas within the piece.  The material can be sewn, too.

You start by laying cling film in a sided cookie sheet and layering different materials over it.

Mixed Media Technique

Above, Laura has layered handmade paper, silk roving, skeleton leaves and material.

More materials are added

 when the desired density of materials are layered, Laura covers the composition with a 50/50 mixture of Elmer’s glue and water.

Laura covers the composition with glue mixture

Here are some of Laura’s sample compositions.  I love this one with embedded sticks:

One of Laura's finished compositions

The above piece has everything form dollar store fake flowers to used tea bags embedded in it.

Here’s the back:

the back of the same composition

Laura has cut windows and sewed around them.

Here are some more samples:

One of Laura's samples with lots of silk or wool roving in it

and another:

lots of wool roving on this one, too

I had a great time learning this new technique, but Laura’s real gift is in one on one coaching.  She is so good at helping people find their artistic voice.  This is the second time I’ve had the pleasure of working with Laura and once again she had some great advice about the pieces I was working on.  If you have the chance to take a class with her, grab it!

I love being a part of a larger arts community!  This morning I opened my email to a blog post from fabulous fiber artist, Rayna Gilman.  Her post featured images from a show by textile artist Diane Savona.  I was so hooked by her work that I thought I would feature her myself.

Diane seems to play in the same areas of artistic exploration  that I do:  ancient languages, maps, fossils, and tribal imagery.   Within these frameworks she also explores issues of domesticity.  I love her interpretation.  Her work is fantastic!  Take a look: http://www.dianesavonaart.com/index.html

I am off to the Laura Cater Woods workshop this morning.  My trusty bug ended up in the shop all day yesterday (failed water pump) after a dramatic drive back from Tuesday’s guild meeting with half the instrument panel lights flashing.    I couldn’t find one to borrow, so I missed the first day.  I will have to make up for lost time today!

I am off today to my monthly meeting of the North Suburban Needle Arts Guild.  I have been a member of this guild for about 5 years and the I cannot say enough good things about it.  The people are wonderful and up to some truly innovative and creative work, the speakers and teachers are first class and the annual show, the Fine Art of Fiber at the Chicago Botantic Gardens, that we put on  is truly gorgeous.  It is one of my favorite things about living in the Chicago area.

Today’s speaker is Laura Cater-Woods.  She will be doing a two day workshop Wednesday and Thursday that I have signed up to take.  I took a wonderful 5 day workshop with her a few years ago in Montana.  She is a wonderful teacher who has a gift for connecting people to their artistic voice.  I am really looking forward to working with her again.  I hope to share some wonderful insights and pictures with you over the next few days.

We just can’t get enough of Barbara Schneider!  Shelley, Leah and I just did a fantastic one day workshop on vat dyeing with Barbara out at her house.  What a fantastic resource (as well as a great person!) she is.  She knows SO much and is so good at teaching it to others.  We accomplished quite a lot in one day.

 For those of you unfamiliar with vat dyeing.  It is a process that simultaneously removes color from a fabric and lays down new color at the same time.  This allows you to lay down a new, fresh color on previously dyed fabric that, unlike over dyeing with such as Procion, will NOT combine with the color already on the fabric.  Additionally, it leaves really cool halos around the new color.  The effects are simply stunning. 

We spent the morning mixing the vat dyes.  The dyes are suspended in a base of corn dextrin, glycerine and formusol-which smells a bit like you have hit a skunk.  These are  some serious chemicals, so we masked up. 

Shelley and Leah make a fashion statement

I had a pretty good look going myself:

Tracy, the fashion plate

Barbara's vat dye shibori over already dyed fabric

more of Barbara's vat dyed pieces over already hand dyed fabric

Notice how the purple and blue vat dyes combine, but they don’t combine with the original color.  Yum!

More:

more yummy vat dyes from Barbara

This one didn’t really seem to lay down any new color, but discharged nicely:

discharged over black

This one didn’t really halo:

a more subtle vat dye

Here are our sample strips.  We used the same colors over a variety of fabrics, with incredible variation in results.  Some fabrics, like the blacks, discharged color to these lovely reds, but didn’t lay down any of the new color.

our samples

My fuscia dyed fabric discharged to the teal family.  I will definitely recreate that one. 

The velvet below discharged and laid down new color, but didn’t create any halos. 

my velvet vat dye experiment

Leah got some really beautiful halos on this silk scarf:

Leah's scarf

I need to locate a steamer to do this at home and I will be doing lots more experiments.  I LOVE the effects.

Any one else have any experience with vat dyeing?  I would love to hear about your results.

Hi all,

I haven’t really vaporized!  I’ve just been incredibly lazy and distracted about art and posting.  I’ve been out doing fall planting in my garden:  exotic new colors of echinacea (Tomato Soup and Mac ‘n’ Cheese), ferns, grasses and astilbe.   My hope is that the new plants have a prayer against my dogs running through the garden.  140 pounds of excited Great Dane being chased by my 60 pound mutt doesn’t lend itself to fragile plantings.  Though this is pretty exciting in my world, but doesn’t really lend itself to pictures or postings.

I finally got all the pictures off my camera from the last month.  Hopefully this will inspire me to actually post what I’ve been doing!  Posts to come include Jeanne Beck’s workshop that I did in early September; the magic of string stamps,  vat dyeing, and pictures of a show I’m in locally called Recent Works. 

I went a few days ago to see Barbara Schneider’s solo exhibit ‘Summer’s End”  in McHenry, Illinois.  The link on her name opens to her  website and show information.  I have posted some of Barbara’s work before.  She is an incredibly talented Chicago area artist who happens to be in a  fabulous needle arts guild with me.  Lucky me, she gives classes locally as well.  I am taking a vat dyeing workshop with her this Thursday.

Anyway, her exhibit consisted of pieces from her reflections series, 3D leaf pieces, pressure formed synthetic pieces among other work.   Oh, to have an art budget; I would have lightened up her packing of the show considerably. 

I am sincerely coveting this piece below.  If sales are even close for me at the Fine Art of Fiber Show  this November, I intend to buy it.  This is a three dimensional piece about 3 feet  wide or so.  Barbara has hand dyed the fabric, constructed the piece and quilted  the surface and then stiffened them into these fabulous shapes.  It is breathtaking and the picture really doesn’t do it justice.

"Oak Leaf Cluster" By Barbara Schneider

 Here is another leaf piece she did.   Man, is she good!

Another gorgeous leaf piece by Barbara Schneider

 Here’s a detail of that beautiful piece:

Leaf piece detail Barbara Schneider

Barbara has done a whole series based on reflections.  The ones in this show are water reflections, though I think she has done some building reflections as well.  Here’s one that I would dearly love to own.  I hope that November show is really good 🙂

Reflections Series by Barbara Schneider

 Here are a few other reflection pieces from the show:

This one wasn’t for sale.  I think Barbara told me she gave pieces to various family members.  Do you think she would adopt me???????

By the way, the fact that these pieces don’t look square and are unevenly lit is due to my inferior photography.  Barbara’s pieces are square and perfect!

More leaves.  These are Prairie Dock:

Prairie Dock Leaves by Barbara Schneider

Her exhibit closes tomorrow, so go see it today!

 SAQA’s benefit auction begins this Thursday.  For those of you not familiar with SAQA, it is a wonderful art quilt network entity that promotes international work through education, shows, website and various publications.  SAQA represents some of the best artists in the field.  I am very proud to be a member. 

 My piece is in the second group.  Auction for this begins on September 17th

There are 234 Benefit Auction quilts donated by our members. The SAQA 2009 Benefit Auction – Part 1 will begin Thursday, September 10th, 2009 at 2:00 Eastern.

Last year’s Benefit Auction raised $41,775. The funds raised through the Auction are critical to supporting SAQA’s exhibitions, catalogs and outreach programs.

How the Auction works:

The Auction is run in three sections (Section 1 – Pages 1a and 1b; Section 2 – Pages 2a and 2b; Section 3 – Pages 3a and 3b).

On the first day of each section’s auction, the price for all pieces in that section is $750. The next day (at 2:00 Eastern), the price drops to $550. The third day, it drops to $350, then $250, then $150, and finally $75.

The first section will begin September 10th at 2:00 Eastern.
The second section will begin September 17th at 2:00 Eastern.
The third section will begin September 24th at 2:00 Eastern.

Prices by day:
Section 1 – September 10th at 2:00 Eastern – $750
Section 1 – September 11th at 2:00 Eastern – $550
Section 1 – September 12th at 2:00 Eastern – $350
Section 1 – September 13th at 2:00 Eastern – $250
Section 1 – September 14th at 2:00 Eastern – $150
Section 1 – September 15th at 2:00 Eastern – $75

Section 2 – September 17th at 2:00 Eastern – $750
Section 2 – September 18th at 2:00 Eastern – $550
Section 2 – September 19th at 2:00 Eastern – $350
Section 2 – September 20th at 2:00 Eastern – $250
Section 2 – September 21st at 2:00 Eastern – $150
Section 2 – September 22nd at 2:00 Eastern – $75

Section 3 – September 24th at 2:00 Eastern – $750
Section 3 – September 25th at 2:00 Eastern – $550
Section 3 – September 26th at 2:00 Eastern – $350
Section 3 – September 27th at 2:00 Eastern – $250
Section 3 – September 28th at 2:00 Eastern – $150
Section 3 – September 29th at 2:00 Eastern – $75

You bid by filling out the online bid form. You can bid on up to 7 pieces at a time. First bid on each piece wins. We will then ship the artwork to the winning bidder by insured USPS Priority Mail.

 This is a great chance to pick up pieces from your favorite artists that you might not otherwise be able to afford. 

I was at the Port Clinton Art Festival yesterday and ran across this completely amazing photographer, Lisa Kristine.  For those of you who know me, I am generally completely bored by artwork of people unless they are abstracted; a beautiful curve of a torso, an interesting pose,etc.  I don’t generally like faces in artwork at all; abstract or realistic.  I think they are too prescriptive for me.  I don’t want to be so directed by a work and faces seem too easy.  I would rather have to find my own way with shape, texture and color.

I normally don’t love this art festival, the artwork is usually all a bit too slick and shiny for me.  I like organic work with a bit less polish.  I go because it’s pretty much the last festival of the year and I generally feel like I haven’t seen enough art over the summer.  This summer was no exception.  This year was much better; I think they may have had a new juror or two because there was much more of the kind of aesthetic that I appreciate this year. 

I had a pretty good pumpkin tamale from Hot Tamalesrestaurant at the fair as well.  I never have tried pumpkin if the had had other flavors handy, but it was pretty darn good.  It’s pretty hard to screw up a tamale in my book.  The are one of nature’s most perfect foods.  I will revisit the actual restaurant another time.  The menu looks good.  Duck tacos?  Yumm!!!

Lisa actually specializes in photographing indigenous people. She has traveled extensively.  I had such a visceral reaction to her work,  and felt so moved by how totally she captured the beautiful spirits of her subjects, and the sensuous colors and textures of both the people and their surroundings.  There is a reverence about her work that spoke deeply to me.  Here’s her site:  http://www.lisakristine.com/images/index.html The little images don’t convey her intention as well as the big prints I got to see, but I hope you enjoy them as much as I did. 

By the way, I love comments.  They make me feel like I’m not talking to myself!  Feel free to leave some on the blog 🙂  The comment section is below.

Midnight River (C)2009 Tracy McCabe Stewart

“Midnight River” 2009 by Tracy McCabe Stewart.  Hand dyed silks and cottons, commercial cottons, fabric paint.  Thermofax screened with Lumiere metallic paints, fused, machine quilted.

 I have been working on this commission pretty steadily this summer.  It is finally finished, approved by the client and ready to go to her home.  Yippee!!!

I am now moving on to getting small pieces together for various galleries and and the Fine Art of Fiber Show which will take place in Early November at the Chicago Botanic Gardens.  My pal Shelley and I are running a  table in the boutique for the first time this year on top of our regular contribution of work to the main show.  This is a truly beautiful show and well worth the trip if you are in the Chicago area this fall. 

Additionally, I am working on a large heron pieces for shows jurying later in the year.   

My daughter leaves early next week for 9 month’s study in Japan.  After I have my emotional meltdown, I will settle down and get some work done. 

Fall always feels like the beginning of the new year for me.  I guess it’s all those years attending and working in the schools. 

What projects do you have planned this fall?

Hi all,

I went up to Door County, Wisconsin Friday and Saturday.  We went up with friends and broke into stereotypical groups for the weekend.  The guys all went to the Experimental Aircraft Association Show in Oshkosh, WI, while us girls went and checked out some of the many gorgeous galleries in the area.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with Door County, it lies on the little pinkie finger of Wisconsin; a skinny little pennisula that is incredibly popular with tourists.  Door County has oodles of galleries, outdoor activities and beautiful scenenry.

Sadly, I completely forgot to bring my camera, but did manage to go to some galleries with lovely websites.  On top of seeing some really first rate artwork, the thing that really stuck with me was the incredible use of space these galleries had.  I saw revamped barns, beautiful trellises over gorgeous patios, incredible gardens that included ponds and sculpture.  They were truly magnificent and I came away feeling incredibly inspired.  Many of these were pretty close to the vision I have for my dream living situation.  Take a look for some artistic inspiration:

Fine Line Designs Gallery Really gorgeous artwork.  A decent sculpture garden.  Definitely worth seeing.

Edgewood Orchard Galleries-Absolutely incredible on all levels.  This is probably the most wonderful gallery experience I have ever had, anywhere.  The buildings were incredible, with lovely patios to sit on in between, the sculpture garden was absolutely incredible, both in the garden itself and the caliber of the sculpture, and the other media were just as first rate.  If I went to one place in all of Door County again, this would be it.

Plum Bottom Pottery-First rate pottery and sculpture.

The Flying Pig-Good artwork and truly lovely gardens.  They had a really unusual selection of plants and a really nice coffe shop in the middle.  It was a really relaxing, lovely end to the day.  If you click on their site, they have a truly lovely video of the space. 

All of these were really worth the trip!